It was free.
It was sexist.
The title is an actual request from the heroine.
If a man I was involved with told me not to “worry my pretty little head”, odds are very strong that I would worry his eye with my pretty little finger.
From Amazon: Suzy’s a control freak and has her life mapped out – work hard, find a man with a stable job, and live happily ever after. She’s content with the status quo, but her plan comes to a screeching halt when he enters her life and turns it upside down. City gave up on love when his heart was crushed in college, preferring to be the typical bachelor. He spends his nights hopping from one bed to another and his days working at his family tattoo shop, Inked. A chance encounter on a dark road makes him question what he had sworn off forever – a relationship.
Honestly, I think Chelle Bliss lost me at a hero who goes by the nickname “City” though his real name is Joey (not even Joe). He’s designed for the tattooed-pierced-biker-aggressive-tough guy-rough guy-secret pussycat-who-would-kill-for-me loving crowd and I am not among them. The story is very much a Good Girl falls in with a Bad Boy she thinks is dangerous and unstable, but turns out to be everything she needed. It’s not a trope I mind, though the hero was so over-the-top I found him ridiculous, but what really put me off was the love scenes. I don’t know where this moves from simply personal predilections versus squick, but this is the first time I’ve read a romance in which the hero says things like, “I can’t decide which part of your body to assault first” and thinks similar sentiments. There was a line being crossed into rough that distressed me because, while I appreciate that some books cater to a desire for such moments, it makes me uncomfortable that the hero liked the idea of assault or abusing the heroine. Moreover, the title, Throttle Me, is an actual request made by Suzy of City. They do not portray the act, but keep it to a phone interaction, but I was SUPER CREEPED OUT by City getting off on the idea of Suzy being unable to breathe and scrabbling her hands against his chest while he “assaults”, “pounds”, and chokes her. ABORT! ABORT! ABORT!
It turns out he’s rich, of course, because apparently middle class biker guy fantasies can only take you so far.
Links to my other reviews can be found on my complete reading list of books sorted by author or Author Commentary & The Tallies Shameful.
The comfort reading of recency romance means never wading into sexual situations more risque than “in the parlor” because like you, I’m keen to avoid graphic sexual assault, especially when it’s painted as “a good time.”
I’ve read highly-rated contemporaries where it is just taken as a matter of course that he is holding her down, slapping her behind, or that she is gagging BUT DOESN’T MIND because what they are doing is “so hot”. That is NOT how survival instincts work. I blame the mainstreaming of pornography and the male viewpoint contaminating notions of what smexy times are meant to be like; and I mean that outside the realm of power exchange interactions which, while not my taste, I understand must appeal to a large number of readers given how common it is. In this book, he was getting off on the idea of choking her. I don’t care what you are into, that is MESSED UP.
Is it wrong that I really like it when you really don’t like a book? I mean, this was never going to be my cup of tea anyways, but reading you figure out how to say “Nope” in a lot of different ways definitely IS.
Thanks, it’s more fun when I don’t like them. It’s the most fun when they annoy or anger me.
How did I miss this review? This sounds more like a Katie/Patty read than a Mrs. Julien. Good lord.