Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I started reading this book because my girlfriend loves it so much. I could not finish it. At first I found the character of Claire to be charming... I liked her spunk, her guts, her irreverence, and her strength. All of those things were instantly destroyed by the scenes occurring right after her supposedly-dreamboat new husband beats her for disobedience. I was wary immediately after Jamie threatens, rather impishly, to beat her if she leaves the place where he's stashing her. It might have been okay if she'd come back with a firm "I will not stay with someone who even so much as threatens to harm me," but no - Claire responds by quaking in her boots and observing that he means it. She goes ahead and does what she wants anyway... Good for her... So I kept reading. Then, after her actions place Jamie and his buddies in a dangerous pickle, he decides that the only reasonable recourse is to beat her in punishment. If she doesn't fight him, he'll keep it to a few strokes... If she does, he'll "beat her til his arm tires." Are you freaking KIDDING ME?!! But okay, I can accept it as a pretty realistic response from a man who's been raised in an utterly misogynistic time and culture. He goes on about how he's going to enjoy it. She does fight back, so he beats her more. But all of this I could have accepted, had Claire shut him out after that. Had she made it clear to him that their relationship was over, regardless of whether they were still married... Had she made every effort, regardless of whether it earned more beatings, to escape from him until she either succeeded, got killed or he killed her... Had this brought him to his senses, perhaps, and he had apologized, begged forgiveness and spent the majority of the rest of the novel doing penance... I could have accepted it and kept reading. But no. Within hours of this unforgivable act of abuse, Claire is feeling sorry for him and considering asking him to come back to bed with her. The next morning, she stands around a table of his friends and blushes while they tease her and even good-naturedly chastise Jamie for maybe being a little too rough. Later that afternoon when she can no longer bear the pain of sitting on horseback they all laugh and Jamie decides to walk with her for a while, regaling her with tales of being beaten himself in his youth. Which is supposed to what, make the reader think that such behavior is okay after all because it's just part of who the character is? The most disgusting and disturbing thing is that this actually WORKS on Claire, who decides that she'd brought the beating onto herself and, in fact, marvels at the wisdom of her husband for teaching her such an important lesson. No. No. HELL TO THE NO. I stopped reading right then and there, and only found out by reading other reviews that apparently, at the end of this disgraceful chapter, our meek heroine then makes her first admission of love to this abusive jerk, who jokes that it took a beating to win her love. Again, are you kidding me??!! I should add that I'm not squeamish about violence, sex, or even rape in novels. Used well, they can add realism and up the stakes of plot tension. I might even accept that a bit of violence between romantic partners contributes to a developing relationship, so long as it results in earth shattering regret for the behavior, and/ or is literally the only way for one character to save the other's life, thereby turning into something that is as torturous for the inflictor as it is for the inflictee. This story does neither of those things. It is unacceptable for an author to paint unapologetic abuse like this as romantic. There is absolutely nothing romantic about it. Thumbs way way down.