I just need to stop reading these kind of charity anthologies. I don't expect the authors to write whole new stories to fit the theme, but I think mayI just need to stop reading these kind of charity anthologies. I don't expect the authors to write whole new stories to fit the theme, but I think maybe there should be some expectation if you are writing about a social rights issue, that maybe the story should fit that in some way? If you are doing an anthology for reproductive rights, maybe having the stories actually featuring conversations about birth control, whether or not they want kids, abortions, and so on? And to be (somewhat) fair, there are 32 stories that feature abortion. But that is with 150 stories. Instead the vast majority of these stories have zero conversations about birth control (or show zero use of condoms/pills/etc) and a ton of them end in pregnancies without a single conversation about having kids. Just the "yay babies all the time for everyone" for this cause was really....off-putting.
As far as the stories themselves though, I don't think there was one that I really liked. A few were ok, but mostly forgetful, a lot that I DNFed and moved on to the next one. And a ridiculous amount of mafia stories.... ...more
Anthologies are always difficult to read as a whole. Some of the stories were good, but there were quite a few that I DNFed.
Despite the charity causeAnthologies are always difficult to read as a whole. Some of the stories were good, but there were quite a few that I DNFed.
Despite the charity cause, there were only a few that were actually about abortion, I would have liked a lot more because there are so few romance novels that do deal with it.
These ones had a female main character who has had an abortion, the first two in the past and are only talked about, the third actually happens in the course of the story: Pregnant by the Playboy by Jackie Lau (contemporary) Experimental Marine Biology by Susannah Nix (contemporary) The Midwife’s Son by Elizabeth Bright (historical)
Other reproductive issues: What If I Loved You by Cora Lee (historical) - childfree by choice couple who use a sponge to actively prevent pregnancy The Mistletoe Trap by Eve Pendle (historical) - male main character's first wife died in childbirth and he's terrified of losing anyone else to it so tries to do a celibate marriage. And then several of the contemporaries do feature couples who are shown to be using condoms, IUDs or other forms of birth control....more
The first two books are decent (Wolf's Hunger and Alpha Moon), the rest are terrible. Especially the last book. The first two books are decent (Wolf's Hunger and Alpha Moon), the rest are terrible. Especially the last book. ...more
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