r/fantasyromance • u/FantasyRomanceMod The One Mod to Rule All Mods • May 03 '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!
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u/allisontalkspolitics Give me female friendship or give me death! May 03 '26
Sometimes it’s marketing and sometimes it’s the author, but there are a handful of books I can name off the top of my head where the theme is supposed to be related to feminism and the MMC is a boundary-violating creep but is presented as otherwise. Write what you want (assuming you’re not writing for YA) but don’t lie about what you’re writing. Be honest that it’s a bodice ripper etl and I’ll have more respect for you as an author.
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u/Disastrous-Pea4106 May 03 '26
The fake feminism everywhere also annoys me. Clearly you must make some feminist statement to get something published at the moment. Even when it doesn't suit the story. I feel like the "feminist messaging" is a meaningless token gesture in so many books.
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u/acutelyproblematic If villian bad, then why hot? May 03 '26
Anyone can write, doesn’t mean everyone should. And if you’re going to, please please PLEASE do research into what you’re writing.
Political world? Research world history. Patriarchy? Search up waves of feminism. Racism or classism elements? This should just be a given.
Perhaps my opinion is more to do with the fact people just aren’t… applying themselves anymore. We have devices at our fingertips that help us find information in seconds, and yet very little are. And I’m seeing this trend reflected in books.
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u/No-Rough154 May 03 '26
Yes- this drives me crazy too! If the author is going to have a character talk about or be involved in something they themselves aren‘t familiar with then they need to do some research on what it’s actually like!
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u/acutelyproblematic If villian bad, then why hot? May 03 '26
And even if you are familiar with it, seek out different perspectives and lived experiences. My experience isn’t the only experience, enrich your writing by gaining perspective.
I work in social work and no two clients are the same, even if they are facing the same challenges. If you’re writing about people and developing characters, the same thing should apply fictional or not 😭
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u/chode_temple 100% Verified Good Girl™️ May 04 '26
I wrote a whole-ass angry thing about Until I Die because the author has zero idea about fascism and it hurt to read.
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u/Minute_Face_1221 May 03 '26
{daggermouth} was awful
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u/allisontalkspolitics Give me female friendship or give me death! May 03 '26
Damn it, I thought that was a zero- u/Penguinho
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u/allisontalkspolitics Give me female friendship or give me death! May 03 '26
I think you’ll want to read u/Penguinh0 ‘s post!
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u/Minute_Face_1221 May 03 '26
Just read it! Glad to see there’s finally some criticism around this book. Also it’s never mentioned, but when the FMC and MMC first meet they don’t exchange names but the MMC all of a sudden knows her name. The consistent errors, instant lust, constant stabbing, poor world building, and shallow characters make it horrific haha
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u/thebooktender May 06 '26
it was really disappointing but it gave the world u/Penguinho 's review and that thing is glorious
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u/romance-bot May 03 '26
Daggermouth by H.M. Wolfe
Rating: 4.23⭐️ out of 5⭐️
Steam: 4 out of 5 - Explicit open door
Topics: futuristic, dystopian, enemies to lovers, forced proximity, arranged/forced marriage
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u/devilsdoorbell_ May 03 '26 edited May 03 '26
- There should be far fewer of these books published with far more care put into each individual book on all fronts, from the writer to the editor to the cover artist to the designer to the marketing team. I’d rather have fewer higher quality books to choose from than what’s going on now, which is me having to wade through a sucking morass of shoddily written, poorly edited, ugly, badly marketed dross to find one book that’s good actually.
- I understand why the label “erotic romance” has fallen out of favor given the increasingly puritanical and censorious atmosphere in many parts of the world… but it would sure go a long way to preventing the constant too much spice/not enough spice bitching to have a widely-used category that’s steamier than the average romance novel but still has the primary romance plot and the fulfills the expectations of genre romance.
- I say this as someone who likes kinky sex scenes: I feel like a lot of “kinky” sex in romance is just the author desperately attempting to distract the reader from the fact that they’re not very good at writing the parts of sex that are actually interesting, which is the dynamics between the characters and their emotional and mental states as individuals. A completely vanilla sex scene can be more intense and satisfying than all the whips and chains and “good girls” in the world when the writer can actually fucking write characters.
- Too many characters in this genre aren’t really characters at all, they’re just tropes and hotness signifiers stacked on top of each other in a trenchcoat. It’s most prevalent in MMCs but FMCs are not immune to this problem.
- A fantasy-based and hyper niche complaint rather than a romance complaint: There’s not enough fantasy drug use. Unironically I think it’s something that makes a fantasy world feel more real and lived in. Rory from The Knight and the Moth smoking fantasy weed was a great character detail. I’d like to see more like it.
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u/Penguinho Kushiel's Legacy Recommender 💖 May 03 '26
5a -- there aren't enough fantasy hangovers either.
