I asked this question over the weekend on Twitter but I wanted to have more than 140 characters to ask it, so I’m going to re-post, or co-tweet-post or whatever the hell it is.
I’ve been thinking about conflict and the things that stop or imperil a relationship, and I’ve realized that I am very attracted to stories that have a forbidden element to them, when some powerful no-no prevents the protagonist pair from being together. As I said on Twitter, What conflict preventing the HEAin a romance novel is your favorite? I.e. “We can’t be together because….” What’s your favorite reason?
I’m picky, though, about that reason. It can’t be something so powerful that, despite their decision to be together, it will likely ruin their lives anyway. She’s a courtesan, he’s a lord, and what do you mean their children won’t be welcomed in society anywhere they go?! It’s difficult for me to “suspend my disbelief,” to quote Jennifer Crusie, in those circumstances because the reality is harsh.
Yet, I was a total sucker for Dallas, even though I was too young to really understand the nuances of the plots, and way, WAY too impressionable to be shown that many shoulderpads in contemporary fashion. The Barnes/Ewing family feud, the two characters from each family drawn to each other, and the conflict that results? Rwor.
The more I ponder the forbidden attraction, the more I think that my personal favorite is when the forbidding factor is something morally-based. Whoever is in conflict between duty and attraction has to balance out their moral compass such that they can attain the person they desire and still live with themselves (and be worthy in the eyes of the reader) afterward.
So what’s your favorite reason in a romance novel that prevents the hero and heroine from being together? Which “We can’t be together because…” is the story you gravitate toward and adore? And which ones totally don’t work for you?
Great thread! I’m loving the diversity of answers.
My keepers seem to feature a damaged hero modality—but usually with an unexpected twist. No torture, thanks.
Connie Brockway’s AS YOU DESIRE delivers conflict with a great zinger of a secret. Plus her mild teasing of the genre as a whole with her opening scene…
Julia Quinn’s WHEN HE WAS WICKED—A very strong “I can’t be with you because you were my husband’s best friend and we were both incredibly damaged by his death” plus a secret the hero is trying to keep hidden. Plus a really really hot scene that’s branded into my brain. Hawt I tell you.
Suzanne Enoch’s ENGLAND’S PERFECT HERO—Shell-shocked vet who you just *weep* for as he battles for some semblance of normalcy.
Laura Kinsale’s heroes. Oh yes.
Give me a historical with a damaged hero and some compelling secrets, and I am SO there.
* because the hero is too broken (I like it when she fixes him.)
* because our species don’t get along (only for a PNR/UCF fan)
* because her responsibilities get in the way (I love watching him help her)
* because he has kidnapped her from her own time/place, they don’t speak the same language, and she has hopes that some day she may be reunited with her husband who was left behind (dibs on that one—it’s my next UCF series)
* because he’s responsible for her (mmmmmmmmm… a favorite)
* because he’s too old (shoot me—another favorite)
* because we’re both guys! (shoot me again—another fave!)
* because my power may actually destroy us if we ever have sex (i.e. “The Superman Excuse”)
* because her friends are conniving bitches who think he’s not good enough for her (oddly enough, I’m not a fan of that one)
* because women weaken a man and he has SERIOUS WORK to do (i.e. “The Rocky Excuse”)
* because she has kids and he’s not ‘father material’ (this is a combination platter of the ‘he’s too damaged’ and the ‘she has too many responsibilities’ and sometimes it’s very tasty)
* because he has a BIG IMPORTANT JOB and she’s too insecure TO UNDERSTAND (i.e. “The Spiderman Excuse.” Still not a fan.)
and that’s all I gots right now!
I actually don’t like slash fanfic at all; what I read is just regular MM romance that is 100% fiction from small press e-publishers like Torquere, Samhain, Loose Id, etc. (a lot of the pubs on the DRM-free list, actually) When the But I’m Straight conflict is done right, it doesn’t have much to do with sex or lust, just like a man and woman getting together for their HEA doesn’t have much to do with it either. It works best when the “straight” guy has had the occaisional sexual thought about another man, otherwise the complete switch is not really believable. It can also work when a guy has always been gay/bisexual all his life but hasn’t gone to the “dark side” because of something or other, usually family pressures.
