Book Review

Reckless Pleasures by Tori Carrington: A Guest Rant Review by Nina

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Title: Reckless Pleasures
Author: Tori Carrington
Publication Info: Harlequin 2011
ISBN: 978-0373796212
Genre: Contemporary Romance

Every now and again I get irate email from readers who are absolutely hair-pulling livid about a book they just read. We romance readers take our book reading very personally, and if a book doesn’t live up to the expectations of a reader in the most basic of ways, there is fury like furies have never furied before. This is especially true when there’s infidelity, moral weakness, or a completely unhappy ending. Nina is PISSED about this book. She is IRATE. And she has a LOT to say about it. Behold: A Guest Rant Review.

Book Cover Nina writes: Warning: This review is chock full of spoilers.

This book made me sick. And not only because the heroine of the story cheats on the hero, but because she’s cheating on a man who’s risking his life in a dangerous, scary place thousands of miles from home.

Don’t get me wrong— I’m not saying that infidelity can’t be addressed in an entertaining and intelligent way. Unfortunately, that’s not how it’s treated in Tori Carrington’s Reckless Pleasures.

Now this isn’t the first Harlequin Blaze I’ve read that featured a woman who cheats on her boyfriend. It’s not even the first time Tori Carrington has dealt with this—see Reckless.

In Reckless an engaged woman sexes up her fiance’s best friend—because their sexual attraction is so strong, you see. But really it’s not so bad because her fiancé was actually cheating on her before she started cheating on him (she doesn’t find this out until the end of the book, though the best friend knew all along).

In some ways Reckless Pleasures is a rehash of plain ol’ Reckless. We have the woman (Megan), the man she loves (Darius or Dari), and his best friend (Jason). But this story kicks it up a notch.  All three are Marines, though Megan and Jason have retired. Jason, Megan and some fellow ex-servicemen have formed Lazarus Security and soon become involved in searching for a missing child in Florida.  This is the backdrop and non-romance subplot to the story, but frankly I was too distracted by the horrible behavior of two of the main characters to much care.

Dari is a reservist who has been called up to serve eighteen months in Waziristan.  Jason, being the good buddy he is, promises to look after Megan while her guy is away. Trouble is, he’s attracted to Megan and perhaps secretly a bit in love with her (you saw that coming, right?). Oh, did I forget to mention he’s survived a terrible childhood? We’re not given much detail about this, but we’re sure to find out in an upcoming installment of the “Pleasure Seekers” series. Looks like Jason is sizing up to become the “hero” of another book.

In addition to being something of a replay of “Reckless”, this book has elements of Carrington’s “Shameless” as well. Jason, like Gauge, had a shitty childhood and can’t connect emotionally. He doesn’t let much—even bad orthodontia—get in the way when he wants some sexin’. Megan is like ditzy Nina. She can’t deal honestly with the fact that she has the hots for two men and has to invent excuses why it’s okay to sleep with both of them. And Darius, well, I won’t say he’s like Kevin. He’s not the passive-aggressive wimp that Kevin was. In “Shameless” Kevin imagined he was the wronged party, even though he never had the guts to admit his feelings to Nina. In “Reckless Pleasures”, Dari really is the wronged party.

So, even though Darius is his best (possibly only) friend, and Jason’s so hot he can have any woman he wants, he has to fixate on his buddy’s girl. And Megan is not completely unaware of Jason’s charms, either. After all, her guy has been gone four months and even though they’ve been talking and sexting, hey, she’s only human.  It’s been a week or so since she’s received any calls or texts, so you’d think she’d be scared shitless for her man’s safety instead of thinking “me so horny”, but what do I know?

Now I do not mean to make light of women and men missing their loved ones serving overseas. And I can certainly sympathize with someone being lonely and horny due to such a separation, but come on.  The guy’s been gone four months, not four years. Why not just break out the vibrator? But that’s not good enough for our heroine, so here’s what happens next: Jason proposes he and Megan have “just sex” and she agrees! You see, it makes perfect sense—since they’re not in love, it’s not a threat to Megan and Dari’s relationship. And since Jason is Dari’s best friend, it’s like he’s helping them out, see? Yeah. Whatever.

“No one needs to know,” he said quietly. “Just you and me. And it will only be once.”

Unless…

The unsaid word hung there.

Yep. Jason won’t mind going again if the chance arises. And since Megan is not exactly a fortress, you have to wonder how often they’ll comfort each other if Dari is gone the entire eighteen months.

Anyway, to make it less intimate, they agree no kissing. In fact, they won’t even face each other while they do the nasty.

This is the point where the reader might ask herself “This is a romance I’m reading?”  It’s also the point where she might decide to stuff the book in the shredder. Not only are these people cheating on a man who is risking his life for his country, they have convinced themselves it’s okay because they’re using each other like fucktoys.

However, if you’re sick like me, you keep reading because you have to find out what happens next. Is it possible that Jason and Megan will end up together?

