What’s on Your Romance Wishlist?

Open book with light and sparkles floating up from the pages.We recently received a pretty cool email from Reader Linda about romance and what we desperately want to read. If we had the choice, what perfect books would we craft? What heroes would we choose? What heroines or settings are we just waiting to devour with our eyeballs?

Here is Linda’s original email:

Recently a friend of mine said rather dismissively “those women wouldn’t be interested if Christian Grey wasn’t wealthy and was a creepy dude living in a cabin by himself” and I jumped up and said “WRONG, Cara McKenna’s Unbound ( A | BN | K | G | AB ) is exactly this.” (And then we had a discussion about the nature of fantasy and how it’s okay if people’s personal fantasies are bourgeoise and capitalist, although I did concede that some of these books do present the narrative that women should want to marry into money versus becoming wildly wealthy themselves. But I digress.)

Anyway, in situations like that and whenever I read an HaBO post I feel that, like Chuck Tingle parodies, there’s generally a romance novel about everything. However, we’ve all had times where we’ve wanted/had an idea for a very specific romance that we haven’t seen before, such as Sarah’s Hanukkah novella, Lighting the Flames ( A | BN | K | G | AB ).

My most recent one is a romance novel where the heroine manages her Chinese family’s acrobat troupe in 19th century London and the hero is a barrister/cop/noble who’s investigating a crime/looking for a person in her sphere and isn’t making any progress because everyone just pretends to not understand him, so she takes him under her wing (maybe to get her brother out of trouble?) and he slowly realizes that, “Oh, she’s an actual person and my insides feel weird and mushy.” The idea is to start with this very orientalist/Sherlock Holmes 19th century image of the Chinese and to smash it to pieces. Sort of inspired by scene in The Prestige where the Chinese magician is shown to actually be pretending to be old and crippled so he could hide the fishbowl between his legs.

So my idea for a prompt would be: What is a romance novel that you want to read but doesn’t exist? Also hopefully some of them might actually exist and they could be connected to them or someone will get inspired and whip out a short story like Rose Learner’s retelling of Sweet Disorder where her hero is a vampire and her heroine is a dragon.

 

Sarah: My wish list is probably not a surprise. Dragons. More dragons, but less insta-love. Most of the time when I try a dragon book with shifters in modern world or a entirely constructed fantasy world, the elements I love are good dialogue, realistic character development a.k.a. no insta-love.

Rich, multilayered world building, realistic conflicts between characters – one is usually missing. Dragons remain my weakness, but the books I’ve tried have made me hesitant because of large weaknesses in other areas.

The Whole Story of Half a Girl
A | BN | K | AB
I also, dragons aside, want to read more stories about Jewish characters who aren’t white. I know – it’s not like Jewish characters are everywhere already – but every congregation I have belonged to since I converted 16 years ago has had so many multicultural families, but the inclusion so far doesn’t reflect that (and that’s also on me since I wrote a Jewish romance, and I’m 200% aware that I’m complaining at myself).

I loved My Basmati Bat Mitzvah, and I have The Whole Story of Half a Girl on my TBR.

Do I want more Jewish romances in general? In the holy words of Janice from Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem, Fer suuuuure. I want to read more Jewish romances that reflect our inclusive reality. That goes for pretty much everything.

 

Amanda: I love me a good BDSM romance, but I feel like I’m getting tired of the same ol’ Alpha Dom and wide-eyed innocent submissive heroine. I’ve been trying to get my grubby paws on any romances that feature a Domme heroine (and I was severely disappointed by Cherise Sinclair’s Servicing the Target ( A | BN | K | G | AB ) since

Show Spoiler
the heroine kind of gives up some of her Domme-qualities for the hero.

I bought Giving It Up after seeing it recommended by Sarah Lyons, editorial director of Riptide Publishing, in a recent article for Prevention Magazine on romances, so that’s at the top of my TBR pile. So more Dommes or BDSM romances where both characters are switches who take dominant roles depending on how they’re feeling, instead of a cut and dry D/s relationship.

Giving It Up
A | BN | K | AB
Additionally, I want more magic. Not paranormal necessarily. But maybe a fantasy romance with magic and maybe some dragons or fancy beasts and a political marriage between warring kingdoms. Please, put that in my face. Aside from a fantasy setting, I’d like to see something new done with New Adult. I enjoyed The Magicians by Lev Grossman for the most part, but I’d love to have that setting with more of a central romance. Like a magic college. Sexy adults using magic and being jerks to each other because their raging hormones just cannot be contained!

