Catriona wrote in the Heyer/Grand Sophy thread:
Sarah, can we do a thread on romances that we want to love, we should have loved, everybody else loves them…but that we can’t stand because something just left a bad taste in our mouths?
I like this idea for two reasons. No, three. First, we’ve done it before. But let’s do a new one. It’s been years.
Second: not enjoying a book that it seems like everyone loved or enjoyed can be an isolating experience, but as I’ve learned on the internet, you’re never alone in your likes and dislikes, no matter how outlandish they might seem. 0_o
And third: everyone’s buttons are different (woo, kinky!). What ticks me off may not bother you in the slightest, and vice versa. For example, and I’ve used this example before: there are many who are intensely bothered by historical inaccuracies in romances. I am not one of these people. The Duke can in fact drive a Porsche to Almack’s, and I’m fine with it. Whatever.
My hot button is stilted, unrealistic and awkward dialogue. If characters, like, for example, the Duke of Porsche, say things that real human beings wouldn’t say, and use cliches to the point that they don’t sound like actual people, I get really annoyed. Yanks me right out of the story and into Land of Crankypants. But the Porsche? Meh. Whatever.
I am not alone in that preference, but I do think that among romance readers, especially historical romance fans, I’m in the minority. And this is not to insult any author who busts her ass doing the research. Go on with your bad self – and your Porsche.
Catriona’s example is a bit more specific:
My example is As You Desire by Connie Brockway. Everybody is in love with this book and it always appears on people’s top romances list. I should love it – I enjoyed Brockway’s other books, I’m crazy about Egypt and archaeology and I love romances that are supposed to be funny and witty. It had everything going for it.
But I’m telling you, this book is like my own personal berserk button. To this day, I still can’t think about it or hear somebody sing its praises without my blood pressure spiking. My issue is with the way the author set up an “older” woman (I think she was in her early 30’s) to be the younger heroine’s foil. Basically, the older woman was rejected by the hero and pretty much every male in the book because she wasn’t as “perfect” as the seemingly smarter, blonder, younger heroine. I would expect this kind of ageism/blondeism in a book from the 1970’s, but this book was from 1997! This passage in particular, in which Marta, the other woman, sees the heroine at a restaurant, encompasses everything that bothers me about this book:
“I say,” Lord Ravenscroft suddenly breathed, “Now, there is a treasure worth coveting. Have you ever seen such a piece of tiny, golden perfection?”
…Marta followed the direction of everyone’s gaze to where Miss Carlisle’s progress through the room was marked by a wave of men scurrying to their feet as she passed.
To blatantly steal a phrase from you, Sarah: OH COME ON NOW AND I MEAN IT! Is this supposed to be a parody? Because it fails if it is. I ended up feeling whole lot more sympathy for Marta, while I wanted to bury Desdemona Carlisle headfirst in the sand. Normally the perfect, blonde, child prodigy, men-literally-fall-at-her-feet woman is the RIVAL, not the heroine.
Maybe I’m letting this bother me way too much…. But somewhere deep down, it grates on me that the heroine has to be this drop-dead gorgeous, “oh save me” frail young creature. I often wonder why people loved this book so much when I, who was much closer to Desdemona’s age when I read it, was so bothered by the discrimination against the older, more experienced, more capable other woman.
I got to wondering, is this just a case of me finding it difficult to relate to the heroine, and seeing myself as a rival to her to the hero? Nah, I thought Harry was an idiot too. His famous “you are my Egypt” speech just made me cringe. I would’ve heaved if anyone said anything so ridiculous to me, but apparently a lot of readers disagree judging by the links out there:
I fully expect the pitchforks and torches to come after me on this one, but bring it! Catriona “Encyclopedia Hittanica” is ready!
Ok, I’m about to come off even more objectionably: I have never read this book, but now I’m so very curious.
So, what’s your book that everyone adored, but you couldn’t enjoy it? You certainly don’t have to limit your example or response to this one. No shame and no shaming, please! Bring on your least liked books that made you feel the most isolated in your lack of enjoyment.
I’ve been enjoying this thread all day and wondering whether I should contribute my own comment to this, but I think I’ve finally worked up the nerve.