That’s part of the problem with the story. Just who the hell is the hero, anyway?  Ostensibly, it’s Darius, but he’s absent the first seven chapters of the book.  Asswipe Jason gets as much or more attention.  I’m not even sure which guy is getting his shirt pulled on the cover. Is it Dari or Jason? It’s pretty sad if the hero can’t even make the cover of his own book.

So Jason and Megan do the deed and all is well until later that day when they both get the message that Dari is returning home.  Megan starts getting the guilts and Jason tries to tell her no big thing.

But very big thing, because Dari returns with his leg in a cast after being injured by an IED—improvised explosive device. He’s in physical pain and dealing with horrible memories of what he experienced. Megan gets a double dose of the guilts.

If you haven’t shredded the book yet, this is where you’re again tempted to do so. Why were the characters okay with cheating when they thought Dari would be gone longer?  Did they think the episode would just fade away and they’d forget about it?

And of course there’s the whole conundrum created by infidelity: to confess or keep your big mouth shut? If you say nothing, it’s a lie of omission and there’s always that secret between you and your partner. But spill your guts and you’re just unloading the guilt at someone else’s expense. Not to mention you risk getting your ass dumped.

She pushed from the table and paced. “This…You and I just talking like this feels like a betrayal.”

“We didn’t betray him.”

“How can you say that? Of course we betrayed him!”

“Now you’re just talking stupid.”

She’d never seen Jason so upset before. At least not with her.

“It was sex, nothing more.”

“Well, when you put it that way…” She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “I’m going to tell him. I have no other choice. Not now that he knows something’s wrong.”


Well, Dari’s not stupid. He knows something’s up, considering Megan can’t look him in the eye. But Jason starts to lose it:

“Damn it! Don’t I have a say in the matter?”

He paced across the room and then back again, looking like a caged animal desperate to escape.

When Megan starts to leave the room, Jason grabs her arm.

He took a deep breath and released her. “Sorry.”

She didn’t say anything.

“I just don’t understand how telling him is going to make anything better.”

“It will clear my conscience.”

“And rip his heart clean out of his chest.”

She winced at that.

The last thing she wanted to do was hurt Dari. But she couldn’t keep this from him any longer.

“Look,” Jason said quietly, “he’s the best friend I’ve ever had. My only true friend, if you want to know the truth. If you tell him…”

Arghh! God, how I hate these people! They’re only thinking about themselves. But that’s why cheating sucks so royally. Once it’s done, you’re an asshole, and there’s no way out of it without becoming an even bigger asshole.

Of course, Dari learns the truth and it all goes to hell.  Here are his choices: dump Megan’s ass and look like a hard-hearted SOB or take her back and look like a wimp.  Another reason why cheating sucks.  Not only does it turn the participants into assholes, it places the injured party in a no-win situation. (Think Silda Spitzer and the wives of all those other politicians who got caught with their pants down.)

The fallout: Megan is sorry and still loves Dari. She and Jason, both guilt-ridden, studiously avoid each other until we reach this cringe-inducing scene where Jason apologizes:

Megan ultimately shook her head. “Apology not accepted.”

She turned to walk away and he lightly grasped her arm.

“I’ve already lost one goddamn friend over this. I don’t want to lose another.”

She smiled. “You’re not. Losing a second friend, that is. I don’t accept your apology because you have nothing to be sorry for.”

He stared at her as if unsure she was telling the truth.

“Seriously,” she added.

“So what you’re telling me is that this is the first time I’ve apologized to a woman in my life, and there was no reason to…”

How sweet, they’re still friends. Though Jason is no more responsible for the affair than Megan, this whole scene makes me want to puke.

Just when you think Jason can’t be any more of a creep, there’s this scene, when he shows up at Dari’s apartment:

Jason advanced on him. Only this time, he was clear-eyed and determined, whereas in Florida, he’d been suffering a hangover. “Will you climb down off the cross already? We need the freakin’ wood.”

Dari wanted to hit him so badly his knuckles itched.

“What happened was unfortunate. It wasn’t a purposeful crime against you or anyone else.” His onetime friend seemed to have a death wish. “God, are you so stupid you can’t see how much the woman loves you?”

Dari opened his mouth to respond.

“I know what happened was wrong. Hell, we all do. But we can’t take it back. But we can move forward.”

Jesus, I can’t stand this guy! He won’t even let his friend grieve—no, he has to make stupid remarks and hound him so that everything can be the way it was.

Dari, who’s always had a grudge against his mother because of her infidelities, has a talk with his father and learns a family secret. He also learns that “Love isn’t about who you can live with, it’s about who you can’t live without.” (That must rank up there with “Love means never having to say you’re sorry.”) In any event, this enables him to forgive Megan, though he knows it will be a long time before he can forget.

This would all be some long-ago, faded memory, a wound that had healed but left a scar behind as substantial as the one on his leg. But just as he would push forward and not let his physical injuries impede his progress, he didn’t intend to let this emotional one keep him down.

Makes me want to cry. Darius has to soldier on, wounded physically and emotionally, while the other two merely have to wrestle with a few icky feelings.

