How much is too much?
I used to read plenty of historicals, back in the day.
Most had the same theme, almost all of them featured a hero who pretty forcefully bedded the heroine, who then fell madly in love with him.
*insert eyeroll*
I once thought that was how romance had to be written.
So, how much is too much?
Let me give you a couple of examples –
One of my heroes drugs the heroine with something that gets her pretty darn hot under the collar, chains her naked to the bed, and films her. Then he sends the tape to the guy he thinks is her husband, to torment him. (Along with some pretty dire threats, I might add.)
Too much?
I don’t think so. He’s not forcing her as such, he’s not even touching her.
He also gets his comeuppance at her hands.
She essentially rapes him. (Result of the drug.)
Is that too much?
Another scene/chapter I have (different novel) is one where the hero reduces the heroine from a sassy, snarky, sexy young woman, to a naked, terrified, crying wreck on the bathroom floor.
Sounds awful, doesn’t it?
It’s what happens. There’s nothing he can do to prevent it, he doesn’t want to do it, but the end result is awful.
Still sounds awful, and I hear people go “You always have a choice”.
Yes. He has a choice. The other choice is letting her die.
Although she knows this, what happens to her at his hands is going to make both their lives hell.
So, is it too much?
Should I soften the blow, because reading that chapter is going to make a great many readers cringe? They won’t hate him, he’s doing it for all the right reasons, but it is going to make for a bit of dreadful reading.
I don’t like the old historicals anymore, but I wonder how we will react to some things written today, in ten years time.
You tell me.
How much is too much? Can you justify away everything? Or not?
Does a taboo only apply to physical violence, or is mental torture just as bad?
Is threatening as bad as doing?
What about the role reversal? (She doing it to him, rather than the other way around.)