More adventure please! I loved Zoe Archer’s Blades of the Rose series ( A | BN | K | G | AB ), but I want to see it transformed into a modern setting. With an artifact-hunting, Indiana Jones-esque heroine who travels the globe and teams up with a stuffy museum curator to track down some ancient and possibly cursed stuff.

PLEASE SOMEONE GIVE ME THESE THINGS. I WANT TO GIVE YOU MY MONEY.

 

CarrieS: More racial, ethnic, and cultural diversity in historicals. Also, there’s tons of African American romance, and tons of African American Science Fiction, but not much Science Fiction Romance that involves characters of color, especially Black protagonists. I would love more Black nerds, more Asian pilots, more Latina CEOs of companies that manufacture space elevators. Basically, more diverse SFF Romance, by which I mean romance novels not novels with a romantic element.

The No 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency
A | BN | K | AB
I’d also like to see more romances with, to borrow a term from The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency, “traditionally built” protagonists, male and female, more middle aged and older romances, and more romances involving moms whose children are more than plot moppets.

I want to see romances in which various disabilities are presented realistically yet positively. I want to see happy ending for people who aren’t magically cured and I want to see that these characters see themselves, and are seen by others, as wholly deserving and capable of sex and love.

I want a novel in which Lydia Bennett and Mary Crawford run away and become wildly successful lesbian pirates. This book should include at least one dragon and at least one kraken. They will swing over to Cornwall and pick up Verity Poldark on the way. Ross Poldark and Captain Blarney can come on board to work as seamen, but they have to work shirtless all the time. For their health. It gets very hot on deck, what can you do?

 

RHG: I rarely find myself seriously wanting thing. I yell “I WANT THAT” all the time, and then almost immediately forget whatever it was I was demanding, not unlike a toddler. Yes, I want more of Blamey and Verity’s story (I know they vanish from the books at some point), but given that so much of my non-reading time involves trying to shape the world (yay, it’s campaign season! Anyone wanna sign nomination papers?), trying to will the books I want into existence is tiring. I’m much happier being surprised when something I didn’t know I DESPERATELY NEEDED appears on my doorstep.

(Also when I get an idea, it’s often something I want to write myself, so I don’t want anyone to steal it!)

 

So what’s on your romance wishlist? Tell us what you want more of and definitely leave us some reading suggestions!

Comments are Closed

  1. KJ Charles says:

    Total sidenote but the fishbowl trick in The Prestige was a real trick performed by a real person, Ching Ling Foo (real name Chee Ling Qua). He was a huge success in America. Both the trick and his persona of Chinese magician were stolen by ‘Chung Ling Soo’, real name William Robinson, an American who pretended to be Chinese to exploit Ching Ling Foo’s success, and managed to score a PR coup over him, persuading the public he was the ‘real’ Chinese magician and Foo a cheap imitation. It pretty much destroyed Foo’s only London tour and even Houdini, a friend of Robinson, commented on how low Robinson’s behaviour was.

    So what I mean is, when someone writes this story, please can it also have rival stage magicians in it, only with the right ending this time?

  2. Diane says:

    I want more later era historical romances with normal people, versus between a rich person and a poor person. The era between the two World Wars can be so interesting and with legitimate foreshadowing of the future. Lots of people in that era were moving up the ladder and its an interesting transition period, rife with possibilities for the writer.

  3. Booklovingirl says:

    Amanda — try Tales of MU and Addergool. Sounds right up your alley. Magical university/BDSM elements. Trigger warnings for both but both unusual and online serials.

  4. Heather S says:

    @Amanda: Have you heard about “Sunstone”? It’s a graphic novel series (up to 4 volumes) that started as a web comic series. Although it’s listed as erotica, it actually skips gratuitous sex scenes, so any sexytimes we see are integral to character development. It’s sweet, funny, and addictive. Our heroines connect as D/s in the bedroom and legit friends outside of it. Ally (the Domme) is a nerd and goofball outside of the play room. I highly recommend it and can’t say enough good about it. In their circle of friends, one m/f couple has the woman as dom, too.