If all you got from the /fanfic was that rationale for the relationship happening, I totally understand you giving it up. I would have, too. But yeah, for those who like it, it’s nice that they can get it for free.
One of my favorite conflicts is old lovers that are trying again. I think Kelly Armstrong handled it extremely well in Bitten.
Wow, such diversity of tastes! Here are mine:
Can’t STAND:
-Big misunderstanding that is easily cleared up by ONE conversation (Judith McNaught, I’m lookin’ at YOU… I can deal with complicated misunderstandings or secrets, like Linnea Sinclair’s books… but not with like, A SINGLE CONVERSATION WOULD FIX THIS)
-Heroine is so feisty! Hero is so domineering! Sparks fly!!! I just can’t deal with anything where they can’t STAND each other at first sight—generally if I hate a guy on sight because he’s a JERK, I’m not going to later be overcome by how incredibly HOT! and MANLY! he is… Stephanie Laurens, this one has your name on it…
-Hero or heroine has a special power… and thus a special complex about being “normal” or that the condition is somehow “bad” so that he or she is unworthy/dangerous/defective… (this can be done well, ex., Lilith Saintcrow, or poorly… a multitude of vampire books)
-Super duper alpha males, especially when they initially “force” the woman to do anything causing hatred that is somehow later healed by luuuurve (e.g., Catherine Coulter oldies). These are hit-the-wall books for me.
LOVE:
-Damaged heroes and heroines who have good reason to be and learn and grow—I like this best as expressed through learning to trust someone (as opposed to the Magic Hooha… like Dain and Jessica… what takes him so long is really, truly, trusting and believing that anyone could love him).
-Friendships that blossom into love, because that’s how mine went! Julia Quinn is at her best with these, and these are often the funniest romances.
-And of course when the hero or heroine has some responsibility/destiny/threat to face that really truly *will* prevent the HEA without a clever workaround/sacrifice… these are the BEST, when done right, because they present the stuff of true tragedy/really scary plots since the obstacles are REAL and can’t be solved even by personal growth, learning to trust, etc. These are the ones to read when you feel like crying buckets! I find these more in sci-fi/fantasy than in more “traditional” romance. (A favorite—Emma Bull’s Falcon).
Ok that got long! =)
But in past times, yeah, that would ruin your life. Because it would ruin your network, your connections, your line of credit. The few times it did happen, the couple was totally isolated, not wanted by his side or hers. They were the equivalent of the CEO, the Chairmen of the Board. Marriages were a business arrangement, although very often they ended up happy. By marrying a courtesan, the duke would lose his position in society, he’d lose the family networks, the influence, and so he would imperil hundreds, probably thousands of employees. So to me, it’s putting self above duty, which I don’t see as very heroic. They did anything but sit on their asses for a living. So the courtesan/duke thing is so laughable, unless you are very very careful with it, that it just bears no relation to how people thought, acted and the way economics worked then.
To what I like – love the Romeo/Juliet thing, especially the Tony/Maria variation. And I love physically damaged heroes who either have to learn to live with their condition or fight their way through and can’t do it without her.
Wow, I can’t stand the “straight man turned gay for one man only” or the “two straight men who turn gay for each other.” oddly, I’m into fantasy, but I just can’t suspend my belief that much.
I love the whole frenemies and the good friends to lovers
I dislike the “I’m a cop and I’ve seen all of my co-workers go through a divorce and I don’t want to put you through that, or have you wonder if I come home alive every night”
I secretly love the “secret” trope, unless the secret is really stupid, like one of Johanna Lindsey books when the hero was a bastard and it didn’t seem like much of a secret.
