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A review by perachdavida
Embracing His Syn by A.E. Via
3.0
Ugh. Well. I think my reading of this series stops here. I’m REALLY troubled by some of the things in here. Which is a shame, because in so many ways, this book is spectacular. The representation of a domestically violent relationship between 2 men is extremely rare in romance and so that alone makes this story valuable. Also, I love the characters of Fury and Syn, and the relationship between them. Finally, the sex scenes are five alarm fire crazy-hot.
But the misogyny is overwhelming. Which is quite strange because the author is a woman. When the gay male characters want to insult each other, they call them “a little bitch” or a slut or a whore. Now those terms could be used in a teasing way among friends, or in a hot way during sex, and I’ve certainly come across those uses in both MM and MF romance books and it doesn’t bother me. But in this book, it is clearly mean-spirited and derogatory. One character is accused of “having a vagina” when another character is annoyed with him.
And this was a really gross direct quote, from one of the male side characters, about the woman he’s marrying. “She supports everything that I do. Always has my back. Fucking sweet as hell. Not all needy and demanding like a lot of girls. She’s a hard worker and smart, but not afraid to let me be the man in our relationship. And she and my mom are inseparable. That’s the type of woman you don’t let get away.”
Ewwwwwwwwwww.
And worst of all, the villains in the book are a group of female sex workers who have been sexually assaulted during filming by male actors, and decide to get even by drugging and murdering them (?????). That’s not even really a spoiler, it gets figured out early in the book. The main organizer of the group is described, derogatorily, as a “radical lesbian feminist”. And every time they have to question a suspect, they refer to them as “those crazy bitches.”
Listen. You can be a gay man and still be a misogynist. You can be a self-hating female misogynist. I understand that these characters are police officers, and some people would make a case that that is realistically how they speak. But that is not something to champion or condone. We all know there are zillions of things in romance that are not realistic, and that kind of speech and attitude is one aspect of reality that I read romance specifically to get away from.
But the misogyny is overwhelming. Which is quite strange because the author is a woman. When the gay male characters want to insult each other, they call them “a little bitch” or a slut or a whore. Now those terms could be used in a teasing way among friends, or in a hot way during sex, and I’ve certainly come across those uses in both MM and MF romance books and it doesn’t bother me. But in this book, it is clearly mean-spirited and derogatory. One character is accused of “having a vagina” when another character is annoyed with him.
And this was a really gross direct quote, from one of the male side characters, about the woman he’s marrying. “She supports everything that I do. Always has my back. Fucking sweet as hell. Not all needy and demanding like a lot of girls. She’s a hard worker and smart, but not afraid to let me be the man in our relationship. And she and my mom are inseparable. That’s the type of woman you don’t let get away.”
Ewwwwwwwwwww.
And worst of all, the villains in the book are a group of female sex workers who have been sexually assaulted during filming by male actors, and decide to get even by drugging and murdering them (?????). That’s not even really a spoiler, it gets figured out early in the book. The main organizer of the group is described, derogatorily, as a “radical lesbian feminist”. And every time they have to question a suspect, they refer to them as “those crazy bitches.”
Listen. You can be a gay man and still be a misogynist. You can be a self-hating female misogynist. I understand that these characters are police officers, and some people would make a case that that is realistically how they speak. But that is not something to champion or condone. We all know there are zillions of things in romance that are not realistic, and that kind of speech and attitude is one aspect of reality that I read romance specifically to get away from.