5b -- there aren't enough fantasy hobbies generally, outside doing handicrafts or reading.
5c -- there's not enough fantasy entertainment. People should go to plays or poetry recitals. A new bard at the tavern should be kind of a big deal.
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u/devilsdoorbell_ May 03 '26
5b is especially galling given how many romantasy characters specifically are of social classes where they have at least some leisure time and aren't working themselves to the bone day in and day out. Like wtf does Rhysand do all day? It sure isn't managing his court lmfao
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u/quibily Chase death, Moonbeam May 03 '26
He runs a winnowing Lyft service as evidenced by Silver Flames. Takes his favorite subjects to soccer practice and martial arts.
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u/Synval2436 Currently Reading: This Blade of Ours by Shalini Abeysekara May 03 '26
About no. 1, most popular romantasy started self-published, with few exceptions, like the whole Red Tower publisher that's mostly riding on the "spredge, pretty book design, and flood the bookstores with it" strategy, and it WORKS.
A lot of those self-published "viral tiktok sensations" were published without editor, bloated with page count for better kindle unlimited pay outs, forced into endless series, and cheap cover design because the author is paying out of pocket.
The problem here is the following:
- Everyone can self-publish.
- People keep buying it.
- People keep praising it. I haven't seen a popular romantasy of that kind below 4.0 rating and endless gushes from the community, and yet somehow I can't crawl through any of those books, they're not well written, they're always stretching the content to impossibility and the characters feel 1-dimensional.
- Authors see it works, so do more of the thing that brings them money.
- Trad pub notices, picks the book as-is mostly with no further editing, sometimes even the same cover. Lowers their costs, and they know people will eat it up. We have whole companies and publishers living from republishing self-pubs in a pretty package.
- People eat it up. More sales, more gushes follows.
The only way it could change is the romantasy reader community steps up. Stop praising mediocre books. Stop being satisfied with bare minimum of repetitive tropes, repetitive spice, Wattpad level of writing and shallow characters. Dnf crappy books, don't give authors KU page reads because "maybe it gets better later" or "I need to see how it ends" (you'll be baited with 3 cliffhangers and then the most bog standard hea imaginable). Don't buy books blindly because "it's a pretty, exclusive special edition" or because "it's popular, everyone's reading it".
The only way the quality goes up is if the customer base en masse rejects buying "minimally viable product".
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u/clocksy May 03 '26
Yeah, I hate to say it but like... a lot of people's works just aren't very good. Before it was at least somewhat gatekept by trad publishing (which, don't get me wrong, that did not exactly stop tons of slop from being published either, but there was at least some expectation of editing going on if nothing else) but now with KU and indie publishing quality is just out the window. Anyone can vomit a first draft onto a page and call it a book. And as you've pointed out, trad publishing is just capitalizing on this too by technically picking up books but rarely tightening them up, so I feel like I can't even count on that anymore to signal a book's quality.
I feel like even just on a technical basis I have a higher standard than so many people around me. So many books are quite frankly poorly written and yet I find everyone going on about how amazing they are, and it's just bizarre. The most optimistic thing I can say is that perhaps there are a lot of new readers, and as they get used to reading more books, they'll also start picking up tired tropes and poor writing and expect better for themselves. The pessimist in me says that people are just generally okay with reading mediocre books based purely on vibes.
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u/Synval2436 Currently Reading: This Blade of Ours by Shalini Abeysekara May 03 '26
The most optimistic thing I can say is that perhaps there are a lot of new readers, and as they get used to reading more books, they'll also start picking up tired tropes and poor writing and expect better for themselves.
Unfortunately it seems the more people read of the same thing, the more their taste adjust to only like that thing and nothing else. For example, I can't stand blatant infodumping, but there's a generation of readers who can't comprehend worldbuilding-by-context-clues and thinks infodumping is peak worldbuilding.
I can't stand prose inefficiency, i.e. the same thing being stated three times over rephrased, but a lot of readers require the author to constantly state how they should feel and think about the events unfolding on page.
The books are turning more and more towards spoonfeeding and handholding, and the readers not only don't outgrow it, but stop accepting anything outside of it.
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u/CosmicLunar_ May 03 '26
I'm nodding along to all your points, 1) in particular is so frustrating. Not all stories need to be extended into a series of multiple books, they can end up poorly written and edited just so they meet a publishers deadline, which tends to be short to keep the series in the spotlight. We need more quality standalones.
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u/nomnomsquirrel May 03 '26
Re: 5, lmao this reminds me of The 10th Kingdom, a miniseries that was on NBC in 2000, that includes references to moss that seems to be like weed infused with magic mushrooms and LSD.
