Everything I Hate About Romance Books

I love reading romance novels, but the more I read romance books the more jaded I had come. This blog is about everything I love about books. Everything I hate about books. Everything I hate about readers and writers. Theories or predictions for books. Thoughts about books. Lists (because that is always a good idea) and if I hit my head possibly publish some of my book ideas. The original EIHARB was a title for a book that I had planed to write and at the end I did not

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Book Praise 1: The Peer and the Puppet

Ever thought about why hero and heroine (usually step siblings) have to share a bathroom when they live in a mansion? I have and it never made sense in practicality perspective. Story wise it always had a logical sense, so that they are forced to communicated and possible run ins. I am just at the beginning of the Peer and the Puppet and let’s just say that I really appreciated when the father (can’t remember his name) tried to justify why they are sharing a bathroom. Not the best justification, but it made me happy that the author addressed the issue of yes we live in a mansion that has 9 bathrooms (yes, I remember the amount of bathrooms, but I can’t be bothered to remember the name of the father), but you two are forced to share a bathroom and that they are self-aware of the trope. For once something in a book to make me happy.

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Book Thoughts 4: Bound by Duty

In the past few books, characters have annoyed me because they are treating other characters and I am supposed to care about them. In this case I am taking about Gianna. At the beginning of Bound by Honor, I found Gianna to be fine. Not the most interesting character, but interesting enough and I was looking forward to reading Bound by Hatred, but the more I read Bound by Honor, she started annoying me and by Bound by Duty, when she was talking about Aria really pissed me off, because Aria tried to help her situation several times and she was bad mouthing her sister. Right now, I am thinking of reading something else, because I wouldn’t be able to handle Gianna’s book.

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Book Thoughts 3: Bound by Duty

There is a set up for a storyline and that storyline goes nowhere. In specific, I am talking about Valentina learning Russian and when she started working in the casino, I was sure that it would pay off by her overhearing someone planning something in Russian and then she is able to understand and give Dante a heads up, but no. Why should a set up pay off, we only had to read 5 or 6 chapters where Valentina tells us how much Russian she has started to understand and then nothing, it is never mentioned again in the whole book.

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Book Thoughts 2: Bound by Honor

The storyline that goes nowhere. After Aria promises Luca that she wouldn’t tell anyone she is a still a virgin and then she tells Gianna. I was expecting at some point, Gianna to let it slip, but that didn’t happen. Then why we were given the information about her telling her sister, if nothing would come out of it?

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Reader Problems 1

I try to avoid book reviews, because I always seem to find pieces of review/questions on goodreads that I think are insane and I screen shot them, to remind myself that, people like that exist.  If you are one of the writes of the following pieces of writing, my blog is not for you, that much I can tell you, you would be offended.

How can someone be that entitled, why should the author have to write trigger warning on their books (in my opinion they never should or very rarely, probably I would have a series for that as well). It is a spoiler, to know if something happens in a book or not. If you are that scared that you would read about cheating, then my advice is to stop reading all together, and you wouldn’t have this problem again. Or if you still want to read, maybe try children books but they still have the potential of dealing with cheating parents…

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Book Thoughts 1: Trouble at Brayshaw High

This is the part where I don’t write the long posts, because I am not bothered by that much, only one or two things.

If the guys have pretty much control over everything their side of town does, then why don’t they just fire Perkins? And that would be one fewer problem at their high school. Seriously that would fix a lot of issues for them.

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I Love the Elite Kings Club, but... Part 2: Everything else

This week I have been reading the Elite Kings Clubs and I loved them, they are quite addictive, but at the same time I had some issues with the storylines. Surprise… surprise. It is going to be a bit of ramble. And SPOILER warning ahead, because I don’t know what I am going to write. This is going to be part 2 or 2, because it became really long. I am not trying to be mean, I promise. It is just when you have such a great story, the bad looks way worse in my brain and I am not actually hating on the series, it is more a therapy session for me after finishing the five books in two days so that I can move on for now and if you haven't gotten the idea I tend to overanalyse books and TV shows (I may overanalyze The Society in the future).