I don’t like Jane Austen. And almost invariably among my well-read friends, saying this is akin to saying you don’t like puppies, babies, or chocolate. I’m often met with gasps of shock and then impassioned arguments about how if I only understood what Jane Austen was trying to do, I would love her books as much as my friends do.
Here’s the thing—I don’t dislike the stories. I have seen TV or movie adaptations of almost all her stories and have enjoyed them one and all. No, the thing I have problems with in Austen is the narrative voice. I struggled my way through S&S and P&P, and have read the openings of her other four books, and she’s just not for me. Austen is very snarky about her characters, making fun of them all, and when I read it, it comes off as her not liking the characters very much. And if she doesn’t like them, why should I?
Do I like the Lizzy Bennet of 1995 (ah, Colin Firth) and 2005 (ah, Matthew McFadyen)? Absolutely. But I do not like the Lizzy Bennet of the book. When she starts championing Mr. Wickham, okay. But she’ll listen to nothing against him, and when her aunt suggests that maybe she shouldn’t fall in love with Mr. Wickham, Lizzy mocks her concern. This is presented as charming and free-spirited and whimsical, but it just rubbed me the wrong way. Her aunt wants to have a genuine conversation, and Lizzy’s too focused on being clever.
Thank you for letting me vent here. I hope I haven’t offended anyone.
ah thanks, Brussel Sprout. I love Nita Abrams too.
But I don’t love Quinn, Kinsale or Robb/Roberts and I also can’t stand Heyer. I loved her when I was 17 and occasionally now I’ll find a para that takes my breath away, but all those exclamation points and ejaculations (of the more uninteresting kind) and hundreds of characters milling pointlessly around … zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.
For anyone who hates the Brontes, try Villette, a wonderfully ambiguous and angry book.
My mother and my cousin (both much older than me, so maybe the audience is women in their late 40’s and 50’s, who are politically conservative?) are fans of Danielle Steele. When I was in high school, they both decided to read The Cottage, which they squeed over like those annoying teens that LUV Justin Bieber. So, I decided to try it, and I hated it. I decided that there must be some turning point in the book that made them just love it, so I kept reading. Big mistake. I really didn’t need to know that there are smart career women that will decide to sleep with men old enough to be their grandfather (or even great-grandfather). It completely squicked me out. If I wasn’t afraid it would cause the train to derail, I would have thrown it on the tracks.
To the person that mentioned The Catcher in the Rye: THANK YOU! I managed to escape high school without reading it, but in college it was assigned as part of an English class on childhood in urban landscapes. I absolutely hated it. I am convinced that Holden Caufield suffers from Bipolar Disorder (I even wrote a paper on this—and got an A). The fact that so many criminals are inspired by that book freaks me out. I mean Mark David Chapman recreated Holden’s walk around Central Park before he decided to kill John Lennon!
I am a HUGE Nora Roberts fan, but I couldn’t stand this book for the exact reason you mentioned. Mac was annoying. The only character more annoying was her mother, Linda. Thank God the other 3 books were much better (especially Laurel and Del’s book).
I am also not drinking the Shopaholic kool-aid. I read the first book, and I loathed Rebbecca Bloomwood. I just don’t get what Luke saw in her. Oddly enough, I preferred the movie—maybe it was Isla Fisher’s portrayal, although I hated that it wasn’t set in the UK like the book. Do movie studios think that Americans won’t like a movie if it isn’t set in the US? Sorry, but I preferred Torchwood when it was actually set in Cardiff. I like Miracle Day, but it really overdosed on the Americana (I do like the addition of Alexa Havins from All My Children, though).
I originally liked Christine Feehan’s Ghostwalker series, but after 3 or 4 books it got really repetitive, which I guess is something that happens with Feehan’s books if I am reading the previous comments correctly.
Also, I just don’t get the love of Stephen King. I tried to read The Dead Zone (because I loved the television show), but I just couldn’t get through it. Maybe it was too dated for me, but I just didn’t like it at all.