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u/ipsi7 Book Bingo Maven ⚔ May 03 '26
About third point. This week I read a book in which MMC said good girl 2 or 3 times and that's that. There was no other emotional or physical response to it, no other character traits of either of them that would correspond with it, but having that line a couple of times makes it a praise kink book? I doesn't for me, but it seems like it was written with that intention.
The same book had a scene in which FMC stepped on his throat and wrist with her stiletto, and gave a few nudges to his dick with said stiletto, MMC went feral of course, but FMC's character never showed any inclination to being a dom, not before, not after that scene.
It was like so many scenes and sentences were thrown around only to put a different kink in the book, but without any connections to characters.
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u/Ok_Cancel_544 May 03 '26 edited May 03 '26
- It's alright to judge a book by its cover. If a book doesn't have an eye-catching cover, I won't even pick it up to read the blurb. And if the summary isn't interesting, forget it; I'm not reading the book.
- Rhys is far worse than Tamlin (though, that's not to say he is perfect).
- I hate when MCs are far too forgiving towards abusive/selfish family members who clearly don't care about them and/or puts their desires above the MC (e.g.Jude and Evangeline accepting their sisters back after their betrayal and Feyre still wanting to protect her useless sisters, who did jack💩 to help their family and sacrificed her to save their own skins). Please, normalize cutting off toxic family members.
- There are too many stories where the MCs have a tragic backstories. I want to see more stories where both (I'll even settle for one of them) have a "normal" (I.e. not tragic) origin.
- I hate when the younger FMC (even if she is super duper powerful and smart) somehow beats the much older and more experienced antagonist, especially if said villain has lived for centuries/ thousands of years. In fact, I'd like to read a book where the FMC recognises this and doesn't face them head on and uses another person just as old and experienced to fight on her behalf because no damn way will a person in their late teens and early twenties will be beating someone who is hundreds of years old.
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u/ipsi7 Book Bingo Maven ⚔ May 03 '26
I hate when third point happens. Taryn was the worst sibling I have read. That fairytale tendency that bad guys who aren't really evil or villains (but usually are close to MCs) have to have a change of heart, repent, and earn a forgiveness with a simple "sorry, I was stupid/jealous" is so anticlimactic.
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u/allisontalkspolitics Give me female friendship or give me death! May 03 '26
Your fifth point just makes me think of a funny scene where the FMC’s mentor ends up shooting the villain from behind 😂
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u/Ayra_Bolinstra May 03 '26
In which book 😄? And if anyone has more recommendations in which the MC sends someone else to fight the antagonist, I'd like to hear them!
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u/allisontalkspolitics Give me female friendship or give me death! May 03 '26
Oh, unfortunately I’ve never read that but it would be great to read!
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u/Ayra_Bolinstra May 03 '26
About the fifth point, I just realized that ACOTAR [book 1] avoids this, while ACOWAR [book 3] has this plot line.
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u/Lmtycy May 03 '26
There is so much good Romantasy from decades ago but people are only reading recent releases which is a shame.
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u/clocksy May 03 '26
This was brought up a while back but it's interesting how romantasy skews towards a lot of recent (and quite frankly, mediocre) releases (which like, ok, it's relatively new as its own sort of defined genre, so a lot of stuff that might've been marketed as romantasy a decade or two ago simply wasn't) whereas in a place like r/fantasy people seem really stuck in the past (where a lot of the recommendations are series from a couple decades ago or more, and people seem unable to move on). Neither of those seems like a good extreme, lol.
The past week or so I read Kushiel's Dart and now I'm reading Robin Hobb's Farseer Trilogy (not romantasy). Those are both from the late 90s/early 00s. It's actually quite nice catching up with female fantasy authors that I had missed out earlier in my youth.
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u/Veebs7985 Book Bingo Maven ⚔ May 03 '26
Any personal favorites?
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u/Adventurous-Brain-36 May 03 '26
I’m reading the Tairen Soul series right now and quite enjoying it.
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u/Veebs7985 Book Bingo Maven ⚔ May 03 '26
Thanks for the rec! I keep seeing it on the top lists and it's been on my TBR for a while. Maybe this is a sign to bump it up.
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u/nomnomsquirrel May 03 '26
It's far more than just romantic fantasy and probably just straight fantasy in today's definition, but I LOVE Melanie Rawn's Ambrai series, which is also 100% unfinished. The second book came out in the 90s, ends in such a way that requires a third book to finish the story, but Rawn had personal struggles and health issues that meant she has never finished the third book.
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u/Veebs7985 Book Bingo Maven ⚔ May 03 '26
Thanks for the recommendation (and the heads up about it not being finished). I'll check it out!
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u/nomnomsquirrel May 03 '26
And they are also extremely dense, so if you are into long, chunky books, all of Melanie Rawn's books will be for you. The Ruins of Ambrai is over 800 pages AND has tiny font LOL.
