C-
Genre: Contemporary Romance, New Adult, Romance
The Hurricane by RJ Prescott is aptly named: it’s a book that’s going to blow you strongly in one direction or another. I personally enjoyed the first three quarters of the book and the THE THING happened and it disappointed me immensely.
I’m fairly iffy on New Adult, largely because I think there’s so much of it in the market right now that you have to filter through a lot of sub par writing to find the authors that really work. The Hurricane opens with the hero standing in the street, in the dark, with a boner, watching the heroine through a diner window, and at first I was like “Ohhh, shit. This is going to be another stalker-hero New Adult. Thanks Fifty Shades.” I gave the book a chance though and was pleased to discover that despite the Boner Incident of Chapter One, the hero was not a creepy stalker dude, but actually a lovable character.
The Hurricane offers the fairly standard New Adult trope of Heroine with Tragic Backstory meets Guy Who Gives Her Pants Feelings, and they have lots of angst and orgasms and find True Lurve. The hero is also scarred but the pure white light that emanates from the heroine’s inner goodness–and her vagina–makes him want to commit. It’s actually a tremendously Old Skool plot line (which I am always down for).
In this case the heroine is Emily, a college student in London. Emily is an American, and she moved across the pond to escape her abusive stepfather (trigger warning: this book contains graphic depictions of rape and domestic violence. Graphic. Do not say I didn’t warn you). Emily changed her name and is lying low so her stepfather can’t find her. When the book opens she’s working at the diner and going to classes, but not doing much else. She’s afraid of nearly everyone she meets and has no friends. One thing I liked was that as much as the book was dedicated to the main characters’ relationship, it was also about Emily coming out of her shell. She finds friends that have nothing to do with the hero, goes to parties, has her first drink. Her growth as a character wasn’t totally dependent on the hero.
Speaking of the hero, his name is Cormac “The Hurricane” O’Connell aka Boner Under a Lampost Dude. He sees Emily from afar and immediately falls in lust with her. When she’s hired to do the book-keeping at the gym he boxes at, he resolves to himself to mend his drinking, womanizing ways so he that he can be good enough for the magic glow of her hoo-hoo. We don’t get into Con’s head a lot as this book is told 98% first person POV from Emily’s perspective. I liked Con immensely though. When she first meets him he’s a cut, intimidating Irish prize fighter, “a bit of rough” as he puts it, but as Emily gets to know him, it’s apparent that he has a tremendous sweet side. I mentally cast Tom Hardy in his role.
As their relationship develops, Con is sensitive to Emily’s past. She’s insecure about never having had a boyfriend and worries that Con is out of her league what with his eight pack and all. He reassures her. He never pushes her into doing anything she’s uncomfortable with–in fact I think of all the New Adults I’ve read, Con and Emily took the longest time to actually have sex with each other. A lot of their early relationship is heartfelt kisses and holding hands and spooning, but it felt right given the horrible trauma Emily’s endured.
Emily inspires Con to not half-ass his boxing, and he goes into an intense training regimen, determined to make something of himself. I feel compelled to mention that I know nothing of boxing (or most sports in general) so I just sort of tossed all the prize fighting refrences into a mental box titled “Con is sportsing now.”The two major conflicts in this book were Con’s horrible mother, Sylvia, and Emily’s terrifying stepdad. I didn’t actually need them though, because I think the internal conflict they represented (“I’m a poor boy from the wrong side of the tracks”/”I suffered terrible abuse for years”) was sufficient. Still the external threat of Sylvia arriving and fucking things up and Emily’s stepdad finding her ramped up the tension.
While I really loved Con and I enjoyed the slow burning UST of their romance, I did acknowledge that there were some problems. Con is exceptionally protective of Emily, basically threatening to beat up anyone who looks at her wrong, and while this mostly comes across as playful, I can see how his behavior could be seen as controlling and squicky given Emily’s history with domestic abuse. In fact, all the hot Irish guys at the gym love Emily but I can get the “heroine finds a band of protectors” fantasy that was going on.
One thing that bugged me was that Emily doesn’t sound like an American; she sounds British. Emily used words like mum rather than mom and arse rather ass. I suppose she could have just adopted the lingo when she moved to London, but it felt wrong to me.
These were minor things though, and I was going to give the book a good B+ and then THE THING happened.
Con, the hero I was loving so hard, called someone a fucktard. In fact, some of his friends used the word too. Ugh. Nope.
Admittedly, “fucktard” and “retard” (used pejoratively) are bugaboos for me. The word “fucktard” comes from “fucking retard,” which is never, never an okay thing to say. I know a lot of people who have developmentally disabled children, I previously worked with the developmentally disabled, and my husband was labeled as DD or ED before his dyslexia was diagnosed in high school. I have heard the words fucktard and retard used in the harshest possible way and I’ve seen how cruelly it hurts people.
If I had to guess, I would assume the author didn’t know how offensive this word is to a lot of people. I can see where readers might suggest that Con, growing up in a rough environment, might have heard that word hurled around a lot and wouldn’t be sensitive to it.
Frankly, I don’t care.
