The Windflower
Sharon & Tom Curtis · 1984
Published under the pen name Laura London, this pirate romance is legendary among romance readers for its extraordinary literary quality and complex characters. The prose reads more like literary fiction than genre work. Romance authors frequently cite it as the book that made them understand what the genre could be.
The case against
Merry is an innocent so wide-eyed the plot has to kidnap her to get her moving, and Devon spends long stretches being cruel in ways the book asks lush prose to excuse. Lovely writing, and overgrown; whole chapters drift on shipboard atmosphere while the story idles. Cat, the secondary character, walks off with the novel, which says something about the leads.
Romance · the Pro canon
The case for it and the rest of the canon open with Pro.
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