aggressive, combatative romance?

I'm sorry, I can't think of a book, but the young lovers in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon were all about the aggressive totally smoking hot rivalry. As were the MCs in my novel. Hmm...I'm sensing a trend. :0)

Lots of movies and Harlequins minus the bites and bruises. I'm thinking of some of the Meg Ryan flicks.

It doesn't quite fit the whole description, but I'm thinking of Buffy & Spike in season 6 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Little to no affection at all, plenty of smacking one another around, hints of light BDSM, and lots of hot sex.

Or, hey, Wesley and Lila on Angel, for that matter - I can't remember the season. Definite fraternizing across enemy lines.

...yes, I am that much of a geek. I am not ashamed.

I suppose there's a market for that type of book or they wouldn't be selling them.

But I had enough of fights when I was married. I got thoroughly sick of so-called "sparkage." Fine for a book, but in real life such conflict is a major suckage thing. It got boring fast.


For my reading pleasure I wanna see people falling in love.



Okay, I liked the Buffy-Spike thing (it was fictional though!), mostly 'cause....

Thanks for posting Spike's photo, Gillhoughly.

Sunandshadow ~ Most romances start out with the MCs in conflict with each other. I think the biting and bruising falls into something other than the main romance category. It tends to crop up occasionally in historical romances but right now I can't think of a title. Sorry.

Aaah, Spike. (Although I still say Wesley had the best line--when Lila said, "I bet you'll think about me when I'm gone", and he replies, "I wasn't thinking about you when you were here.")

Thea Devine wrote at least one book like this. I don't remember the title, though. It's a one-word title with a Southern plantation setting. I didn't find the sex as hot as I might have because I found both MCs loathesome, but if memory serves it fits your criteria and I know a lot of people adore Thea Devine, so it's worth a look.

Gillhoughly said:

Okay, I liked the Buffy-Spike thing (it was fictional though!), mostly 'cause....

James Marsters is freakin' smokin' hawwwwt!​

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Mmmmmmnnn. I'll have one 'o those.

I have not read anything like that... but I sure as hell would!!

I'm tempted to write a book visualizing a MC based on Marsters.

But it's already been done.

I talked with the writer, and while writing he absolutely on purpose thinks of Marsters playing the hero.

He's real happy about the audiobooks....

I confess the same thought has crossed my mind more than once, but I doubt I could do him justice. And he'll always be Spike to me, so it would probably be a failure from the first line.

But I am getting those audios for my birthday; I don't care who I have to kill.

Check out Anne Stuart. Her current "Ice" series would fit your description perfectly, as would several of her backlist. There was one involving a cult leader that I recall liking a great deal. I haven't read her historicals, but they probably follow the same pattern.

The trick to doing it, though, is to keep from having an "I hate you, I hate you, I hate you, I love you" plot, where the switch from hatred to love is sudden and incomprehensible.

Note that in the Spike/Buffy relationship, Buffy never did love Spike (in the way he wanted her to), and his transition was slow and steady, so the story never had to deal with that final step of committed two-way relationship. And they were never mean to each other for the sake of being mean. They had disagreements, they argued, they fought, they had sex, but they never crossed that line that would have prevented them from having a long-term relationship; they never said the thing that can't be taken back and that undermines any credible long-term relationship.

And that's the trick -- to make the arguments/fights realistic and meaningful and part of the characters' growth, without ever crossing the line where the reader feels that one of the characters (or the relationship as a whole) is unredeemable (sort of like the Chloe/Morris thing on 24, which wasn't done well, but the issue was there; she said something true to her -- that he contributed to killing a bunch of people -- and it was something Morris couldn't accept his lover believing about him), and then to make the transition from hate to love credible, so that the reader believes that the couple will last, and not turn to hating each other the next morning. And that's hard to do. Very hard.

Anne Stuart accomplishes the balancing act (usually). I liked the first book in the Ice series, but not so much the second one, where I felt like the characters were just fighting for the sake of fighting. I didn't finish the book, though, so it might have worked out later.

Bottom line: it's a very challenging type of plot. Having the h/h be each other's antagonist is very, very, very difficult, since you've built in a win/lose situation, where one half of the relationship ends up being "the loser," which is not a good foundation for HEA. There can be compromise, but that tends to make HEA shaky too, compared to a situation where the h/h have worked together and grown together to overcome a common adversary, and they've won, together, not just against the adversary, but also in their relationship. I'm not saying it can't be done -- it's done all the time, and done well -- but it's an additional challenge.

JD

I remember reading something like that but I've forgotten the author... hmm...

Gillhoughly - the whole damned cast was pretty hot. Spike AND Angel in the same room? OMG. Where's teh fire extinguisher? <fans self>

What about Angel and Cordelia getting hot and heavy!?

Funny, but Angel never did it for me. Too broody and hulking. Like my ex.

Spike was honest, everything was right up front, no guessing what's going on inside. You knew where you stood.

Or reclined.

:snorple:

It's Thursday. Have a Spike.

Yeah, Angel was just too tall dark and forehead for me.

I thought Riley was a good 'un, though. A bit too boy scout, until the end there, but verrrry easy on the eyes.

Spike & Faith: that would have been a badass combo.

I liked Angel when he was Angelus. As the virtuous Angel, not so much. But when he was evil, oh, man, he was good.

JD

sunandshadow said:

And when they have sex there tend to be biting and bruises involved, and they both want to keep the relationship a secret because they would get in trouble for fraternizing with the enemy?

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Check out the Crimson City series (started by Liz Maverick, but it has several different contributing authors). Most of the relationships are between different species (humans, vampires, demons, werewolves, etc...), and most of them spark. Some of them ignite. Biting and bruises are involved.

I haven't read all of the books yet, but have enjoyed the first three immensely.

And since we're coming out, I'm a Spike girl, myself.