There are books, authors, series, and even whole genres that I just can not, no matter how many times I give them a whirl, find interesting. Last year one of my book clubs read A Gentleman in Moscow and everyone but me adored it. I was so bored, I quit at the 500 page mark, miffed I’d wasted precious reading time on such a twee tale. Several friends of mine feel the best book they ever read–EVER!–is A Man Called Ove. I’ve tried to read it three times and every time just… can’t… do… it. That guy is waaaaaay too cranky for me.
So, despite my propensity to love romance novels, there are those that aren’t for me. Shifter stories don’t call to me–I’m always overcome with practical concerns about clothing, food sources, and DNA. I find the appeal of Kristen Ashley’s books somewhat mystifying. I find her heroes to be–in the three books I’ve managed to finish, misogynistic jerks whose manipulative techniques creep me out–and every single one of her heroines seems to live to be called baby. Sugar Daddy and Blue-Eyed Devil, two of the books in Lisa Kleypas’ Travises series, regularly show up on top lists in romance and I found them both a bit of a slog.
My responses to these books are mine and as such they’re not right/wrong/stupid/mean/clueless (no matter what you shifter fans think!). Books, just like people, work for some and not for others and that’s just fine. (So please no scolding readers for their lack of love.)
How ’bout you? What book do you not understand the love for? Are there series or genres that get a hard pass from you? If so, why?
I tried to read one of the Black Dagger Brotherhood books. I really tried. And I got caught up in the story and the sexual heat and it was all going great…
…until I came across one of those names. You know the names. Each time I read one of those, it jerked me out of the story. When I found myself imagining future characters called Ahnnoyance, Dhiscomfort and Mazhokist, I gave up.
I could not agree more. I feared detaching my eyeballs from rolling them so often everytime I came across one of her ridiculously spelled names. Also, her writing style is just not for me. Perhaps she has improved over the years but my initial take was dull and unimaginative prose.
I don’t think I’ve ever been able to read a sci-fi book beyond a chapter or two. I find them too technical, cold and removed from human experience. Most high fantasy is just tedious in my experience, with rare exceptions. The Tolkien stuff is ‘makes me want to off myself’ boring. The movies were just ok, but I don’t like sci-fi or fantasy movies either. The Alien movies and the Star Wars movies were films I had to be dragged to back when they were new releases and I will never get those hours back!
But I do like Superman comics and movies, and I like reading some urban fantasy of there is a decent romantic hook.
Romantic suspense often is unappealing to me also, but there have been notable exceptions, like the Adrien English series by Josh Lanyon. I generally prefer straight-up mystery/suspense/thriller books like Val McDermid’s Tony Hill series.
Hah! Those movies are among my favourites! BUT I’m not one for “concept” sci-fi novels although I’ve read some good sci-fi romances. I’m also not wild about shifter books, and the only ones I’ve read or am interested in reading tend to be those where not much actual shifting goes on (such as Charlie Adhara’s excellent Big Bad Wolf series. I do like romantic suspense, even though quite a few of the books I’ve read recently in the genre haven’t really managed to get the balance right. Loreth Anne White and Rachel Grant are two of the best around, and although I haven’t read many books by Anne Calhoun, or Jill Sorensen (to name but two) I do have a few of them on my Kindle waiting for me to find time to read them!
I’m trying to think of a book I hated that many people who generally share my tastes liked… the one that springs to mind is Maggie Fenton’s The Duke’s Holiday which was unfunny, full of plot holes and had one of the most unlikeable heroines I’ve ever read.
Ha! I remember when I LOVED The Duke’s Holiday and you didn’t. Great minds do not always think alike!
The only genre I avoid is inspirational fiction, because I tried a few of those years ago and got tired of non-believers being either villains or converted by the end. As an atheist, that just doesn’t work for me. I’m fine with reading about religious characters in other genres, just not about people like me being cast in certain roles.
Plus, the heroes and heroines of inspirationals usually don’t share certain values or ideals that are important to me. I don’t need characters to reflect my standards, but I like this to be approached in an evenhanded manner rather than those characters’ positions automatically being correct. So, of all the seven hundred books crammed into my apartment, not one is an inspirational.
Years ago, I bought a few inspirational romances not even being aware of the sub-genre, I just liked the blurbs.
