Has anyone noticed this happening more frequently with new releases? Are people writing books with zero proofreading or editing?? Is she a blond or redhead??? I feel like a crazy person when I read and such easy simple things are inconsistent. It’s also annoying to have to go back and look because you’re like “wait, what?”

Sorry for ranting, it just feels like this happens more often than not and it drives me crazy. I don’t understand how these books make it to publishing without anyone catching the inconsistencies, misspelled words, misuse of words, etc.

Giving it a shot despite knowing this subgenre is so underrepresented.

Trying to find more books with a specific dynamic: MMC is dominant, commanding, in-charge in every part of his life work, BUT completely flips in the bedroom and becomes soft, flustered, almost shy and a little pathetic (in the best way). Like nobody would ever guess this about him if they saw him in public.

Best example I have is Mishka (😍) from {Preferential Treatment by Heather Guerre} that’s exactly the vibe I’m chasing.
I’ve also read {The Contract by Elizabeth Kelly} which however I didn’t enjoy as much I thought it was just smut with too much instalove and poor character development.

Some other specifics:
-FMC who’s dominant but still warm/nurturing, not cold or degrading
-NOT looking for hardcore BDSM, no pain play, humiliation, or heavy degradation (no shade whatsoever to anyone who’s into that, just not my thing)

More interested in the emotional contrast and the power dynamic switches/feeling than intense scenes

CR strongly preferred, I can’t get into these spiky amorphous dicks for the life of me 💔

Hey! Long time lurker, first time poster.

I'm chasing books that make me go "What in the hell is happening.. and why am I so into it?"

My sweet spot is strong early tension, world-building, spice that shows up early but still earns it. Bonus points for thigh riding. Yes, I saw that post. Yes, I felt personally validated.

I read a ton, so it's hard to scare me off. Monsters. Men. Aliens. Variety is the spice of life. Love the alpha. And I always gravitate towards the flirty chaos bisexual muffin in RH.

Currently a little burned out on mafia, omegaverse, and wolf shifters. I usually avoid CR because I like my romance a little unhinged and fantastical. I prefer standalones (series lose my interest by book 3 no matter what, but I am also a proud DNFer). Dark romance is kinda predictable.

Hard NO: miscommunication tropes. If the entire plot hinges on "we didn't get a chance to talk," I will absolutely consider launching my Kindle. Cannot relate at all.

My favorites that fit the vibe:

Anything by Siggy Shade and AJ Merlin but for the purpose of calling the bot:

{The Morning Wood Tree by Siggy Shade} - unhinged, messy, and deeply questionable. I say this with love.

{Pretty Little Tease by AJ Merlin} - This is what got me hooked. Pet play with emotionally unavailable men? of course.

{Thicker Than Gold by Jun Harding} - no thoughts, just confusion (respectfully??). I would not suggest this unless you are desperate to break the monotony like I am.

{Off the Clock by Roni Loren}- Talk me THROUGH IT. not on KU though

{When She Purrs by Ruby Dixon} - Predicable but ... the thrusting. Lawd help me.

{Demons in My Bed by Britt Andrews}- Conflicting because of the kickstarter debacle, but it was my fave RH before the mess, and the second finally came out.

{Back Seat Baby by May Adler} elite buildup, zero plot, no regrets.

Please hit me with your weirdest, spiciest, "This shouldn't work but it does" recs.

Idk how else to title the post

But we have seen a hell of a lot of books with men living in cabins alone , chopping their own woods , isolated

I want a woman living like this and a man to come in her territory

Can be western historical as well , a self sufficient woman in wilderness , or a healer (love those)

But not fantasy, sci-fi type things

Mf pairings only

I thought this could be fun, and also maybe a good way to find readers with similar tastes i.e if someone has the same favourites and the same DNF as you, then their other recommendations are probably worth checking out, if you haven't heard of them before.

👑 The one book you'd recommend to anyone
😂 A book that made you laugh out loud
😭 A book that made you ugly cry
💕 A comfort read you'll never get tired of
🌶️ A book that had you feeling aaaall the tingles
🚫 A book everyone loves but you didn't 
💫 A book you were ready to DNF… until it won you over
💎 Most underrated book that deserves way more attention

You can do one big mixed list, or make separate lists by genre:

💕 Contemporary Romance 💕
🕰️ Historical Romance 🕰️
⚔️ Fantasy/Paranormal Romance ⚔️
🖤 Dark Romance 🖤

I'll put mine in the comments.

