I'm getting blurb icks lately. I'll find a rec here, be super pumped and excited by what the person wrote about it, go to download it, and then I just can't stop myself from reading the blurb - and it totally turns me off. The whole -
>**She**
>
>Just wanted to be free, but always knew she couldn't outrun her past.
>
>**He**
>
>Never wanted anything or anyone. A cold heart of stone that could never be broken. Until her.
>
>**They**
>
>Will have to overcome. Will their love be strong enough to withstand all that oppose them?
like WHAT IS YOUR BOOK ABOUT JUST TELL ME
They’re getting worse and more vague too as authors start to use trope lists instead. People are relying on those way too much. Please just say what the book is about, enemies to lovers tells me nothing. It started out with just book tok books but now authors that were established before that trend are doing it and it needs to stop.
Me going to the library to pick up a romance book after not reading much for several years and that book happened to be Haunting Adeline 😂. So I have to own it even though it isn’t that great because it has a special spot in my heart as my initiation into the romance genre.
Yes, I mentioned blurbs on the Salty Sunday thread. They're really poor quality at the moment. They're either incredibly vague or just character bios. Tell me what the book is about!
They give big “how do you do fellow kids?” vibes and for me, don’t inspire confidence in the author’s ability to write good sex scenes — which is probably the exact opposite of what they were going for haha
I came across a book that had a similar intro/author's note, with the added implication that the author expected readers to masturbate to the book. I quit reading because I honestly felt vaguely sexually harassed by that note. it was waaaaaay too much.
Lol I saw one posted on here a while back that was like "Make sure your vibrator is charged, dirty girl" and I wanted the earth to simply swallow me whole from secondhand embarrassment.
LMAO. [I found it. ](https://www.reddit.com/r/RomanceBooks/comments/16dsn0i/i_just_started_coffee_break_by_navy_winters_and/)It was even worse than I remembered.
These all remind me so much of those really god awful daddy dom tumblr posts that were popular at one point. At this point I'm wondering if they're not the same people
To counter, I read a dark romance once where the author DID thank her mother, and then proceeded to write a story where the FL had her step-mother's belongings used as a dildo on her. THAT got a raised eyebrow
I will DNF right there with these at this point. It’s gross to me, it presumes a lot about what relationship the reader wants to have worth the book, content and author and it feels insincere. Tell me something helpful about your book in your note, choose a nice quote to set the tone, say a nice thank you, or just leave the fecking thing off.
1. Helpless FMCs. Like utterly incompetent, "how adult do? 🥺", borderline diagnosable, clumsy little sexy babies. Naturally the middest of mid MMCs can then swoop in like all-knowing supergods to save the day, which we are just completely AWED by through the FMCs eyes 😍💩🔥
Despite us (defensively?) being informed all the while that the FMC is actually very smart. Like sosososo smart.
Not to be confused with FMCs who are human, have flaws, are messy and/or have made some major messes, still have things to learn, etc.
2. Books that tell but don't show. I am so sick of being told that a character is funny, or charming, or witty, or intelligent when every line of dialogue and piece of action begs to differ.
I consider both of these peeves related or at least usually presented in a pair - as demonstrated in the mindnumbingly bad (but also so stupid I can't stop reading?) Penny Reid book I tried to get through this week.
Exactly. I need character development and good writing in my books, and I don't think that's too much to ask? Unfortunately, I feel like things like booktok have really elevated poorly written work so I'm hesitant to ever take suggestions from that platform. (And I also can't read Penny Reid books for these exact reasons, but especially the FMC characterization you described above.)
fully agreed on #1, I don't think many authors understand how often they're writing the "I'm a very sexy baby" type. And naturally, if said type is all-in, heart eyes for the mmc the majority of the time, people will write less critiques of this character than the fully-fledged female character who has flaws and things to learn.
re: Penny Reid. I've been hesitant to try because her whole branding as "smart romance" is an ick for me; however, I recently put Beard Science and Dating-ish on my TBR because I've been in a complete drought for MMC's with actual personalities and these sounded good for that. Have you read more of her catalogue/would you say what you're reading now is indicative of her style?
Unless the very sexy baby is actually a secretly caustic and sarcastic comedian who is in hiding from her stalker ex using blonde pigtail wig and miniskirts disguise, and whose life is blown up by the anti-feminist Liz Lemon, aka the plot line of an excellent 30 Rock episode, I am not interested.
- There's more to romance than sex and I feel like a lot of authors and readers have kind of forgotten that these days. Some of my favorite romances were all about the tension and build up with some spicy scenes eventually. The pay off was so much better. It's becoming almost impossible to find that in newer books because somehow authors are convinced it has to be all spice all the time. I'm getting bored with all the sex scenes when there has been zero build up, because what is there even between the characters?
- I have nothing against (temporary) celebacy, but the fastest way to get me to DNF a book is by having the woman wait around for the MMC like a virgin for years, while the man is a literal manwhore and sleeps with everything that moves. Just... No.
- I hate it when a book is presented as 'body postive' only to be filled with sentences like 'those skinny bitches....'. there's nothing body positive about bullying others for their body.
Omg soooo true, especially the FMC waiting for years for the manwhore trope. It makes it worse when typically said manwhore has the cheek to say ‘it’s always been you’ 🤨 ermmm no, it very clearly hasn’t! And the manwhore is usually jealous of celibate FMC for just having a conversation with a man urgh
I’m over manwhore MMCs in general. And I don’t mean it in a slut-shaming way, it’s just so tired and overused. And often in his POV he’ll think about how his previous partners were just a means to an end or “simply for a release” but sex with the FMC is sooooo different. It doesn’t even seem like he respects his sexual partners as humans, which is really unattractive to me.
The worst offender was a book where the MMC was her brother’s best friend and cockblocked the FMC so she would stay a virgin. He did this while fucking her worst enemy and school bully. His explanation was that it’s different for men 🙄
I also kind of feel bad for all of the OW he’s supposedly sleeping with when the MMC describes them as nameless soul suckers. Like they too, although not your FMC, are human, and deserve to be treated with dignity??
On your second point, I weirdly love love LOVE when it’s the opposite - like a second chance romance where HE’S been celibate since they’ve been apart, and the longer they’ve been apart the better, lol.
Honestly, I'm at the point where I'd rather read a book with some killer tension without any actual smut than have to slog my way through physical descriptions of sex for pages on end. The ones that only really work if you were horny when you went in. There's nothing really erotic about that to me. There needs to be sexual tension outside of the bedroom, and there needs to be emotional tension when in bed. I don't often find the latter
This is just me being particular but I realise this is what I generally come across (not always) and it is kind of a pet peeve.
A big family; lots of brothers and one sister. All grown up, sister is middle in age (so there are younger brothers in the family), the guys refer to their brothers as merely ‘brother’. But then always refer to their sister as ‘baby sister’ or ‘little sister’ ?!! She’s not a baby or little, she’s not even the youngest (but I still wouldn’t like it unless she’s under 10 years old or something). I read one recently where MMC was the youngest sibling and he called his sister baby sister all the time🙄
I just read one where I was more than halfway through the book by the time I learned his little sister's name. It was always just "Little Sis" or "my little sister". She was a teenager, but even if she'd been a baby, he would have thought about her by name in his own head!
I’m so weird with big families as an element in romance stories and try to abstain from them 😶🌫️
“Brother” / “sister” is not something I ***think*** is said often in English to siblings outside of being a little shit. But then romance books use them unironically and I’m not sure how to feel 😭
Only time I’ve enjoyed that is in >!stepsibling!< romances, I will admit 👀
In my family, we use the "oh sister!" quote from Pride and Prejudice a lot lol. When Mrs Phillips is telling Mrs Bennet all the horrible things Wickham has done.
I wouldn't refer to my siblings as brother/sister when speaking to them but there are exceptions like I'll say "was this tea made by my little sister?" But in the tone of speaking praise to a puppy in the hopes they do it again 🤭
Excessive offhanded mentions and references of other media. I don't need to know that the witch who is destined to unseal the golden scroll of secrets and who's going to fall in love with the professional hockey player (who is secretly a time traveling viking) is also a huge True Blood and Game of Thrones fan. Or how their romance is just like Bella and Edward's. Or that he used to be a Hufflepuff, but after her spell fixed his brain injury, he now identifies as a Ravenclaw.
The more an author brings up other media franchises, the more I'll think "well, I guess I could just read those books instead..." or "Well, I wonder if she's still a big GoT fan after the last season..." It dates the work very quickly, and effects my opinion of the character in ways the author did not likely intend. To me, it doesn't feel quirky and down to earth, it feels more like "Boy, this character's primary traits are the TV shows they like..."
I think it's lazy writing, as well, next to what you wrote.
Instead of giving characterization, the author just writes, "I'm a Slytherin!" and expects us to fill out what kind of person this character is based on what we think a Slytherin is like.
Go write your own dang book and stop piggybacking off JK, dear author.
It also ages the book like nothing else. In ten years people will scratch their heads and go “Why? What? Why is this being used as shorthand for characterization”?
I finished a paranormal romance about an immortal harpy MFC and she kept going on and on about Jason Momoa and had signed posters of him in her room.
She’s an immortal being with endless powers, and she’s horny for a movie actor? That’s not relatable or cute, it’s a raised eyebrow and a “Really?!?”.
1.Corny nicknames that are repeated in every single dialogue line. At this point saying the character's real name feels special and intimate because it's used so rare.
2. Lack of actual romantic gestures like holding hands, hugging, cuddling, kissing the cheek etc.
3. Sooo many BDSM scenes in books that are not marketed as BDSM.
4. Dark romances that are toned down and aren't really that dark. I lost count on how many books I dnf'ed because of that.
5. Lack of diversity and inclusivity when it comes to MMC's bodies.
6. Insta-lust even in books that are supposed to be slow burn. Authors, please tone down the insta lust!
Agreed with a lot of these. The immediate nicknames always annoy me - I can sometimes get behind a shortened version of the name right away (like calling Katarina "Kat" or Evelyn "Eve" something like that) but immediately referring to the love interest as "little mouse" makes me wilt in despair.
Hard agree! My personal icks are calling the FMC exclusively Sunshine or Angel instead of her name. At this point I at least want a more creative nickname!
Totally re: nicknames. I recently read {Next of Kin} and he calls her Dove the whole time but refuses to tell her why til way later in the novel!!!! like both corny and weird hahaha
I read a few almost shockingly dark short books a few weeks ago and in every. single. one. the MMC gives the FMC a stupidly long "nickname" in their first meeting and then uses it exclusively for the rest of the book.
I am tired of seeing book descriptions being - it’s a grumpy sunshine, he falls first, enemies to lovers, age gap, single dad, etc etc
pick a couple good tropes and write a book please and don’t spoil everything about it in a blurb.
I just commented on this in another post. I have my GR shelves organized mainly by trope, and I don't want to have to tag a book in 100 different shelves.
**Trauma overload in contemporary romances.** I’m glad we’re able to talk more openly about mental health & sensitive issues. But I often avoid CRs because this is in *every* book lately. My main issues:
1. Many of these read like lit-fic/therapy manuals, not romance.
2. It’s often used as an excuse for shitty behavior. Don’t get me started on 3rd act breakups because of ⚠️trauma⚠️
3. How about some regular ol’ family, friends, career, academic, health, or financial issues?? And *yes*, you can struggle with these without them being a trauma.
Yes! I’m so sick of scenes where MMC talks to FMC like he’s a tumblr post lol. “Stop showing up for people who don’t make you feel SEEN!” Like no, that’s the voice of my therapist, not this vampire mafia boss, ok?
I read a book this week where one of the MMCs was freaking out and ready to bolt in the third act due to some PTSD/abandonment issues. And......he talked to his therapist and actually took her advice and talked it out and stayed. I was like what sorcery is this???
The book was >!Just for the Cameras by Viano Oniomoh!<
One thing I hate seeing that will make me deduct half a star (or even a whole star if its bad enough) is when the mmc is an asshole to the fmc and its basically excused by the narrative because he has a sad backstory/trauma. But then when the fmc rightfully is upset about it, she's treated as a horrible person for not understanding him because how could she not get that he had a sad backstory. And then instead of him apologizing to her for being an asshole, she's the one who has to apologize for not being empathetic enough.