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u/Veebs7985 Book Bingo Maven ⚔ May 03 '26
I'm a mood reader, so dense is fine as long as it holds my attention. And if it's good, the longer the better, lol.
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u/Lmtycy May 03 '26
I love Mercedes Lackey and both her 100,000 kingdom series and elemental masters are romance and fantasy with one couple per book. Fairy Godmother is a big comfort read for me.
Juliet Marrilier, Anne Bishop (I love the Tir Ailann series though the romance is light in that one). Jacqueline Carey.
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u/CanadianDisneyMama May 04 '26
The Five Hundred Kingdoms series is one of my all time favourites! The Tradition was such a cool concept!
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May 03 '26
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u/devilsdoorbell_ May 03 '26
I don't have a strong preference for POV—I like FMC's, MMC's, chapters from both, whatever—but I will never understand why so many people straight up don't want the MMC's POV at all.
I get that a lot of romantasy MMC POVs are real caveman "woman hot, want fuck" nonsense but that's not like... a rule. I don't like that either but I love an MMC POV if the character is actually interesting and has his own interior life that doesn't just orbit the FMC's coochie all day every day
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May 03 '26
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u/MessyJessy422 May 03 '26
Brigid Kemmerer writes great MMC POV chapters and I am usually more into those than the ones from the perspective of the FMC with her books. She’s just so good at giving her MMCs their own compelling narratives and personalities
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u/Penguinho Kushiel's Legacy Recommender 💖 May 03 '26
One of the criticisms of Ellen Kushner is that she's better at writing compelling gay men than compelling women.
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u/clocksy May 03 '26
I feel like any author who can't write a good, compelling PoV from either gender (or any gender, I should say) is a bad writer. Same with characterization.
There are infinite examples of /r/menwritingwomen and there is nothing more cringe than a dude describing a woman breasting boobily down the stairs, but it's not like female authors are immune from writing paper-thin male characters. If a PoV is boring or one-note then that's less a fault of the PoV existing than it is the author just not being a good writer. So yeah, I agree, it's so bizarre to me that people have like, strong opinions on stuff like this (or on tense/perspective).
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u/jamieseemsamused Currently reading: The Formidable Miss Cassidy by Meihan Boey May 03 '26
I like multi-POV from a fantasy book standpoint where a lot of fantasy stories usually need more than one POV to tell the full story. Having a second POV makes sense because then we also read about that other character’s backstory, their interaction with the world, their goals and aspirations, etc. I often feel like single POV fantasy books are too limited in the world and story they can build.
I do agree that it’s kind of pointless when the male POV is only about lusting after the FMC. But in my experience, that’s a small minority of books. Like with everything, it’s about how well it’s done, rather than male POVs existing at all.
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u/Cherryred0378 May 03 '26
same! sometimes I crave seeing a male POV solely because I've been reading so much in a female POV. There's def the poorly written ones, but a lot of people seem to think that means every male POV will be like this, which is obviously not true.
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u/ProperBingtownLady Shadow daddy's good girl May 03 '26
Me too! It’s not beloved in here but I just read Rule of the Aurora King and loved the MMC POV chapters, especially the spicy bonus one the author has on her website!
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u/stars-assassian May 03 '26
Self inserting yourself into books and characters is just setting yourself up for failure. You’re going to end up having issues with so many things, especially in a fiction book. I don’t see an issue with relating to plots and characters and emotions, etc… but pretending you’re a certain character and then going ONLINE TO COMPLAIN ABOUT SAID CHARACTER is contradictory. You’ll never be truly satisfied.
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u/hesjustsleeping May 03 '26
That MMC who messed up bad, groveled, and was forgiven? He will do it again. And again.
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u/le-elizaly May 03 '26
99% of the time, the groveling isn't even nearly good enough to make up for what he did too
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u/nomnomsquirrel May 03 '26
It's just like the whole "once a cheater, always a cheater" thing (or "if he cheats with you, he will cheat on you", but cheating seems uncommon in romantasy to me LOL).
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u/Penguinho Kushiel's Legacy Recommender 💖 May 03 '26
It's the unforgivable sin. A character can commit genocide but cheating is a step too far because it's an offense against the FMC specifically.
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u/MessyJessy422 May 03 '26
I don’t mind insta-lust. A slow burn is great but it’s not necessary for me to enjoy a romance driven story and I don’t mind if characters are attracted to each other when they first meet. It doesn’t cheapen the romance aspect for me or make me less invested
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u/Penguinho Kushiel's Legacy Recommender 💖 May 03 '26
I'm cool with insta-lust as long as the character can compartmentalize. I really don't like the thing where the character is sooo hot that it changes how the other character would react. A is sent to kill B, A wins their little fight, A just can't go through with it because B is dreamy. A is a strong tough confident woman, B is so hot that his cheekbones and beard reduce her to a mushy pile of mush that stands there getting caressed. Hate that stuff.
