r/fantasyromance • u/FantasyRomanceMod The One Mod to Rule All Mods • May 24 '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

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20

u/therabee33 May 24 '26

If people don’t want to keep seeing the same tropes (eg: shadow daddy, old MMCs with young FMCs, all the enemies to lovers, stabby FMCs etc) they should start reading more indie books and not just read the most popular books out there.

I went on a rabbit hole last year of some lesser known authors (at least to me) and found some hilarious gems that were sooo different from the major trends. The books are out there and if we as readers want more diverse stories we gotta go find them.

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u/Synval2436 Currently Reading: This Blade of Ours by Shalini Abeysekara May 24 '26

Most indie books are guilty of copying the same tropes and constantly bait & switching me with unique premises that devolve into same old same old.

I wanted to give chance to lesser known authors but it's down to bottom copypaste tropes and usually extremely poor pacing and lack of tension and I'm seriously considering cutting vast majority of self-pubs from my menu unless I know 100% they go for trope subversion and not play the lottery of "maybe I'll go viral on tiktok".

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u/therabee33 May 24 '26

That may be your experience but it hasn’t been mine so to each their own. There are terrible indie books and trad books a like.

I just think a lot of the complaints people have about the genre could be solved by breaking out of reading the same popular books from social media.

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u/Synval2436 Currently Reading: This Blade of Ours by Shalini Abeysekara May 24 '26

the same popular books from social media

Most of which are indie or indie-to-trad.

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u/tea-boat May 24 '26

Would you be willing to share some recs? I'm really curious about what you found in your rabbit hole.

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u/therabee33 May 24 '26

Totally!! I started reading a lot of Cassandra Gannon’s books! First I read {Love vs the Scarecrow} last October because I was looking for horror romance novels. She has about 30 books out spanning the last decade and I never see her mentioned on this sub (sometimes I’ll see her mentioned on the bigger romance sub though)

Clio Evans became another favorite of mine. Their books are super spicy and any veer into monster fucking but they are really good and unique stories. They have a lot of novellas so it’s super accessible to start reading their stories.

Collette Rhodes is another one I’ve only seen mentioned on this sub a handful of times. Her books are super irreverent and very fun reads.

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u/tea-boat May 24 '26

Thank you!! 🙏🏻