⚔Irunía⚔ > Status Update

LOL, ⚔Irunía⚔, I just tested this on my hubby and you're spot on!!!!!!

Beeg wrote: "LOL, ⚔Irunía⚔, I just tested this on my hubby and you're spot on!!!!!!"

Srsly??? 😭😂 That's so funny how differently we perceive this question

⚔Irunía⚔ wrote: "Beeg wrote: "LOL, ⚔Irunía⚔, I just tested this on my hubby and you're spot on!!!!!!"

Srsly??? 😭😂 That's so funny how differently we perceive this question"

riiight?
I'm like: love triangle tropes and
he's: reading on my fone cos I'd rather read a softcover

😂😂
I don’t even know... probably a bad writing style but he said: if it was predictable. So there goes, the exception to the rule 🤷🏻‍♀️ (I laughed out loud because all I read are HEA and I definitely know how they’re going to end)

Lol def not a rule but a tendency nonetheless, Ainhoa. 😂😭 Also I NEED TO CONDUCT A SURVEY LMAOOO. BTW I had answers from women about predictable plot but we bishes who are here for romance need predictable hea at least in our romance 😂

So true, I didn't even think about anything but book-related stuff 😂. Otherwise, what usually prevents me from enjoying a book is just... work. But if I don't work, I can't buy more books, so it's a catch 22 anyway. Book stuff... I really don't like historical romance, I just find myself very bored with it. Cheating. Rape (BDSM or the like and anything consensual is fine by me).

I think when I answered your challenge question while sending you the FR, I wrote cheating. But honestly, I'll say that it would depend on a particular book. If a writer manages to convince me to read a cheating book then I'll read a cheating book! Also, one of my fav tropes is tragedies (so I'm kinda ok with a non-hea book😅). But "currently" if there is something that would hinder my enjoyment then those would be pure erotica books. Also, I don't really like captor captive books (they have stopped making sense to me lol).

Bottom line: I don't really enjoy books that are made purely for your enjoyment. Gimme a super tense book, I'll eat that shit up like a snack.

I don't read romances that have:

1. Prostitute heroines and gigolo heroes.

2. Bisexual MC's. I'm strictly into MF romances.

3. Heroines being raped by villains or been the victims of gratuitous violence.

4. MC's who have kids with other people.

5. Plain Jane heroines, wallflowers and the loud mouth spinster heroines in regency romances. This is me being 💯 superficial and shamelessly shallow. These aren't a huge deal, though. It depends on how ugly the heroines are or how shrewish 😂. It always intrigues me that heroes are 99% of the time sexy/hot/handsome/rugged but yet there are lots of romances with the Plain Jane heroines and some that literally border on ugliness.

6. Menage of any kind ( MFM or FMF ) and reverse harem.

7. Heroines who desperately chase after heroes and have zero pride. Lol.

8. Cheating isn't a huge trigger. I don't like it but I can handle it depending on how it's written and whether the cheater has grovelled like a champion.

I agree with most of what Ivy said. When I was younger I would read anything and I was a huge angst bitch. The angstier the better, which meant I read a lot of cheating, and love triangles. Now I can't stand them AT ALL.
I prefer 'pure' romance where I truly buy the HEA and the love the MCs have for each other. I'm always looking to see WHY they are together and I want to be convinced that neither would be better off with someone else.
That being said, I have a few things I simply don't read anymore.
1. Promiscuous leads (both males and females).
2. Dead spouse trope and/or children with OW/OM. I HATE SINGLE PARENT tropes (unless it's a secret baby, I'm a hypocrite I know)
3. Double hypocrite but I don't like reading about the heroine being abused/raped by OM. I'm fine if it's by the hero (don't let my feminist friends hear me).
4. TSTL and doormat heroines. A drop of doormatiness is fine, but just a drop.
5. Cheating (I may be amenable if the MCs cheat with each other, but it's on a case by case basis)
6. Sharing and MCs being intimate with OP on page. This is my biggest no.
7. Love triangles.
8. Menages and RH.
9 Lack of transparency from an author and fake marketing. This one will make me put the book down and never read that author again.
10. Less of a tropey nature, but I hate when everything revolves around sex. I want romance not erotica, but a lot of indies in the past few years write straight up erotica and sell it as romance. I'm fine with a lot of steam, but I want an emotional connection beyond a sexual one.
There are probably more that I don't remember. I've gotten so picky over the years, and will not read a book unless I heavily research it first. I either wait for honest reviews, or if I'm impatient I just get it and word search for anything of the above. Only after that do I read it.
There are just so many books out there that I simply stopped reading shitty stories that mostly ruined my mood.

Leticia, recently I thought that I don't like historical romance too. As you've said, I found it boring BUT now I realize it depends a lot on the period (and authors of course). If you wanna, one day you may try medieval period (if you didn't before) , I found earlier centuries more entertaining than later periods.
I can deal with rape and cheating though, but I have my own criteria lol.
Thanks for answering my question btw, it's interesting for me to see what my friends like and dislike

P. S. I laughed at ur catch 22 comment, sometimes it seems like we live in the vicious circle of it.

Alka, I don't like reading pure erotica too. Gets too boring and old fast enough and I'm a bit if romantic even if it doesn't show that much. Also I'm with you on cheating, I can deal w any trope really if it's done well in the context of a particular story. It was nice to hear your POV girl 😌

Lori wrote: "I agree with most of what Ivy said. When I was younger I would read anything and I was a huge angst bitch. The angstier the better, which meant I read a lot of cheating, and love triangles. Now I c..."