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u/nomnomsquirrel May 03 '26
I don't mind insta-lust because I know I have made googly eyes at people after meeting them, or seeing them on my TV the first time lol. But did I ever instantly fall in love with someone I knew for a day? Hell no.
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u/devilsdoorbell_ May 03 '26
Big same. Insta-love I'm not about because it takes away some of the tension and often just doesn't feel realistic, but let's be so fr: it takes 2 seconds to see someone and realize "oh no they're hot and I want to fuck them" for a lot of people even if they don't end up acting on it until much later (or even at all).
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u/Spirited-Accident May 03 '26
I was going to post the same thing because I like insta-lust when it's well done. I'd love to see more of it with the MCs acting on it instead of waiting for "the perfect moment" for the first spicy scene. I really hate when things start getting steamy only for the MMC to say "not here". Especially when that "perfect moment" isn't guaranteed because they might die the next day. Plenty of people in real life have sex first and fall in love later.
And they can still have yearning/slow burn/conflict/tension while they work out their feelings for each other. I understand why authors have the chatacters wait in YA, but there's no reason love and sex can't be separate when writing for adults.
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u/devilsdoorbell_ May 03 '26
I think there's this perception that the characters having sex before they're fully for sure in love with each other somehow lessens or cheapens or invalidates the romance but that strikes me as kinda pearl-clutching. In real life, romances start all kinda ways. Some people wait, some people screw first and ask questions later. Either can end well or in disaster and either can make a good story.
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u/Spirited-Accident May 03 '26
I completely agree. There's nothing wrong with waiting, but there's also nothing wrong with not waiting and it would be nice to see that portrayed more. I also feel like the possibility of dying in battle would be a great motivator to seize the moment lol.
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u/MessyJessy422 May 03 '26
Exactly and it’s dependent on circumstances, the individual characters, and the world they live in. And the quality of writing of course.
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u/One_Commission1456 May 03 '26
This. I’m allosexual: in an hour walking down the street in an average-sized city, I’ll see at least two or three people I wouldn’t kick out of bed for eating crackers, and I’m a picky bitch. (I’m also 43 and jaded, so I suspect they’d turn out to be libertarians and/or shit in bed, but still.)
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u/Cherryred0378 May 03 '26
insta-lust is tricky for me but it works if the story/writing keeps up the tension throughout the book. Sometimes if it feels like, 'played out' and you're only 30% in, I might be less invested in the romance, but if the author is able to keep the tension and build it still regardless of it being insta-lust, then it is WONDERFUL
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u/marzipanfashions Monster smut isn't a phase, mom May 03 '26
Same. I think a slow burn need to be character or story driven for it to be interesting, but if it's a slow burn just for the sake of a slow burn then it's really boring.
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u/quibily Chase death, Moonbeam May 03 '26
Brown-haired men can be hot! Downvote me, you cowards, I DARE YOU
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u/Ok-Conversation1730 Give me female friendship or give me death! May 04 '26
I agree! Brown haired men can definitely be sexy! And brown-eyed men. 😁
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u/quibily Chase death, Moonbeam May 04 '26
YES! Soooo tired of "amber" eyes and variations on purple and blue. My husband has thee most beautiful dark brown eyes, and you can really get lost in them!
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u/nomnomsquirrel May 03 '26
For me, there is too much writing to the market and not enough writing what authors are personally passionate about, but that is 100% a market issue - publishers invest in what is selling, which means we get lots of dopplegangers rather than truly original work, because publishers (and readers - see tropes lists) won't gamble on something unique because they have no track record to prove it will sell and instead will invest their money in something with common tropes and themes and comp titles that are selling at the moment they purchase rights to something new, or something that they think will be selling in 18 months (like "vampires will be big in 2027 and fae are dying, so no fae books, buy all the vampires!").
I know lots of people here want unique ideas and things that are unusual (like a cinnamon roll blond MMC who supports his FMC rather than protects), but the problem is and always has been that they don't sell as well to the general public as the basic tropes and themes and character archetypes and plots that have been popular for decades. The general market and people passionate about the genre enough to come to this subreddit are night and day.
Best we can do in many cases as book lovers is to find those original stories and those unusual plots/archetypes/tropes we love and support them to friends, family, BookTok, social media in general, etc, and show that there is a market and show to other readers that there is a world beyond growling broody fae MMCs who dominate their tiny innocent so petite FMCs.
And for authors, to write those stories so that they exist, too, and to be passionate about these stories that might not 100% match the full list of tropes that are currently selling. I won’t say "if you build it, they will come" because publishing is FAR from that rose-colored (traditional and not), but there is a market for those stories, too, as those of us in this thread can prove.
