Flowers from the Storm

No rating because I don't know how I feel about the book.

I've seen a lot of reviews hating on the heroine and I'm extremely shocked. There are a lot of complaints about her supposed selfishness as she kept leaving the hero in his hour of need. These statements distress me because I feel like they totally invalidate the heroine's own emotions and feelings and gloss over the fact that while yes, the hero's life was unraveling, hers was too. She found out that the reasons she had for marrying him were fabricated, that he had a baby and that she was effectively being excommunicated by the only community she had ever known. Was she supposed to stoically bear these heartbreaking occurrences in order to secure his happiness whilst forgetting about her own? Or are we assuming that the moment he was happy she would be too? I think that given the circumstances, she's allowed a little selfishness.

I feel like in general, us romance readers tend to be a lot more forgiving of a hero's flaws than we are of a heroine's. And I think in this case, hatred of the heroine is unjustified.