If you’ve read Ariel’s post yesterday, you already know that this chapter of Reflected In You is awful.
Chapter Ten of Sylvia Day’s Reflected In You is a terrifying glimpse at a dysfunctional relationship in which a man nearly beats his girlfriend’s ex-boyfriend to death after he catches them kissing each other, and then the woman can think of no way to begin to make amends with him other than sex, resulting in a scene where the woman performs oral sex on a man who doesn’t emotionally respond and instead repeatedly asks her why she did it as she gradually breaks down in tears. And then by the end of the chapter they’re happy together again.
And the book’s genre is “romance”.
Fine. Let’s go with that. Let’s say that this story Sylvia Day has written is a romance.
Reflected In You is a romance! I bet that in the context of the romance genre, this actually all makes perfect sense. What if we pretended, for this chapter, that this was a different romance? You know, to understand just how appropriate the description “romance” is for Reflected In You. You know what else is a romance? The Notebook.
Chapter 10
Allie’s ex, a young lawyer named Lon Hammond Jr., has just kissed Allie – and Allie has kissed him back!
Allie’s current boyfriend, Noah, has just discovered this happening, and proceeds to beat the living shit out of Lon Hammond Jr.
He was like a machine, silent and unstoppable.
BrettLon grunted with each brutal impact and struggled to break free.
Allie watches the awful scene until her and Noah’s friends tell her she should just leave and not worry abut Noah.
“What’s the matter with you?! Stop them!”
His pale blue eyes softened. “He knows when to stop,EvaAllie.”
Although they seem to change their minds about this as soon as they leave.
“He’s your friend! You’re just going to leave him like that?”
“He’s your boyfriend. […] And you are the one who left him like that.”
So Allie goes home, leaving Noah to continue beating up Lon and never actually find out how badly injured he is.
Looking back, I had no idea what came over me. Why hadn’t I pulled away sooner? Why had I kissed
BrettLon back?
And what wasGideonNoah going to do about it?
At this point, Allie reflects on the obvious value a man such as Noah has in her life, and questions what value she could possibly have in the life of a real catch such as him.
Gideon’sNoah’s life was spiraling out of control – because of me. At some point he was going to realize I wasn’t worth the trouble.
Before leaving Allie, Noah’s friend Fin shares his same doubts.
When we arrived at the restaurant, I used my tank top to dry my face.
ArnoldoFin stopped me from getting out.
“Be gentle with him,” he scolded, staring hard at my face. “I have never seen him the way he is with you. I can’t say you are worthy of him, but you can make him happy.”
Allie eventually meets up again with Noah, who has been drinking.
His face was impassive, his eyes hard as sapphires. “What is he to you?”
I swiped at the tears streaming down my face. “A mistake?” […]
His lip curled in a sneer. “You always kiss your mistakes like that?”
Allie pleads with Noah, assuring him of her love.
“I only want you. I love you,
GideonNoah. So much it hurts.” […]
“Did you come for me when I had my fingers inside you,EvaAllie? Or because of his goddamn song?”
Oh, right, let’s not forget that Noah fingered Allie in a crowded public setting last chapter. That’s an important detail for this romance.
Gideon’sNoah’s eyes opened and focused on me. “He’s had his dick in you. He’s fucked you… blown his load inside you.”
Allie realizes that Noah is very hurt by what she has done, so she has to very carefully make amends with him to recover the damage. By sucking him off.
Dropping the glass on the floor, I surged between his legs and fumbled with his button fly.
He caught my fingers in an iron grip but kept his eyes covered with his forearm. “What the fuck are you doing?”
“Come in my mouth,” I begged. “Wash it away.” […]
With muttered curse, he released me, his hand falling limply to his side. “Do it.”
I rushed to get to him, my pulse pounding at the thought that he might change his mind and deny me… that he might decide he was done with me.
Because there is no shared moment between the two romantic leads in a romantic story as romantically significant as an apology blow job.
I sucked him with long drawing pulls, moans of apology and bliss vibrating in my throat. It broke my heart that he was so silent, my vocal lover who always talked dirty to me. […]
His spine straightened, his head lifting from the seat only to slam backward as the first thick spurt exploded in my mouth.
I whimpered, his flavor igniting my senses, making me crave more. […] He made no sound, as unnaturally silent as he’d been during the fight.
Noah speaks for the first time since before the blow job stage of the romantic reconciliation:
“Slide your tight cunt around me,” he ordered hoarsely. “I’ve got more to give you.”
Noah and Allie have sex, and then Allie realizes that Noah is purposefully keeping her from orgasm! They begin to talk about their problem. While having sex, of course. This is a romance.
- “Why did you kiss him?”
The abrupt change in topic knocked me askew. My lower lip trembled. “I don’t know.” - “Tell me why you kissed him.”
