When is Abuse in Stories too much...

One of the first romance stories I read had a story about this girl who was sexually molested as a child. Recently I began writing a story called Whiskey Lullaby, it's a second book in my sensual, inspirational route that  I seemed to be going in lately. The first was Broken Wings which I am SO proud of.  The heroine of these books were physically and emotionally abused as children and now they must either sink or swim in their adult lives.

But my question is when is too much is too much? Sure sexually assault or molestation happens in real life but my belief is people read our books to get away from the everyday, right? So why should they run from that disgusting event in real life and crash head first into it in a book? Perhaps I'm taking this whole "reading should be a fantasy" dealie too personally but I know if I was having a bad day, month, year, life I wouldn't want to be having the same thing in my fantasy world as well.

I believe sexual assault should not be taken lightly neither is molestation of a child. If the story had mentioned it without describing it in graphic, detail perhaps I would think differently. Well of course I would think differently. With my abuse in stories it was never sexual, but if you are going to write sexual abuse why describe it happening to a child? I know some people want the shock value but when is that shock too much for anyone?

Let me know what you think.

Kendra Mei Chailyn