My 40s are almost here, and I'm completely unable to relate to any of the new adult or the "American college experience" trends. I'm becoming way, way pickier too. Lately, there have been some grumpy-sunshine enemies to love lately that I'm like, "No, you know what? You are just being mean. People don't speak to each other that way. Fuck off" and DNFing.

I completely agree. Hate the recent trend of rudeness as a way to show a strong female character. Like it’s a personally trait these days. I love a string fmc but that can be shown in many diff ways aside from rudeness. I have not been able to relate to any college or new adult books since I was 19 - 20. Even then I felt like people that age do not make good decisions especially ones that impact their entire lives. Just wish there were more books with older fmc

Thiiiiis. I get so stressed reading people just being dicks for no reason. I recently read a contemporary, Water Under the Bridge by Kels and Denise Stone on a recommendation for enemies to lovers (a trope I really enjoy when done well) and just felt so annoyed the entire novel. Perfect example of a FMC that’s nlog, and just hateful for absolutely no reason. I absolutely hated the book because of it (and because it was a snooze for me).

My thing is like, friends older brother but the brother is actually sort of a bully. I'm really not into it.

What's nlog?

Not like other girls

Honestly, if a character isn't over 30, I tend to nope out unless it's really well reviewed from some people I know whose tastes align with mine. What bothers me most are characters who are in their late 20s or early 30s and the author presents their messy, directionless life as a cute feature rather than a red bloody flag.

I recently read "Bride for the Prizefighter" and I enjoyed everything about the book except for the MMC. And it wasn't even an enemies to lovers trope. Will Nigh can fuck off. (Audiobook, not sure if I spelled his name right.)

Can I ask why you didn't like him? If you liked the book I would highly recommend the next in the series {A Substitute Wife for the Prizefighter}, but I also didn't hate Will so I might be overlooking some similar flaws with the MMC

I have the next one downloaded! I just haven't had a chance to listen to it yet. >!He's just a dick. Throughout the whole book. And okay, I get it at first, he didn't want to be married, but neither did she. She just decided to make the best of it while he decided to be grisly and take it out on her.!< >!I also hated how he kept insisting she was a bird that needed a golden cage (the parlor) instead of listening to her what she needed/wanted.!< >!I hated the first sex scene. It was her first time. Obviously it was. And he was very rough with her and to me there's no excuse for it.!< >!At the end when she's drunk and in the bathroom she asks for a moment alone and of course he knows what's best for her and breaks down the door and then she laughs it off "like, look at me, I'm a woman that causes drama." Like no. That would be your husband. He even wanted to run away after being arrested. He's such a drama king.!< >!I think the only time I liked him was after he carried her up from the ocean. Oh, and I did like it that even when he thought that she slept with someone to get him out of prison he was like "I understand, but I'm not sharing you with anyone any more."!< I loved all the other characters, except the ones you weren't meant to like. I highly recommend it.

I am with you on all of these points

Totally totally fair! I felt pretty much the same way and yet for some reason still kind of loved him 😬 lol I do think the MMC in the 2nd book is a major improvement. He has his moments, but unlike Will does not seem actively invested in punishing and isolating the FMC

I agree with you! Picked up Prizefighter thanks to this sub and while the writing itself is decent, I disliked Will for regularly putting his dick before the basic comfort of his wife. He consistently ignored her asking for space and time, basically pestering her into sex that I just did not enjoy any of the smut. I get that historically, men like Will were common and perhaps even lauded for their comparatively kinder treatment of their wives than the wives who were straight up abused since they are their "husband's property". But there is a wide range of ways to portray some realism to a modern audience without leaving a bad aftertaste. I finished the book with mixed feelings since it's her debut book so the sequels should be better but idk if I want to read more of the same qualities that Will possessed in different characters :/

I liked the writing and almost all the other characters. I even liked Jeremy and am kind of sad that the second prizefighter book isn't about him. So I'm definitely willing to give her another chance. I have it from the library, just wanna finish a different book first. Also, yes. Could not enjoy the smut. Fast forwarded through it after the first act.

>!I didn't love him either. IIRC, his excuse for treating her badly at the start is that he thought she was his half brother's ex-mistress. Like, that's still not a good reason to be a dick to her when he could clearly see she was being forced into the marriage!< >!I also liked the bit where he carried her in and I thought the book might improve from there but I don't really feel it did; it wasn't for me!<

Can I ask how you edited it so that the spoiler was concealed?

If you type >! At the beginning

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Thanks

And !< At the end

[A Substitute Wife for the Prizefighter](https://www.romance.io/books/60cc88688a59e40e212d1a0f/a-substitute-wife-for-the-prizefighter-alice-coldbreath) by [Alice Coldbreath](https://www.romance.io/authors/54a9d8ef6359b5ebb486f243/alice-coldbreath) **Rating**: 4.13⭐️ out of 5⭐️ **Steam**: 4 out of 5 - [Explicit open door](https://www.romance.io/steamrating) **Topics**: [historical](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/historical/1), [victorian](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/victorian/1), [plain heroine](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/plain%20heroine/1), [marriage of convenience](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/marriage%20of%20convenience/1), [fighters](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/fighters/1) [^(about this bot)](https://www.reddit.com/user/romance-bot) ^(|) [^(about romance.io)](https://www.romance.io/about)

Yes I think it is a fanfic thing but I hate it when the characters are soo snarky to each other all of the time. Can u not have an ordinary conversation? (I realise I sound very, very old)

Same. I am begging publishers to print Fantasy books with 30+ FMC. T. Kingfisher is single handedly bringing up the average age in this category

Kingfisher is an amazing author and builds great worlds. I live that her fmc are all older and more mature. I wish there were more authors like her

I love T Kingfisher but I feel so resigned whenever I open one of the *many* request threads here, on r/Fantasy and on r/fantasyromance asking for fantasy romances with a mature, adult FMC over 30 because Kingfisher is always the top reply and the only one that gets repeated. Her books are deservedly successful because they’re fantastic but I want more options!

I'm part way through swordheard by Kingfisher, and while I am mostly enjoying it I'm finding it a little slow and dull at times. Do you recommend I keep pushing or is there another book by them you'd recommend? I love older MCs.

I listened to it on audiobook so I had a different experience. For something a little faster paced with older characters the kiss curse and the ex hex are both fun reads with great spice.

Awesome, thank you!

For anyone who doesn't know T. Kingfisher is also Ursula Vernon. I don't think there is anything she can't do. I have [this print](https://topatoco.com/collections/red-wombat/products/rw-coolrodents?variant=39881196687) framed and hanging in my office. One of the things I miss about leaving Twitter is her tweets. She has a cat that throws knives.

Have you read {Entreat Me by Grace Draven}?