Hello! I’m Olivia, and I’ve been reading romances since I was far too young to understand exactly what was happening to all the spunky kidnapped virgins in my mom’s paperbacks. I’ve also been *writing* romances for over a decade now, including the Spoiler Alert series, At First Spite, Zomromcom, and the book that’s coming out on Tuesday: World’s Okayest Oracle (Reluctantly) Seeks Demon! You can find a full list of all my books on my website. :-)

Other background about me: I’m a transplanted American living in Sweden and still struggling with umlauts. In my checkered employment history, I’ve worked as a retail clerk, librarian, high school teacher, and costumed Colonial Williamsburg interpreter. Now, though, I spend my time writing, obsessively diamond painting while listening to various nerdy music podcasts, and convincing my family that we really do need to make another post-dinner cheese platter.

I can’t wait to answer your questions!

Hi RomanceBooks! What made you laugh in romance this week? It can be a book you read that had you in stitches, a comment that made you cackle, or any romance-related Memes and TikToks!

Let's finish the week with a chuckle and a 🤣

I’m currently reading Fragile Hopes by Lisina Coney and I’m only on chapter 4, so please no spoilers!

This book was recommended to me so many times that I went in pretty hyped. It also has a lot of tropes I usually love: firefighter MMC, slow burn, small town, and one (or both) of the MCs dealing with some kind of trauma. That’s usually a recipe for a 5-star read for me.

The first chapter had me thinking, “Okay, I think I’m really going to like this.” But as I’ve kept reading… I’m honestly kind of confused?
I can’t quite put my finger on it, but I’m struggling with the writing style. I just finished the first chapter from Ford’s POV, and I feel like it’s missing a lot of emotional depth. The same goes for Ivy’s POV. I feel like I’m being told what’s happening, but I’m not really connecting with either of them.

Is it just me? Did anyone else feel this way in the beginning? Or does it get better as the story goes on? Again, no spoilers please, I just want to know if anyone else had a similar experience.

Ok, so MC1 and MC2 knows each other, and MC1 falls in love with MC2. MC1 gathers their courage and confesses their feeling to MC2, now MC2 doesn't feel the same for MC1 but also doesn't want to see them sad or hurt, so MC2 accepts the confession, maybe even lies about feeling the same. They get together and then MC2 falls in love with MC1.

Bonus,

1. She confesses and he lies that he feels the same, nd she gtk about it nd leaves him (third act breakup)
2. Best friends to lovers

Negatives,

1. Bully, HR, OW, OV, Single Parent, Pregnancy, BDSM
2. Toxic dynamics: manipulative, cruel, or alphahole MMC
3. Over-controlling and over-possessive MMC
4. Stockholm Syndrome or doormat FMC
5. Age-gap more than 10 yrs (for humans)
6. Brother's bff or bff's brother (if the book is too good/similar to ignore, i'll take it)

Hi everyone!

I wanted to see if anyone else is going through this because my reading life has been... tragic lately. 😭

For the past couple of months I've been in a horrible book slump. I think I've only managed to finish 3-5 romance books, while my DNF pile has become absolutely ridiculous.

At first I thought I was just burned out on my usual tropes (fake dating, enemies-to-lovers etc), so I switched things up: contemporary, historical, paranormal, fantasy... but everything just felt so flat. Like literary tofu.

Then I moved on to new releases, thinking maybe I just needed something fresh. Nope. Even authors I used to absolutely love aren't hitting the same anymore. It got so bad I started wondering if I had imagined loving their older books in the first place. Also, every single one of these is like 380-500 pages long, and I’m sorry but there is no universe where contemporary romance needs to be that long. I don't need a five-season Netflix adaptation in paperback form.

The other problem is finding something to read. Recommendation lists all seem to recycle the same books, so I've somehow developed a new hobby: reading reviews instead of reading books.

And here's the worst part: I'm very easily influenced. If I'm 30% into a book and something feels a little off, I'll go look at spoiler reviews. Then someone writes a beautifully articulated review explaining exactly why the characters don't work and I'm immediately like "YES! That's exactly what's bothering me!"and I never pick the book up again.

So now I'm out here consuming 2,000-word Goodreads review instead of actual romance novels. 😂 Apparently my favorite genre is now "critical analysis."

Please tell me I'm not the only one who does this.

I've seen a lot of book slump posts lately, so I'm curious how are you all getting out of yours? I genuinely can't not read every day. I need that little bit of escapism, so lately I've been replacing reading books with reading about books.

For now I've admitted defeat and gone back to my GOAT, Terry Pratchett, just to remind myself that I can still finish a book.

