Cheating Heroes In Romance: Can You Forgive and Forget?

I just finished reading Take Me Twice, by Isabel Sharpe. This book is part of the ‘One Last Fling’ Blaze series.
It was a wholly enjoyable read, as per most of Ms Sharpe’s work.

Here’s a not-so-quick KarenS stylie blurb.

Miss Fling A Lot quits her boring job, and looks forward to a summer of exciting things to do, as well as finding her ‘Man to Do Before Saying I Do’ (no she’s not getting married, it’s a challenge that she and her ‘Man To Do’ friends have come up with.

Just as Miss Fling-A-Lot is ready to immerse herself in activities such as learning to tap dance, learning French, and skydiving, her newly dumped roomie decides to go back to her parents, thus leaving her without a room mate to share the bills, thus scuppering her summer plans of adventure.

Enter Mr -I –cheated- on –You- Whilst- We -Were -Dating -at –College (for the purpose of this entry, we will refer to him as Mr Cheater)

Mr Cheater has always regretted his actions with Miss Fling whilst they were dating, and now wants to get back inside her pants, and thinks that sharing an apartment with her is a sure-fire way of getting to sample her wares once again.

Miss Fling-A-Lot is unsure about the arrangement but agrees anyway, on the proviso that they do not indulge in hot mindless sex (suspend disbelief) as per the last few times they’ve gotten together.

Of course Mr Cheater agrees, whilst still secretly planning on the best way to get his John into her Jane.

They of course eventually start having mindlessly hot sex. During this time, Mr Cheater, realises that he’s never stopped loving Miss Fling.

However Miss Fling is wary, and is reluctant to plan ahead, because she did that once, and got hurt terribly by Mr Cheater, so she withdraws from him emotionally, whilst still indulging in the jack-rabbit sexual antics (who says she was stupid?)

Eventually, they sort things out and live happily ever after.


Now, like I said already, I loved the story, however, the fact that the hero, cheated on her whilst they were at college seemed to bother me. I say seemed to, because I’m not entirely sure, whether these were my real feelings or not.

In a discussion on the AAR loop many moons ago, Anne Marble asked what readers considered a no-no in romance books. As you can probably guess, a cheating hero was at the top of that list.

So my dilemma, is that I’m not sure whether it truly bothered me, or if the resounding agreement from other romance readers, that cheating is a no-no, coloured my viewpoint somewhat.

So what about you, would it bother you, if you read a book where the hero cheated on the heroine, no matter how long ago it was? If the answer is yes, are there any circumstances where you could forgive and forget, e.g. the hero was bound and gagged at the time…? (grin)