  5. Heather S says:

    “Sunstone” is basically a contemporary romantic comedy + D/s. None of the characters are cast as perverts or damaged people or sexual abuse survivors or any other cliche. Instead, they’re all people who have found that D/s flips their sexual and emotional switches and they don’t think it makes them freaks or pervs or whathaveyou. They aren’t sex fiends, either.

  6. Heather S says:

    I really want more romances with Muslim characters. A friend recommended “Sofia Khan Is Not Obliged” (which reviewers describe as “the Muslim Bridget Jones”), and I found “Courting Samira” via GoodReads. Most books with Muslim heroines tend to portray them as helpless, abused, uneducated women forced into arranged marriages with abusive men. We don’t get to see Muslim women as smart, funny women who are also devout with loving families. This is one of the reasons I love the Canadian show “Little Mosque on the Prairie” – Rayyan is a headscarf-wearing feminist doctor who lives at home with her parents – her dad is Syrian and her mom is a Canadian convert. She makes it clear that patriarchal “back home” attitudes oppress women, not Islam. The show is on Hulu if you want to watch it. 🙂

  7. Heather S says:

    I also want more bisexual characters who are explicitly bisexual. I am tired of seeing characters’ bisexuality erased by being defined by the gender of their current partner! Most of the time, though, characters are either gay or hetero, with no thought or acknowledgment of sexual orientations – bi, pan, ace, etc – that fall along the spectrum in between.

  8. @Heather – if you are looking for cool Muslim heroines, I’ve always loved No Sex in the City by Randa Abdel-Fattah. Walks the line between chick-lit and romance and the heroine, Esma, is witty, intelligent and just generally my kind of gal.

    It’s set in Sydney, which brings me to #1 on my romance wishlist: more romances set in urban Australia, both historical or contemporary. Ditto New Zealand. I also really think that 20th century history is super under-utilised, so I would pretty much throw my whole wallet at someone who wrote a 20th century romance set in Aus. or NZ. Unfortunately, market demand probably means that will never happen but a girl can dream!

  9. Linda says:

    Okay, so this is going to be kind of long, so bear with me.

    I think a lot about the idea of beauty in modern society and how the current standard of “natural” beauty isn’t really natural at all, but the illusion that you “woke up like dis” without putting any effort into your look even though you use like twenty skincare products a night, did your hair and are wearing “no makeup makeup.” (http://nymag.com/thecut/2016/02/liu-wen-asian-beauty.html)

    I think a lot about this new yorker piece (http://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/the-ugly-truth) where the author describes a building as ugly because he can see the beams. “The beams—diagonal and horizontal, carving the building’s façade into stacks of traced triangles—looked to me like garish seams, revealing too obviously how the structure had been put together. They were ugly.” And while this piece is talking about a building, I think it very much applies to female beauty too. You have to be beautiful, but if people can see the effort that goes into it (http://thenewinquiry.com/blogs/the-beheld/youre-right-i-didnt-eat-that/) it’s unattractive or sad or “high maintence.” (Shout out to the boy who once told me I was cooler than the other girls because I was low maintenance so I showed him my makeup and skincare spreadsheet.)

    But on the other hand, skincare, makeup, fashion, these are all also things I really cherish in my personal life. I like being able to control my image and I consider my skincare routine to be a form of self-care. So sometimes I get sad when I read a romance novel and the heroine is one of those women who doesn’t realize she’s beautiful until a man tells her, usually with a side of shade thrown at those Other Women who are (if it’s a regency novel) “full of artifice” or (if it’s a particularly nasty contemporary) “fake bitches.”

    While I do understand there’s an element of finding someone beautiful the more you love them and notice them, I feel like those books often fall into that natural beauty trap I was talking about. These women aren’t just beautiful in the eyes of their lovers, they were just naturally hot without any makeup all along and all they needed is a little more confidence.

    Anyway, that was just a roundabout soapboxy way of saying that I’m interested in romance that actually talks about ideas of beauty and the care (and emotional labor!) that goes into appearances without disparaging it or putting it into the category of something Other Women do. My holy grail in this category is of course Sherry Thomas’ The Luckiest Lady in London where the plain heroine plots to present herself as the image of a popular young lady through knowing her angles and judicious use of breast expanders.

    Mostly, I just want to read about women who love themselves.

