I’ve got to get this off my chest: I’m done with Lynsay Sands

I’ve been a huge fan of Lynsay Sands’ writing for years. I mean, her books are the type of books where I would preorder them even though they cost $7-8. When the book would launch, I would start reading it at midnight when it downloaded to my Kindle app. I would finish the book then feel bummed because I had to wait another six months for the next book to come down. I loved her writing so much, I read almost every one of her Historical Romance novels, and I kind of hate Historical Romance.

I say this so you realize just how much it likely took to break me. It happened this morning. It was 10:30, I checked my phone after waking up, and there was an email saying her next Highlander book was out, #11. That was over an hour ago, and I’m still ranting. I’m still losing my mind. I’m ranting about a book that I thought I had put behind me ages ago. It had to have been at least six months ago, possibly even a year and a half ago, and yet seeing that announcement sent me right back to the mindset I’d been in when I put down the last Argeneau Vampires novel I would ever try to read.

I’m never going to try to read another one of her books. In fact, I plan on unfollowing etc. all notifications that would let me know when her next book comes out because I don’t need this going through my head again. I want it over with.

What Sent Me Over the Edge?

The book that sent me over the edge was one that I’d been waiting breathlessly for for quite some time. It was Jet’s book. I was so excited. Finally, he would have his match. Le-sigh. To be fair, I even loved the characters and the circumstances. For the most part, it was a really good book. If the author had just removed this one this, I would have loved it, oblivious to her rampant toxicity.

It was the victim blaming.

A Little Bit of Background

To explain, I’m going to go back to one of her previous books because this wasn’t the first time she’d practiced victim blaming. It was just the first time she’d done it in a way that was unforgivable.

In a previous book, between Mary(?) and one of the Notte twins, Mary was the victim of a cheating spouse (who was now dead, freeing her up to get it on with the twin). The author does a really good job of using Mary’s past bad behavior to explain her ex-husband’s cheating. It was some epic level cheating, but she was also an epic level bitch back then. Mind you, she had her reasons, and she really needed some therapy, which she eventually got after leaving her husband. But the therapist basically conned her into getting back together with a man who had been cheating on her for so long that he had like teenage or adult age children with the other person. He’d been maintaining two families. But the therapist basically said they were both at fault, Mary for being a bitch and him for cheating. Now, I want to highlight that her behavior back then was understandable. She’d been through a traumatic event that needed to be addressed (but didn’t get addressed for probably two decades).

Point being, she wasn’t a sympathetic victim.

Furthermore, the author had the ex-husband continuing to cheat on her for decades after the therapy, during their “good years,” making the reader think that the author didn’t agree with the therapist. This allowed me to be accepting and move on, none the wiser.

On another relevant note, Mary because a therapist after the experience.

The Book the Did Me In…

The FMC of the book (whom I don’t remember the name of and have no interest in looking up) had a traumatic past. After her husband turned her and her son into vampires against their will, she didn’t handle it well, basically having a mental breakdown for years. At the beginning of the book, she’s somewhat come out of that death spiral, but is still (justly) holding a serious grudge against him for it.

In comes Mary the therapist. We learn about the FMC’s backstory and Mary convinces her that her ex-husband is not the bad guy (even though he literal committed capital offenses against her and her son). She says that by giving up control of their home life to him, he was justified for not wanting to allow her any control again once she asked for it. Basically, it was her own fault for not having time for making decisions at home when she had a crazy busy residency that took up all of her time. Basically, she had no reason to believe that a husband would simply help out around the house because she didn’t have the time for it during this very busy time in her life, and not hold it against her.

To make matters worse, you find out some more things about their past that cast her criminal ex-husband into even shadier light, like convincing her to have a kid when she wasn’t ready yet, trying to force her to make decisions when she had just got off a long shift and was dead on her feet, trying to force her to have another kid when she didn’t want one. That’s right, it becomes clear that not only did he try to derail her (much more prosperous) career with a pregnancy (on average, a pregnancy generally derails a person’s career by as much as ten years), but he was also manipulative. He actually orchestrated the circumstances behind him getting all control of their home life. He specifically chose to confront her with household issues when he knew she would be at her weakest. This… is the behavior of an abuser.

And guess what? He became one! He literally assaulted her! He attacked her and turned her into a vampire against her will! That’s abuse! Manipulating her into having a child she’s not ready for is abuse! Manipulating her into giving up control of her life is abuse! How can Mary not see that? How can the author?

And then, after the therapy session, the FMC literally feels better. She feels better accepting her own “fault” in the situation. NO!!!! That’s wouldn’t happen. That would actually make her psychological situation much, much worse. Convincing her that she was responsible for her own abuse would only leave her questioning her judgment, her every decision. It would slowly but surely break her.

Admittedly, I didn’t get that far. After Mary gaslit the FMC into believing she was basically responsible for everything bad that had happened to her and that her husband turning her was an act of “love,” not assault, I couldn’t take it anymore. The book is still living half-read in my Kindle app.

I was devastated at the time. I had really been looking forward to Jet’s book (MMC). I decided that I wouldn’t read another Argeneau vampires book. I figured I would just read her Highlander series. But this morning changed that. If just seeing a notification about her latest release can send me down this rabbit hole, I can’t even justify keeping that series in my life.

So, I’m done. No more. I’m kind of sad. I’m sad that this author ended up being toxic. I’m sad that I’ll probably no longer be able to enjoy this series, even the older books. I had read deeper in the Argeneau vampires series than any other series ever. I think it had over 30 books and at one point, I had read every one of them. Most series, I don’t get farther than about ten books before losing interest. This one was different, special, and it’s kind of sad to see it fall.

Goodbye, Lynsay Sands.