@LEW,
that would make sense then that Tamara never worked, though it’s also bizarre that graduate-degree granting institution would hire instructors without terminal degrees, but, alas…
From my experience, community college jobs are becoming even more competitive and the days of masters-only are becoming less viable. I think it all adds to my bitterness when reading about academics. I know how hard it is to even get a job, much less keep one and cope with the demands. So reading about a grad student who decides on a thesis topic without slaving through a lit review? Gah.
I wonder if other people in different career paths feel the same way. It would be neat to hear what are the most ridiculously portrayed jobs in romance…
What a great thread this has turned into! (BTW, I loved the Outlander Series and Gail Carrigan, and also all of Loretta Chase). For me, with series writers, there comes a point where it seems they lose their voice and the stories all sound the same (JD Robb for example) I think part of that comes from reading too many books back to back – but then, if I wait between books, I forget the original story, so have to re-read the whole series each time a new one comes out…..you can see my dilemma!
My biggest “omg I hate this so much I have to throw it against the wall” was Mists of Avalon by Marian Zimmer-Bradley. (dating myself here….) This book was like the bible of the feminists in the 80’s and 90’s, and when I would drop the bomb that I couldn’t stand it in a roomful of women, the shrieking would begin. It was actually kind of fun, although at spirituality conferences I confess I felt like I needed protection. But I couldn’t stand her writing style – everyone in the book acted out of character so the heroine’s story would unfold as planned. She did another book about Cassandra that was equally up-chucky- the queen, who is Cassandra’s mother, bounces like a yo-yo between being this wise ruler to this pouting, whining bitch just to make it easy for Cassandra’s storyline to progress. I dislike when writers use their secondary characters as malleable supporting actors.
Never read Wuthering Heights, thanks to Darlene, I’m won’t bother.
I gave up on reading the thread about a third of the way through it (kind of disheartening to read about all these people who hated books I love [wry g]), but I don’t know if anyone else has mentioned absolutely positively not understanding what the big deal is about Georgette Heyer. I find her boring beyond belief. I really would love to know what everyone else sees in her that I can’t see, though.
And the other one that everyone seems to love that I hate (that isn’t specifically shelved in romance, but purportedly has romance in it, not that I could find any) is Miller and Lee’s Liaden books. I especially want to strangle anyone who says if you love the Vorkosigan books you’ll love these. Not!
One last thing. After reading The Burning Point by Mary Jo Putney a few years ago, I will never, ever read another book by her. Heroes don’t abuse their wives to the point of divorce and then get another chance at an HEA. Period. You can argue that one until you’re blue in the face, but that won’t make you right.
I am glad that people who don’t like Nora aren’t pooping on those of us who do…but as huge a fan of Nora I am, I absolutely HATED the Circle trilogy with the vampires. I bought them to keep my collection intact, but I will never read them again as long as I live.
Also feel ickness for LKH’s Anita Blake, but I LOVE Merry Gentry. Dunno why that is.
Used to love Kenyon, can’t tolerate them now. “You are so bad.”, spoken coyly by an idiotess to her man is the dumbest-ass dialogue in the world. I was also grossly underpressed by the newest hardcover that had about 1/2 of a Harlequin worth of words and sells for $25. BS.
AND- Ahem. I hated The Shack.
I have bought many books on recommendations which I have either hated or just thought were just average.
Here’s a few that I can remember off the top of my head.
Laura Kinsale – tried 2 but couldn’t finish them, found them too over the top ridiculous
Meljean Brooks- Guardian series, can not stand them but I like the Iron Duke
Karen Marie Moning – the h/h annoyed the crap out of me
Gail Carriger – the first book was okay but couldn’t finish the latest book, it also reminds me too much of the Amelia Peabody series.
Nalini Singh – the Archangels books in particular
Suzanne Collins (The Hunger Games) – I found them too horrifying, I did read the first but only skimmed over the next 2 just because I wanted to know what happened. I wont see the movie
Zoe Archer – her books are just too WTF for me
Twilight – for reasons too numerous to list
Joanna Bourne – just couldn’t get into the Spymasters Lady
Carrie Lofty – hated her book about Will Scarlett
Dan Brown – how this guy became a best seller I do not understand!
Sophie Kinsella – hated with a passion the Shopaholic books, how stupid was the heroine?
