This DARK COWBOY ROMANCE was bad
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- Опубліковано 22 сер 2024
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“He has a devastating effect on the ovaries” - “Bitch, is he a cyst?!”
The way I cackled 😂
Oh your humour is the only thing that got me through this review. Can’t imagine what it must have been like to read the entire thing. 😬
My poor friends had to deal with me screaming in voice notes
I think the only saving grace of this book is that, with a title like "knotted" its not an omegaverse novel
With that title I immediately thought this was an Omegaverse novel
Might have made it a bit better. At least it would have been interesting
Sounds like it would have been better as omegaverse
What if it was an omegaverse cowboy novel!?🐺🤠
@@wendyheatherwoodsign me up lol
Pam googled "exposure therapy" and applied it in the worst possible way.
"Jake can't untie Connor quick enough because he's really good at tying knots" exhibit A that this isn't BDSM; if you tie your partner up so tightly that aren't able to untie them in an emergency situation, you are a horrible dom
My husband has a certificate in knot tying (for his job) and he says the best knots are actually easy to undo, if you pull on the right spot. He said that the knots are designed to hold the item, not make it impossible for the one who tied it to get the object out. If he was such an 'excellent' knots tirer then he should know that.
Excellent posts, came looking into the comments just for this. I guess sailors are not the target audience for this book, but still they would cry at reading this part of the book
Okay...why can't we have dark romance without the 'romance' being the dark part? Maybe this is more of a sapphic troupe (I'm sapphic lol) but it is completely possible to have a healthy 'overcoming x together' arc, or a 'we're both menaces, but our love is healthy', just as an example. I mean, Morticia and Gomez are iconic for a reason!
I think it depends on the specific “flavor” of dark romance. Many Katee Robert titles, like the Dark Olympus and Wicked Villains books, fall under dark romance, according to the classification on her website, but she’s definitely more into mutual empowerment and prioritizing consent than many mainstream dark romance authors are. But I’ve definitely read sapphic dark romance that includes toxic relationships, so it’s not unique to cishet stuff.
@@cakt1991 Yeah, across the board healthy relationships (not abusive relationship lol -the bar is LOW) is the uncommon thing. It sucks not just because of all the obvious reasons, but these plots are so boring and depressing after a while.
Then again, I am definitely biased because my 'I am TOTALLY straight and cis' phase included Wattled and real life poor decisions with guys, so I am deeply repelled by stuff like this now - but I still like drama and dark themes in the rising above it sense.
I have two sets of characters with questionable romantic endeavors. Two are villains, all their morals are questionable. and then another set who just have a complex relationships and trauma so they get off to a rocky start.
He just wanted to assault her but try to manipulate her into thinking he’s a good guy despite exploiting her trauma just so he can have his way with her and disguise it as “therapy” 😟
Literally, it’s so disgusting.
As someone who is also an SA survivor, the thought of my potential partner forcing me to do things that he knows will trigger me under the guise of "therapy," sounds like actual psychological torture. What the fuck.
No I personally agree as a CSA survivor myself. The absolute thought of being forced to do something that can and will trigger me by my s/o scares me.
I’m kinda sick of dark romance authors writing about abusive relationships and calling it kink or fetish when there’s no consent at all involved. Like, no, jUST CALL IT WHAT IT IS.
It's because the abuse and lack of consent is _their_ fetish. There should be a way to hold authors/publishers accountable for the way they market books
I might be reading too many fanfictions because none of that is what comes to my mind upon reading the word "Knotted"
"Penetrative sex is not the end all be all." THANK YOU! I quit reading a series (for a whole host of reasons) where two people did basically everything except penetration and she kept saying they weren't having sex. MA'AM.
Ah the Mormon school of sexual philosophy.
Thank you for putting into words why I JUST CANNOT read teenagers (aka children) having sex in books. It’s the worse kind of voyeurism.
I remember really liking the Maximum Ride series by James Patterson when I was a young teenager (like 14 years old), so I ventured into his adult fiction that was kind of also tied into that series - from what I remember it seemed like an AU version or something? Idk this was over 15 years ago. Anyway, I remember the story depicting a sex scene between two teenage characters who were similar in age to me, and I remember being SO squicked out by it, specifically because it was written by an adult. I wasn't really able to understand or articulate the feelings I had about it at the time, but as you say, it felt voyeuristic. It felt violating, as a 14 year old, to read a scene about 14-year-olds having sex, written by a grown-ass adult man. It gave me the same feeling as receiving street harassment from adult men, which also arguably happened the most in my life when I was 14. I've always hated it. It never felt normal to me.