About the trigger warning in Malum P1, I think it was a good idea to have it and I fucking hate trigger warning, because I was really sad reading about that and from mbti I am a thinker, so it is difficult to make me feel for characters. The issue with the trigger was that, if someone decided to skip it, they basically had to skip the rest of the book and then what is the point of reading thus far? At the start of the book I though that, the trigger is about a very graphic scene where Tillie is beaten up by her father and that would have been a chapter and skippable, but what happened is not exactly skippable and a reader would not understand why Tillie and Nate are at their lowest. Having that in mind Malum P2, I think handles the possibility to skip parts of Malum P1 very well.

Deaths does not feel permanent, because with only one exception they always come back. The first time when we learned that Elizabeth and what’s her name were not actually dead was shocking. Then we had the Daemon’s chapter in the third book, which was believable enough when Nate and Bishop’s mother were the one’s hurt, but the moment Bishop was hurt, it became very unrealistic and I was sure that was simply happening in Daemon’s head. In Malum, then the sad thing happened (I don’t know why I am keeping this part as spoiler free, it just feels wrong to spoiled it) and I read what it happened, my reaction is “k. Everything is going to be fixed in the next chapter”, then Nate’s chapter which is basically the spoiler warning??? I was still “That doesn’t mean anything. Everything would be fine” and then it wasn’t. And then it was when her body came back to the house and the kings came and I am “see. Everything is going to be fine, they are just now going show Tillie that she is alive” and that never happened but I still keep expecting it and at the end when we learn that Daemon is alive surprise… not, I am still expecting she to be alive (I am currently reading Malum P2 at least while writing this part. I should be finished with it by the time I publish this) and before what’s her name is killed, she asks Tillie if she wants to see her mother or something in those lines and if Katsia is also alive I am so over the death scenes in this series, they don’t have consequences with the exception of one and that is bullshit. Malum P2 update: alright that was interesting way to deal with Daemon, but my point about the deaths not being permanent still stands.

The alliances between the characters is difficult to grasp. I think if we had more chapters from the kings, the plans and alliances would be executed better. One character is working with another, and the another is working with a third, but the third is working against the first one and at the end of the novel it would be like “JK, the two of us were working together the whole time, to screw over the second character actually and that was the plan from the very beginning and you did what we expected”, but instead of three characters, we have between 30 and 40 named characters.

While reading the second part of Malum, my heart is breaking for Bishop and Madison. I just want them happy. Is it too much to ask at this point? I know that people still have problems after they get their happy ever after, but at the same time as a reader I just want to know that they are functioning adults afterwards (I know that the last book is going to be about them, but I am just not fan of those). Examples of other series doing the same are (Michael and Erika from Devil’s night (that has not officially happened, but it looks like set in stone), Jared and Tate from Fall Away, and Abby and Jake from Runaway) feels cheap and milking it. The only time, I haven’t been pissed of when the starting couple has been fighting in the letter books is in Marked Men, with Shaw and Rule, because it sounded like they have problems, but old enough to try to fix them rather than sit around until it is so bad that you can only break up.

Some characters storylines don’t go anywhere unless they are revived in the future instalments. Aly (not sure if that was how it was spelled in the novel) kind of did go somewhere, but not fully. All we know is that Bishop killed her, and it is implied to be because of the video, but here really being told much more about the situation. The same goes for Madison’s fuckboy (Carter??? I really cannot remember his name and I don’t care enough), we learned that he was the one to send the video, He hated Madison for Aly’s death (then why send the video??? Beforehand) and then it is revisited again when Nate kills him because he didn’t like fuckboy and that entire plotline is dropped.

The generation’s thing does not work. In THE book, Madison reads that a new generation is every 4 years, but current generation were seniors in high school (18 year old), the previous generation are 6 year older (some character said that Saint is 24) and then the new generation are 16 during Malum, but at that point wouldn’t they already be high school? and the difference would be two years with the kings. And how exactly Madison fits in the generations? She and Daemon are twins, but Hunter is the same age is her (both being seniors in high school and for sure they were not triplets.)

Some other minor inconsistencies that bothered me, because I just hate myself. When Bishop gives Madison her car in book 3, it is a Lamborghini, and then in Malum P1, it becomes a Ferrari. And again, in Malum, Tillie talks abought Madison killing Lucan, but it was Bishop shooting him and then Madison and Brantley cut him a bit (to say it in the nicest way possible).