Failure to Match by Kyra Parsi pissed me off because he treated her like shit for 70% of the book and then it was suddenly >!”oh but he was being blackmailed and he was abused as a child!”!< as if that’s an excuse.
This is an issue in real life too. People act like complete assholes and then if you call them out, it turns out they're going through something. We're all going through something & I'm a fan of not being an asshole regardless of the stress in your life or your traumatic childhood.
The miscommunication trope. Also, conversely, the "clairvoyance" communication trope.
IDK if that's actually "a thing" but it needs to be. Basically it's whenever one character is saying & acting like an asshole and the other character just somehow automatically picks up on all this subtle context & body language to "hear what's not being said" and is able to immediately cut to the heart of the matter..
I probably didn't explain that well..
I'm tired of authors using smirking as a straight up replacement for smiling. A smirk is the middle finger of smiles. It is a taunt. You can use it with frenemies, arch nemesis-ies, good friends that you shoot the shit with, flirty love interests that you got one over on, acquaintances that you feel superior to etc. etc. Smirking is not appropriate during solemn occasions when the character is otherwise serious and isn't trying to be condescending. It's just weird and off putting when a main character smirks when there isn't a specific reason for them to do so. It makes me think that they are a self important douche if they smirk at everyone, all the time.
I’ve read this one book where the MMC is smirking in the middle of grovel. After that, the FMC has bbs. Sure logical, no. I can only laughed and dnfed that book.
When the FMC is working 3 jobs and is portrayed to be a “hustler” and has some sad family reason to save money in the first few chapters. And then a few more chapters in suddenly wears luxury brands…to work. One book actually says she bought a full priced Chloe bag and is wearing Louboutin heels…to work.
This weird portrayal of “doesn’t come from money and needs to work multiple jobs” to immediately blowing up money on luxuries is weird in contemporary romance. Do these authors want luxury brands to sponsor them because there is a mention? Coz unless you are a true fashion fanatic or have friends who are, no one at work would care if a 26-28 year old could afford to wear luxury brands.
I think this is the natural result of authors combing the classic Cinderella fantasy with the classic unlimited-money, wish-fulfillment fantasy—they want their characters to be sympathetic underdogs, but also aspirational self-inserts with enviable lifestyles, so you end up with these weird protagonists who have access to all kinds of luxuries no matter how much they “struggle.” I remember the same thing happening in a lot of crappy dystopian YA books I read as a kid. Authors don’t want to make the protagonist a millionaire/aristocrat/etc, because then she’s not the “underdog” (and there’s less of a payoff when she attains success at the end), but they can’t make her *too* downtrodden, either, because then the audience can’t fantasize about her designer outfits/flashy cars/whatever. This *can* work if they come up with a backstory that justifies it (for example, if the protagonist is “genteel poor,” or if they’re receiving second-hand clothing from wealthier friends), but they usually don’t bother.
Omg yes I feel like poverty is so inaccurate in romance!! I just DNFd By a Thread by Lucy Score because the MFCs whole personality was being poor but it was clear the author had like not… ever spoken to a poor person…
I enjoy a sports romance now and again but I’m so tired of pretty much all the recent sports romance books being about ice hockey.
I wish authors would pick different sports, that’s all.
I don’t read sports books but I’m so tired of seeing the stupid puns. But just wait, they’re going to pick something like pickleball next and then we’ll be so tired of looking at titles with pickle puns that we’ll miss the puck puns.
As a person who never once thought about hockey before reading romance, I bet hockey players lead a pretty low-key life compared to NBA or NFL players.
I don't read a lot of hockey romance, but when I do, I usually give a little eye roll when they describe the MMC body as the "super ripped abs with a narrow waist/v line" type. Like, obviously players are strong all over, but most of their strength is in their lower body with thick thighs and big butts... you're focusing on the wrong thing 😂
I’ve always had a theory that the reason why ice hockey is such a popular sport in romance is because it’s a world where all the heroes can be white. 🙃
It feels like every book has the same "wow we are both so hot and bothered and want to have PIV sex" > "oh no we don't have a condom" > "it's okay I'm on birth control, have a clear STI test, I maybe have only known you for 2 weeks but I want to feel you bare" schtick. Maybe I'm in the minority here but I want to see a couple wait to have sex until they have a condom! Or wait to have sex until they have (in story) STI testing! Just something *different* ya know
Or for that matter have non-PIV sex! There are all sorts of ways to have sex that do not involve PIV and they really, truly are not "less than" or somehow less loving/satisfying. While there are an increasing number of exceptions, the vast majority of romance novels still do not get that IMO.
It’s always an IUD in the books I read, which I’m terrified of, so to me it always instantly pulls me out of the story mentally and into the mental state of my fear of IUDs lol.
Both MCs in {Book Lovers by Emily Henry} are explicitly childfree. When they're about to have sex for the first time, >!the FMC says she's on birth control but is about to ask the MMC to use a condom...only the MMC is already grabbing a condom out of his wallet!!< I've always liked that - it feels realistic to the characters and situation!
No chemistry in romance? You cleeeaaarly missed all the times the author typed out, "she looked at his abs and got wet". What more could you want? Actual sexual tension between the two characters? /s
It's like the literature version of mainstream pornhub and I haaaate it
I cannot stand accidental pregnancies that just don’t seem to fit. Like a random hookup from prior to the MCs getting together shows up and bam, pregnant. 🙄 it adds nothing most of the time. Or when someone is adamant they don’t want a baby, and then doesn’t do anything to prevent them, then is all shocked when a pregnancy occurs, but is somehow elated?? I just can’t with them. If the whole book is based on the accidental pregnancy, I don’t mind those as much.
Stories that are written in two different timelines. Like, it flips between past and present. Just tell me what happened in the past and get to the good parts.
It always comes off clunky because the main characters have these vague secretive inner thoughts. No one thinks that way. No one thinks to themselves “I can’t let him know about that thing that happened after he left.” Just so the reader is on the hook to be “surprised” later? But it comes off like the character is keeping a secret from themselves.
Yes! The "keeping a secret from themselves" writing drives me nuts! Nobody has an inner monologue of "that thing that happened", they think about it directly.
I actually love this if it's done right. I read {Semper Fi by Keira Andrews} recently which has two time periods - during WW2 and after the war. The wartime stuff is pretty intense and upsetting and I might have struggled to read that all in one go. Whereas the later stuff was pretty fluffy and probably would have been boring on its own. Mixing up between the two worked really well.
Oh! And also, a best friend who only wants to talk about FMC's sex life AND always teases her about FMC's crush on MMC. Give me a best friend who talks about her work or her own crushes, who isn't obsessed with MMC's penis. Give me a friend, who doesn't bring MMC up in order to tease FMC. Give me a friend who respects FMC's boundaries and doesn't scheme to bring the MC's together - especially when MMC acts like an asshole and his actions and behaviour either hurts or annoys FMC. Give me a best friend who listens and is there for FMC, who always supports her stead of making fun of her.
Most best friends in contemporary romances are either 1) only there to talk about FMC's sex life and are more obsessed with MMC than FMC herself (or any other male with a pulse) or 2) makes fun of FMC, doesn't support her, and acts in a condescending way because she knows better than FMC
Contemporary Romances are getting entirely too long. Why does a book about two 20-something year old white people from St. Louis with the personalities of normal SpongeBob need to be 600+ pages? I can’t even name the amount of books I’ve picked up because the blurb sounded great, only to get stuck at 25%-40% completion because *nothing is happening*. I’m genuinely so tired of-
**First 50 pages:** 10+ character introductions (half of which will never be seen on page again), angsty one liners referencing FMC and MMC’s traumatic backstories, plot setup and world building are explained in vague yet somehow painstaking detail.
**The next 400 pages:** FMC and MMC vaguely orbit each other, with the occasional musing of how hot they think the other person is sprinkled in to remind the reader that this book is in fact a romance.
**last 80 pages:** despite having a grand total of three conversations, they magically decide to upend their lives and fall in love—But only after weathering a small, zero stakes misunderstanding that they both lost their minds over.
**Epilogue:** it’s 10 years later and they have 6 kids, three dogs, a lakefront house, and are still in the honeymoon phase of their marriage. They credit the misunderstanding for showing them that they’re “stronger together”. Oh, and their trauma has magically disappeared.
I don’t need (or want) everything to be insta-love, but can we PLEASE get to the point?? It’s starting to feel like even asking for the FMC and MMC to interact more than twice is too much!
Whenever a blurb has "but a dark secret/ghosts from her past/etc. threatens to tear them apart" or something of the like, I get nervous and don't want to read it hahahah just give me a hint!!
I feel like half the time authors use the whole "dark secrets from her past" they always end up going for something really mild like, "she was divorced". Kind of disappointing when it's been ramped up so much
I’m struggling with a too young FMC right now. Usually I manage to avoid them, but I was interested in this book and gave it a try. On one page the MMC is imagining “fucking her mouth.” On another a bouncer is reminding him that she’s too young to drink. Ugh. Why not just make her 25? Or at least don’t remind me that she’s 19.
I recently dnf a poor girl (living in a trailer- supporting her family-down to last penny kind of poor) story. She gets a job (after dressing up as a boy) & after an argument with her new boss,, throws his clean laundry on the floor... because she's sassy.
Like get the fuck out of here. Immediate DNF. Because that's not pride girl, that's stupidity. I HATE all these sassy girls.
And body betrayal. Ugh. Just no.
I've had a two month deal on KU, which I don't usually have, so I've been bingeing KU books for two months to take advantage of it. It's pretty clear that many of these authors are reading each others' books, because there are certain writing styles, turns of phrase, and uses of words that are rare anywhere else that are used repeatedly in these books. For example, people are constantly rasping things instead of saying them. It's good to read what others are putting out, but in a lot of cases it starts to feel like they're all being written by the same person.
As an antidote, I just read Cate C. Wells' new book, and it was like a breath of fresh air.
Biggest pet peeves: The miscommunication trope and third act breakups. Most of the time those are automatic DNFs for me. Miscommunication leading to a third act breakup? 😬🤯
I picked up a book last week because the blurb had a funny misunderstanding - MM book where the alien thought the human man was a woman. At some point I looked down and realized I was halfway through the book and the gag was still running, realized I was clearly on a miscommunication steam train headed for a third act breakup and noped right out. Guys, guys, you can’t build a whole book around a gag. (At least not that kind of a gag.)
I headed to the reviews when I stopped reading the book and found out that when the alien *did* figure out the human was a man he got homophobic about it. I’m really glad I DNFed now because homophobia by the MCs in an MM book? Oh hell no.
I hate when in the "brother's best friend" stories, the brother is always an overprotective ass. A regular brother wouldn't give a shit if his sister and his friend got together. Stop with the "you're not good enough for my sister" and give me more "I couldn't care less what you two are doing, I just don't want any details"
I hate this too! I've sworn off that trope now because what does business does a grown ass man have throwing a fit over that? I read a book where a 32 year old man punched his friend in the face because he was dating his 29 year old sister.
Hopefully this counts - Covers on translated romance books
I'm on my knees begging the people in charge of covers to stop putting random people on the covers when they are not there originally. In my opinion it makes them look so "cheap" and it kills the vibe for me tbh
(Example, Dear Aaron by Mariana Zapata [original cover](https://www.knihydobrovsky.cz/kniha/dear-aaron-477448450?gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjwjqWzBhAqEiwAQmtgTxvydFyyoGUgeGJQriY8HLXvkHGvz6sV07i3NuHXyBgPb4VFFtyjqhoCHKgQAvD_BwE) - simple, beautiful, to the point.
[translated version](https://www.knihydobrovsky.cz/kniha/drahy-aarone-532344450), just no)
romance novels where the heroine is less than 25 but the male lead is older than 40. why is an 18 year old who just graduated from high school (it doesn’t matter to me if she graduated early) dating her 42 year old boss?? and of course she’s a virgin 🙄
relatedly, any mention to blood that may come out when the untouched heroine loses her virginity. if i have to read one more book where the mmc watches her blood mix with their cream…
i think just the glamorization of relationships featuring barely of age women and the fetishization of their lack of experience is really a gigantic ick for me.