I also love the, two young people in love, He doesn’t have any money so he leaves and earns his fortune and comes back filthy rich and She’s destitute and He wants to punish her but ends up still being in love with her instead (I’m sure Wentworth never wanted to quite punish Anne, but I love Persuasion – Jane Austen- with a passion)
I have to admit I love ones where the heroine is a single mom and the Alpha Male Hero is afraid he’d accidently hurt the kids. I like it because they’re being caring, and so stupidly male at the same time. I also like “I’m not worthy of her” as long as he has a legit reason and the heroine actually has to decide whether or not that does, in fact, not make him worthy of her. Not something ridiculously small. “I jaywalk; I am not worthy” is no fun.
I love these discussions, in part because it’s always interesting to see people who love the tropes I despise and who despise the tropes I love.
As for real conflict, one of the best was in Penelope Williamson’s The Outsider. She’s a member of a religious sect that does not allow marriage outside the sect. He’s an outlaw. She retained her faith (if she had not, the ending would have not been nearly so believable), but nonetheless you knew what it cost her to choose him over her community. This was a beautiful book. Williamson is Candace Proctor’s sister. There must have been some powerful Good Writing genes in that family, or else something in the water where they grew up.
I have a question for everyone.
Are Dmaged and Bad Boy two different things to y’all or can it sometimes be the same?
Personally I love the Bad Boy/Good Girl conflict. I even love the musical Guys and Dolls. I think I’d even like the other way around although I don’t think I’ve ever really read that.
It seems logical to me that damaged and jaded can easily equal made some bad choices. But I’ve read comments on other blog threads saying thinks like “I couldn’t read a hero that’s ever cheated or that’s ever …” I don’t get why a hero couldn’t have done a bad thing and see the error of his ways by the end.
I love angst, so I like conflict where either the hero or heroine (or both) are so emotionally broken that it takes some major soul-searching/healing/tragedy/whatever to get the couple together. I love emotional pain!
@Noelle: For me, damaged & bad boys are 2 totally different things. Damaged=Something awful happened & now I have, not just issues, but a full subscription. I love these. A bad boy is just an immature ass, which usually shows up as acting like a drunken ‘ho. I’m totally over that.
That said, I don’t really have a favorite conflict. Almost anything can work if it’s presented correctly and written well. There are 2 that I don’t read any more because the hit percentage is so low & I just don’t have that much time to read.
First: The secret baby. This almost always make me hate the heroine. As far as I’m concerned the only excuse for keeping a baby secret from it’s father is if said father is dangerous to the child. If the guy was that bad I probably don’t want to see him as a hero.
Second: Cross-dressing heroines. I just can’t suspend enough disbelief to buy the idea that some sloth strips wrapped around her boobs and a pair of pants are going to convince anyone with two brain cells that she’s a guy. I have friends who a small-busted, have “ruler” figures and wear pants pretty much ever day of their lives. No one mistakes them for male. There’s also often more than a little homophobia that shows up when the hero starts to get interested and is weirded out by the attraction. For me that’s instant FAIL.
YMMV (you mileage may vary) is always the rule.
Speaking of that.
I feel like I’m the only person who read this book and didn’t dislike either Delaney or Nick.
Yum! Give me Spencer’s Years any day of the week.
Easier to say which I hate than which I love:
* I think that a really awful message is sent by the majority of plots where he raped or beat the heroine but then years later she forgives him and they get back together
* Really dislike where one character is religiously observant or adherent but falls in love with someone outside the religion or non-religious and True Love Conquers All when the story portrays the religious observance as annoying or superficial in the face of True Love (TM) instead of as a real dilemma. (Don’t get me started on the movie “Keeping the Faith”) For a very sensitive portrayal of what happens after, I highly recommend William E Barrett’s The Wine and the Music about a priest who falls in love with a parishioner, leaves the church, and marries her.
@Lori I get what you’re saying and I think yours is the majority opinion on the subject.
@The general discussion – The thing I love the most about all forbidden love is that it makes the conflict about the h/h and their relationship and not some outside bad guy. I really got tried of reading paranormal with too perfect ppl whose only issue was the common enemy. That not really romance to me.
But I still love bad boy/ good girl the best. And I think there are books out there with bad boys heroes that have well written motivation behind why they do the things they do and that can ultimately be redeemed. A damaged guy that doesn’t act out badly and rail against the world just seems sad and pathetic to me. I don’t want a hero that has to be fixed that doesn’t have the balls to fight for himself.
