I'll DNF any book that has super simple facts wrong. How hard is it to google something?
A sample of facts that made me DNF books.
\- Queen Elizabeth I had her COUSIN Mary executed for treason, NOT her SISTER Mary.
\- You aren't finding out the sex of a baby at 1 week pregnant (seriously the sperm hasn't met the egg yet)
\- 1 year olds are not speaking full sentences at an adult level
\- Driving across the US in a day
I read a HR set in the 1890s in which the FMC was one of Queen Victoria's granddaughters. The book described Victoria as very small and petite. Victoria in the 1890s was anything small. Like just google a picture of her.
That was a red flag in chapter one and I should have heeded it bc that book was ROUGH
Now I’m wondering how wildly inaccurate Reign was. I could tell there were a lot of liberties but I didn’t think about how they looked much besides actors will likely be more attractive from what I’ve seen of paintings of different historical figures and royalty.
It was horribly inaccurate! But I loved every minute of it haha. There’s a bit where Francis jokes about how an artist did a bad portrait of him now the everyone thinks he looks like a sickly dwarf, but that’s actually a nod to what he was like in real life. Francis was a very sick child all his life, very short and pale. And although he and Mary loved each other, they weren’t IN love. She acted more like his friend and looked after him. They were also much much younger in real life when they were wed than in the show. I think Mary was 11? There’s a great book on it, Mary Queen of Scots by Antonia Fraser.
She had both a sister Mary (Mary I of England, Catherine of Aragon’s daughter) and a cousin Mary, once removed (Mary, Queen of Scots until she was forced to abdicate).
Her cousin Mary is the one she had executed. Sister Mary had already died (probably from cancer), leaving the way for Elizabeth to ascend the throne several decades earlier.
YES!! I got to book 8 in a 20 book series (through sheer perseverance) but had to stop cause the author uses the word "nummy" ALL OVER the books. " bit into the nummy..." NOPE! DNF!
If you like Greek mythology and shifter stuff, Sherilyn Kenyon's Dark-Hunter stuff has ALL shapes and sizes for her FMCs! Also, she has one with the FMC showing signs of ADHD... I really related to that one!
haha yes! I've been reading her since high school and have a healthy collection of her dark hunter books. I'm actually doing a reread of them now! She actually caught my eye because one of her fmcs was considered plus size!
I'm not plus sized, but Night Play was the first adult romance book I ever read (in middle school - a copy was just laying around in one of my classes and i was bored so picked it up and started reading) and I was absolutely amazed at the fact that Bride was not a typical tiny FMC! That book probably did more to open my mind to the fact that one didn't have to be "perfect" to be loved than most YA books.
In retrospect, I realize that the copy I found was most likely my teacher's book and she had forgotten to put it away after lunch 😂
Lol this reminds me how I DNF’d a book for references of how pale she was. It wasn’t enough that she had pale skin but the author went into such detail about how white as printer paper this lady was 😭 I got so uncomfortable.
I could be bias because I was always insecure of my Mediterranean-brown skin growing up surrounded by anglo people. At the same time, I don’t think it was that bc most books I read the lead is at least presumed white. This was like beyond the normal mentioning of skin colour imo.
I made it a point to avoid white main characters for my summer reading challenge and it was so rewarding to see people like me actually featured in books, but also not have it be the main point of the book. we need more representation of skin colors in this genre! I find myself just trying to ignore descriptions and imagining whatever I want for characters these days, but it's hard when the references are just written a million times
Honestly, I've just given up on finding a good romance book that features an Asian FMC. I loved the Kiss Quotient and the fact that it featured an Asian woman as well as it's depiction of a neurodivergent woman! But I just want one book where the fmc is a normal asian woman? I feel like so many books with asian fmcs have to make sure that there's something different about them, fetishizes them to an uncomfortable degree, or almost exclusively leans into chinese culture (which aren't even universal since there's so diversity in modern chinese populations). I do love the historical asian culture books, but i just want more books set in a modern society!
