Top Ten Tuesday: Ten Things I Like & Dislike When It Comes To Romance In Books

Hiya My Little Predators!!

Welcome back to:

A weekly feature created By The Broke And The Bookish
Currently featured on That Artsy Reader Girl

I'll be switching themes this week because I don't pay much attention to where, in the world, a book takes place in (unless it makes itself evident in a way that matters to the characters/story by including a few conversations or quotes in a language other than english). So this weeks theme is:

Ten Things I Like & Dislike
When It Comes To Romance In Books

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Likes

1. Witty jokes and sarcasm! Sarcasm is my middle name so when I can relate that much more to a character it's even better. I also don't mind when it gets into silly innuendos and/or gets a little dark in this spectrum. 

2. Friends to lovers! It makes everything more believable if done right. It gives me a sense of how everything evolved and makes the chemistry realistic.

3. Reversal of stereotypical roles! It's not always that I find these, but when I do it's beautiful! I love it when a woman with trust issues meets a guy who wears his heart on his sleeve, or when an experienced woman meets a guy who isn't experienced. It's a breath of fresh air when compared to most romance novels I read on a regular basis.

4. Happily ever afters! Life doesn't guarantee anyone a happily ever after, so I enjoy finding and living them in books. It's also why I dislike it when an author leaves books and/or series open-ended. I don't want to use my imagination I want a permanent happy ending so I can pretend life is candy canes and roses all of the time!

5. This relates more to the paranormal romances and urban fantasy novels I read, but I love it when the couple strives to save each other from dangerous situations. Not necessarily a damsel in distress situation, but a situation that both parties have a chance at saving the other on a mutual level throughout the story/series.

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Dislikes

1. Insta-anything. Instant love doesn't exist. I've met my tolerance of this trope in the last few years and I'm done with it. I like the books I read to be a little more realistic. Instant love doesn't exist, but lust does. I could live with that if that was the way the book presented it in the first place.

2. Non-consensual anything. It takes two to build a relationship and it also takes two to tango. If one person doesn't feel up to it and flat out says no, then everything stops. I don't care how you rationalize it. 

3. Idiotic secret keeping. Being in a relationship means trusting the other person to varying degrees throughout the relationship. When one or both parties keep life-changing secrets that they know will bite them in the *ss in the long run it ruins the story for me. So why not just rip the band-aid off now and get it over with?

4. When either party doesn't have a backbone. A relationship is supposed to be based on respect and trust for the other person. When only one person gets their way and doesn't consider the ramifications for the other person it starts to get murky. It gets even worse when the person everything is happening to doesn't speak up to say how they feel about the way they're being treated. This goes for either person in the relationship.

5. Love triangles. I once read a quote somewhere that resonated with me and this subject in particular. I don't know who said it or where I read it, but, to paraphrase, it said that when in a love triangle always pick the second person because if you truly loved the first person then you wouldn't have been on the lookout for a second person. Love triangles are exhausting and even though I've liked them in the past I like to think that I've grown out of them.

Do you have any dislikes that will make you stop
reading a romance novel?

Let's discuss in the comments below!