I want my hero to be better than that. I certainly wouldn’t be cool with him throwing around a racial slur or saying “well, that’s gay.” There were so many other things Con could have said–asshole, asshat, douchebag, douchecanoe, douchewizard, goddamn-mother-fucking-son-of-a-bitch. The options are endless. There was no reason that “fucktard” had to be used.
So yeah, this is a huge hot-button topic for me. I’d personally be really happy to never read the word “fucktard” again in my life. As a result, I really struggled with what to give this book for a grade. The use of “fucktard” didn’t completely ruin the story for me, but it did totally pull me out of the narrative and I had to pretend the hero never said that. It would also make me hesitant to read the author again, honestly.
The Hurricane was doing such a fine job of impressing me with a sweet hero and a heroine who was given the depth that she deserved, that it made THE THING feel even worse somehow. It started off as New Adult that I was digging, but the big disappointment toward the end made it hard for me enjoy the rest. If you’re on the fence about whether or not to try it, the ebook is currently 99 cents so at least it’s not a huge investment.
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I think there are fundamentally different ways of looking at books:
a) The book should present a universe I want to be in, start to finish. The book should primarily feel good; the characters should be good, right-thinking people.
vs.
b) The book should be authentic within the territory it has established. The book should primarily feel real; the characters should behave in ways that are consistent with how they are set up.
Both of those preferences are fine, but they can lead to very different conclusions. On the one hand you might have a view that says “This book was wrong to use this word, because it upsets me, and that violates the reading contract” – on the other hand you might have a view that says “This book uses this word because that’s the kind of word this character would use in real life, so it doesn’t matter if it upsets me – it would in fact violate the reading contract to sugar-coat the language a rough young boxer would use”.
This is an interesting conundrum to me because I basically always fall on the “books should feel real” square, so lots of romances that everyone loves (because they feel good) are bad experiences for me because they feel so fake. Like the reason I quit reading this exact book a couple of months ago was that BS where all of the hot young violent boxers at the gym form a supportive Mary Sue wolfpack around the female character. CANNOT HANDLE. Whereas if they were all aggressive and weird and maybe even used language I personally find uncomfortable, I would probably have kept reading for longer.
I’m very surprised to see that this review thinks that Emily is American! When does that come up? She seemed so totally British, her language, mannerisms, etc. That was sort of the main thing I liked about this, that it seemed to have an actual sense of place and subculture.
I’m a little surprised by the “fucktard” controversy. Like Wendy, I also thought of “fucktard” as an assembly of different words than the reviewer does. Huh!
I’m delurking and joining the Bitchery after years of dipping in and out of this fabulous site, because this book inspired So. Many. Feelings. Ranty feelings, so best to either ignore me, or put the kettle on, as Captain Oats once said, I may be some time.
First things first is that I need to stop reading this sub-brand of New Adult – I’m always disappointed more than I’m pleasantly surprised. I blame Beautiful Disaster for the glut in the market, but at least in that there was some level of complexity to the characters and back story.
Problematic as the word choice was for Elyse it was the least of my issues with the book – by that point I’d lost the will to read and was snark-reading in earnest. I loves me some women overcoming adversity tropes but oh my great googamooga the FMC was all over the place – outwardly timid and so Mary Sue-ish, I expected woodland creatures to help her dress each morning, but internally so Judy Judgemental from the off. All other women had fake tits, wore slutty clothes and were overtannned if they so much as looked at a man or portrayed any sexual agency whatsoever. Her token female friend Nikki is spared this because she doesn’t try and steal her man and loans her clothes, I guess?
As for Nikki and the Rugby college boys – Danny’s office is given more particularity than they are: I can tell you what Danny’s office looks like but I couldn’t describe any other character if you offered me Hugh Jackman shirtless. Cormac, who I too wanted to picture as Tom Hardy ( ala Warrior with Liam Neeson’s voice), was the main selling point of this to me, but even he disappointed with barely a hint of brogue and less personality. He was the frozen yogurt of book boyfriends: saccharine sweet, cloyingly I want to be good for you.
The lack of characterisation and the lack of banter between the males became incredibly stultifying. There were some nice moments – spoiler All Danny. If Emily aka sexiest non-Slutty most perfect girl who ever lived through #DarkTrauma reminded me of Snow White then the fighters all became her neutered. seven Dwarves – reverse Bechdel test I don’t think any of them ever had a conversation not about Emily…
The Big Bad trauma was queasily described in detail, its a bad sign when your book’s trauma is better described and evoked than the rest of the novel put together. Picky me I still wanted some answers as to how and why the Big Moment came about – Evil Bad Guys evidently have awesome Bear Grylls tracking skills to balance out their psychopathy.
I had zero sense of London in this at all, which given London is my love that got away, offended me deeply. Also no mention of Emily having an accent at all even though she’s from Cardiff?! Shenanigans, good sir!
I could have forgiven a lot if I’d believed in the romance but the Dark Power of New Adult – Insta Love was evoked instead. If not for Dannny I would have DNF’d this back from whence it came.
