You can go home...but expect some changes

As I'm sure some of you know, I'm an avid reader. No genre is safe (except Westerns but I'm trying to overcome that).
For over a year I have been searching for a book I read when I was younger. I tweeted about it, Facebooked about it (or Facespace as hubs calls it), inquired online, asked authors,ect...
I could NOT find this book but it called to me because I had enjoyed it so much when I first read it.
Well, I finally found out the title and author thanks to a post on a blog.
So imagine my happy joy when I was able to procure the book.



I sequestered myself in my reading room-aka the bathroom-and preceded to read.

Hmmm......................

Is this the right book?

I checked the title, cover, back excerpt. Yup, it's the right book.
But it doesn't read the same.
Or does it?

And so it happened. I "went" home but "home" has changed.
Or rather my feelings towards home has changed.
I was nearly heartbroken to find myself disgusted by the hero and ready to smack the &*^%$ out of the heroine.
Is this what I thought romance and true love was as a young woman? That it was ok for a man to stalk, insult, and force a woman to have sex with him because he "feels" the attraction?

"Would it help if I told you that I don't want to have an affair with you here or anywhere?"
"You know I can make you."


If I ever heard a man say that to my daughter I would probably go medieval on him.
Through out the book the heroine justifies the hero's actions because of the lust and powerful attraction they feel. WTH?
Is this where some of us get the information that forcefulness=love? That as long as we are loved then the ends justify the means? It hurts and embarrasses me to think that at one point in my life I read that and thought, "Oh...how romantic."
I can handle it in historical romances because of the times and accepted attitudes of that era. Though I get irritated, it's easier to accept.
But this book is set in the 80s. And I found it all offensive, condescending, and quite frankly creepy.

I feel like I've lost a part of my younger self. But maybe it was for the best.

Pin It