  10. Linda says:

    Caveat to my earlier post: I’m very interested in reading a New Adult novel about a young woman of color who grows up in a very white area (maybe she’s adopted) and never really considers herself that beautiful because her suburb is so isolated that everyone she grows up with just sees white as the default beauty standard and even she does! Then, she goes to college and in this more diverse community she realizes that she’s actually quite pretty, has hella casual sex and gains a supportive group of female friends. Part of the romance would be her struggling with her own internalized racism/colorism because she herself has bought into these white beauty standards but her partner is also a person of color.

    Also it would be cool if she studied math (and actually enjoyed it) but kept dealing with stereotypes about how only white people truly understand pure/theoretical math. (THIS IS A REAL THING, I’m friends w/ a lot of math grad students.)

    Based on the True Life experience of me and a ton of my WOC college friends.

  11. Linda says:

    Also more female billionaires like in Alisha Rai’s “A Gentleman on the Street” and Jeffe Kennedy’s “Five Golden Rings.”

  12. Rose says:

    I would like to read a holiday anthology in which none of the novellas involve Christmas – or even Hanukkah. An interfaith holiday anthology would be so awesome! It could feature stories set during Ramadan, and Passover or Purim, and Hindu festivals. There are so many options! Come on, authors, get to it.

    Also, given my love for Singin in the Rain, I would like something set in silent-film era Hollywood, or during the transition to talkies. If someone can find a way to make someone like Lina Lamont the heroine, all the better.

  13. Linda says:

    Also! Years and years later, I’m still so mad about what happened to Kitara in the Dragonlance novels. I mean, she’s a villain (technically an opportunistic mercenary turned evil warlord) but the minute she finds love with Dalamar she gets killed and dragged into hell for everlasting torture and slavery.

    I mean, not only is that not in the spirit of D&D where you *can* play as someone who is evil, I very much feel like the series as a whole had a very restrictive idea of womanhood where women were allowed to go on adventures and fight but they had to retain a certain nebulous purity and goodness. Dalamar, Rastlin and etc were all men who were allowed to be ambiguously evil and complicated.

    I want to read more fantasy romance where complex characters/villains like Kitara *do* get to be the heroines and maybe even grow and change but also maybe don’t at all.

    (At least Kitara at least got to hook up with all the attractive dudes in the series so maybe it’s not a total loss.)

    Okay, I am done and going to bed.

  14. Anonymous says:

    I want more romances with Dommes who stay Dommes, too. At this point, I almost never bother with BDSM-themed romance anymore because I’m sick of the dynamics. And I want more diversity in character backgrounds and settings (both location and time) in historicals.

    The other thing I want is more heroines who have extensive sexual experience before they meet the hero, without being shamed for it. I particularly want to read the stories of all those poor sad jaded women in historicals that exist to give the hero someone to prove his studliness on and the heroine someone to be purer than. They deserve love too! And I wish there were more heroines with IUDs and more use of the morning-after pill. It’s like they were never invented.

  15. Kate says:

    As a woman in the military, I’d LOVE to read a romance about a female soldier/sailor/Marine/airman. And she has to be a badass. She has to have professional integrity, a love of her job, and PLEASE FOR ONCE she has to have some realistic awareness of what it’s like to work in a job environment full of alpha males. She MUST carry her own damn bag. She must work harder and longer than everyone, not ask for special treatment, and avoid any gender-stereotyped incompetence.

    It drives me insane when I read contemporary romantic suspense and there are female FBI/CIA agents who can’t drive, can’t shoot, and have emotional meltdowns or go into shock whenever they’re subjected to stress. That’s fatal. As one douchey coworker explained to me, “We know she’s not actually a slut or a whore, we just call her one because she’s female and she’s useless.”

    I want a contemporary romantic suspense novel where the heroine is genuinely competent in a badass job, and where the hero is attracted to that. I want a heroine who works out. I want a heroine who will not almost get her partner killed because she’s Too Stupid To Live, because in real life THAT WOULD RUIN EVERYTHING FOR OTHER WOMEN IN THAT FIELD! AARGH!

    Elle Kennedy’s Midnight series is the best I’ve found for badass women. Does anyone have any other recommendations for contemporary romantic suspense that doesn’t make the heroine a damsel in distress?

  16. Heather S says:

    @Kate: Have you read any of Lindsay McKenna’s books? I know she has one with a female WO who pilots helicopters. It’s been on my reading list forever, but I haven’t read it yet. As an Army vet, I totally get where you’re coming from. Even having worked in an MOS with one of the highest percentages of female soldiers, we were still outnumbered 2-to1 by the males, and one female failure reflected on us all.

