Look at his signature—that’s called Shark’s Tooth handwriting. Google it and you’ll find out that people who write like that are “pitiless bloodletters” literally and metaphorically. Himmler, for example. Maybe all Nazis, for all I know.

I think Harlequin has a vast array of lines and undoubtedly some of them are erotic/porn. The ones I read were British and fairly “proper.” Nothing pulsated.

If I get in a serious romance reading mood (not likely) I’ll check this author out, thanks. Yeah, I know there are good romance writers out there, and there were even a couple in those Seventies Harlequins and current Amazon freebies, but they were the exception, unfortunately.

Thanks. I noticed that as I read further on. I love adding new words to my vocabularly.

I agree, but actually those Seventies Harlequins weren’t smutty. I don’t remember there being any sex depicted at all, either “tastefully” or “smuttily.” (Is that a word?)

Why is it my fate to keep running into women who insist that this guy is “sexy”? Just...no.

Well, if nothing else, I’m glad we had this conversation to bring out all the points you just made. Thank you for taking the time. And I did say, to another commenter, that if you look at those books it’s amazing to see how far women have come and it testified to the idea that some Seventies women saw the BS for what…

Let it be perfectly clear: I make no particular brags about being more sane than the next person after living in this world for even a limited time. Those books came as a shock to me because I’d been brought up to believe “older is wiser.” I had the impression that Seventies women were icons of female empowerment to…

The fact that they’re intimating that women are “poor little things” if they can’t endure it, suggests they know full well it’s harmful because no one “endures” things that make them feel happy and fulfilled as women. And what is it about men that gives them a free pass to harass without being called on it?

Oh, yes, the “stalking is romantic” trope seems to be on the rise from what I’ve observed in romances. It also seems to me that when an author gets away with something along these lines, her next novel in the series is more extreme, and then more extreme until I think it should no longer be labeled romance. Actually,…

I absolutely agree that many of the romance novels I’ve been exposed to are disturbing. I mean, like I really wonder and get concerned about the women writing them, and really get anxious about young women reading them and thinking these things are normal and a natural part of “romance.” I’ve even wondered if you can…

You’re right. Those Seventies romances actively promoted the idea that you weren’t really a woman if you felt a need to compete with men. All of those books hammered home that “men were men” when they were dominating women and “being the boss.” So, even if they got a little rapey with you, if you wanted a man then you…

After I wrote the above, I got curious and decided to download free romances from Amazon to see how they’ve been affected by #MeToo. I was fascinatedly appalled all over again to find the same lack of self-respect in the heroines who find it attractive when men treat them with disrespect and sexually fetishize and…

It’s probably nothing more exciting than a typo of “back-handed,” sadly.

I think you’ve hit it. I had an experience where I was stuck in an isolated place by myself with zero options for entertainment, except one: a box of Harlequin romance novels from the Seventies. It was a terrible choice, be literally bored to death or delve into this murky underworld of women’s fantasy from forty…

I think children of toxic narcissists suffer a form of Stockholme Syndrome. I’ve been there myself. As an adult you have to do the research on narcissism and de-program—and then re-program—yourself. It isn’t easy, and it’s ongoing. But if you don’t do it...you’re Trump’s kids.

What I’ve noticed that rings un-true about this sit-com is how self-aware these nerds are and how they mock their own nerdiness and nerd interests. However old-fashioned and inaccurate their nerd likes are on the show, in my experience (my uncle owned a comic book store and I often hung out there) nerds take…

Wow. What is he, ten? And that’s almost painfully white. How does that voice come out of him?

Yes! The hating on the Eighties must stop. Viva la Eighties MTV! Which my parents let me stay up late watching “just one more video.” They were as fascinated as I was to see the people behind the music. I think we all knew the videos were more than a little train-wrecky (for the most part), but hey, beggars couldn’t…

Sugar high.