In the end even Jason the jerk is accepted back into the fold. This is your “happy ending,” folks.

Oh, by the way, there’s a bit of a twist in the subplot, but it didn’t ring true to me. In a community where a child has vanished, wouldn’t people be hyper-vigilant and suspicious of that “harmless” guy who attracts kids like the Pied Piper?

But the book was not a total loss. It really got me thinking. How do people in the military and their partners deal with such long and difficult separations? (Better than Megan did, I’m sure.)  They have my utmost respect.

And I was inspired to look up Waziristan on the internet. So I learned something.

But maybe I’m too hard on the characters. Am I just a judgmental bitch? After all, people get lonely. They make mistakes. Isn’t forgiveness possible? Well, of course. And so is growth, maturity and taking responsibility for one’s actions. Otherwise, you’re just another guest on Jerry Springer.

Megan for the most part is sorry for the affair (although the orgasm Jason gave her was “exactly what she needed at the time.”) So all right, I guess I could accept Dari forgiving her. I don’t expect her to follow in the footsteps of other famous heroines and wear a scarlet letter or take poison or throw herself in front of a train.

But no way can I accept Dari forgiving Jason.

We’re told over and over how tough Jason is, how smart and sexy. As far as I’m concerned, he’s a total fucking coward and a great big pussy. He was only sorry he got caught and after he got caught he behaved like a complete ass. I hated his guts.

In fact, I’d like to throw him in front of a train.


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Comments are Closed

  1. Kinsey says:

    The truth is, it’s not that hard not to fuck somebody. It doesn’t just happen. You don’t go from being around someone you find attractive to fucking them in one step. You have lots and lots and lots of opportunities NOT to cheat before you finally cheat, so there’s never an excuse. I mean, no matter how fast you are, you don’t go from upright and clothed to naked and fucking without realizing it. I’m not sure I buy the drunk excuse either – seems to me that if you’re so plastered you can start fucking someone without meaning to, you should’ve been passed out already.

    I know women—real live, actual women – who cheated on their boyfriends or, worse, with their friends’ boyfriends, and then said they’d “tried” to resist but just couldn’t. And I’m like – bitch, I’ve watched you pass up chocolate, wine and fried chicken for three months in order to get into a bathing suit, so don’t tell me you don’t have the self-discipline not to fuck somebody.

    If it’s only about needing release from the hornies, you have lots of options. It doesn’t require a real dick.

    When people cheat, they’re cheating for some other reason than the one they’re giving. It’s not about loneliness or horniness. There is always an element of revenge, or narcissism, or jealousy, or self-destruction or self-pity or something else.

  2. Maybe it wasn’t the fact that the book includes cheating, but that it treated it in such a clumsy and cavalier fashion.
    I agree, cheating to me isn’t a deal-breaker in a book, but it is to many, and I do think it deserves careful treatment to work. especially in a romance.
    I haven’t read this book, but I have read others by Carrington, and I have to say that the curt, telling-not-showing style and the lack of romance made me realize the stories weren’t for me.

  3. jcscot says:

    Maybe it wasn’t the fact that the book includes cheating, but that it treated it in such a clumsy and cavalier fashion.

    I haven’t read the book, so I don’t know just how poorly written it is but the impression I got from the review was that the issue of infidelity was not well handled at all.

    I have no problem with a book that deals with infidelity – there are several great novels out there that are superb explorations of such relationships (Anna Karenina or Madame Bovary for example).

    My problem with such a plot is that the infidelity is mixed up with military issues and deployment – something of which I have first-hand experience as a military spouse.  There could have been a great plot surrounding a military couple and the stress and strain placed on them by deployment:  instead, the author(s) appears to have glossed over this side of things and has failed to portray the relationships between the hero and heroine and their friend with any degree of realism.

    So, it’s not the infidelity per se or, indeed, that the infidelity involves a military couple but that it is handled in a juvenile fashion.

  4. Karen H says:

    I really dislike infidelity by the hero or heroine though I have certainly read books in which that happened.  But what will keep me from reading this book is the attitude of Megan and Jason—there’s just no excuse for that!  Other posters have mentioned scenarios that might be worth reading but their behavior is definitely that of a couple of spoiled brats who care only about themselves and scratching an itch!  And Darius has only been gone 4 months!

    Call me old-fashioned (in spite of growing up with the song “Love the One You’re With”) but if you really love someone, you’re not really that interested in hooking up with someone else because you care more about your partner’s feelings that your own itch.  And Darius has only been gone 4 months!  Megan and Jason are jerks and Darius should totally kick them both out of his life.

  5. This is the most balanced, thoughtful discussion I have seen on here in weeks.  @AgTigress (as usual) and @Kinsey:  Balm for this troubled mind.  Blessings.  I spend too much time at Mises(dot)org lately.

  6. Daisy says:

    Cheating is not an auto deal-breaker in a book for me – it really depends on how/why it happens and how/why it is resolved. 