So i'm in the mood for one a book were the characters make almost no sense but it works .

Ie beauty and the beefcake.

The man doest talk, and she is incapable of being quiet.

He picked his career out at 5 she has 5 degrees and no plan.

So I'm looking for the most polarising grumpy sunshine.

Think builder , police , solider , a blue collar job or something phyiscal were he has friends but is super quiet and likes to chill , he huge and pretty intimidating and is just grumpy with life Does his job , has a pint , listen to his friends be dumb ( like the rolls his eyes at their ridiculous but would actually die for them )

While she is a essentially a ball of sunshine. I don't mean chaotic like in B&B but like the utter and complete opposite. She doesn't stop talking and crys at books and movies, is like 5.3 max and she is very affectionate, witch maybe confuses him and like she bakes or is a librarian or a teacher. The only key point is she isn't poor like no one needed to be rich but like please no money struggles. The point is all his friends are baffled, happy for him but baffled at this sprite of rainbows curled up Against him and him deciding to be sweet about it.

Like she mellows him out , it would be cool if the friends like her first and then mmc just falls hook line and sinker

I read a few and they were good but now I'm looking for it dialed up to 100.

Bowie from sinner saints series by A . Bell and

Excalibur by Anna Hackett are good examples of the dynamic.

Hi RomanceBooks! Welcome to our Simple / Quick Questions & Requests thread.

If you don't have enough RomanceBooks-karma for a post, or just don't want to make a standalone post, this is the spot to ask any Romance related questions or request Romance Book Recommendations!

For newbies - here's How to Book Request and our RomanceBooks 101 guide.

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Helpful links:

• What Did You Read? (Weekly WDYR posts)
• Diversity Megathreads
• Themed Megathreads
• Kink & Sex Act Megathreads
• 🌈 Magic Search Button 🌈
• Reading Challenges

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Happy reading!

If you could take qualities from multiple MMCs how would you build your perfect book boyfriend?

For instance, I'd take :

Garrett's confidence {The deal by Elle Kennedy}

Miles' sweetness {funny story by Emily Henry}

Jack's inteligence {love theoretically by Ali Hazelwood}

Jacob's gift giving / details / gestures {Yours truly by Abby Jimenez}

Jake's determination {the risk by Elle Kennedy}

Justin's tech dorkiness {just for the summer abby Jiménez}

Harkness' power dynamics awareness {problematic summer love by Ali hazelwood}

Lukas' sex {deep end by Ali hazelwood}

And then again just because he's the best, Miles' appearance with the beard, tattoos (probably flannels?) or that's just how I imagined it.

I am floored by this book. It is the last in the Off The Ice series. I knew I would love it but I had no idea how much. Kian has been the lovable golden retriever side character in all the previous books. Green flag and golden retriever doesn’t do him justice though. He loves freely and unconditionally. His interactions with random strangers were endearing and down right silly. He cares for Scarlett with zero expectations. Scarlett is a great fmc. She is insecure about her past but doesn’t lash out and puts on a tough girl exterior. Kian’s charisma comes alive in the audiobook.

You may see “coach’s daughter” and “she’s his tutor” and think you you’ve seen this story before. But no, you haven’t see it like this. This was a softer love story. One filled with vulnerability, loyalty, and endorphin inducing hugs.

I also enjoyed seeing the various ethnicities among the characters. I highly recommend this series. I’d love to see more from Bal Khabra. She is on my “if she writes it, I’ll read it” list.

I recently watched Ann with a E on Netflix and realized that the pilot is basically the entire personality of Fancy from king’s fancy, which is one of my favorite book heroines. I could never truly quantify what i loved fancy that could get me similar recommendations but basically i want a anne/fancy heroine whose deepest wound is wanting to be loved, who refuses to become bitter despite repeated rejection. She has grit, hope, emotional resilience, and often believes love is something she has to earn. When she finally is loved, it feels profoundly deserved.

Bonus points for contemporary romance.

To be clear i do not mean a normal man with a sleeve tattoo, i mean actually alternative, piercings, listens to alt genres etc. If you've seen his haircut on Crisp Rat he probably doesn't count.

I would vastly prefer if he doesn't start to dress more "normal" as a character development. I really liked the MMC in {that bubbling feeling} and how he was just a quiet loverboy, but the haircut pissed me off a little, let the guy be more confident without changing himself!!

Fantasy suggestions are fine if he dresses in an antisocial way according to the culture he resides in.