  17. Lammie says:

    @Kate have you tried reading Jessica Scott? She is in the military, and her characters and their conflicts seem very real to me. There is also discussion of what it is like for the female characters to succeed with not always supportive commanders. Her Coming Home series has some of what you are looking for, I think.

  18. Heather S says:

    @ Dani: Thanks for the rec! I know that several titles in the Harlequin KISS category line were set in Australia. “The One That Got Away” is set in Sydney, and I know author Kelly Hunter tends to set her books in Australia as a general rule.

  19. Heather S says:

    @Dani: “The Heat of the Night” by Amy Andrews is another. Most of the KISS books are $1.99 for Kindle, too.

  20. Dianna says:

    I want a 1930s gothic musical with some kind of fantasy/ alternate reality twist. Sort of Rebecca meets The Gay Divorcee meets Cold Comfort Farm.

  21. Heather S says:

    For feminist, diverse fantasy, check out the new comic series “Another Castle” (#1 just released this week) from Oni Press. The prince is Asian, the sword-weilding, lock-picking princess is Latina, the gorgon would be black (if she wasn’t blue). Thrown in a baking jailor (he makes scones, muffins, and cheese straws) and a playful art style and you have feminist fun for all ages!

  22. Kaia Danielle says:

    @CarrieS – For African-American/Diverse SFF romance, have you read KD King (sci-fi) and L. Penelope (fantasy) yet?

  23. Recently I’ve been reading a lot of romances where the hero gets away with – and is applauded for – being completely selfish. Ignoring his family, sleeping around without a care for his partners’ feelings, pursuing his career with tunnel vision. Whereas the heroine is self sacrifice personified. Puts her family first, has no friends or fun of her own, is virginal (of course), works a job she hates so she can send money home to her parents/brother/grandma. I’ve picked up on this theme before, but lately it’s REALLY been bothering me. What’s wrong with the heroine having a real, vibrant, sometimes selfish life of her own? I’d love to read some romances that don’t applaud female martyrdom – romances with a heroine with interests and passions that get her into trouble, and a hero who (gasp!) has a life of his own but still calls his mom every week.

  24. MissP says:

    Seconding the L Penelope rec! I love her books, and they have such gorgeous covers.

  25. Herberta says:

    I’d like to see more diverse historical periods. What about ancient Egypt? The court of Charlemagne? The barbarian tribes of the late Roman Empire? The 1930’s?
    And I hate the instalove/instalust trope so much that I generally skim the first couple chapters of romance novels just to get it out of the way…

  26. Erin L says:

    I would love to read about plus size heroines that aren’t the “perfect” hourglass shaped. I also don’t want them to to be goofy or a fetish. I want their body to not be a topic of conversation, something to change or feel bad about. Maybe it’s out there and I haven’t been looking hard enough, but really I don’t want to have to look too hard.

  27. Kaia Danielle says:

    @Rose – Redwood and Wildfire by Andrea Hairston spans the end of the vaudeville age in the deep South to the very early film industry in Chicago. Very interesting approach to the early 20th Century Great Migration. It’s more of a literary love story, but it does have a HEA. My quick and dirty teaser description of it would be a literary IR historical love story with fantasy/paranormal elements.

    Trigger warnings: in-scene sexual violence

  28. Lisa J says:

    Cyborg and goof SFR. I am on a SciFi kick and have been having trouble finding what I like. Cynthia Sax’s Cyborg series is awesome and I would love more like it!

  29. Lisa J says:

    @ Lisa J – Spell check or read before posting. “Good SFR”.

  30. Dena H says:

    Joey W. Hill does a good series about Dommes – the Nature of Desire series. I’ve only read one of her Vampire Queen series but that seems to have a strong Domme thread in it as well (at least the first book does).

  31. PamG says:

    I’d like to see more fairy tale based romances with no Disney influence. I adored fairy tales growing up, read through Andrew Lang, 1001 Nights, Grimm, Anderson, and various collections. Fairy tales were my introduction to romance, and though the messages were sometimes twisted, at least they weren’t cookie cutter.

    Elizabeth Hoyt pays tribute to the endless variety of fairy tales, but I have trouble making the connection between her fairy tale themes and her actual romances. Maybe I’m too literal minded. Mercedes Lackey is another who stretches beyond Disney, though her work is marketed as fantasy rather than romance.