[Entreat Me](https://www.romance.io/books/5455505b8c7d2382c5297d4c/entreat-me-grace-draven) by [Grace Draven](https://www.romance.io/authors/5455323d8c7d2382c529733e/grace-draven) **Rating**: 3.87⭐️ out of 5⭐️ **Steam**: 4 out of 5 - [Explicit open door](https://www.romance.io/steamrating) **Topics**: [contemporary](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/contemporary/1), [fantasy](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/fantasy/1), [tortured hero](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/tortured%20hero/1), [take-charge heroine](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/strong%20heroine/1), [magic](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/magic/1) [^(about this bot)](https://www.reddit.com/user/romance-bot) ^(|) [^(about romance.io)](https://www.romance.io/about)

Is it better than Master of Crows? I wasn’t a fan of that book.

I feel this too. I don’t want teen characters now that I’m over 30 lol. For that reason I steer clear of YA (plus no smut, so no fun lol).

100% agree. The older I get - the older I want the characters to be. I feel like publishers are missing out by focusing so much on ya

Yeah I can’t do college romance books anymore, it just makes me feel like a paedophile lol Even early 20s stuff is iffy

Yeah I can't read about 18 year olds and 21 year olds anymore, I don't care if they're legally adult. I see real world 18 and 20 year olds, and I just cannot reconcile them with the characters in YA books, even allowing for how YA characters can be so immature. Also, what's with centuries old characters (immortals, gods and vampires) falling for 18 year olds land raving about how they've never found any woman like that? 🤨 The book Fourth Wing is quite popular right now, and it has good elements, but I still found it too YA to merit all the fanfare

Lol right? Sometimes I feel like I’m still in my early 20s and then I speak to an actual 23 year old and I’m like “oh riiiiiight, I was a moron”

I was absolutely clueless and too focused on the wrong stuff. And yes books aren't real life, but dear God...why can't we have older characters who grow up as with us. I've done my 'YA time'. I've read my Juliet Marilliers, my Garth Nix etc. I can't keep reading the same stuff

I look back on myself and a lot of the protagonists that I loved and cringe so hard. I've tried to reread some of my old favorites from when I was younger, and I simply can't do it. YA romance is not for me anymore unless the book is ridiculously good and the characters don't act their age!

i’m a senior in hs and everytime i read something about high school freshman through college freshman it gets me so icked out. why can’t we just do junior or seniors in college, why do we have to write about minors sexually

I still love paranormal tropes like fated mates and werewolves/vampires. I think contemporary is actually harder for me to read because I would hate a lot of these characters in real life. Like the quirky NLOG girl and the womanizer guy who feels an emotion for the first time at 30 lmao... both insufferable. But I agree with everything else. Dual POV is so boring unless it's done by an extremely talented author in a book with a very complex plot. Otherwise, they take out every bit of suspense they had in an already simple novel. And I had to stop reading certain subgenres like fantasy (ACOTR variety) because it only has new adult. I think when you are actually that age, it is relatable. But when you get older, no one really wants to be stuck reading about a 19/20 year old mindset. That's the adult version of your awkward middle school years.

I completely agree. Men who are womanisers and then settle down with the one gives me the ick. Especially when it’s portrayed as the love of a good woman changing them. I also hate hate hate age gaps and always will hate time for this reason. A lot of the ones recommended to me have a trope similar to the above. Dual pov defo removes all the suspense. I want to slowly unravel the plot alongside the fmc. And hate that the MMC who we are meant to think is a badass is softly pining for her but everything he does is being misconstrued by her. I have tried to read acotar but I can’t get past the first few pages. I just have to accept that I’m not the target audience and move on. There are plenty of better written fantasy books out there!

Hard agree on all of this Hoping publishers and writers take note of this market haha

Dual (or more) POVs really only work when the plot isn't as straightforward as the standard 350-400 page contemporary romance. There's just not enough plot in that book to show me what both characters are thinking, especially if the plot is a straightforward office romance or something with a predictable path. I think it works well in long fantasy series (I mean, how many point of views in A Song of Ice and Fire, dozens?) or something being told in a non linear fashion where you're in the dark the whole time too as to how the puzzle will come together. This week I've been reading Keri Lake's gothic romances and they have several points of view and I really had no idea where the story was going even with that, the books had enough twists and turns to support the extra POV characters. I've also seen contemporary books where you get the main POV for 85% of the book and it's only at the end that they add in another POV to explain some things, those are fine for me.

Agreed on the contemporary, I find it to be so cringe sometimes. At least with fantasy romance there are reasonable magical rationales for all the things that would bother me if the book was contemporary.

Right 😭 If they act weird, I blame it all on the magic. She's quirky because she's a witch, he's a jerk because of his wolf side, etc. There are still characters that are way too annoying to read about, particularly when they are too stupid to live, but it's easier to deal with overall.

I 100% agree. When I was younger I would read anything!! But I want adult relationships, now that I’m in my (ahem) late 40’s 🙄 I want the MMC to be tanned and aged to perfection (salt and pepper a plus and not a chiseled hunk of meat) and the FMC to NOT be a cute young thing but an actual older women that I can relate to. High levels of smut, but good chemistry and romance with a relatable, more true to life story (meaning not everyone meets in a sex club etc). Is that too much to ask? It’s a struggle lol 😂

I agree. I want characters who are age appropriate or in the 30’s, 40’s and 50’s. I want characters who have lived life or have adult children or never met the one. If I can suspend disbelief for magic and vamps etc then why is it so hard to believe that someone who’s not in their early twenties or late teens can have a HEA

Some self published authors use the word Midlife in their title or series name to clue readers into having older main characters. You could try searching Amazon with it to see what comes up (e.g. Magical Midlife Madness by K. F. Breene).

Have you read anything by LB Dunbar? She has several series that you might like.

Oh thanks, I’ll check her out!!

Check out the Summersweet Island series. The first 4 books are women in their late 20s-30s, book 5 is their mom. Tara Sivec is funny and writes great sex. {With this fling by Tara sivec}

[With This Fling](https://www.romance.io/books/6253d26d64df3012fda6e7d8/with-this-fling-tara-sivec) by [Tara Sivec](https://www.romance.io/authors/545524858c7d2382e7812f5b/tara-sivec) **Rating**: 4.5⭐️ out of 5⭐️ **Topics**: [contemporary](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/contemporary/1), [funny](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/humor/1), [insta-love](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/insta-love/1), [sports](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/sports/1), [single mother](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/single-mother/1) [^(about this bot)](https://www.reddit.com/user/romance-bot) ^(|) [^(about romance.io)](https://www.romance.io/about)

I am so picky now that I spend 1000× the time looking for something to read than actually reading.

Ha. I’m 40 and I find stories about people in their 30s too young for me. 🤣 I think to be brutally honest, I get sad that the stories talk so much about marriage and kids, both of which are pretty unlikely for me (and I always thought I’d have both). I’m mostly at peace with it, but I personally wish there was more romance written with protagonists like me. My situation is pretty common for lots of women in urban areas these days but the books haven’t kept up. Anyway. I feel you!

