Reviews for Didn't You Say You Hate Me!? The Troubled Doting Marriage Life of a Strange Duke Manga

This review contains spoilers. Classic story: nobleman wants a contract marriage, stifled noblewoman agrees. The noblewoman is intelligent, charming, magnanimous, kind, beautiful, and loved by everyone. The male lead is a misogynist, clingy, and a jerk. Absolutely disappointing. Everyone acts like he’s a kind soul who has been wronged by the world. But his tragic backstory regarding women is that he was scammed by his ex girlfriend and got robbed. That’s it? All of that garbage treatment to the nicest lady over that? I’ve read dozens of stories on this site about characters who experienced terrible traumas and did not act 1/10th as rude as this guy. Also, the lewd scenes are super out of nowhere, not in character for the male lead who notoriously hates women, and also not consented by his wife. While I don’t diss the non-con enjoyers here (see 90% of the lewd marked comics on this site), this is certainly not the audience for that. I was debating rating this lower, but the female lead is so well written and cute that it amazes me that the author could be so bad at writing a suitable husband for her. Such a shame. I wish she had a better story to be in.

This review contains spoilers. If I could rate this at zero stars I would. The Duke was a bit annoying to start out with and I was hoping a gradual warming to his wife would kinda redeem him a bit, but in less than a single chapter the entire thing was ruined for me. Chapter 6 turns him suddenly into an ultra-jealous, crazy-clingy, inconsiderate (though he was already inconsiderate before) man who cannot even bother to listen to reason or his wife and forces intimacy when she's literally telling him to stop. It comes out of NOWHERE! One minute he's telling her not to smile at men because she's too beautiful when she smiles and the next minute he's declaring love and forcing himself on her. Thankfully he doesn't fully go through with penetrative intercourse yet but he forces s3%ual contact with her and dirty talks this poor woman during it while she's yelling at him to stop it. His wants and desires are clearly the ONLY thing that matter to him. Not a single ounce of consideration for his wife throughout the entire thing except a single moment of apology for a single interaction of bad behavior somewhere around chapter 3. I know that women historically weren't given a choice about being intimate with their husbands, but in a modern romance story, I'm not going to accept a ML who behaves that badly as a character I can support even a minute amount. So, no. I'm completely disgusted by this dude and will be dropping it right away.