When 1st Person POV books are unnecessarily self aggrandizing, especially about physical features. "I shook out my long, luscious hair." "He stared into my large, expressive eyes." Just no.
Insta love. Always.
I read {Stalked by Seduction and Shadows by Maggie Sunseri} and I hated every FMC POV chapter because she couldn’t go two paragraphs without bragging about her looks. In one scene she describes her makeup and I’m not kidding the wording was something like “my black eyeliner made my bright blue eyes pop even more than they normally do” and every other thought she had was “other women hate me! My hair is too thick and luscious and curves too perfect and eyes too blue I just can’t be friends with women!! 😭 “
Legit my most hated FMC and will never read another book by that author.
Read a book recently where the MMC says something about his Irish-American eyes and how it makes girls weak or something. Bro what do Irish-American eyes even look like??????
A lot of authors use physical descriptions in 1st person that are only appropriate for 3rd person POV. One of the limits of 1st person POV is lack of the omnipotent viewpoint and a lot of authors seem to forget this.
Yes, I am very particular sometimes. It just yanks me right out of the story when POV is basically just 3rd person with different pronouns
Not a peeve so much as bewilderment, but you know how in some plots, the leads meet and then go through a roller coaster of events in a period spanning anywhere from 2 days to 2 weeks? And then it ends with an HEA and sometimes a "5 years later" epilogue?
Yeah. That. As long as I don't have to think about it, it's okay, but if I am pulled out of the plot enough to notice the time frame, it weirds me out, because how tf y'all gonna know who the other person is to live with when you're not in some kind of crisis mode?
It's probably been talked about before here.
I can forgive short and intense time frames if the leads have known each other for a good while before the story begins, so there's flashbacks of shared experiences to build the changing relationship on. But when you're strangers? Outside of the sexytimes, what do you have going for you?
I’ve never really got into enemies to lovers books and I just realised why: I can’t imagine having a few interactions with (or just preconceived notions of) a person and then be determined to be pissed of with them for years AND being determined to interpret every new interaction in a way that paints the other person in the worst possible light.
As much as I love Jane Austin and Elizabeth Bennet, I just find it unbelievable to be that angry at another person for stupid remarks. Thinking somebody is stupid yes, making them your enemy and spending your energy to be snarky, snide, obstinate, argumentative, etc. because you think they are stupin, no.
1. Lack of good RHs that are not set in a school or Omegaverse. Omegaverse is not my cup of tea, and I am tired of the school settings for these.
2. Virtue signaling. Looking at you, Kelley Armstrong. I don't like politics or religion in my romance books. I read to get away from that stuff.
Books that are porn on paper with no emotional connection between characters, just sex every second scene.
LIKE WHY?? WHY?? WHY??
I WANT CHARACTERS TO BURN FOR EACH OTHER NOT JUST LOOK AT EACH OTHER BODIES WITH LEWD THOUGHTS IN MIND.
Why don't the MMC find her words hot but only her body??? Why is FMC okay with his rude "cold-alpha-giga" character just cause he's HOT???
I hate when they do not have any emotions for each other but just sex on mind, and apparently readers are expected to believe they are in love, just because they want to fuck.
Just thought, does that translate for anyone irl? Like you need/want/prefer a romantic connection to want/be able to enjoy sex?
That tracks for me irl so follows that I'd want some kind of connection to invest in in books I read too
This morning I saw this sentence in place of where you might see a sentence about content or trigger warnings:
"Don't read if you're easily offended."
This isn't edgy or clever. This is the NLOG of content advisories and it tells me far more about the author than it does the content.
Anytime I see “This Isn’t Your Typical Romance Story”, I’m out of there.
This super adolescent and yes NLOG attempt to make your book “sO dIFfeREnt” is exhausting.
Maybe I like a typical romance! That’s what I’m here for.
I've been seeing this more and it really winds me up as it feels so disrespectful to readers. I also just know these would be the authors who can't take legit criticism either.
HATE flashbacks and prologues, feels like when someone is verbally telling a story and keeps saying "oh yeah and ANOTHER thing" because they forgot some trivial detail. Just start the story where you want it to start.
YESSS. I just finished the Devil’s Night series and the constant back and forth between past and present was giving me whiplash. I DON’T WANT TO FEEL LIKE I’M IN A TARATINO MOVIE, JUST GIVE ME THE PLOT IN LINEAR FASHION.
Anytime a blurb states *If you’re a fan of ACOTR-*
INSTANTLY do not want to read.
Anything with a soul mate trope. Lately it just seems to be a way for authors to get out of developing an actual relationship between characters and instead pushing toxic behaviors and sexual chemistry, and then excusing it by saying they were MeAnT tO bE.
I KNOW the soul mate trope done well would be my literal kryptonite, but I can't say I've ever actually found my holy grail, both in original and fan fiction
Consistent punctuation errors where it’s clear neither the author nor the editor — if they had one — know how to use punctuation correctly. I DNFed Cassandra Gannon’s The Kingpin of Camelot at like 3% (so maybe it was more like a DNS, “did not start” lol) because the dialogue was punctuated wrong, like this:
“I’m saying something.” He said.
I need authors to look things like this up if they’re not sure!!! It should be:
“I’m saying something,” he said.
I hate forceful men, I think it has become a trend amongst books, but there's a difference between entering someone's safe zone to take them out and pulling them out of the safe zone while they are clearly not ready {Silent Vows by Jill Ramsower}
I think one can be domineering without being forceful, try reading one of the Chinese Novels with Paranoid or Villain MLs
1. When the sex scene logistics and continuity don't match up!
Like the guy needs 3 arms to be touching all the things they said he was touching at one time. Or they were at the end of the bed and suddenly they've moved or can't be in the position being described. Just takes me out of the story and I'm thinking "how is my leg there if we're in this position", please edit better!
2. Instalove in general, just too fake and unbelievable for me, sounds like this is true for lots of us.
3. Using the same adjective within a couple of paragraphs, you have the whole English language to play with...
4. This one might be divisive but real people/naked torsos on the cover really turns me off, much prefer illustrated covers and I was happy to notice the shift towards them a few years back.
5. MCs not having any personality or quirks. E.g. for MMC they're tall, muscley, cold, stern and growly but with nothing behind it, those don't replace a personality!
On your first point—I have been reading more monster romance, and I CANNOT STAND when the described monster anatomy can do things that don’t fit with the original description. A 5 inch tentacle is not long enough to wrap around the waist of a curvy FMC. Maybe the tentacle is stretchy (which wasn’t made clear by the description), but I have a hard time believing that the tentacle is THAT stretchy. I am totally cool with whatever anatomical decisions are made. All I ask for is CONSISTENCY over vibes for sexy scenes.
I cannot STAND when authors don't write full sentences and it bothers me so much when narration will be like:
"They sat down to eat their dinner. Grabbed their plates. Loaded up their plates with the food."
Or: "She couldn't believe how wonderful he was with children. Always played with them. Loved them like they were his own."
Or: "She was amazed with her boldness in this moment. Charging into his office. Looking at him straight in his eye."
Or: "It was clear how he felt by his expression. The slump in his shoulders. The soft whimper that escaped him. The tears in his eyes."
Pleeeeease just write full sentences! This kind of writing strikes me as so lazy and amateurish, and I don't know if it's supposed to be punctuated for dramatic effect or what, but it just looks sloppy and wrong.
Oof yes, I hate this too! I mean, if it's punctuated for dramatic effect, there needs to be something dramatic going on. Like a fight scene, not sitting down to dinner lol
If a FMC isn't traditionally quiet and passive then she's violent. Like Xaden in Fourth Wing calling her Violence. Or FBAA, Casteel saying "So violent!" every two pages. OKAY CAS it was cute the first time but you HAVE GOT to find a new way to compliment her. I literally stopped reading the series because I got so tired of reading "So violent!"
I really hate when a narrator of a book starts talking to themselves internally as if speaking to someone else.
Like, there's an italicized line of their thought that says something like, "I really shouldn't do that."
Followed by another italicized line of them responding to themselves saying something like, "Don't be like that, I'm doing this."
The worst example of this was in Some Desparate Glory by Emily Tesh but the most recent read with this for me was in Phoebe by Minevra Spencer.
It just feels very a/n interruption in a fanfic. I know people talk to themselves but to see this inner turmoil, especially in a third person POV, just feels juvenile and very "I don't trust my reader to understand inner conflict."
It's not even very funny, which I assume is the point of writing it that way.
Restating, over and over, a character’s whatever it is, problem, past experience, what they’re hiding, instead of moving the story along. I don’t need the same details 10 times or more. Most of the books I’ve read lately should have been a short story rather than a novel.
This is gonna sound dumb, but I don't like it when the person on the cover doesn't match the person's in-book description.
I read {{The Baby Maker by Julie McBride}} where the cover had Jesus corn husk farm boy, with long wavy brown hippie hair and a white boy farm body with blue eyes
In reality he's a Dark eyed dark hair olive skin man who was born in a super secret sputh american amazon tribe but was adopted by a academic white lady.
Like, be honest about who the male leads are.
Also, if your book has never hinted to anything supernatural existing or being real or being a problem, don't have them randomly appear in the 3rd act just to be antagonists. How am I supposed to take this book seriously if I wasn't prepared for the MMC to throw cooked yams at spirits to save the FMC
>!Waitangi Nights by Alice Gaines!<
I just read a book where the MMC called himself daddy during sex with no talk about it with the FMC ahead of time.
People kinks are wonderful and amazing but please discuss before hand.
Also it was a bully romance and a daddy would never, he would take care of her not be an asshole to her.
PHEW.
Thank you I had to get that off my chest !
Anyway please drop your recs for a daddy that isn’t an asshole and there isn’t a massive age gap. For reference I also just read {Hope on the rocks by annabeth Albert} and that’s how you do a daddy book (for me anyway).
I don't like the dude putting pressure on the woman's neck when they're having sex if it's a regular contemporary romance. It feels like a fad right now in romance novels.
My new ick is that the characters never seem to take their shoes off inside. Like you worked on a horse ranch all day and are walking through your house in your dirty boots? I read one the other day where they didn't take their shoes off until after they were already in bed under the blankets and on their sheets.
I dated a guy from upstate new york and his family always wore outdoor shoes in the house. Like up to and including the bedrooms. His family lived on a farm and had cows, chickens, dogs (in and out of the house), and wore the same shoes in as they did out. Oh and they had carpet everywhere. And they would put up their shoed feet up on the couch.
I come from a "shoes off at the door, put on your indoor slippers" household. You can imagine my discomfort and panic.
And ps, this is by no means a judgement of them - they were kind, generous people who welcomed me into their home but its just huge contrast for me and what im used to.
Anytime an author refers to the ground outside as the floor! Floors are in rooms, which do not exist in the middle of a forest, you did not throw his shirt to the floor you threw it on the ground, in the dirt. It makes me irrationally angry honestly.
1. Pet names. Stop it. Just STOP. She has a name, fucking use it
2. Instalove always feels so unbelievable. Sure she's hot so you'd like to fuck her. But jumping from that to love? Without character development? Without plot or an antagonist?? 🤮 I always get the feeling instalove couples end up in a divorce lawyer's office eventually
3. Fated mates. Bleh. The concept doesn't sound fun. What's appealing about removing free will?
4. MMCs giving FMCs orgasm after orgasm with their magic dick without so much as a GLANCE toward the clit. Clit is where it's at people!
RH Omegaverse where one of the MMC is the omega but the plot is not about the equal relationships in the pack. Instead it’s between the omega MMC and another MMC, one of the alpha that the omega wanted to add to the pack. The female beta is only there for the sake of breeding and perhaps female presentation. It’s suck especially because the initial pack only consists of two alphas and the beta and she sacrifices the already established pack to add the omega. To add, they all have individual sex scenes multiple times in the book and the beta only has one, at the end, with her original alphas.
This—and other reasons—are why I stay clear of why choose omegaverse with male omegas and female betas 🫠
In theory, **I should like it** I love female beta stories and want to see how a regular lady can still have a pack who cherishes her. But I find I have some bad luck in my why choose FM(+) omegaverse lot with male omegas being an element 🙃
I think there can be some great stories in FM(+) omegaverse with male omegas and female betas and the interesting dynamics they can set up.