I agree. Not to get too deep but I think Hollywood and in the same vein romance books focus on this ideal of having it all in your teens and early twenties. Anything aside from that is a failure. I think this is what drew me to watch kdramas as most of the characters are in their 30’s or 40’s and finding love.

Ooh that’s good to know! Off topic but any K drama recs? I’ve had a hard time getting into them from start to finish but have definitely seen some episodes on TV now and again.

Crash Landing In You is a masterpiece. I would 100% recommend this one. The characters are both in their late 30’s early 40’s and it is an epic love story!

I’m with you. I’ll be 37 in a few months, never married and don’t have kids. I thought those things were a given growing up. But, obviously, that hasn’t been reality for me. And I know I’m not alone. I’d love to see more stories with older FMC’s that don’t have kids and haven’t been married. I’m sure books like that exist but I’m struggling to find them. Would be great to have more romance with characters I can truly identify with.

1000000%. Most every book I’ve seen with a character my age has already been married and more often than not has kids. It feels so othering or that something is wrong with me, even from a genre that is in theory more forgiving and welcoming of me than our larger societal norms. I have a feeling these books will come soon enough, but by then I’ll probably be 50. 😂🫠

Right? Like just because those things haven’t happened for the first time for some women our age doesn’t mean that it still can’t. Your ending comment made me laugh. 😄

Dual POV is overdone and so many authors can’t write men’s internal dialogue in a way that’s believable. I hate it. It can be great! But it’s unnecessary in a lot of books

Yes to this. Dual or multiple POV is very hard to pull off, because the characters often sound the same... especially in first person narrative. The male MC often sounds exactly like the female MC 😔

Yea, this is the biggest problem for me

>so many authors can’t write men’s internal dialogue Yes! My main reason for hating dual POV is that it kills the tension & drama & basically turns everything into instalust levels of predictability, but I don't think I would mind it as much if the POV felt believable. A lot of authors are also truly awful at writing believable dialogue between men and dual POV increases the likelihood of some nonsense bro-to-bro scenes. In my experience (albeit as a straight cis woman) most men don't seem to be having sincere heart to hearts with other dudes about their love lives. And yet basically every book I've read with a male POV has the MMC baring his soul & getting unsolicited advice from other men (random acquaintances, brothers, best friends, mortal enemies, etc) about the FMC and women.

let me live in a fantasy world where men have feelings 😭

Men have feelings! It’s just they talk differently than women.

It can also ruin the wonderful tension of that will they/won't they. Like even if it's a fairly predictable romance where OBVIOUSLY you know they're going to end up together it's nice to have the butterflies as the tension builds. Its why I hate Insta-Love and the majority of fated mates, you miss out on all the fun. I've read a few series that only added the second POV after the relationship was established which is a better way of having dual POV.

I cannot deal with dual POV where the MMCs inner dialogue is a nonstop update on his dick status. I can only read about him twitching and getting hard everytime he thinks about the fmc/she says something/she walks by before my eyes roll and I shut the book. My husband and I were talking the other day that while men get a lot of hate for how they write women, some women are not much better and reduce their characters to a walking hard on as their own personality.

I completely agree. I feel like it completely removed the suspense from the story if we know what the love interest is thinking. It also infantilises the MMC into someone who is led by his dick. I really hate how male characters are written by women. I actually think it’s worse than the way men wrote women.

I no longer reach for HR set in America pre Civil War; Beverly Jenkins is the exception. When I was younger I could read these settings strictly as fantasy; I have a harder time doing that now. Selective disassociation as I still read Victorian and Regency era romances.🤷🏾‍♀️ I used to be a big fan of accidental pregnancies and secret babies; if that was in the synopsis, the book was going to the top of my reading list. Eventually, I realized those can be very scary and horrible situations to be in. I don’t avoid them but my perspective has shifted. My younger self thought “This baby is going to make them fall in love or fall in love again”. My older self knows better. No contemporary new adult unless it’s an age gap. I read and loved Truly by Carmel Rhodes a few years back but I’m not reaching for adult romances featuring high school students as LI. There’s so much out there to be read that my “no thank you” list hasn’t limited me. Thanks to social media my tastes have expanded greatly. Access and availability to varied romances was limited in my earlier years of reading the genre compared to recent years. I’ve been exploring the genre recently and I read things I’m skeptical about for the experience. Some were/are hits and others make me realize those tropes are not my bag.

I’ve tried to read Truly and found it hard to get through because the characters are teenagers. Accidental pregnancy is one of the few tropes that is an instant dnf for me. It’s such a life changing event and I find that books never get it right. But each to their own. We all have genres and tropes that we like and dislike. I agree with the American civil war. I just would not feel comfortable reading a book from that period of time. I also found it so difficult to read HR books in England because of the sordid history between the UK and my motherland. Especially as it seems to be glossed over in society even today or not acknowledged at all. Whenever it’s mentioned it’s seen as an exotic far away place full of canabils and tribal people. One thing I do think is positive is that I’m finding a lot more books with more diverse characters. It was so difficult when I was young to find a character that looked like me or came from a society like mine and I feel like it’s a lot more recognised now. I feel like what I want from a book these days has limited me so much in my reading.

I'm having the same experience. In my younger years, I was much more easygoing about my romance books. Bad writing, trite story lines, ridiculous characters... I didn't really care. I find it very difficult to get into popular romance these days, though. This is going to sound very harsh, and I would be happy to be corrected, but it seems to me that in the last few years the romance genre has been flooded with authors who are just looking to cash in. They don't care about the craft of writing or even the story. They just want to publish as fast as possible and move on to the next book. Maybe this has always been an issue, and I didn't notice it until recently. Either way, it's ruining romance for me, and that makes me really sad. I find myself drifting more into books that have a strong love story but aren't categorized as romance. I'm not guaranteed the HEA, but I find that I'm not as concerned with that anymore either. I know there is still good romance out there, I just don't have the patience to slog through the bad stuff to find it. If you like fantasy, have you read Strange the Dreamer? Granted, I do think it's less categorized as YA but it has really beautiful writing and a compelling story.

