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 wasn’t at my computer when the book discussion went down last week, but I’ll pipe up now and say I really hated Touch of Frost by Jennifer Estep. To the point that I regret spending money on it. It seems a lot of other folks liked it a lot, but I feel like I was promised Buffy and Veronica Mars, and got Bella from Twilight instead.
I don’t know how spoiler-y I should get, but what I love about heroines like Buffy and Veronica and Tiffany Aching and Charlotte Doyle and even Valancy Stirling is that they have these moments when you think they’re defeated—when THEY think they’re defeated—and then they reach way down and pull out some kick-ass-ery, whether it’s verbal, physical, intellectual, emotional, what-have-you. They rescue themselves, in some way, and come out stronger and more self-assured because of it.
I didn’t see any of that in Touch of Frost—oh hell, okay, **SPOILERS**—the protagonist gets rescued *twice* in the final scene by the love interest and ends up just as direction-less as she starts out. It seems that there’s this kick-ass Slayer-esque role waiting for her, but she never really steps into it. And there’s that weird Twilight-y forced-chasteness-for-supernatural-reasons plot device, which I hate. AND (big issue for me) the protagonist repeatedly calls another female character a “slut” or “slutty” as a synonym for “bitchy, selfish, or vain.” It yanked me out of the story every single time. I know teenage girls police each other with labels like “slut” and “skank” all the time, but for me, “slut” is just not an acceptable label for a protagonist to throw around, especially in a YA book. I mean, there’s NO acknowledgment that this word is ALL ABOUT the double standard, wherein dudes can sleep around but women are not supposed to have sexual desires—and it’s being used repeatedly by a character who can’t touch or be touched by the guy she has the hots for? That could’ve made for a really interesting revelation about sexual desires and jealousies and girl-on-girl policing among 17-year-olds, but the author doesn’t seem to realize it.
I’d rather read a story where that good-girl/bad-girl dichotomy is pointed out and problematized instead of reinforced. I’d rather read a story where the sexual desires and activities of teenage girls are acknowledged and handled with a little more sophistication and complexity. I finished it because I was hoping I would finally get that “YES! Finally!” moment, but it never came.
I have become leery of bestsellers of late, because so many of them have turned out to be not my cup of tea. The only romances I remember off the top of my head that fall into this category were the Sign of Seven books by Nora Roberts, in which everything was so pat and symmetrical that I expected at some point the three couples would all start having simultaneous six-fold orgasms.
I avoid Lori Foster after having read three books by her in a row where the modern heroine was a virgin, long ago gave up on Danielle Steel, and find myself hesitating to read any more Georgette Heyer because of a fear of discovering yet another intolerably featherbrained young heroine or secondary ingénue between the covers.
As for other genres, I have made four attempts to read The Shadow of the Wind, which theoretically should be right up my bibliophilic alley, but which after the first chapter reads (to me) like a bad 50’s pulp melodrama. Another book a lot of people loved was The Little Stranger. I was more than halfway through it but stopped because the suspense was still being built up and nothing much had happened yet.
On a more general note I avoid romances with pirate heroes like the plague because I see nothing romantic in robbery and murder, I find my disbelief difficult to suspend when I come across a virgin in a contemporary romance novel, and I have been known to use old skool rapey romances as kindling.
BET ME – Jennifer Cruise – everyone loved that book and shouted its praises. I HATED it and could not figure out what was so great about a heroine falling for a hero that’s only interested in her because he’s made a bet – and she KNOWS he’s only paying attention to her because of the bet. That just pushed her over into my TSTL category.
LEAD ME ON – Victoria Dahl – that book just SUCKED. It pushed all the buttons – heroine to stupid to dump a loser family, says she “won’t” but then she does, and has no problem calling people out – especially her family but she lives the lie. If she’d been serious about creating a new life to escape her past “skankdom” – she’d left town.
I love how some of our tastes intersect perfectly, while other books divide some readers on total opposite poles. It’s so interesting.
@Sarah F: I’m sorry Bitten didn’t work for you! I love that book, for a whole mess of reasons, and I loved the free (or not free anymore?) prequels even more.
AND HOLY CRAPMONKEYS. HI SNARKHUNTER!!!!
I agree on the Sookie Stackhouse books. I picked up the first one on a friend’s recommendation and just did not care for it. The mystery was ok, but I found Sookie so wishy-washy that I couldn’t be bothered to read anymore of the books.