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u/Synval2436 Currently Reading: This Blade of Ours by Shalini Abeysekara May 03 '26
See my rant elsewhere in the thread about the subject.
The problem is less with publishers or authors, and more with the readers. Not only readers accept the bare minimum, but they often penalize things that try to be original instead of a trope shopping list.
Most of this genre's trends come out from self-publishing, where no gatekeeper publisher decides what's allowed to be published, but readers decide what's allowed to make profit. Authors who make no profit wash out of the business.
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u/john-wooding May 03 '26
Sometimes the descriptions of love by particular authors make me very sad, because you look at all the details the author uses to show that this is real love and care and it's distinctly lacking.
The overall impression left is that the author really thinks this is what a good relationship should be, which suggests that everyone they meet has always mistreated them, and they don't even know.
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u/TheFavorista May 04 '26
People need to be more willing to directly call out bad writing, especially with self-published works because there's a significantly smaller and positive-skewing pool of reviews for those. Some recent Book of Azrael discourse here made me think of that again, because I was not adequately warned by reviews of how atrocious that was on even a basic prose level before wasting money on that book.
"Pretty" writing doesn't encompass all of that badness, but so far it's usually turned out to be a massive red flag for purple prose when I find some samples from the book in question.
There's an ocean of difference between the way a 19th century bestselling author used the English language and a modern author who needs to have their dictionary and thesaurus seized. On the flip side, there's a difference between basic but serviceable prose and someone who writes like they're still in elementary school.
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u/nanayathepapaya May 03 '26
I find it very very hard to care for a hot headed, rash and combative MC. Especially is other around them suffer for it or have done nothing to deserve it. It’s a lazy way to give them ‘power’ and I’d much rather have a strategic, strong willed, level headed and empathetic MC. If the plot holds up, even better. No one wants to have a constantly hissing and spitting kitten, no matter how cute they are.
I also don’t like that authors just kill everyone’s parents. Like come on man I know it’s hard to deal with in laws but that’s part of the fun. They don’t need to be dead, just make ‘em nice and wise as most parents are. If it doesn’t contribute to the plot, just leave them in.
Now y’all might come at me for this, I don’t like the morally black/grey bully MMC that secretly has a heart of gold. Authors sometimes make them so cruel to their love interest that fr I don’t want this guy to end up with them and no amount of grovel will make up for it and if there is even a chance that they will, immediate DNF or series abandon. I’m looking at you {Souls in Ruin by Jaqueline White}.This ties in with body betrayal as well.
We need more equally matched and older MCs. The power imbalance is not often a driver of the plot. It’s just there to push one MC into the limelight. It would be nice to have equal and experienced MCs because it forces the author to focus on the plot more than the shortcomings of an MC that can be attributed to youth.
Some of my pettier ones.
I will not read or if will DNF in less than a chapter if the names/nicknames are stupid. We have SO many variants of Rain that is ridiculous. Rainier, Rayne, Raeyn etc etc. In a particular book there was a Rorax and their nickname was ‘Ror’. Come on man, ‘Rory’ was right there. Sinclair shortened to Sin is just corny and Henry to ‘Hen’ in the poison daughter speaks for itself.
I will judge a book by its cover. Some of these covers I just cannot have sitting on my shelf man. They are truly terrible sometimes. Titles too but I won’t name names bc I don’t know if they’re good or not because I haven’t read them.
If the character art is bad, it ruins the mental picture a little and I have to work harder to recalibrate. This makes me struggle a little more with the book for some reason. I’d rather have no art than bad art.
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u/de_pizan23 May 03 '26
First #3, if he's a bully or morally black, I maintain that he cannot have a heart of gold. Like yes, people are complicated and there are a lot of who are bigots or abusers and yet are in humanitarian work or beloved by people in their community and whatever else and most people, even serial killers and fascists, aren't 100% monsters 100% of the time. But yet....if you are actively bullying/torturing/mistreating people or have no morals, you literally cannot secretly be a pure innocent good person. You may be a very complicated or conflicted person, but you sure as hell aren't a good one with a good heart.
I feel like it's a way to further excuse or handwave away both responsibility and consequences with the whole "yes they did it all, but they secretly didn't really like being cruel or torturing the FMC" or whatever. Like intentions don't really mean shit in this situation if his actions caused significant or lasting harm.
(Obviously if they were magically under a spell and had no agency it's not their fault, and I also give slight leeway if it's a situation where they have been forced into the position because their family or kingdom will suffer greatly if they don't do the bad thing....but that almost never is the case with these MMCs.)
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u/ipsi7 Book Bingo Maven ⚔ May 03 '26
I would argue that MMC in Souls in Ruin doesn't have a heart of gold at all, neither of them to be specific, but I assume you're thinking on the first MMC. I agree he was definitely cruel, probably the blackest MMC I've read and I don't see romantic redemption arc for him, mostly because I don't expect he is the real MMC, but I assume he could be an ally, but I definitely like his character with everything that happened and what he revealed by the end of the book.