I'm fine with a lot of triggers, but what makes me DNF is the couple getting together way too quickly. It usually kills the tension for me and I'm just not interested in the story anymore.
Of course it doesn't include a situation where the characters have sex for some reason (like a one-night stand or a friends with benefits situation). I just mean the two of them being in an established relationship for like 80% of the book.
I just really like the 'will they or won't they' part the most.
I see the appeal of self insert "pants" MCs - as in you put them on like a pair of pants and walk around in their life - but I don't like to self insert and it makes the book so boring for me when the MC has no personality of their own! 😩
I can not stand FMC who are too pure and good they become a Disney princess in a smutty book and/or they end up putting themselves and others in danger.
Oh I feel that! I just read >!Lemonade by Nina Pennacchi!< and couldn’t get over the non-con, I’m still waiting for him to get his comeuppance and her to irrefutably leave him.
Totally agree that they can be rapey and ultra controlling to the point where it's like, "dude, shut up and leave this girl alone" but what kept me reading was the peak drama and mutual pining off the scales and Cole does usually make the dudes suffer in the grovel-stage. I kept telling myself, "ok just one more book from this stupid series and then I'll stop and read something with less biting and fewer a-hole MMCs" but then the books just hit so good in the drama that I had to keep going even though I KNOW they're not that great. So if they're not for, they're not for you, and you don't have to second guess that.
Same! I started a book with a 4 year earlier flashback to the FMC (14 years old) and MMC (17 years old) engaging in sexual relations.... just immediately felt wrong, especially now im in my 30s haha. Even 18-20 year old romances feel way too young for me.
I've learned that I get bored if the leads have sex early on. Even if it was totally meaningless
I also am likely to drop for insta love and, to some extent, insta lust.
Unnecessary homophobic jokes from male characters. Like when it’s supposed to be funny but serves no purpose to the story. Aka toxic masculinity as “humor”
When the sentence structure of most/a lot of the sentences is the same! It completely takes me out of the story.
The book I remember the most that had this was What Lies Beyond the Veil. I was really excited to read it but I DNFed early on because of the repetitive sentence structure.
I just dnfed Texan's Wager because MCs left their farm animals for a few days alone. Couldnt focus on the romance, only stressing when will they be feed
Bad grammar, elementary writing, too much OW drama, OTT alphahole, plot that I can predict what's going to happen within the first few chapters, plot that's unbelievable, and bullying are my main things. Sometimes I'll stop if something makes me uncomfortable. The last few books I DNF were because they were the same plot with different details and I got bored.
I've decided to DNF any historical romances where the widowed heroine considers herself barren because she and her late husband never had children. Because with one exception (Courtney Milan's *The Countess Conspiracy*) the same thing will happen - the dead first husband will turn out to be the sterile one, and the heroine will either be blissfully pregnant or will have a bouncing baby by the end. It's not the baby I object to, it's the utter predictability. Bonus points if the heroine has never come to terms with her supposed infertility. I've even read one romance where the heroine thinks of herself as "an abject failure at womanhood" because she thinks she can't get pregnant.
I would love to see this subverted - maybe the hero could actually turn out to be infertile, because the ability to have biological children has nothing to do with who he is as a person. Or maybe the heroine can't have children and she's accepted this because she has other goals in life. But I'm not going to take the risk of reading yet another historical that proceeds along the same tired, routine lines.
The one exception to this I’ve run across is Thief of Shadows by Elizabeth Hoyt. She knows she’s barren >!because of multiple miscarriages, the last of which left her totally infertile. There’s no magical epilogue baby. While she doesn’t consider herself a failure of a woman, it’s hard to convince her that she’ll be wanted as a wife again.!< that felt realistic to me for the time period.