    Someday I want to write the Princess on the Glass Hill. I also wouldn’t mind seeing some fairy tale interpretations that juggle the gender roles. Pratchett’s Witches Abroad is all about the power of stories, but Pratchett himself was all about the infinite ways to tweak the tale. I’d like to see more tweaking in fairy tale romance.

  32. Stephanie says:

    I second Carrie’s call for more middle aged and older heroines. I can’t recall one book I’ve read where the heroine is older than early 40s, and even those are rare.

  33. Kaia Danielle says:

    @Stephanie & Carrie – check out Evelyn Palfrey’s “Marvelously Mature” books

  34. Caroline says:

    I’d really like to see some romances that pay more attention to role of a woman’s professional life and concerns. Not only in the “my job is tearing us apart! or I’m so glad he’s a billionaire!” way (though that can happen, if it’s handled well) but also just having it be present in their regular interactions and lives. I liked Julie James’ “A Lot Like Love” for the acknowledgment that the protagonists had professional obligations and Anne Calhoun’s money and class issues in her books . . . with super hot sex scenes. I’m not saying that “Sweet Savage Love” needs a foreword by Suze Orman, but acknowledging, that no, the lady can’t skip that meeting cuz bills, would make me feel more connected to a lot of the stories.

  35. @Carrie S. For diverse historicals, check out Alyssa Cole (Be Not Afraid), Lena Hart (A Sweet Surrender), Piper Huguley (all her titles) my books in the Roses of Ridgeway series, Chanta Rand (Rise of a Queen), Sienna Mynx (Buttercup and Nicodemus), and Koko Brown. That’s just off the top of my head.
    Check out Marcia Colette’s books for diverse urban fantasy/sci-fi with magical elements.

  36. KCB says:

    I would love to see a historical with a lady protagonist who is a swindler/con artist, and a hero who is trying to expose her. But with some supernatural elements to it. And a haunted (maybe haunted?) house. Does this exist? If so, please tell me.

  37. SB Sarah says:

    @Linda:

    First, thank you again for this email. I’ve been having a ball thinking about all the things I would love to read.

    Second:

    (Shout out to the boy who once told me I was cooler than the other girls because I was low maintenance so I showed him my makeup and skincare spreadsheet.)

    HIGHEST OF FIVES, MA’AM.

  38. Alex says:

    I was just thinking the other evening that I’d really, really like to read some books where people are normal looking. Obviously they’re going to have to be attractive to each other in order for the romance to work, but I’m a bit bored of all characters being blindingly sexy. Perhaps I’m reading too many contemps with buff Alpha males in, I dunno. Please recommend me some average looking beta heroes that win the heroine’s heart by other methods than just having enormous muscles.

    Basically I’d like more books like Unsticky by Sarra Manning (I can’t recommend this book enough btw) – decent length, really satisfying and very realistically written characters, even if the world they inhabit isn’t one I’m ever going to live in! People with actual real-life concerns about money and jobs and suchlike.

    The ultimate dream is to discover another author that gives me the same feels that Eva Ibbotson and Georgette Heyer did.

  39. Elspeth Grey says:

    My complete total weakness is queen/bodyguard romances in fantasy settings. Something where the hero protects the heroine physically and offers advice on the many political intrigues going on, but all the power is ultimately with the heroine and she takes the most important action. She doesn’t technically have to be a queen as long as that dynamic’s there. The romance shouldn’t overwhelm the political/mystery/diplomatic/etc. plot. While I’m most partial to fantasy for the setting, I’m also open to sci-fi or historicals. And I’d particularly like non-European or European influenced settings.

    Basically, I’m looking for romances like the one that develops in the YA Girl of Fire and Thorns trilogy, but with adults. Or just…more of that.

  40. Semantix_ says:

    I’d like to see more stories with asshole heroines who undergo a realistic change and become (only somewhat) nicer. And I don’t mean oh-everyone-thinks-she’s-horrible-for-xyz-reason-but-she’s-secretly-good-and-needs-this-facade. Nor petty-spoilt-shrew-tamed-by-Richard-Burton. I mean REALLY cruel because she is intelligent and selfish and has little empathy for others. I feel like we allow this trope WAY too much for men and not nearly enough for women. The only one I’ve read that fits this mould is Ain’t She Sweet which I loved except for the end which was kinda annoying. Major +++ for a snarky hero who is secretly patient and wise.

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