    In this instance, we are talking about the woman being alone for 4 months.  Really?  Four months?  She couldn’t go 4 months without sex while her man is off serving his country.  It is called self-control people, and respect both for yourself and your partner.  And then it appears that she and the friend approached it like a business deal.  It wasn’t even a “we can’t help ourselves, we are so in love/lust, must have each other now” kind of thing – it was a “we won’t look at each other or kiss, therefore it won’t count” kind of thing.  Are these people adults?  Ick.  Just ick.

    If he had been gone for most of the 18 months; if she and the friend got caught up in the moment and things went too far; if they felt remorse after and were willing to confess to the Hero and own their actions – these things would have made the book, if not acceptable, at least more palatable.  But to approach cheating as a business deal, to lie about it even when confronted, to act as though the Hero who was wronged is somehow in the wrong because he isn’t willing to forgive the girlfriend and the friend who cheated – that makes the book unacceptable to me. 

    Relationships can and do recover from infidelity – but only if the cheating partner is sincerely remorseful and the cheated upon partner is willing to forgive and offer another chance.  This HEA just has the making for a really unhappy marriage followed by a really messy divorce.

  7. Tina C. says:

    So this is the third book reviewed on this site by Tori Carrington.
    The first review was done by a guest reviewer who gave it a D-,

    In all fairness, I gave it a D- because if you just look at the mechanics of the writing, it was fairly-well written.  It wasn’t riddled with spelling and grammar errors (or my biggest pet peeve—homophone errors).  The plot zipped right along and there wasn’t too much tell and not enough show.  In that sense, even a D- might have been too low of a score.  However, I absolutely hated and despised the “hero” and the “best friend” and thought that the heroine was a doormat who bought into the slut-shaming crap that the other two were piling on her until she succumbed to the emotional abuse and accepted the “hero” as her misbegotten due.  I also thought that the title, “Shameless”, was incredibly ironic, considering how much shame they piled onto that girl.  On a personal, button-pushing level, I HATED that book, but I didn’t think it was fair to give it an F based on the fact that I, personally, thought that the hero and his buddy were utter scumbags.  It was one of those, “Your mileage may vary” things, you know?

    I’d already decided, after reading that one, that I would never pick up a Carrington title again.  This decision has only been reenforced with the last two reviews.

  8. I have written and deleted this post several times. I’m just not sure how to put this.

    As a military spouse who has gone through two full deployments, and countless smaller separations (schooling, training, more training, training some more…), I’ve witnessed my share of unfaithfulness via other couples within the units. It’s true that people cheat in the military. Both sides, the mm and the dependent. Yes, deployed military members can (and do) find ways to have sex out there in war zones. (Despite it being against UCMJ…but that’s beside the point.) So this is really a realistic part of military life. Not exactly the most flattering aspect, but I’m not naive enough to think it doesn’t happen. Happens every day, unfortunately. And I wouldn’t say that having a cheating significant other of a military member in a work of fiction is trivializing the scenario.

    But this is simply my opinion that cheating spouses/significant others as the main hero/heroines in a ROMANCE novel do not belong. Military, civilian or otherwise. I don’t read romance to see cheaters. Especially ON THE PAGE. Men and women make mistakes. But I don’t want to see adultery on the page. It’s not what I want out of the book. I don’t give a hot damn if they’re military or they’re civilian or retired or whatever. It’s not what I want in romance as a personal preference. And I also don’t want to spend so much time without the hero, and almost substituting in another guy instead of the hero. “Tag, you’re it! Oh wait, I’m back in the country now. My turn!”

    The lack of the hero’s POV for so long combined with spending more time in the front with a non-hero combined with adultery on page is not something I want in romance, done “well” or not, military or civilian.

  9. Joy says:

    The only book I’ve read by the Carrington team that was any good was _Taken_, which was really an action packed blowout.

    I don’t mind reading about infidelity in romances that takes place *before the relationship is established* but ones where cheating takes place after the declaration of love makes the cheater look like a real jerk—and I don’t want characters like that to have a happy ending!

  10. karen says:

    I read romance to escape from real life and live vicariously throng the heroine.  That means I really can’t get into a book that makes the characters do things I would find reprehensible … like cheating!  There are enough ways to introduce conflict between protagonists so they can learn and grow together without having one cheat on her beau with his best friend.  That is a dealbreaker for me.  I would have screamed and tossed the book against the wall-  HARD. Thank you for the (entertaining) warning.

  11. TracyP says:

    But maybe I’m too hard on the characters. Am I just a judgmental bitch? After all, people get lonely. They make mistakes. Isn’t forgiveness possible?

    In my opinion, infidelity is unforgiveable…even moreso IRL.  It certainly has no place in a romance novel.  Now if we were talking Chick Lit (from the good ol’ days of Bridget Jones et al) then maybe it would have a place.  But no heroine that I’m willing to read about will take part in this as a plot line.  If it was something in the past and it “haunts her” I might be able to get through it….but otherwise, I agree with you.  Total assholes.