“I don’t know.” I rested my damp forehead against his, feeling the tears burning behind my eyes. “God,GideonNoah. I swear I don’t know.” - “Tell me why,
EvaAllie,” he growled. “Why?”
“I don’t know!” I yelled, trying to grind my hips onto him, pounding his shoulders with my fists when his grip tightened. Holding me pinned to his pelvis and filled with his cock,GideonNoah pushed to his feet - He folded me over my back, his cock lying within the seam of my ass. “Tell me why,
EvaAllie,” he crooned in my ear. “You knew I’d be coming after you… that I’d find you…”
My eyes squeezed shut, my hands clenching into fists. “I. Don’t. Know. Damn you! I don’t fucking know!” - “Tell me why,
EvaAllie. Are you thinking of him now? Are you wishing it were his cock inside you? Wishing it were his cock fucking your perfect little cunt?”
I screamed again. “I hate you!” - “I hate you,” I sobbed, tears of frustrating wetting my face and the seat beneath my cheek.
Bending over me, he gasped in my ear, “Tell me why,EvaAllie.”
And finally, during this last one, they make amends! Like… immediately!
“Because you deserved it! Because you should know what it feels like! How bad it hurts, you self-centered asshole!” […]
“Angel.” His lips brushed over my shoulder blad, his hands releasing my wrists to slide beneath me and cup my full, heavy breasts. “My stubborn, beautiful angel. Finally, we get to the truth.” […]
His hips began to lunge, his cock pumping upward into me as he pinched the lips of my sex around my throbbing clit and rubbed.
I came with a hoarse cry of his name
The next day, the two drive out of town for a weekend away together. Allie inquires about Noah’s injuries.
“Are you hurt anywhere else?” I asked, feeling so emotionally raw after the long night we’d had.
He caught my wrist and pulled my hand down to press flat over his heart. “Here.”
Romance.
Okay, your gifs nearly killed me with laughter. I hope you’re happy. I nearly died.
(Fun fact: Christian Grey actually did something really similar once! Actually, it was pretty much exactly the same, only for maybe a slightly shorter period of time! Remember?)
I decided to read some reviews of this book on amazon (4 1/2 stars from over 4,000 reviewers…). Here is an excerpt from the top review
“…However, the rawness of the emotions between Eva and Gideon is striking. One minute I was convinced that they would never be able to make it work. A few minutes later, I was crying and hoping that they could just keep it together.
Reflected to You is a book that stands out in it’s genre. I am convinced that part of the reason this book is notable is because of the realism of the story. This book, this series, does not read like a fantasy romance. The issues the characters face feel real, the emotions they deal with and turn to feel real. The characters actions are understandable, in their own way. The attraction and chemistry between Gideon and Eva heats the pages. There is no question that this book is a smoking hot read with powerful, emotional, dominating sex. However, Sylvia Day makes it clear, there is much more to this mesmerizing story than sex.”
I don’t know what book she’s reading.
Yeah, um, I’m going to go with “not this book.”
Who actually thinks that?! I mean yikes! Any “realism” in this is an example of the kind of “relationship” people should avoid. I’m terrified that person may be a mother and be teaching her kids this kind of behavior is actually okay.
I can feel my faith in humanity wither away as I write. Who bribed that person into writing that review?
Reading the books is one thing, but actually reading the opinions of the people who think these books are good is something I’m not even remotely brave enough to do. “the realism of the story”, holy fuck, get that woman to a hospital.
one of the top bad reviews was also about how it wasn’t as good as 50 shades because Eva wasn’t as smart as Ana and how people should only read this if they really need something to read while waiting for 50 shades in Christian’s perspective to come out. Oh boy…
Because Eva isn’t as smart as Ana??????
Well, at least these people have standards.
Hey Eva, its probably NOT a good idea to give your boyfriend a blow job to “wash away” the memory of your ex-boyfriend, whom he has just found out about through a song written about you and your blow jobs (negative association and all).
Also, I am probably the only chick on the planet who has not seen the Notebook…
That’s my point exactly! It’d be fine if this was a story about two self-destructive characters who only know how to solve their problems with sex, but the problem is that this novel glorifies it. Their therapist tells them sex is a huge problem for them, and the challenge for them is depicted as overcoming THAT, not any of their real issues. A therapist telling them their use of sex is unhealthy isn’t working FOR them in this novel, but the message is that it’s just another way in which the world wants to keep them apart, and thus they must fight against it by always having sex always. And this is GOOD.
If it was the exact same story, but it was a tragedy about two abusive people who fall into the same traps and destroy themselves, I might actually like this book.
Actually, I hadn’t seen the Notebook either until just a couple of weeks ago. It happened to be on and I happened to have a bit of spare time and figured I would see what all the fuss was about. My friends were all appalled that I had never seen it. What can I say? I did read the book…
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