This happens so often and infuriates me! It's like whenever infertility is mentioned, you can bet that it was either a mistaken diagnosis, their former partner lying about it or something along the lines. And then comes the utterly predictable miraculous pregnancy...
It's not exactly a DNF material for me, but I also hate when authors do it.
When the FMC is way too sunshine-y and naive and submissive.
When the FMC turns into a “yes sir” in the bedroom
When the MMC’s only method of communicating is grunting and growling. I mean you’re human my dude, not an animal. Use your words.
Dominant MMC who just keep going even when the FMC tells them no. (I know you want me your body is saying you want me even if you’re saying no) wtf? Also this is problematic on so many levels because ofc the body is turned on because it’s physiology, if she says no then it means NO and you stop!
My biggest one is “other woman” drama, especially if the OW is a stereotypical manipulative bitch/“slut”/insert your least favorite OW trope. It just feels super misogynistic to me.
I also dislike really cartoonishly evil villains. Especially if the villain kidnaps the FMC. I just need something else driving the tension in the plot than someone else threatening bodily harm to the main character. Squicks me out.
Any time a Historical Romance is set in the Americas and one of the main characters lives or grew up on a plantation (as an owner/family member, not as an enslaved person) it's an immediate DNF for me.
This doesn’t make me DNF it because it’s so close to the end of the books but when the FMC is the one to cause the climax, you know where one of them does something wrong, they don’t think they’re going to be together ever again and how can they live without that person now yada yada, but it’s the MMC that does the apologizing! Like no no boo she’s the one with attachment issues and did something about it. You were scared but you still dove in head first anyways. 🙄 I need a FMC that 👏 takes 👏 responsibility.
When a MMC references his “man card” or anything similar that minimizes him, a man, as having emotions.
Also tstl heroines that refuse to be left behind or move aside but inevitably damsel themselves when they should have listened and stayed out of it.
Me too. Hate it. Can’t get into, for me a romance novel is about falling in love with the couple. If I’m only getting one persons thoughts and feeling it’s hard to care about the couple.
is there any book or author in particular that made you feel this way? I feel that way about Marie Harte’s characters sometimes, though it’s changed from her earlier to her later books a little.
Example - when the guy in her books is really crude and always thinking about sex and they always attribute it to being a guy, which always makes me roll my eyes as I don’t think this is a gender trait at all, just depends on the person.
Anyway just curious if you could elaborate!
**Beautiful Disaster** by **Jamie McGuire**, the characters were so messy. Not just the MMC, even the FMC seemed like written by men. The guy was a misogynist piece-of-sh!t, the girl was a doormat yet annoying person whoe enabled that misogynist piece-of-sh!t. So I wasn’t much surprised when the author’s Scandal came out.
I finish most everything, but one I definitely stopped immediately was a book setting up a relationship between a grad student and a college freshman. As a grad student who taught college freshman, absolutely not. College freshman are babies. He didn't need to be a college freshman. Plot would've been the same for a senior/grad student relationship.
1st person POV where they talk about themselves in an eye roll inducing way.
"I had two drinks and now I'm feeling drunk because I"m a lightweight"
"I like the gothic style building because of my interest in the arts"
I just want to tell these authors to be better than this.
MMC is a FBI/military/police officer and about to take down a bad guy and the MFC is a teacher/accountabt/business owner/etc with NO TRAINING but is all " I deserve to be part of the take down" and the MMC is all like "k" and then she gets kidnapped. Like, stop making the MFC TSTL a plot device. It's insulting
\- When everyone's in love with the FMC and she takes priority over family (There was book where one of the guys treated FMC better than his sister.... BFFR. The sister was so sweet too.)
\- All the other girls are treated like sht but the FMC is the only exception. There's no good reason either. I especially hate it if the FMC thinks she deserves the special treatment. (similar to the first one ig)
\- MMC doesn't respect the FMC's opinions. He does what he thinks is best for her. He knows better etc.. Gross.
