Each day, as we post and then tweet the daily books on sale, I encounter variations of the same sort of phrase: GIVE IT TO ME NOW.
Sometimes it’s the combination of a much-loved author and a discounted price that creates this response. But in other cases, the allure of a conflict or familiar trope gets people’s attention.
For example: Neuroscience librarian encounters benevolent stranger living in secret amid library stacks.
(I’m sorry if you just sat up and twitched. I made that up.) (Also, I would need a humidifier if I lived in the library stacks.) (And some hand cream because my entire life would be paper cuts.) (Anyway.)
It seems to me, and this is a combination of conjecture and anecdata, that a brief explanation of the conflict or tropes at work in the story receives a good amount of attention of the insta-buy variety, almost as much as Author + Price.
The power of Known Author + Great Price cannot be denied, of course. Of the links this week from the Books on Sale posts and tweets, the Elizabeth Hoyt and Theresa Romain links received the most traffic, and I attribute that to good prices and to those authors being on some auto-buy lists. I mean, that’s why we have auto-buy lists, right?
But I also think that as we interact online about the books we love, we collectively learn to identify the language and shorthand for the plots, conflicts and tropes we love (and the ones we dislike). A quick description of conflict, aka reader catnip, works on me very well.
For example, my GIMME NOW is set off by couples who get caught in snowstorms. And also by couples whose conflicts prompts a, “I don’t want to like you, I don’t want to like you, I can’t stop thinking about your hair DAMMIT” response.
The more we know about the plots, tropes, and conflicts we love, the better we’re able to find what we like to read, and identify what triggers the GIMME NOW.
RedHeadedGirl: “You get me a ridiculous contrived ‘we have to fake an engagement for REASONS’ or an arranged marriage? I’m pretty much there.”
Carrie: This one author, when she pitches her books to me, always tells me specifically what crazy ass sea creature is included in the book, because she knows I’ll have a moderate interest right up until she says, “There’s a kraken in this one” and then I’m all:
Amanda: “I’ll buy if the book is related to my latest catnip. I’m in a cowboy/erotica kick, so I just bought a copy of Lorelei James’ Corralled.”
Elyse: I’m all about tropes. If it’s a fairytale story–especially beauty and the beast…
What about you? What prompts an almost-reflexive Give It To Me Now response when you’re book shopping? Are there Gimme Triggers you reach for immediately? Which ones have caused you to buy a book?
There are one or two authors whose books I snatch up without a glance at the title, blurb or price.
My gimme triggers include arranged marriages, but the couple must have some degree of respect or liking for one another from the start. I love the beta hero, who wins the love of a heroine, who already recognizes his worth. I guess respectful strangers to friends to lovers would describe it and Edith Layton’s To Wed A Stranger is the best example of this I have ever read.
I have a weakness for stories where an unlikeable character from a previous book is redeemed, but it has to be believable. He or she can’t go from being a complete villain to a flawed, misunderstood protagonist; there must be elements present in the earlier book to suggest that this individual would be worth getting to know better.
My ultimate catnip these days is the “cosy” story with lots of food and cooking and detailed descriptions of comfortable, welcoming settings. Start a book with a menu and I’ll probably click.
Broken hero. Or just a broken guy. Anything I can fix. Throw in some humor and snappy dialog and I’m a goner.
Male and female detectives who fall in love while solving crime. Bonus if it’s a slow burn across a trilogy. I will jump genres and buy unknown authors for this trope because I know I’ll love it. I even have a specific tag in my Goodreads account …
Cyrano de Bergerac. If a story has a character who loves someone, but helps someone else woo them because they feel unworthy… shivers of delight.
I prefer adventure with my romance. If the couple are searching for a lost city or fighting off pirates or running from rampaging cannibals, I’m totally there.
Competence porn in a corset. Historicals/steampunk with heroines with jobs that they’re really good at- educators and scientists in particular. O
Ooh, my grabby hands go to “girl disguised as a boy” which works for me especially when the hero is all “why am I attracted to this pretty boy?” though I am also a fan when he’s just playing along. I also love seafaring or theater anything (which just so happens, often seems to necessitate girls disguising themselves as boys (disguising themselves as girls…)
If there is a Garwood historical on sale, that I don’t have, that is a automatic gimme.