Hunger Games I thought was good. I enjoyed it while I read it, but I felt I would have been happier if it had been stand alone with her and Petra going home having managed to survive and realizing their attraction for one another. I have no interest in reading more about the world or the guy at home the emotionally void heroine has suddenly decided she likes.
Johanna Lindsay is also on my list. One of her books was the first romance I read, and as such is probably the only reason I reread it as many times as it did because thinking back at its plot, it is far to woman-being-overpowered for my taste. All other books I’ve attempted by her have just made me feel dirty.
And since I saw Wheel of Time mentioned, the first few books weren’t bad, good fantasy quest type stuff, but I just couldn’t find the world interesting enough to read through whatever the final number there are in the series.
Meant to add this to my EPIC COMMENT IS EPIC, but I hate, hate, hate virgin heroines in contemporaries. In fact, even in historicals, I like it better if the heroine has some kind of previous experience (widows! I’m perfectly happy with widows!).
And if the hero is excited about the heroine’s virginity? NO NO NO. Book-at-wall-chucking-event shortly to follow.
This is so funny. I was thinking Outlander as I read the post, and then when I clicked to the comments, seemed like half the early comments were mentioning exactly that book. I’m glad I’m not alone in my dislike. I can’t stand Outlander. Torture porn. Eroticism of wife beating. So not my thing. And yet people keep giving me copies as gifts: “This is the greatest book ever! You have to read it!” I think I have 3 copies in my personal library now, and I’ve already gotten rid of the one I originally purchased.
Count me in as another reader who DNFed both Outlander and The Iron Duke.
I could barely stand Nalini Singh’s Angels’ Blood. I really wanted to, I liked the worldbuilding well enough and was curious about the world, but omg the characters. Nothing to like about them.
Oh, oh, and I really can’t stand the Bridgertons. I think light wallpaper historicals can be fun, but the humor in those books wasn’t really my idea of good fun, and I found that family INSUFFERABLE and, maybe paradoxically, bland. (Colin and Penelope, I did quite like, until the moment Colin spitefully forced Penelope to down a glass of champagne in front of everyone. I mean, he recognized the act immediately as childish, but it’s hard to forgive an otherwise nice guy who resorts to some sort of physically domineering and humiliating act. UGH.)
Reading my previous comment, if it comes across as if I hate Heyer. I don’t, I just hate those of her books that have impossibly featherbrained young females in them.
Okay so first of all there a lot of books I feel this way about:
1. All I Ever Wanted by Kristan Higgins
First the heroine is a ding-bat.
Second I take serious offense to the fact that our beloved heroine describes the hero as autistic.Anyone that annoying should expect people to be rude. Also several reviewers and readers took this to be real: seriously believing the hero had autisism. As someone who has known at least one autistic person and several people with disabilities; this makes light of a serious disability. This makes this book as offensive to me as the Grand Sophy was to SB Sarah.
2. Romancing Mr. Bridgerton
I have loved many Quinn books, but not this one. Penelope is awesome, but Colin is mean; yelling at her, sulking at her, for no real reason. He was not good enough for her.
Also I like Quinn, but she sometimes she has more family values than the average GOP politician.
In general I wish overprotective brothers would be less common. How is it sexy (among other things)? Your brother gets worked up over seeing you having sex or getting kissed. Think about it.
I agree with Miranda at least a little bit. Eve is absolutely awesome; Roarke not really. He is controlling jerk , who buys his way into anything.
Finally I like the other people have issues with the Alpha-rape heroes.
How much am I loving this thread? I even love seeing how much folks hate the books I love (Outlander, beatings and all! Souless! The Name of the Wind!) as it reminds me what great variety there is out there. Add me to the haters of Twilight, Wuthering Heights, Gone with the Wind. Now I’ll go out on a limb and confess that I hated a book I heard about here: A Nerd in Shining Armor. Lord, how I did hate on this book. Hated the heroine, hated the hero, hated the one-dimensional villain for whom I was rooting in the end. Hell, the book almost made me hate Hawaii. But when the heroine referred to her breasts, out loud, as “titties” I kept reading for the lulz.
Ahhh the Bridgertons, Regency Romancelandia most happy big family where no one is actually happy. Seriously, for a series of which the premise is that it’s about a big happy family, all its members have a huge amount of issues and self-image problems, which could mostly have been solved with a couple of conversations with people who love and know you – like for instance your family.