I struggled keeping track of all characters. I would try to list them now: Bishop, Jase, Jesse (why are you doing this to me), Katsia, Katsia 2.0, Madison, Nate, Tate, Tillie, original Katsia’s husband, Brantley, Bailey, Abel, what’s her name (the one that had feeling’s for Bishop and was sleeping with his father), Hector, Skylar, Saint, Saint 2.0 (next book that is going to be difficult), Gabriel, Elena, Joseph, Elizabeth, Lucan, Max, Cash, Phoenix, Chase, Raguel, Ace, Eli, Jonah, Hunter, Daemon, Madison’s biological mother, Micaela, Jessica, Payton, Carter??? (at this point if that’s not his name I am renaming him), then the four new gen kings, Spyder, Ollie (was it ollie the name of Nate’s cousin that he doesn’t like), Bishop’s lost boy cousin, Bailey’s hacker of a brother , Aly/Allie, Allie’s bff and that’s is almost 50 character (count them if you don’t believe me) and it feels like it is game of thrones, with the difference that these books are about three hundred pages and it is difficult to keep track of every single one of them. If it is made into a TV series, it would be amazing. I think that’s the positive note that I am going to end this with.

This is really long, and I honestly love this series, but these points really bothered me. In order to end on a positive note, Bishop, Nate and Brantley are amazing and I cannot wait to read Brantley’s story and the book of fixing Bishop and Madison (let’s hope that she would grow a few braincells for her sake). One of my favourite dynamics between character has been Nate and Madison, but I have been missing it during Malum P1, but there is one moment between the two in Malum P2 and I was there for it. As you can guess I loved Madison and Bishop and I also loved Tillie and Nate, all of them are so broken, but they somehow work.

I am not sorry about the swearing in this post, it needed to be said that way. I also know that it looks really bad, writing this long thing for a series that I love, but I recommend for everyone to read it and not listen to me.

... Until the next romance book

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I Love The Elite Kings Club, But... Part 1: Female Characters

This week I have been reading the Elite Kings Clubs and I loved them, they are quite addictive, but at the same time I had some issues with the storylines. Surprise… surprise. It is going to be a bit of ramble. And SPOILER warning ahead, because I don’t know what I am going to write. This is going to be part 1 or 2, because it became really long, but still this part is the shorter because it was reasonable to divide it into two topics, the female characters and the everything else. I am not trying to be mean, I promise. It is just when you have such a great story, the bad looks way worse in my brain and I am not actually hating on the series, it is more a therapy session for me after finishing the five books in two days so that I can move on for now and if you haven't gotten the idea I tend to overanalyse books and TV shows.

Let’s start from book one. Liked the all the kings, but all the girls annoyed me a bit with Tillie annoying me the least, which is not saying much. Madison is always like “Oh, I don’t know anything. Why is not anyone telling me everything” and when the other character asks her if she has read the book, she says she is busy (book 2). Girl, sit on your ass for one night and read the fucking book so that you may have an idea what is actually going on and maybe you would be a little bit prepared for what is happening. I get that it was intentionally done by the writer so that we don’t get all the information, but it really annoyed me. On the topic of withholding information from the reader, during the first two books I was like I like these books, they are interesting, but I have no fucking idea what the fuck is happening in this plot. Another thing that bothered me about Madison, has been her relationship with Daemon, is she delusional? The guy tried to kill her, and she is like, no he didn’t do. Yet, she still is probably my favourite.

Now, let’s look into Tate’s character. I didn’t find her too annoying during the first book, but from the beginning of the second book, I was over her and her antics. She is probably the character I liked the least and I was ready for someone to kill her during the second book, and more than ready during Malum Part 1. All characters are like how the connection between Tate and Madison is the most amazing thing ever since sliced bread, while I am here, and I am thinking how she is fucking over Madison. Then Malum happened and she look very desperate at the beginning and then her storyline didn’t exactly made sense to me. One minute she is all over Nate and Madison tells us how much Tate is in love with Nate and then the next minute she is like “Oh, I was using his to get to Spyder” while in the previous chapter Jase tells Tillie that Tate and Spyder has something going on, but if that’s the case for what is she using Nate. I got a headache from this sentence. I am sorry. Mulum P2 update: alright they know she is useless I can now sleep restfully knowing that fact.