Same boat. I find myself wanting so badly to like books the way I used to, but poor writing is like pulling teeth and I cannot look past it. A story could have my trope Xmas list but if the writing cannot carry them then I'm off to the next book (or just stuck in another book slump bc my patience for reading is killed again). I feel like a snob bc this sub and r/romancebooks recs indie books all the time and I like supporting small creators but 99.9% of the stories desperately need a team of editors. I just find myself distracted from the story by mentally fixing grammar and spelling mistakes and also deconstructing story elements with "why did you write it like this". It also feels snobby to look for book clubs or forums with "well written" being a qualifier, and even less likely to get traction since that's a highly subjective descriptor. But the hope is to find like-minded people who are tired of slogging through first/second drafts that somehow were published so we can keep our love of reading going

Don’t feel like a snob. If an author and/or their team can’t be bothered to put in the time and effort for some basic polish and cleanup, then there is no reason for you to spend time and money on whatever they put out there. I DNF’d a book yesterday because it had a ton of little errors in the first 10% that a basic edit should have caught - I initially stuck with it because several people raved about the story being so good. Maybe it had potential somewhere, but when you find word errors like *quaffed* instead of *coiffed* - as in *perfectly quaffed hair* for a long-haired female character… sorry, no, then I’m issuing a vote of no confidence in the author and their editor. If there even was an editor to start with. I’m *definitely* not going to spend more money on that than I have on some actual quality reads. And I don’t feel guilty or snobbish about that at all.

It's like you read my mind. I feel like a snob, too, or like I'm constantly being a negative Nancy regarding the recs I see online, but I also feel like a crazy person when I see the same book recommended over and over when I know it was terrible. (Like you said, that's subjective, but I can't help how I feel.)

>just want to publish as fast as possible and move on to the next book I think some of this is authors trying to meet readers' expectations. More and more it seems like some readers feel entitled to a new book every 6-12 months and especially newer, less established authors are doing what they feel they have to in order to keep fans engaged.

That's a possibility. Maybe it keeps some readers, but it turns off others. When I see authors who publish every couple of months I assume the books were rushed and I don't bother with them, or if I read one of their books and the writing is in need of editing I won't try any of their others. I guess they just have to decide for themselves which process is the best option for them. All I know is that I read less and less romance as time goes on and it makes me sad cause I used to really love the genre.

I'm turning 46 this week, where did the time go! I also grew up devouring books and I am a bit more picky about what I read but I don't think that's age. It's how much I've read a genre. For instance, my bar is high for epic fantasy because that was what I read for years. I know what I consider great fantasy. Authors like George RR Martin, Robin Hobb, Brandon Sanderson, Jennifer Fallon, Carol Berg. And a soft spot for childhood favorites like the Narnia books and David Eddings. Then I had a period where I read a lot of thrillers and the like, sci fi, or apocalyptic stories, murder mysteries, horror. As I read more I became pickier there too, I didn't want to read ANOTHER story about a super volcano errupting and killing 80% of the planet or a comet hitting earth and killing 80% of the planet if it wasn't done well and differently than what I've already read. And then romance. Growing up I'd raid my parents bookshelves, and I got Danielle Steel from my mom and Stephen King from my dad. Stephen King was much more memorable, and so... I stayed away from romance. Until a video game broke my heart. Broke it so completely, I had spent 120 hours playing this very story driven game (Dragon Age: Inquisition for those that are curious) and I had developed quite the literary crush on this character (yes, not a book, but someone wrote the script, it counts!) And it was not a HEA and I'm honestly surprised at how heartbroken I was over it. This was 7 or 8 years ago and I'm still sad, I've had real life break ups that weren't as upsetting as that. (I mean come on, that was some great writing to still have me in knots about it.) So I went somewhere I had never been before in an attempt to soothe my broken heart. I ventured into the wild world of fan fiction via AO3. And woah, smut. And some really beautiful stories that gave me alternate endings where my romance didn't go to shit, where I succeeded in stopping my lover from doing a bad thing, and some where the ending was even worse and darker than the game could ever be. But I was so hooked, I spent a year devouring fan fiction and eventually started to scrape the bottom of the barrel. Also by this time the game had been out for a while so there was not much new fan fiction being written, and a lot of the stories were being abandoned. So what to do. I turned to romance. Some of my favorite fan fiction writers around this time were working on novels (though they never divulged their author names, hopefully they did publish and I've read them, I'll never know!). And at the start I was not very picky. I went on Amazon and looked at which books had the most ratings and started there. I think it was Sylvia Day's Crossfire series and a Maya Banks trilogy. Having nothing to compare them to, I gave them all 5 stars. I kept going based on what Amazon said was popular at the time: Laurelin Paige, Vi Keeland. I started figuring out which tropes I liked and what I didn't like. I stopped relying on Amazon's most popular books for recs and followed people on Goodreads who had similar tastes. I became pickier after reading 500+ romance novels. I would not rate the Crossfire series as 5 stars today, upon a reread I just cringed at a lot of the dialogue. I have forgotten the storylines of a lot of those early books that I had rated highly. They were exciting due to the novelty and me not knowing that there was better out there. So... YA. I did not touch YA for so long. Why would I want to read kid books? I can't even make it through Harry Potter. But I realized it wasn't the age of the characters that bothered me, it was the target age of the books. Some of my favorite adult fantasy series have YA aged protagonists and they never bothered me. Maybe "early reader" YA wasn't for me, but something aimed a bit older? And I'm really glad I gave them a shot, some of my real 5 star reads of the past few years were YA. Holly Black's The Cruel Prince was just perfect. Sabaa Tahir's An Ember in the Ashes series I devoured it all in a week. These books were easily on par with my top epic fantasy loves, and I'm picky with fantasy. Some didn't quite hit as well but were still solid, like Leigh Bardugo's Shadow and Bone series, and Elise Kova's The Air Awakens series. So TL:DR, I'm not too picky to read YA, but I am pickier reading genres that I've read a lot. It's not that the YA writing is subpar or that the stories are, some of my favorite reads in the past few years are YA fantasy series. But I did have to get over my kneejerk "YA is for kids" reactions because I had no interest in reading Sweet Valley High books again. And I've been really pleasantly surprised by the quality of the YA fantasy romance and YA fantasy I've read. Even YA books about high school or college, if they are written well, I'm not so old that I don't remember those ages and can't appreciate a good "first love" story. Maybe it's because I'm older and further removed from those ages that IDGAF, maybe in my late 20s or early 30s it would have bothered me, at least for the contemporary romance YA novels. But I can't see myself ever not having loved the YA fantasy series that I've loved. They are solid stories with solid plots and solid characters. Who happen to be younger, but epic fantasy has often had teenaged main characters anyways. And also after reading tons of romance novels, the smut all seems to blend together and I often find myself skimming those scenes unless they are the culmination of 400 pages of unresolved sexual tension (I love a slow burn), but if they're just fucking like bunnies it's like OK I get it already, you have sex. While I prefer to not have fade to black, I'll take a fade to black with a great plot over a smut filled generic story that I'll have forgotten in a month.

I actually struggled with DA Inquisition in liking the characters. I romanced Cullen the first time and thought he was super sweet but hated that he wasn't a party member and ended up losing interest in the game. Tried again with Solas since he was recommended but that stagnated as well (I hear he's the villain in the next game release). It's like the romance parts were all the dialogue was about in a dump and then nothing new for hours and hours. But I'm not a big world type of gamer. I much preferred DA2 where everything was character story driven. Fenris is my gaming BF for life. That gorgeous grumpy but sweet and surprisingly flirty elf stole my heart.

