True to the time period romances
I just finished reading {The Duke in Question by Amalie Howard} and I'm apalled. It's supposed to be a historical romance, but it might as well be contemporary. At this point, it seems like "historical" means they wear gowns instead of jeans, because 99% of the time, I felt like I was reading modern characters. Their attitudes, ideas, behaviours were ZERO realistic. In fact, most of the people I know in real life aren't as progressive thinking as the main characters in that book (and I live in a country that is so much more progressive and left-leaning than the US).
I'm queer myself, neurodivergent and part of a historically marginalised group, but I was getting whiplash reading about things like "allies", "opression" and many other recently coined terms. It's not that characters wouldn't be sexist or racist. It's that even if they weren't, they wouldn't use this language. And even worse, all the sex with no regard by the FMC, who is supposed to be the sister of a duke, of being ruined. I just can't suspend my disbelief anymore.
It's not that I want books with sexist, racist, classist, prude main characters. But at this point, I might take those kind of romances over the ones so on your nose with all the modern attitudes.
I'd read 80s romances, my only problem is that I've already read lots of them, and I can't deal with the lack of consent. It's so fundamentally rapey and thus unsexy to me I simply can't enjoy the goddamn book anymore.
I can deal with sexism, especially benevolent sexism, but no rapey, non consensual stuff.
Any recs?