One of my favorite characters in all of literature is Shakespeare’s Henry V. In the most simplistic sense, he’s a bad boy that when he must becomes the hero.
@Lori – Oh yeah to both of yours.
Secret baby – she has to believe that the father is a violent pig, or maybe believe that he’s dead, or she’s tried to get in touch and he won’t take her calls. There has to be a valid reason, because the father has a right to know and keeping it from him deliberately doesn’t make her heroine material.
Chicks in pants. Hate it, too. I just can’t believe it. I’ve seen pictures of women who did masquerade as male, and believe me, they would not pass as a romance heroine.
Just for the record, I do know that sloth =/= cloth.
Feel free to mock my inability to type. I know I’m getting a lot of enjoyment from the mental picture of our intrepid heroine running around with a couple of slow-moving mammals strapped to her chest.
That would create some interesting conflict.
Call me a sucker for Beauty and the Beast type stories, but I love plots that feature a once-handsome-now-scarred hero. “Poor me! No woman will ever love me, scarred as I am!” I will!!! (raises hand enthusiastically) It sort of fits in with the damaged hero plot, because the hero has to get over himself and realize that whatever accident disfigured him didn’t change his inherent studliness.
I have been reading a lot of category recently, for work, and I’m getting really sick of flimsy-ass excuses for why they can’t be together. Excuses like:
—Her parents and sibling were killed by a drunk driver and he’s a race car driver, so she’ll always be afraid he’s going to die in a crash. So he just bulldozes her objections!
—They come from neighboring made-up islands that are basically Protestants and Catholics!
—She’s having his accidental baby (OH MY GOD IF YOU LIKE IT THEN YOU SHOULD’VE PUT A RUBBER ON IT) and he thinks she only wants him for his money!
—He’s a prince and the royal council has to approve his bride (NO REALLY).
Basically I’m sick of obstructions that can be cleared away with a single, simple conversation. If it’s keeping you apart for more than a hundred pages, it should be complicated. The only thing I disliked about Nora’s Rising Tides was that Ethan’s problem with marrying Grace was that he’d been abused. That was really complicated and required more than one simple conversation, but if he’d just used his words! Romance characters are sometimes such three-year-olds.
That said, I just read Claudia Dain’s two Courtesan books, and I am totally okay with the courtesan-lord stuff. As a wise lady once said, they could drive a Porsche through the Regency and I wouldn’t care. Just keep humping in closets! I love that! I also love when the H/H are brought together by something like murder, giant global conspiracies, or whatnot, something temporary, and then once the something temporary is resolved they have to decide if they want to be together. Like Elizabeth Lowell’s Donovan series. GODDAMN I love those books.
Ones that stick in my mind …. These are all contemporary category, some of which date back to about 1985.
“I can’t have a relationship because I’m never home”. He was military special forces of some sort, while she was FBI. There were the additional complications of him being her instructor in a class she was taking and the fact that she was the fourth or fifth generation to be born to a single teen mother, and she didn’t want to risk being yet another statistic.
“I promised I’d never leave the farm”. She inherited a farm from her grandmother which had promised she would never sell. He was a widower who didn’t want to leave the house he had shared with his late wife, in a different area of the country from the heroine.
“My father bought you off.” In high school, they had dated. His father didn’t think she was good enough for him, and dad lied about money her family accepted (sign-on bonus for her inventor father). 30 years later, dad does it all over again, but this time they both know better.
“You lied to me about your son getting my daughter pregnant”. Long-time friends. His daughter, her son. Fireworks ensue when he finds out she knows that they’re going to be grandparents but hasn’t told him.
I’m a sucker for the “girl grew up with a crush on older brother’s friend, they get together when they are older” plots. They are completely cliche, but I still enjoy them. I tend to like romances when the two characters have a long history with each other, and these automatically do, as well as sometimes having interesting, awkward path towards admitting that the relationship has changed.
Ooh, me likey this topic.
I really love class differences, or the kind of thing you see in North & South where the H/h have completely different ways of seeing things and end up finding common ground as they get to know each other.