Mary Janice Davidson – I read books from two of her series and the characters were exactly the same. At least give them different sayings or mannerisms. No one I know goes around saying “Dude” all the time. It really, really annoyed me.
@Aurora: OMG Dickens is awfulllllll, he and Steinbeck should start a club of most depressing authors in history.
@TC: ugh yes, so invested. I wish shomeone would just write a concise article and timeline of what’s new with the DH cuz I am getting so tired of them but damnit I want to know what happens to Nick!
@Wahoo Suze: My mother LOVES DS. I don’t get it. I’m convinced she has a group of ghost writers churning this shit out for her, how can any have written so much? and they’re all the same!
@Catriona: I’m thinking of getting my masters of library sciences degree. could I get your email? I’d love to have an idea of what i can expect/look forward to.
@Librarian Lizy: Same thing happened to me with beowulf. First reading: wtf? Second reding: wow what a brilliant work! same comment as to Catriona, could I get your email?
@DeeCee: I just find Larissa Ione’s heroines are such monstrous pains in the asses! stubborn angsty whinny self-righteous bitches, worse than Rachel in Sharon Shinn’s Archangel.
@Rebecca: Oh blech, thanks for the image! lol now another reason to NEVER touch Lora Leigh’s books (cuz that’s who Pamelia said it was)
@henofthewoods: If you liked the style of Leguin, then you may not like HArry Potter. I myself adore HP but wasn’t fond of Earthsea, though I appreciate it for it’s good writing.
Delilah Marvelle began a series where her third Hero in the series was going to be a virgin and…. the publisher pulled the series for not making enough money. well duh mr publisher, you were charging 4.99$ a pop.
best jane Austen? Northanger Abbey. freaking funny book. a spoof of the gothic genre. and im so not a fan of Austen (Die, Emma Woodhouse, die!)
I was surprised Coulter didn’t come up earlier too – her heroines TALK ALL THE TIME – in ways no real person I ever heard talk, especially during sex: “Oh Hero, it is so strange – you are big and hard and I am soft and tender but it feels so good that you are inside me and …” I kept wondering why Hero just didn’t stick his dick in her mouth and SHUT HER UP ALREADY! And the heroes are no better – alpha-male jerks. Trust me, the FBI ones, bad as they are, are 100% more readable.
Oh, put me in with the haters of Outlander, Jane Eyre, Gone with the Wind, Wuthering Heights, and anything by Dickens (except for Christmas Carol).
Holy (Scottish) cow.
Am crying giant Loch Ness tears…never knew anyone who didn’t like Outlander!!! At most they thought the books were too long.
I confess: Outlander is in my flood-n-earthquake emergency kit. That’s how much I love it.
Anyway, I practically got attacked on the one review I left on Amazon about Nora Roberts. I’ve read most of them, but what killed me was the book where the heroine wanted to go out for a drink and put on a “JAZZY VEST”! A “jazzy” piece of clothing? And of all things, a vest?!? Need I point out this book came out LONG past the last round of vest-wearing days…I think every other book uses the word “jazzy” and she’s about 5-10 years behind with her contemporary references. Just reading one makes me feel like I’m in an L.L. Bean catalog.
I loved Karen Marie Moning’s Highlanders (when I was able to suspend my belief about half of them…but the men made up for it), but I have forgiven myself for being stupid for trying to understand her Fever series. I’ve tried reading most of them, have even read her blog posts to understand, and I’m still LOST! I don’t get it….is she doing the fairy-nasty or not? Is it all in her head? And why Dublin?
BTW, she strikes just as hard as Gabaldon in saying her Fever books are NOT romances. She calls them fantasy fiction, I think (can you tell I was recently on her website trying ONCE AGAIN to understand the Fever series?!?)
@tricornhat: I feel the same way about Sunshine! Actually, I really, really got turned off all things Robin McKinley because of her stance on fanfiction and fanart; it comes off condescending and dismissive. I tried to put that out of my mind and went on to (try to) read Sunshine, and I could not get over just how awful the main character was and how terribly stupid stupid stupid those supernatural police officers were. And one other thing that really jumped out at me during reading this particular McKinley book was how often she will have the heroine will pick up some magical doodad at some place and it will end up being the jewel/stone/lima bean that saves the day. I don’t mind MagGuffins usually, but McKinley’s style is already so pretentious and hyperbolic…no. No, no, no. (I did appreciate how the vampires truly were gross, though. That was a nice thouch given that vampires are supposed to be desiccated corpses and not sparkling Adonises. [Adonii?])
