Exactly Like Other Girls

By Felicia Grossman

One of the fiction tropes that annoys me the most is the “not-like-other-girls” female lead. She appears across genres and often eschews anything coded “feminine” like clothes and make-up and dating. She’s not popular, but she prevails. 

Main characters like that and their real-life counterparts are wonderful and fun, but what makes me (and a lot of people) uncomfortable is the way that their wonderfulness is propped up by putting other people, especially women and girls, down. 

In the Jewish world, this trope gets its own special twist. Our “not-like-other-girls” main character frequently implies “not-like-a-Jewish American Princess.” In literature, film, and television, the Jewish American Princess is the stereotype that traditionally, the Jewish hero (and increasingly the Jewish heroine) is supposed to escape as a love interest; a spoiled, wealthy, whiney, woman or girl—obsessed with clothing, shopping, and her looks. The Jewish American Princess is almost never a main character, and if she is, it is only because she changes and abandons the things she used to like. 

I spent many years of my own life trying to avoid the Jewish American Princess moniker, despite the fact that I adore clothes, enjoy wearing makeup, and just like most people, can’t stand swimming in a camp lake. And, for the record, everyone whines sometimes. However, when I had my own daughter, I started to question what sort of example I was setting for her.

I asked myself if running away from a stereotype was actually conforming and not being true to myself. This question was especially important to me as a romance author. I get to write about who gets a romantic HEA (“happily ever after”), and who is “worthy” of being a romantic lead.

In my debut novel, Appetites & Vices, set in 1841 Philadelphia, my Jewish lead, Ursula Nunes, the only child of a widowed banking mogul, doesn’t have the easiest life. She’s often isolated from the fledging Jewish community, living geographically closer to the gentiles, who are often not particularly keen on having Jews in their circle (Ursula is not blessed with the best social skills and often makes her own situation worse). Her father wants to make her happy, but, like most parents, can’t solve her problems. So instead, he buys her pets and jewels and dresses—all things she’s quite fond of even though they don’t bring her happiness. 

At the beginning of the book, Ursula is searching for a way to move forward, to not be trapped in her father’s house with her many, many animals forever. And she most certainly finds her HEA (it is a romance, after all), but I worked hard to write her story in a way such that she doesn’t give up who she is even as she grows and changes. She doesn’t reject the things she liked as “silly” or “frivolous.” 

Likewise, in my second book, Dalliances & Devotion (out August 26, 2019), Ursula’s daughter, Amalia is even more fashion obsessed than her mother. It’s an actual profession for her—she’s a beauty columnist. Except, she uses the money she makes to fund a charity (a pre-cursor to legal aid). Because she can do both. Because, as Amalia says, caring about other people doesn’t mean you aren’t allowed to have fun. And sacrificing what you enjoy to fit into someone else’s notion of what is “worthy,” is never in style. 

So I stopped running too. I stopped trying to avoid a label that is inherently misogynistic with anti-semitic undertones. I decided to enjoy what makes me happy instead. So I bought myself a pair of Uggs (the most comfortable shoes in the world—you’ll have to pry them off my cold, dead feet) and a whole lot of animal print (totally a neutral) and I also wrote two Jewish American heroines who like clothes, have parents who like to buy them things and occasionally whine. But they are real, full people who find love by being exactly who they are. 

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Felicia Grossman wanted to write stories ever since her father read her Treasure Island when she was four-years-old. The Delaware native never lost her love of words, earning both an English degree and a law degree. Felicia now lives in the northern part of the country with her spouse, children, and dogs. When not writing, she can be found eating pastries or belting showtunes in her living room.

Find out more about her on her Website https://feliciagrossmanauthor.com/

Follow her on Twitter @HFeliciaG

DALLIANCES AND DEVOTIONS, Felicia Grossman

A change in course can be refreshing…when it’s done together.

1871

After two disastrous marriages, beauty columnist Amalia Truitt’s life is finally her own—well, it will be if she can get herself back to Delaware and demand access to her share of the Truitt family fortune. After all, the charity she’s organized for women who can’t afford their own divorces won’t fund itself.

However, not everyone wants her to reach her destination. When her family learns she’s been receiving anonymous death threats, a solo journey is out of the question.

Enter David Zisskind, the ragtag-peddler-turned-soldier whose heart Amalia broke years ago. He’s a Pinkerton now, and the promotion he craves depends on protecting his long-lost love on the unexpectedly treacherous journey across Pennsylvania.

That their physical connection has endured the test of time (and then some) is problematic, to say the least.

In very close quarters, with danger lurking around every curve, with each kiss and illicit touch, the wrongs of the past are righted. But David can’t weather another rejection, especially with his career in jeopardy. And Amalia can’t possibly take a lover, never mind another husband…not with so much depending on her repaired reputation. Not when she’s hurt David—her David—so badly before.

Publisher’s Note: Dalliances & Devotion contains content that some readers may find challenging, including PTSD, depression, war, sibling death and antisemitism.

And don’t miss the first book in Felicia Grossman’s The Truitts series, Appetites & Vices, available now!

One-click with confidence. This title is part of the Carina Press Romance Promise: all the romance you’re looking for with an HEA/HFN. It’s a promise!

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