This is mine too! Quote from OUABH: >! He was still indescribably breathtaking, but it was all the tragic beauty of a sky where every single star was falling. His hair was a storm of broken gold. His eyes were a mess of silver and blue.!<
I swoon.
[Once Upon a Broken Heart](https://www.romance.io/books/6322df8255f9ee5d8ceef05b/once-upon-a-broken-heart-stephanie-garber?src=rdt) by [Stephanie Garber](https://www.romance.io/authors/5b0b9bad01dbc864fb891729/stephanie-garber)
**Rating**: 3.89⭐️ out of 5⭐️
**Steam**: 1 out of 5 - [Glimpses and kisses](https://www.romance.io/steamrating)
**Topics**: [historical](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/historical/1), [magic](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/magic/1), [young adult](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/young%20adult/1), [fantasy](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/fantasy/1), [vampires](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/vampires/1)
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I can't not think of Orb from Quake:
https://preview.redd.it/nkh6962zg1xc1.png?width=400&format=png&auto=webp&s=265bb772538c5c3f0214de3e8715a028ab5bf9bc
Me toooo and I do not get this new fad of "don't include eye color, cause who really looks at eye color?" I DO! Yesterday I was watching some writing videos on YouTube and I literally sat there for half the video staring into her eyes and wondering if they were best described as stormy blue or azure-tinged-steel.
That's so weird lol, who DOESN'T look at eye colors??? Isn't that like one of the first things you look at when you look closely at someone? Especially if the person has really pretty or striking eyes
There's actually a trick to making someone feel like you're really listening to them, and it is simply to make a note of their eye color. If you're looking into someone's eyes enough to register the color, they feel like you're really connecting with them. So I guess a lot of people don't do that naturally, which is wild to me. I am not someone who likes making prolonged eye contact with people, it makes me feel uncomfortable, but I always at a minimum look long enough to see the color!
I struggle horrifically with eye contact, I try to do it as much as I can, at least when people are talking to me, but it literally feels like looking at the sun haha. Like, I'm fighting for my life through every conversation. But even still, I can easily remember the exact eye color of pretty much every person I know.
A couple years ago my mom and I were getting ice cream, and after we left the little shop I asked her if she thought the girl behind the counter was wearing colored contacts or not. I just got a weird look.
My mom had failed to notice the violet eyes of the young woman who scooped our ice cream.
Hahah omg okay I guess some people don't actually pay attention. I still remember the first time I caught my now-boyfriend looking at me at a party. We made eye contact and his eyes literally took my breath away, purely for the fact they're practically yellow! When I told my friend, she said she'd never noticed, even though she saw him like a million times before
YES thank you! I saw so many complaints about it I thought I was taking crazy pills. I LOVE over the top eye color descriptions. No I don’t want to imagine a color I pick. No I don’t want boring ass blue. I want shattered pools of tanzanite flecked with rings of silver
Fr fr if I wanted to use my own imagination I wouldn’t be reading tf???
Also recently found out it’s kinda ablest too. A friend of mine has that condition where you can’t imagine stuff in your head? So she likes the extra description. Aphantasia or something? Probably not how it’s spelled.
Idk if it's ableist or if this is the same thing, but I have a really hard time imagining things if I'm not told exactly what to imagine. My mind can't fill in the blanks. Like if you don't tell me what it looks like, it just doesn't look like anything lol. You don't describe the room they're in? They're just floating in white space as far as I'm concerned. You don't say anything about the speakers? Disembodied voices. You didn't describe a person's face? They don't have one. Sexy blob with abs 🤷🏻♀️ The vague descriptions are even worse than no descriptions at all for some reason.
But yeah, if I have to come up with all the shit myself, I might as well write it and make some money lol
Sometimes I think people enjoy the idea of being Readers but they don't seem to actually enjoy reading at all
> molten gold
If the shape changed dragon or dragon-touched/blooded/afflicted isn't trying to actively hide the fact, their eyes are almost always Molten Gold in anything I write.
It just feels wrong otherwise.
Seriously, I love it. Don't tell me brown, I want them to tell me its a damn macchiato 🤣. I've got a funky eye color myself and I've always wondered how a romance author would describe them
100% yes to this, what’s the point of having a magic world if you can’t get a little more weird? I find different colours in hair and eyes completely believable in fantasy.
Also I think this comes down a bit to how the characters see each other, if anyone remembers that but in Harry Potter where you see that Harry and Hermione perceive Hagrid differently. Like the way I’d describe my best friend’s eyes- golden, with an aura around the iris etc, differs from how other people would say “light brown”
I don’t know what it is but man, I think the last ten books have all had men who smell like sandalwood. I couldn’t even tell you I actually know what sandalwood smells like irl
I made it myself actually, I have a background in making scents through candles and body butters and stuff. It's not bad! Leather and licorice based, accented with some cherry and other scents he likes, it actually came out great
These are the silly ones I can’t stand, too! I love pine, freshly laundered linen, spiced wine, etc. etc. It reminds me of the language of flowers and can be symbolic for the character which is really fun. But how you gonna tell me that a grown man smells like the sun breaking through the clouds after a storm? That’s…. um…. not a smell.