I could never get into Nora Roberts either. Her books aren’t badly written nor are they offensive. They’re like vanilla pudding: bland and forgettable. I’ve tried to read her over and over and over again, and I’ve only ever been able to half-way enjoy her Chesapeake Bay books, and only then because of Seth. The love stories couldn’t have bored me more.
Another author I just could not get into was Eloisa James. I tried. I swear I tried, but the only book of her’s I’ve been able to finish was Enchanting Pleasures and I can’t tell you how much I hate that book. I’m already leery about books that are set in/around colonial India because, hey, that’s where I’m from and when you can feel the scars left there because of the Raj reverberating through your family, well, it can get very annoying when authors are really very cavalier about it. The moment the Magical Guru showed up, I was ready to throw the book against the wall. No, wait, I was ready to do that when the heroine’s prodigious bosom wiggled so much she flashed an entire ballroom. It didn’t help that the twit went on to attempt suicide to prove a point. I will give James credit for that one gay character she ninja’d in there, but that’s it.
And another thing! (Oh God, who knew I had such anger in me?) I’ve never liked Lisa Kleypas’ historical novels (though that’s more of a personal taste thing; I find her prose stilted and humorless), I HATE HATE HATE her contemporaries. Sugar Daddy is mostly gormless even though Liberty is rather irritating. But the book I really, really can’t stand is Blue Eyed Devil. It’s a masterful look at how a woman can weather an abusive relationship and still go one to live a full life, but that one moment in the end when Harvey or whatever his name was admits to bailing out his brother for rape and paying off the victims family? The book went flying at the wall. And how Jack seduces Emily/Emma/Whatever with meat in Smooth Talking Stranger? I’m not a vegetarian and never will be, but I found that offensive. Does Lisa Klaypas believe that being vegetarian makes a man less, you know, a man?
Aaaaand one last thing: I’m a desperate Jim Butcher fangirl, but I can understand why his books don’t work for everyone. The Dresden Files don’t really take off until book four or so, but after that? Oh good God.
@Sharon
Ha! Hahahaha! You started me giggling maniacally, and now I can’t stop!
I love Julia Quinn’s stories. There is humor and good ideas, but her love scenes are not always her best feature in her books. For example, there was a tortuous(sp?) deflowering of the virgin love scene in one of the Bridgerton books. Oh please! Just get it over with!!!
I already feel less isolated. I did not like Lord of Scoundrels. When this site held it up as a great book, I went back and reread it and I just couldn’t get into it. I didn’t like the hero or the heroine…
Becca—I hated The Knight IN SHINING ARMOR! The heroine took everything her boyfriend and his rotten daughter did, and she paid for the privilege! I also thought it was terrible that she went back to her own time, and “met” a carbon copy of the hero. She should have stayed with him. By the way, I do love time travels.
I didn’t like Sherry Thomas’ books either. I tried Not Quite a Husband and Private Arrangements and loathed the main characters in both. The writing was stunning though, and I liked His At Night a lot.
Lord of the Rings didn’t work for me either. Love the movies, love the Hobbit, but Lord of the Rings was too dense. I felt like Tolkein had the world so well developed that he let it intruded on what was actually happening in the story, and dragged down pace and plot.
What a relief to know i’m not the only one who didn’t like Lord of Soundrels, and Bet Me! Two of the books recommended by Sarah for people new to the genre. Because of their fan base in the bitchery I keep thinking I should re-try Loretta Chase and Eloisa James but every book ends up in a big DNF pile. Haven’t re-tried Crusie yet.
Zoe Archer’s Scoundrel was a DNF for me too. It seemed like every other page the heroine was admiring the hero’s manly physique, no one in the book club seemed to notice.
On a positive note, I haven’t seen anyone in the thread dissing Jill Shalvis, or Kathleen O’Reilly, two of my favorite contemporary authors. Hope I’m not tempting fate by saying that! It seems most of my favorites have taken at least one hit.
