The Eagle and the Sun - special italics edition!

Wednesday, June 6, 2007

If you read my review of The Eagle and the Sun, you’ll know that A) I think it’s the bestest Harlequin EVER, and B) one of the funny things about it is that author Dana James firmly believes in using italics to get the speaker’s point across. In fact, there are so many italics that long ago I decided to underline them all. Sometimes I’ll just randomly open The Eagle and the Sun to a page and more often than not – italics! Note: since this book takes place in Mexico, there are some Spanish words that are italicized as well. I didn’t underline them, since they’re not so much funny as educational.

Below is a complete list of the italicized words and phrases in the book used for dramatic effect. Words that appear more than once have the number of occurrences in parentheses behind it. I wasn’t too surprised to see that ‘had’ and ‘why’ were in there a lot (it’s pretty noticeable in the book), but I was surprised that ‘She had to know’ comes up twice! I had not noticed that before. Also, check out that super long, uber-confusing sentence about two thirds of the way down. That’s a tongue twister all right! Fun trivia: the italics start on the second page of the book and end on the last page – the thing is jam-packed with italics, people!

Without further ado:

Food
What?
He did not believe her.
Had (8)
We
Can’t
Our
Her (5)
Impressions
Concerned
Calm
Calmer
Or so she had thought
Nothing
His
Your (5)
Won’t
Was (3)
Friend
You (8)
Possibly
Didn’t
He (5)
No one
Personally
Last
Is (3)
Why (7)
Couldn’t
She had to know. (2!)
Thunk
Unlucky
Known
She (4)
Have (2)
Need
Courtesy
Marriage
Mad
Proper
Mexico
My (4)
Especially
And
Shut up
He wouldn’t.
Not (5)
Are
Why had he done it?
Him (2)
None
Unease
Claim
Am
Loved
Except
He knew what she was thinking.
A girl whom, despite all this, he did not love and who, notwithstanding her air of possessiveness, was openly flirting with a man who had just announced his own engagement.
Or contempt.
But where would Teresa be sleeping?
It was none of her business.
Go away!
He was sharing it with her.
So very close
Absolutely
Be
Ask
Vivid
He was engaged to someone else.
Appears
Quite
Hold
Sampling the merchandise
Sulk?
Another
I (5)
Were
Everything
Anything
Engaged
Got (2)
Think
Couldn’t
He’ll
Three months
Doing
Long
That
She had to stop this.
Was it true?
Want (2)
Did
Beautiful (2)
Must
Please
None
Cotton
Something (2)
Lived
That
Implied
Be
No one
Right
Papa
Stupid
He had not been surprised to see her.
Expected
Who (2)
Helpful
Overlook
Very