I read 7 of them, but by then I was so tired of the forced happyness and cheer, and it felt so fake because of all of them had family related issues. Got me off Quinn for a long time I think. (Still not recovered).
***SPOILER***
Maybe I should’ve been warned by the rape by the heroine in the first one, for which she never, ever feels sorry or shows remorse.
***/SPOILER***
@Darlene Marshall – Bless you for saying that about [Wuthering Heights. Thinking about that story can turn me into a bitch (not a smart one) in 0 to 10 seconds.
It’s so interesting to hear other people’s dislikes! I really liked Midsummer Moon and enjoyed Soulless, although I can understand why they might bug someone else. Bet Me? Harder for me to understand the hate. 🙂
darlynne, I’m right there with you on the Dresden Files series. I think I made it through the first 2 or 3 before I stopped forcing myself. They read like Gary Stu books to me. Couldn’t stand them (although I enjoyed the short-lived TV series!).
Also Bitten. I said my piece when it was reviewed on this site, but ditto to the commenter above who said they lasted about 100 pages in, until the “hero” tied up the “heroine” and demonstrated that “consent” was a foreign concept.
The Pink Carnation was a DNF for me, although I can’t really remember specifics—I was just pretty bored and couldn’t keep forcing myself back to it.
Oh, I’m seeing some others that make me remember:
Outlander – I just couldn’t get into it. Stopped after about a hundred pages or so.
The Spymaster’s Lady – it was ok, meh, but certainly not enough to make me a fangirl and pick up the next one.
Interesting that some love Nora, but can’t get into the In Death books. For me, it’s completely the opposite. Her Nora books I find rather (dare I say) boring, but I’m all atwitter when I read Eve & Roarke. Must be the suspense/mystery lover in me.
And oh yes, given that others have already chimed in on these volumes, and I feel that I am obliged to as one of the avowed SF/F readers on this thread:
I have not yet been able to bring myself to tackle The Name of the Wind. Every time I read the blurb of it, in the protagonist’s voice, going on and on about how “you have probably heard of me” and “this is the story of how awesome I am”, my immediate reaction is AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA no.
I never brought myself to get into Wheel of Time, either. I have way less patience than I used to for doorstop epic fantasy, even now that I’m a digital reader and don’t have to worry about them giving me hernias if I’m carrying them around.
O u t l a n d e r times elventythree!
It doesn’t really bother me when everyone loves a book I don’t (The Many Sins of Lord Cameron) because I have total faith in my correctness. I’m not the type of person to say “wow, was there something I missed there?” I’m the type of person who says “Hm, they like sucky books.” I believe in the vernacular this would be Record Store Clerk Taste.
I don’t like a ton of popular authors. Rebel by Zoe Archer did nothing for me. I can’t get behind 99% of the paranormals. Jayne Ann Krentz makes my teeth hurt. I could just make a huge list.
Sorry to double post, but that’s just cos she’s a snob. She’s modulated her opinion over the years but she used to come out swinging on that one in the way back day. It’s a romance. For people that like abusive people.
Also hated Lord Langley Is Back In town. When the hero is an absentee dad with a cruel streak, I can’t get behind him. If he were your ex, you’d be in court 24/7.
Clearing the italics. And can I just add – the Lord of the Rings. Couldn’t get through it but I really tried
I recently read HARD AND FAST by Eric McCarthy”. She’s an author I had read about here on SBTB and added to my to-read list. So I did. The book infuriated me because of it’s treatment of the female graduate student theme (I’m a female graduate student); something that will not get everyone up in arms, but sure did for me.
And I’m glad to see that there are OUTLANDER haters out there. Granted, I did love the first book, but I hate every single moment of the books afterwards. Jamie is the only character I can actually stand in the books, and even he gets tiresome after a while. The series is definitely a DNF for me, and I get angry just thinking about the post-Outlander books, and consequently the series as a whole.
um, wow. ok…
@LEW,
I can relate. Pretty much every book featuring academia is a DNF for me. Same goes for movies and tv shows featuring profs/grad students. The only book that came close to getting it right (though not quite) was Chloe Neill’s Chicagoland Vampire series, though that was pretty much a DNF for me for other reasons…
A Hunger Like No Other. When that book came out, everyone I knew was reading it and just loving it. I read it, and I DNF, because I’m sorry, no matter how turned on the heroine got, I was not charmed in the least by a hero who takes a heroine hostage and forces her to jack him off. That’s rape, even if there isn’t penetration. And Lord knows, I’ve had plenty of fellow readers try to explain to me that it isn’t rape, because he was tortured, because she was a supernatural creature, because she was turned on, etc. The scene totally squicked me out. I have no idea at all why that book became so popular.