Tillie’s character also bothered me during Malum P1. Just fucking believe that you baby daddy wants the best for your child and ask for his fucking help. Not to mention that baby daddy that is actually more powerful than your sister. Not that difficult of a choice. No… forgot pride is more important than your child. I don’t know if the next thing is really about Tillie or the characters around her, but every time something happened, everyone is she is so smart, she is the smartest person around us and my reaction is if she is the smartest person around, you have more difficult problems than what you are dealing with in this series, that’s for sure. Until Malum P2, I never thought how loyal I would be to Madison, but boy oh boy, I am most definitely loyal to her. It really pissed me off even in Malum P1, when now all the kings are treating her like the same way they were treating Madison, during the first three books where they were all like friends/children to her. For Tillie’s sake, she should hope that no one else come in their group, because she is going to lose her position in the group.

Now Bailey and the abundance of silver swans. Can you guess what I am going to say? Let’s train Bailey and prepare her for this life, she is now going to be part of the kings of her generation. In my eyes, there is only one silver swan that is deserving of being part of the kings, and that is the original silver swan (at least in terms of the novels). And at the end of Malum P2, we get yet another silver swan. For people, that were so very strict about killing baby girls, they are not doing very good job, if they ask me.

...Until the next romance book (actually the next post is the continuation of this one)

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Top 10 Sports Romance Novels in my opinion

I am still keeping this blog more positive than I have ever expected. At this point I feel I should promise that I am going to be mean soon, but that day is not today. I decided to give a list of my Top 10 Sports Romance Books.

Before going into this list, I set up a few rules to make the writing of the list easier. First, one of the genres of the novel should be Sports on Goodreads. That rule cut books where the hero is a player, but it is not central to the story (examples include Corrupt by Penelope Douglas and Pretty Reckless by L.J. Shen). The second rule was that only one book from the series can go on the list. Thirdly, only one book per writer can be included in the list. At the end of the list there would be a few honourable mentions that were cut out of the list because rule two and three.

10. Tussle - Jacob Chance

9. The Ex Games - Jennifer Echols

8. The Baller - Vi Keeland

7. The End Zone - L.J. Shen

6. Beauty and the Running Back - Colleen Masters

5. Ryan Hunter - Anna Katmore

4. Scoring Wilder - R.S. Grey

3. The Goal - Elle Kennedy

While reading The Score, I was more interested in Sabrina and Tucker's story so I had very high expectations starting The Goal and it didn't disappoint me. I liked it because although they have to deal with a different situation, both of them were strong characters on their own and I believed that if they have to be alone, they would have survived and that is not something that can be said about a lot of characters, but together they are even stronger.

2. The Wall of Winnipeg and Me - Mariana Zapata

I would consider very few books for rereading, because I always worry that the second time would ruin the magic from the first reading, but I have read The Wall of Winnipeg and Me several times and the angst of it always gets me and I always fall more in love with this story after each reading.

1. Hate to Love You - Tijan

Have you read a book that I love so much that when you are almost done with it, you fear that the author would let you down with the ending that you need to stop reading that book and leaving it for months until you have decided that you would be able to handle the let down? That book for me was Hate to Love You and the best thing was that I wasn't let down at the end. Why I liked it so much? I have no idea. The story was a bit different than the usual sports romance, but it was still following the formula. So it was a bit cliche without being too cloche or maybe it was the right book for the right time.

Honorable Mentions:

Defy - L.J. Shen

Kulti - Mariana Zapata

Dating Trouble - Anna Katmore

The Deal - Elle Kenedy

I was honestly surprised with how many american football books I have liked, but maybe that is because there are a lot more books about american football compared to football or hockey. At the end the list only had two football books and zero hockey.

Before you say that I love every book from L.J. Shen, I hated Ruckus, Bane and I have beef with Midnight Blue but that's again a conversation for another day. I am thinking that I am going to give myself a little bit of a break from talking about her books. I promise.

Until the next romance book...