Books I haven’t read: Stephanie Plum, LORD OF SCOUNDRELS (though I did get the e-book when it was either free or .99), Mary Janice Davison(SP?), and many others.
KNIGHT IN SHINING ARMOR was horrid. I hate WUTHERING HEIGHTS.
My favorites : JANE EYRE (since 5th grade), all of Jane Austen (to varying degrees), OUTLANDER , both Nora Roberts/JD Robb (but prefer the IN DEATHS). There are many other classics in this list, as well as too many other romances to mention.
(1) I liked Gone with the Wind and found Scarlett fascinating, but I’ve grown to hate Rhett. Sure, he’s fun at first, but then he gets too old to have a good time and starts itching for respectability, and he’s all like, “Scarlett, you’re a terrible person and you have to do what I say because I’m more moral than you.” Also, he’s a rapist.
(2) I don’t like paranormal romance at all. I like romance and I like horror, but they are two tastes that do not go great together. It’s neither scary nor romantic.
(3) I don’t hate contemporary romance, but it’s kind of “meh” for me. Really, it’s historical all the way.
(4) I love Mary Balogh, but I actively hated Dancing with Clara and Tangled. Freddie in DwC disgusted me. I seriously wanted to spit on him. And I hated Tangled because a character had to commit suicide for the HEA to happen. Also, the characters were always going on about the superiority of the Regency to the Victorian Era.
(5) I thought The Prince of Midnight had a lot of potential, but ultimately it was wasted. The heroine was just mean and I didn’t believe for a second that she would have a happy marriage with the hero. And it was a sin that the Marquis de Sade wasn’t used more.
(6) I like Julia Quinn okay when I’m reading her, but there’s no substance to most of her books and many of her heroines are like soggy toast. Even the two books I liked pretty well (What Happens in London and Ten Things I Love about You) both had these shocking, upsetting things happen towards the end, out of fucking nowhere. I don’t think she takes rape seriously enough, either. I mean, it’s not excused or anything in those of her books that I’ve read, but attempted rape is used way too much as a plot device and there’s no sense of how awful it really is.
(6) I don’t get Woodiwiss at all. The prose is unbearably purple, the plotting is just bizarre (seriously, has anyone really thought about what happens in Ashes in the Wind?), and the heroes and heroines just plain seem to hate each other.
(7) Loving a Lost Lord by Mary Jo Putney is hilarious, and not in an intentional way. “The skies themselves wept because they loved each other, and it was not enough,” is burned into my brain. Then there’s the fact that the assassin trying four times to kill the hero is cited as evidence of his dangerousness instead of his sheer incompetence. Plus all the resurrections.
Wow; great thread!
I forced myself to finish Outlander. It went from meh to bleh. Never found a Nora book that remotely tempted me. My daughter tried to get me to read Twilight, but the bit I read seemed insipidly stupid. I’ve read a few paranormals that I enjoyed at the time, but I am pretty much over the genre by now. And I’ve pretty much hated all the “Book Club” novels and most of the “classic” literature I’ve ever read. I read fiction for fun and non-fiction to learn something interesting. No time to waste on reading stuff that’s neither…
Gha, the Anita Blake books made me want to kill. I had so many people tell me how great they were. People who read exactly the same books as me. So I broke down and got these huge anthologies from a book club. Meaning at some point someone, somewhere could have fixed the terrible typos and bad grammar but hadn’t. And she reuses entire paragraphs. I hate it when an author uses the same descriptor too many times, so one can imagine the reaction to reading an entire paragraph for the third time in one book. Bad writing, no editing, and a character I couldn’t care less about; wee, not the way I want to spend a sunday afternoon with a quilt and a cat. I did make a friends day when I handed her three huge hardcovers to replace her tattered paperbacks. I couldn’t stand even having them on my shelf anymore.
I don’t understand the hype of Lord of Scoundrels either. I thought it was appalling the hero was so repelled by his bastard son. I have issues with people having illegitimate children in general and not taking care of them, but the boy’s resemblance to the hero is a stupid excuse for him to go all crazy and want nothing to do with the boy, no matter that he had a tortured past and what-not. He is the adult, his boy is living in squalor and suffering, and it’s his responsibility to stop being a whiny brat and make an effort to care for his son. The heroine should not have had to bully him into it. The whole situation was distasteful.