I’m also a fan of historicals where one party is engaged to someone else, although the author loses points if the someone else is completely wretched.
And I totally fall for beauty and the beast and taming of the shrew plots every damn time (although I’d like to find a book where the man is the shrew being tamed, just for a change of pace).
My ultimate hate is the so-called conflict where the hero can’t marry because he and his six besties from his Oxford days have all taken a vow to remain bachelors. Give me a BREAK. Any story where the conflict stems from the simple fact that the hero has decided not to get married drives me up the wall. It’s just not very interesting to read about.
I have a harder time believing the conflicts in contemporaries, I think. In this day and age, if two consenting adults meet and like the looks of each other, I can’t think of too many reasons why they shouldn’t or wouldn’t get together. I feel like a lot of contemporary authors fall into hate at first sight plots for that reason, or give one of the characters some bizarre hangup that prevents the relationship from going to the next level until the characters conveniently decide to get over it.
AMEN. The book was beautifully written, but I threw it against the wall more than once, and I still want to hit Maddy for being such a hypocrite.
As for what I like and don’t like…I think good writing can overcome almost any unbelievable plotline. It’s fascinating to me to see an author take a tired plotline—Terrible Misunderstanding, Secret Baby, My Ex Cheated Therefore All Women Suck, to name a few—and write it so that you don’t realize that it’s been done before. As long as the story is so good I’ll stay up until 3 AM to finish it, I’ll read any plot the author wants to write.
I looked at my book/movie shelves and apparently I really like external forces—ruthless enemies (Psy/Changeling books, Farscape, Freedom and Necessity), previous commitments (Firelight), colossally bad timing (The Time Traveler’s Wife). I’m not a big fan of the ethical dilemmas because I usually end up wanting to smack one of the protags upside the head (usually the supposedly “ethical” but really just judgmental one). I like feeling that the couple will actually be able to live with each other after the story ends, so personal dysfunction doesn’t usually do it for me (exception: The Price of Desire).
This is interesting to me because it’s another form of YMMV. I always felt that the pairings on Farscape were really kept apart by their personal crap, not by outside forces. Those folks had some issues, which is why I loved it so much. It was always hard to explain that to people who got distracted by the fact that it was scifi and there were puppets.
I love the trite and true, “You’re way too old/young for me,” but I like it to have something more to it. I.e. In “Admiral’s Bride” by Suzanne Brockmann, it was “Your way to young for me” + “I feel disloyal to my dead wife, whom you are nothing like,” + “I never sleep with subordinates” + strong personal moral compass. In “Suddenly You” by Lisa Kleypas, the heroine *gasp* might be older than the hero, which is only one of the many things keeping them apart.
In addition to the May/December pairings, I also love it when a job keeps the two apart. In “First Lady” by Susan Elizabeth Phillips, he’s a journalist in desperate need of scoop, she’s the former first lady in desperate need of privacy. I love when the hero/heroine are forced to choose between avocation & HEA.
Yuppers. I see damaged as something that takes time to work past, and a commitment. Bad Boys can be in that vein, but it usually a lot more superficial (ex. One Summer by Robards, he’s both, but has a genuine reason for being damaged).
*Snort* Kinda like Cherry Adair’s Take Me with hero as a post-vasectomy super-selfish asshole that proceeds to knock up his wife. Wallbanger.
*Double snort*
HELL yes. Oh noes, I must stay a whoring asshole because my buddies all think getting laid =being a man. This plot device is ofcourse followed up on multiple times until every-single one of the former whoring assholes has found his twu luv.
Like a few of you have said, I’m finding it harder and harder to get interested in a contemporary romance, because there are only so many unbelievable obstacles one can hurdle, and then have everything perfect. An example is a Harlequin Presents from 5 years ago where a couple is practically in the middle of the wedding ceremony when the groom gets a surprise from his former lover (pre-wife by like 2 weeks) when she dumps his kid off leaving the wife struggling through a new relationship with a kid. Now, that’s not actually the craptastic part, but when he expects her to just all of a sudden have complete faith in him, and to take care of the kid while he is off making the $. Um no. It just didn’t fly. I stopped reading contemps after that, and switched to paranormals which sadly were more believable for me.