Recently, I read the first of the Mercy Thompson series. It was a really engaging Urban Fantasy, but I had an issue with the way Mercy kept insisting, over and over, that women don’t like her. Well, sorry, Mercy, but in real life, if I meet a woman who keeps saying, “Women don’t like me, women are intimidated by me, women don’t get along with me,” I’m going to see that right away as a projection of a woman’s own insecurity, and I’m not going to like her, either. Which happened for me with Mercy. If the next book is another round of “Women don’t like me because I’m the anti-feminine and they’re all threatened by how awesome I am because I’m just like a dude,” then I’ll be out.
Susan Elizabeth Phillip’s “This Heart of Mine.” I wanted to love this book so badly. I like the rest of the Chicago Stars series and I was really looking forward to this one b/c of who the characters are in it. **SPOILER ALERT***
I loved Molly as a character and should have been able to identify with her over all other SEP heroines, but then she RAPES the male lead. He sort of calls her out on it by saying if he were a woman that it’d be rape, but then they fall in love and have an HEA. but to me non-consentual sex is rape, no matter what the genders of the people involved are.
re: “bad writing”
There are two parts to a story. There’s the story (plot, characterization, worldbuilding, etc.) and then there’s the way the words are put on the page (POV choice, description, dialogue, etc.). I can speak only for myself, but when I refer to “bad writing,” I’m referring to the actual words on the page being so distracting (AKA “fishhooks in the eye”), I can’t even see the story.
Examples of bad writing (to me, YMMV): Someone is supposedly fleeing for her life but stops to check her reflection in a window so the author has an excuse to jam her physical description in there. Jamming the character’s stats in there takes precedence over mentioning the presence of a mob of protestors across the street. A water bottle is used as a prop a hundred times in one chapter and it doesn’t end up being used to kill somebody or something equally deserving of all the attention paid to it. The character’s actions totally contradict her thought process. The POV ping-pongs from paragraph to paragraph so you need a spreadsheet to keep track of what thought belonged to whom. The word “primal” is used seven times on one page. There are more sentence fragments than sentences.
Good writing can drag along a limping story. Good story can transcend less-than-brilliant writing. But flat-out bad writing (whatever one’s personal hot buttons are) cannot be overcome by anything (except maybe blunt trauma to the head resulting in amnesia specific to one’s literary standards).
I wasn’t a big fan of Bitten, although I enjoy the female assassin series by the same author.
Patricia Briggs is on my do not read list. I don’t like rape as a plot device, thank you very much.
Wheel of Time: The first book was okay, but it went nowhere fast.
Also, and I’m thinking I’m the only one, In Falling, Fly was a DNF for me. Everyone I know raved about it, and I couldn’t get into it at all.
I am so glad to see I’m not alone in my dislike of certain “popular” books. Here are my top 3:
1. Pink Carnation—ended up skimming through the second half. I just thought it was completely uninteresting and the historical heroine was a childish dingbat. And I could not believe that it was originally marketed as “historical fiction.” A romance is a romance.
2. Lord of Scoundrels—I love a lot of Loretta Chase’s books, but I could not finish this one. Didn’t like any of the characters or the setting. I scratch my head every time someone brings it up as a must-read.
3. Twilight—I was so turned off by the IDEA of this book that I have never read a page and I intend to make it to my grave without ever doing so.
Whew, thanks for letting me get that off my chest:)
Some people love Julie Garwood, but her book For The Roses remains the only book I have ever actually thrown in the trash can. There was one point in the book where she says no, he says yes and won’t take no for an answer. Years later I still refuse to read Garwood.
*Joins the anti-Outlander crowd* Adultery and rape! Yay?
Lord of Scoundrels was entirely “meh” for me. The parts people seem to think were hilarious were only mildly amusing to me. Dain was kind of a douche, and never really redeemed himself in my mind. I liked Mr. Impossible MUCH more, and even than took two tries for me to get into.