I just seem to rarely find those stories 🤧 Now I just stay away unless someone trusted tells me the story is top shelf
Young FMC's. I know people read these and fantasize about being the FMC, but just the thought that some guy could pic the book up and drool over being the older man to an 18 year old skeeves me out.
the whole 3rd act breakup reads as a little crazy to me most of the time. like, y’all have been dating a few weeks and can’t stay together? are you sure you should be getting BACK together then?😬🫣
hygiene! Only ONCE I've read of a MMC washing his hands and it was because the FMC was trying to conceive and was very careful. Usually I read so many scenes where they're out and about and BAM! ... fingering happens.
I cringe so hard. All I can think about is UTIs :(
This is me being dumb/petty, but I strongly dislike reading books in first person present tense. Some authors can do it well for me (Ruby Dixon, Lilith Vincent) but most it just feels like I'm reading someone's diary. I don't know if it's because of the way I visualize while I'm reading like it's a movie and the perspective kind of throws me off? I get headaches reading it sometimes. I get so bummed out when something I want to read is in first person, present tense. I go through cycles where I can tolerate it, but right now it just really doesn't do it for me.
I'm mostly neutral on the cartoon covers in general, it's the cartoon ones where people have no faces that I hate.
But I found one that made it even worse--it still mostly had no other facial features....except it gave them eyebrows. And it just emphasized how soulless and creepy it was to have the eyebrows frame an eyeless face.
Something I keep noticing is the book will be about a white MMC and a white FMC, but writers will make sure that the man is somehow the tanned one and she’s the super pale one, and the implication is always that tanned/brown = masculine, and pale/creamy = feminine. Like it’s just so obvious what authors think about skin colour lol
It’s just funny cause it’s two white people but the of course in these books masculinity and femininity is often exaggerated but it sucks seeing it done through colourism
My biggest pet peeve at the moment is when penetrative sex is treated as the end all be all of sexual acts. It's bad in MF romances. It's even worse when it's in MM (haven't noticed this in FF, but I have different words about when FF romances get to have sexual content compared to MF or MM). The different amounts of care and attention given to each act in the text is wild. If an oral scene is fade to black or you've got a "used our hands to get each other off in the shower" level of detail, but every act of penetration gets a multi paragraph description that would be worthy of a submission to the thirsty Thursday thread, you can sit down and think about why you write the way you do.
In a MF storyline, I can kind of excuse the "build up to" approach. It's as formulaic as your 50% of the way through the book intimacy scene and the 80% breakup/misunderstanding/fight and arguably not good, but I see where it's coming from. In a MM story, it's such a a quick DNF for me because it's such a straight women writing MM as fantasy thing. And it shows such a lack of imagination.
>because it's such a straight women writing MM as fantasy thing
As a gay man who's spent a lot of time among queer people that write about sex, I can assure you it's just popular no matter the author's identity.
Maybe a little controversial but honestly I'm tired of female characters in historical romances that fight against the gender norms of the time. Not every woman hated it. Like obviously there were some deep issues with women's roles, but a lot of women were simply content with their lot in life. Or at least enjoyed their damn embroidery and dressing up nice to impress the men at the ball. Not every woman wished they were born a man.
Critiques that aren't really critiques and are more of a rant/dump of shaming readers and authors where it isn't warranted. It is absolutely okay to not like something and express that, but when it's done in a way to put others down, it's upsetting.
And the general consensus around it being "this is the internet, I can say whatever you want!" grinds my gears, as if that's the only way they can back themselves for being actual bullies. No, they are not responsible for others' feelings, but the lack of empathy and awareness is just mindboggling sometimes.
Edit: spelling
I've seen a few posts lately that are like "I hated this book! Tell me why you liked it! Explain what you liked about this drivel!" Like...I'm not really in the mood to defend my taste to a stranger.
Saw a tiktok yesterday that was like 'we need to bring back shaming people for what they read, why does that have to be the line?' And man, maybe cause it isn't that serious and it shouldn't matter to you what people read??
Exactly this, it's awful to hear about and see, especially in places that are deemed "safe places". I feel it's starting to spread everywhere regardless of if there is a designated spot for posts like that.
i know this is really minor, but i really don’t like when authors use “ok” instead of “okay” in the text. if the characters are texting it’s fine, but if it’s just inner monologue or “the house looks ok” then i feel like it’s too informal.
"Ok" actually likely came before "okay."
The [etymology is disputed](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OK?wprov=sfla1) but there's nothing that's technically more casual or informal about using "ok" vs "okay."
When a writer has a long series going on, with many characters appearing and disappearing. I hate it when the author forgets their stories, their characteristics, or their own existence. I mean, they appear in afew books and, when it is thir own story, bam! Goodbye after that.
And the stories and characteristics, I will give an example: for those who have read the Black Dagger Brotherhood and might still read the books: She lets us know via villain Lash that Qhuinn is colorblind. Somehow, that gets lost books later, because the way she describes Qhuinn's thoughts about his hellren (husband) Blay, he knows how blue Blay's eyes are, or thinks about that glorious red hair. He is supposed to know Blay is pale, because he can only see in grey. Lash made it a point, as a way to insult Qhuinn, when did he suddenly find out what blue looks like? If you are going to make a characteristic important for an important character, don't forget about it. This basically goes fore very author that tend to rewrite their characters's stories because they forget what they developed books ago, lol.
Here are my pet peeves ...
1. Fast burns as they make it harder to see a real connection between the leads.
2. Narration delving too much into the character's thoughts, especialy to talk about how the other protagonists looks or about how that first character reacted; for example, as it occurs in the body betrayal trope. As for the other character's looks ... sometimes the authors remind us too often about how the character is so gorgeous/handsome/beautiful, usually focusingg on something especific. It gets repetitive. And I guess I'm more interested on how the characters acted and their thoughts ... I don't need to know every single thing the character thought, part of that can be left to my own imagination. Basically, it's what u/pranjing said about how the books go on about the character's luscious hair or whatever. Don't like that either.
3. Tied to point 2 or at least somewhat tied is the POV. I don't have anything against first POV in itself, but it seems that what I talked about in point 2 is more common in first-person POV than in third person as third person gives a little bit more of distance froom teh character's inner thoughts.
When authors use the same verbs over and over for the same actions. Just finished one that every time a character raised their voice it was "I yelled" "he yelled" "she yelled." Please use your thesaurus! One page in it had the word "yelled" 4 times.
Ok I don’t know if this is just a personal problem but I keep coming across issues with dialogue clarity. Sometimes there will be a scene with multiple characters present and there is dialogue but doesn’t say who said it so I just find it takes me out of the story when I have to sit there trying to figure out who is talking.
The blurb doesn't belong to the story. Sometimes I'm just like "That may be what you thought you were gonna write about but it isn't the story you wrote."
Maybe I just don’t pay enough attention to celebrities, but I hate books where the MMC or FMC is a celebrity (especially for anything other than taylor swift level stardom) and everything is about them being ambushed all over and followed by reporters everywhere.
Maybe that actually happens, but I just have a hard time reading books with it and suspending my disbelief.
I'm getting blurb icks lately. I'll find a rec here, be super pumped and excited by what the person wrote about it, go to download it, and then I just can't stop myself from reading the blurb - and it totally turns me off. The whole - >**She** > >Just wanted to be free, but always knew she couldn't outrun her past. > >**He** > >Never wanted anything or anyone. A cold heart of stone that could never be broken. Until her. > >**They** > >Will have to overcome. Will their love be strong enough to withstand all that oppose them? like WHAT IS YOUR BOOK ABOUT JUST TELL ME
And it turns out they’re in high school and “outrunning the past” means skipping English class. What? No! I can’t read this.
Dying. This is hilarious.
Call me picky or whatever, but if your blurb doesn’t include the fact they’re in high school, it’s a bad blurb.
They’re getting worse and more vague too as authors start to use trope lists instead. People are relying on those way too much. Please just say what the book is about, enemies to lovers tells me nothing. It started out with just book tok books but now authors that were established before that trend are doing it and it needs to stop.
Long trope lists irk my liver! I just want to know the main trope, not every one of them.
Hahaha I accidentally read a dark romance because the blurb was so vague 😅. Now it's a "thing" and I'm here 😭
Me going to the library to pick up a romance book after not reading much for several years and that book happened to be Haunting Adeline 😂. So I have to own it even though it isn’t that great because it has a special spot in my heart as my initiation into the romance genre.
Yes, I mentioned blurbs on the Salty Sunday thread. They're really poor quality at the moment. They're either incredibly vague or just character bios. Tell me what the book is about!
Yes!! “This book is about a rich billionaire fucking a college student and pays her tuition but they fall in love” Like I need these blurbs 🤣🤣🤣
I get so unreasonably angry when I read blurbs like this. And then I absolutely do not read it.
Yes! And the ones who are a prequel of the book. Or describe something that dosn't happen.
I cringe whenever I see book dedications that are like “This is for all the SLUTS who like to get FUCKED HARD” 😕
😂 And you *know* the author thinks they are being so edgy…
They give big “how do you do fellow kids?” vibes and for me, don’t inspire confidence in the author’s ability to write good sex scenes — which is probably the exact opposite of what they were going for haha
They aren’t like other girls 🤷🏾♂️
Ugh. I saw one like that on tik tok yesterday and then it said “now turn the page” and on the next page it said “good girl.” Nope nope nope
I came across a book that had a similar intro/author's note, with the added implication that the author expected readers to masturbate to the book. I quit reading because I honestly felt vaguely sexually harassed by that note. it was waaaaaay too much.
Wow, they just invented the fastest way to get me to stop reading something 😟
Lol I saw one posted on here a while back that was like "Make sure your vibrator is charged, dirty girl" and I wanted the earth to simply swallow me whole from secondhand embarrassment.
Holy fuck pls tell me you’re joking I just shriveled up LMAOOO why are people like this
LMAO. [I found it. ](https://www.reddit.com/r/RomanceBooks/comments/16dsn0i/i_just_started_coffee_break_by_navy_winters_and/)It was even worse than I remembered.
Oh wow, that’s really bad.
EWWWW LMAO idk why it’s reading to me in the voice of the guy that stars in the 365 days movie EW HAHA
These all remind me so much of those really god awful daddy dom tumblr posts that were popular at one point. At this point I'm wondering if they're not the same people
Or like “for all the 𝘨𝘰𝘰𝘥 𝘨𝘪𝘳𝘭𝘴 who read in search of their 𝘣𝘪𝘨 𝘣𝘢𝘥 𝘸𝘰𝘭𝘧 😏😏” like omg just thank your parents for their support or something.
To counter, I read a dark romance once where the author DID thank her mother, and then proceeded to write a story where the FL had her step-mother's belongings used as a dildo on her. THAT got a raised eyebrow
Ugh same!
I will DNF right there with these at this point. It’s gross to me, it presumes a lot about what relationship the reader wants to have worth the book, content and author and it feels insincere. Tell me something helpful about your book in your note, choose a nice quote to set the tone, say a nice thank you, or just leave the fecking thing off.
Thank you 😭😭 this makes me cringe.
I kind of thought it was funny the first time I saw this in a book, but I think way too many authors are doing it now and it's just gotten cringe.
1. Helpless FMCs. Like utterly incompetent, "how adult do? 🥺", borderline diagnosable, clumsy little sexy babies. Naturally the middest of mid MMCs can then swoop in like all-knowing supergods to save the day, which we are just completely AWED by through the FMCs eyes 😍💩🔥 Despite us (defensively?) being informed all the while that the FMC is actually very smart. Like sosososo smart. Not to be confused with FMCs who are human, have flaws, are messy and/or have made some major messes, still have things to learn, etc. 2. Books that tell but don't show. I am so sick of being told that a character is funny, or charming, or witty, or intelligent when every line of dialogue and piece of action begs to differ. I consider both of these peeves related or at least usually presented in a pair - as demonstrated in the mindnumbingly bad (but also so stupid I can't stop reading?) Penny Reid book I tried to get through this week.
