This book was on a list of romance novelist's favorite romance novels and I honestly think I understand some subtext to the issues RWA has had because holy shit, this book is insane. I'm one of the first to say that sex in books doesn't have to be ethical the way sex ought to be in real life, but the cheerfulness Heather feels about her rape by the end of the book was not something I enjoyed reading. I understand that one way rape culture and purity culture and patriarchy can manifest is in rape fantasies, that is because sex is coded as dirty and wrong sometimes fantasizing about being forced happens and there's room for that in romance and fanfic but yeah, this was just too rapey for me. I think that maybe older romance novels just don't work for me. Part of what I like about romance as a genre is that it feels like fantasy to me and I've definitely read romances with unhealthy power dynamics and "bad" sex and enjoyed them but it works when those dynamics are thought about and this just made me roll my eyes.

Also the mystery was obvious and stupid and Heather was annoying. I don't think that all female characters need to be "strong" but that doesn't mean I want to read about someone who constantly calls herself a coward and seems to only make stupid decisions.