Crimson Rose Book Club: Colin
Welcome to the last meeting of Crimson Rose Book Club. Next Tuesday, we’ll kick off our discussion of Night Jasmine.
In the meantime, here are today’s opening questions:
Colin’s mood swings– intriguing or annoying?
If you were Eloise’s best friend, what advice would you give her?
If you had to compare Colin to a literary prototype, who would it be? Is he more Rochester or Darcy? Or Bond? Or someone else entirely?
Yay! I get to be the first.
As for the mood swings, since they’ve (mostly) been explained, they are kind of intriguing. The guy is pretty well perfect otherwise, so why not let him be moody?
If I were Eloise’s best friend, I’d tell her to let go of the new-age relationship mumbo jumbo and Just Talk to Him Honestly.
And I think he’s a Darcy. Darcy was moody, quick to judge Elizabeth’s intentions, and terrible at trying to make it right.
Ooh! I get to be second!
I find Colin’s mood-swings intriguing, although if it were me in real life, and not Eloise in a book, I’d be much more inclined to follow the advice I’d give Eloise…
Talk to Colin! I find that the more you psych yourself up/out, the farther you drift from the reality of the situation. (I think it was Dave Barry who wrote a whole short story about how a girl worked herself up over a comment, when the guy just was thinking to himself that he needed to get his oil changed…) If you just talk it out from the beginning, it doesn’t have the chance to build into some random mountain.
And for the same reasons as Jessica, I find Colin to be a type of Darcy. He’s also got that Darcy-like air of mystery about him. Although I think he’s a little more ready to forgive than Darcy was…
I think his mood swings are kinda annoying, but understandable based on his past experiences. I too would tell Eloise to sit down with him and talk things out. Also, I’d have to tell her to wake up a bit and realize he’s not a historical figure, but a flesh and blood guy – she can’t keep romanticizing his every word (good or bad). But I love them both! 🙂
Colin’s mood swings– intriguing or annoying
Yeah! I’m third!
Colins mood swings are like most guys i’ve known and dated, so that makes him seem more lifelike and his swings intriguing! at least to me…
I would tell her to talk to him, cause silence is not the awnser in these situations.
Colin reminds me of Darcy!! From him being really cold/harsh at their first meeting,to having a hard time talking to her,to him being Besides that he is a such unique and relatable charcter to the average day guy we all want to meet(and be with).
I think Colin is rather Darcy like — perhaps with a dash of Wentworth in the mix? To me, he seems a tad too reserved and mysterious about private matters (why wouldn’t he tell Eloise where he was headed over Christmas?), but then again many men do the same.
Eloise needs to start asking direct questions very soon…
Ok, I’ll be the weird one.
Colin’s mood swings: annoying. As a matter of fact, I’d probably find them completely off-putting since he *started* in hostile mode. I might learn to tolerate somebody like that in real life but I’d probably never trust them or be anything more than civil acquaintences with them.
If I were Eloise’s best friend, I’d tell her to talk to him already, and that if he doesn’t shape up in regards to her to leave him alone as much as is possible considering her research. In my experience, guys who can’t decide to be nice Just Aren’t That Into You, forgive the cliche. Obviously this is a work of fiction so it’s going to wind up being something more mysterious, romantic, and intruiging than that, but if I were Eloise’s best friend I’d be fictional, too, so to me it would be the real world and I wouldn’t be able to reasonably assume that.
I think he’s probably most like Darcy, because I wouldn’t want my best friend involved with him, either.
I found Colin’s mood swings to be intriguing in Crimson Rose (well, in all the Pinks). They are infuriating on one hand, but make sense on the other. As for what to tell Eloise, I agree with what the other ladies said, that she needs to talk to Colin. I liked the scene at dinner when she finally made him speak.
As for a literary prototype, I go with the modern day Mr. Darcy, although I will have to go back and read Pride & Prejudice at some point to be sure (I often get all of Jane Austen’s characters mixed up).
I find Colin’s mood swing both annoying and intriguing. I mean he is obviously a complex individual who is not extremely trusting with people, especially with people who are interested in his family’s archives. That makes him human. He’s been burned before and has installed walls to keep people out. Thats a natural reaction. Colin has really only known Eloise a couple months so keeping her at arms length is totally natural in this stage of the relationship.
I don’t think there is a whole lot Eloise can do right now besides talking to him and she seems to be doing that pretty well. She just has to give Colin time to learn to trust her. It’s certainly not going to happen overnight.
Colin is definitely are Darcy; quick to jump to conclusion, moody, snippy at first, but he eventually comes around. Although Colin has some Bond to him too. There is an air of mystery with a smirk and little bit of charm thrown in.
