Posted: Wed Jul 18, 2007 2:09 pm
Y'all bring up valid points. I happen to share and agree with most of them.
Some things that really piss me off is when the hero/heroine are too perfect. Do I like a happy ending? Sure I do, but if you just sugarcoat over all the flaws and personality traits that make a person and relationship unique than you don't get a true depiction.
Historical romances....bleh. I've read a bunch and I've liked them, but they follow the same dam plotline and are so predictable. Why the hell would I spend upwards twenty dollars or heaven forbid more on a story I can already tell you how it's going to end or how the characters will react without even reading it? Oh, there would probably be a few details changed, but overall, it's boring.
My biggest pet peeve is when an author doesn't take the time to accurately research. You just can't decide to say, oh, i'm going to write a love story and set it in the Medieval era and that's that. You have to first chose the location in medieval world you're going to set it in and have your characters interact and react like how they would if they were in that era. Research, research, research people!
Oh, and in mysteries. Loved Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys but it got old after a while. We already know there's going to be a great mystery, Nan or the Boys will get involved somehow because one of their friends from high school or childhood whom they haven't seen in forever invited them to visit because of 'strange happenings' or just for a vacation that goes wrong, someone's going to try to kill them, the bad guy is always someone who they never expected, and at the end they have some cheesy bright ending. Bleh.
Or how about in a series you're reading where so much has happened (i.e. the Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys) and yet they never age? c'mon people, no one stays seventeen and eighteen for over fifty years. Even Batman and Superman and the original Robin Dick Grayson and the original Batgirl Barbara Gordo have aged in their long tenures.
Do I love young heros and heroines? Yes, it makes for interesting reading. But if you're going to have a consistent series, and all these things happen, the character has to grow up sometime.
Or how about too much sex in books? I like reading books that have sex in them, but some just go overboard. Take the LKH books. You know going in that the Merry Gentry series is going to be about sex, period. Going in, you're prepared and expecting the sex along with a side of mystery.
However, her Anita Blake series started out with mystery and zombies and suddenly there's nothing but sex, sex, threesomes, sex, and more sex with hardly any plot other than who else can we make Anita just have to sleep with? It gets frustrating when an author doesn't deliver. And I understand how some stories can evolve on their own, but c'mon!
That's false advertisement!
Oh, or, the hero or heros are just these perfect attractive people who are 'the fairest of all maidens' or the 'sexiest and manliest of men'. It's okay to have a slightly chubby woman, or a guy with a bushy eyebrows or hell, someone who snores or farts in their sleep. I like reading about attractive people, i really do, but there is a crossing of the line.
The whole extremely older guy than the woman thing kinda irks me too, especially if the female is so 'mature' for her age. *rolls eyes*
Okay, I think I'm finished ranting now, lol. I have more but I can't think about them now, lol.
Some things that really piss me off is when the hero/heroine are too perfect. Do I like a happy ending? Sure I do, but if you just sugarcoat over all the flaws and personality traits that make a person and relationship unique than you don't get a true depiction.
Historical romances....bleh. I've read a bunch and I've liked them, but they follow the same dam plotline and are so predictable. Why the hell would I spend upwards twenty dollars or heaven forbid more on a story I can already tell you how it's going to end or how the characters will react without even reading it? Oh, there would probably be a few details changed, but overall, it's boring.
My biggest pet peeve is when an author doesn't take the time to accurately research. You just can't decide to say, oh, i'm going to write a love story and set it in the Medieval era and that's that. You have to first chose the location in medieval world you're going to set it in and have your characters interact and react like how they would if they were in that era. Research, research, research people!
Oh, and in mysteries. Loved Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys but it got old after a while. We already know there's going to be a great mystery, Nan or the Boys will get involved somehow because one of their friends from high school or childhood whom they haven't seen in forever invited them to visit because of 'strange happenings' or just for a vacation that goes wrong, someone's going to try to kill them, the bad guy is always someone who they never expected, and at the end they have some cheesy bright ending. Bleh.
Or how about in a series you're reading where so much has happened (i.e. the Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys) and yet they never age? c'mon people, no one stays seventeen and eighteen for over fifty years. Even Batman and Superman and the original Robin Dick Grayson and the original Batgirl Barbara Gordo have aged in their long tenures.
Do I love young heros and heroines? Yes, it makes for interesting reading. But if you're going to have a consistent series, and all these things happen, the character has to grow up sometime.
Or how about too much sex in books? I like reading books that have sex in them, but some just go overboard. Take the LKH books. You know going in that the Merry Gentry series is going to be about sex, period. Going in, you're prepared and expecting the sex along with a side of mystery.
However, her Anita Blake series started out with mystery and zombies and suddenly there's nothing but sex, sex, threesomes, sex, and more sex with hardly any plot other than who else can we make Anita just have to sleep with? It gets frustrating when an author doesn't deliver. And I understand how some stories can evolve on their own, but c'mon!
That's false advertisement!
Oh, or, the hero or heros are just these perfect attractive people who are 'the fairest of all maidens' or the 'sexiest and manliest of men'. It's okay to have a slightly chubby woman, or a guy with a bushy eyebrows or hell, someone who snores or farts in their sleep. I like reading about attractive people, i really do, but there is a crossing of the line.
The whole extremely older guy than the woman thing kinda irks me too, especially if the female is so 'mature' for her age. *rolls eyes*
Okay, I think I'm finished ranting now, lol. I have more but I can't think about them now, lol.