KYRA HALLAND
  • Welcome to my Worlds
  • Blog
  • Books
    • Daughter of the Wildings >
      • The World of Daughter of the Wildings
      • Map of The Wildings
      • Map of Bitterbush Springs
      • Beneath the Canyons Sample
    • Defenders of the Wildings >
      • Mages' Home Sample
    • Tales of Tehovir >
      • Chosen of Azara >
        • Cast of Characters-Chosen of Azara
        • Reviews of Chosen of Azara
        • Chosen of Azara Sample
      • Source-Breaker >
        • Source-Breaker Sample
      • Heir of Tanaris >
        • Heir of Tanaris Sample
      • Map of Tehovir
    • Urdaisunia >
      • Cast of Characters-Urdaisunia
      • Map-Urdaisunia
      • Reviews of Urdaisunia
      • Urdaisunia Sample
    • The Lost Book of Anggird >
      • Reviews of The Lost Book of Anggird
      • Lost Book of Anggird Sample
    • Sarya's Song >
      • Sarya's Song Sample
    • Short Fiction
    • Boxed Sets
    • Still to come...
  • Read Right Here!
    • Victoria
    • Coming Home
    • Rescue From Suburbia
    • A Familiar Face
    • Paint It Black
  • About
    • FAQs
    • Privacy Policy
  • Contact
    • Email Signup

Billionaires, Bad Boys, and Bondage, Part 3

8/22/2013

0 Comments

 
In this series, I've been looking at how my novels stack up against the hottest trend in fiction right now: billionaire bad boys who are into bondage. So far I've covered the Billionaire factor and one of the two components of the Bad Boy, Inner Torment. In this post: the other half of the Bad Boy factor, Jackassery.

The guys in these books, I don't know. It's a good thing they're rich and they're hot, because it's kind of hard to tell why any woman would want to have anything to do with them at all otherwise. They refuse to take No for an answer, they manipulate or coerce Sweet Young Thing into sexual practices that are outside of her normal preferences and comfort zone, they control where she goes and when and who she sees... If you've ever read any of those Top Ten Signs Your Partner Is An Abuser lists, this is probably starting to sound familiar.

Sweet Young Thing usually does stand up for herself against Bux Cashton eventually (reviews are divided on whether or not readers appreciate that development), and that does sometimes seem to be a turning point in the plot, with the guy maybe coming to realize that there are other ways of interacting with women besides being a complete jerkface to them.

Yeah, it's a common fantasy, the tormented jerk who comes to appreciate the woman who is so patient and understanding with him and is reformed into a nice, loving, romantic, wonderful guy. But there has to be something there in the first place to make Sweet Young Thing think it'll be worth all the jackassery she has to put up with in the meantime. Are hot, rich, and tormented enough? Apparently so.

Anyway, here's the Jackassery ratings on my own heroes (with bonus notes about how the ladies deal with it):

Prince Eruz (Urdaisunia): Considering everything he's dealing with in his personal and professional lives, Eruz is really a pretty nice guy. He commits two main acts of jackassery where Rashali is concerned, neither of which are intended to be controlling, bad, evilly underhanded, or otherwise offensive, although they certainly come across that way. One is more a matter of social ineptitude than anything else (Eruz isn't really a people person), the other is a matter of urgent political necessity. Rashali's reaction is to renew her resolve to make sure the Sazars are destroyed or driven out of Urdaisunia, though she later comes to realize that his actions weren't what they seemed to be and maybe there's another solution to the Sazar-Urdai conflict.
Jackassery Index: 3
Picture
Sevry (Chosen of Azara): Again, considering everything he has to deal with, he's a pretty nice guy. His main problems are the pressure he's under to complete his task and, as with Eruz, a lack of social skills. For all his many and varied experiences, he's never had to deal with someone like Lucie before. When he realizes that she's the person he's been looking for all this time to help him complete his mission, he uses a number of tactics to try to persuade her, including guilt-tripping. His worst act of jackassery certainly isn't intended to be that way; it kind of just happens. He still gets himself slapped by Lucie, plus she's never afraid to tell him that what he wants from her is out of the question.
Jackassery Index: 2

