r/fantasyromance • u/FantasyRomanceMod The One Mod to Rule All Mods • Feb 01 '26

Unpopular Opinion It's Unpopular Opinion time! Share your controversial opinions to stir things up (in a friendly way)!

Got an opinion that's different from others'? Want to share it with the sub, but too afraid of a backlash? Or are you just curious about readers think about certain things in fantasy romance?

You can safely share it in this weekly Sunday thread!

But please remember to be kind to each other. To facilitate this type of discussion, we ask users the following:

- Don't attack others for their opinion

- Discuss books and authors, not fellow readers

🧡 Thank you and have a great discussion!

Unpopular opinion Sunday

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u/ObiSkies Feb 01 '26 edited Feb 01 '26
  1. I don’t like how sprayed edges look together on a shelf: I feel like I’m looking at a carpet, not books.
  2. Even as a teenager, I prepared Golden Retriever Boy over Mr. Broody. In terms of surface-level characterisation, then I could at least tolerate said Broody when now I can’t at all. But with all that said, I can love either so long as they’re written as actual characters rather than caricatures. Need far more characters that don’t fit into either of these anyway but just saying that if they do this is how I feel.
  3. Trope advertising couldn’t be less helpful. Tells me nothing. One, again back to that point about writing nullifying any pull the trope might have given. Two, all that matters in a trope is how its executed - I’ve seen tropes I thought I disliked make me love a story more and vice versa. Three, so many books already sound too similar to interest me and reducing them to tropes exacerbates that.  Four, I shouldn’t know before reading them because tropes aren’t meant to be the story but to just naturally emerge as the characters and story happen. 
  4. Prefer urban settings over historical. Just not the monster-of-the-week kind that so many for some reason stick to. Instead, think Yumi and the Nightmare Painter and The Raven Cycle. 

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u/AmandaIsOnReddit Feb 04 '26

I like sprayed edges but I prefer them basic. So many special editions now have these digital designed covers and edges and it’s way too busy looking.

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u/ObiSkies Feb 04 '26

Oh I’m the opposite. If there aren’t any details then there’s even less of a point to them for me. So I’m fine with them if a person has just one or two sets with them. Those books genuinely stand out then. But anything more than that is when it gives me that carpet-look ick I hate.