Well I’m easily entertained so not much is a dnf for me but….
O!M!G! do I HATE Wuthering Heights. That book is seriously F’d up. It makes me mad every time it’s even mentioned.
Those Bronte sisters were all seriously depressed. Read any of their other books. All of them are…bleak. Most don’t even end well. Even Jane Eyre, when she was FORCED to give a “happy ending” to before the publisher would reprint it, she grumbled about for the rest of her life. Jeez. And I do love Jane Eyre for nostalgia for my angsty teenage self.
And I finished Outlanders cuz it bugs me to leave books unfinished, awful or not. (yes, awful) But there was no way I was gonna do book two.
Anita Blake – loathed her from the first sentence in her POV, but slogged through to book 6 because the UF genre hadn’t yet exploded and I could never get into paranormal romance.
Lord of Scoundrels – I don’t hate it, but I don’t consider it a romance. It has to be a satire of every Regency romance trope. It just has to be.
Nora Roberts/J.D. Robb – tried the first In Death after years of hearing so much about the books and Zzzzz…tried a Roberts title and Zzzzzz…
When He Was Wicked by Julia Quinn – found the beginning heartbreaking, but OMG, the rest of the book was about Francesca nursing Michael from malaria all the while still mourning her dead husband, then with twenty pages left (during which she’d spent 200+ pages watching over him moan and sweat with malaria), she’s suddenly in love with him.
The Iron Duke – HATED Rhys the Duke of Asshole. Would have preferred if it was a steampunk series rather than romance, and if you strip away the steampunk world, it’s a pretty standard historical romance.
Jane Austen and Georgette Heyer. I like Austen’s plots but I think the deification of her canon turns me off. Heyer’s writing is so cold and distant.
Bound By Your Touch and Written in Your Skin by Meredith Duran – found the writing overwhelmingly, mind-numbingly turgid and grew annoyed by characters who spent pages agonizing over one another’s tiniest gestures or dialogue.
His at Night by Sherry Thomas – the premise reminded my of J. Deveraux’s The Raider, so the fact that the book was supposed to be serious and angsty rather than farcical and humorous made me lose interest.
Can’t get into Lisa Kleypas at all. There’s something too treacly and saccharine about the characters and the prose that turns me off.
The less said about the BDB the better. I rushed out to buy the first book after Lynn Viehl raved about it on her blog, but was insulted by the “black” slang, the hip-hop references, and the incredibly stupid brothers.
I’m done with the Mercy Thompson series and the Sookie Stackhouse series. Mercy’s “awesomeness” finally got on my nerves, and I hate that every female character either hates Mercy, is intimidated by her, or she thinks they’re not worth her time (including her own family!). Sookie lost me when Harris fell in love with Eric Northman, and the focus veered from Sookie’s growth in order to showcase how wonderful Eric is. Barf.
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LOL! Never read her, but now I know I won’t.
Okay, I have to agree with the person who said that this has the makings of a fantastic book club discussion with a comfy couch and entire bottle of wine. Any Michigan people out there, lemme know. This would be entertaining enough to make it okay for a bit of travel.
I also have to agree with Coulter’s FBI series. Some of them have been okay, but if the two main recurring characters, Savage and Sherlock, generally make me want to kick them in the shins.
Also with JR Ward. I’ve read about four of them, thought one was okay, and the others make me want to kick more shins. I can’t remember which book it was (they kind of all blend in together anymore) but the hero more or less cheating on the heroine because he couldn’t control his need for sex and didn’t want to sully the heroine. Grr. And then in the same night she forgave him and did the minor nasty with him. Double Grr.
Lauren Dane’s Coming Undone. There was no conflict. There were threats that bad things could happen (eg. the heroine may lose custody of her daughter), but they never eventuated. So where were the freaking obstacles that characters are supposed to overcome? The interesting events (husband’s death) happened way in the past.
@Sophie Brown
What? I have never heard this and I am very interested to know more. Can anyone point me to further reading on the subject?