  12. Lady Carrion says:

    At least the ridiculousness of the Tori C butt book was ripe with material to make fun of but it’s hard for me to laugh at this one. You just kind of have to go “Really? They really did that? REALLY?” I also noticed that their characters are super lazy when it comes to getting out of bed (or off the piano) to get something. She could have gone looking for her vibrator but it’s all the way over there so might as well just have sex with this guy, right?

  13. AgTigress says:

    TracyP:

    In my opinion, infidelity is unforgiveable…

    For you, and for many other people/couples, yes, and you have very properly added the rider ‘in my opinion’.  But for others, no;  there are other kinds of irreparable betrayal that may be worse. That’s my point:  sexual infidelity is not invariably the worst thing that can happen in a relationship.  I think some people would be surprised to know how many deeply committed long-term relationships have actually weathered and survived the occasional incident of sexual infidelity and even short-term emotional infatuations with third parties, which are more dangerous than mere copulation.
    There are even circumstances in which such elements could feature in a romance (as some have suggested above), though it does not sound as though the book under discussion here qualifies.  I agree totally with those who say that it is ludicrous for anyone to be unable to live without sex for a mere matter of months, or to imagine that sexual gratification must always be provided by a human partner anyway;  the whole story line sounds hopelessly tacky and vulgar.  But if we are going to admit, as most of us do here, that our personal rules of sexual propriety are not the only ones that count in the world, that other people may have other rules, then we must be careful about making sweeping judgements about what is or is not forgiveable.

  14. Raylee says:

    I don’t want to see adultery on the page.  And I also don’t want to spend so much time without the hero, and almost substituting in another guy instead of the hero.

    Me too.  I don’t mind someone stepping out on the other, but don’t put the focus on the “other guy,” and please don’t take me through the boot knocking.  I pick up a book to read about the hero and heroine.  Not his horny best friend.

  15. greeneyedwriter says:

    I HATE reading about cheating (or watching movies about it). It makes me lose all sympathy with the cheating parties if they are the protagonists. The only circumstances in which I can stomach stories about cheating is when the person is in a bad relationship that they cannot get out of (i.e. an abused wife that can’t leave her husband finding solace in another man). I will definitely pass on reading this, thanks for the review.

  16. AgTigress says:

    As so often happens, when one tries to deal with general principles on the basis of a specific case, the case lets one down because of its atypical features.  It is clear that there are a great many disturbing issues with the book reviewed here, and I think that the fact that the protagonists seem to be pretty unpleasant people is the real crux of the matter.  I would also agree with those who discount it as a romance because there is no satisfactory HEA.  The HEA is required.

    But I am also struck in a more general way by the implication running through some of the comments here that romance should in any case never deal with really dark and difficult themes.  The defining characteristic of a romance is that it chronicles a love affair that overcomes obstacles and ultimately reaches a happy and permanent resolution;  in many romance novels, the obstacles to be overcome are comparatively trivial or even deliberately humorous — fairly trite misunderstandings and so forth. 

    But in others, the difficulties faced by the couple may be gritty themes from the seamier side of real life:  death and betrayal, fear, war and natural disasters, and, yes, maybe even infidelity, incest, cruelty and abuse.  If the love story eventually rises above those horrors, and the protagonists are able to move on into a hopeful future together, then the story is a romance.  Not a light-reading-while-sipping-a-drink-on-the-beach romance, but still a romance.  The genre is a wide one, and a truly major part of the whole storytelling tradition.  We should not be influenced by the house-styles of certain powerful publishers into thinking that romance must always be ‘light’.

  17. I’ve come back just to lend my support to Agtigress, who doesn’t need it, but I’m doing it anyway.

    I have been taken aback by the vehemence of some of the responses about cheating. Can’t a couple learn from their mistakes and build a better relationship from it? Is their relationship so trivial that one instance of infidelity can kill it? One of the things I personally dislike is the easy divorce. One mistake and pouf! It’s all gone, the person is a sleaze, not worth continuing with.

    This book isn’t the best example of its kind, but in real life I’ve known couples who have gone through dark times and worked together to make it better, instead of taking the easy path and walking away. To my mind that’s as romantic as the fairy tale kind. More so.

    I would love to read a story about that, and yes, I’d count it as a romance. One playing away from home shouldn’t break a relationship, if it’s strong and if the couple is committed. What kills it is the true cheating, the lies and subterfuges that follow. Someone who does it and then is strong enough to man (or woman) up about it and take the consequences is worth reading about, surely?

    I, too, would relish reading about darker themes in romance. As long as it has the HEA, I’m good to go.

  18. AgTigress says:

    I’ve known couples who have gone through dark times and worked together to make it better, instead of taking the easy path and walking away. To my mind that’s as romantic as the fairy tale kind. More so.

    Lynne, very well put.

  19. Alpha Lyra says:

    I don’t have a problem with “dark themes” in romance novels. Sherry Thomas writes some wonderful dark romance novels, and I eat them up with a spoon.

