A One Star Review I'm Okay With

I received my first Amazon one star review on After Sundown. I’m not really upset, because the reviewer didn’t slam my writing, and I suppose his/her comment “The writing style could not make up for such an unlikeable character” might be taken as a backhanded compliment.

The reviewer is right, Cole, the male protagonist (whom I would not term the hero of the story, as the reviewer did) behaved like a jerk. It’s true he molested Kit, the female protagonist on the dance floor – yet she never said no, and from his perspective and considering the situation and her reaction, he reasonably assumed she wanted his attention.

Did he almost rape her? Sort of. The reviewer stopped reading at that point.

I never said my books were politically correct. Was his behavior totally inappropriate? Yes.

For the record, the story doesn’t condone date rape – yet it does feature a character who almost commits it.

I might argue Cole confronted his dark side; horrified at his own behavior. But I could only push that argument so far. Sure, he experienced a revelation and regretted being such a jerk. But he didn’t completely change his ways, and much of his behavior later in the story is not politically correct.

But like I said, I never promised political correctness.