Well, I quickly learned that there is indeed such a sub-genre as inspirational romance and it is not for me. It may vary a lot from book to book and author to author, but the ones I’ve come across were very preachy and not at all what I want to read.
I don’t mind religious characters, but just not like this.
Yes, as an atheist I definitely avoid inspirational romances. I don’t mind religious characters in books, but I can’t enjoy immersing myself into a romance where religion is foregrounded and central to a story.
I used to feel this way about inspirationals, but then I realized that some books are labeled as inspirational or are placed in that pot because they might have characters who attend church or mention God once or twice or the author has published in that sub-genre at some point. Or, maybe just because the story has no explicit sex.
However, I realized I was missing some really good books with excellent historical research and a compelling story. For instance, Tiffany Girl by Deeanne Gist, Beyond All Dreams by Elizabeth Camden, and River’s Edge by Marie Bostwick. These have become some of my most highly rated romances and I’m so glad I took a chance on them and on these authors.
Beverly Jenkins books. Too full of boring stuff.
Books with overly nice-guy heroes. Zzzzzzzzzzzzz.
Same sex historical romances. Unbelievable.
Clean romances. What’s the point?
Why do you say same sex historical romances are unbelievable? KJ Charles writes some of the best HR around and not only are the HEAs in her books perfectly plausible, her books are far more grounded in actual history than about 95% of the other HR out there.
Not about that here.
From where I sit, the world has always been depressingly cruel to gay relationships. In my own family, there are those who refuse to allow the gay couple to visit. If it’s that hard to survive in the 21st century, it’s too much for me to go along with it in the long ago past.
Look up ‘boston marriages’ to see where you’ve erred in your judgement. Not every queer love story, even going back to the pre-Stonewall world, was a tragedy.
Also there are plenty of wonderful romances that have no sex in them at all, The ‘point’ of a romance novel is to tell a love story, and sex doesn’t always have to be involved.
I find myself very resistant to books that are marketed as being humorous or comedic—especially in romance. Humor is such an individual and idiosyncratic thing, I can’t see setting out to write a book with the goal of making every reader laugh. This might be why I’ve avoided Penny Reid’s books (Cletus? Really—are we in an episode of the Simpsons or a Jerry Clower hillbilly bit?) even though the angsty-melancholy tone of her latest sounds like it would be right up my alley.
There are genres that I really don’t get (paranormal, shifter, fantasy, urban fantasy), although I have occasionally read (and liked) books from those genres, I don’t seek them out and only read them if a favorite writer is doing something in the genre (for instance, I’ve liked Kati Wilde’s Deadlands fantasy romances, but that has not been a gateway to other fantasy authors for me). I’m also too old for YA, but I must admit to reading some NA (even though Jimmy Carter was President the last time I was a “new” adult).
I should add that Kati Wilde has also written a couple of shifter romances which I liked very much (especially TEACHER’S PET WOLF, which was light on shifter lore and heavy on hot-sexy-times). Again, I follow the author to the genre rather than reading the genre and discovering an author.
NA isn’t of great interest to me either. I think it’s because I am the parent of four twenty somethings and I don’t seek more of that age group in my reading life!
I can definitely see why some readers wouldn’t be into Penny Reid books, but I don’t think she is trying to write comedy for everyone. She is a self-published author for a number of reasons, not least is that she seems to enjoy not having to appeal to all readers (as if such a thing is possible anyway). She has a devoted following of like-minded “weirdos,” as she calls them, and I think in the publishing world there is a place for the indie authors.
I tend to like authors who take such a stance and write the books they want. I would put Mariana Zapata in that category too. She is constantly criticized for a number of features that mark her writing unique, and she doesn’t care or change her style.
I adore Cletus, btw. He is one of the best heroes in romance, for me. Reid sets up the southern good ole’ boy stereotypes and flips them upside down, Still, I can see why these books aren’t for everyone, and I definitely agree that humor is idiosyncratic.