Dear Gingerly, welcome back. I myself lurked here for a few years. Love what you wrote about Hurricane. You confirmed my lack of desire to read it.
I’ve read a few New Adults and my overall reaction is a Great Big Meh. I avoid that genre.
Thanks Gloriamarie for the welcome! I was nervous after leaving such a long comment as my virgin post. I think the only New Adult I’ve read that I enjoyed enough to keep going back to was the Stage Dive rockstar romances by Kylie Scott: multi – faceted characters, sweet romances, hot love scenes, with great humour and dialogue. The plots are a little predictable but I can forgive that when the writing is good enough.
Dear Gingerly, I found your post quite interesting to read. If I see any of Stage Dive rock star romances by Kylie Scott for sale, I might try one. Most of theNA I’ve read seem to be about spoiled rich young women having summer flings in the Hamptons that turn into True Lurve. There have been many recommend by the SB but I give them a miss because all that college angst they write about bears no resemblance to my college days. I guess I just don’t find the appearance of verisimilitude in the plots.
@Gloriamarie I live in the Hamptons; I will tell you if I come across any believable NA plots! 🙂
I generally don’t gravitate to NA because I feel like I always want more depth/complexity and payoff to the emotion and sex (if there is any). At that age the stakes are lower in some ways because you are usually not forming a potentially lifelong partnership and you also have less personal life and relationship experience yourself so you are more of a blank slate in how you approach love. I’m 32 and I see a huge difference in who I am now vs. who I was at 22. I feel for me that maybe the interactions in NA are just less relatable for me and therefore less appealing to read.
Dear Mary, After watching Royal Pains for so long and Ina Garten, I’ve thought a house in the Hamptons would be lovely. Richard Castle has a beautiful property there. Except none of these TV shows reveal what I really think life in the Hamptons is like in the summer.
I wonder who the target audience is for NA? I am guessing someone much younger than I.
I just read a NA by Jennifer Probst, Summer Sins, who has written some stuff I’ve quite enjoyed, and while this was her usual standard of good writing, I was never really engaged or invested in the story. Mostly because it is clearly a set-up for a series. While I enjoy series, heck, I’ve been reading the Outlander series since 1995 when I discovered the first three books, I really hate it when an author sacrifices the story being written to the set-up for the next volume.
@ Gloriamarie & Mary I totally get where you’re coming from with the N/A genre I’m 34 so I suspect I’m a grizzled decade too old for the demographic it’s intended for. I tend to avoid the college settings for the very reasons you described and they especially don’t correspond to my experience experiences as a British uni grad.
Whilst I have no problems suspending my disbelief in HEA forever for H/h in regency romances for example; I struggle to believe that trope in New Adult. Maybe it’s because now there is less expectation for monogamy and more emphasis on finding your place in the world out with being defined by relationships. When I read in college set N/A in particular about the main couple speeding of into the sunset of HEA forever I become cynical and downright stroppy at the trend. “just you crazy kids wait til you have bills and your own place then you’ll find out you care a damn sight more about whether he leaves the toiilet seat up than any other insecurity wangst you spent the last 246 pages on rather than getting to know each other beyond ooh he’s cut or wow she’s so hot but too good for me.
Although the Stage Dives are standalone I do think you get more from them when read in order the first is Lick and for me the only weak one of the series was the final book Deep.
My theory on N/A is that it’s a bridging genre between teen/YA romances in particular and the traditional romances. My hope is that we see more expansion of tropes as it matures to reflect the diversity of romance and YA which equally expanded from category M&B and teen adventure like Nancy Drew… At the moment I’d be hard pushed to name a single fantasy New Adult for example.
@Gingerly I read Jeaniene Frost’s Beautiful Ashes and that had some paranormal elements and was pretty decent. I really only read it bc of that and the fact that I love her Night Huntress books. Other than that, I just feel sort of dissatisfied with NA and YA. I always want it to go farther, deeper than it does.
@Gloriamarie I haven’t watched too many shows set here (once in a blue moon I’ve caught the Barefoot Contessa on Food Network and she came into Williams-Sonoma once when I was working there in college) so I’m not totally familiar with the stereotypes. It is a very beautiful, affluent area and there is definitely a big difference between the summer and off-season here. The day after Labor Day is called Tumbleweed Tuesday 🙂 . I would say it is probably a lot more low key than someplace like LA, at least in terms of celebrities being given space. I’ve seen quite a few around (always miniature in person!) and nobody really says anything to them. The only paparazzi I’ve ever seen was when the Kardashians were shooting down the street last summer, but that seems like par for the course with publicizing the tv show.
It’s really a gorgeous place to live, with all the beaches and really lovely light. Lots of artists have come out to the East End for that reason. I could see how all the wealth and the opportunity for socializing could really lend itself to a fertile backdrop for storytelling.
Is it just me or does seem like authors who established themselves in other ways are now jumping on the NA bandwagon?
Mary, I am convinced one of the most beautiful places on earth is Montauk Point.
If I ever win the lottery, I’ll buy a house there. LOL I really do belong on the East Coast but after twenty-two years in SO CAL, not sure if I coud ever adapt to winter again.