Thankfully, none of this is as bad as 50 Shades -- if nothing else, this writer knows how to string sentences together. Also, this book pushed a lot of my buttons; someone without those buttons probably wouldn't have my strong negative reaction. Recommendations... I honestly can't think of any for books shelved in the "romance" section yet, because I've only started reading them again after a long time of avoiding them. Lois McMaster Bujold says Komarr, A Civil Campaign, and Captain Vorpatril's Alliance are all romance novels, though personally I'd only describe the last that way, and they are all awesome. But they don't have sex scenes :(.

I'd suggest going to Smart Bitches, Trashy Books and seeing if any of the reviews there spark your interest. The reviewer of this book obviously didn't have my issues with it, but she did warn that the hero was an assbag. I just didn't realize how extreme an assbag, or that he would be an assbag who seemed designed for me to hate personally.