As for plot. I love a wallflower or nerd romance.
If you say it’s funny and one of the leads tends toward nerdy, I’m all over it. I also tend toward a hefty love of sic-fi/fantasy, and the fairy tale tropes also usually hit my grabby hands. Put it this way: when you reviewed Romancing the Duke? I didn’t buy it right away, even though it had just about all of my GIMME GIMME GIMME triggers. No, no. I waited, because I knew it would happen. And then one happy day, there it was, in one of the sale posts, for $1.99. I hit that buy with one click button so fast there were scorch marks on the computer. Then I waited some more to read it, because I knew I would love it. Also, that post you do every month where everyone says what they’re reading? Not good for my impulse control problems, at all.
Never change. I regret nothing.
Second chance stories are just irresistable to me.
SCIENCE LADIES
GIMME ALL THE SCIENCE LADIES
Now excuse me, but I have a book about neuroscience librarians to write…
I get an itchy trigger finger if there is a Librarian, wallflower, or plain-jane/ordinary joe trope.
Once married/estranged shortly after/reunited – GIMME GIMME GIMME.
1. Heroine forced into marriage by her horrid family. (either their plot to trap the hero, or her desperate means of escape from them.)
or
2. Uber honorable (preferably military) hero, who actually worries about stuff like shredding a gal’s reputation and/or leaving her pregnant BEFORE jumping in the sack.
Or
3. Intelligent, preferably nerdy, heroine who stumbles on the evil plot, and the cop who protects her
AND
Under $5.
Arranged marriages…and I shudder to admit a formed-in- adolescence obsession with guardian ward (sara SEale, Daddy Long Legs etc) Must be vintage cause in real life..ugh.
ACTION LADIES
Assassins, soldiers, detectives, spies, what have you. If the heroine at some point does the kicking of ass and taking of names, I’m all about it. I also immediately perk up at the mention of certain locations– I’m a Soviet history buff, so any book set in Eastern Europe or the Caucasus (come to think of it, I’ve never read a romance set in Georgia or Azerbaijan) makes me hover over the one click buy button before I even read the entire blurb.
1) Is the hero a musician? Is the heroine a musician? How about both of them? GIMME.
2) Hero has amnesia. _Total_ sucker for a hero-has-amnesia plot. This brought to you by how all my favorite TV shows growing up had at least one “male lead has amnesia” episode. Sometimes _two_. I’m looking at YOU, MacGyver.
3) And speaking of MacGyver–hero who uses his brains more than his brawn. Particularly if there’s something he’s blindingly good at that seems utterly obscure to everybody else, like MacGyver doing what he did best, and I don’t just mean the mullet. 😉 Mac’s instinctive gift for finding creative solutions to all his troubles was something I absolutely adored about the show, and in the final episode where he met a son he never knew he had, I loved to bits how the son had inherited that same gift.
4) Like L up at #5, I loves me some adventure with my romance. Seeking lost artifacts? GIMME. THIS brought to you by my raving lifetime fangirling of Indiana Jones.
5) And I REALLY love a slow burn across a trilogy or even a series. If the hero and heroine start off platonic and are friends or colleagues for a while, and slowly begin to become more important to each other, until at last “Gadzooks! When did I fall in love with you?” If they’re solving mysteries together, all the better. Which reminds me I have another Imogen Robertson that needs reading. 😀
And OH YES:
6) Romance that crosses national or language barriers. Because I’m a bit of a language nerd. If one of the involved parties has to cross a language barrier to establish the relationship with the other, I love that. Particularly if the language involved is French, since I’m studying that language these days, thanks to my rampaging fangirling of Quebecois trad. 😀 But I’d also be inclined to look at a romance where the language barrier involved German, since I’m also studying German!
(And I’d be really rather impressed by any author who pulled off making a German speaker romantic! NOT an easy language to sound romantic in, German.)
