Friends, it’s the Brit! Do you, like me, love it when the hero returns for his RUTHLESS REVENGE on the woman he claims broke his heart forever, only to find that a few pages in he’s trembling with desire and blissfully recalling her scent? I do. I actually adore it. It’s the melodrama, I think. It’s the stuff my writing was packed with before I learned to write in literary genres—then, once I was in class, I was taught that melodrama was a bad thing.
But whether it’s actually a bad thing depends on whether you love melodrama, right?
These days, I love to write and read melodrama. And the book I’m reading at the moment is Louise Fuller’s Returning For His Ruthless Revenge. Prepare for some small spoilers:
Gabriel Silva hires attorney Dove Cavendish to oversee a major acquisition that, because of its nature, deliberately causes her suffering and heartache. And he’s determined that “sooner or later ” she’s going to realize that he isn’t “going to disappear this time. Not until he’d got what he came for“—namely his ruthless revenge!
Oh the drama! Oh the planning that has gone into making this ex of his squirm! Never has this bloke sent so much as a vengeful text—presumably because of the I’M-GETTING-EVEN-NEXT-YEAR planning! Revenge is everything! Revenge is the fire! And he WILL WATCH HER CRUMBLE with greedy pleasure!
I love it.
In an early scene where Gabriel and Dove stand in the war room together, he delivers the news of his vengeful plan, yet within moments, HE CAN’T COPE WITH HER BEAUTY!
“He stared down at her as the silence between them lengthened. Her cheeks were flushed and the morning sun looked like glitter in her hair. His breath stalled … as he remembered how it had felt to tangle his fingers through its silken weight. to wrap it around her throat and draw back her head to meet his mouth ….”
LOVE THIS! He’s the kind of marvelously windswept protagonist I need in order to escape the latest ridiculous, violent anti-trans legislation and instead indulge in whirlwinds, accidental smooches, and intense concern over a small lip-burn after drinking hot coffee.
Louise Fuller writes desire well too, don’t you think? I can feel Gabriel’s raw need in that quote. Lovely.
Lots of dialogue though. I’m halfway through and it’s been mostly dialogue. So if you’re not a “mostly dialogue” reader, you might find it slows down your experience too much.
It’s all about what works for each of us, isn’t it?
Happy reading, friends—or happy whatever-blissful-escapism-works-for-you!
Romancey Pants 