I do hate the I-love-you-so-much-that-I-want-to-pimp-you-out stories. Lora Leigh, come on down! I know some people in reality have this sort of relationship, but its hard for me to get past it, and believe that the h/h will have a long lasting relationship after she’s had half the family/half the U.S. Navy in her vajayjay. Ewww…clean up aisle 2.
Here’s the thing—-there’s a lot that Lora Leigh doesn’t know about polyamory. A lot. She’s missing some info about the US Navy too.
the undesirable family characteristics line:
“I can’t be with you because our child will inherit some sort of psychological disease that in fact can be treated or has a very small percentage of actually occurring”
and the concurrent
“you’re too good for me, what with my psychological disease”
As long as the author is convincing about the obstacle, and it requires (as others pointed out) more than a five minute conversation (I hate the Big Misunderstanding as much as anyone).
I like the forbidden difference (age/cultural difference/background difference) when it’s done really well, and when it’s SURPRISING. When people really WOULD go ‘wtf’ (see “Tim” – heroine is older, hero has intellectual impairment) and yet being apart is worse. But I’m totally squicked by incest, so when I see that one looming I know there are two choices. 1) It’s going to be a Big Misunderstanding (yawn!) or 2) I’m going to be squicked … and so I usually bail. There are exceptions! I just read a young adult where I’m STILL going to read the third in the trilogy 😉
I love Beauty and the Beast done well—there’s something physically ‘wrong’ with one of them as far as the rest of society’s concerned. The ‘ugly’ woman stories rule. Precious Bane with the harelip—now come on. It’s correctable with surgery now, but that’s more than three pox scars on her ankle. “The Ill Made Mute”—again, she’s no fairy princess, but the hero cheats a little by not actually seeing her ugly face. “The Unlikely Ones” … so yeah, an extreme of ‘you’re so not my type’ that shows what a keeper the hero is.
A difficult sell to me is the ‘he/she did something truly appalling that should be unforgiveable but after long thought and bitter experience I realise I might have done the same in their place’ because it’s so very very very hard to pull off. I think it was pulled off successfully in the “Cast in (fury/courtlight etc)” books by Michelle Sagara … but it was touch and go. It was also pulled off in Broken.
I’ve read other books though where I’ve just gone “he/she WHAT? NO WAY!” (flings book at wall). For instance, a category called “Savage Atonement” in my teens, where the hero sets the girl up to lose a court case after she’s been assaulted by a step parent, and betrays her trust. Nope. Sorry. Not atoned enough for me to do anything but want to tell him to take a long walk off a short pier with concrete boots.
Yup. Which makes it all the more aggravating that there isn’t someone riding her ass during edits-kinda shows me that no one gives a crap/too busy trying to crank it out than worry about facts. I can’t remember what the title was, but her 1st Navy book was a complete wallbanger for me. I know people in the Navy, and she sure took some liberties with that storyline.
inside62…yup her characters have been
Great topic. Like everyone else, I like almost any conflict provided it’s well-written and suspends my disbelief.
I hope I am not repetitve, but I love:
*Rivalry – whether it’s between families (Dallas or Romeo/Juliet), or siblings or work or whatever, that creates tension and brings out the best, worst and human side of the protagonists.
*Marriage of convenience or guardianship – works only for historicals but a great way of throwing H/h together for periods of time not allowed by social mores of the time. A meeting of minds rather than bodies. *sigh*
*Wounded warrior – love the premise that a woman can complete him but it works better if his journey of self-discovery starts before he meets the heroine. Secondary characters that psycho-analyse and push H/h together can be interesting (Windflower).
I hate:
* the TSTL heroine and alpha male with no redeeming qualities – I hate it when he walks all over her feelings for the whole book and then she develops a back-bone, threatens to leave, and he does a complete 180 and it’s HEA.
Uuuggh! It’s about as satisfying as warm beer…
* the big misconception – some big secret that the H/h can’t talk about keeping them apart. When it comes out that it’s minor, and at the end of the book with a single paragraph to explain it, it’s completely frustrating.
