I decided to apply to a PhD. programme where I could [...] investigate [...] and attempt to understand the role romance texts might play in some women learning to label controlling behaviours as romantic. One inconsistency, at that time, with my concerns that there might be some direct causal relationship between reading romance, learning that controlling behaviours are romantic and becoming involved in an abusive relationship, was that I had witnessed domestic violence as a child, had read romances as an adolescent, had ambivaIent feelings regarding the romantic portrayal of controlling figures but was not in an abusive relationship. What had saved me, I wondered? There could not be a direct cause and effect relationship between reading romance and interpreting controlling and abusive behaviours as romantic if this had not resulted in my involvement in an abusive relationship. (26-27)