    I have a problem with infidelity specifically, not because it is “dark” but because it is not romantic. Infidelity by hero or heroine is a great topic to explore in women’s fiction, general fiction, literary fiction, YA, even crime fiction or SFF. But I don’t want to see it in a romance novel. In my opinion, one of the key features of a romance novel is the romantic fantasy that once the hero and heroine find each other, they are such a perfect match that neither of them wants to be with anybody else. I’m aware it’s just a fantasy, not very realistic, but I don’t care—it’s the fantasy I want when I read a romance novel. I get enough of real life in, well, real life.

  20. greeneyedwriter says:

    Alpha Lyra, you said it perfectly. I should have been more specific in my comment, I don’t mind reading about infidelity at all, just not in romance novels where one of the MC’s is a cheater. It can be used for a background character, perhaps an ex of the MC, but when the main characters cheat, I just find that I’m unable to forgive them and I don’t want their love interest to.

  21. Kim says:

    Not romantic at all.  Reminds me of one of Emily Giffin’s novels.

  22. AgTigress says:

    Alpha Lyra:

    In my opinion, one of the key features of a romance novel is the romantic fantasy that once the hero and heroine find each other, they are such a perfect match that neither of them wants to be with anybody else.

    I think that is a perfectly reasonable personal preference for a specific type of romance, but I would still argue that it is absolutely not a general definition of ‘romance’.  The key to the romance concept is that it all comes right in the end.  The hero and heroine may heartily dislike, despise and mistrust each other at first (a very common trope in 1980s category romance, as it happens), and/or they may only realise that they are destined to bond permanently quite late in the story.  They may weather all sorts of major catastrophes before their path appears clearly before them.  Like Lynne, I usually find the successful resolution of serious difficulties much more romantic than the fairy-tale fantasy in which the couple know they are right for each other immediately.  It is just a matter of personal taste, and neither approach is ‘better’ than the other, but both certainly come under the heading ‘romance’, so regardless of personal preference, we cannot exclude those stories in which gritty and difficult themes appear, or in which hero, heroine or both are flawed characters.

  23. Nina says:

    Hi all,  I am the ranter who wrote the review. I know I came down very hard on the book, but really, I found it very unpleasant and frankly unrealistic. Now I know that infidelity happens and I’m not against the topic as a theme in a romance. I’ve read stories where I think it was handled well. Not so in this case.

    The review was not meant as an attack on the author(s). I don’t know them and have nothing against them personally. I just hated this book.

    @Mary Anne Graham: I’m a nice person in real life, HONEST!

    @Lynne Connolly: Yes, a menage or open relationship theme might have worked in this story. It could have been interesting. I think the author likes to “tease” the reader with the possibility (the same thing happened in “Shameless”) and then draw back—“oh, no, we’re not going there.”

    @AgTigress: I’m not against edgy, I’m not against flawed characters. But as I said in the review, there were parts of the story that made me want to cry because I felt so bad for Darius. He was put in an impossible situation by two selfish people. Yes, it is all a matter of personal taste, but I did not buy the HEA. It was not a happy ending to me—because Darius had to swallow his hurt and take back his “friend” so that an unbelievable HEA could be tacked on to fulfill romance conventions. 
    Maybe this topic is too big to be addressed in a 200 page category romance format.

    @SOA: Hey, you got me! I think my self-respect is in pretty good shape, but I guess I was on roll. Anyway, when I think of my private parts, that particular word does not come to mind.

  24. Nina says:

    There are so many amazing comments to the review and my mind is all over the place. Just to address a few other things:

    Waziristan is a real place. It is a Taliban stronghold and there seems to be a kerfuffle on Wikipedia over whether it is an emirate (I had to look up “emirate” after I looked up Waziristan) or part of Pakistan.  But learning this makes what Megan and Jason did even worse, because Dari was in such a dangerous and unfriendly place.

    About the IED—I don’t know anything about this stuff. In the interest of brevity, I didn’t go into the full extent of Dari’s wounds. He had to have surgery and if I remember rightly, his bone was replaced by steel or whatever it is doctors use. I don’t want to make it sound like the authors didn’t do their homework. But he was wearing a cast.

    I do think there was a germ of an interesting story here, that could have dealt with loneliness, the pressures of being in the military, how couples deal with the stress, etc. Maybe this issue will be revisited in the series and addressed in a more serious way. We’ll see.

  25. Nina says:

    One more thing—in the third excerpt “When Megan tries to leave, Jason grabs her arm” was ME describing the action to explain the dialogue. The authors didn’t break into present tense. The quoting got a bit mixed up.

  26. AgTigress says:

    Nina, thank you for coming back and commenting on the comments.  🙂 
    I think you have conveyed the impression the book made on you very vividly indeed, in your review and in these follow-up comments, and you have easily persuaded us all that this is a wholly unsatisfactory novel, with central characters who are not merely flawed, but incredibly selfish and deeply unlikeable.  Most of us as readers are simply not very interested in the affairs of characters we heartily dislike.

