Jenny lives in Malaysia where she, now that she's retired, maintains MrsGiggles.com and stirs her thoughts in The Toilet Bowl.
When you were a child, what did you usually read?
I was born in Malaysia during a period when English books weren't easily available, so my early exposure to reading was via Malay novels. I am an anomaly among Chinese in that I couldn't read Chinese, but an aunt would read aloud Chinese comics from Hong Kong to me.
It was during primary school when a teacher took notice of how often I kept borrowing English novels from the library that she encouraged and helped me find books to read by R. L. Stevenson, Pearl S. Buck, William Shakespeare, Harper Lee - anything and everything we can find, really, and I was only ten years old at that time!
It was tough but fun trying to decipher Stevenson's Scottish dialects or look up encyclopedias to figure out what Jules Verne was trying to say in those scientific explanations in his stories.
So, simply put, as a child, I read anything I can get my hands on. Favorites run gamut across genres and types. I love Shakespeare's As You Like It. I enjoy whimsical stories by Kenneth Grahame, C. S. Lewis, and Lewis Carroll, sometimes I love stories of adventures like those by Jules Verne and R. L. Stevenson, and then there are books by Emily Brontë, Charles Dickens, et cetera.
As a romance reader, what do you usually read?
Anything and everything that sounds good, really. Probably due to my learning early to enjoy variety in my books, I don't restrict myself to subgenres or setting. Although, I do find straight suspense a little too dry for my liking.
Apart from romance novels, what do you usually read?
At this point in my life, I prefer to read stories of relationships. So I usually visit women's fiction when I want a break from the romance genre. However, I will pick up a book of any genre if I hear strong buzz about it that intrigues me.
Name top five favourite romance authors if any.
I'll pretend I didn't see "five" in your question.
[I said five, did I not? FIVE! 5! One, two, three, four, five! F-i-v-e! ... oh, sod it.]
In terms of personal enjoyment, I adore works by:
I think I've left out a dozen or so names but I'm sure those authors will live.
Do you have any weaknesses for certain themes, storylines, settings or such in romances? If so, what are they?
I have a weakness for stories featuring heroes that carry out larger-than-life actions to prove their love, especially when their love is the obsessive kind. I blame this on Heathcliff. As a child, I went to bed dreaming of dark and handsome men who love so much that they bash their heads against the tree until they bleed. Which is why children shouldn't read these kind of books, by the way, hmmph.
I love heroes who brood and obsess, who change the way they feel or live because of their love, that kind of thing. Which is why I don't like many so-called "bad boy heroes" in the genre, by the way, because these heroes tend to treat the heroines badly.
The kind of bad boys I like may kill but they would kiss the toes of the heroine without reservation. Case in point is Nicholas from
Anne Stuart's
A Rose At Midnight. He's someone who takes my breath away the moment he steps out onto the page.
On the completely opposite spectrum, I also have a weakness for The Perfect Boyfriend. I always picture the My First Bad Boyfriend hero as someone with dark hair and sad broody eyes and The Perfect Boyfriend will be someone who is the complete opposite. Kinda blond, maybe, with laughing eyes as opposed to the dark and broody Bad Boy.
I love stories of honest, hardworking people, which is why
Pamela Morsi is a favorite. But my favorite Perfect Boyfriend is Luke from Sharon Harlow's
A Country Kiss. He's so shy, so hardworking, trying so hard to get his life back on track, and when he meets the heroine, wham!
Other weaknesses I have for are anti-heroic characters, strong heroines, best friends first, and (strictly because I'm living in that region) stories set in Southeast Asia.
When you buy romance novels, how do you make your selection?
My husband has the perfect description for this. He says that if I have enough money, I would stand at one end of the shelf, place my basket at the other end, and push all the books along that shelf into the basket.
After all these years, I'm still like a kid in the candy store whenever I'm at the bookstore. I would buy a book on whim, due to lovely cover art, from the back blurb, or just because I need something to read and that book happens to be on the New Arrivals shelf.
