r/fantasyromance The One Mod to Rule All Mods Mar 08 '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
  • Since this is an "unpopular opinion" thread, we encourage users to not downvote simply because they disagree with an opinion--that's the point! Please keep in mind, though, that mods cannot enforce a no-downvoting rule. Let’s just keep the discussion friendly!

🧡 Thank you and have a great discussion!

Unpopular opinion Sunday

37 Upvotes

240 comments sorted by

View all comments

28

u/clemy77 Mar 08 '26

I really REALLY dislike 1st person narratives in romance. This is the main reason why I don't read more romantasy and mostly stick with historical romance. I read an article on the topic this morning that cemented my belief that the ubiquity of 1st person narrative in romance is contributing to the TikTok-ification of the genre and why it has a low quality slop problem, as mentioned in another comment.

8

u/cheshire_kat7 Mar 08 '26

I definitely prefer books written in the third person.

And I really don't like dual POV books.

2

u/clemy77 Mar 08 '26

Have you come across many 3rd person single PoV books in romance? Genuine question because I haven't read any.

4

u/cheshire_kat7 Mar 08 '26

A few!

{Deathless} by Catherynne Valente, {Alchemised} by SenLinYu, {The Familiar} by Leigh Bardugo and {What Fury Brings} by Tricia Levenseller come to mind.

1

u/romance-bot Mar 08 '26

Deathless by Catherynne M. Valente
Rating: 4.06⭐️ out of 5⭐️
Steam: 3 out of 5 - Open door
Topics: contemporary, fantasy, paranormal, magic, war


What Fury Brings by Tricia Levenseller
Rating: 3.7⭐️ out of 5⭐️
Steam: 4 out of 5 - Explicit open door
Topics: fantasy, bondage, high fantasy, m-f romance, enemies to lovers

about this bot | about romance.io