I don't think I would have realized it was so directly related if I hadn't already known it was a sequel. I probably would have figured "same fictional world, around the same area, my don't stories change over time."
Throwing in the pseudo-Raj just seemed sooooooo weird. That's part of the reason I never bonded with the story. Despite Harry usually being my kinda Mary Sue.
Also, I am usually weirded out by the "white woman kidnapped by savage" type stories, and not usually into the "white woman is matched with exotic savage" type stories. It's a romance subgenre that leaves me cold. Exoticization is not romantic. I like some stories of that type that get around the exoticization somehow.
One aspect of cultural appropriation is the one where you represent a culture you don't understand, and your heroes are those whose values are closest to yours (no matter how far they are from the values of the culture in question). Like how romance heroines are always feminists.
Re: Please clarify
Throwing in the pseudo-Raj just seemed sooooooo weird. That's part of the reason I never bonded with the story. Despite Harry usually being my kinda Mary Sue.
Also, I am usually weirded out by the "white woman kidnapped by savage" type stories, and not usually into the "white woman is matched with exotic savage" type stories. It's a romance subgenre that leaves me cold. Exoticization is not romantic. I like some stories of that type that get around the exoticization somehow.
One aspect of cultural appropriation is the one where you represent a culture you don't understand, and your heroes are those whose values are closest to yours (no matter how far they are from the values of the culture in question). Like how romance heroines are always feminists.