Um, pretty sure that’s not true, actually. The only 19C novel I can think of off the top of my head that actually has a changed ending (especially following a first edition) is Great Expectations. And I’m going to say that I’m pretty well versed in 19C literature.
Jane Eyre has always ended with Rochester and Jane together. CBronte’s first novel, The Professor (which sucks, by the way), has plot elements that strongly anticipate her last novel, Villette, (almost to the point where it could be seen as a very early draft) but it was not published until after her death.
zOMG the Dark Hunter series sucks like a gas giant.
Are all the major characters brain damaged or something? Supposedly they’re these hot genius witch-women but the dialogue and action doesn’t support it at all.
And why do immortals have the emotional depth of a teenager? Please help me understand this.
I remember one DH book with some Marysue that lacked basic table manners, had the vocabulary and maturity of a 14 year old, fought vampires in black leather pants and…spoke ancient greek as a hobby. o.O She threw half-a-dozen selfish temper tantrums, had the self-reflection of coal mine..and she has the self-discipline to study any martial arts? o.O
I actually did study ancient greek as a hobby..Clearly the author knows about as much about language and martial arts as she does about mythology.
Great Expectations was the one that sprang to my mind, as well. And it wasn’t the publisher who convinced Dickens to change the ending, it was Thackeray, one of his author friends, so he did it in the service of the book (he was his own publisher by then).
As far as I know, Jane Eyre has never been changed, by the author or anyone else directly concerned with the book. Both the books above are on my all time favourites. Well, a book that starts with a girl in a library, hiding away to read – what can I say? That’s the story of my childhood (without the horrid auntie).
I do find books with perfect heroes and heroines who never do anything reprehensible or wrong, boring in the extreme, which is why I avoid the sweeter end of the romance spectrum. But I do expect a reformation before the end!
This thread is like the Godfather. It keeps pulling me back in.
Hands up, I’m another one who loathes the Outlander books. I also freely confess to HATING Gone With the Wind…I wanted to punch
S O’H right in the gob – and then drown the bitch ! And finally – I’ve tried …I’ve REALLY tried – but I just don’t get the fan girlieness surrounding Laura Kinsale. All 4 of the books of hers that I’ve read landed up in the recycling bin …. There are more , but those are my worst offenders
The first two Gabaldon books were like catnip to me, especially the second. But the fourth book was my downfall. 200 pages in and we had not made it to breakfast the very first day. DNF that sucker and have never looked back.
Tried the first of the Anita Blake series, and just did not hold my interest. DNF.
Wheel of Time series. Ugh. The author got hooked on coke, and lost total control of the books while still cranking them out for his drug money. Huge disappointment to me that the series became so bloated.
The biggest disappoint in a book for me recently was Captive of the Night by Loretta Chase. I have loved every other Loretta Chase book, and Lord of Scoundrels is up on a pedestal for me. I actually saved this ebook for my vacation last month to savor it, and just could not stand the hero or the heroine. I really did not like the flighty “passionate” heroine and frequently wanted to slap her.
Make that disappointment
Invite the mean girls out and 350 comments later. . . .
@ ashley: sure, hop over to my blog and drop me a comment.
I’m so happy that so many people are enjoying this thread! Reading through, I’m feeling a mixture of “so true!” and “oh no you didn’t!” But I’m really glad that people are voicing their opinions. It just goes to show that even the most sacred novels that we love with all our hearts have issues. I doubt there’s a “great” book out there that someone, sometime hasn’t thrown across the room.
Really?
Talking about likes and dislikes in a calm and open-minded manner is “invit[ing] the mean girls out”?
Not that I ever started reading Wheel of Time, because I haven’t—but whoa, given that Jordan died from nasty illness, easy there on calling him a drug addict, mmmkay?
(Note: that Wheel of Time is in fact such a massive doorstopper of an epic fantasy is the major reason I’ve never bothered to read it, myself.)
This thread is so much FUN. I’ve never seen so many flames that, for some reason, don’t offend me, even if I like the books in question. There are some books/series that I was considering reading and now won’t. (Outlander tops that list.)
Kerry Allen: mind if I post your definition of bad writing in my journal? I love it.