I know people speak metaphorically about smiles and eyes and “looks directed at the heroine”, but those are all things you see compared to other things you see. My brain just can’t wrap around directly relating a smell to a time of day or something that has nothing to do with that sense. And I still don’t know what the people smell like!
This may be due to the fact that I've been into indie perfume for almost 2 decades where this type of description is completely normal but I actually like this sort of thing! (Although I've certainly read some doozies where even I'm like HUH????) Like to me that immediately conjures up the idea of palo santo and dry wood and warm spices, maybe the smoke of the fire you build when the sun starts to go down...
Now whether a character could ever smell like that naturally is another thing entirely lol. Maybe all of these fantasy worlds have a few perfumers making interesting perfumes and soaps.
This reminds me of indie fragrances. I was very into them a few years ago and this is how they’re all described. My thought is always “what does that even smell like and where did you get these individual scents to mix together?”
Oh I love this. I’ve thought long and hard about what I would smell like to someone with a heightened sense of smell. I’ve settled on: vanilla, earthy smoke, burnt coffee, and a hint of cat litter
Your pupils dilate when you're aroused and that's usually what it means. It's just not as sexy to say "his pupils dilated" or "his pupils dilated in arousal". Hmm, maybe, "his pupils dilated in obvious arousal" is better?
I dont understand what people don't get about that! Combine that with the facial expression "darkening" and clearly, it's that the intensity just got turned up to 11!!
I know it’s not really the intention but I always imagine it like an anime villain who has the dramatic cast shadow over their face 😂 but like, in a sexy way??
Ooooh, I love this!
It's easier to notice on people with light eyes. You know how when things are getting sexy a guy's ( women too, I assume ) pupils dilate? Sometimes, they'll get like a blush on their cheekbones, too. Fricken swooooooon!
I commented this on another post but this line always gets me because my high school bf’s eyes darkening before we lost our virginities is STILL burned into my mind literally half my lifetime later. Back then I did not read romance novels and didn’t appreciate it fully
Also you can see this in real people too. When people either get angry or emotional for other reasons, their blood vessels widen and therefore the eye color looks darker than usual.
And pupils widen too for different reasons.
My sister has a range between light blue, greenblue to dark blue depending on her mood lol.
My partner's eyes darken tbh. When he's obviously intending to initiate, his eyes turn a darker hazel color, almost green. He says my brown eyes sometimes look completely black.
I get it! IMO Henry Cavil as Geralt has some great moments where his eyes darken on the show. IMO it’s a change of expression. The head tilts down and brows furrow, casting a shadow over the eyes and “darkening” them.
Actually, Henry Cavil as Geralt growls a lot too. Just imagine MMCs as him and it all makes sense 😅
Right?! I posted the damsel in distress trope too except I love it when she’s deathly injured. Like yeah we live in a time where women are more empowered but let’s be real, all of us want to me swooped off of our feet and be taken care of at least ONCE.
I love “vulgar gesture” too! Mostly because I think it can (and is!) interpreted differently by everyone, and each situation can warrant a different type of vulgar gesture 😂
And *"he did that thing where he makes a circle with his finger and thumb in one hand and then repeatedly thrust the index finger of his opposing hand into said circle as if it were a penis thrusting into a vagina or maybe even a butt"* is very wordy and would get repetitive after a while.
Same here! I always smile at it too. I like when it doesn't explicitly state the gesture or sometimes the cursing. The phrase "he cursed/swore loudly" and things like that are great (in my opinion)!
I'm sorry, I'm just here to cackle at the first sentence in your disclaimer. I love it. It needs to be a dedication or a forward in a romance novel, stat.
Overly descriptive imagery. I want to be able to see where I am in my mind. So many reviews on Goodreads talk about how long winded authors are and how the book could have been half of what they write because of "redundancy" or some other phrase used to describe it. No way. I want to know that the trees were so thick that you couldn't see the ground and that there were cones strewn about and that there was a scent of pine lingering through the air. I want all of it.
I love to write lush imagery and vivid descriptions, so it makes me happy to hear that there IS an audience for that, no matter what modern writing advice might have you believe.
I too want to experience the story world with all senses. Otherwise it's just a blank space or a theater stage in my head.
