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booking_along's review against another edition
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.0
Triggers: Bullying, Name calling, slut-shaming, rape normalization, child mistreatment, vandalization… and i am sure i am forgetting a lot.
Can someone PLEASE explain to me how this book series was even published? Or sold? Or became popular?
I mean i guess i am reading it because i can not believe how horrible slut- and age-shaming a female author can be towards female characters?
Also how utterly careless the men in this series throw around „we get married“ as if that solves ALL the problems.
Sure. Put a ring on it. You won’t fight anymore. The woman will just fall into her cute little place in the kitchen, doing nothing but please you in all the ways you imagine!
Can someone please tell the author she wrote this series in in the middle and end of the 1990s? not 1890s?
Also the „romance“ in this series not a romance.
Its bullying and mistreatments, fights and hate and hurtful comments. Until they had enough -well basically hate sex for most of the couples - to get the guy to see that he would like something more permanent with the woman -most of the time because the woman says she’s leaving and the guy surely can allow that!
Its extremely male focused in the sense of: he is controlling and basically knows best what the women around him need and could possible want, even before they themselves do.
And while its okay for a woman to have a job… they really should focus on getting married.
Also before they are 24 at the latest.
Because don’t you know after that they are super duper old!
Dont believe me?
Heres a direct quote from the book (Skip to the last sentence if you just want to age quote):
„she caught a glimpse of her self in the rearview mirror and remembered that shed once been considered pretty. now lines of strain bracketed her mouth and fanned out from the corners of green eyes that seemed to eat up her face. the freckled skin over her cheekbones was so pale and tightly stretched it looked as if ti might split. she had no money for beauty salons, and her wild mane of curly autumn hair swirled like tattered autumn leaf around her too-thin face. the only cosmetic she had left was the stub of mocha-colored lipstick that lay at the bottom of her purse, and she hadn’t bothered to use it in weeks. what was the point? thought she was twenty-seven, she felt like an old woman.“
Lets now move on to what i really REALLY disliked in this book, shall we?
Shortly after the quote above this little gem:
„She once again cursed herself for not giving in to Clyde Rorsch, who’d been her boss until six days ago. instead, she’d struck him in the side of the head to keep him from raping her, then shed grabbed edward and fled richmond forever.
Now she wished shed given in. if shed agreed to have sex with him, she and edward would be living in a rent-free room in rorschs motel where shed been working as a maid. why hadn’t she shut her eyes and let him do what she wanted? what was the point of being fastidious when her child was hungry and homeless?“
There is SO much wrong with this entire thing that i don’t even know where to start.
First of: Nobody ever „gives in“ when they are raped! Rape is not something that the victim chooses. Ever. EVER.
And i could have been said: okay, clearly the woman is traumatized. She only had horrible experiments with men, she’s almost been raped and had to flee with nothing but a few items and a traumatized kid that keeps asking her if they are going to die. So clearly she’s struggling and thinking that if she only didn’t defend herself, she might have been better of.
I thankfully don’t know what its like to be anywhere near that position of almost being raped or being raped. I can’t say what trauma you carry away from it. I do know that its very common for victims to believe that its their fault in some way. And that society does not help with all the victim blaming that’s always going around and the next to nothing of punishments rapists get if they are even arrested or convicted at all.
What i am trying to say that i could have gotten over that, and believed that she simply believed she deserved it or should have let it happen because it might have helped her child and she could have survived being raped.
And while i in no way would ever want any victim ever to believe that rape is their best option, i can believe that victims believe it.
But just a few pages later the author topped that with:
„since the beginning of time, desperate women had used sex for barter, and it was hard to believe she might once have condemned them for it.“
Which is not okay.
Rape is not the same as selling your body to survive.
Being forced into selling your body is not the same as choosing to do that as your profession.
Not having any other option then to prostitude yourself, again not the same as actually deciding to do that as a chosen career.
Also neither of those options? Anything to be ashamed of or something to look down upon.
If a woman really has no other option than to barter with her body to survive?
I hope she will at least be able to do so in a save way.
If not? that’s not a choice. Thats once again rape.
Either way that sentence to me is full of condescension and trying to sound as if the author wants to say „Oh i am so fine with women selling the their bodies or having their sexual freedoms being taken from them, it has been happening for ever. Men are just like that“
Which … excuse me?
Maybe i am reading too much into it. Possible. I absolutely despise when people believe they should offer an option on a topic they should keep their mouth shut about.
And a woman writing about a woman „giving into rape“ or saying that its okay for „desperate women to use sex for barter and not condemning them for it“? Thats horrible.
Can i also just mention that for a Christian pastor, and supposed faithful christians, this book is filled with super judgmental, bullying and overall horrible people that take their hate out on people that have nothing to do with what they hate.
i am not religous, mostly because i actually have issues with exactly that.
People that believe only god can judge... shouldnt they not you know... judge? Have the entire mentality of: They will get whats coming to them but its not my place to judge?
and then treat people with kindness? Or at least not go out of their way to behave like horrendous people in front of a 5 year old?