OMG I HATE the dead spouse trope too ! How could I have forgotten that ? I can't deal with that baggage, even if it's negative baggage and the dead spouse was horrible, because the dead spouse gets too much page time and it detracts from the MCs relationship.

And this reminds me of another big issue I hate and that's when a MC had been married/involved with a sibling or best friend of the other MC. I could never be with a relative's/friend's ex, not even if I was single and he looked like Henry Cavill. Lol.

And yes, authors who use fake marketing and pretend that their book is one thing and it turns out to be another, is also a huge turn off. I'm especially irritated by authors who simply write, in blurbs, that the book has *triggers* but don't specify. That is just useless because it tells us nothing that's helpful.

Carmen, funnily enough I agree w you on everything but the 5th paragraph. I personally have nothing against plane Janes lol, no matter how unrealistic I find it when gorgeously handsome man finds one of them irresistible. :D sharing, kids with OP and sex with OP etc YES I'm such a possessive person in rl that I don't like reading about that stuff even tho I can be convinced to forgive cheating.
Also nothing you wrote was a surprise really, I pretty much know your taste by now from reading your reviews:D

⚔Irunía⚔ wrote: "Carmen, funnily enough I agree w you on everything but the 5th paragraph. I personally have nothing against plane Janes lol, no matter how unrealistic I find it when gorgeously handsome man finds o..."

I like plain Janes too, mostly because I like when everyone is mean towards the heroine but not the hero *swoon*

I agree with the sibling or best friend. There's this really popular book that most people loved and the hero had been with the heroine's sister for 15 years and they were engaged. Just thinking about that gives me such a headache. I can't believe how that is in any way romantic.

Lori, in fact I have pretty much same dislikes when it comes to books as you, like 1,2,3,6,8 and PARTICULARLY 10. Also I remember adding you because you always mention such things in your reviews and that's exactly what I need to know before starting anything. 👁️👁️
Once I came across a book where the heroine was raped by OM in the second half of the story and I was really all butthurt and furious because I hate such shitty surprises and none of the reviews I read said anything abt it 💀

FLOR WHEN YOU WERE YOUNGER?? 😭😂😭That just made me lmaoo

BTW, I'm glad I'm not in the minority on single parent trope (at least among my friends) . I don't get the omnipresent fascination towards single dads in romance... like it turns me off when I gotta read abt a man with such baggage 💀👄

⚔Irunía⚔ wrote: "Lori, in fact I have pretty much same dislikes when it comes to books as you, like 1,2,3,6,8 and PARTICULARLY 10. Also I remember adding you because you always mention such things in your reviews a..."

I'm glad my reviews helped 😍 I hate when people don't mention things like that, especially when they are triggering.
I always appreciate authors that have clear trigger warnings so I know from the beginning what I'm getting in. I've also found that when the trigger warnings are clear, people are less likely to be vague about what happens in the book.
Also what's with some authors asking people not to give spoilers????? How has that become a thing?

Lori, your reviews are super helpful 🙏😌 I guess authors are trying their hand at SHOCK SHOCK SHOCK value so that trigger warnings /spoilers are considered as something that will ruin readers 'experience (or make them run away from the book as fast as they can lmaoo). For God's sake it's romance we're talking about, not detective stories 😂 keeping threesome in a secret is kinda dumb, no??
Also I don't know whether you read vintage HP but there you can never find any trigger warnings but somehow I'm fine w it.👁️ Even considering that they feed us w LOTS of triggering content. Tons of it actually. But for me everything is fine since abuse and all the terrible shit comes from a hero 💀💀❤️

I used to read a lot of old HPs and I love them because I know everything comes from the hero. I'm such a hypocrite, but sometimes I really love those double standards. Also bodice rippers? Love the 'forced seduction' but only when it's from the hero😅😅

I guess it's because everything dark nowadays is simply the shock factor. I'm sorry, but if knowing there's a rape in the book spoils the entire thing, then I doubt there's much else besides the rape.
And the worst thing is that it's becoming a trend to just throw in the most fucked up shit in a book and then call it a dark romance😩

Yes, I have same double standard. 🤪 I've tried a lot of Dark romance lately and it's either dark only in the name w characters calling themselves "dark" and "twisted" while they are simply dumb asses or as you've said fucked up shit that involves random ppl coming into the story and doing something to make us all truly "shocked". 🤪 Things written for the shock value always make the impression that an author tried too hard but the book still ain't it 🤒

⚔Irunía⚔ wrote: "BTW, I'm glad I'm not in the minority on single parent trope (at least among my friends) . I don't get the omnipresent fascination towards single dads in romance... like it turns me off when I gott..."