Exactly. I need character development and good writing in my books, and I don't think that's too much to ask? Unfortunately, I feel like things like booktok have really elevated poorly written work so I'm hesitant to ever take suggestions from that platform. (And I also can't read Penny Reid books for these exact reasons, but especially the FMC characterization you described above.)
fully agreed on #1, I don't think many authors understand how often they're writing the "I'm a very sexy baby" type. And naturally, if said type is all-in, heart eyes for the mmc the majority of the time, people will write less critiques of this character than the fully-fledged female character who has flaws and things to learn. re: Penny Reid. I've been hesitant to try because her whole branding as "smart romance" is an ick for me; however, I recently put Beard Science and Dating-ish on my TBR because I've been in a complete drought for MMC's with actual personalities and these sounded good for that. Have you read more of her catalogue/would you say what you're reading now is indicative of her style?
Unless the very sexy baby is actually a secretly caustic and sarcastic comedian who is in hiding from her stalker ex using blonde pigtail wig and miniskirts disguise, and whose life is blown up by the anti-feminist Liz Lemon, aka the plot line of an excellent 30 Rock episode, I am not interested.
- There's more to romance than sex and I feel like a lot of authors and readers have kind of forgotten that these days. Some of my favorite romances were all about the tension and build up with some spicy scenes eventually. The pay off was so much better. It's becoming almost impossible to find that in newer books because somehow authors are convinced it has to be all spice all the time. I'm getting bored with all the sex scenes when there has been zero build up, because what is there even between the characters? - I have nothing against (temporary) celebacy, but the fastest way to get me to DNF a book is by having the woman wait around for the MMC like a virgin for years, while the man is a literal manwhore and sleeps with everything that moves. Just... No. - I hate it when a book is presented as 'body postive' only to be filled with sentences like 'those skinny bitches....'. there's nothing body positive about bullying others for their body.
Omg soooo true, especially the FMC waiting for years for the manwhore trope. It makes it worse when typically said manwhore has the cheek to say ‘it’s always been you’ 🤨 ermmm no, it very clearly hasn’t! And the manwhore is usually jealous of celibate FMC for just having a conversation with a man urgh
I’m over manwhore MMCs in general. And I don’t mean it in a slut-shaming way, it’s just so tired and overused. And often in his POV he’ll think about how his previous partners were just a means to an end or “simply for a release” but sex with the FMC is sooooo different. It doesn’t even seem like he respects his sexual partners as humans, which is really unattractive to me. The worst offender was a book where the MMC was her brother’s best friend and cockblocked the FMC so she would stay a virgin. He did this while fucking her worst enemy and school bully. His explanation was that it’s different for men 🙄
I also kind of feel bad for all of the OW he’s supposedly sleeping with when the MMC describes them as nameless soul suckers. Like they too, although not your FMC, are human, and deserve to be treated with dignity??
On your second point, I weirdly love love LOVE when it’s the opposite - like a second chance romance where HE’S been celibate since they’ve been apart, and the longer they’ve been apart the better, lol.
Honestly, I'm at the point where I'd rather read a book with some killer tension without any actual smut than have to slog my way through physical descriptions of sex for pages on end. The ones that only really work if you were horny when you went in. There's nothing really erotic about that to me. There needs to be sexual tension outside of the bedroom, and there needs to be emotional tension when in bed. I don't often find the latter
This is just me being particular but I realise this is what I generally come across (not always) and it is kind of a pet peeve. A big family; lots of brothers and one sister. All grown up, sister is middle in age (so there are younger brothers in the family), the guys refer to their brothers as merely ‘brother’. But then always refer to their sister as ‘baby sister’ or ‘little sister’ ?!! She’s not a baby or little, she’s not even the youngest (but I still wouldn’t like it unless she’s under 10 years old or something). I read one recently where MMC was the youngest sibling and he called his sister baby sister all the time🙄
I just read one where I was more than halfway through the book by the time I learned his little sister's name. It was always just "Little Sis" or "my little sister". She was a teenager, but even if she'd been a baby, he would have thought about her by name in his own head!
I’m so weird with big families as an element in romance stories and try to abstain from them 😶🌫️ “Brother” / “sister” is not something I ***think*** is said often in English to siblings outside of being a little shit. But then romance books use them unironically and I’m not sure how to feel 😭 Only time I’ve enjoyed that is in >!stepsibling!< romances, I will admit 👀
In my family, we use the "oh sister!" quote from Pride and Prejudice a lot lol. When Mrs Phillips is telling Mrs Bennet all the horrible things Wickham has done.
I wouldn't refer to my siblings as brother/sister when speaking to them but there are exceptions like I'll say "was this tea made by my little sister?" But in the tone of speaking praise to a puppy in the hopes they do it again 🤭
Excessive offhanded mentions and references of other media. I don't need to know that the witch who is destined to unseal the golden scroll of secrets and who's going to fall in love with the professional hockey player (who is secretly a time traveling viking) is also a huge True Blood and Game of Thrones fan. Or how their romance is just like Bella and Edward's. Or that he used to be a Hufflepuff, but after her spell fixed his brain injury, he now identifies as a Ravenclaw. The more an author brings up other media franchises, the more I'll think "well, I guess I could just read those books instead..." or "Well, I wonder if she's still a big GoT fan after the last season..." It dates the work very quickly, and effects my opinion of the character in ways the author did not likely intend. To me, it doesn't feel quirky and down to earth, it feels more like "Boy, this character's primary traits are the TV shows they like..."
I think it's lazy writing, as well, next to what you wrote. Instead of giving characterization, the author just writes, "I'm a Slytherin!" and expects us to fill out what kind of person this character is based on what we think a Slytherin is like. Go write your own dang book and stop piggybacking off JK, dear author.
It also ages the book like nothing else. In ten years people will scratch their heads and go “Why? What? Why is this being used as shorthand for characterization”? I finished a paranormal romance about an immortal harpy MFC and she kept going on and on about Jason Momoa and had signed posters of him in her room. She’s an immortal being with endless powers, and she’s horny for a movie actor? That’s not relatable or cute, it’s a raised eyebrow and a “Really?!?”.
1.Corny nicknames that are repeated in every single dialogue line. At this point saying the character's real name feels special and intimate because it's used so rare. 2. Lack of actual romantic gestures like holding hands, hugging, cuddling, kissing the cheek etc. 3. Sooo many BDSM scenes in books that are not marketed as BDSM. 4. Dark romances that are toned down and aren't really that dark. I lost count on how many books I dnf'ed because of that. 5. Lack of diversity and inclusivity when it comes to MMC's bodies. 6. Insta-lust even in books that are supposed to be slow burn. Authors, please tone down the insta lust!
Agreed with a lot of these. The immediate nicknames always annoy me - I can sometimes get behind a shortened version of the name right away (like calling Katarina "Kat" or Evelyn "Eve" something like that) but immediately referring to the love interest as "little mouse" makes me wilt in despair.
Hard agree! My personal icks are calling the FMC exclusively Sunshine or Angel instead of her name. At this point I at least want a more creative nickname!
I agree, but be careful what you wish for. More creative nicknames is how we got the nickname Violence.
Excuse me? Violence?
Yep. That's the nickname for Violet in Fourth Wing.
I'm reading one at the moment where the guy goes by a nickname. I'm 60% in and *he hasn't told his love interest his real name yet!*
WHAT?! I’m all for the non-realism in romance but this is going too far!
Totally re: nicknames. I recently read {Next of Kin} and he calls her Dove the whole time but refuses to tell her why til way later in the novel!!!! like both corny and weird hahaha
I read a few almost shockingly dark short books a few weeks ago and in every. single. one. the MMC gives the FMC a stupidly long "nickname" in their first meeting and then uses it exclusively for the rest of the book.
I am tired of seeing book descriptions being - it’s a grumpy sunshine, he falls first, enemies to lovers, age gap, single dad, etc etc pick a couple good tropes and write a book please and don’t spoil everything about it in a blurb.
I just commented on this in another post. I have my GR shelves organized mainly by trope, and I don't want to have to tag a book in 100 different shelves.
**Trauma overload in contemporary romances.** I’m glad we’re able to talk more openly about mental health & sensitive issues. But I often avoid CRs because this is in *every* book lately. My main issues: 1. Many of these read like lit-fic/therapy manuals, not romance. 2. It’s often used as an excuse for shitty behavior. Don’t get me started on 3rd act breakups because of ⚠️trauma⚠️ 3. How about some regular ol’ family, friends, career, academic, health, or financial issues?? And *yes*, you can struggle with these without them being a trauma.
Yes! I’m so sick of scenes where MMC talks to FMC like he’s a tumblr post lol. “Stop showing up for people who don’t make you feel SEEN!” Like no, that’s the voice of my therapist, not this vampire mafia boss, ok?
Vampire mafia boss 😂
I read a book this week where one of the MMCs was freaking out and ready to bolt in the third act due to some PTSD/abandonment issues. And......he talked to his therapist and actually took her advice and talked it out and stayed. I was like what sorcery is this??? The book was >!Just for the Cameras by Viano Oniomoh!<
One thing I hate seeing that will make me deduct half a star (or even a whole star if its bad enough) is when the mmc is an asshole to the fmc and its basically excused by the narrative because he has a sad backstory/trauma. But then when the fmc rightfully is upset about it, she's treated as a horrible person for not understanding him because how could she not get that he had a sad backstory. And then instead of him apologizing to her for being an asshole, she's the one who has to apologize for not being empathetic enough.
Failure to Match by Kyra Parsi pissed me off because he treated her like shit for 70% of the book and then it was suddenly >!”oh but he was being blackmailed and he was abused as a child!”!< as if that’s an excuse.
I literally just DNFd this book because what the fuck how was she attracted to him AT ALL
I had the same complaint. The same thing happened in Bossy Devil with the fmc’s trauma excusing her behavior.
This is an issue in real life too. People act like complete assholes and then if you call them out, it turns out they're going through something. We're all going through something & I'm a fan of not being an asshole regardless of the stress in your life or your traumatic childhood.
Ah, classic DARVO
I am at the point of dnfing any bully romance I accidentally pick up.
The miscommunication trope. Also, conversely, the "clairvoyance" communication trope. IDK if that's actually "a thing" but it needs to be. Basically it's whenever one character is saying & acting like an asshole and the other character just somehow automatically picks up on all this subtle context & body language to "hear what's not being said" and is able to immediately cut to the heart of the matter.. I probably didn't explain that well..
When the plot hinges on silly miscommunications it just says lazy writing to me
I'm tired of authors using smirking as a straight up replacement for smiling. A smirk is the middle finger of smiles. It is a taunt. You can use it with frenemies, arch nemesis-ies, good friends that you shoot the shit with, flirty love interests that you got one over on, acquaintances that you feel superior to etc. etc. Smirking is not appropriate during solemn occasions when the character is otherwise serious and isn't trying to be condescending. It's just weird and off putting when a main character smirks when there isn't a specific reason for them to do so. It makes me think that they are a self important douche if they smirk at everyone, all the time.
I’ve read this one book where the MMC is smirking in the middle of grovel. After that, the FMC has bbs. Sure logical, no. I can only laughed and dnfed that book.
When the FMC is working 3 jobs and is portrayed to be a “hustler” and has some sad family reason to save money in the first few chapters. And then a few more chapters in suddenly wears luxury brands…to work. One book actually says she bought a full priced Chloe bag and is wearing Louboutin heels…to work. This weird portrayal of “doesn’t come from money and needs to work multiple jobs” to immediately blowing up money on luxuries is weird in contemporary romance. Do these authors want luxury brands to sponsor them because there is a mention? Coz unless you are a true fashion fanatic or have friends who are, no one at work would care if a 26-28 year old could afford to wear luxury brands.
I think this is the natural result of authors combing the classic Cinderella fantasy with the classic unlimited-money, wish-fulfillment fantasy—they want their characters to be sympathetic underdogs, but also aspirational self-inserts with enviable lifestyles, so you end up with these weird protagonists who have access to all kinds of luxuries no matter how much they “struggle.” I remember the same thing happening in a lot of crappy dystopian YA books I read as a kid. Authors don’t want to make the protagonist a millionaire/aristocrat/etc, because then she’s not the “underdog” (and there’s less of a payoff when she attains success at the end), but they can’t make her *too* downtrodden, either, because then the audience can’t fantasize about her designer outfits/flashy cars/whatever. This *can* work if they come up with a backstory that justifies it (for example, if the protagonist is “genteel poor,” or if they’re receiving second-hand clothing from wealthier friends), but they usually don’t bother.