And while in some small ways the book does mention that its not okay for people to behave that way… its also never talked about that they are actually disciplined in any way. Or that they learn their lesson, and stop mistreating people or judge them before actually knowing a person.
They vandalize a car and property, steal wallets and money?
kidnaping of children and totaling a car, someone completely trashes a drive-in movie theater but nobody is ever actually arrested or has to do something to show that they are taking responsible for their wrong doings and horrible acts.
And its never mentioned that its not okay to do that.
Mostly its talked about that its basically okay because they believe they are doing it to a person that they believe deserve it?
Mhm.
I didn’t like that. At all.
Also the child - Edward- in this book is well done but clearly a traumatized kid. Either from a horrible father that did something or said something to him to make him believe that he’s not save. Or he simply noticed that his mom is constantly bullied and mistreated and very clearly notices that people are horrible beings.
He asks his mom more than once „if they are going to die now“.
Tell me that’s not a traumatized child talking!
But its never addressed.
Its never talked about that maybe it would be best if Edward learns to deal with those things?
Its just assumed that once he finds a better footing he’s magically okay with everything that he found horrible in the past and from now one is just a happy-go-lucky kid.
The author also has a real fetish about virgin women.
She’s clearly one of those that believe your either a saint or a slut and nothing in between. Either you never had sex at all or you are always sleeping with everyone around you.
Which sure. Thats perfectly okay to just through that into every book?
The guys can sleep around as they like, but the women? They better be virgins!
Also the ending is so over the top and stupid. And way too easy for the guys who horrible mistreated the women in the book. But somehow all get their happy ending and what they want and the women just fall in line.
I keep hoping the series will get better. But they just don’t? They actually get worse in so many ways.
Also things that i keep seeing repeated in every book:
- normalising really horrible abusive relationships (mostly verbal but that’s abuse!)
- that a woman has to be „pure“ until married or she’s a horrible human being (read: virgin, see above for the authors mentality of „saint or slut“ which i think happened in every single book in this series so far)
- really bad tempered men that bully and mistreat the women
- objectifying females
- blackmail and slander of the female characters
- extreme Obsession with female aging -when all the characters are still young!
- no issues or problems or trouble being actually discussed let alone solved, either legally or at least between the people involved.
- super rushed and strange overly happy ending
I just do not understand how this author could have also written „dance away with me“ which is actually a pretty good romance. Sure there are still problems in that book but overall its a good book without too many issues.
i dont get it. at all.
I wouldn’t recommend reading this book or this series. At least not if you are not looking for something bad or are actively in search for books with a lot of issues.
Can someone PLEASE explain to me how this book series was even published? Or sold? Or became popular?
I mean i guess i am reading it because i can not believe how horrible slut- and age-shaming a female author can be towards female characters?
Also how utterly careless the men in this series throw around „we get married“ as if that solves ALL the problems.
Sure. Put a ring on it. You won’t fight anymore. The woman will just fall into her cute little place in the kitchen, doing nothing but please you in all the ways you imagine!
Can someone please tell the author she wrote this series in in the middle and end of the 1990s? not 1890s?
Also the „romance“ in this series not a romance.
Its bullying and mistreatments, fights and hate and hurtful comments. Until they had enough -well basically hate sex for most of the couples - to get the guy to see that he would like something more permanent with the woman -most of the time because the woman says she’s leaving and the guy surely can allow that!
Its extremely male focused in the sense of: he is controlling and basically knows best what the women around him need and could possible want, even before they themselves do.
And while its okay for a woman to have a job… they really should focus on getting married.
Also before they are 24 at the latest.
Because don’t you know after that they are super duper old!
Dont believe me?
Heres a direct quote from the book (Skip to the last sentence if you just want to age quote):
„she caught a glimpse of her self in the rearview mirror and remembered that shed once been considered pretty. now lines of strain bracketed her mouth and fanned out from the corners of green eyes that seemed to eat up her face. the freckled skin over her cheekbones was so pale and tightly stretched it looked as if ti might split. she had no money for beauty salons, and her wild mane of curly autumn hair swirled like tattered autumn leaf around her too-thin face. the only cosmetic she had left was the stub of mocha-colored lipstick that lay at the bottom of her purse, and she hadn’t bothered to use it in weeks. what was the point? thought she was twenty-seven, she felt like an old woman.“
Lets now move on to what i really REALLY disliked in this book, shall we?
Shortly after the quote above this little gem:
„She once again cursed herself for not giving in to Clyde Rorsch, who’d been her boss until six days ago. instead, she’d struck him in the side of the head to keep him from raping her, then shed grabbed edward and fled richmond forever.
Now she wished shed given in. if shed agreed to have sex with him, she and edward would be living in a rent-free room in rorschs motel where shed been working as a maid. why hadn’t she shut her eyes and let him do what she wanted? what was the point of being fastidious when her child was hungry and homeless?“
There is SO much wrong with this entire thing that i don’t even know where to start.
First of: Nobody ever „gives in“ when they are raped! Rape is not something that the victim chooses. Ever. EVER.