I read two Psy-changelings books, realized they were pretty much the exact same book, and gave up. Neat premise, but the writing and characterization turned me off. I’ve determined I can’t get into shape-shifters. Too close to bestiality in my head, with too much alpha-male nonsense.
I keep trying Nora Roberts books, and have yet to find one that I actually like. Everybody’s always, “Oh, she writes friendships so well! And realistic men!” and I keep thinking, “I must be hanging out with the wrong people because none of my friends act or talk like this.” I read that wedding quartet and MY GOD, that sucked. In a the-heroines-should-look-into-seeing-a-psychiatrist-for-medication-because-wow kind of way.
I thought Soulless was too awfully fond of itself, and it wound up a DNF for me. Scoundrel started out good and then just got bizarre and silly, and not in a good, keeps-my-attention way. The Iron Duke had a neat premise, but I came away confused and angered by the world and rape.
And, speaking of rape, I hated The Duke and I. Daphne freaking RAPES Simon, and I’m supposed to be okay with that? I actually physically grimaced anytime Daphne showed up in the other Bridgerton books because I was so repulsed by her actions.
Okay I am trying this the last time.
At Myself
Romancing Mr. Bridgerton
Another thing that really annoyed me is the fact that its so romantic Penelope sat around waiting for a guy, who was out traveling and having sex. Then the best of their sex life for him is that she is purer than the driven snow (a virgin with cobwebs and hymen completely intact and tighter than Scarlett O’Hara’s corset) and for her its that he is happy. Seriously he think he deserves this and how great for him. if she showed any signs of not being completely pure; he probably would have started punishing her just like he punishes her for no reason throughout the book. Sex is almost a punishment anyway.
I also dislike Violet not letting your grown children grow up is not good. According to my mama marriage is best between two adults. also I know a family that reminds me a lot of the Bridgertons I thought it was just the family values, the controlling mother, and the large size. But Jan oda, reminds the real problem might be that everyone is secretly unhappy right beneath the surface.
Forgot to add this to my previous comment, but P.C. and Kristen Cast’s “House of Night” series, the first one, was a DNF I actually threw away. It was so offensive, so unthinkably offensive, I couldn’t continue with it. Mystical Native American grandma? CHECK. Evil girl enemy who is clearly evil because she exhibits openly sexual behavior? CHECK. Heroine uses “retarded” all the time? Come on, who doesn’t know that “retarded” isn’t an acceptable word to use as a pejorative? Even if it is “authentic” teenage dialogue, it really isn’t something that needs to be encouraged.
@JL – which other acadamia ones have you read? One of the others I’ve read that comes to mind to me is Karen Moning’s SPELL OF THE HIGHLANDER.
Re: tv shows/movies. I LOVE Big Bang Theory. I think they nail it. I don’t do physics, but they do a great job parodying hard science academia (and I know many physicists who love the show). But things like Bones, I can’t handle.
Twilight. Just Twilight. I think I get an eye-twitch any time someone says they love those books. I finished the first one so I could have a valid, informed opinion about it. My opinion is officially “what the EFF?” Bella = claw my eyes out depressing. I cannot count the number of times I wished she were a real person so I could smack her upside the head and tell her to get over herself. Edward = creepy. Do not see the appeal there. Now, I could maybe forgive all of this if the writing was good. It wasn’t. There was about 400 pages of nothingness until we actually got to something resembling a plot, at which point Bella passes out and we miss all the action. I don’t know about the rest of you but I was rooting for what’s-his-name (the main “bad” vampire) to win the day and kill everyone.
Also, vampires should not sparkle. That is all.
Wow, there are others out there who don’t like Nora Roberts! And for similar reasons: the rapidly changing/sometimes unclear POV makes me dizzy; some of her older highly recommended books plainly bored me; never came across her over the top villains, though…
As to Jennifer Crusie I only like her early straight contemporaries and Bet Me, couldn’t bring myself to care about the highly praised “Small Town books” that came later and all those suspense etc. books.
The much praised Follow My Lead by Kate Noble was a DNF for me.
Like Ros, I passionately loathe Julia Quinn’s books.
