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BTP's ROMANCE Book Pet Peeves

In January, I shared a list of Bookish Pet Peeves. Well it's July, and I am back with more pet peeves but this time relating to romance books. Let me know if you think any of these things are nerve-shredding too. 

Romance is a genre with many tropes (enemies to lovers, friends to lovers, forced proximity, etc.). A very frequently used theme for romance books is the classic "opposites fall in love" or become really good friends in the beginning. While I have read books with this trope and liked them, I don't fully understand how this is supposed to work. If two people "are polar opposites" (as some back covers report), how did they meet or become friends (much less lovers)? Shared experience is how I've met almost everyone I know, so if two people "have nothing in common," they couldn't have become even acquaintances. 

If the protagonist has a "unique name" - I'm out. O-U-T. Any Pepperidges, Zeldas, or Evies, and I can't go on. Also, bad nicknames that are short for already horrible first names can almost ruin books. Sometimes in my head, I switch the name of the person to something a little more manageable. For example, a protagonist named Clementine - I've come to terms with that. I can deal. Then, the author makes a vague side-character yell, "Hey Clemmy, over here!" YUCK. 

Here are some lines I hope never read again:

"She let a breath slip out of her she didn't know she was holding."

"She wasn't like other girls." OR "But he wasn't like other boys."

"But I'm *pause* complicated, *insert man's name here*."

"I dropped out of college."

"Her breath caught in her chest." 

Half-naked guys on the cover of books. While it makes certain types of books identifiable, it's annoying. 

Writing ill-suited couples just for the sake of a sexy storyline is unimpressive. Making a morally gray, socially awkward man who is kind of a slob fall in love with a fashion major extrovert who he would normally hate makes me mad. No real person thinks "Hey, this woman will make me a better person and less of an introvert." Real people think "This girl annoys me." The author that writes something like this is trying to write something "different" but ends up publishing a book that's cheesy and the same as a lot of other raomance books I've read. 

Oh no, two people that just met and/or hate each other, there is only one bed in this motel room! Whatever will we do? How in the world will we, two people that despise each other, sleep in the same bed? Because this one bed implies that we will later on have a romantic relationship. One of us will have to sleep in the chair. Even though we are both falling down with exhaustion let's talk all night about my alcoholic father and your dead brother. 


I will be back to update this over the years. You can bet on it. 

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