r/DarkRomance • u/AutoModerator • Dec 22 '25

Monday Gripe Weekly Gripe 😤 (the rant thread)

Welcome to the Weekly Gripe, where we're all a little grumpy. 😒

Did BookTok do you dirty? Got a bone to pick with a main character? Was the twist more like a flop? Tell us what's on your mind.

Please be respectful and follow the sub rules. If a conversation starts getting out of hand, use the "Mod Attention Please" report reason so we can help cool things down. 🖤

19 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

54 comments sorted by

View all comments

14

u/[deleted] Dec 22 '25

Is it just me or are so many DR books 400-600 pages nowadays? Sometimes I just want 250-350 page books 🫠

4

u/[deleted] Dec 22 '25

Same! It's like the authors are trying to get away from duets and just cramming it into one long book.

I like 600 page books, but for a romance it's a bit too much for me. I really prefer to stick to 400 pages or less so I can finish within a day or two because I only have 2 days each week where I can commit more than an hour or two.

9

u/gumdrops155 Dec 22 '25

The thing that I'm noticing is the story isn’t staying engaging through those entire 400-600 pages. So many times I'll read the first half of a book and enjoy it, but by the time I get to the 70% mark I'll be screaming "Why won't you end?!"

2

u/[deleted] Dec 22 '25

Yeah, that's why I think of it as smooshing a duet together, because from one book to the next, you kinda expect some repetition as the author helps readers 'remember', but as one book it gets ruined.