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Nightfall Predictions

Two weeks ago I read both Hideaway and Kill Switch by Penelope Douglas and then I read all bonus scenes. After that all I could do was start theorising what would happen in Nightfall. I need Will's book like yesterday, but in the meantime, I am going to give my predictions, because I just simply cannot wait. I DON'T know what is going to happen, this is written just for fun. SPOILER warning for all previous books, obviously.

Predictions:

The first one is pretty much a given, but I am going to write it anyway so that my success rate is better. Will will hate Emory at the beginning and he would treat her poorly (what a surprise...) but I think he would try to keep the other guys in Blackchurch away from her. Potentially keeping her in his room.

At about 40%, Damon, Michael, Kai, Erika, Banks, Winter and Alex would go to save Will. Will would want to take Emory with them, but Damon would want to leave Emory there to punish her, but either Erika or Banks would stop him.

I think it is going to be triple pov book - Will, Emory and Alex. Will and Emory obviously why and Alex in order to have a pov with the other characters

When they are out of Blackchurch. Alex would try to hate Emory, but she can't.

The previous three books have been very much in line of 'keeping it in the family', but I think Damon has enough  siblings at this point (the foreshadowing and the diversion of expectations at the beginning of Kill Switch was very much appreciated). Kai has probably the most healthy family, so he was dropped from the sibling running, which leaves us with Michael. I had written that it would be Michael and Emory that would be siblings, but now as I am writing I am thinking that it is going to be Michael and Will, just because I need things to come full circle and that fiction should rhyme. First book, Michael killing his brother and during the last book for him to gain a brother seems poetic.

Series villain: Michael's father. First book, it was Michael's father and brother. Second and third book, it was Damon's father, but it is not possible for him to be the villain in the last book. So it makes sense for the villain to be Michael's father and if Will is also his son, it would very nicely connect with the story overall.

I am going to get a lot of hate for this one... The villain would try to shoot Emory, but Alex would get in the way.

Erika cannot have children. I was thinking that during the whole of Kill Switch and then after reading the epilogue of Punk 57 and Conclave Part 1, I am more sure of my suspicion. If she only thinks that she cannot have children, but actually can, I am still taking this prediction as correct.

Erika becomes the new mayor.

Will rebuilds the gazebo. Will asks Emory to marry him in the gazebo.

A chapter at the opening of the resort with all character there.

Damon says in Kill Switch that Will has had the worst past. That was quite difficult to predict having in mind what Damon's childhood has been like. My best guess is that Will has been beaten up as a child because his father knew that he is not really this father and being beaten up as child which would connect it to Emory's story line with her brother.

I have no idea what Damon has planned for Banks, with the only possibility that I can think about is that he would ask her to only work for the legal part of the family business (prediction from Conclave Part 1)

Flashback ends at 60%. I love this series, but the flashbacks are a little too much for me. I want to keep reading the story from the current timeline, but almost half the book is flashbacks.

Book Length: between 650 and 700 pages

Epilogue: Years later, with everyone being important and potentially a set up for a series about the children.

Michael and Erika have sex. So far that has happened in every book and I need Michael and Erika (why I love them so much would be explained in a post someday. That is for sure. When? not sure)

The expected threesome: Will/Emory/Alex. Usually, the expected threesome progresses the story somehow and for it to progress it somehow I think it should be Will/Emory/Alex. If it is all eight main characters, it would be a fan service, but progression of the story would be lacking.

Publish Date: Conclave Part 2 is going to be published on 30 Oct, so my guess would be that Nightfall would be published at some point in December.

I hope you had as much fun reading this as I did writing it. Again, this is predictions which are combination of what the previous books give as information and what I would have written if I was writing Nightfall. I cannot wait for this book. If there is a book that I would bother to write a review, that would it.

Until the next romance book...

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All Saints High Timeline is Broken

First of all, SPOILER warning. This contains spoilers for Pretty Reckless, Broken Knight and potentially for Angry God. I have tried to use as little spoilers as possible, but I am discussing two epilogues, so it is very difficult to be spoiler free.

The time line of All Saints High makes zero sense. I am not talking about the extended Vicious epilogue in The End Zone, because I know that it has been pretty much discarded at that point. I am talking entirely about how the cannon All Saints High cannot work with Daria's epilogue.