I don't get it either. I don't wanna read kids getting it on. They do, we know they do, but like in adult stuff? No pls.
Do people just forget that ‘fade to black’ exists? We don’t need full details of sex scenes unless it is a spicy adult book. Otherwise fade to black works just fine.
@@sunnyandthechlo
I use fade to black in one of my books. Smut is fun to write and I write for adults, but if the vibes aren't there then I don't. My NaNoWriMo project has surprisingly no smut even though I wanted it to lol. (The next book is gonna make up for it)
@@vvitch-mist20 Smut is totally fine. But when the protagonists are teens you can definitely write sex into the plot but it’s better to fade to black to leave out the details. Especially since this book is for adults and it’s uncomfortable to read about. When you’re writing about adults then smut it up if you want.
1) The Dixie Chicks didn’t deserve that
2) the main dude is 19 or maybe 20 or something, literally no 19 y olds are sex gods. I call shenanigans
😂😂😂❤❤❤
Fr the chicks are icons get them out of there
Haven't The Chicks been through enough?????
Haha I’m sure some 19 year old dude is a sex god like come on now, come on.
@@sunnyandthechlo literally no. Have you had sex at 19? Trying to explain simple concepts to a man that has not only bad stamina, shit thrust angles, and can’t find the clit? Heavy on the impossible
It's really concerning how popular the 'she says no but her body says yes' trope is.
I feel like if this was an omegaverse cowboy romance it would have been better. Idk why. I just think it might’ve been lol
I'm absolutely sure cowboy Omegaverse is a genre
@@RainWelshI wish, right?
Ranchers can be very ruthless lol, but the path from sweet kid to mentally unwell cowboy is well documented and nothing to romanticize. This is just gross, and nothing hurts rural folks more than ridiculous portrayals like this.
Got some studies to link or the like? Genuinely interested.
The only time someone should romanticize it is if they understand what it means themselves. Because there is definitely beauty in being a cowboy worth romanticizing, but I don't think this lady has the capabilities to understand or respect that.
Tip: if the wig wasn't described you can imagine literally any wig you want to make this easier
So, this is a manual about how to take a SA victim and groom them for the new assailant's personal flavor of victim forever and basically he's just mad that he wasn't able to violate her first? This is viscerally disgusting.
Not me thinking it was A/B/O thanks to the title
Glad I'm not the only one
Not super into Cowboys, but if someone would write an actually historically accurate cowboy book I'd probably read it. You know, where the vast majority of cowboys are poc, especially indigenous *and Mexican, and they're mostly gay.
* = edit
that would be the only kind of cowboy books that i would be interested in
true, i desperately need this as a gay texan 😭
The new Isabel cañas has romance with a cowboy and a rancheros daughter that takes place during the 1840s. It also has vampires, but that is kind of a side-ish thing. Bipoc characters, classism, and colonization is discussed. Anywho, I feel like it shows the reality of the time. It’s called vampires of el Norte.
Same. It's weird that there wasn't a Bass Reeves movie until 2019 and nobody talked about it. Indigenous and Mexican cowboys (outside of old Mexican musicals my grandpa loved) have no representation on the screen either.
So true we're going to learn about queer cowboys in my queer studies class! I'm so excited!
“He’s doing this for your ‘safety’”
So is this book if Christian Grey was a cowboy? 🤨 Because I haven’t heard that phrase in that way since Dominic Noble’s (fka The Dom) Fifty Shades reviews…
Yeah, I really think this video has helped me figure out The Big Issue™ with a lot of dark romance for me personally: one character is awful and is constantly the aggressor, and the other character is a decent person and never truly fights back.
A good/fun dark romance (for me) has a more even scale, where both characters do shitty things. Yes, it’s toxic, but at least they both have some power in the relationship and it isn’t just one of them continuously being victimized all the time.
Also, realistic mental health rep?? Like, this Conner girl was just tortured and r-ped and it somehow cured her PTSD instead of making it worse. How she didn’t have a complete mental breakdown during all that botched ‘therapy’, baffles me. The ML really put the r-pist in therapist 😭
Lol but yeah like fucked up relationships are fun to read when they are both doing toxic things. Like i recently read one about a buttler manipulating his boss to get his money and the dinamics were so interesting.
Ruthless cattle rancher… this dude just beats up cows all day.