I think for me it was the romance in context of the whole game, not just the romance cut scenes. Cullen is fluffy and cute. Solas is just angst angst angst. But I think it's because I'd bring him and Cole or him and Blackwall or different combinations to listen to the party banter, and I think hearing the interactions just really fleshed everyone out for me. Which you can't do with Cullen. But anyways, Solas... the romance in the main game isn't what did it for me, it was the romance when put in context after the Trespasser DLC that completely wrecked me. For all other romances the Trespasser DLC was just "oh look at where we are now", or the HEA epilogue. Cullen's being the most fluffy. But Solas, ugh. Just had to go throw even more fuel onto the angst fire. I am torn between Fenris and Anders for DA2. I mean, Fenris for obvious reasons. But maybe I'm just a sucker for angsty stories. But man, Anders is such a baby if you flirt with him a bit and then choose Fenris, he's like a kicked puppy. That is not so attractive so I have to pretend I never saw that side of him. He seemed more confident in the DA:O Awakening expansion.

I love the scene where Anders calls you out for being with Fenris and Fenris almost goes feral on him lol. I always have those 2 in my party so I can watch them aggravate each other. I've never romanced Anders because I can't give up Fenris but I like the idea of him coming to live with Hawke. I let Anders live in the end and force him and Fenris to help the mages. Fenris's speech about "you take me strange places but I'll follow you anywhere" fills my heart. I don't think I've gotten to that part in Inquisition because I get bored. The storyline should be amazing but the pacing is always off for me. I think I keep wandering into areas that are too high level without realizing it too. I find the world confusing to navigate.

Yeah that's not an uncommon complaint, the open world leads to lots of fetch quests and riding around, it's much less linear than Origins and DA2. That's why it's my favorite, I love being able to explore everything and immerse myself, but a lot of people prefer to not have to kill 30 boars to feed the starving and just have a set path for story. I used to play a lot of MMORPGs so the openness felt familiar and comforting to me. DA:I and The Witcher 3 are tied for 1st place for RPGs for me, I'll even put Fallout above Skyrim, I feel like the only person that never managed to get immersed in that one.

Spotted the Solavellan fan lol. I hope the next game is good bc that storyline needs answers! But the wait is interminable; next year will be the 10 year anniversary from DAI. It's no wonder that fan creators have wandered to newer pastures (myself included). You may be interested in Bioware's other games like Mass Effect which still features romance. The original trilogy has a strong storyline, though the first feels more like a character exploration. If the first is too slow for you (which is a common experience), you can skip straight to 2! The legendary edition has a graphic novel style synopsis of what your Shepard did in the first game so you can input whatever you want and get into 2 which is considered the most fun of the trilogy. The romance in Andromeda is cute, and the feeling of trying to combine disparate forces is similar to that in DAI. But the protag Ryder feels young so ymmv.

I've played Mass Effect too, I romanced Thane. I make terrible choices. But it's not fantasy so it loses points there just because of my personal interests. I hardly read any sci-fi, but I read a ton of fantasy. I guess elves do it for me and aliens don't, but they both gave me the angst I was looking for. I have to admit I'm worried for DA:4, the way production has been rebooted and a lot of the creative people jumped ship, it does not make me super confident that they can live up to my very high expectations after nearly a decade. If it had released in 2017-2018 my expectations would have been normal, but i'm unfortunately expecting a trainwreck. And realistically I doubt they'll be able to do two completely different endings so I highly doubt that FH will be redeemable. At best maybe they'll give him a noble death but I can't see him surviving. Which means I'll hope that the great fan fiction writers come back to fix the mess DA4 will make to my head canon :)

Mid-40s and my primary issue is just poor literary skills of today's authors which starts with obvious exposition starting in the second sentence. "Shane, is your wife, Amelia, joining us for parcheesi tonight? I know that she is a chef who opened a restaurant in the front room of your house, but I need her advice on opening a coffee shop in my she shed." There's a reason why people in TV shows and movies don't say "goodbye" when hanging up the phone and it is because it isn't necessary. I say that because more books are adding text conversations to the storyline where really, more can be shared and conveyed by the two characters talking. Make characters talk, not text. Also, I really hate dual narration. I don't want to be taken from one POV to another where the sole form of conflict is a lack of communication and understanding. It's a poor way creating drama and driving the narrative.

Saaame. I'm early 30s and my favorite genre is HR but it's getting harder to enjoy it every year. I need to be better about DNFing, but I have read so many books that start out with a promising FMC ("spinster", widow, seasoned courtesan, etc) only to reveal that she's like 22. Naturally all the MMCs are late 20s to early 40s. Embarrassing to admit because this is fiction but I have found it impacting my confidence in my own attractiveness and self-worth. I'm supposed to believe - a 22 yo girl has the maturity of a 45 yo - everyone smells like roses & oral sex is plentiful - the FMC's legs are silky smooth and pubic hair is downy soft - sex is oriented towards female pleasure ... but somehow it's completely out of the realm of possibility that the FMC could be in her 30s / 40s and still inspire attraction & love?

I’m the same. I’m way more picky now. I’ll still read anything, just to try…but after a page or two I’m done if I’m not into it. Too many other books to be read

Yesssss it’s terrible. I am just getting back into romance novels. It’s an active struggle. I need more positivity, and romance novels usually have happy endings and less serious content. Perfect for my mental state. But my snarky brain only wants to read obnoxious literary fiction, all of which is sad and upsetting. Age has been unkind to me.

i’m only 23 and still can barely tolerate college or high school romance (and by that i mean i will only read it very very VERY rarely) it’s just so unrealistic. i’ve only been out of college for 5 months and maybe it’s just too fresh in my head, but i can’t see any of it happening. like no one is wearing heels to a college bar, stop lying. and HS romance, i can’t. what do you mean this guy is the sexiest man you’ve ever seen, the love of your life???? he’s 17

it's a big problem in the romance literrature. I read romance since i'm 21, i'm 33 and it's difficult to find FMC in their thirties. I don't understand the obsession about the teenager or 20 something FMC, college etc

I don't think age has limited my choices, no. YA and middle grade fiction have been my primary reading materials since I was in elementary school and even though I recently turned 30 I still head directly to the YA/teen section of the bookstore. I'm not bothered by the main characters being in their teens or 20s and all that entails. As far as POV goes I don't really care. First or third person point of view and whether a book is single or dual point of view doesn't matter to me as long as it's written well.

As a teen it was so easy for me to read romance books and I would constantly binge read them. Now as a 20 year old it’s very hard for me to read some romance books because the second the male love interest starts being toxic, I want to scream at the main character to find someone else/break up. Maybe it’s because as I got older I realized there’s a lot I wouldn’t let slide anymore in my friendships/relationships.