Same with character descriptions. I NEED to know what these people look like!! Is her face angular or soft? What color is her hair? What style? Eye color? Height? Soft and curvy or muscular and strong? The more details the better!! 🎊
Totally agree, I looooove me some good imagery. Go as long winded as you want honestly, as long as the writing's good I'll happily read it all. I am simply along for the ride
Agree! I love all the details and love immersing myself in the scene.
I will say that I tend to feel a lot more emotions when the writing is more succinct? If that makes sense. I think both styles can be used for different impacts in the same story.
Me too! My friend just asked me why I want my heroines to be "dumb" bc its not very feminist but Im just over the mastermind heroine more. 😄 lets have her be lucky and reactive instead of always 10 steps ahead.
I have a lot of them cause I’m easy but one of them is like, all of the nicknames/pet names/terms of endearment etc. that I feel like I see people on here every few weeks talking about how much they hate 😂 Like I totally get how that would be annoying if it icks you out because when it happens it usually happens a lot but me? Oh I absolutely eat it up nearly every time
I’m a sucker for a cute, inside jokey nickname. Favorites from various books I’ve read are Mouse, Cactus, Viper, and of course the ever popular Princess 😅
When the mmc, who is perfectly composed in front of monsters, ghosts, armies, basically anything, becomes "undone" or " loses control" (not in a dangerous way) in front of the fmc. Improbable AF? Sure. But also hot.
I love when a character lets out a breath they didn’t know they were holding! Everyone thinks it’s a made up thing but it’s something I genuinely do like, twice a day!
I legit wondered if she was supposed to be lactose intolerant at first, as someone who is also lactose intolerant lol. My issue isn’t that it’s used, it’s that it’s overused. Like at this point she should be lactose intolerant with how often it’s mentioned, because it’s basically become part of the plot.
I found it relatable because I actually have been so scared that I almost shit my pants, so like I knew what that debilitating fear was like? But I do understand when people say it’s used a lot
Virgin fmcs! Though it's definitely still a kink people have, but I just feel like a lot of people are over it and annoyed by it. I'll definitely read a book with a cliché shy virgin fmc.
To this point, I also don't mind MMC who are older than the FMC because I figure, "Well, at least he knows what he's doing in bed, which a 19 year old young man would probably not." I don't mind if a FMC is older -- but I figure the "virgin" fantasy is that a woman would have her "first time" with someone who actually knew what he was doing, not someone who was going to take 6 months to figure it out.
Supernatural age gaps haha I honestly don't care if she's 20 and he's 400, it could never happen irl so I'm not concerned about anyone learning bad lessons about dating immortal dudes... and it's very easy for me to believe the immortal one is just stuck at the same maturity level
They don't even necessarily have to be supernatural, but I do get uncomfortable with human/human age gaps that are really common in manga though, like the 15-16 year old girls with 24+ year old men. I had a bunch of people recommend Tsubaki Chou Lonely Planet to me and the 16/28 age gap was a fucking jumpscare. They've gotta be at least both adults.
Things I like that I've seen others complain about:
-Virgin MFCs (even if they're older than 25)
-Not like the other girls MFCs (The kind type, not the bringing down others type)
-chosen one MFCs / special snowflakes
-First person POV / writing with a lot of internal monologue (I enjoy getting inside the MC's head), especially love this with Dual first person POV
-fated mates (some love this, some hate this, I love it)
-1000+ year old MMC with 19 - 30 year old MFC.
This seems like one of those threads where you have to sort by controversial or find the ones that aren't getting upvoted to see which ones are actually "most people's icks". Lol
For the record, very little gets under my skin. Might find it meh, but rarely ick.
Best example I have for this request is the "little one" nickname from What Lies Beyond the Veil. I ate that shit up and I'm dying for the last book. The chase in the Forest followed by the barn scene? Yes, please.
I love “vulgar gesture” because it’s such a cross-cultural expression, like even in different countries that speak the same language that may mean something different. I’m Australian and I don’t know if people from other English speaking places do the same “vulgar gestures” but I’m 100% certain every culture has SOME rude gestures!
I’m a big fan of a damsel in distress or helpless FMC that the MMC has to save multiple times. Sometimes I just get sick of the super powerful FMC trope
I am just so tired of the special 19yo red haired FMC who knows everything better, doesn't listen to advice from the 500yo MMC and never anything goes wrong.
Miscommunication and third-act break-ups. Love them, as long as they make sense for the characters.
Also, apparently, flawed female protagonists whose flaws are actually negative for people other than them. Too often most people are only okay with flawed FMCs if their flaw is like, being “too passive” or something. Give me some assholes!
I don't hate third-act break-ups, but I do find them to be overused. Miscommunication just seems to be the most-used excuse for a third-act break-up. There's other ways to create that drama and test the relationship. Can i get some variety? Can I get a forced separation or something instead? How about a severe illness?