Tbh, Oklahoma sucks about punishing rapists and child sex offenders, so that was probably the only believable thing about this book. I’m actually shocked they had him in prison for a few years instead of a slap on the wrist. I hate it here
"medicine is unnecessary". Okay, Pam, I hope you step on a lego every day of the week. >:(
May her pillow always be a little bit too warm.
I have read 400,000k words of Arthur Morgan (RDR2) fanfiction, and I honestly think the crazy fanfic writers did non-con(but with enthusiastic implied consent and excitement) and horny bdsm cowboys better than Pam Godwin, a published author.
I read that as “R2-D2 fanfiction” and was incredibly curious
@@AmbassadorKat Is it not that?
@@AmbassadorKat He seems to have a tool for everything else?
@@TheProxy066 nope! RDR2 stands for Red Dead Redemption 2 :) highly HIGHLY recommend it if you haven’t played it! it’s a video game set in 1899 and the plot follows a gang of cowboy outlaws in the wild west and one member of that gang, arthur morgan, and his journey towards redemption (or not!). incredibly profound story, it changed my outlook on life.
He’s her the-rapist
I love dark romance and I love cowboys. But Jesus Christ I was astonished at how horrible this book was. The scene where he sings to her while doing the nasty is forever burned into my memory 🥲
I attempted another Pam Godwin book and had to DNF it. She’s just. Not for me I guess.
I’m sorry-DID YOU JUST SAY SINGS?? dear god…
He what 💀
I never read the book, but the part where you said he sings to her while they're doing it reminded me of this reddit post that made it onto the sub, AmItheDevil. Basically, it was from this other woman who was sleeping with a married man. And at one point, she states that he sung the song, Closer by Nine Inch Nails to her while they were doing it.
Excuse me WHAT!?
( Disclaimer this is a joke)
Readers: ewww two men/ women kissed burn it now
Also readers : he’s 50 she’s 18 and it’s another 50 shades clone he’s also a name caller - oooh this is hot give me more of that
EXACTLY aaaaa why are people like this
The main reason I transitioned out of reading fanfiction was because a lot of what used to appeal to me was spicy, and as I slowly became am adult it started making me super uncomfortable that all the AUs were set in high school. I've started reading it again but exclude underage tags.
I specifically ignore college and high school aus because of how common teacher student stuff is
I work at a university and I can’t even read college romances because my students feel like kids to me and I don’t want to think about it. Like I know they’re adults and do what they do, but they’re also my kids lol.
I’m cackling. I forgot to tell you, your Jake is a the gay cowboy from Brokeback Mountain. Good movie though
oh i know and anne hathaway plays his wife in Brokeback Mountain lmao i was just like "celebrity in cowboy hat" and found them and was like THAT'LL DO!
Haven't Lady Antebellum changed their name, didn't the author know that?
@@Scatscar1985 they have! They are known as Lady A only. This author clearly didn’t care
I knew he looked familiar!!
@@Scatscar1985Same thing with Dixie Chicks who are now called The Chicks, though in their case I think they probably should have just gone for a whole new name instead of doing the shortening thing. It's just not a good name.
I'm wondering how old the author is just because this sounds like it started out as one of those old song fanfics people used to write ... unless that's become popular again lol
I swear I got flashbacks
Not gonna lie, the title had me thinking this would be a Werewolf romance. Instead I got a Cowboy who should probably be on an FBI watchlist…yay.
First of all bondage should always be easy to get out of, because accidents happen, emergencies happen. Bondage is meant to be fun.
Straight to jail for ten thousand years, Pam.
Is "Pam Godwin" a penname for Ryan Murphy? I'm being reminded of that episode of "Nip/Tuck" where one of the main characters gets over being raped by a serial multilator of women by having a three way. (No I"m not making that up. You won't surprised to hear I bailed from the show before it ended.)
ryan murphy..... as in glee ryan murphy? as in ahs ryan murphy? /gen
@@cassiehosh1677 Yes, the same Ryan Murphy. Also the same person who helped create the Dahmer Netflix show that disrespected the family of the victims.
@@mel4957 oh yeah i had forgotten his participation in the creation in dahmer 💀 i've never watched anything from him other than a couple glee episodes with my cousin and that fucking prom movie (i'm still pissed about it) so i didn't know shit was THAT BAD JESUS
edit: typo
I hate Ryan so much
"Booted"???? That's a euphemism for vomiting, and that seems quite appropriate.
Booted can also mean kicked out (ie they were booted from the competition), but I suppose that definition makes sense in this context.
I've never heard booted used a euphemism for vomiting, though (not trying to discredit you or anything, I've just genuinely never heard it used that way).