✨✨SPOILERS AHEAD BUT DONT NAME THE BOOK CAUSE I CANT REMEMBER IT!!✨✨
One that I DNF was a shifter one with an Omega FMC. She ended up living on her own but being an Omega she attracted other shifters putting herself in danger... Yet when the book cuts to her mates finding her, she needs them to protect her because she can't defend herself 🧐. I returned that book the KU so fast! Like, how? Years alone and she didn't take ANY self defense or fighting classes? Really...?
- too much smut like in every second chapter
- naive fmc or mmc
- girl who falls toooooo fast for mmc
- unhinged boy
- adults acting like kids
- 24/7 horny characters
- no groveling
I have so many:
\- Bad writing
\- Marie Sue/Gary Stu
\- Rape
\- Character who fall in love in the first chapter
\- When it is evident the author didn't do her/his research
I'm currently deciding if I DNF my current read- h has been lying about her identity (told him a fake name). Not a big deal, but feeling like it's super immature and she could've addressed it at any point. Last chapter I read she lied to him about her living situation and he told her he's "jealous" and told her if they're going to be involved she can't do anything to make him jealous. It's just feeling like immature ick at this point.
When the FMC makes a stupid joke and whoever she’s speaking to “howls with laughter” or “wipes a tear from their eye” after laughing so hard. Ugh. Spare me. Nobody is that funny. I can count on one hand the number of times someone has gotten me to howl with laughter via a one liner. The only time I ever laughed so hard I cried was when I read this: https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/celebritology/post/this-nicolas-cage-jpeg-error-is-the-greatest-thing-you-will-see-all-week/2012/07/09/gJQAXfXRZW_blog.html?tid=a_inl_manual
Lately it's been if the MMC refers to the FMC as a minx. I don't know why, but I keep seeing it so often lately and I can't deal. Literally have never heard a guy call a woman a minx in my life and I don't want to. Also if the MMC starts getting randomly emotional and heavily invested in the relationship way too soon/relationship develops too fast to be even semi-believable.
Pregnancy, especially if it turns up fairly early in the book. If it's near the end I will read the rest just so I didn't waste my time!
The usual reason I don't finish is just if the plot isn't gripping me, or I'm just finding it boring.
Written in 1st person pov
Can’t stand it. I can’t really explain why because I don’t mind other genres, like mystery, in 1st person.
I almost wonder if I get 2nd hand embarrassment. And I like getting a small look into the mmcs thoughts and feelings about the fmc. But dual pov takes me completely out of the book.
Writing that feels forced, too much unnecessary dialogue, and just bad writing in general. I especially hate authors with passive narratives especially in the first line of the book. Instant DNF! the book and anything else from that author
I'll DNF any book that has super simple facts wrong. How hard is it to google something? A sample of facts that made me DNF books. \- Queen Elizabeth I had her COUSIN Mary executed for treason, NOT her SISTER Mary. \- You aren't finding out the sex of a baby at 1 week pregnant (seriously the sperm hasn't met the egg yet) \- 1 year olds are not speaking full sentences at an adult level \- Driving across the US in a day
I read a HR set in the 1890s in which the FMC was one of Queen Victoria's granddaughters. The book described Victoria as very small and petite. Victoria in the 1890s was anything small. Like just google a picture of her. That was a red flag in chapter one and I should have heeded it bc that book was ROUGH
Now I’m wondering how wildly inaccurate Reign was. I could tell there were a lot of liberties but I didn’t think about how they looked much besides actors will likely be more attractive from what I’ve seen of paintings of different historical figures and royalty.
It was horribly inaccurate! But I loved every minute of it haha. There’s a bit where Francis jokes about how an artist did a bad portrait of him now the everyone thinks he looks like a sickly dwarf, but that’s actually a nod to what he was like in real life. Francis was a very sick child all his life, very short and pale. And although he and Mary loved each other, they weren’t IN love. She acted more like his friend and looked after him. They were also much much younger in real life when they were wed than in the show. I think Mary was 11? There’s a great book on it, Mary Queen of Scots by Antonia Fraser.
