Linz Loves Romance

This week I started reading a new novel by an author who used to be one of my autobuys. I made it to page 30 before DNF-ing it. Sigh. I thought I'd had my expectations in check, I'd read positive reviews for the book, but some of the things that eventually put me off of this author's writing were still there.

For instance, this author writes angry, alpha heroes. They grit things out to speak. They growl. Mostly, the heroes are angry because they can't "have" the heroine. From what I read, I didn't see why these two couldn't be together, so the angry angst didn't work for me.

Secondly, the writer's repeated words took me out of the book. Damn or damned were used eight times in two pages.

The gender dynamics bugged me. I know, I know. In earlier books I used to read (and LOVE), there were sexist gender dynamics at play too. So, maybe I'm just contrary that sometimes I like a protective, bossy (*cough, in the bedroom) hero and sometimes he sounds like a controlling asshole. This guy said the equivalent of "twitch that ass in front of me again like that and I'll f--- you." Charming.

Then there were the heroine's male relatives acting as gatekeepers of her sexuality. Gross. In this case, for this story, the heroine tolerates her male relatives telling her where she can be, even going so far as to let them remove her from places they don't approve of. In a contemporary! And I think she was in her twenties! Nope. Not for me.

So, despite wanting to follow this author's series, at this point, I just can't do it. I don't like to read something that makes me cranky because there's so much out there to read that might not.

Have any of you been able to return to an author who you stopped reading?