"I put the ho in Oklahoma" god i almost cackled at work
My extensive background in fanfiction had me convinced that this was a very different type of story. 😅
That picture of Jake Gyllenhaal when you’re talking about this horror show of a man is killing me.
So we're really putting NYT bestselling author on anything
if youre seeing this i hope you have a good day and stay away from abuse marketed as romance because good god
Genuinely HAVE A GOOD DAY!!!! don't let this horrible book bring your day down because OH MY H GOGODDDDDOFF
That isn’t how exposure therapy works. You have to have extremely controlled environments, move slowly, communicate throughout and even then it doesn’t work for many people and they find a different way to deal instead. Also I’m sick of medication shaming. For some people it is the difference between suffering daily vs. being able to lead a functional or even happy life. If he cared about her at all he would’ve given her every option to see what worked best for her specific needs.
Does Pam know about omega verse? If she did wouldn’t she be worried about brand confusion?
Thing is I think if she reads it she'll start writing it since I have a feeling it's right up her alley
"Bitch, is he a cyst!?" is the best 😂
We could have had a cool dark story about getting revenge and childhood friends coming together after this trauma tore them apart and ruined all their lives
Instead we got an omega verse fanfiction title and terrible wanna be cowboy/therapist love interest
I think you should put a "Don't try this at home" warning when reviewing books like this.
How is this not werewolf erotica with a title like that?!
“ye-haw”
- Tillie Cole, probably
Rachel says she’ll use pictures for the characters and immediately I think “oh for Jake she should use jake gyllenhaal in brokeback mountain” and sure enough that’s who it is. perfect content
Wow, this story got more and more vile. I agree with you completely - these assholes all belong in jail, and Connor needs a team of amazing therapists and a support system that actually gives a shit about her as a person.
Why is it always "You're mine."?
For once I'd like the man to say "I'm your's."
They're not wolf shifters? How disappointing 😢
I have a legitimate question. With the disclaimer that people are allowed to have previous partners, its all preference and part of growing up.
WHY do these lady dark romance authors always always always write the love interest as someone who's had more sex than Zeus? Then every woman in town has experienced exactly what the fmc has, but SHE has to be as pure as Mother Teresa. Why?!?! Like her sexuality is some sacred thing that no one else can have except for him. His sexuality has been experienced by every women in a twenty mile radius.
She should have told that man she wouldnt touch him until shed caught up to him in experience.
Internal misogyny is disturbingly common
I decided to look at the reviews and I'm both surprised and not surprised that it has mostly positive reviews. I skimmed a review that said one of the things she didn't like was that Jake was "such a likable character" that it was hard for her to picture him doing some of the bad things he did in the story. I'm worried for the 5 star reviewers' mental states. I fear there may be nothing going on up there besides the DVD logo bouncing around in their skulls.
Wow, that is genuinely disturbing.
I love Angst/dark themes in romance (within reason) but I feel books like this kind of *romanticize* abusive relationships more than anything else. And, from the sounds of it in the book, Jake was turned on by Connor's trauma and wanted to do it too. Which is just 😵💫🤢
Oh god that title...cowboy is not the first thought I had but I've been on the internet for far too long. .__.
Oh boy even the first 5 mins of this review...
im sorry "knotted" for any book that isn't.... focused on knots... is an awful marketing idea lmao
Arthur Morgan and John Marston didn't die for the cowboys that came after them to disrespect women like this
As someone currently living in oklahoma I was jumpscared by the setting and I would like to be excluded from this narrative going forward LOL
This is so sad and fucked up. My jaw dropped at 'he put on a wig and smoked cigarettes to fuck her without her knowing' but it got so, so much worse.
I think you'll be saddened to know that, in fact, offenders can just go wherever they want after they get out of prison as long as they're not on parole. All they have to do is register their address, no halfway house required.
Oh. My. God.
This book is, when you think of a trope and just pick the WORST choices for the plot.
What the fuck, man. What the fuck.
The mental image of burying a man alive while Faith Hill plays in the background is so fucking preposterous that it's the only good part of this book. Should've been Life is A Highway though
..... Always had more of a interest in pirates than in cowboys, and this book does not help the cowboys
My brother would be the pirate and I would be the cowboy when we were little. This is not a good point for the cowboys
Hold up. Lil mister BDSM god ties his girlfriend up and didn’t think to bring a pocket knife incase things go bad and she wanted out ASAP? Not to mention they were out in the open so…
“Bitch is he a cyst what do you mean” made me bust out laughing 😂
She can't keep getting away with those smooth transitions! Someone stops her! Wait, we can't because she's protected by atlas VPN 😂😂dang it, you got me again girl
Hahaahahaha
why did we need a full soundtrack to this
That book starts out as a country fried Fifty Shades of grey and then goes off the rails. Btw I hate cowboys too.😝
“He has a devastating effect on the ovaries”
“Is he a cyst?”