I kind of feel the same way because writing comedy is truly an art form. It’s much harder than drama. Comedy is really situational. It’s not always about creating an outrageous character as it is about putting characters in situations that bring out comedy. Not to say that a character can’t be comedic in their own right, but in doing so, the author risks making the character so ridiculous that they seem like a cartoon or someone the reader just cannot relate to. I’ve seen it done well a few times, but it’s very rare. Keeping in mind that tastes in humor are also very individual and also cultural, a couple that spring to mind are The Vintage Guide to Love and Romance by Kirsty Greenwood and Hustle, Sweet Love by Maggie Davis.
I am mostly a historical fiction/romance reader who sometimes ventures into sci fi or murder/mystery as well as nonfiction. Contemporary romances leave me cold. I have read some that I liked very much but for the most part I find them unbelievable and even “dated”. It’s hard for me to suspend belief enough not to notice things that take me out of the story. Inspirational romances are another genre that leave me cold. Like Marian Perera, I’m not religious, although I identify as agnostic not atheist. Books where “non believers” are either villains or are converted are pandering to stereotypes and wishful thinking on the part of the believer. I’ve met many believers who have no moral compass, and many nonbelievers who have strict personal moral codes. So inspirational novels are a no go for me.
I should add, I have no problem with novels where religion is not the main focus of the story but where religion is important to the characters. It’s just a fact of life, especially in historicals where religion was a central part of most people’s lives.
I don’t like horror in general.
In romance books I’m more concerned about certain tropes than the specific genre. For instance, I do read all kinds of romances but if the trope is lovers reunited, that is automatically points lost.
If I had to name a “sub-genre?” in romance I avoid is YA. Often this means love triangles or silly behavior and I’ve hated my teenage years, no interest in having more. If it’s not a romance, say a more a coming-of-age tale, I’ll try that.
As for some authors… I’ve recently tried Phillip Roth. Didn’t like his writing at all but he won prizes, has many fans…
The other day I was talking to a fan of Brenda Joyce and both books by her I’ve tried were awful to me…
I still love the BDB series! But I’ve tried Kim Harrison, also a PNR/UF author many readers like and I didn’t…
I’ll read ALMOST anything. Books I should just avoid because I haven’t found one I like yet: Daddy kink.
I also don’t read inspirational romance.
@Em Wittmann: Try Eve Dangerfield’s ACT YOUR ACT. DD/lg isn’t my thing either, but Dangerfield writes with heart and heat.
I tried that one but got squicked out at the idea that they were playacting that she’s under 18 and that the hero is cheating on his wife with her daughter. Ick.
I do think that Dangerfield goes to great lengths to show that the couple are having a completely consensual role-play fantasy—but I agree that if a book isn’t working for you, you can’t force yourself to continue reading.
I’ll check it out! thanks!
You know what? I just said I’d check it out but I’m not going to. This just doesn’t work for me.
I don’t read young adult. I’m a high school teacher, and I cannot suspend disbelief. Amish and inspirational-no thank you. I’ve tried it but it’s not to my taste.
What is DD/lg?
Daddy/little girl.
Thanks!
That is such a hard pass for me. It literally makes my gorge rise.
Daddy Dom/Little Girl. In m/m and/or bdsm romances, this is sometimes called “Daddy/Little” without reference to the gender of the “Little.”
That is a hard pass for me too.
Billionaire romances give me the creeps.
For the most part billionaires are the Kochs, the Mercers, the Rupert Murdochs, Sheldon Adelsons, and Steve Wynns. Bad plastic surgery, strings of exes, overmuch interest in protecting their wealth and exerting their power. About the last group of people with romantic appeal. Billionaire in a title sends me packing.
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Sheikh romances for me. I grew up in the United Arab Emirates, so I have an idea how most sheikhs behave and what they expect from their wives. If there’s a romance where the sheikh speaks Arabic, wears a dishdasha, and expects his wife to be a practicing Muslim, let me know. Otherwise, not interested.
I do think everybody has their thing they can suspend disbelief for. I have zero patients for most MDs in romance–their lives never look anything like that of any of the many many real practitioners I know. But I am completely incurious as to the validity of the the lives of Dukes!
“I have zero patients” – love the pun. :)
I work in a trauma hospital, so a medical romance would need to be very accurate for me to believe it. But yeah, I can suspend disbelief for historicals too, unless they’re really stretching it.
