Earth's End

“Aldrik, he had nothing to do with this.” Vhalla took a half step in front of Baldair, stopping the older prince's advance.“A new low, even for you, brother,” Aldrik said with disdain. “Getting your whore to protect you.”Vhalla's arms hung limply at her sides, suddenly at a complete loss.“Don't call her that! You don't mean it.” Baldair's defense was touching, but completely ignored by Aldrik.“Oh? Slut then?” Aldrik grimaced as the word tore itself from his tongue. “Who's next, now that you've had both princes? Going to crawl into bed with my father?”

Usually flipping through a book to convince me to read it works well. At least, it seldom causes me to give up on a book. But when I found this little conversational nugget, I knew I was done. See, I'm funny, I like romances that actually talk to each other without insulting the other, couples that actually respect each other. Ones that actually feel healthy. Yeah. This ain't it. Because it just ain't.

It truly makes me sick that this couple is the endgame, that girls still think Aldrik is a good love interest and that I ever thought these two made a cute couple. (Back in book one, I didn't hate the idea of them being romantically involved, I would have just preferred a friendship instead. But now, I...I just can't with the name-calling and verbal abuse.)

(No, I didn't actually read much more of the book than this conversation and the events leading up to it. (I'm just not going to make a special shelf for this book and I think this is the only way I can write my feelings for it.) If you want to tell me how it all makes perfect sense in context, feel free to do so. But I warn you, I won't believe you because I'm not okay with any person calling their lover a ‘whore' or a ‘slut' as a derogatory slur. And, I find it quite telling that this is what Aldrik chooses to insult when he gets angry.)