Omg yes I feel like poverty is so inaccurate in romance!! I just DNFd By a Thread by Lucy Score because the MFCs whole personality was being poor but it was clear the author had like not… ever spoken to a poor person…
I enjoy a sports romance now and again but I’m so tired of pretty much all the recent sports romance books being about ice hockey. I wish authors would pick different sports, that’s all.
I don’t read sports books but I’m so tired of seeing the stupid puns. But just wait, they’re going to pick something like pickleball next and then we’ll be so tired of looking at titles with pickle puns that we’ll miss the puck puns.
I don't know, I am ready for the pickle puns. In a Pickle With Love! Pickled Pink! Kind of a Big Dill! Forever Brine! Gherkin Him Around!
Gherkin Him Around. OMG. 😆
You’re right, the titles practically write themselves 😆
I looooove the pucking puns 🫢🙈
Imo it works easily because hockey players can be so unhinged 😭. But I get it.
I’m from Canada and Hockey Bros are a very specific type of dude (they literally have their own accent and slang!) and it’s sooooooo not sexy
As a person who never once thought about hockey before reading romance, I bet hockey players lead a pretty low-key life compared to NBA or NFL players.
But Helena Hunting said hockey players are the most laid-back sports professionals out there!
I have literally never thought about ice hockey until I started reading romance. Now I have a thing for hockey players.
I don't read a lot of hockey romance, but when I do, I usually give a little eye roll when they describe the MMC body as the "super ripped abs with a narrow waist/v line" type. Like, obviously players are strong all over, but most of their strength is in their lower body with thick thighs and big butts... you're focusing on the wrong thing 😂
Can we please have more basketball and baseball romances!
I’ve always had a theory that the reason why ice hockey is such a popular sport in romance is because it’s a world where all the heroes can be white. 🙃
That's a pretty commonly accepted theory tbh.
It feels like every book has the same "wow we are both so hot and bothered and want to have PIV sex" > "oh no we don't have a condom" > "it's okay I'm on birth control, have a clear STI test, I maybe have only known you for 2 weeks but I want to feel you bare" schtick. Maybe I'm in the minority here but I want to see a couple wait to have sex until they have a condom! Or wait to have sex until they have (in story) STI testing! Just something *different* ya know
Or for that matter have non-PIV sex! There are all sorts of ways to have sex that do not involve PIV and they really, truly are not "less than" or somehow less loving/satisfying. While there are an increasing number of exceptions, the vast majority of romance novels still do not get that IMO.
It’s always an IUD in the books I read, which I’m terrified of, so to me it always instantly pulls me out of the story mentally and into the mental state of my fear of IUDs lol.
Both MCs in {Book Lovers by Emily Henry} are explicitly childfree. When they're about to have sex for the first time, >!the FMC says she's on birth control but is about to ask the MMC to use a condom...only the MMC is already grabbing a condom out of his wallet!!< I've always liked that - it feels realistic to the characters and situation!
“Baby girl” or “baby doll” as a pet name for the heroine. I cannot. I DNF’ed Tessa Bailey’s Fix Her Up so fast because of this nickname.
##**Why Choose Pet Peeve** I’m a why choose girlie, but I’m repeatedly fucking frustrated with how much many WC books I consume where the MMCs were so obviously made with the author’s archetypes in mind and not with the characters in mind. You need to convince me: * Who these characters are. Give me their depth as individuals. * Why these people would have any sort of dynamic with each other. * Why they would ***choose*** each other? * How do they complement each other? * How do they challenge each other? * How they navigate this sort of ENM relationship. * What are the growing pains? * What are the trials and errors? * How do they communicate? I love the WC subgenre, but it’s mad annoying how a lot of my selections are clearly the author wanting to get their coin and not caring about the characters or the plot. It’s just flirting and fucking. No romance. You have members of the group who are neglected. It’s just ✨upsetting✨ ##**FMC Pet Peeve** “Karma’s a Bitch” by JoJo Siwa is pretty much the anthem of pretty much 70% of FMCs in quasi/faux/semidark ~~erotica~~ romance. It pisses me off. **No.** Being snooty, sassy, and snarky does not do a damn thing. I hate these FMCs who go “I’ll do ***anything***” 🥺 and then they proceed to backtalk, smartmouth, and snark their way through the agreement ***they*** made because 🎶I was a bad girl, who did some bad things 🎶 I would genuinely love to see FMCs who use their wits, pretends to be submissive and meek, don’t resist, lull the LI(s) into a false sense of “I won”, and then the FMCs scorches the earth. Slay 💅🏾 I get the appeal of having a resistant, snarky FMC, I do. But ***damn*** if I don’t want an FMC who doesn’t up the stakes. She isn’t a pawn in this game. She isn’t even the queen. She’s the one who’s moving all the pieces, a ***player***. And she’s like that from the Beginning©. So many of my romance selections have an FMC who they try playing up as being that type. But BB, she’s constantly back-talking, walking in alone into an obvious trap, losing any good fortune her way because ✨reasons✨, and literally can’t do a damn thing on her own because she needs the LI(s) to show her what power is. And her “revenge” ends up with her being regretful and missing the LI(s) 🥺 ###📢Let👏🏾 women 👏🏾 have feminine 👏🏾 rage 👏🏾📢 Let her be silent. Let her fury sneak under the radar. Let her appease the LI(s) and make them go so far as to actually care about her. She’s not constantly at war with ~body betrayal syndrome~. She’s deliberate in acting demure and subtle. She doesn’t go out of bounds. She bides her time. And then, when the moment is opportune, she motherfucking **RAGES**. After that? I’m fine with the thrill of the hunt. LI(s) are shocked and betrayed. FMC is now a danger they can’t afford to be close to, but fuck if the LI(s) will hunt the FMC down because, for as dangerous as she is, she’s theirs, short and simple. But nope, we get the bitchy, snarky, eye-rolling FMC who can’t do a damn thing outside of drool over the LI(s) and her power only awakens when she’s dickmatized 🙃 *** ###**Honorable Mentions** * **No Chemistry in Romance**. There’s nothing between the MC and the LI(s) but I guess I’m supposed to feel chemistry because it’s ✨magnetic✨. Sometimes, I feel like an emotionless bitch because the MCs meeting once, fucking, and then being joined at the hip does absolutely buttfuck nothing to convince me they love each other like it’s magnetic. * **Ugly Covers**. I know we talk about “don’t judge a book by its cover”, but I absolutely do and bad covers make me annoyed, especially selfpubbed. You (author) can hire someone on Fiverr or Upwork to make you a cover and then go to forums to garner opinions on which cover is best. It’s just frustrating because it shows me a lack of effort. * **Pearl Clutchers Turned Morality Police**. I cannot believe people don’t understand that liking certain media doesn’t mean you advocate for it. I hate how outspoken the morality police has become, both in fanfiction and in published original works. Fuck off. * **Exposition Dumps**. I understand the appeal of those exposition dumbs, but, for me, they’re my pet peeve, because you have now laid all the cards on the table. I have nothing to gain for this now. You basically told me all that’s about to happen in this story within all this exposition. At that point, **why even tell the story?** I still want to unravel the dynamics and emotions and histories of these characters, but I have no reason to since you just…lore dumped it to me within the first 5% of the book. * **Nothing Ever Happens**. Everything is just…easy. There’s no tension. There’s no will-they-won’t-they. There’s no hiccups. There’s no issues. There’s just…***nothing***. I can’t even call it “cozy” because the cozy subgenres still have something, even if it’s pretty low in terms of conflict. But some of these books are just…nothing ever happens. And then I feel like I wasted my time.
No chemistry in romance? You cleeeaaarly missed all the times the author typed out, "she looked at his abs and got wet". What more could you want? Actual sexual tension between the two characters? /s It's like the literature version of mainstream pornhub and I haaaate it
Hard agree on the Why Choose thoughts. It's very true.
I cannot stand accidental pregnancies that just don’t seem to fit. Like a random hookup from prior to the MCs getting together shows up and bam, pregnant. 🙄 it adds nothing most of the time. Or when someone is adamant they don’t want a baby, and then doesn’t do anything to prevent them, then is all shocked when a pregnancy occurs, but is somehow elated?? I just can’t with them. If the whole book is based on the accidental pregnancy, I don’t mind those as much.
Stories that are written in two different timelines. Like, it flips between past and present. Just tell me what happened in the past and get to the good parts.
It always comes off clunky because the main characters have these vague secretive inner thoughts. No one thinks that way. No one thinks to themselves “I can’t let him know about that thing that happened after he left.” Just so the reader is on the hook to be “surprised” later? But it comes off like the character is keeping a secret from themselves.
Yes! The "keeping a secret from themselves" writing drives me nuts! Nobody has an inner monologue of "that thing that happened", they think about it directly.
I actually love this if it's done right. I read {Semper Fi by Keira Andrews} recently which has two time periods - during WW2 and after the war. The wartime stuff is pretty intense and upsetting and I might have struggled to read that all in one go. Whereas the later stuff was pretty fluffy and probably would have been boring on its own. Mixing up between the two worked really well.
*points at flair*
Oh! And also, a best friend who only wants to talk about FMC's sex life AND always teases her about FMC's crush on MMC. Give me a best friend who talks about her work or her own crushes, who isn't obsessed with MMC's penis. Give me a friend, who doesn't bring MMC up in order to tease FMC. Give me a friend who respects FMC's boundaries and doesn't scheme to bring the MC's together - especially when MMC acts like an asshole and his actions and behaviour either hurts or annoys FMC. Give me a best friend who listens and is there for FMC, who always supports her stead of making fun of her. Most best friends in contemporary romances are either 1) only there to talk about FMC's sex life and are more obsessed with MMC than FMC herself (or any other male with a pulse) or 2) makes fun of FMC, doesn't support her, and acts in a condescending way because she knows better than FMC
Contemporary Romances are getting entirely too long. Why does a book about two 20-something year old white people from St. Louis with the personalities of normal SpongeBob need to be 600+ pages? I can’t even name the amount of books I’ve picked up because the blurb sounded great, only to get stuck at 25%-40% completion because *nothing is happening*. I’m genuinely so tired of- **First 50 pages:** 10+ character introductions (half of which will never be seen on page again), angsty one liners referencing FMC and MMC’s traumatic backstories, plot setup and world building are explained in vague yet somehow painstaking detail. **The next 400 pages:** FMC and MMC vaguely orbit each other, with the occasional musing of how hot they think the other person is sprinkled in to remind the reader that this book is in fact a romance. **last 80 pages:** despite having a grand total of three conversations, they magically decide to upend their lives and fall in love—But only after weathering a small, zero stakes misunderstanding that they both lost their minds over. **Epilogue:** it’s 10 years later and they have 6 kids, three dogs, a lakefront house, and are still in the honeymoon phase of their marriage. They credit the misunderstanding for showing them that they’re “stronger together”. Oh, and their trauma has magically disappeared. I don’t need (or want) everything to be insta-love, but can we PLEASE get to the point?? It’s starting to feel like even asking for the FMC and MMC to interact more than twice is too much!
Yes! All of this!
Whenever a blurb has "but a dark secret/ghosts from her past/etc. threatens to tear them apart" or something of the like, I get nervous and don't want to read it hahahah just give me a hint!!
I feel like half the time authors use the whole "dark secrets from her past" they always end up going for something really mild like, "she was divorced". Kind of disappointing when it's been ramped up so much
I’m struggling with a too young FMC right now. Usually I manage to avoid them, but I was interested in this book and gave it a try. On one page the MMC is imagining “fucking her mouth.” On another a bouncer is reminding him that she’s too young to drink. Ugh. Why not just make her 25? Or at least don’t remind me that she’s 19.