I too Colin’s mood swings intriguing and because he is absolutely charming and perfect that it’s ok.
If I were Eloise’s best friend, I would tell her to talk to him and try to be patient, since he clearly has trust issues.
I think that Colin is a modern day Mr. Darcy. They are both mysterious, moody, quick to judge, and not so great at making amends.
Colin’s moods swings are intriguing to read about because we’re not quite sure what Colin is about yet. But they’d sure be annoying in person.
If I was Eloise’s best friend I would tell her to enjoy the ride and not think about everything so much. It’s her first time back in the saddle after a hard fall.
Personally, I’m having a hard time relating Colin to any past historical literary character, just because we don’t know anything about him yet.
Sure, we have the whole “First Impressions” bit of Darcy, but those were quickly dropped at the 1st cup of hot cocoa.
You do get the sense he’s hiding something, ala Rochester, but the whole “I’m really a dark soul because of one bad decision I made” thing is so not there with Colin.
Is he a spy like Bond?…only Lauren knows. 🙂 I don’t get the impression he has Bond’s womanizing capabilities, just because of the way he takes care of the women in his family.
So right now, for me, Colin is the guy you just started dating. Nothing literary about it.
If I were Eloise I might find Colin’s moodiness annoying but, I was so proud of her in the dinner scene when she almost walked out on him!
I agree with the people above that they really need to talk.
And as far as literary character I’d actually have to go Rochester. He’s dark and mysterious and we get the sense he’s hiding something and like Rochester he does seem to care deeply for Eloise despite his erratic behavior.
I have to go for annoying. Colin is human, though fictional. He has to have faults. Not everything about him can be a good thing. Finding the moodiness intriguing is romanticizing it too much for me…although wouldn’t that be an ideal world. Every fault a virtue…
As for advice, I agree with Katie (#11). Eloise just needs to be more assertive, let her natural personality come through. The restaurant scene was brilliant in the aspect, a real break through. Although the relationship is still very young.
Men’s ( and Collin’s) mood swings are annoying. while I’m sure that they think the same about us, what is the nexus of their moodiness? At least we have hormones to blame.
In some aspects, he is very much Rochester because they are what women want to have behind their moody men…emotional breadth. Who was it that described the four emotions of men as happy, hungry, sad, and angry? I digress.
At the same time I cannot overlook the little suspicion at Collin’s initial anger flipping rather suddenly to resignation and support for Eloise’s research. Is he using her as much or more than she uses him?
I agree with the other Kristen, his mood swings are annoying. He started off hostile, Eloise didn’t. I don’t see why she has to be the one to walk on egg shells. At least the part about his sister and Dempster does explain a lot and makes it more understandable.
As for advise, everyone else seems that she should just talk to him. And that’s great advise, don’t get me wrong, but I also think that she needs to let things happen on their own. If he wants her to know something he will tell her when he is ready. I highly doubt that he is keeping a mad first wife in the attic a la Rochester; so just let things be, don’t force it into something that you want it to be. That never lasts.
As for who he reminds me of, I’m not sure. I think I read way too many books to compare him to anyone. I can see a bit of Darcy in him, but he also has Rochester about him. Bond? No way. Collin is so not smooth. I mean he still has Joan hanging around after all this time, a smoother man would have been rid of her as soon as it was over.
Maybe Joan is his Moneypenny…I get the idea there was never actually anything to be ended.
I like Joan as a Moneypenny type, unforntantly, I don’t think that she would be able to stop at just the casual flirtation with Colin. And there probably wasn’t much of a relationship, but trying telling Joan that…
I didn’t get Joan as the Moneypenny type only because she’s pushier than Moneypenny. Moneypenny was in the background, okay with the harmless flirtation that was Bond.
Colin’s mood swings, at least to me, seemed fairly natural since his sister had gotten very hurt because of their family’s history with the Pink Carnation. And since Eloise is in the same position as Serena’s ex (looking at the family’s documents) it would be unnatural for Colin not to wonder if she was really interested in him or just the documents. He swings back and forth, just like anyone else would, wanting to believe that it was for himself that she was there, but not being able to trust all the way. It’s pretty sad. All Eloise has to do is talk to him and, when these doubting times show up, let him have it! He’ll see the error of his ways pretty soon after that.
Colin does remind me of Darcy, especially in the first scene that he and Eloise meet. The natural autocratic way he demanded to know who she was and what she was doing and who had given her permission to go through HIS documents. That was Darcy to a “T”. Or should I say “D”?
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