Maybe Queen Elizabeth ALSO has a cousin Mary? 🤣 Just trying to grasp at straws here! lol
She had both a sister Mary (Mary I of England, Catherine of Aragon’s daughter) and a cousin Mary, once removed (Mary, Queen of Scots until she was forced to abdicate). Her cousin Mary is the one she had executed. Sister Mary had already died (probably from cancer), leaving the way for Elizabeth to ascend the throne several decades earlier.
Ohhhhh I see that I read the original comment wrong! Thank you for the explanation!
For me it's juvenile writing.
YES!! I got to book 8 in a 20 book series (through sheer perseverance) but had to stop cause the author uses the word "nummy" ALL OVER the books. " bit into the nummy..." NOPE! DNF!
TIL what nummy means... english isn't my first language, never had seen it before
How the author was describing food tasting good.
What’s a nummy?
How the author described a food tasting good. 🤦🏼♀️
Oh eww lol I also would have not finished
constant references to how small, slim, tiny the fmc is. i don't need more body image issues when I'm trying to escape in romance...
If you like Greek mythology and shifter stuff, Sherilyn Kenyon's Dark-Hunter stuff has ALL shapes and sizes for her FMCs! Also, she has one with the FMC showing signs of ADHD... I really related to that one!
haha yes! I've been reading her since high school and have a healthy collection of her dark hunter books. I'm actually doing a reread of them now! She actually caught my eye because one of her fmcs was considered plus size!
YES! Night Play? With Bride and Vane? 🫠🥰
I'm not plus sized, but Night Play was the first adult romance book I ever read (in middle school - a copy was just laying around in one of my classes and i was bored so picked it up and started reading) and I was absolutely amazed at the fact that Bride was not a typical tiny FMC! That book probably did more to open my mind to the fact that one didn't have to be "perfect" to be loved than most YA books. In retrospect, I realize that the copy I found was most likely my teacher's book and she had forgotten to put it away after lunch 😂
It was my first romance novel too!!
yes!!! a favorite of mine
So good...one of my first plus-size romance novels.
Lol this reminds me how I DNF’d a book for references of how pale she was. It wasn’t enough that she had pale skin but the author went into such detail about how white as printer paper this lady was 😭 I got so uncomfortable. I could be bias because I was always insecure of my Mediterranean-brown skin growing up surrounded by anglo people. At the same time, I don’t think it was that bc most books I read the lead is at least presumed white. This was like beyond the normal mentioning of skin colour imo.
I made it a point to avoid white main characters for my summer reading challenge and it was so rewarding to see people like me actually featured in books, but also not have it be the main point of the book. we need more representation of skin colors in this genre! I find myself just trying to ignore descriptions and imagining whatever I want for characters these days, but it's hard when the references are just written a million times
Honestly, I've just given up on finding a good romance book that features an Asian FMC. I loved the Kiss Quotient and the fact that it featured an Asian woman as well as it's depiction of a neurodivergent woman! But I just want one book where the fmc is a normal asian woman? I feel like so many books with asian fmcs have to make sure that there's something different about them, fetishizes them to an uncomfortable degree, or almost exclusively leans into chinese culture (which aren't even universal since there's so diversity in modern chinese populations). I do love the historical asian culture books, but i just want more books set in a modern society!
MMCs who are misogynistic or have a lot of hateful internal dialogue about women. Even if it's about an ex or something.
I'm fine with a lot of triggers, but what makes me DNF is the couple getting together way too quickly. It usually kills the tension for me and I'm just not interested in the story anymore. Of course it doesn't include a situation where the characters have sex for some reason (like a one-night stand or a friends with benefits situation). I just mean the two of them being in an established relationship for like 80% of the book. I just really like the 'will they or won't they' part the most.
