I’ve gotten into reading NA (New Adult) love stories and love the issues being addressed. Everything from child abuse (The Coincidence of Callie & Kayden by Jessica Sorensen) to anal rape (Wait for You by J. Lynn) and various topics in between are explored. Both of those books, by the way, are excellent.
However, I recently finished two books that left me feeling very let down. I won’t name names (that wouldn’t be fair)
but what both of these books had in common were drugs and cheating. Now, I totally get a book where either issue
is brought into play but that’s not what I’m really bitching about. My trouble is how the heroine of the story
deals with it. In both books, the
heroine is the one who cheats on her boyfriend with the hero. And in both books the “hero” is drawn back
into the world of drugs.
I get that dealing with either issue is one a lot of us have
gone through (myself included) so using that as point of contention is realistic. But the choices the heroine makes when
confronted with either problem will either make or break my emotional
investment into her character.
Co-dependency or immature tantrums are a turn off for me. It’s a very fine line to walk and balancing
those conflicts can be very difficult.
Filling space to make the book longer, dragging out the
insecurity in a way that’s unbelievable, only to have everything wrapped up
with a HEA in the last couple of pages in a book is a cop-out, in my humble
opinion. Emotional growth, facing fears
and coming face to face with whatever it is holding back the HEA is paramount
in the satisfying development to a fantastic ending.
My two top picks for a wonderful, well rounded novels
dealing with cheating issues are:
Beautifully Damaged by L.A.
Fiore
Just for Now by Abbi Glines
I’m always looking for recommendations so if you have one
please leave a comment! I’m going to
start doing book reviews and would love to have ideas!
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