[bunnie]

While I do read both male and female authors, the ones I tend to perfer are pretty much always female.

I enjoy reading a book with female characters I can grow attached to and I feel most male authors have a hard time writing women. They tend to be very stereotypical women and never feel quite real enough. While male authors understand what appeals to a man when he writes his women, I don't think he quite understand what appeals to a woman. For example, before I read George R R Martin, my husband was sure I'd really enjoy reading about Arya. When I started reading the books, Arya's chapters became one of those I disliked most. I always felt she was way too stereotyped into being the "tomboy" and I could never relate to her when everything about her seemed exaggerated.

There is probably a closet romance novel fan hidden in me, but I also find that men write sex badly, it is often just too plain. Women seem to be less afraid of writing steamy sex scenes. Whether it is a love scene where it is supposed to be overly flowery, a scene where the sex is supposed to be uncaring and dirty or even just your generic screwing, women tend to be less shy and more descriptive. I feel men hold back when writing about this topic and I don't really know why. I'm not asking for the beautification of love making from a romance novel or paragraphs about their emotions, I just don't want my author to be shy about it.

My favourite series of all time is the Kushiel's Legacy Trilogy by Jacqueline Carey. It took me a bit to get into at first but once I did, I couldn't put it down. The first book really had everything I had been missing. It is a fantasy (actually considered erotic fantasy) book that feels a little more real in a way. Based in a fictitous world of post medieval France, Terre D'Ange was founded by a fallen angel with the philosophy -- love as though wilt. It has its heroes and villains, political intrigues and war, love and betrayal and definetly not to be forgotten, the courtesans of the Court of Night Blooming Flowers. I haven't been able to find a book that has captivated me the way this one did. Everytime I read something new, I compare it to Kushiel's Dart. It has become what I judge all books I read now off of.

While I do like strong female characters, I'm not into that whole feminist thing and despise female authors that write in that 'girl-power' style. But a good woman author, I tend to enjoy more than a good male one.