And i could have been said: okay, clearly the woman is traumatized. She only had horrible experiments with men, she’s almost been raped and had to flee with nothing but a few items and a traumatized kid that keeps asking her if they are going to die. So clearly she’s struggling and thinking that if she only didn’t defend herself, she might have been better of.
I thankfully don’t know what its like to be anywhere near that position of almost being raped or being raped. I can’t say what trauma you carry away from it. I do know that its very common for victims to believe that its their fault in some way. And that society does not help with all the victim blaming that’s always going around and the next to nothing of punishments rapists get if they are even arrested or convicted at all.
What i am trying to say that i could have gotten over that, and believed that she simply believed she deserved it or should have let it happen because it might have helped her child and she could have survived being raped.
And while i in no way would ever want any victim ever to believe that rape is their best option, i can believe that victims believe it.
But just a few pages later the author topped that with:
„since the beginning of time, desperate women had used sex for barter, and it was hard to believe she might once have condemned them for it.“
Which is not okay.
Rape is not the same as selling your body to survive.
Being forced into selling your body is not the same as choosing to do that as your profession.
Not having any other option then to prostitude yourself, again not the same as actually deciding to do that as a chosen career.
Also neither of those options? Anything to be ashamed of or something to look down upon.
If a woman really has no other option than to barter with her body to survive?
I hope she will at least be able to do so in a save way.
If not? that’s not a choice. Thats once again rape.
Either way that sentence to me is full of condescension and trying to sound as if the author wants to say „Oh i am so fine with women selling the their bodies or having their sexual freedoms being taken from them, it has been happening for ever. Men are just like that“
Which … excuse me?
Maybe i am reading too much into it. Possible. I absolutely despise when people believe they should offer an option on a topic they should keep their mouth shut about.
And a woman writing about a woman „giving into rape“ or saying that its okay for „desperate women to use sex for barter and not condemning them for it“? Thats horrible.
Can i also just mention that for a Christian pastor, and supposed faithful christians, this book is filled with super judgmental, bullying and overall horrible people that take their hate out on people that have nothing to do with what they hate.
i am not religous, mostly because i actually have issues with exactly that.
People that believe only god can judge... shouldnt they not you know... judge? Have the entire mentality of: They will get whats coming to them but its not my place to judge?
and then treat people with kindness? Or at least not go out of their way to behave like horrendous people in front of a 5 year old?
And while in some small ways the book does mention that its not okay for people to behave that way… its also never talked about that they are actually disciplined in any way. Or that they learn their lesson, and stop mistreating people or judge them before actually knowing a person.
They vandalize a car and property, steal wallets and money?
kidnaping of children and totaling a car, someone completely trashes a drive-in movie theater but nobody is ever actually arrested or has to do something to show that they are taking responsible for their wrong doings and horrible acts.
And its never mentioned that its not okay to do that.
Mostly its talked about that its basically okay because they believe they are doing it to a person that they believe deserve it?
Mhm.
I didn’t like that. At all.
Also the child - Edward- in this book is well done but clearly a traumatized kid. Either from a horrible father that did something or said something to him to make him believe that he’s not save. Or he simply noticed that his mom is constantly bullied and mistreated and very clearly notices that people are horrible beings.
He asks his mom more than once „if they are going to die now“.
Tell me that’s not a traumatized child talking!
But its never addressed.
Its never talked about that maybe it would be best if Edward learns to deal with those things?
Its just assumed that once he finds a better footing he’s magically okay with everything that he found horrible in the past and from now one is just a happy-go-lucky kid.
The author also has a real fetish about virgin women.
She’s clearly one of those that believe your either a saint or a slut and nothing in between. Either you never had sex at all or you are always sleeping with everyone around you.
Which sure. Thats perfectly okay to just through that into every book?
The guys can sleep around as they like, but the women? They better be virgins!
Also the ending is so over the top and stupid. And way too easy for the guys who horrible mistreated the women in the book. But somehow all get their happy ending and what they want and the women just fall in line.
I keep hoping the series will get better. But they just don’t? They actually get worse in so many ways.
Also things that i keep seeing repeated in every book:
- normalising really horrible abusive relationships (mostly verbal but that’s abuse!)
- that a woman has to be „pure“ until married or she’s a horrible human being (read: virgin, see above for the authors mentality of „saint or slut“ which i think happened in every single book in this series so far)
- really bad tempered men that bully and mistreat the women
- objectifying females
- blackmail and slander of the female characters
- extreme Obsession with female aging -when all the characters are still young!
- no issues or problems or trouble being actually discussed let alone solved, either legally or at least between the people involved.
- super rushed and strange overly happy ending
I just do not understand how this author could have also written „dance away with me“ which is actually a pretty good romance. Sure there are still problems in that book but overall its a good book without too many issues.
i dont get it. at all.
I wouldn’t recommend reading this book or this series. At least not if you are not looking for something bad or are actively in search for books with a lot of issues.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Car accident, Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Grief, Hate crime, Religious bigotry, Stalking, and Bullying
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