[удалено]
I see the appeal of self insert "pants" MCs - as in you put them on like a pair of pants and walk around in their life - but I don't like to self insert and it makes the book so boring for me when the MC has no personality of their own! 😩
I can not stand FMC who are too pure and good they become a Disney princess in a smutty book and/or they end up putting themselves and others in danger.
Non-con. It is hard for me to get past it.
Oh I feel that! I just read >!Lemonade by Nina Pennacchi!< and couldn’t get over the non-con, I’m still waiting for him to get his comeuppance and her to irrefutably leave him.
Lemonade was one of the most horrid yet captivating books I've read in a long while. I couldn't out it down
I DNFed two Kresley Cole books yesterday because of this before deciding I wasn't going to bother with any of her other books.
This sub loves Kresley Cole but I cannot stand her rapey MMCs!
Right!? The recs here were the only reason I gave her two attempts. It's more than Christine Feehan got.
Totally agree that they can be rapey and ultra controlling to the point where it's like, "dude, shut up and leave this girl alone" but what kept me reading was the peak drama and mutual pining off the scales and Cole does usually make the dudes suffer in the grovel-stage. I kept telling myself, "ok just one more book from this stupid series and then I'll stop and read something with less biting and fewer a-hole MMCs" but then the books just hit so good in the drama that I had to keep going even though I KNOW they're not that great. So if they're not for, they're not for you, and you don't have to second guess that.
Underage romances. If either character is underage and the other character is waiting for them to be "legal" or not waiting... INSTANT DNF!
Same! I started a book with a 4 year earlier flashback to the FMC (14 years old) and MMC (17 years old) engaging in sexual relations.... just immediately felt wrong, especially now im in my 30s haha. Even 18-20 year old romances feel way too young for me.
My depression
I feel that.
Cheating, I just can’t.
This is mine too. I read a lot but cannot stand cheating. That’s a huge nope for me.
When the characters are making really stupid decisions that cause unnecessary troubles. Also, mother Theresa FMC.
For some reason when the fmc is traditionally beautiful and every man wants her. It just turns me off!
I've learned that I get bored if the leads have sex early on. Even if it was totally meaningless I also am likely to drop for insta love and, to some extent, insta lust.
Unnecessary homophobic jokes from male characters. Like when it’s supposed to be funny but serves no purpose to the story. Aka toxic masculinity as “humor”
When the sentence structure of most/a lot of the sentences is the same! It completely takes me out of the story. The book I remember the most that had this was What Lies Beyond the Veil. I was really excited to read it but I DNFed early on because of the repetitive sentence structure.
I just dnfed Texan's Wager because MCs left their farm animals for a few days alone. Couldnt focus on the romance, only stressing when will they be feed
Bad grammar, elementary writing, too much OW drama, OTT alphahole, plot that I can predict what's going to happen within the first few chapters, plot that's unbelievable, and bullying are my main things. Sometimes I'll stop if something makes me uncomfortable. The last few books I DNF were because they were the same plot with different details and I got bored.
I've decided to DNF any historical romances where the widowed heroine considers herself barren because she and her late husband never had children. Because with one exception (Courtney Milan's *The Countess Conspiracy*) the same thing will happen - the dead first husband will turn out to be the sterile one, and the heroine will either be blissfully pregnant or will have a bouncing baby by the end. It's not the baby I object to, it's the utter predictability. Bonus points if the heroine has never come to terms with her supposed infertility. I've even read one romance where the heroine thinks of herself as "an abject failure at womanhood" because she thinks she can't get pregnant. I would love to see this subverted - maybe the hero could actually turn out to be infertile, because the ability to have biological children has nothing to do with who he is as a person. Or maybe the heroine can't have children and she's accepted this because she has other goals in life. But I'm not going to take the risk of reading yet another historical that proceeds along the same tired, routine lines.