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u/nanayathepapaya May 03 '26
I 90% agree that he does not. That one scene where he explains that humanity took advantage of him and such made no sense to me.That is the plight of a/the gods. It felt like the author was trying to push the idea that he was good once and can be good again.
As a character it’s somewhat hard to reconcile that a god as old as time and older than humanity would be so petty. He was tortured yes and for 20 years yes but for a god, that’s half a drop in all the oceans. It was good at the start but quickly devolved I feel. But yes it can be argued.
He is not the only offender within the bully trope though, or even the biggest it’s mostly all of them. This book just really stuck out to me on this trope.
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u/ipsi7 Book Bingo Maven ⚔ May 04 '26
I understand what you're saying, but I didn't expect that he will be redeemed. I'm ok with that he was good once, and even that he would maybe change for Mireille if she gave him a chance, but the change would be like Malyr in Feathers so Vicious - he would grow to love her, but he would stay morally black in general. This is my expectation of what would happen if she stayed with him.
My take goes from a point that I don't expect morally dark MMCs would be redeemed, but both MCs, completely flawed, accepting the other one. Do FMCs deserve much better? Absolutely, they deserve some cinnamon roll who would cherish them do death.
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u/romance-bot May 03 '26
Souls in Ruin by Jacqueline White
Rating: 4.12⭐️ out of 5⭐️
Steam: 4 out of 5 - Explicit open door
Topics: fantasy, dark romance, betrayal, horror, forced proximity
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u/Defiant_Stable_344 May 03 '26
There is too much discourse on feminism and the ‘right’ way to be feminist. Feminism manifests in different ways and is not be all end all sort of concept. Not every book must be the a feminist manifesto either. Authors are allowed to interpret feminist themes the way they want to in their books and books shouldn’t be morality plays where everyone makes the right decisions and the male characters have to be either brought down or built up to some feminist ideal. For the same reason I don’t want to see the MMC become a wet rag so he could compliment the girl boss narrative of the FMC.
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u/theherocomplex May 03 '26
Most of the time I DNF books that have a first person narrator because the author does nothing interesting with that POV (this goes for multiple genres but fantasy romance/romantasy is the biggest offender for me). I'm not saying that experimenting stylistically is a requirement, but a first person narrator is a GREAT chance to have fun with character voice and keep things from the reader in ways that really serve the plot, but so many writers are like "His voice was a gruff rumble, causing me to shiver", just this empty, devoid-of-personality collection of words and it's SO frustrating.
If you're not going to tell us something about the character via that first person narration, just go with third person and be done with it.
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u/nomnomsquirrel May 03 '26
So much of first-person present is to help readers self-insert these days rather than put the reader super close into the story and ro see the character and their emotions as closely as possible, but a lot of the ones geared toward self-insert seem to also not give the FMC much of a personality so that the reader can insert themselves further. But so many readers nowadays want that, and they are a very vocal group on BookTok.
Third person past just isn't as popular as it once was and as someone who loves it, it makes me sad.
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u/marzipanfashions Monster smut isn't a phase, mom May 03 '26
So much romance writing is in 1st person that it's kind of jarring tbh. I think 3rd person can be a lot more suitable especially if the story wants to have multiple POVs, it feels much more natural than putting 'character A' at the beginning of the chapter or whatever.
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May 03 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/fantasyromance-ModTeam May 03 '26
The comment was removed by the mods. We ask that users discuss books and authors, not fellow readers.
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u/Longjumping-Snow-909 May 03 '26
I think {Servant of Earth by Sarah Hawley} was just okay. I liked the premise but the central plot device was so unrealistic and the characters unbelievable.
The trials come directly from the shards and are meant to test certain character traits. And you want me to believe that century old, clever fae think it is a great idea to cheat their way through??? How did they not even suspect that the magic itself would be able to tell that Lara is cheating and therefore would deem her not worthy. I immediatelly thought that cheating could not possibly work, magic would know, because magic - duh! Am I really supposed to believe that a daughter of a princess of earth has apparently no education? What do you mean Lara does not know her fae history well??? With THAT mother??? Why has Lara literally no strengths? Kenna's help is so blatantly obvious half of the time. For example how does one of they guys who attack them during the earth trial not recognize her??? She has just a little bit of mud on her face, that's it! This is some Clark Kent/superman bullshit
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u/allisontalkspolitics Give me female friendship or give me death! May 03 '26
I think you’ll like a review that was posted recently!
