You can judge her ex by this cover.
A romance novelist who dedicated her new book to her toxic ex and went viral on Instagram — with women calling her their “hero” and congratulating her for the “savage move” — revealed the heartbreaking story behind her breakup.
“You are the most disappointing man and biggest coward I have ever known. And now the whole world knows too,” bestselling author Emily Goodwin wrote in the dedication, with his nickname blurred out on Instagram.
She told The Post she penned the dedication of her new paranormal vampire romance “Twisted” while sitting in her bed crying, right after her boyfriend of nearly a year broke up with her “out of nowhere.”
Goodwin, 38, revealed she was “basically engaged” to her ex — whose name she withheld — and believed they would be together forever.
“We went from like, one night talking about, ‘What kind of ring do you want me to buy you?’ to the next day, which was, ‘My family doesn’t approve of this, so ‘bye,’” she recalled of the heart-wrenching split.
The Syracuse, NY native, who now lives in Indiana, posted her first video, “When my ex found out I dedicated my next release to him,” two weeks before the book — her 51st — published in October.
The post shows a text exchange with her ex, where he warns, “The name is blocked. But it’s about me . . . Don’t publish it.”
Once she posted that reel — which garnered 1.2 million views — she was flooded with supportive comments from women who had also been scorned, “saying that they wish they could call out their exes,” she said.
“I realized that a lot of other women could relate to being disappointed by someone that they had trusted, and that was going to be in their life forever.”
Empowered, the mom of two decided to share a whole series of posts about the book dedication saga — where her ex calls her “seriously unhinged” and gripes about how his family and coworkers saw the scathing words — which have racked up more than 15 million combined views.
After seeing the book dedication — and the barrage of Instagram comments calling him out — Goodwin thinks her ex realized how poorly he treated her.
“I think he felt bad that he hurt me so much and didn’t want other people to know what he did because he was very much a brush everything under the rug [type] like, ‘You’ll be fine. You’ll find someone who cares about you and then move on,’” she said.
“I’m hoping that by reading comments of everybody agreeing with me, that would make somebody think twice . . . if you hurt somebody, you have to live with that, and if you don’t want to live with the consequences of knowing that you broke someone’s heart, then behave better.”
Goodwin had only written two chapters of “Twisted” when the breakup happened — and then decided to rewrite the entire beginning “to turn my pain into my art,” she said.
So she based a character on her ex in the novel — set in a world of vampires, witches and demon hunters — who is the former flame of her protagonist, Wren.
“Her ex-boyfriend is a demon hunter, and he falls in love with her, and they have a whole future planned. And then his parents tell him, ‘We can’t be seen with a witch. You have to pick her or pick us,’” Goodwin explained.
Wren also has a quote in the book that reads, “One of the cruelest things you can do to another human being is to look them in the eyes, tell them you love them, plan a whole future together . . . …and then just walk away.”
The experience of writing the book and going viral has given Goodwin the closure she needed.
“I feel like it was taking some power back,” she said.
As for her current relationship status, she has a new boyfriend, who is enjoying the viral moment.
“He thinks it’s entertaining,” she said. “I threatened him: ‘If you misbehave, everyone will know.’”
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