The Sheikh’s Destiny by Melissa James! Hero is a race car driver turned rescue ambulance in a conflict area in northern Africa, heroine is an Aussie Muslim nurse from his home country. Here is my review! https://allaboutromance.com/book-review/the-sheiks-destiny-by-melissa-james/
I never pick up fantasy or time travel novels. I want my novels to get started promptly without endless backstories and large suspensions of belief. Those who love them, enjoy them and buy them so your authors keep going.
1st person, present tense. I sample before I buy, and if I read an excerpt of a novel that’s written in 1st person, present tense, that alone will kill it for me. I won’t go back to that book unless someone somewhere has convinced me it’s really good, and the exception to the rule for that trendy, writing style. So few authors can do it well!
I feel the same which is why had a problem with Bec McMaster’s latest book to start with. But she’s a good enough writer to make it work and I DID end up enjoying it.
Off topic slightly- but I also found Bec McMaster’s change to first person in her latest novel jarring. It didn’t sound exactly like her at first. I enjoyed the story as I do all her works, but the 1st person present tense was quite a surprise.
I tend to read lots of reviews before I sit down with a book, which is probably a bad approach in some ways because I am sure I miss out on books I might love simply because I’ve read an off-putting review. But two books that I expected to love based on reviews and just did not were Kleypas’ Dreaming of You and, more surprisingly to me, Thomas’ Not Quite a Husband. Kleypas is very hit or miss for me (the ones I like, I really like, though) but I love everything I’ve ever read of Sherry Thomas’ except this one – and I know a lot of people adore it! Good for you, not for me, as Amy Poehler would say.
I, too, find the extraordinary love for Kelypas’ Dreaming of You puzzling. I liked it. It’s not a bad romance at all, but it never stuck with me as it seems to have with many romance readers. The same goes for Loretta Chase’s Lord of Scoundrels.
As a college teacher, I have very little patience for teacher/student relationships. In reality, there is so much institutional red tape to make these relationships daunting, even for the most risk-taking of teachers willing to flaunt rules. In today’s cultural moment, social ostracism is having a big effect on teachers even considering an affair with a student. From an ethical consideration, teachers have too much power over the lives of a student (GPAs, future job attainment, and even the accusation of creating a harassing setting to succeed in schoolwork ). And yet, these books keep getting published and drive me a little crazy. On a similar note, I’m very hesitant about employer/employee romances for many of the same reasons. I can see why women may be drawn to a dominant, powerful, and successful man, but the repercussions of such romantic relationships feel overwhelmingly negative to me. But this is why more good stories featuring the sexiness of equality is powerful
I’m not generally a fan of fantasy romance, though I can be persuaded. I just read the first trilogy in Ilona Andrews’s Hidden Legacy series and enjoyed it. Even here though, too much time spent mired in rules about magic or technology, too many explosions, and confusing battle scenes leave me bored and wanting to get back to relationships.
Inspirational romances, for the same reasons other people have mentioned. And non-inspirational romances set around Christmas kind of fall into that category for me too. If it’s part of a longer series I’m following and/or has a lot of tropes I love, I’ll sometimes give those a go, but I’m a Jewish convert, estranged from most of my family, extremely introverted, suffer from social anxiety, and generally don’t mesh well with mainstream American holiday traditions, so the “grumpy character softened by the Chrismas magic!!!!” tropes make me angry, and it’s rare to find Christmas books that don’t go there at least a bit. Small-town romances sometimes hit the same notes in non-Christmas books, but it’s harder to tell from the tin, so I don’t avoid them as much.
Other sub-genres I don’t really read: paranormals; YA; “clean” romance; f/f romance; sci-fi romance; BDSM featuring female submissives. I avoid books that feature cancer because it gives me panic attacks, and I’m wary of historicals involving white characters in the American South.
For authors: Lisa Kleypas. I read a lot of her work when I first started reading romance, because she’s so beloved, but had to conclude that she just doesn’t work for me at all.
Also, my feelings about fantasy romance are very complicated. I love fantasy, and I love romance, and therefore I want to love fantasy romance, so I keep reading them, but it pretty much never works for me, so I really ought to stop.
I don’t a priori rule out reading stories in any genre or sub-genre, but my preferences strongly favor some sub-genres. For me, it is more the author (or individual story) than the (sub-)genre.
