@whoamist If I were to disagree with your statement, it would only be to say that the 10x factor might be too low.
I've taken to judging the romances I read by this simple criterion: Am I shipping the main couple as much for the girl's sake as for the guy's? In other words, am I cheering for the couple regardless of which POV I look at it from?
Even if we make –for the sake of the argument– the very debatable assumption that this happened in the first chapter, every single chapter since has worked against it. I'm sorry, but if an older-female-younger-male romance manages to lose
me as a reader, it absolutely has to be hot rubbish... and if the MMC keeps being such a
fkn useless creep that's exactly what's going to happen.
The instant I think to myself "Flee, madam! You deserve much better!" is the instant I drop this. I suspect that the next chapter will do it.