The Trouble with Trying to Love a Hellion (Murder Sprees and Mute Decrees, #3) by Jennifer Cody

#mmromance #murderfamily

Ok listen, I have some thoughts on this one. Also you cannot read this as a stand alone.

Spoilers ahead

So in here we have Edovard, who you might remember from an earlier book where he was kidnapped from a gas station and adopted into Romilys family.

First off, I have to say I did not know that there was a note from Papa in the front of this book until someone pointed that out to me. In this note, we are supposed to know that Edovard dictated this story as he cannot read or write well BUT is not developmentally delayed. I'll go into more detail later on about that.

Anyways, this picks up exactly from the end of the previous book, with Edovard’s attraction to the avatar of evil being obvious while Oppa and Bellamy fight the bad guys. Edovard does not understand this attraction at first, he just thinks the avatar shines brightly with love and goodness. He also is really into helping the avatars bodyguards/boyfriends.

This whole story is basically slice of life. The drama is really only about how Edovard’s family does not like his new partners (cause evil) and his asexuality. Edovard basically goes through this whole story filling up evil minions with love and righting the balance of good/evil. That part was lovely, I actually enjoyed it very much.

However, the way Edovard was portrayed was as if he was developmentally delayed. Which would have been a good portrayal of showing that just because you are delayed, it does not mean you are not a grown adult, but (and this is a big butt) the writer goes out of the way to make you think he was just not all that smart/more kid like but not developmentally delayed, which made sex scenes very problematic. He is a grown man who did not know what an erection was until someone told him. Asexuality does not mean that your body does not work and at some point in his life would have had at least one involuntary erection.

While the others in his polycule bent over backwards to make sure he consented, his thoughts about sex was not on the level as a grown man which is where the uncomfortable feelings came in.

I did love finding out what he was, that he could see love (how great would that be), and that everyone understood that he was most definitely abused growing up, I just wish that Edovard’s portrayal was done differently.

And I really hope that Edovard can make Darcy's dark love grow bright again.