    The caveats I have expressed (and I haven’t read the book, though I have read, and disliked, older books by this writing team) have only been about matters that touch on the general definition of ‘romance’ or on the sharply differing perceptions of sexual infidelity as a plot element, which some see as an unforgiveable sin totally inimical to a romance story in itself, while others, however disapproving, do not.

    It has been an interesting and lively discussion.

  27. Nina says:

    When people cheat, they’re cheating for some other reason than the one they’re giving. It’s not about loneliness or horniness. There is always an element of revenge, or narcissism, or jealousy, or self-destruction or self-pity or something else.

    @Kinsey: I think you’re absolutely right. When I read this book, I had the feeling that Jason was somehow jealous of Dari-perhaps for being with Megan, or maybe because Dari could commit to a relationship while Jason couldn’t. Or maybe afraid of losing his friend to a woman. So Jason had to get in there and mess with Dari’s relationship.  None of this was overt but just part of the overall creepy feeling I got from Jason.

  28. Kinsey was concise.  Pretty much, I think, we can all assume if you are hitting it with your “best friends” partner there is a lot more going on then simple infidelity or simply being weak and giving into an urge.  Should be about 65,000 words.
    Spam filter:  seems85.  There ya go. . .

  29. Katelynne says:

    UGH… This sounds like a horrible book.  I wouldn’t touch it with a ten foot pole.  Thanks for reading so that others could avoid it.

  30. Flo says:

    Here’s a question… is there now a “sub-genre” of romance that includes cheating as a sexual kink?  Or perhaps a fetish?  Because I’ve seen it in others that I’ve browsed on the shelves.

    Not that “I thought you were dead and moved on!  It’s been 10 years!” stuff.  But deployment and “Oh I’m so attracted to the other person so I will fuck them to get it out of my system” scenarios.

    It feels… alarming.  And reading it turns off, instantly, all the warm fuzzies I normally get in reading a romance novel.  Perhaps I’m missing the point?  Perhaps it’s a “flawed persons” type of story?

  31. AgTigress says:

    Here’s a question… is there now a “sub-genre” of romance that includes cheating as a sexual kink?

    No, I don’t think so. Infidelity has never been, and is still not, classifiable as a sexual ‘kink’.  I think the prevalence of infidelity in real life varies according to social conditions as well as accepted mores, and of course warfare, with long absences of spouses serving in the armed forces, is a major factor.  If the theme occurs more often in books now than it did, say, 30 years ago, it may simply be a reflection of the fact that it might have become a more common problem in real life.

    Perhaps it’s a “flawed persons” type of story?

    It can be, I think.  I believe it might also be used as a fairly extreme example of a major conflict/problem in the progress of a relationship. 

    I think that stories that actually do feature rather specialised sexual tastes, such as multiple couplings, bisexual connections, fetishism, bondage and so forth, have moved from the area of pornography into the sub-genres of romance.  This simply reflects more tolerant social attitudes.  The popularity of fantasy shape-shifter stories gets perilously close to bestiality, a ‘kink’ that most people still find repellent in real life.

    Modern sexual rules and morals, especially in the USA, are not always very consistent, but then, they never have been.  The same person can be open-handedly tolerant about one formerly verboten practice, while being hysterically, traditionally strait-laced about others.

  32. no, Flo, I’ve not seen “cheating” in any books about kink.
    Books that include three-ways or BDSM with other people are always with consent by all parties. So, by definition, it’s not cheating.
    I do shape-shifter stories, and love writing them. All my shape-shifters are mythical beasts (griffins, dragons and so on) so they are already removed from the animal world that we know. Occasionally they will partially shift during sex, but only to produce wings or a tail or a forked tongue. But bestiality isn’t something I think about or feel when I’m writing the stories. It’s more the savage nature, akin to the “savagery” of the sheikh or the American native, or the Highlander in other books.
    But a book taking these themes has to go deeper than just a wild fling and instant forgiveness. It has to go into the real motives behind the acts, not just instalust. For instance, as AgTigress says, what if the third party was jealous and eaten up with it? His struggle would make an interesting story,  if not a romance.

  33. AgTigress says:

    For instance, as AgTigress says, what if the third party was jealous and eaten up with it? His struggle would make an interesting story,  if not a romance.

