A lot of historical romances, in my limited historical knowledge, is very unrealistic anyway. (Though I guess you could say that with a lot of fiction in general.) The heroine can be a lot more spunky and quirky than your average historical titled woman. The hero can be a lot more feminine than I would think an…

I really enjoyed the interview. It's making me want to go back and re-read some of her historicals.

Ok, I guess I did misunderstand. There are definitely more realistic romance out there, but I tend to like the escapist fiction more.

That's interesting. Thanks for explaining it very well.

I feel like the stereotypical romance is basically the opposite. There are at least two males actively pursuing the woman. Romance novels definitely are somewhat escapist. There's definitely a high population of millionaires in romance. A lot of the heroine's troubles is "solved" by her millionaire partner.

I can definitely understand getting into the characters more in a book compared to TV/movies. I find myself rooting for or despising characters more in a book rather than their TV/movie counterpart. There's just a lot more description and narrative that goes in books that don't really translate well on the screen.

I'm not an expert by any means, but there is a lot more variety out there. Self-publishing, the Internet, etc have definitely made it so. There are definitely books in which the man is actively pursuing the woman. There are definitely books in which the man is an unapologetic feminist. You do have to find it, but it…

Not familiar with this, but does this mean the ending means the victim actually leaving her/his kidnapper at the end with no happy ending? Or is it more that the kidnapper was really misunderstood and didn't really mean to kidnap his/her victim?

The Friday Harbor series definitely got worse. I enjoyed maybe the first 2 or 3?

I'm an avid romance fan, but I'm finding it very difficult to find new good stuff. I can finish a decent size novel in 3-5 hours, so I end up reading a lot if I'm in the zone. I go through Goodreads, Smart Bitches, and Dear Author. I've found some excellent new authors this way, but there is just a wealth (good and…

The same criticisms for romance can be given to any other genre, but it's still the most looked down one I think. There are definitely a lot of formulaic books in any genre, but romance takes the most hits?

I've enjoyed both pretty equally. I really liked the contemporary series with the Texan (?) brothers.

Is this similar to how Asian-Americans have to deal with the "model minority" stereotype in the US? If so, that sucks.

You can get apparently half-decent makeup for $1-$5 (I'm thinking E.L.F. or Wet n Wild). Some of those products are apparently good. I imagine that H&M makeup will be equivalent to drug store makeup.

It was years ago, when they only had one version of those Crest White Strips in the market. I don't know what's new and better. My teeth aren't model perfect, but they're not that un-white either.

I stopped teeth whitening many years ago. The first few times were fine (and results were substantial enough to want additional treatments), but they made my teeth really sensitive (even with spacing out treatments). I'm sure they've gotten better, but I'm sticking to my less white, but non-sensitive teeth.

They're also sold at Asian (definitely Korean) shops. I've seen them in Korean supermarkets and makeup stores.

I semi-regularly perm my hair, and it's awkward to go through the initial "home perm" phase (where the curls are very tight). There are some alternatives to a less "permy" curly hair. You can go with a digital perm. It requires the rods to be heated and a different permanent solution than the normal. It can produce…

I know there are more scientific articles on this, but I think the hair just appears thicker. When you're shaving, you're cutting off hair. When you're waxing, you're pulling the hair out. So when hair is visible after waxing, you're getting non-cut hair (so the ends are pointy). But that's my thought process, just on…

To be fair, I actually go out of my way to watch crappy and/or sappy TV movies all the time. Until someone pointed it out, I actually had seen the movie before I knew about Outlander, the TV show. I did not connect that those two characters were played by the same actor. I basically saw the picture of Sam as Jamie,…