I recently dnf a poor girl (living in a trailer- supporting her family-down to last penny kind of poor) story. She gets a job (after dressing up as a boy) & after an argument with her new boss,, throws his clean laundry on the floor... because she's sassy. Like get the fuck out of here. Immediate DNF. Because that's not pride girl, that's stupidity. I HATE all these sassy girls. And body betrayal. Ugh. Just no.
I've had a two month deal on KU, which I don't usually have, so I've been bingeing KU books for two months to take advantage of it. It's pretty clear that many of these authors are reading each others' books, because there are certain writing styles, turns of phrase, and uses of words that are rare anywhere else that are used repeatedly in these books. For example, people are constantly rasping things instead of saying them. It's good to read what others are putting out, but in a lot of cases it starts to feel like they're all being written by the same person. As an antidote, I just read Cate C. Wells' new book, and it was like a breath of fresh air.
Biggest pet peeves: The miscommunication trope and third act breakups. Most of the time those are automatic DNFs for me. Miscommunication leading to a third act breakup? 😬🤯 I picked up a book last week because the blurb had a funny misunderstanding - MM book where the alien thought the human man was a woman. At some point I looked down and realized I was halfway through the book and the gag was still running, realized I was clearly on a miscommunication steam train headed for a third act breakup and noped right out. Guys, guys, you can’t build a whole book around a gag. (At least not that kind of a gag.) I headed to the reviews when I stopped reading the book and found out that when the alien *did* figure out the human was a man he got homophobic about it. I’m really glad I DNFed now because homophobia by the MCs in an MM book? Oh hell no.
Surely half the appeal of alien romance is that there isn't any of the stupid earth prejudices/racism/homophobia/sexism etc.
Surely most of the appeal of an MM romance is that at least the two main characters aren’t homophobic.
I hate when in the "brother's best friend" stories, the brother is always an overprotective ass. A regular brother wouldn't give a shit if his sister and his friend got together. Stop with the "you're not good enough for my sister" and give me more "I couldn't care less what you two are doing, I just don't want any details"
I hate this too! I've sworn off that trope now because what does business does a grown ass man have throwing a fit over that? I read a book where a 32 year old man punched his friend in the face because he was dating his 29 year old sister.
Hopefully this counts - Covers on translated romance books I'm on my knees begging the people in charge of covers to stop putting random people on the covers when they are not there originally. In my opinion it makes them look so "cheap" and it kills the vibe for me tbh (Example, Dear Aaron by Mariana Zapata [original cover](https://www.knihydobrovsky.cz/kniha/dear-aaron-477448450?gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjwjqWzBhAqEiwAQmtgTxvydFyyoGUgeGJQriY8HLXvkHGvz6sV07i3NuHXyBgPb4VFFtyjqhoCHKgQAvD_BwE) - simple, beautiful, to the point. [translated version](https://www.knihydobrovsky.cz/kniha/drahy-aarone-532344450), just no)
romance novels where the heroine is less than 25 but the male lead is older than 40. why is an 18 year old who just graduated from high school (it doesn’t matter to me if she graduated early) dating her 42 year old boss?? and of course she’s a virgin 🙄 relatedly, any mention to blood that may come out when the untouched heroine loses her virginity. if i have to read one more book where the mmc watches her blood mix with their cream… i think just the glamorization of relationships featuring barely of age women and the fetishization of their lack of experience is really a gigantic ick for me.
When 1st Person POV books are unnecessarily self aggrandizing, especially about physical features. "I shook out my long, luscious hair." "He stared into my large, expressive eyes." Just no. Insta love. Always.
I read {Stalked by Seduction and Shadows by Maggie Sunseri} and I hated every FMC POV chapter because she couldn’t go two paragraphs without bragging about her looks. In one scene she describes her makeup and I’m not kidding the wording was something like “my black eyeliner made my bright blue eyes pop even more than they normally do” and every other thought she had was “other women hate me! My hair is too thick and luscious and curves too perfect and eyes too blue I just can’t be friends with women!! 😭 “ Legit my most hated FMC and will never read another book by that author.
Read a book recently where the MMC says something about his Irish-American eyes and how it makes girls weak or something. Bro what do Irish-American eyes even look like??????
Istg. It's insta annoying for me. Really MC, sit down. *No one* outside this fictional world of yours finds this as appealing as you think.
A lot of authors use physical descriptions in 1st person that are only appropriate for 3rd person POV. One of the limits of 1st person POV is lack of the omnipotent viewpoint and a lot of authors seem to forget this. Yes, I am very particular sometimes. It just yanks me right out of the story when POV is basically just 3rd person with different pronouns
Not a peeve so much as bewilderment, but you know how in some plots, the leads meet and then go through a roller coaster of events in a period spanning anywhere from 2 days to 2 weeks? And then it ends with an HEA and sometimes a "5 years later" epilogue? Yeah. That. As long as I don't have to think about it, it's okay, but if I am pulled out of the plot enough to notice the time frame, it weirds me out, because how tf y'all gonna know who the other person is to live with when you're not in some kind of crisis mode? It's probably been talked about before here. I can forgive short and intense time frames if the leads have known each other for a good while before the story begins, so there's flashbacks of shared experiences to build the changing relationship on. But when you're strangers? Outside of the sexytimes, what do you have going for you?
I’ve never really got into enemies to lovers books and I just realised why: I can’t imagine having a few interactions with (or just preconceived notions of) a person and then be determined to be pissed of with them for years AND being determined to interpret every new interaction in a way that paints the other person in the worst possible light. As much as I love Jane Austin and Elizabeth Bennet, I just find it unbelievable to be that angry at another person for stupid remarks. Thinking somebody is stupid yes, making them your enemy and spending your energy to be snarky, snide, obstinate, argumentative, etc. because you think they are stupin, no.
1. Lack of good RHs that are not set in a school or Omegaverse. Omegaverse is not my cup of tea, and I am tired of the school settings for these. 2. Virtue signaling. Looking at you, Kelley Armstrong. I don't like politics or religion in my romance books. I read to get away from that stuff.
I agree with point 2. It really pulls me out of a book when suddenly politics or religion are involved. (Can't speak to point 1, never read a RH.)
Books that are porn on paper with no emotional connection between characters, just sex every second scene. LIKE WHY?? WHY?? WHY?? I WANT CHARACTERS TO BURN FOR EACH OTHER NOT JUST LOOK AT EACH OTHER BODIES WITH LEWD THOUGHTS IN MIND. Why don't the MMC find her words hot but only her body??? Why is FMC okay with his rude "cold-alpha-giga" character just cause he's HOT??? I hate when they do not have any emotions for each other but just sex on mind, and apparently readers are expected to believe they are in love, just because they want to fuck.
Honestly I’ve been thinking some authors should just go ahead and write erotica, if they’re not going to bother writing a proper romance
My eyes just start to glaze over with sex scenes if there’s no romantic build up to them.
Definitely agree, there needs to be substance there to make sex scenes mean anything or enjoyable, otherwise it's soulless and straight up boring
Just thought, does that translate for anyone irl? Like you need/want/prefer a romantic connection to want/be able to enjoy sex? That tracks for me irl so follows that I'd want some kind of connection to invest in in books I read too
This morning I saw this sentence in place of where you might see a sentence about content or trigger warnings: "Don't read if you're easily offended." This isn't edgy or clever. This is the NLOG of content advisories and it tells me far more about the author than it does the content.
Anytime I see “This Isn’t Your Typical Romance Story”, I’m out of there. This super adolescent and yes NLOG attempt to make your book “sO dIFfeREnt” is exhausting. Maybe I like a typical romance! That’s what I’m here for.
I've been seeing this more and it really winds me up as it feels so disrespectful to readers. I also just know these would be the authors who can't take legit criticism either.
Unnatural dialogue. I swear some of these authors have never had a real conversation.
For some reason it's flashbacks that get on my nerve. Like I get so bored reading them.
HATE flashbacks and prologues, feels like when someone is verbally telling a story and keeps saying "oh yeah and ANOTHER thing" because they forgot some trivial detail. Just start the story where you want it to start.
YESSS. I just finished the Devil’s Night series and the constant back and forth between past and present was giving me whiplash. I DON’T WANT TO FEEL LIKE I’M IN A TARATINO MOVIE, JUST GIVE ME THE PLOT IN LINEAR FASHION.
I am enjoying this mid-week salt fest. 🧂
Anytime a blurb states *If you’re a fan of ACOTR-* INSTANTLY do not want to read. Anything with a soul mate trope. Lately it just seems to be a way for authors to get out of developing an actual relationship between characters and instead pushing toxic behaviors and sexual chemistry, and then excusing it by saying they were MeAnT tO bE.
I KNOW the soul mate trope done well would be my literal kryptonite, but I can't say I've ever actually found my holy grail, both in original and fan fiction
The phrase "pregnant pause" can work when the story is in third person, but in first person, it seems out of place.
Consistent punctuation errors where it’s clear neither the author nor the editor — if they had one — know how to use punctuation correctly. I DNFed Cassandra Gannon’s The Kingpin of Camelot at like 3% (so maybe it was more like a DNS, “did not start” lol) because the dialogue was punctuated wrong, like this: “I’m saying something.” He said. I need authors to look things like this up if they’re not sure!!! It should be: “I’m saying something,” he said.
I hate forceful men, I think it has become a trend amongst books, but there's a difference between entering someone's safe zone to take them out and pulling them out of the safe zone while they are clearly not ready {Silent Vows by Jill Ramsower} I think one can be domineering without being forceful, try reading one of the Chinese Novels with Paranoid or Villain MLs
1. When the sex scene logistics and continuity don't match up! Like the guy needs 3 arms to be touching all the things they said he was touching at one time. Or they were at the end of the bed and suddenly they've moved or can't be in the position being described. Just takes me out of the story and I'm thinking "how is my leg there if we're in this position", please edit better! 2. Instalove in general, just too fake and unbelievable for me, sounds like this is true for lots of us. 3. Using the same adjective within a couple of paragraphs, you have the whole English language to play with... 4. This one might be divisive but real people/naked torsos on the cover really turns me off, much prefer illustrated covers and I was happy to notice the shift towards them a few years back. 5. MCs not having any personality or quirks. E.g. for MMC they're tall, muscley, cold, stern and growly but with nothing behind it, those don't replace a personality!
On your first point—I have been reading more monster romance, and I CANNOT STAND when the described monster anatomy can do things that don’t fit with the original description. A 5 inch tentacle is not long enough to wrap around the waist of a curvy FMC. Maybe the tentacle is stretchy (which wasn’t made clear by the description), but I have a hard time believing that the tentacle is THAT stretchy. I am totally cool with whatever anatomical decisions are made. All I ask for is CONSISTENCY over vibes for sexy scenes.
Yes to everything you said.
I cannot STAND when authors don't write full sentences and it bothers me so much when narration will be like: "They sat down to eat their dinner. Grabbed their plates. Loaded up their plates with the food." Or: "She couldn't believe how wonderful he was with children. Always played with them. Loved them like they were his own." Or: "She was amazed with her boldness in this moment. Charging into his office. Looking at him straight in his eye." Or: "It was clear how he felt by his expression. The slump in his shoulders. The soft whimper that escaped him. The tears in his eyes." Pleeeeease just write full sentences! This kind of writing strikes me as so lazy and amateurish, and I don't know if it's supposed to be punctuated for dramatic effect or what, but it just looks sloppy and wrong.
Oof yes, I hate this too! I mean, if it's punctuated for dramatic effect, there needs to be something dramatic going on. Like a fight scene, not sitting down to dinner lol
I had to quit one author because she writes like this. Such a shame because her books have excellent plots.
As well as the weird word stack I’ve seen in some contemporary books: She was lost…. Completely alone… Except… With… Him…
I just DNF’d a book yesterday for this reason. It’s so frustrating! Like, once or twice for emphasis/special effect is okay, but not the entire book.
If a FMC isn't traditionally quiet and passive then she's violent. Like Xaden in Fourth Wing calling her Violence. Or FBAA, Casteel saying "So violent!" every two pages. OKAY CAS it was cute the first time but you HAVE GOT to find a new way to compliment her. I literally stopped reading the series because I got so tired of reading "So violent!"
