Wyvernfriend Reads

Ah, Fate, Vampires and consent.

I have issues with a lot of paranormal romance, it's compulsion and fated relationships. They both often lack an element of consent.  If there's nothing that all the crap that has come out recently that makes this an element we can no longer ignore.  

Non-consensual sex is rape, no exceptions, no arguments, no more excuses.  

Some authors do a good job of the fated mates issue but often it removes the ability of the woman (more often than not) to actually consent and I'm really tired of it, it needs to stop, the excuses for rape need to be stopped, they need not to be part of our background noise.  Yes, intellectually we know that this isn't right but the repeated telling of tales that erode that knowledge makes people start to questions the validity of their beliefs. Many of us try to let life flow smoothly around us and disagreeing with what appears to be the majority makes us question our stances.

I can't keep doing this to myself, I have to stop the guilt of finishing reading books where the relationship is making me uncomfortable and where honestly I keep wanting the heroine (and occasionally hero - yes, I'm looking at you Laurel K Hamilton) to dump the MF already.

And why do most vampires behave like spoilt children, surely centuries of life (or even decades) make them have to adult on a regular basis?

Why yes, I have problems with the first story by Christine Feehan, I've had problems with her Carpathian series before where it appears (from the two I struggled through) that she hasn't met a competent female character she couldn't undermine with a relationship and sex.