I believe that if the order of the books has not changed, the timeline issue would have been avoided, but we are here now and I am not blaming the whole thing on the book order, because the order change was made at the same time as the first book was published, so there was time to change it having in mind that the epilogue is the thing that breaks everything.

Character ages

From Pretty Reckless's epilogue we know that Daria and Penn's engagement happens during their Junior year in university, which is their third year and it would make them either 20 or 21 years old. From that we know that Luna should be in her second year of university and she should be 19/20 years old. In Pretty Reckless, it has been made a point that Vaughn is two year younger than Daria, because one of her senior friends liked Vaughn who was a sophomore. So that means that Vaughn and Knight would be 18/19 at the time of the engagement and they would be in their freshman year.

Broken Knight starts with specifically providing the ages of Knight and Luna, 18 and 19 with Knight being a senior in high school as well as Vaughn while Luna is a freshman in university, this would mean that Daria is in her second year and that would mean that she shouldn't be engaged during Broken Knight. Surprise surprise... She is engaged and in Broken Knight's epilogue (1 year later) it is said that recently Daria has gotten married which would put it at the same time as she got engaged in Pretty Reckless.

Vaughn's mystery girl

In the Pretty Reckless epilogue, a lot of characters were in attendance when Penn asked Daria to marry him, some of which were Knight, Luna, Vaughn and

...a girl I don't know, but have heard all about...

And if we assume that Daria's engagement happened as it was in the epilogue, but one year earlier, the timeline is again broken. In Broken Knight, Knight points out that Vaughn has never show any interest in any girl before, so the mystery girl could not have been there during the engagement.

In Broken Knight, we are led to believe that Vaughn's girl would be Poppy's sister (I can't remember her name and that's probably the bit I had researched the least), but Daria has interactions with both sisters, so she would know them. Both sisters were in attendance for two parties where Daria and Luna attended and in one scene Daria talk with both sisters at the same time.

At this point, I think it would have been safer to either say her name and for us to know who she is or Vaughn to attend the event in the epilogue alone as it happened in Broken Knight's epilogue.

I love the Sinners of Saint series and I love All Saints High, and I don't think I would have paid attention to the timeline, if I have not read Pretty Reckless on Sunday and then read Broken Knight on Monday. And halfway trough the book, that was all I was thinking about. If you are thinking of reading either do it, they are amazing and my brain is just broken.

That's it for now. Until the next romance book...

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Why I decided to start this blog?

Hi! This is a bit awkward, because I am talking like I am actually talking to someone, but most likely no one is ever going to read this blog. So let's start with something simple, what I am thinking of writing in this things. Honestly? I am not sure. I have an idea, but I can promise you that it is not going to be reviews. There are a hundred blogs that have done reviews and I can guarantee that they have done it better than me, so I decided to do something different or I think it is different, don't believe me.

One of the things you should expect is for me to be a bitch, because in the past year or so I have become increasing unhappy while reading, so much so that I have started writing essays about why I have something and after a while I decided to publish what I have compiled.

When to expect me to post?

I honestly don't know. Generally speaking when I feel like I cannot contain my emotions about a particular book and I need to write it down. Did that sound too much like Lara Jean?

What to expect from this blog?

My opinion about book tropes and tendencies that I have seen with different authors that have been bothering me. For those I would usually not name the book, because I want other to make their own opinion on said book, but if you guess which one I am talking about, more power to you. If I am making a comparison and I am giving a positive example, I have no problem writing the the good examples.

I would write theories or book predictions for series that have made me think (hopefully my next post tomorrow would be partly about that).

I have planned a few books lists, which I am not yet sure if I am going to post, but I sounds reasonable, when I am not really a review blog, so content?

A little about my book preferences...

I usually read new adult books or young adult that are not exactly intended to teens. I prefer dark romance, because they have strong female character and if there is one thing I appreciate in a book is a strong female character. The male character is always strong, but the female character can be a doormat and I don't deal well with those types of characters. I read other sub-genres as well, but dark new adult is my go to. I have a strong hate for historical romances, so sorry but I would not try to even understand the appeals of it.

That's it for now. Until the next romance book...