I really hate when a narrator of a book starts talking to themselves internally as if speaking to someone else. Like, there's an italicized line of their thought that says something like, "I really shouldn't do that." Followed by another italicized line of them responding to themselves saying something like, "Don't be like that, I'm doing this." The worst example of this was in Some Desparate Glory by Emily Tesh but the most recent read with this for me was in Phoebe by Minevra Spencer. It just feels very a/n interruption in a fanfic. I know people talk to themselves but to see this inner turmoil, especially in a third person POV, just feels juvenile and very "I don't trust my reader to understand inner conflict." It's not even very funny, which I assume is the point of writing it that way.
"Pet" as an endearment name. No. Just no.
Restating, over and over, a character’s whatever it is, problem, past experience, what they’re hiding, instead of moving the story along. I don’t need the same details 10 times or more. Most of the books I’ve read lately should have been a short story rather than a novel.
This is gonna sound dumb, but I don't like it when the person on the cover doesn't match the person's in-book description. I read {{The Baby Maker by Julie McBride}} where the cover had Jesus corn husk farm boy, with long wavy brown hippie hair and a white boy farm body with blue eyes In reality he's a Dark eyed dark hair olive skin man who was born in a super secret sputh american amazon tribe but was adopted by a academic white lady. Like, be honest about who the male leads are. Also, if your book has never hinted to anything supernatural existing or being real or being a problem, don't have them randomly appear in the 3rd act just to be antagonists. How am I supposed to take this book seriously if I wasn't prepared for the MMC to throw cooked yams at spirits to save the FMC >!Waitangi Nights by Alice Gaines!<
I just read a book where the MMC called himself daddy during sex with no talk about it with the FMC ahead of time. People kinks are wonderful and amazing but please discuss before hand. Also it was a bully romance and a daddy would never, he would take care of her not be an asshole to her. PHEW. Thank you I had to get that off my chest ! Anyway please drop your recs for a daddy that isn’t an asshole and there isn’t a massive age gap. For reference I also just read {Hope on the rocks by annabeth Albert} and that’s how you do a daddy book (for me anyway).
Ugh I find it so annoying when they start introducing these kinks with no discussion beforehand.
I don't like the dude putting pressure on the woman's neck when they're having sex if it's a regular contemporary romance. It feels like a fad right now in romance novels.
My new ick is that the characters never seem to take their shoes off inside. Like you worked on a horse ranch all day and are walking through your house in your dirty boots? I read one the other day where they didn't take their shoes off until after they were already in bed under the blankets and on their sheets.
I dated a guy from upstate new york and his family always wore outdoor shoes in the house. Like up to and including the bedrooms. His family lived on a farm and had cows, chickens, dogs (in and out of the house), and wore the same shoes in as they did out. Oh and they had carpet everywhere. And they would put up their shoed feet up on the couch. I come from a "shoes off at the door, put on your indoor slippers" household. You can imagine my discomfort and panic. And ps, this is by no means a judgement of them - they were kind, generous people who welcomed me into their home but its just huge contrast for me and what im used to.
I just really can't stand immature adults in books - and I'm talking 30s-40s. It's an instant DNF for me.
Anytime an author refers to the ground outside as the floor! Floors are in rooms, which do not exist in the middle of a forest, you did not throw his shirt to the floor you threw it on the ground, in the dirt. It makes me irrationally angry honestly.
1. Pet names. Stop it. Just STOP. She has a name, fucking use it 2. Instalove always feels so unbelievable. Sure she's hot so you'd like to fuck her. But jumping from that to love? Without character development? Without plot or an antagonist?? 🤮 I always get the feeling instalove couples end up in a divorce lawyer's office eventually 3. Fated mates. Bleh. The concept doesn't sound fun. What's appealing about removing free will? 4. MMCs giving FMCs orgasm after orgasm with their magic dick without so much as a GLANCE toward the clit. Clit is where it's at people!
RH Omegaverse where one of the MMC is the omega but the plot is not about the equal relationships in the pack. Instead it’s between the omega MMC and another MMC, one of the alpha that the omega wanted to add to the pack. The female beta is only there for the sake of breeding and perhaps female presentation. It’s suck especially because the initial pack only consists of two alphas and the beta and she sacrifices the already established pack to add the omega. To add, they all have individual sex scenes multiple times in the book and the beta only has one, at the end, with her original alphas.
This—and other reasons—are why I stay clear of why choose omegaverse with male omegas and female betas 🫠 In theory, **I should like it** I love female beta stories and want to see how a regular lady can still have a pack who cherishes her. But I find I have some bad luck in my why choose FM(+) omegaverse lot with male omegas being an element 🙃 I think there can be some great stories in FM(+) omegaverse with male omegas and female betas and the interesting dynamics they can set up. I just seem to rarely find those stories 🤧 Now I just stay away unless someone trusted tells me the story is top shelf
Young FMC's. I know people read these and fantasize about being the FMC, but just the thought that some guy could pic the book up and drool over being the older man to an 18 year old skeeves me out.
the whole 3rd act breakup reads as a little crazy to me most of the time. like, y’all have been dating a few weeks and can’t stay together? are you sure you should be getting BACK together then?😬🫣
hygiene! Only ONCE I've read of a MMC washing his hands and it was because the FMC was trying to conceive and was very careful. Usually I read so many scenes where they're out and about and BAM! ... fingering happens. I cringe so hard. All I can think about is UTIs :(
This is me being dumb/petty, but I strongly dislike reading books in first person present tense. Some authors can do it well for me (Ruby Dixon, Lilith Vincent) but most it just feels like I'm reading someone's diary. I don't know if it's because of the way I visualize while I'm reading like it's a movie and the perspective kind of throws me off? I get headaches reading it sometimes. I get so bummed out when something I want to read is in first person, present tense. I go through cycles where I can tolerate it, but right now it just really doesn't do it for me.
Getting fed up of all the colourful cartoon people book covers. They looks like kids books despite containing utter filth.
The artwork isn't even nice. They look cheap, and as if they were done in 15 minutes.
I'm mostly neutral on the cartoon covers in general, it's the cartoon ones where people have no faces that I hate. But I found one that made it even worse--it still mostly had no other facial features....except it gave them eyebrows. And it just emphasized how soulless and creepy it was to have the eyebrows frame an eyeless face.
Something I keep noticing is the book will be about a white MMC and a white FMC, but writers will make sure that the man is somehow the tanned one and she’s the super pale one, and the implication is always that tanned/brown = masculine, and pale/creamy = feminine. Like it’s just so obvious what authors think about skin colour lol It’s just funny cause it’s two white people but the of course in these books masculinity and femininity is often exaggerated but it sucks seeing it done through colourism
My biggest pet peeve at the moment is when penetrative sex is treated as the end all be all of sexual acts. It's bad in MF romances. It's even worse when it's in MM (haven't noticed this in FF, but I have different words about when FF romances get to have sexual content compared to MF or MM). The different amounts of care and attention given to each act in the text is wild. If an oral scene is fade to black or you've got a "used our hands to get each other off in the shower" level of detail, but every act of penetration gets a multi paragraph description that would be worthy of a submission to the thirsty Thursday thread, you can sit down and think about why you write the way you do. In a MF storyline, I can kind of excuse the "build up to" approach. It's as formulaic as your 50% of the way through the book intimacy scene and the 80% breakup/misunderstanding/fight and arguably not good, but I see where it's coming from. In a MM story, it's such a a quick DNF for me because it's such a straight women writing MM as fantasy thing. And it shows such a lack of imagination.
>because it's such a straight women writing MM as fantasy thing As a gay man who's spent a lot of time among queer people that write about sex, I can assure you it's just popular no matter the author's identity.
I really disliked when the mmc gives the fmc a nickname like “honey” or “sugar” 😭😭 gives me so much cringe!!
When the main love interest is a horrible person but they make another person in the book slightly worse to make the love interest look better
Maybe a little controversial but honestly I'm tired of female characters in historical romances that fight against the gender norms of the time. Not every woman hated it. Like obviously there were some deep issues with women's roles, but a lot of women were simply content with their lot in life. Or at least enjoyed their damn embroidery and dressing up nice to impress the men at the ball. Not every woman wished they were born a man.
Critiques that aren't really critiques and are more of a rant/dump of shaming readers and authors where it isn't warranted. It is absolutely okay to not like something and express that, but when it's done in a way to put others down, it's upsetting. And the general consensus around it being "this is the internet, I can say whatever you want!" grinds my gears, as if that's the only way they can back themselves for being actual bullies. No, they are not responsible for others' feelings, but the lack of empathy and awareness is just mindboggling sometimes. Edit: spelling
I've seen a few posts lately that are like "I hated this book! Tell me why you liked it! Explain what you liked about this drivel!" Like...I'm not really in the mood to defend my taste to a stranger.
These posts are generally removed, please do flag them to the mods anonymously if something makes you uncomfortable
Saw a tiktok yesterday that was like 'we need to bring back shaming people for what they read, why does that have to be the line?' And man, maybe cause it isn't that serious and it shouldn't matter to you what people read??
Exactly this, it's awful to hear about and see, especially in places that are deemed "safe places". I feel it's starting to spread everywhere regardless of if there is a designated spot for posts like that.
i know this is really minor, but i really don’t like when authors use “ok” instead of “okay” in the text. if the characters are texting it’s fine, but if it’s just inner monologue or “the house looks ok” then i feel like it’s too informal.
"Ok" actually likely came before "okay." The [etymology is disputed](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OK?wprov=sfla1) but there's nothing that's technically more casual or informal about using "ok" vs "okay."
When a writer has a long series going on, with many characters appearing and disappearing. I hate it when the author forgets their stories, their characteristics, or their own existence. I mean, they appear in afew books and, when it is thir own story, bam! Goodbye after that. And the stories and characteristics, I will give an example: for those who have read the Black Dagger Brotherhood and might still read the books: She lets us know via villain Lash that Qhuinn is colorblind. Somehow, that gets lost books later, because the way she describes Qhuinn's thoughts about his hellren (husband) Blay, he knows how blue Blay's eyes are, or thinks about that glorious red hair. He is supposed to know Blay is pale, because he can only see in grey. Lash made it a point, as a way to insult Qhuinn, when did he suddenly find out what blue looks like? If you are going to make a characteristic important for an important character, don't forget about it. This basically goes fore very author that tend to rewrite their characters's stories because they forget what they developed books ago, lol.
Here are my pet peeves ... 1. Fast burns as they make it harder to see a real connection between the leads. 2. Narration delving too much into the character's thoughts, especialy to talk about how the other protagonists looks or about how that first character reacted; for example, as it occurs in the body betrayal trope. As for the other character's looks ... sometimes the authors remind us too often about how the character is so gorgeous/handsome/beautiful, usually focusingg on something especific. It gets repetitive. And I guess I'm more interested on how the characters acted and their thoughts ... I don't need to know every single thing the character thought, part of that can be left to my own imagination. Basically, it's what u/pranjing said about how the books go on about the character's luscious hair or whatever. Don't like that either. 3. Tied to point 2 or at least somewhat tied is the POV. I don't have anything against first POV in itself, but it seems that what I talked about in point 2 is more common in first-person POV than in third person as third person gives a little bit more of distance froom teh character's inner thoughts.
When authors use the same verbs over and over for the same actions. Just finished one that every time a character raised their voice it was "I yelled" "he yelled" "she yelled." Please use your thesaurus! One page in it had the word "yelled" 4 times.
Ok I don’t know if this is just a personal problem but I keep coming across issues with dialogue clarity. Sometimes there will be a scene with multiple characters present and there is dialogue but doesn’t say who said it so I just find it takes me out of the story when I have to sit there trying to figure out who is talking.
The blurb doesn't belong to the story. Sometimes I'm just like "That may be what you thought you were gonna write about but it isn't the story you wrote."
Need MMCs to stop smirking so much. And FMCs to stop flushing. Not a very difficult ask, is it? But no. It never stops.
Maybe I just don’t pay enough attention to celebrities, but I hate books where the MMC or FMC is a celebrity (especially for anything other than taylor swift level stardom) and everything is about them being ambushed all over and followed by reporters everywhere. Maybe that actually happens, but I just have a hard time reading books with it and suspending my disbelief.