Is it incest?

[Kiraann]

And @Also, Manhattan was controversial at the time as was Woody Allen himself.

IMHO, he should be equally shunned as Bill Cosby.

 

[Tallyfire]

I heard something a while back and didn’t see it in the replies so I’ll add it. I have a friend who reads a lot on one of these self-publishing websites (no idea which, I’m clueless) and she told me the whole step-sibling romance trope is currently in fashion. Take that with a grain of salt.

As to a personal reaction: I recently stumbled into a book that had a romance between step-siblings. My first reaction was, “huh, weird,” since the characters had grown up together since they were nine. But then I realised it was hardly any different from neighbours or school friends hooking up. It was a nice story. I don’t see a problem with it, personally.

 

[Trish]

Technically no. But I'm asking more whether you'd *feel* it was incest or not?

So here's the scenario. A man's been away from home for a decade. While he's been away, the family has adopted a girl, who he's never met. She is now 18, he is 26.

He comes home and meets his adopted sister. They fall in love and eventually decide they want to marry.

So how would you, as a reader, feel about that?

As a reader - I don't care at all unless it's the entire plot. If it is, I have no interest in the story whatsoever because I, personally, would consider it boring and a lazy way to create conflict. On the other hand if there's a major overarching plot(s) that make sense and are interesting and the pseudo-incest is just something that makes some things a little awkward or more difficult, it would barely be a blip on my radar.

I'm probably not most readers though.