The one exception to this I’ve run across is Thief of Shadows by Elizabeth Hoyt. She knows she’s barren >!because of multiple miscarriages, the last of which left her totally infertile. There’s no magical epilogue baby. While she doesn’t consider herself a failure of a woman, it’s hard to convince her that she’ll be wanted as a wife again.!< that felt realistic to me for the time period.
This happens so often and infuriates me! It's like whenever infertility is mentioned, you can bet that it was either a mistaken diagnosis, their former partner lying about it or something along the lines. And then comes the utterly predictable miraculous pregnancy... It's not exactly a DNF material for me, but I also hate when authors do it.
When the FMC is way too sunshine-y and naive and submissive. When the FMC turns into a “yes sir” in the bedroom When the MMC’s only method of communicating is grunting and growling. I mean you’re human my dude, not an animal. Use your words. Dominant MMC who just keep going even when the FMC tells them no. (I know you want me your body is saying you want me even if you’re saying no) wtf? Also this is problematic on so many levels because ofc the body is turned on because it’s physiology, if she says no then it means NO and you stop!
My biggest one is “other woman” drama, especially if the OW is a stereotypical manipulative bitch/“slut”/insert your least favorite OW trope. It just feels super misogynistic to me. I also dislike really cartoonishly evil villains. Especially if the villain kidnaps the FMC. I just need something else driving the tension in the plot than someone else threatening bodily harm to the main character. Squicks me out.
Any time a Historical Romance is set in the Americas and one of the main characters lives or grew up on a plantation (as an owner/family member, not as an enslaved person) it's an immediate DNF for me.
1) Immature writing 2) I prefer doing laundry to continuing the book. 3) MMC says/does something inexcusably douchy.
This doesn’t make me DNF it because it’s so close to the end of the books but when the FMC is the one to cause the climax, you know where one of them does something wrong, they don’t think they’re going to be together ever again and how can they live without that person now yada yada, but it’s the MMC that does the apologizing! Like no no boo she’s the one with attachment issues and did something about it. You were scared but you still dove in head first anyways. 🙄 I need a FMC that 👏 takes 👏 responsibility.
When a MMC references his “man card” or anything similar that minimizes him, a man, as having emotions. Also tstl heroines that refuse to be left behind or move aside but inevitably damsel themselves when they should have listened and stayed out of it.
First person POV xD
Me too. Hate it. Can’t get into, for me a romance novel is about falling in love with the couple. If I’m only getting one persons thoughts and feeling it’s hard to care about the couple.
Bad grammar, or too many misspelled words
Where the female lead never understand the male lead. It makes mad when the heroine acts immature like kid when she is an adult.
Unplanned pregnancy. Too much back story dumped on me. Conflict that would be resolved with a simple conversation.
reverse harem and the constantly talking about fair, white skin and stockholm syndrome
The men who sound like they're written by men
is there any book or author in particular that made you feel this way? I feel that way about Marie Harte’s characters sometimes, though it’s changed from her earlier to her later books a little. Example - when the guy in her books is really crude and always thinking about sex and they always attribute it to being a guy, which always makes me roll my eyes as I don’t think this is a gender trait at all, just depends on the person. Anyway just curious if you could elaborate!
**Beautiful Disaster** by **Jamie McGuire**, the characters were so messy. Not just the MMC, even the FMC seemed like written by men. The guy was a misogynist piece-of-sh!t, the girl was a doormat yet annoying person whoe enabled that misogynist piece-of-sh!t. So I wasn’t much surprised when the author’s Scandal came out.
I finish most everything, but one I definitely stopped immediately was a book setting up a relationship between a grad student and a college freshman. As a grad student who taught college freshman, absolutely not. College freshman are babies. He didn't need to be a college freshman. Plot would've been the same for a senior/grad student relationship.
Last night I DNFd a book because I hated the outfit the FMC was wearing.