P.S. Any romance shows up involving Francophone musicians, I will be all over that so fast it’ll be like there’s a wormhole straight into my nook.
i don’t really like vampire books, but I love Laura Adrian’s books. I buy them without reading the summary.
I’m also a sucker for the fake engagement. I like for people to end up rich AND happy. (Sorry but it’s true!). I really like it when someone is “surprise! I’m actually a millionaire!”
You know … Because that could also happen to me. 😉
I love marriage of convenience stories, particularly when they think it is going to stay platonic, but it doesn’t. I also like older heroes with younger heroines.
Stuck in a snowstorm, yes yes. Also, road trip stories, how do I love them, can I count the ways? Nope, too many to count. Fake engagements are so delightful. Smartypants heroine and hero who loves her smarts.
Competent heroines with interesting jobs, especially science or medicine, but they have to get the science/medicine right (at least most of it – I will forgive a slip if it’s not important). I almost quit watching NCIS completely after their Xmas ’13 show where I made the diagnosis 15 minutes in and they floundered for another half hour plus did not use appropriate medical care.
I like sass and witty comebacks between the protagonists. I like them to treat each other with respect or for there to be a really good reason if they don’t.
I really like learning about things, too, which is why I like historicals set in times and/or placesI don’t know much about. If it is set in a time that is commonly used, I like learning about the politics of the times.
Does that old painting point the way to buried treasure? Is that book the map to the X that marks The Spot? My entire reading life, ever since I learned as a child how library card catalogs worked, has been in search of quests. Clues to decipher, untangle, solve? Oh, my, yes.
I’m all about a kick-ass-and-take-names heroine. So outline that in the blurb or show me a pic of a strong woman with a sword or something, and I will be on Amazon in an instant. 😀
Oh, for me it’s always a hero who’s been in love with his best friend’s younger sister for years, but doesn’t feel worthy of her, doesn’t want to court her because she’s too young, or is afraid of her brother trouncing him. Or someone who’s been in love with his best friend’s wife, who is suddenly divorced or widowed, and he can step in, after trepidation and angst about it all. Don’t know why, but those almost always get me.
And the snowed in in a remote mountain cabin. Umhmm.
Dear Elyse, Can I suggest Jax Garren’s Tales of the Underlight? It’s a beauty and the beast retelling in three novellas — with steampunkiness, monsters and magic. Totally my catnip and hopefully you’ll like it too.
Well, you certainly had me twitching. That was the plot of my Great American Unwritten Novel. I considered suing you for virtual copyright infringement and unauthorized mind reading. However, not having actually written it, I would totally read it, so somebody better get on it.
Favorite authors on sale are a no brainer gimme trigger. I’m still traumatized by the weekend I missed a bunch Ilona Andrews’ Kate Daniels books going on sale. Now I suffer from compulsive Amazon checking disorder.
Sale items featuring rock stars, hockey players, protagonists of specialized brilliance, goblins, and businesspersons all tempt me. I love deception on the part of hero or heroine, someone who pretends to be something they’re not, e.g. Scarlet Pimpernel or Sherry Thomas’s His at Night. I like certain types of relationships and writing, but the qualities I like aren’t always accurately described in book blurbs. I’ve been bitten by some real literary dogs because of that.
Probably my biggest gimme trigger is recommendations from a trusted source, often from this very website–not just the Bitches at the top, but all them brilliant commenting bitches as well. Reviews that resonate with me and whose reviewers mention other books or authors are another source. I was scanning negative reviews on Amazon for Never Judge a Lady by her Cover, and one review mentioned Cecelia Grant. Later, when I saw a Blackshear novella at a good price, I snaffled it up, and I plan to buy more of these as I see them.
Ooh! Friends to lovers is a big one for me, particularly if it’s the heroine who makes the first move! I first read it in Tears of the Moon by NR, and I still get giddy during rereads when Brenna jumps Shawn the first time. Savor the Moment by NR is another favorite because of this.
Also, Nora Roberts is an auto-buy for me, regardless of price. Same with Kelley Armstrong.
And crime/suspense romances where the heroine plays a much larger role than “needs protection that hero provides”.
