First reply: I don’t know what this book is.

People just like criticizing everything. It’s a trend to be a hater

I was furious at the end of this book. I agree that domestic violence isn’t an issue to joke about and I also think it’s a terrible topic for a poorly written romance.

We are the 1%!

There are so many things to criticize that book for, but when lily got out of the relationship is so not it

If you want to make fun of something just point to the name lily blossom bloom and her flowershop

I don't know the book but I have seen the whole vicious circle of domestic violence and emotional codependency happen to a person I thought was way too smart to get sucked into this.

I still don't think I fully understand how this works on a psychological level, but if I bet the people who are making these judgements have no idea at all.

It's one of these Hoover books. I can never remember which one is which. This means I get half a point, right?

lol you get half a point more than me. Without looking it up, I don’t know what a Hoover book is either.

(Most recently read Remains of the Day, the creative act, some wheel of time, Fairy Tale, and started a Bertrand Russell book that’ll take me a month to read… It’s not like I don’t read but I feel like I have to defend myself at this point lol)

But don’t you sometimes want to hate on stuff that is getting popular if you feel like there are thousands of better books? I read part of one Hoover just bc soooo many people recommended it. I am not snobby about books, but anyone who recommended this to me kind won’t be taken seriously for a while.

It is natural, but it isn't going to make anyone read the thing you are talking about. There's a few niche books I like to recommend but I rarely if ever preface them with 'these are so much better than XYZ popular book, which is garbage', even if I do think that.

Or that fact that a girl just wandered into her shop looking for a job w/o being paid and oh look who happened to be her brother

Makes sense, I try to recommend sort of similar alternatives if I do, but I’m sometimes I have to find out more about what people like in certain books.

Don’t forget her husband is also extremely rich. Just because

Most people have never heard of this book.

My issue isn’t with the depiction of DV on its own.

My issue is that the book is FREQUENTLY advertised as a romance. And neither relationship is particularly healthy. And for a younger audience in particular, who are gravitating to her books because she’s a popular author and, frankly, her writing style is easy to read, it’s uncomfortable to see THIS book advertised that way. Especially because, to my knowledge, nothing’s been done on her end to discourage it.

girl have you heard of critical thought and analysis?

I get where you're coming from but I would say expand your empathy a bit. Could just be dicks but I suspect many of the comments like this come from people who spent weeks/months/years simmering in frustration watching someone they cared about repeatedly refusing to leave an obviously abusive relationship. It is not only traumatic to the direct victim.

Discourage it? She's writing this stuff with one hand on the keyboard if you know what I mean.

Thank you but I avoid her books like the plague

>It is not only traumatic to the direct victim.

...okay but no one is making character statements about the indirect "victims" the way people do about the incredibly frustrating people that "repeatedly [refuse] to leave an obviously abusive relationship"? Sure, maybe the world needs to be more empathetic towards the indirect victims, but the world DEFINITELY is still not enlightened enough to stop victim blaming. Case in point.

Let me correct you. It IS something to be made fun of. EVERYTHING is something to be made fun of.

If I go to the circus, I don't complain if I see clowns. ;)

If I go to TIK TOK, (the place where 10 morons danced like idiots, while people were dying of COVID**)**, I don't expect to find a discussion with cultural content, maturity, intelligence.
It makes no sense to criticize the stupidity of that social network, as it is a stupid container.
So if I want interesting discussions I don't do them in the square of fools, but on the appropriate forums, or in real life etc..
In short, don't expect to find water in the desert. :)

Okay those are terrible takes on the book seeing as there is A LOT to critique it.

I mean, it’s a book on domestic violence that was going to get a colouring book and is portrayed as a romance more often than it’s not

And there was no consequence other than divorce. No charges pressed. No jail time.

And all the insinuation that Ryle needs to be forgiven. So angry.

>And there was no consequence other than divorce. No charges pressed. No jail time.

It's an unfortunate reality for many women who experience domestic violence. Justice is difficult to achieve and very often not worth the emotional and mental toll.

This is really sad to hear.

I work adjacent to the system.

At the majority of DV sentencings in my county, the victim shows up to speak (or has a left a statement with the DA’s Office) and is angry at the DA’s Office for prosecuting. And wanting forgiveness and leniency for the defendant. Or outright recanting.

It’s amazing and horrifying

There is no reason that a romance relationship needing to be healthy in a novel. If anything, there are narrative reasons for them not being healthy.

It’s not the author’s responsibility to showcase healthy relationships. And frankly they aren’t usually very interesting.

Romance books are basically a form of porn. It’s fantasy. A torrid romance, unrequited love, rebellion, a dashing hero, yadda yadda.

And just like porn, nobody watches it for healthy sex. They watch porn for the visually striking and the taboo. People read romance for the saucy affairs.

I haven’t read this book and I never will. But it failing to showcase healthy relationships is a critique beside the point.