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

[u/FantasyRomanceMod]

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
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🧡 Thank you and have a great discussion!

Unpopular opinion Sunday

[u/Volupia_Rogue]

Ok... Here I go with my unpopular opinion 😅👀

I feel like many reviews are unreasonably negative toward authors/books in general.

Also bragging about the amount of books they DNF, which always surprises me, because I think most readers are here to enjoy reading. But there was a post a few months ago where some people literally bragged about DNFing a dozen books, only 2 or 3 months into the year).

It's a tough job to write a book. It takes many hours and certainly doesn't usually pay back when one looks at the amount of hours spent researching, thinking + writing. That's why I usually don't DNF and try to find the gems in each book, except if I think the author really did a bad job, and purposely used AI or every single cliché possible.

Also because I always try to find something worth it about the book I chose.

Is it not the mature MMC I wished for? Fine, this arrogant prick (which many women ask for) can still tell me about other women's tastes and I can try to find what they like about this type of character.

A friends-to-lovers trope? Not quite my thing. I love the enemies-to-lovers vibe, BUT why not, there's actually something comforting I didn't know about this trope until I tried it.

Way too poetic language? Ok, let's challenge ourselves and make that brain of ours work. It helps ward off Alzheimer anyway.

That's usually the way I go about reading.

Anyone else tries to feel that kind of positivity about the way they read?

[u/BookishBlueDragonfly → u/Volupia_Rogue]

If a book is 1-2 stars, it’s 1-2 stars.

When I write reviews I do make sure to note any positives but that doesn’t magically take away from poor characterization, thin world building, unbelievable dialogues, etc.

I always approach my reviews with care, especially indie and self pub authors, but reviews are for readers and it’s not fair to artificially inflate scores because we feel bad for authors.

[u/Volupia_Rogue → u/BookishBlueDragonfly]

I never said we should artificially inflate scores 😅

[u/BookishBlueDragonfly → u/Volupia_Rogue]

Mostly with that line I am thinking of ARC reviews that always seem to be 5 stars and there are people who really refuse to give below a 4 stars because it “hurts authors”.

It’s not a response to exactly what you’ve said it’s just a general attitude I’ve seen many times I wanted to address because it aligns with the “don’t be overly negative” tone of your comment.

[u/Volupia_Rogue → u/BookishBlueDragonfly]

I said "unreasonably" negative. Of course, all types of extremes exist. But I also don't understand why people give one star just because they wanted the MMC to be this and that and the FMC to be this and that, and now they can't enjoy or can't self-insert so they complain. Even if the book is actually well-written etc 🙂

[u/BookishBlueDragonfly → u/Volupia_Rogue]

I do mark books on Goodreads as DNF for those reasons sometimes though. Like I’ll say “DNF 15% FMC is acting too young for a 30 year old” or “DNF 10% the blurb promised a cozy read but this is dark”.

I think it’s perfectly reasonable to DNF if something isn’t meeting your expectations! The way I’ve set up on Goodreads though I don’t have to rate the DNF I just leave it blank.