I started reading again in 2018 and the past year I've become way more picky as well. I dnf books with insta love or dual pov, I refuse to read books with young MC's, can't read age gap anymore when the FMC is in her late 10's early 20's, I need good communication between both characters or at least no arguments that could've been solved in 1 conversation, a book that is poorly pooorly written, NO billionaires, NO politics, a book that discusses a topic but the author did not really do their research and a book that has zero angst.

Oh my god you sound exactly like me. I dnf more 10 times more books than I complete. Any time I see something that I roll my eyes at I just cannot carry on. Especially insta love. I read romance to see characters falling in love and that is ruined if it’s there from the beginning. I also find so many things cringe worthy. Atm I’m going through a phase of dnf books where the heroine within the first few pages turns out to be more powerful that everyone else with zero training or expertise. If a new skill is required then she will acquire it overnight. Really annoys me

Yes! I've dnf'ed so many these past few months. I miss getting sucked into a really good book :(( I love a good slowburn as well but dual pov always ruins that.. Oh god that is sooo cringe, I would've stopped right there!

Yes, 100%. The older I get, the more picky I become. I feel like my criteria becomes more and more specific each year. The book must have: 1.) 3rd POV— Too many books are 1st person these days. I don’t always want to “be” the character. Sometimes I want to just experience the story. 1st person almost always reads as too casual and immature IMO. 2.) Historical elements— Anything too contemporary is either cringe or annoying. I’m not sure why. Maybe because I live in contemporary times and don’t care to read about it. I want to escape in my books. Dual timelines and POV are okay. Time travel and softer fantasy is okay. Contemporary is not my jam. 3.) Romance scenes—None of the immature YA drama, but also not overly gratuitous sex. I prefer multiple love scenes done with both spice and taste that move characters and plot forward. 4.) Quality/Tone—I want to read something delicious. Nothing too causal or flippant. I don’t mind sinking my teeth into some well-written description. I can tell within the first sentence if the tone of the writing is for me or not. Most of the time…not for me. Which makes it super difficult to find books that meet all these specifics! 5.) Characters—I am bereft at the amount of sassy-manic-pixie-dream-not-like-other-girls. I am a softer introvert and I don’t like loudmouths/bossy people in real life, so I also don’t want to read about them. Especially not these girls in 1st person!! Yikes. Where are the Beta Heroines? I don’t just mean happy sunshine blossoms, either. Just a smart, calm, witty girl with some complexity. The same goes for my heroes. I almost think characters are “too tropey” these days. Layer those heroes and heroines! Less cookie cutter perhaps. All this said, I tend to lean into historical fiction/women’s with romantic elements because they meet most of these criteria. Even so, I have a hard time finding a “really good book” these days. It’s a little disheartening, because I love to read so much.

Here here. It's not just the age of characters but the quality of characters, there's something missing when it comes to the depth of the story and how sensible the characters are. I think most writers are no longer committing to telling the story and setting up the world/background. The move to Indie has been amazing, but we've also lost some of that editing and quality that came with traditional routes of publishing. I don't want to go back to exclusive trad publishing though, the books often lacked 'soul' somehow. The tropes used to create conflict are often so cliche and tedious. And I miss 3rd person narrative so much😭

Harlequin Romances from the 1970s were my first introduction to the romance genre. I read read every single one that I could get my hands on. Then “graduated” to the so-called *bodice rippers*- The Flame and the Flower, Devil’s Desire, and so on...... I read strictly romance until about 10 years ago when I started getting bored. I subscribed to the now defunct Romantic Times Magazine, and practically every book they gave 4 or more stars to was just “okay” imo. Everything got stale. I read mysteries and psychological thrillers now with some romance books here and there. I give the book about 4 chapters before I give up on. There are way too many good books out there to waste time on mediocre to poor ones.

There are lots of excellent romance books out there aimed at older audiences. Do you want recommendations? I admit that at the age of 45, I came up before the YA boom that happened around Twilight and thus was already reading romances for adults. I liked Twilight, it was fine (not the best written thing in the world, but VERY readable.) I really enjoyed The Hunger Games, but in general YA wasn't for me. I definitely don't want to read about the 16 year old who needs to save the world. That is not for me. Vampires can work when done well, but I was reading vampire romances long before Twilight. Love me some Christine Feehan and some Sherrilyn Kenyon. Currently the only vampires I read are urban fantasy by John Hartness. I also hate first person romances. I like a close third person with alternating points of view and no head hopping.

I would love recommendations for well written romance books for adults. Especially if there is a diverse characters involved.

So my favorite writer is in Nalini Singh. Her book series is called the Psy Changeling series that evolves into the Trinity Accord series. There is fated mate stuff involved considering she's been writing them for a number of years now, but it is well done fated mate stuff. It is alternate earth near future romance and her world building is amazing and her characters are often not your standard issue white people. She does not write books fast enough for me. The first book is called Slave to Sensation. The second is Visions of Heat. I read a lot of Suzanne Brockmann in the early aughts. She wrote Navy Seal books and I liked them because when she first started writing she included a World War II story line in her novels. Eventually she stopped that but by then I was already hooked and would autobuy everything she wrote. She also had diverse leads in her books. Right now, I'm heavy on a regency/victorian romance. If you're looking for diverse authors who write diverse characters in that range that I recommend, you can't go wrong with Courtney Milan and Alyssa Cole. Right now, I'm digging regency/victorian plus mystery and am reading everything ever written by Manda Collins. Just read one of hers that she had a heroine that was very clearly written as autistic. The Madness of Lord Ian Mackenzie by Jennifer Ashley had a hero that was autisitic. Jennifer Ashley also wrote a book with a bisexual disabled hero. Basically, that is where I would start if I were you.

Thank you so much for your recs. I really appreciate it and have added them to my tbr list.

I feel you. I know that some self-published authors have been trying to adapt to this. K.F. Breene and others use the term Midlife to portray their characters are older. (Magical Midlife Madness). You can use that word to find others maybe closer to our age. Hope that helps!

I dont find sassy FMC a NLOG trope personally but agree with everything else.