Roric (The Lost Book of Anggird): Roric scored highest on the Inner Torment scale. He's worked very hard to build a new life for himself, and everything in his life and his world is very carefully controlled. He dislikes having any kind of chaos or unpredictability in his life. When Perarre comes into that world, he is fairly overbearing in his attempts to make her obey all his little rules for how things should be done. They work for him; shouldn't they work for everyone? Perarre really really wants this job - or, more specifically, she wants the future opportunities that a good reference from the renowned Professor Roric Rossony will open up to her - so she goes along with it to some extent, though never without pushback, and he eventually comes to see that a little chaos in his life won't hurt anything. Which is good, considering what happens next.
Jackassery Index: 4

Picture
Adan (Sarya's Song): When Adan and Sarya first met, when they were teenagers, he did one thoughtless thing that caused her a lot of pain, but he didn't mean to. She still hasn't forgiven him. He also has a number of other faults - he feels no need at all to demonstrate false modesty, and he's extremely fond of, er, female companionship, but he never does anything with the intent to make Sarya feel bad or to control her. He actually isn't as big a jackass as Sarya thinks he is, but she cuts him no slack whatsoever.
Jackassery Index: 5

Silas (Daughter of the Wildings): Silas commits one supreme act of jackassery, fairly early on in the series. Even while I was writing it I was thinking, Dude, no! You don't do that! To his credit, he realizes almost right away what he had done and why it was bad, and feels really bad about it. Lainie doesn't hesitate to let him know how bad he'd made her feel, but after some awkward conversations and a really spectacular act of redeeming himself, she forgives him. And he's just been a doll ever since :D
Jackassery Index: 5

Conclusion: No one's perfect, and everyone does stupid things that hurt someone else, even when they don't mean to. But just because you might have had a good excuse for making a stupid mistake or otherwise doing something hurtful (past trauma, the demands of your job, temporary stupidity), there's never a reason why you can't apologize, do something to make up for it, and try to do better in the future.

Coming up: Bondage.

0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Author

    I am Kyra Halland, author of tales of fantasy, heroism, and romance.
    Welcome to my worlds.

    Follow me on BookBub

    Sign up for my email list

    RSS Feed

    My Books

    Daughter of the Wildings
    Defenders of the Wildings
    Tales of Tehovir
    More Books
    Click on the covers for more information

    Categories

    All
    Book Extras
    Creative Inspiration
    Fantasy
    Geekery
    Guest Features
    Musings
    News
    Reading Corner
    Romance
    Saryas Song
    Self Publishing
    Sneak Peeks
    Tales Of Tehovir
    The Lost Book Of Anggird
    Urdaisunia
    Weird Western
    Wildings Saga
    Writing Life

    Archives

    October 2020
    July 2020
    January 2020
    October 2019
    August 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    October 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013

    Kyra Halland: Welcome to My Worlds is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.

    This website uses marketing and tracking technologies. Opting out of this will opt you out of all cookies, except for those needed to run the website. Note that some products may not work as well without tracking cookies.

    Opt Out of Cookies
Kyra Halland: Welcome to My Worlds is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.

Other links on this site may also lead to products for which the owner may receive compensation.

This site uses StatCounter cookies to track page views, link clicks, and other information useful for running this site. To decline StatCounter cookies, click here.

Proudly powered by Weebly
Photo used under Creative Commons from Brett Jordan
  • Welcome to my Worlds
  • Blog
  • Books
    • Daughter of the Wildings >
      • The World of Daughter of the Wildings
      • Map of The Wildings
      • Map of Bitterbush Springs
      • Beneath the Canyons Sample
    • Defenders of the Wildings >
      • Mages' Home Sample
    • Tales of Tehovir >
      • Chosen of Azara >
        • Cast of Characters-Chosen of Azara
        • Reviews of Chosen of Azara
        • Chosen of Azara Sample
      • Source-Breaker >
        • Source-Breaker Sample
      • Heir of Tanaris >
        • Heir of Tanaris Sample
      • Map of Tehovir
    • Urdaisunia >
      • Cast of Characters-Urdaisunia
      • Map-Urdaisunia
      • Reviews of Urdaisunia
      • Urdaisunia Sample
    • The Lost Book of Anggird >
      • Reviews of The Lost Book of Anggird
      • Lost Book of Anggird Sample
    • Sarya's Song >
      • Sarya's Song Sample
    • Short Fiction
    • Boxed Sets
    • Still to come...
  • Read Right Here!
    • Victoria
    • Coming Home
    • Rescue From Suburbia
    • A Familiar Face
    • Paint It Black
  • About
    • FAQs
    • Privacy Policy
  • Contact
    • Email Signup