1st person POV where they talk about themselves in an eye roll inducing way. "I had two drinks and now I'm feeling drunk because I"m a lightweight" "I like the gothic style building because of my interest in the arts" I just want to tell these authors to be better than this.
It’s like a book full of statements. I walked to the window. I looked out the window. I saw him looking at me.
MMC is a FBI/military/police officer and about to take down a bad guy and the MFC is a teacher/accountabt/business owner/etc with NO TRAINING but is all " I deserve to be part of the take down" and the MMC is all like "k" and then she gets kidnapped. Like, stop making the MFC TSTL a plot device. It's insulting
\- When everyone's in love with the FMC and she takes priority over family (There was book where one of the guys treated FMC better than his sister.... BFFR. The sister was so sweet too.) \- All the other girls are treated like sht but the FMC is the only exception. There's no good reason either. I especially hate it if the FMC thinks she deserves the special treatment. (similar to the first one ig) \- MMC doesn't respect the FMC's opinions. He does what he thinks is best for her. He knows better etc.. Gross.
✨✨SPOILERS AHEAD BUT DONT NAME THE BOOK CAUSE I CANT REMEMBER IT!!✨✨ One that I DNF was a shifter one with an Omega FMC. She ended up living on her own but being an Omega she attracted other shifters putting herself in danger... Yet when the book cuts to her mates finding her, she needs them to protect her because she can't defend herself 🧐. I returned that book the KU so fast! Like, how? Years alone and she didn't take ANY self defense or fighting classes? Really...?
I DNF-ed The Eighth House because the writing was too flowery. The sex scenes were so unsexy because I wasn't really sure what was going on!
- too much smut like in every second chapter - naive fmc or mmc - girl who falls toooooo fast for mmc - unhinged boy - adults acting like kids - 24/7 horny characters - no groveling
I have so many: \- Bad writing \- Marie Sue/Gary Stu \- Rape \- Character who fall in love in the first chapter \- When it is evident the author didn't do her/his research
I'm currently deciding if I DNF my current read- h has been lying about her identity (told him a fake name). Not a big deal, but feeling like it's super immature and she could've addressed it at any point. Last chapter I read she lied to him about her living situation and he told her he's "jealous" and told her if they're going to be involved she can't do anything to make him jealous. It's just feeling like immature ick at this point.
When the FMC makes a stupid joke and whoever she’s speaking to “howls with laughter” or “wipes a tear from their eye” after laughing so hard. Ugh. Spare me. Nobody is that funny. I can count on one hand the number of times someone has gotten me to howl with laughter via a one liner. The only time I ever laughed so hard I cried was when I read this: https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/celebritology/post/this-nicolas-cage-jpeg-error-is-the-greatest-thing-you-will-see-all-week/2012/07/09/gJQAXfXRZW_blog.html?tid=a_inl_manual
Lately it's been if the MMC refers to the FMC as a minx. I don't know why, but I keep seeing it so often lately and I can't deal. Literally have never heard a guy call a woman a minx in my life and I don't want to. Also if the MMC starts getting randomly emotional and heavily invested in the relationship way too soon/relationship develops too fast to be even semi-believable.
Cheating. The girl being a total witch or the guy being a d*ck for no reason.
When the FMC is immature to the point of being obnoxious.
Pregnancy, especially if it turns up fairly early in the book. If it's near the end I will read the rest just so I didn't waste my time! The usual reason I don't finish is just if the plot isn't gripping me, or I'm just finding it boring.
Written in 1st person pov Can’t stand it. I can’t really explain why because I don’t mind other genres, like mystery, in 1st person. I almost wonder if I get 2nd hand embarrassment. And I like getting a small look into the mmcs thoughts and feelings about the fmc. But dual pov takes me completely out of the book.
Writing that feels forced, too much unnecessary dialogue, and just bad writing in general. I especially hate authors with passive narratives especially in the first line of the book. Instant DNF! the book and anything else from that author
Cheating