Oh yeah, I forgot… Humor. Make me laugh and I’m yours forever.
Also, Australia.
1.Oh, stuck in a snowstorm, definitely, as well as bad-boy hero saving heroine in a carriage accident.
2.Humorous, witty dialog that is not sounding contrived.
3.Christmas Regency country house party Oh yes! or any country house party.
4.Time travel from present ’til then or also from then to present (INTERTWINE by Nichole Van goes both ways).
5. Truly unique plots a la Courtney Milan.
A story with a dog or dogs helping along the romance is a “yes, please” for me. Books with horses by a horse-competent writer like Nancy Herkness, Jesse Hayworth, or Laura Moore are also a “yes, please.”
The trope that can send me into the gimmes is a second chance story. A second chance story with dogs and horses … sigh.
I love me some nerds, plain Jane/Joe, and beauty and the beast stories. Right now, genetically engineered or cyborgs are hitting my gotta have switch.
1. Adventure romance is an instant gimme, especially if the heroine is just as useful as the hero. Better yet have the hero and heroine saving each other.
2. Verbal sparring, lots of badass verbal sparring battle of the sexes.
3. Bespeckled, smart, slightly nerdy heroes.
4. All the fairy tale retellings!
5. Anything with an unusual setting, especially time period wise.
Here’s my checklist:
Historical by author who really knows the period
with Beta or at least self-aware hero
With intelligent/nerdy/clever heroine
with adventure/mystery/asskicking
throw in some humor and I’m all over it.
Julia Quinn does all this in spades, which is why she’s my auto-buy.
Coincidentally, I just had an epiphany about one of my “gimme NOW!” plot devices. I was watching “Father Goose” the other night (for the hundreth time), and the light bulb went off. This is IT! THIS is why I love and cannot resist the intelligent, but curmudgeonly hero and the prissy heroine. It’s Cary Grant’s slovenly dropout professor and Leslie Caron’s wound too tight headmistress. Plus plot moppets galore. I have loved this movie most of my life and only recently realized how it informed my romance choices.
Also, The Scarlet Pimpernel. Said it before: character (male or female)hiding their light behind the guise of a baffoon, and I’m all in.
Lately, books with tattoos. Tattoo artist, tattooed musicians, tattoos under conservative appearance. I would never get one, but I find them endlessly fascinating. I blame the panther wrestling a python on my father’s forearm, and the fact that I spend a lot of my vacation time with old sailors.
People making a good life for themselves from a bad start works for me (lots of that in m/m, not so much in m/f).
Detectives do it for me too.
It’s a combination of voice + trope for me. I like a humorous voice + any number of tropes (virgin hero, friends to lovers, fake relationship/engagement/marriage, forced proximity, marriage of convenience, etc.). I also love some nerdiness or competence porn, and I prefer a beta hero, though I do have a soft spot for a caregiving alpha.
Ooo, where to begin. I love “bottle” books which, like bottle episodes, are tightly focused on two characters interacting with each other without a lot of extraneous hoo-ha. Islands, snowstorms, survival situations, kidnappings…all catnip for me. Sandra Brown was an early favorite: Two Alone and Honor Bound were great.
Also, menages. Maya Banks’ Coulter series comes to mind.
Fun thread. Thanks for asking! 🙂
I am very fond of Fantasy and SF but it’s not an automatic gimme if that is an ingredient in a book, but it can help to tilt the balance towards “buy”.
I also want competence and a sense of humour in both the male and female protagonists. A happy ending is also wanted, and I like to see the characters fight for it.
Also, I like a good villain. Villains are often overlooked in favor of the heroes and their sidekicks, but what happes to the story if all they have to overcome is a cardboard cutout?
So – competent heroes with a sense of humour, a good, hard-fought struggle against a properly evil, blackhearted villain (who is stomped properly flat by the main characters) ending with a properly happy ending?
DON’T GET BETWEEN ME AND THAT BOOK! Unless, of course, you want to get flattened.
I love when the hero is already engaged and suddenly the heroine appears. That reaaally gets me interested. 🙂