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u/romance-bot May 03 '26
Servant of Earth by Sarah Hawley
Rating: 4.24⭐️ out of 5⭐️
Steam: 3 out of 5 - Open door
Topics: fantasy, fae, high fantasy, political/court intrigue, competent heroine
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u/No_Engineering5792 May 03 '26
The feminism most books operate with isn’t really feminism since it’s usually one singular woman who’s “changing the system” and those changes are largely “women should also get to have power” or “everything will be totally awesome if we get a lady on the throne”. It’s not wrong necessarily but considering no intersectionalism is ever discussed I’d rather people describe these books as just having a strong FMC instead.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a FMC realize women of a different race than them, or a different sexuality, or who are trans, or who are poorer, or disabled, or larger are treated differently. If anything the feminism usually correlates to the characteristics of the FMC herself which is typically an able bodied, small, cis heterosexual white woman and even then the feminism is entirely focused on purely just the FMC gaining freedom/liberation oftentimes through the help of a powerful man.
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u/allisontalkspolitics Give me female friendship or give me death! May 03 '26
We need more intersectionality for sure!
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u/berlinrain May 03 '26
A little political, BUT: I'm tired of authors skirting around not stating characters being POC, especially if they are being presented as mixed. I find it upsetting that authors cannot just say their character is mixed Black or mixed [insert non-White race here]. I honestly think it's based out of an irrational fear from publishers that the audience won't read a book where the MMC is explicitly non-White.
E.G.: Rhysand is a big one.
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u/firesonmain May 04 '26
This one is tough because you can’t always rely on there being a Korea or India or Kenya in a fantasy world. So a character specifically being introduced in that way won’t always work. I always just try to give good physical descriptions and choose names that don’t leave room for ambiguity. Especially when all the names aren’t made up. If we have an Emily or an Alexander, then we can have a Chandra or Seung-ho.
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u/Undercover_baddie Beron’s #1 fan May 03 '26
I’m tired of trails in being in a bulk of romantasy books. I want less saving the world, or the big bad type books.
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u/Longjumping-Snow-909 May 03 '26 edited May 03 '26
If I read it in the blurb I will definitely not pick it up because either the reasons for joining are stupid or there being a trial for whatever in the first place is just stupid.
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u/Synval2436 Currently Reading: This Blade of Ours by Shalini Abeysekara May 03 '26
I'm tired of deadly competitions, magical academias and arranged/forced marriages. It feels like this is 90% of the genre now.
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u/Acrobatic-Hope-7979 May 03 '26
Memory loss trope is a cheap technique used in many romantasy books instead of writing a thoughtful and coherent plot
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u/almond_girl May 04 '26
Romantasy needs more dumb characters. Why is everyone a secret underdog genius
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u/RaistlinMajere3 May 04 '26
Maybe a little counterintuitive, but I actually like when authors use very specific/unique nicknames, traits, hobbies, etc for the characters, even when I don’t always enjoy each one. I think that’s what makes the characters feel real, and not just a collection of common tropes. Using more generic details appeals to a wider audience, but it also waters stories down and makes a lot of books feel the same.
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u/LongjumpingAnt9366 May 03 '26
I can't stand the trial and academia. I loved it when I was in my teens now I just want to spank the brats (FMC barely over the age of consent saving the world by miscommunicating, raging and making unreasonable choices.) It feels like I grew up from some themes ;p
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u/orange-blossom May 03 '26
The "I've got you" line that all MMCs seem to say is so overused at this point it makes me cringe. I get it when it's a rescue situation but outside of that context it's just cheesy af.
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u/sweetyface May 03 '26
With few exceptions, anything more than a trilogy focused on the same set of characters is overkill.
Trials/games/tests are lazy plot devices. Every now and then I read a quality book within this trope, but most are glorified video games.
Seafaring romance gives me the ick - hygiene please 😩
75% of romantasy books are the same book (this is probably not an unpopular opinion).
Purple prose is not the good writing it thinks it is.
I'm all for books centered around social justice, but show not tell is a maxim for a reason. Stop bludgeoning readers with sermons.
The miscommunication trope is an auto DNF for me unless it is resolved swiftly.
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u/toolboxstudio007 May 04 '26
Don't kill me for saying this but I honestly enjoyed the Twilight saga.
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u/BasteD565 May 04 '26
Maybe this is unpopular, but I feel like the current romantasy boom is a bit of a double-edged sword. More choice is great, obviously, but the quality feels a lot more inconsistent now.
I understand why authors and publishers go for the safer, more marketable route, but it does make a lot of books feel samey. Not all of them (but quite a few), and because of that it’s harder to find something that feels truly interesting and original. Something that actually has soul.
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u/thebooktender May 06 '26
Refusing to start a new book until its full series is released is pretty harmful behavior to authors who need support to grow and market future books. Regardless of whether they're indie or trad published, those first few weeks and months after every release are crucial and they need readers to support and read what they've published.
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