Mature, Successful Men in Love

Shira Anthony's Aria is a delight--mainly because the two love interests are successful men in totally divergent fields and working out of completely different parts of the world.  When they fall in love, unlike many "straight" romances where the woman defers to the man and either reestablishes herself wherever he's based or completely quits her career to move where he lives, Athony's superstar tenor and talented lawyer must figure out how to make their lives mesh while keeping their careers.

Writers of "straight" romances should learn something from this and make their women characters more assertive.  No, this doesn't mean that the women demand that the men give up their jobs, but rather that the men and women learn how to negotiate in order to make their lives mesh.

If we're talking real equality, then this is a must.  A round of applause for Anthony who figured this out and made it a plot point in Aria.

My review of Aria was featured on AAR this weekend and can be read at the links associated with the book's title in this blog piece.

Meeting the Movie Star

For some reason I seem to be on a YA (young adult) roll these days--and honestly loving it.  I'm still perplexed as to why these books are categorized as YA.  Seems to me that if they had male protagonists and didn't have romance at their core, they would be called "coming of age" novels and shelved in the adult reading section.  But look at life from the viewpoint of a woman in her early to mid-20s and have that look include romance, and suddenly the book isn't about coming of age, but is assigned a YA label.

Today my review of E.M. Tippetts' Somebody Else's Fairy Tale goes live at AAR.  It's the marvelous story of a dedicated college senior who's had a difficult past, but has pulled herself up out of her navel gazing and gotten on with life.  When she accidentally meets a superstar as she's standing in a group of extras on his movie set, she blows off his interest.  She doesn't have time for superstars in her life plan. 

What Tippetts is doing is debunking one of those fairytales so many men and women have about meeting

Easy to Enjoy

My review of the YA (young adult) book Easy by Tammara Webber went live this weekend on AAR.  I'm still confused by the YA designation in fiction books.

Once upon a time, in a galaxy far, far away (Nebraska), I was a library page and then a library aide.  Back then, when the University of Nebraska / Lincoln housed one of the largest displays of dinosaur bones, YA books were meant for junior high and early high school readers.

Easy might be read by those readers today, but because of its theme of consensual sex and its milieu of frat parties, dorms, and large lecture classes, I can't imagine it makes much sense to young adults in the early years of high school.

But that's not what bothers me.  What bothers me is that the readers who should be reading it--those who are just going off to college or are in their first year--will be missing a very good book, not to mention some good tips on how to cope with being alone on campus for the first time away from family.

So my real question is why we need to segment the adult designation for books.  Why can't we just call these books fiction without having to designate what age "adult" will enjoy them?  Can't I as an adult enjoy a book that centers around adults of any age?  Or must the standard be that adults begin life in their mid-20s?