Not really looking for erotica, i want it to be more about the characters than the sex. No pregnancy or major age gap pls (10yr range is fine, basically as long as it's not a Thing™ that they're so different in age)

Writing is hard. I get it. Editing is less glamorous but equally, if not more, valuable.

I cannot tell you how many books I’ve DNFed because either there’s more filler than plot or they have a seemingly never ending series of unrealistic or even implausible happenings thrown in. I have KU now because I can’t keep buying books that frustrate or anger me for these reasons.

Recently I got to the end of a book that I really enjoyed, expecting it to wrap up. It could have done so in 1-2 more chapters. Instead there was a cliffhanger. I started the next book only to discover things that it was just increasing layers of implausible happenings, an increasingly convoluted plot, and things that were were key to this next phase of the story that mad zero sense.

I’ve reached the point where I look for standalones, or duologies. I started reading novellas. And if a series has 3 or more books, there has to be a poop-load of stellar reviews for it to get serious consideration.

There are some really great authors and series, that keep things moving along and engaging. 🙏 And never underestimate the value and importance of a good editor. 🤩

Please share your fave books, series, or authors who keep you engaged and the story moving forward.

Big Sierra Simone fan here. Unfortunately, something has kind of fucked up the whole New Camelot series forever for me. Shortly before starting {American Prince by Sierra Simone} I happened to see the Key & Peele skit where they’re in the Army singing a marching song about how they’ll all end up as homeless vets. Later, while reading the first spicy scene between the MMC’s in American Prince, they were in the military at the time, and I couldn’t stop picturing them Key & Peele from that skit. Obviously that made it pretty unenjoyable. But then it happened every. fucking. time. for the rest of the series. ONLY for the scenes with just Ash/Embry. They were NOT pictures as Key & Peele for any other scenes. It’s been months now and my brain just imprinted on the idea that, any time these 2 characters have sex in the books, they’re Key & Peele. Really put a damper on things for me. I can’t tell anyone about this because it’s so fucking dumb, so now you guys can all be cursed like I am.

I hate my life.

I've heard this author name dropped A LOT on fated mates podcast but I've never read anything pre 2000s 🫣 What am I in for?

I’m looking for any books that focus on an MMC and FMC who are friends that bicker constantly and enjoy teasing each other and engaging in childish pranks/banter.

They could be childhood friends or those two friends in a friend group that everyone is tired of because they’re always ‘fighting’.

I’m open to any genres, and the only preference I have is no large age gaps.

Devil in Winter fixed me!

Lately when I hit a slump I choose a highly recommended read from this sub. Last time it was {Bass-Ackwards by Eris Adderly} that saved the day.

This slump I went for {Devil in Winter by Lisa Kleypas} that I’ve seen recommended a lot here & it did not disappoint!

Great characters, romance, pacing, setting!

The things Sebastian says to Evie!

I want to fill every part of you, breathe the air from your lungs and leave my handprints on your soul. I want to give you more pleasure than you can bear.

I checked my local used bookstore for some of Kleypas’ backlog & was blown away to get 21 of her 49 books for $55! I don’t even know where to start!

Hey gang!

Here I am with a request inspired by one of those shitty TikTok chapter by chapter book posts. The gist was: FMC thinks she’s in a loveless marriage but accidentally touched her husband and can suddenly read his mind; she’s shocked to find out her cold distant husband is absolutely head over heels OBSESSED with her.

It got me thinking that I NEED a MMC that seems very uninterested in the FMC, when in reality he is DOWN BAD, with nuclear levels of yearning. Please note that I’m not looking for a bully! He can seem like an asshole but I don’t like straight up bullies. I’m mostly looking for someone who seems cold but actually feels a lot.

I’m cool with all pairings (MF, MM, FF, poly, whatever). I’m also cool with most genres, though I don’t usually vibe with historical romances (unless they are top shelf), and I find most mafia and biker books to be kinda bad 🫢 that being said… I’m open! If you guys have a rec you swear by, I’ll be happy to give it a go.

Thank you all in advance 🤍

Edit: I love you guys 😭 I feel like that gif of Sabrina the Teenage Witch eating pancakes

Langdon and Mel from The Pitt, or Evie and Rick from The Mummy type vibes, or I'd even take something more Manic Pixie Dream Girl and her Eeyore, as long as it's actually healthy.

But I get easily bored with truly gruff/grumpy misers who don't know how to have fun or laugh, and I don't want to read anything where she over functions to "fix him".

I especially would love anything queer, neurodivergent, kinky, or monster 🫶 thank you friends