* the exception to the rule – characters that consistently behave within ethical or moral boundaries their whole lives, but make the H/h the exception with no explanation. When there is little introspection, remorse or guilt; it is too hard to believe. When it’s well done, it can be brilliant.
One of my favorite reasons a couple can’t be together is because they are—specifically Regencies where the couple was already married for reasons of convenience. It’s not quite the friend thing, it’s more that they’re finding love where they didn’t expect it and screwing things up could mean they’re miserable and stuck together for the rest of their lives. But if they don’t go for it, they’re also risking missing out on love and passion for comfort’s sake.
In more modern stories, I agree with the commenter who likes the tension of m/m stories and the closet. It was one of the things that kept me watching the first season of six feet under.
Now I’m thinking of the type of story where the h/h is mildmannered something by day – fierce justicefighter/vigilante/superhero by night.
I never bought into the idea that a strip of cloth over the eyes as a mask would make anyone unrecognizable, but a sloth now…that’d probably surprise me enough that I totally failed to note the identity of the sloth-wearer.
For me, almost anything works as conflict, as long as it’s well written and believable within the context of the story. An exception would be The Seekrit Baby Plot. If the heroine has sufficient reason to hide her pregnancy from the guy, he ain’t hero-material. Unless, of course, he’s battled that disturbing sloth-addiction and now needs healing and love.
Hee. Codeword are16. Thank goodness no. Not anymore.
I’m sure this goes without saying, but I abhor the Big Misunderstanding That Can Be Resolved in Ten Words or Less. I have read a few where it worked, but that’s it. Shove the idiotic assumptions about what he/she thinks and/or may have done and communicate already.
This
A bad boy is just an immature ass, which usually shows up as acting like a drunken ‘ho. I’m totally over that.
HA HA!
Myself, I love internal conflict, which I suppose translates to damaged h/h – where they have some hang-up that prevents them from being able to let go / trust / take a chance. Love friends-to-lovers and ex-lovers-reunited – situations when there is a past history either to build on or overcome.
DeeCee: Was it her that had a SEAL team living in Atlanta or some such city with no large body of water, which definitely wasn’t Coronado or Virginia Beach? That book went flying at my house too, because holy crap what was up with that? It’s one thing to be very, very focused on a particular kink in a way that doesn’t reflect reality very well. For me, getting facts spectacularly wrong is a whole other thing.
Eirin: Thank you for giving me a good laugh. I’m working a paper about the Maoist insurgency in Nepal so the humor is much appreciated. I just wish that I could draw worth a darn because I think a picture of Slothman would be hilarious.
OK, the comment to Eirin was supposed to be about this:
I really shouldn’t post while I’m doing research because I obviously don’t have enough working brain cells left for split focus.
They had issues the size of Titanic’s iceberg alright (especially D’Argo and Chiana), but most of my favorite Crichton/Aeryn moments came because of Scorpius/Nosferatu. God I miss that show!
Well, in the real world it doesn’t work for a minute, I agree, but that’s just about the entire plot of Twelfth Night, my favorite play of all time, and there it works spectacularly. Maybe you just have to be Shakespeare to pull it off?
A few years ago I read See How She Dies by Lisa Jackson. Usually I love her stuff, but this one involved a guy falling for a girl who was possibly his half sister, who went missing 20 years before. The part that really bugged me was that even knowing that they could be related they couldn’t keep their hands off of each other. I managed to get through the book, but I had nightmares for weeks. Eww.
Also, another book that I hated was a historical by Candace Camp, who I normally love. This was the 2nd book in her most recent series. In this one the heroine swears she will never marry anyone, especially the hero because her father was a drunk, gambler, asshole, who did not deserve to live. Personally, I think I would rather have read about the asshole father than the obnoxious bratty heroine. This could of course work if the characters are less annoying and bitchy (in a bad way). The last book in this series did a spin on that premise in which the heroine’s late husband was a drunk, gambler asshole who left her with no money. I absolutely loved this story.