The Black Dagger Brotherhood series by J. R. Ward, already mentioned, is an example. I bought the first 3 books years ago, read the first, and stopped. It just didn’t work well enough for me to buy or read any more.
Tangled by Emma Chase: the “hero” was a total jerk, and stayed that way, and he kept making pronouncements about how all men are things that just aren’t so. I have wondered since if that jerk was partially based on the T-Rump. I haven’t read any other books by Emma Chase.
The Hating Game by Sally Thorne, which is supposed to have a lot of conversational humor, simply didn’t have much of any humor for me. I haven’t read bought or read any other books by Sally Thorne.
Anything extreme bdsm, walking on broken glass seen as a romantic gesture just does not work for me. Add spiritual connotations and that’s an ‘inspirational ‘I positively dislike..
Stories described as romance that don’t have a hea. Love stories can be as heartbreaking as you like but call it romance and I’m expecting hea.
I’m a member of a discussion board for writers, and every now and then we have the HEA discussion with someone who doesn’t read romance.
“I’ve written a tragic love story where one of the people dies. Can this be marketed as a romance?”
No. The couple have to be together and happy at the end.
“But it’s got a paranormal element so at the end, he’s a ghost. And GHOST was such a romantic movie!”
It wasn’t a romance novel.
“Why should the nature of the ending define the genre for the entire book? If I write a story that’s all about the couple falling in love and building a relationship, and they get married on page 199, and on page 200 he gets hit by a truck, how could that not be a romance?”
Romance readers are not looking for a punch in the gut on the last page. If we want tragic love stories, we know where to find them, and it’s not on the romance shelves.
“But happy-ever-after endings are so old and predictable! And this limited, inflexible requirement constrains my creativity!”
HEAs are what romance readers want. If you don’t want to write them, don’t call your story a romance.
“But romance as a genre gets great sales.”
Ahhh…
This argument is crazy-making. Sigh….
*nods* This argument comes up on Twitter at least once a month (probably more often and I just don’t see it!)
But I honestly don’t understand what these people don’t get. Genre fiction has rules, and the HEA is the romance genre rule. I never see anyone saying “I wrote a mystery novel, but the mystery isn’t solved at the end (assuming it’s one book not a series), so can I market it as a mystery?”
Sadly, it really IS all about the money. And even more irritating is that these people trying to cash in on the romance market are often the ones who look down their noses at the genre anyway. Grrr…
This is a direct quote from someone on that discussion board :
“I would totally read a story about a detective who fails to solve the mystery. The main reason I don’t read mysteries is that you know the hero is going to figure out the villain by the end.”
Some writers feel it’s daring and subversive to flout the rules of a genre.
One such writer asked why romance publishers were afraid to take the risk of a few main-character-dies endings in the romance section. Maybe readers would be pissed off because they found something they didn’t like, but maybe such readers also needed to have their expectations challenged. Maybe this way, readers would be able to broaden their definition of happy endings.
I replied that if I came home from an rough day at work where a patient died, and I picked up a romance novel to have the security and comfort of a happy ending, only to find the heroine died, I would warn every romance reader I knew never to touch that author’s books, because the author had tricked me. No other genre gives so much assurance. No other genre makes the promise that the people you care about will be safe and happy in the end. Life certainly doesn’t have that guarantee. That’s why we read romance.
That’s it exactly. The assured HEA gives authors and readers room to explore emotions in ways that are often complex and difficult, and even as the reader is put through the wringer, they know, at the back of their mind, that everything will work out in the end. I know it’s not for everyone, but I can read romances with a fairly heavy degree of angst precisely because, even as I’m in tears, I know there will be an HEA. Not to offer that security is break your contract with the reader.
I call that attitude “contempt for the genre and its readers…but not for the money they generate.” It must be exhausting to have the same argument over and over again with people who don’t want to be enlightened and only want you to confirm what they already believe. It’s for much this same reason I stay off of political blogs and am not on Twitter.
Some people are more creative than others with the “ugh, happy endings” arguments. We had someone post in the romance forum saying she was a therapist, and some of the people she counseled had unrealistic expectations about relationships. The cause of this problem? Why, romance novels with their happy endings!
It’s so simple…no HEA, no romance genre label. It’s the whole point, isn’t it?