I think it's about time I stop reading HPs, specially after discovering L H Cossway and Penny Reid who write about compassionate and adult heroes.
Update:29/4/17
this may have also gone something like this:
The author: I have this plot, you (to hero) Act crude, snobbish, manipulative and controlling! Then pretend she's a slut, try to seduce her, then almost seduce her without finesse, then figure out she's a virgin, then do it with care. Give me steam, that's what sells my book! I need the measurements and DETAILS before you go. YOU! (to heroine) act bratty, slap him couple of times, feel horny around him, reject him couple of times, dance tango, slap him some more, then give in and at the precise moment let him know you're a virgin, or else you WILL get it rough! And then he'll go all weepy, I don't want my macho hero to go weepy! AM I CLEAR? You tell him BEFORE, so I don't have to fix him more than I have to! I have MASSIVE plot holes, I am counting on you two cover it for me! ANY QUESTIONS!
heroine: do...Hero shuts her up by kissing.
Hero: Do I get to screw her AND get to keep her at the end?
Author: umm....that's kinda part of the condition too!
Hero: you have a deal! None of my exes will have me!
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Original Review:
This hero was crude, snobbish, manipulative and controlling! His sexual acts to begin with were also extremely lewd and vulgar and punishing. He justified it by laying the blame on the heroine's insinuation of experience. But my question is what if I'm an experienced woman? Does that give my newly wed husband, in this case who also has vast past sexual experience, the right to treat me as a whore? Only if I'm a virgin, am I to expect the caring sensible gesture of first love making that he has shown Isobel after learning of her virginity? I understand Isobel has pushed him to his limit with her unintentional hot-cold routine and he wanted to punish her. But how disgustingly lewd is it to treat your wife like a prostitute the first time you are making love simply because she had the gal to point out that you can't go caveman with her whenever you feel like?
And after being treated like a whore, is it possible for a woman to still be, excuse my direct question, aroused? Once you realise you can't go through it, are you sure you won't be running to the nearest toilet to empty your stomach? Does the author even know what it means to be subjected to this kind of punishment? A mere touch of tenderness in his voice because he felt the hidden tear does NOT bring back your arousal woman!
And this woman was infuriating, ffs! Do. Your. Research. If you're to insult your husband effectively, know what you're talking about. Do not hurl out insults that you'll have to swallow back and apologise for within minutes! And for fucks sake you agreed to this marriage of convenience and gained something out of it, so insult him away BUT do. Not. Jeopardise. His. Career. By getting drunk or by slapping him in public.