Had me dying
I'm always so tired of the whole anxiety medicine is addictive I took it for years and I kept forgetting to take the damn things because I hate taking pills cause I didn't feel high I just felt not as anxious. I even would avoid getting refills out of hating the fuss of dealing with people. So if its addictive it did a shit job lol
Oh, puke! I barely like reading romance or smut starring 20 year olds at this point in my life, but teenagers? Teenagers?? Hell, no. I definitely don't think my mental health can handle assault scenes. Not something I'd purposely put myself through
I’m starting to really wonder what is going on with a lot of authors… like are they okay???
Oh man, I have read a Pam Godwin or two and they were just... not for me. I'm so excited for this rant!
The song Breathe playing after they’ve just buried someone alive is camp
99% sure the brother wouldn't serve a second of time for literal self defense but okay
Can you do a video about the rise in music associated books? I’ve seen so many lately that it’s kinda concerning.
Is that a thing? Drop some recs!
Oh this book deserves a Dixie Chicks (The Chicks) song but it deserves 'Goodbye Earl.'
This was honestly traumatizing and feels like something pulled from the ibooks cesspool. How she got this published makes me lose more hope in literature 😂
So I sail and I’ve worked with horses for a time and I’m great with knots. I can’t fathom tying someone up in a way I wouldn’t be able to get them out of with a single pull.
"Is he a cyst?"
Given what he does, that seems like an appropriate comparison.
As soon as I saw the book title, I stopped. Read the captions and the vid description, breathed a sigh of relief and went "being made aware of the omegaverse has destroyed me in measureable ways."
Okay, as someone who does take daily meds and has felt real improvement from that: can Pam Godwin please go home and rethink her life?
Whenever you say “knotted” I hear “not it,” which is an accurate feeling this book evokes.
"*Bitch, is he a cyst?*. The way I CHOKED on my tonsils- 💀💀💀💀
Ah the "He's right behind me, isn't he?" joke. The funny thing about that cliché is actually how old it really is. As Trey the Explainer has a video on how it's one of the world's oldest jokes, dating back to 405 BCE in the Greek play "The Frogs". Of course, that's just its first RECORDED usage, to be included in the play, it must have actually been far older, but any record of it prior to this was lost.
Not Broke back mountain 💀🤣
I watched this while nauseous. So when the topic of the book disgusted me, I hadn't eaten and didn't vomit all over my computer.
Also, the title made me realize I've read way too much fanfiction.
I'm soooo uncomfortable. If someone says something is a hard no. An absolutely not. You DON'T DO IT. IT IS OFF LIMITS.
the "soundtrack" is nearly as atrocious as the plot. like what a subpar pick of tunes that even baselevel are related to what is going on at the time. at least the genre makes sense for the theme of the book so there is that.
Also awkward if you've only heard the cascada version of What Hurts the Most like I have, like whoops wrong genre
"Everybody jail" is my exact sentiment after listening to you explain this book. As you explained at the end, it uhhh kinda sucks when books perpetuate bad things that happen in real life.
I've never read a dark romance, but my concept of what I think this genre is about, or should be about, is a narrative that says, "Yes this is dark, it acknowledges bad things happen, and characters are aware things are wrong, but continue on for xyz reason." Which means books like this, Knotted, that just... paint bad and unhealthy things as fine? No character nor the narrative questions it? Yeah, hard pass for me.
The country girl in me feels infinity levels of offended, also….Pam straight to JAIL ⛓️🚓🔑
when you said they were listening to “what hurts the most” I almost CACKLED like dude if you have to force in what real song is playing at least try to be a littleeee bit subtle
I bet the Kings of Leon song was Sex on Fire, wasn't it? 🙄
It wasn’t! I can’t remember which song it wasn’t but like…at least not that one
Color me shocked! Lol@@ReadswithRachel
I actually sjhouted "FUCK OFF!!!" at the Faith Hill bit.
This whole thing sounds like it was written by a toxic masculine guy. Side note.. I need a tut on that makeup
"Bitch, is he a cist!?" I fucking cackled.
I'm SCREAMING with all the song choices, like they are so jarring knowing the context of the scene.