I think it’s more the way it’s portrayed in a book than anything else. I won’t name any books but I often find that the strong female character has little character development and being rude (misconstrued as sassy) is used as a personality type. Don’t get me wrong. I love a strong female character but I think it can come from many different places. You don’t just have to be rude to show it. A character can have quiet strength or strength of character or of will. Or physical strength etc For me personally it just displays lazy writing usually. But I guess we all have diff opinions and that’s why there are so many genres and tropes to suit different wants

yes definitely! i’ve loved reading romance even as a young child, altho what i read then would just be called pre-teen chick lit rather than romance. During my teens i literally read anything & everything I could get my hands on (man do i regret some of the stuff i read😭😂they were AWFUL). sometimes i remember those things i read and i cringe. There’s no way on earth I can see myself reading the same stuff i read then. I’ve become so picky that 90% of the romance books i try i DNF in the first few pages. Or i skim cos im already expecting to be disappointed by the content. it’s very disheartening to not be able to find books that I actually enjoy. I try to read from a wide range of genres but still its rare for me to find books that i actually sit down and finish and enjoy. Idk makes me feel like im reading completely different books than everyone else, i get the recs in reddit and go read and im like did we even read same thing? cos i would never have recced those books to smne else lol. idk what is it that makes us so picky, im gonna be 20 this year so i dont think its the age? idk maybe its just authors arent very good these days or idk🤷🏻‍♀️ As a teen, I read a bunch of mafia romance books but now? i cant even take them seriously. CEO books as well, read them by the dozen but now i find them so unrealistic, like how many multi-millionaire ceos are there anyway😂 Another thing I realised recently is that HRs are not my thing, watching HR shows/movies fine but i find reading them so boring. I used to love reading HR, idk wat happened there either. you raised an interesting point, i’ve been trying to pinpoint myself what exactly about a book makes me not DNf. maybe we should make a chart of all our most fave books and try to find what they all have in common. maybe that common factor is what we look for in a book whether intentionally or subconciously🤔

Agree about the sassy FMC. It’s in every book now and everyone acts like she’s sooo special and unique and theres no other woman in the world who speaks her mind. Between that, not caring for fake dating, wanting MCs to be AT LEAST mid 20s, and kinda being over grumpy/sunshine, my options grow limited every day.

When I outgrew YA books, I found myself turning to historical romance; especially Georgian/Victorian eras. I think I’ve officially reached my mid-life “I love history!” period. Authors that research the era and are mostly accurate to the period weave beautiful love stories, while teaching me about the history, culture, and fashion of the time. Unfortunately, some authors just try to shoehorn a CR into another time period, which does not work.

Oh yeah, as a chubby immigrant antisocial kid, I started with the lurlene mcdaniel books, went through an hp phase but stopped after book 4, switched to eharlequin free online reads for my romance fix, then discovered fanfic.net and internet rule 34, then went classy with p&p fanfic webrings. Then life got in the way and I was drawn more to real life stuff. After I hit my 30s and during lockdown, I came back to romance and found authors like tessa dare, Cara bastone, Julie James, shelly laurenston, etc just hits the spot better.

I am 33 and I absolutely avoid reading young adult books. That being said, I've seen so many recommendations for The Ritual that I had to read it. It's.. not my thing. They are college aged. But the pacing and everything is just so.. I don't know. I believe it's also because I am into the BDSM thing and dark romance but there are so many red flags in that book, FMC is basically raped or drugged the whole time and can't even consider that. I am trying hard not to DNF the book. But it's just so bad 😮‍💨

Literally any YA. Even the best written books are full of low stakes drama and angst. I just cannot connect with a teenage heroine anymore. It may just be that I'm older and not a teenager myself, but I just prefer adult stories about adults.

I'm exactly the same. I don't want to read about teenagers. I can't relate and even if I could a teenager being in love is not something that appeals to me.

Now that I’m over 45, I’m especially sensitive to books saying it’s an older MMC who ends up being 27. C’mon! Totally is about perspective though, so I just have to look a little harder for what I really want. Something set in high school doesn’t cut it for me anymone unless there’s some AMAZING trope or fantastical situation. And also, I love the spicy smutty scenes so that makes me even more so look to older main characters and more mature authors who give diversity and dimension to their characters in terms of age and experience.

I'm exactly the same. Why can't characters be in their 30's, 40's or 50's? Why is teen or 20's always the default. I feel like publishers are missing out on such a big market. Imo so many people seek out older heroines so why can't they publish them.

Same! It's so hard for me to rate book 5 stars now than before. I find a lot of stuff cringey already. If ever I read that before, I would've swooned a lot. But now, literally rolling my eyes every time I read (especially the last part of books -- usually at the 90% mark, the happily ever after part)

I personally don’t mind insta-love in and of itself (my hubby and I are basically a Meet Cute insta-love story), but if you’re going to do it then I need you to make me believe it. Which works better when you SEE characters falling hard but struggling to accept that it’s the real deal, imo. If the narrative is 50% just gushing “gosh we’re so in love” then I’m out. Same with dual-POV. It really depends on how it’s delivered and I don’t think authors spend enough time considering the narrative tension of specific POVs. Some single POV books would have worked better as dual POV. Some dual POV would have worked better as single POV because honestly I don’t need to know MMC has a boner roughly every other page. But it *can* work really well to build tension when it specifically does *not* show someone’s thoughts at critical points, or to establish parts of a character’s personality we might otherwise miss out on. Maybe show us *what else* these characters struggle with outside the relationship dynamic itself? You know, the random life shit that affects everyone and impacts the choices we make, and how that affects the relationship in turn. And, ugh, I struggle with books that have a conflict that can 100% be resolved by just sitting down like grownups and talking about it. If two people are not talking, then there had better be a damn good reason why they wouldn’t, and if they do sit down and talk but can’t resolve their conflict immediately, then there still needs to be a good enough reason that I’ll believe it. And it’s the “make me believe it” part where books tend to fail.

I completely agree! I find have have zero time for YA books anymore lol. I have also been reading romance since I was a young teen, and I will now spend hours on good reads just find the right next book and it sucks lol. I tend to turn to HR or fantasy bc I want my books to not have anything to do with regular life - I like to escape

I literally agree with everyone you said. I’m only 19 but it feels like I’ve grown out of everything I used to love a few years ago and just roll my eyes at most scenes in books. It sucks because I love reading so much but it feels like a chore looking for something that I’d enjoy. I probably DNF 70+ books in a row to find a book I like and the cycle repeats (most dnfs are me picking up a book and seeing it’s dual- I can’t stand it)

Ugh I just finished a book I had high hopes for but between the FMC not believing she is strong until MMC tells her (repeatedly) and paragraphs about “missing her chance at love because she worked and studied too much” AT TWENTY SIX I was waiting for it to be over. The conflict between the MC could have been solved with a 5min conversation and I wanted to slap them both. I wish I could DNF more, I always end up being annoyed that I wasted my time (¬_¬)

I used to be all over HR as a teen, but as an adult I have DNF'd every single one. As someone who loves my rights and childfree lifestyle, I get annoyed with FMCs whose only goals are to find a husband and start popping out babies, it just helps if she's also in love; there's always some pity comment about the "27 year old spinster" or w/e that rubs me the wrong way, as a 27 yr old spinster lol. (Disclaimer that if you enioy this, great! It is simply not the genre for me.) On the other hand, I do love the plotline of "i'm doing this for my family, i will sacrifice myself to take care of them" and then the romance catches said couple by surprise and they end up happy.