Another extremely popular author I can’t read at all is Susan Elisabeth Philips, mostly because of what Janet at Dear Author called “The Bittered Heroine”. The book that finally put me off trying to like her books, and one of the books I actually hate with a passion, is “It Had to Be You” (the combination of the exaggerated “hilarity” and the—to me gruesome (rape!)—backstory of the heroine made my skin crawl; additionally IMO there was no discernible character development for both h/h, and I didn’t believe the HEA. I absolutely don’t get why this is funny – er, it’s meant to be funny, isn’t it?). Since nobody mentioned her, I might be the only person on the planet in this…
Generally speaking Philips’ It Had to Be You” is an extreme example for something I tend to dislike more and more the older I get: extremely disturbed people who are in desperate need of counseling or therapy are miraculously healed by love—not believable. And I mean extremely disturbed people; not overcoming personal, biographical or ongoing problems or hardships.
I am loving this thread. Even when the books are ones I quite liked (OUTLANDER) or would rescue from a housefire before my children (LORD OF SCOUNDRELS) it’s so fun to hear that they are not universally adored.
I’ll add to the rejection of IRON DUKE (hated the rapist hero from the elevator scene on) and SOULLESS (okay, you’re practical and clever and witty and not sentimental one bit WE GET THAT) and the Sookie Stackhouse books (does that woman ever learn anything?)
From recent raves, I’ll mention FOLLOW MY LEAD—the hero was whiny and useless, the heroine annoying and selfish, the sex was both unbelievable and boring.
As far as classics go, Dunnett’s Lymond Chronicles should be catnip and crack to me, but I couldn’t get past what a raging smug JERK the hero is. Oh, and yes, when he sexually attacks the heroine we’re supposed to cheer him on.
Several people have tried to get me to read Peters’s Brother Cadfael mysteries “because you love the Middle Ages and these are so historically accurate”, and I get tired of explaining “Yes, I’m very interested in the Medieval period, but I couldn’t care less if you get the politics and the shoes right if every single character thinks and talks like a twentieth-century middle-class woman.
And I’m sorry, I can’t let this pass:
Hitler was definitely not an atheist, he was “a member in good standing” of the Catholic Church his entire life. He made several remarks critical of various religious institutions but never explicitly rejected Christianity.
Stalin and Mao may have been atheists, but NONE of their crimes were ever justified by or used to further the Theory of Evolution or any other “science” except for economics, politics, and some sociology. They were interested in obtaining and increasing their personal power and would use any rhetoric handy, whether or not it was completely irrelevant and contradictory to their policies.
The acceptance of evolution or any other modern science preclude beliefs in the soul or of an afterlife; and in this century alone, many world leaders have practiced and endorsed heinous crimes while proclaiming (and occasionally in the name of) their fervently held religious beliefs.
Please do not use religious beliefs, scientific knowledge, or lack of same as a litmus test of moral character or behavior. It is as reductionist and insulting to those of us with strong religious faith as it is to those who do not share it.
I walked away from Julia Quinn after trying The Duke and I after many recommendations. It is NOT OK that the heroine rapes the hero and the book never problemetizes it. Like, it might be possible to have that happen and then talk about how it was a mistake, or shitty, or whatever, but no, she wanted a baby, and that makes it ok to fuck him against his explicit consent? UGH!
Anything by Thomas Hardy.
I want to kick Jude the Obscure until he stops whining, hammer Sue’s head against the wall, and OMG Tess of the d’Urbevilles and Angel Clare! Kill them now. If they’d hanged her at the start, I’d have two days of my life back.
I didn’t enjoy Loretta Chase’s Lord of Scoundrels. I thought the hero was an ass and that the sex scenes were way too purple for my tastes (“her body weeped its feminine tears of desire” and “lust-swollen rod” were the two memorable phrases). The heroine and her grandmother were the only characters who saved the book for me.
Whoops, I was so indignant on my soap-box I forgot two crucial words:
“The acceptance of evolution or any other modern science DOES NOT preclude beliefs in the soul or of an afterlife”
I bought Ravished by Amanda Quick on Kindle because it had so many 5-star ratings, and OH MY GOD if Harriet talked about her fossils any more my head was going to explode. I have to say, mad props to Ms. Quick for writing a believable spinster. NO ONE WANTS TO HEAR ABOUT YOUR FOSSIL TEETH. That’s right. I’m using Caps Lock. Every time Harriet named another bone, my eyes would start to glaze over. Poor Viscount St. Justin.