4 stars

A romantic romp banking on its nod to Gone with the Wind with high degree of success, along with its flirtatious romantic pairing, making Frankly, My Dear a worthwhile journey, even with the slight ineffective start and end.

"I'm Crimson O'Hara, and he's Rat Butler, and this is Tara-cum-Bedlam."

If you like Tessa Dare, you'll easily enjoy what Frankly, My Dear has to offer: upbeat, never take itself too seriously (this book is also a blonde joke compilation), and relentless with its tantalizing sexual tension (these characters are not shy about expressing what they want to do to each other).

As mentioned earlier, the bookend portions are Frankly, My Dear's weakest link. The time travel element in the beginning feels severely under-cooked; granted this is not a sci-fi, but I wish it has more story impact, rather than an one-time shortcut getting a contemporary character into the past. The novel's last 40 pages feels rushed, critical events happening in succession with quick resolution (as if the author suddenly realized she still had loose ends to tie up before she could end the book). And the epilogue... it deviates so much from the rest of the book, I can easily do without.

Even with its flaws, the spoofing on Gone with the Wind, eventful narrative, and high steaminess outweighs the rough spots, and Frankly, My Dear remains a memorable fun time.

A Guy Reading Historical Romance | Ep02
➵ A Commentary Track ➵

Keeping track of my random reactions and tangential thoughts. There WILL be spoilers, so proceed with caution. Sponsored by my local thrift stores.

❈✢❈

CH2
p.35 Already so many shout-outs to her breasts...
p.37 Is it weird that the female lead has the same first name as the author? Isn't that a little... self-indulgent?
CH3
p.49 The flirting/teasing in this book can be summed up as 'explicitly naughty'.
p.55 Beignets and breasts, the two primary recurring motifs thus far.
CH4
p.65 While the male lead has an obsession with boobs, the female protagonist is aroused by limbs (fingers and toes)—at least the author kept it fair that both sexes get a kink.
CH5
p.75 Time travel is a piece of cake, according to this book: it's it's simply a voodoo doll plus a bunch of seeds (white to add, black to deduct, no less).
p.78 At least the novel made explicitly clear that it's aware of the racial injustice and gender oppression of that time period (instead of overly romanticizing it)
p.79 The MC from the 20th century is ready to spread her lovemaking advice
p.83 "Her breasts could balance out a thousand imperfections on the scale."—breasts obsession continues.
CH6
p.97 There it is, the titular Gone with the Wind phrase appeared.
CH11
p.180 "I'm Crimson O'Hara, and he's Rat Butler, and this is Tara-cum-Bedlam."
CH19
p.293 I'm so glad the author remembered to bring back the heroine's foot fetish; the reference dropped hundreds of pages ago was not done in vain!

This is my all-time favorite book. I could read this book over and over again.

Reviewed for The Book Vixen.

http://www.thebookvixen.com/2015/04/book-review-frankly-my-dear-by-sandra.html

Wonderful read! I have to say that I HATE 'Gone with the Wind', I just do I enjoyed parts of it but especially the ending I just HATED it. In spite of that this book caught my eye, and I loved it! There is plenty of intrigue, and tones of laughs. I just loved the blond jokes that were thrown in there and the epilog just made me curious to read the next book in this series!

Published in 1996, this book is just too problematic for 21st century audiences. You have voodoo curses, a heroine taken as a "free woman of color" when she time travels from the present to land in the middle of a Quadroon Ball in New Orleans, plantation owners and slaves and jealous siblings and evil spouses and people returning from the grave and...yeah, it's all a bit too much and a bit too cringey. And the heroine is a huge fan of GWTW. Oh, boy.

Hill has a lot of other enjoyable books that are less problematic than this one. Simply put, it hasn't aged well. So find one of those others instead.

Full review soon!

.....man, this book. SMH

So, I've been on a kick of reading romances from the nineties and earlier. I've read some really good ones and some stinkers as well. This book falls into the latter category.

It's almost instalove, which isn't really my jam but I was curious about this book. I hadn't heard of the notoriety of this title in some circles but I saw it for a dollar at my local Dollar General. I thought why the hell not, I'll give it a shot. I regret it.

Sandra Hill spends the entire book whitesplaining slavery and I just wasn't here for it. If you want to read a historical romance that handles this and similar topics much better then seek out a Beverly Jenkins novel.

I have mixed feelings about this book. First off, I generally avoid historicals set in America smack in the middle of slavery, but I knew that up front so that is my fault for still checking it out from the library. The mid-1990s attempt at body positivity came across as a bit heavy-handed, and was negated by all the dumb blonde jokes. The author's attempt to make the hero a good guy despite the fact that he owned slaves was also a little cringe-y. However, I kept reading because I enjoyed the banter between the hero and heroine as well as the heroine's attempt to introduce a little 1996 to the 1800s. Hence, my mixed feelings. Hopefully, I can find a time-travel book by Sandra Hill at my library that is set in a historical era that doesn't make me quite as uncomfortable.

Reviewed for The Book Vixen.

http://www.thebookvixen.com/2015/04/book-review-frankly-my-dear-by-sandra.html