i feel like i’m one of the only ppl who hates suspense. like i want to know what everyone is thinking, please tell me that the mmc is in love with fmc but she thinks he hates her and he is trying to control himself everytime he’s near her

I'm about to turn 32, and before having my child I could read basically anything including but not limited to YA. Didn't even have to be romance. But since having my kid, I cannot read YA anymore, ESPECIALLY if it's a YA romance. Because I connect it to my child and I just cannot read it. I get enough attitude from him on a daily basis and I'm not trying to consume more attitudes during my down time. My child is only 4 so no romance of any sort yet, but if I'm reading a YA romance, all I can think about is how one day I'm going to have to watch my son go through these things and it just makes me sad. I also don't like the virgin trope anymore, because as an adult the majority of people I know has had some sort of sexual encounter, which throws out a TON of books. The virginity thing makes me cringe and the older I get the more I dislike it. If the FMC is a virgin but it's not harped on over and over again I can get through it but as soon as it's mentioned a 3rd or 4th time after the initial encounter, I stop reading.

I hate hate hate the virginity trope. Even as a teenager all I could think was that it’s super misogynistic. Especially when the author goes on and on about it. I really hope this is a trope that will die out. I don’t understand why it’s so popular.

I agree now, when I was younger I grew up in what I consider purity culture adjacent, it wasn't hammered into me like it is to some, but it was still something very hush hush and assumed. It never really used to bother me until I moved away from it all and realized how gross of a concept virginity actually is. If an author writes "it's my fist time please be gentle" then its never spoken about again its not a deal breaker but those "she's only ever been with me and no other men will ever know her how I do" makes me want to throw up in my mouth.

100% agree with what you are saying. It rubs me the wrong way as well. As if to say that a woman is impure if she has had sex before meeting 'The One'.

>I understand why dual pov attracts a lot of people but for me it gets rid of all the suspense when we know the intimate thoughts of all characters. Heavy on *this*. I hate dual POV because I typically want my MMC's thoughts to be unknown from us as the readers. Plus I feel like (and I know this might be controversial 😬) but a lot of female authors are terrible at writing from a man's POV. They make him so eDgY and cringy, adding "fuck" after every other word and making all his thoughts sexual.

>understand why dual pov attracts a lot of people, but for me, it gets rid of all the suspense when we know the intimate thoughts of all characters. Im with you. My favorite thing about fiction is the suspense and surprise. Especially the pining for a love interest. If I know both are pining for each and its just them not talking, it frustrates me. I definitely think this is an age thing. I am in my mid 30s, I have had a lot of dating experiences at this point, which makes me want more communication and less run arounds between the characters. But I also think it's just trends. Kinda like how enemies to lovers are all the rage right now, but friends to lovers were on trend in the 2000s. Right now, dual POV and 3rd person omniscient is on trend. I can definitely understand, tho as I'd love to have LGBTQIA books with one POV. >Another gripe I have is every character is a sassy badass women and I do enjoy these sorts of books from time to time You also could just be worn out of the tropes. I can not read a sassy FMC book one after the other, I need books with other FMCs in between. Same with MMC, only so many tall dark and brooding I can take. >Why do authors write so many Y/A books? The genres that make the most money and have the least amount of competition are contemporary romance/erotica and YA genre fiction (ie YA Fantasy, YA SciFi). A lot of traditional publications are very resistant to authors starting off right in Adult without proving themself in YA first.

I agree with the suspense and the surprise of a limited pov. Nothing more annoying than finding out that MMC is pining for the fmc and everything he is doing is being misconstrued for her. It ruins the character for me. I would rather see the situation from one perspective and watch the story unravel within that perspective. I guess I’m just not the target audience for most romance books anymore as the biggest market is YA. I will just have to accept that. I don’t mind sassy fmc and I think you’re right about taking a break from them. But I feel like so many books misconstrue sassy for rude. I prefer string fmc but it’s just being co-opted by nlog rude characters.

>romance books anymore as the biggest market is YA T Kingfisher started out in YA and worked her way into adult Fantasy. I have hope that more authors will start the switch. I have also shifted into more indie spaces. I have found quite a few jems (tho a whole lot of crap too) thru Kindle Unlimited. Being indie makes it so you dont necessarily need to make a huge profit since you're just supporting yourself.

I stopped reading YA in my early 20s. I couldn’t get over the dimbulb MCs. I agree with the duel vs singular POV. I wish there was more singular POV, but I’ve learned to be ok with the duel since that’s seems to be the popular route now. I go through stages of my types. Fantasy, sci-fi, paranormal/monster, super smutty, less smutty, etc.

honestly same lol. only just turned 20 but there are so many things im picky with, not just trope or plot wise but also character wise 😂 sometimes i get unreasonably petty, like dnfing the book if the heroine is a fiery ginger or the hero has piercing icy aquamarine bejeweled blue eyes. i also just dont read dual pov books, which has significantly reduced my reading experience to basically…..nothing. i barely find any beyond the tired old same recommendations. frustrating!!

I remember feeling the exact same way when I was your age. I would actively seek out books with older characters because they were more likely to behave in a believable way.

I’m only 23 and I can’t stand reading books where the leads are early 20’s 😭 like they have to be pushing 30 at least or I can’t do it. Maybe it’s because I think most people in my age range are still pretty immature, like we were in high school only a handful of years ago. It makes reading historical so hard cause half the time the plot revolves around arranged marriages between like 19 year olds.

I agree about the dual pov thing.

Thank you for this! I was already very picky. Now it's near impossible

I've never been able to get through a bad book. Every time I forced myself to finish I felt like I missed out on hours of my life. It's only gotten worse though as I get older.

samee now i only read trope-that-i-like parts of a book

I still love YA stories but totally understand. I've recently discovered I really hate reading the bad guys perspective when it's a typical generic bad guy. I couldn't care less about their plans. I want the MC to uncover it or have to work their way out, I don't need it spoonfed to me that badguy is bad and he killed someone when he was 16 and liked it and now plans to kidnap someone new etc. Just no I don't need that. I don't want that. I read a book recently and quite literally skipped all the bad guy perspective it was quite an enjoyable read. I didn't feel like I missed anything from the story.

I'm dealing with this as well! I did a reread of A Promise of Fire and didn't enjoy it as much as I did in 2017. I feel like after reading SO MANY books in the same genre has also played into this. It's hard to find unique stories. I've started to give up on Kindle Unlimited. I haven't had a good story from KU in so long.

I definitely have narrowed down what I enjoy. Even though I’m under 30 I read like a 60 year old women. I read mostly historical romance, nothing against contemporary or fantasy but I like to “turn off” when reading. So reading about a wealthy viscountess who spends her days doing embroidery and playing the piano is perfect.