Kingdom of Knuffel

I'm still reading The Handmaiden's Necklace, but I might give up on it. People on goodreads said the guy is a jerk. I read 111 pages, and I was thinking, "I don't know, he seems ok to me," but then I got to page 112.... He is no longer ok to me.... Why do so many romance authors think that abuse is romantic!?

Omg, what did he do?

Oh, let me guess, let me guess!!!

He kidnapped/tricked/raped her (depending on how erotic the author wanted the scene to be) because he was infatuated with her, but he truly truly loves her and he's gonna prove it, and she rejects him at first because he was such a terrible person but in the end she realized that his feelings were pure and she falls back in love with him.

Or - even better - tell me I did not guess at all xD

Haha, pretty much, ok, here's how it went. We have Rafe and Dani. They were engaged 5 years ago. They were staying at someone's house. It was a big event, lots of people staying the night, including Rafe's friend Oliver. Rafe and Dani weren't married yet, so they were in separate rooms. So a footman comes to Rafe and says he found a note in Oliver's room allegedly from Dani, inviting Oliver to stay in her room. So Rafe rushes to Dani's room, throws open the door, and sees Dani and Oliver in bed. He yells, other people come rushing out of their rooms, so people see them in bed together. Dani insists she did not send the note and that she had been sound asleep until Rafe burst through the door. Rafe does not believe her. Rafe breaks off the engagement, and Dani now has a terrible reputation. She is shunned by everyone and basically lives in hiding for 5 years. After 5 years, she comes out of hiding. She met a man from far away, and he wants to marry her. She told him the whole story of her reputation, and he said that's ok, they are going to live far away anyway, so she said yes. Then she runs into Rafe. He confronts her, she still says she didn't do it. So now he's slightly intrigued and hires a private investigator. He conveniently kept the note from 5 years ago inviting Oliver to her room. The PI compares it to her handwriting and says it's not a match. Then the PI conveniently tracks down the footman, and right away the footman just admits that he didn't actually find the note on the ground; Oliver paid him to give it to Rafe. Then he confronts Oliver, and Oliver just fully admits it, admits that he wanted to break up Rafe and Dani because he wanted to marry Dani, so he sent the note himself, paid the footman to take it to Rafe, crept into her bed while she slept, then waited for Rafe to come find them like that. Rafe is engaged to someone else during all this, but then the girl and her family say they want to end it, and Rafe is ok with that, so it was all completely mutual and drama-free. It was all just way too convenient. So anyway. Rafe goes to Dani. He says that he doesn't think she loves her fiancé, and he believes her now, so he wants her to end the engagement and marry him instead. She says no. So he says he will go tell all of her fiancé's friends and family about the Oliver thing, except that he will lie and say it's all true so that they all think she's a disputable woman and demand that the fiancé break it off with her, and then Dani will have to marry Rafe whether she likes it or not, and that will be good because Rafe is the only man who can make her happy..... So I wasn't really into the book as it was, but then that whole "I know what is best for you, and I will force you to do what I want" thing.... Yeesh, no thanks!

Well, at least it was the "tricked her" version, rather than tougher ones...

It did not sound too bad until it reached that point.
But that kind of plot-twist is becoming a very boring trope, and I don't even read romantic novels!
It just pops in any kind of romantic interaction in novels of any sort.
Like this one fantasy novel I was reading about witches (I don't remember the title and I don't care). When the evil but handsome warlock kidnaps the heroine, you know she's supposed to fall in love with him. Go f yourself.

I don't understand what goes through some authors heads! When a man does not respect a woman's boundaries, that's not romance! It's a shame because I like historical romance, yet so much of it is like that (or worse).

But like... did she marry her new fiance or that douchebag? xD

I read spoilers, and they confirmed that she does marry the douche.

wow... just wow.