White Lady Nonsense | The Hero by Robyn Carr

Title: The Hero
Series: Thunder Point #3
Author: Robyn Carr
Published: August 27, 2013
Genre(s): Romance: Contemporary
Page Count: 379
Rating:

Summary from Goodreads:

In a moment of desperation, Devon McAllister takes her daughter and flees a place where they should have been safe and secure. She has no idea what is around the next bend, but she is pretty certain it can't be worse than what they've left behind. Her plan is to escape to somewhere she can be invisible. Instead, an unexpected offer of assistance leads her to Thunder Point, a tiny Oregon town with a willingness to help someone in need.

As the widowed father of a vulnerable young boy, Spencer Lawson knows something about needing friendship. But he's not looking for anything else. Instead, he's thrown his energy into his new role as Thunder Point's high school football coach. Tough and demanding to his team, off the field he's gentle and kind...just the kind of man who could heal Devon's wounded heart.

Devon thought she wanted to hide from the world. But in Thunder Point, you find bravery where you least expect it...and sometimes, you find a hero.

This being my second low-rated read from Robyn Carr’s Thunder point series, I do believe I’m going to call it quits. There are some things to enjoy about these books, but there’s far more to be frustrated with, and though I didn’t outright hate The Hero, I really didn’t like it, either.

The big problem is that Carr, like so many other authors of contemporary romance, suffuses her stories with sex shaming, gender essentialism, and heavy-handed reinforcement of gender roles. Probably she doesn’t mean to be sexist, but I was very disquieted by a lot of things I read. The woman who wears form-fitting exercise clothes is a whore! If people are going on a hunting trip, obviously the woman is only there to cook—guns are for boys and kitchens are for girls! That kind of thing is disturbing and toxic, and I have no use for it in my fiction, seeing that I deal with these issues so prevalently in my daily life.

Beyond that, I was unhappy with the central romance itself, between Spencer and Devon. It felts rushed and underdeveloped, with a dramatic crisis at the end that seemed unnecessary, considering all the other drama going on. Namely, a cult.

Yes, there is a cult in The Hero, and I wasn’t impressed with how Carr handled it. Of course, cults and closed communities are interesting topics, but I really didn’t buy into The Fellowship as it appeared in this novel. As I’ve complained about previously with books in the series, Carr seems to enjoy creating plots that are a cross between and after-school special and a telenovela. I prefer my romances to be far more low-key and character-focused than this. By and large, The Hero really pushed the limits of believability.

I think I have enough evidence now to conclude that the Thunder Point series is not for me. Robyn Carr’s portrayal of women strikes me as rather antifeminist, her romances are boring, and her plots are melodramatic and overwrought. The Hero was eyeroll-inducing and difficult to read, and I’m left with no good reason to revisit the series after this.