    I wasn’t the one who said that, Lynne, though for what it’s worth, I agree. 
    🙂

    I can understand how both writers and readers of shape-shifting stories can detach themselves completely from any association with actual cross-species copulation.  I can’t (even if the animals are mythical), because of the way my mind works.  No doubt some of the people who have a fit of the vapours over adultery are quite happy with a werewolf hero;  I can cope with unfaithfulness as an element in a love-story, but not with the idea of a human’s lover being a part-time canid.  Neither of us is ‘right’ or ‘wrong’:  just different.
    😉

  34. Joanna S. says:

    If I may be so bold, It seems the general consensus about the book itself is that it had the skeleton of a powerful story or even several stories – there could have been a menage, there could have been a serious treatment of infidelity in general (or in the military specifically), and there could have been a powerful story about the rehabilitation of a broken relationship as well as the redemption of a broken person.  Unfortunately, none of these were possible because two profoundly juvenile characters, Jason and the heroine, drag the only adult in this story, Dari, down with them, and the authors themselves take something powerful and turn it into a mere surface level, nigh on selfish, emotional farce.  In essence, what this shows is that a great idea/concept is not enough to create a great story or novel.  A great story/book contains a powerful concept but that concept also has to be nurtured by the author until it grows into something spectacular that makes the reader think about and feel something akin to Aristotle’s notion of catharsis.  We have no emotional investment in this novel because Romance is meant, no matter how dark or seemingly impossible the beginning may be, the end works out.  Here, as stated by multiple posters above, the HEA (the catharsis) is absent, and so the novel fails. 

    This is one of the reasons why I edit, but I do not write.  I am great at ideas, I can catch inconsistencies (ex. I really hate it when a characters physical description suddenly changes halfway through the novel.  When a hero’s eyes are green on page one and chocolate brown on page 140, it drives me NUTS!!), and I can (and do) offer thorough reading notes to author friends of mine when asked.  However, carrying the ideas I come up with to a satisfying end, fully growing characters, and making something truly cathartic out of an idea is so not my forte.  And, while I do not want to be cruel, perhaps it is not the forte of The Writers Carrington either?  Regardless, I won’t be reading any of their books anytime soon.

  35. Deb Kinnard says:

    Having read most of the comments, I think Carrington’s real sin was not in portraying infidelity or the fallout therefrom. I think their real unforgiveable was in giving us characters we cannot care about. That facet alone would’ve made this a wallbanger for me.

    The characters could’ve tried to work through their pain in various other ways that would’ve made us cheer them on. I can think of quite a few ways the authors could’ve chosen to show these people, despite their errors, as human and willing to try to redeem their situation. If I can think of other solutions, I’m sure authors as experienced as this pair could’ve given the readers sympathetic characters, as well.

  36. Nevertheless, they got the publishing contract, the career, the name, and more ink here than any other forum or venue in the world.

  37. tesh says:

    It sounds like some of the cliche swinger novels that came out in the late 70’s- early 80’s.

    Someone bought them back then, there must be a market somewhere. Sometimes writing a fast and sleazy is about collecting a quick paycheck and nothing more.

    A lot of books are about wish fulfillment. I like reading about fighter pilots but I’d never want to be one. This is probably written for women like reading about cheating but would never do it.

    It’s one of the last taboos. It’s going to get exploited.

  38. AgTigress says:

    Joanna S., you make excellent points.  (So does Deb Kinnard, in pointing out again that the biggest problem is that the reader cannot empathise with the leading characters).

    We have to remember, too, that the length of a category romance can and does affect the type of story that will work.  For example, it is simply impossible to develop multiple sub-plots in a book that is maybe 75,000 words or even less.  It is also difficult, though perhaps not impossible, to produce a thoughtful and nuanced treatment— one that enables the reader to understand and sympathise with the characters — of very difficult and sensitive subjects, like infidelity within the context of military service.

    The chief raison d’être of the Blaze line is to provide a setting for some hot sex.  The authors have simply created a context in which that can take place without really considering all the implications of that setting to readers who have strong feelings about honour and duty.  I am slightly surprised that an apparently experienced writing team should have made such an error.

  39. mouth ulcers says:

    Well this book is not on my list anymore…
    Mouth ulcers

  40. Kinsey says:

    Ok, this is off topic but I have to riff off AgTigress’ comment about not being able to read about shifters w/o thinking “beastiality.”

    For 2 years following publication of my first novel (a werewolf romance) I was able to keep my darling, devoutly Christian and deeply prudish mother from knowing my pen name.  Mama loves me bunches and while she’s proud that my books sell, she’s pretty horrified at the idea of me writing explicit sex. So when she kept bugging me to let her read them, I refused. “Mom, you’d hate them. You don’t like fantasy or SF, you don’t like sex scenes, you’re not going to like a book about werewolves and sex.” My sister was more concise: “ORAL SEX, Mom. There’s ORAL SEX.”  (Mom thinks oral sex was invented by hippies and the thought of it makes her sick.)

    So she was proud of me, but she thought I was wasting my writing talent by writing romance. And she’d almost physically shudder when she mentioned the subject of my books.

    Then one day I found out why.

    She thought my books featured beastiality. I.e., women copulating with wolves, or with big shaggy man-wolf monsters like in the movies.

    So I explained to her that 1) to my knowledge there are no books in which women do it with animals and 2) OMG MAMA, DID YOU REALLY THINK I’D WRITE THAT?????

    It is, as Ag says, a personal thing. I can’t read any vampire romances but JR Ward’s because sex with traditional vampires is necrophilia and besides, how do dead guys get stiffies? Huh? Tell me that! No heart beat=no blood flow=no boners. Really, really bugs me…..

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