Utterly revolted
Nov. 9th, 2008 02:01 pmYesterday I read a category novel that caused the most visceral reaction to a book that I've had in a while. Profound disgust, which I'm sure was not what the author was going for. Yet I finished reading it, rather like a rubbernecker who can't look away from an accident scene. I've been trying to decide which bothered me most about the purported hero and heroine:
- That they were both cheating skanks who fucked a total stranger in an airplane bathroom, one just a month before her wedding? And, dude, seriously, an airplane bathroom? I know the mile high club turns some people on, but that's a public toilet. Didn't you grow out of public bathroom sex after college?
- The huge honking hypocrisy of the heroine? "Fidelity was very important to her. On the other hand, they weren't married yet...She hadn't taken any vows. Kevin never had to know." Yeah, sure fidelity was important to her; and fidelity can apparently be defined in her mind as including sex with someone other than her fiance, as long as her fiance doesn't know about it.
- That the heroine was a spineless wimp who let her mother run her life, especially with respect to the wedding? Was the fact that planning a wedding is stressful supposed to make the heroine more sympathetic? Mostly it just made her more pathetic, that she was unable to stand up for what she wanted (or didn't) with respect to her wedding and future marriage.
- The the heroine never bothered to talk to her fiance about what she wanted sexually, then decided that since she wasn't getting what she wanted from him that it was okay to screw someone else before the wedding, as long as she didn't ever tell him about it? "He wouldn't understand. His mind doesn't go there." Right. You don't know unless you bring the subject up, and if you can't bring the subject up, you probably shouldn't be marrying him.
- That the hero, while not engaged, is dating someone exclusively, and also thinks it's okay to fuck another woman before getting engaged? And is then surprised when a business partner (his girlfriend's brother) expresses reservations about doing business with him if he's going to be cheating on his sister.
- The dumping at the altar -- because she obviously had no other POSSIBLE opportunity to change her mind, and had to hurt and humiliate the groom on the wedding day? I agree that it's better to not get married than to get married just to save face, but there are better ways to call off the wedding than by announcing after the Wedding March has begun playing.
- The substitution of one groom for another -- after all, you've got the cake and the dress, let's just swap men out? Setting aside, of course, the fact that in most states, licenses are issued with respect to specific parties, so one groom actually can't be legally substituted for another.
By the time I finished, I thought the "hero" and "heroine" both deserved a virulent case of clap and the opposite of an HEA.
I am seriously tempted to ask for my money back for this book.