What are your pet hates with romance novels?
At this point, all I want is for the characters to behave sensibly. I hate stories where the characters either suffer or make some decision that makes their life more complicated when there are obvious solutions to the dilemma. If they can avoid being thrown into jail by lying, by all means let them lie.
Which is why I have a hard time getting into the whole traditional Regency subgenre, really: the overwhelming emphasis on Virtue means that the characters are often so afraid of offending the reader in any way that they often choose not to act and become martyrs instead.
Maybe that's why I love anti-heroes. In the romance genre where "bad girls" often turn out to be actually very normal girls (as opposed to "good girls" being those famous virtuous and frigid roadkills that populate so many romance novels), anti-heroes often turn out to be characters who can refreshingly cut straight to the point and make sensible reactions.
When discussing romance novels and/or the Romance genre with fellow readers, which issues interest you most?
To be honest, I rarely discuss romance novels with fellow readers any more. How many times can I rehash my problems with idiot characters, stale plots, et cetera? In real life, I usually end up just lending my books to friends who often enjoy the things I don't (a friend adore secret baby books, for example).
When it comes to online, I find myself getting more animated about TV, movies, and other things. This could be due to the fact that there aren't anything significantly new to talk about in the genre recently.
If an influential romance editor asked you for an opinion on the Romance genre, what would you say?
I want an publisher to set up a "independent book" line where the bottom line isn't dollar but in experimentation. Maybe some generous philanthropist can do this, heh. There should be someone who would publish stories that are against the norm. The closest we have to one now is
Dorchester, but even they have to think about the bottom line.
And I also will say that Dorchester is much better than many people assume. Sure, they have horrible covers sometimes (although they have now improved greatly in that department) and the editing leaves a lot to be desired, but they are the only ones that introduce authors like
Lisa Cach,
Claudia Dain,
Susan Grant, and
Christine Feehan to the market.
Name up to five romance novels that left you lasting impressions.
This is a hard question. But I'll try to limit myself to five.
Favorite "dark" romance with essentially noble characters: I love this book. I reread it so often that I have to replace my first copy when the binding wore out.
Favorite "magical" romance:This one has everything: larger-than-life depiction of magical love, fae folks, a prim and proper hero who thaws beautifully, and a selfish
heroine who changes for the better because of love.
Favorite "redemption" romance: Redemption here sees two exquisitely tortured characters who manage to fall in love despite the huge hurdles in their path to the HEA.
Favorite "nice people" romance: - A Country Kiss - Sharon Harlow
The hero is a drifter who finally scrapes enough money to have his own home, the heroine is a widow who loved her late husband but is willing to love again. Some people may find this book boring because the heroine is so breathtakingly perfect, but for me, the hero Luke is so obviously a lost man with a heart of gold looking for love that the heroine is the perfect woman for him.
Favorite "kickass" romance: I have never come across another heroine like this underappreciated author's Marian. She is fabulous. This book would be so much better if she ends up with the Guy de Gisbourne but hey, I can't have everything, I suppose.
Can I add two more? Of course I can, right?
[
*sigh* Everyone does it, so why not? Go ahead while I go and bang my head on a wall of spikes.]
Favorite "nasty" romance: Homicidal killers in love? Me like. The heroine being a homicidal Ally McBeal? Me really like.
Favorite "yes, this is a romance" romance:
It's the first book I read where the two heroes end up in bed - yes, they are homosexuals, wow - but that's not the point. It's the first book I've read where one of the heroes is a cold-blooded assassin while the other hero is a selfish, self-absorbed, suicidal coward.
They should bring out the worst from each other but in the end, they make heroes out of each other. Ms Kushner writes fabulously, which only adds to the delightfully perverse pleasure to be gotten from this unapologetically amoral book.
What was the last romance novel you bought?
See how I choose books to buy above. I honestly often don't remember what I've bought until I start looking for something to read. I'm sad, I know.
:P Thanks, Mrs. Giggles.
Be good, be bad & be safe.
