BLACKLISTED FOR LIFE.. 
 As someone keenly pointed out - three or four books would've been enough to get a measure of an author. Hell, R.L. Mathewson was blacklisted after 2 books. Another author immensely popular on goodreads - but someone who has destroyed my goodwill so thoroughly, I will claim both books were garbage. My reaction is so visceral, if you bring that name up, I will clam up or start ranting like a madwoman. 
 I gave Kristen Ashley fifteen tries. 
 The reason I encountered her in the first place was my love for werewolf stories. I saw With Everything I Am, and when I started it, I couldn't believe my luck. It tricked me, just like Tall, Dark & Lonely did, by good writing and a fantastic(ish) premise. Both go to shit...R.L Mathewson because she murdered the historical genre, and the vampire genre and Ashley....because her characters are so sexist and abusive. 
 I stuck around so long, because I thought Ashley was a terrific writer. (HA!) 
 All her male-leads are carbon-copies of each other. They all call their woman, "baby" "honey" "sweetheart" - and I really, really dislike stomach-churning endearments. In all her books and all of the time! Also, the females all refer to the dudes as "my man" and he says "my woman" and it's giving me flashbacks to the 1950's - no scratch that, the Neanderthal era. 
 Me, man. 
 You, woman. 
 Every single of her male leads are dictatorial, and don't let their 'woman' put a word in edgeways. I'm paraphrasing, but I'll sum up what I've been reading in the 15 books: 
 No, I'll use ACTUAL quotes (and fuck, they're easy to find): 
 "Sam." 
 "He bought you a drink?" 
 "Sam, listen -" 
 "And you gave him your name?" 
 Shit. 
 "Sam -" 
 "You've got a drink at the table," Sam pointed out, again talking over me. 
 "Sam!" I snapped. 
 THEN.... 
 "Sam -" I started. 
 "This isn't a discussion." 
 "Sam!" 
 His fingers dug deeper, his face suddenly dipped close and Memphis yapped but we both ignored her. 
 "Right, you need to get this, it's important, so I'll lay it out as best I can but you don't cross this line, Kia. Ever." 
 Now I was confused. 
 "What line?" 
 "I'm a man." 
 Well, I knew that. 
 "That isn't news, Sam." 
 "And you're my woman." 
 The above exchange particularly sucked balls, because although Sam can iron his own shirt, and pick up his own laundry(yay!) - I've lost count of how many times he doesn't let his woman finish her sentence. All of Kristen's heroes! Just insert random names, I've dealt 15 books worth of this shit. Also Sam makes important, life-changing decisions without consulting her. And normally this wouldn't rankle so much, but in EVERY BOOK, the female works up some indignation, and my inner feminist cheers, but then she always acquiesce within two pages, and even thinks everything he does is right and for her own good. This is emotional abuse, and could almost be compared to gaslighting. 
 I usually bail pretty early in each book, except for 'With Everything I am' (50%), The Golden Dynasty and this, both which I finished. Maybe it was an obsession? Surely, a writer with this talent and skill has to create a non-abusive/non-sexist dude somewhere, right? But they're all the same. Different ages and backgrounds sure, but they all are CLONES of each other. 
 I'm done. 
 My hands are washed.