I forget the title

[chocolatepot]

I really want to like this kind of ... I want to call it "jaunty" romance novel, but every once in a while it just, well, "enrages me" is a little strong for it, but it's so frustrating that every so often I feel like I'm running into a wall. It's a stupid issue but it's hard to get over.

The author wants the heroine to be super-fashionable. (Oh, you knew it was in this line.) So she critiques people's color choices a lot. And that's not a bad thing, but half the time it feels like she's picking colors at random to clash with someone's complexion (or being confusing about it - what is "in primose she would like like Banquo's ghost at a wedding" supposed to mean?), and the other half ... is puce. There is nothing really wrong with puce, and it's got a couple of different shades anyway, and what really irritates me is that it gets picked on (in historical romances in general) because Georgette Heyer didn't like it. Georgette Heyer sometimes using it as a joke about ugly clothes and bad taste =/= the color was thought to be unattractive in the period. I can find many references to it in high fashion.

Also, from cultural references in the text about what was happening ~20 years ago, I'm pretty sure this is set in the early/mid-1830s, but I have a sneaking suspicion the writer is still imagining it as the 1810s.

Comments

[lliira]

I think puce is rather a pretty color. I used to think puce was some kind of hideous brownish yellow-green for some reason. The word sure sounds ugly.

[chocolatepot]

It does sound ugly, and then when you learn that it's named for fleas it sounds uglier, but yeah, I think it's a pretty color.