Lord yes ! I also don't get the fixation that some readers have with the single dad trope. There's an excess of this trope in Kindle Unlimited, with the tattooed single dad on the cover. I want heroes to experience fatherhood only with the heroines as their babies' mamas.

As for the trigger situation, books from the bodice ripper era tended to handle triggers in a more relevant ( historically ) fashion and authors put a lot more effort into crafting stories that were *unputdownable* even at their worst. Lol. Whereas authors like Amo Jones tends to just throw in gratuitous violence, cheating etc without justifying it in a way that makes the story interesting to me. An example of this was one of her books where the heroine, in the first or second chapter, has a threesome with her female friend and the guy who will turn out to be the female friend's hero. The heroine gave a blow job to this guy while he performed oral sex on her friend. A couple hours later, the heroine lost her virginity to the hero, who just happens to be in the same motorcycle club as the guy she sucked off. The stupid part is that nothing about this is ever mentioned again. It's like author just plonked that nasty ass scene in for gratuitous erotica or something. It made zero damned sense.

But Kathleen Woodiwiss' The Wolf and the Dove was freaking trainwrecky and amazing. For almost half of the book, I'd thought the heroine has been raped by the villain but it was off screen and the author provided enough hints to make me hope that the rape might not have actually happened, so I kept reading like a madwoman just to hurry up and find out for sure, especially when the heroine got pregnant and the obsessed, jealous, possessive asshole H, Wulfgar was dying a little inside, thinking that his love might give birth to Ranulf's ( the villain ) baby. Turns out the heroine wasn't raped, so I got my perfect ending and my super trainwrecky reading experience. Lol.

And I even loved the author's first novel, The Flame and the Flower despite it being one of most despised books, because there was one scene of forced sex between the H had the heroine. But it's still a favourite because it's the mother novel of bodice rippers and it's the novel that started the sexy historical romance avalanche.

Captivity is always a hard sell for me, it has to be done a certain way for me to enjoy it. Love triangles, I will suffer through them if the rest of the story is brilliant, otherwise it makes me want to pluck my own eyeballs out with a dull spoon.

LMAO. Jeez, I forgot when I last answered that question 😂😂

lol it was quite an interesting challenge question, it challenged me to think outside the box and then I started getting some really good ideas but didn't want to write too much

Oh wow, that's funny, I've never gotten any guy adding me as a friend first! Only guys following my reviews here

D.L. wrote: "Captivity is always a hard sell for me, it has to be done a certain way for me to enjoy it. Love triangles, I will suffer through them if the rest of the story is brilliant, otherwise it makes me w..."

yeah, love triangles can be annoying...once in a while for me
I think captivity's probably hard to write too

omg Irunia we had almost the same challenge question🤣I had "what's your biggest deal-breakers in a book" (I was curious af too) but I changed it recently cause everyone gives relatively the same answers.

Also ONCE AGAIN the only reason I saw this update is because I was going through my friends list and it showed you updated your status🤦‍♀️why tf doesn't it show up on my feed😒

Also x2 I won't list the things that will prevent me from enjoying a book cause I'm pretty sure UK all of them already😂

Prostitute heroines, sharing, menage, bisexual MC, reverse harem, Love triangles, wallflowers , long separations, suicide
I want an emotional connection not lust, sex
my husband said our chidren lol

Lori wrote: "I agree with most of what Ivy said. When I was younger I would read anything and I was a huge angst bitch. The angstier the better, which meant I read a lot of cheating, and love triangles. Now I c..."

Your points 5, 6, 7 and 8 are spot on for me too. And 10. I need the emotional connection and the romance too.

Carmen, I didn't know that The Flame and The Flower is one of the "despised" books lol, I loved it. 😅 Also what you told me about the Wolf and the Dove? I'm adding this now 😌

Debbie, I pretty much know that you hate the captivity trope lmaoo. But tbh I forgot you're not into love triangles. Me neither, even though I really enjoyed some

Debbie, I pretty much know that you hate the captivity trope lmaoo. But tbh I forgot you're not into love triangles. Me neither, even though I really enjoyed some

Audrey lmaooo I haven't got the slightest idea why guys keep trying to add me on GR. I mean these dudes and I normally read different kind of books so I'm doubtful they're up to discussing book smut w me...🤡

Anna, I dunno. I don't see anyone's updates unless I visit GR from my laptop... Even my own updates. 🙄
Funny enough, sometimes I get really interested and extended answers, even tho the majority of them amounts to "cheating" or "abuse" "rape" etc (and I'm feeling like a 🤡, looking at my bookshelves filled with these things)

Deniz, yes I want the emotional connection too. Probably the reason why I've given so many 1or2 stars lately. Pure erotica belongs to erotica, not romance.
Also lol at your husband's answer 😂

lmaoo I swear....anytime ppl answered that I'd be like.....you sure u wonna be my friend?? like 100%??

Anna lol SAME
Like why add me if you hate everything I love 🤡🤡 I just add them and hope I can bring them to the dark side 😏

i remember when i sent you a friend request i named some tropes and such that kill me off, and now knowing that men usually send non-book stuff on a book site make sense now that i think about it lmao