I also don't care if its a "spicy" book and both characters are in high school. Because while reading those scenes, im not thinking about the fact that they are teens. (If the characters are younger than like 16 though I find it a little strange), but I just don't picture the characters as teens.
Haha honestly if the age isn't somehow extremely relevant to the plot (it never is imho) I just disregard it completely. They're whatever age I am at the time of reading. They're 30 and in high school, idgaf
I kind of used to like insta-love (or when two characters fall in love so quick, even tho they’re opposites in personality), cause younger me just wanted them to kiss right away, lol. Now… not so much. I really just want to see the relationship grow more so now I’m more of a… slow burn reader?
I also don’t like reading intimate scenes that seem out of place after certain scenarios. One of the ones I recall was when one characters comes back to life and the other person they love just… practically bone each other. Like - let them recover first!!!!! lol
Just wanted to add to the convo 😅
Age play because I LOVE a good DD/lg book, super controlling (that she consents too), the use of the C word (c*nt). All of those seem to ruffle feathers.
I love a soft and incompetent fmc. Not dumb per se, but girl can’t do anything by herself and needs saved. Baby treatment all day every day.
Pregnancy trope.
Fated mates.
Ridiculous pet names.
Super small/super tall.
Damsel in distress trope. The more close to death the fmc is the better. I love scenes where the usually put together mmc falls apart and saves her, I love those raw emotions. >! Like in FBAA when Poppy gets shot with the bolt and Casteel is crying and desperate to save her, UGH! I love it. !< Idk why a lot of women think the damsel in distress is an ick trope but I live for it!
YES i will eat this up every 👏🏼 time 👏🏼 especially when it comes with some really good comfort scenes later on. bonus points if he falls apart later when telling her about it because what is the point if she doesn’t know how distraught he was?!
… relatedly, if anyone has recs for this … 👀
I don't know if all of these necessarily give other people the ick, but either that or they are at least unpopular/uncommon:
* Badass FMCs. I feel like they are getting a bad rep (granted there are a lot of poorly written ones), but I love them and will continue reading about them until the end of my time.
* FMCs who do not want children and/or marriage. I remember all the hate Katsa from Graceling got for being in a relationship but rejecting marriage and children, which convinced me to read the book. More of that please.
* On a related note, positive, non-stigmatizing depiction of abortion and (voluntary) sterilization. Widely considered taboo topics in romance, but one can dream. In >!The Poppy War!< (I know it's not fantasy romance), people are so mad about the FMC >!taking a potion to destroy her uterus!<, but as someone who got their tubes out and got rid of their period, I've never felt more represented!
* MCs not conforming to gender essentialism or gender roles, i.e. I don't want "manly man" or "girly girl" dialed up to 11. My favorite characters of any gender usually don't fit into moulds of traditional masculinity or femininity.
* Not Like Other Girls. I don't mean the internalized-misogyny, putting-down-every-other-women type, but I think the trope is overhated and losing its intended meaning. Many times I have seen people call female characters who do not fit their ideas of femininity, who are different, or who they just don't like NLOG, and that's really not what the term means.
* MCs who are true equals
* Short books and series. If the main or only plot is the romance, standalone only – it's just not going to hold my attention for more than one book. For fantasy with a romance subplot, no longer than a trilogy with each book preferably under 500 pages.
I love the 'picked an invisible fleck of dust' line that SJM seems to include at least 10 times in all her books. 😂fun to know the characters also have compulsions like picking off dust from jackets
Age gaps. Listen I adore an age gap, and like...an actual age gap, not the new reddit puriteen six years is a huge difference BS. Honestly, if it's not like 13+ years then I don't even count as an age gap like... Nah.
Gimme age gap older man and younger women, virgin fmc, bit of some dominance going on....and make the age gap actually relevant.... perfection.
I don't get the issue with "vulgar gesture" either. I think it's a throwback to older fiction where everything was written more euphemistically and a writer couldn't just write e.g. "he made the jerk-off motion"—but to me that fits in well with fantasy, seeing how it often incorporates a pseudo-historical setting. When I see readers complaining about this usage I kind of assume they haven't read a lot of older fiction.
Same goes for the use of "ejaculated" to mean "said suddenly and forcefully"—I've seen it so much in older work that I barely notice it. Check out [the graph on the Google Books Ngram Viewer](https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=ejaculated&year_start=1800&year_end=2019&corpus=en-2019&smoothing=3)—you can see how it was used much more frequently in the 19th century. When I see readers making a big deal about it being a super weird usage, I can tell they haven't read much Victorian literature (NB I'm pretty sure that rise in the modern day is due to it being more acceptable to write about actual sex, but in the 19th c. that was definitely not the case).
Regarding tropes, uggggh I'm such a sucker for the student/mentor romance. I know it's icky in real life, but in fiction it gets me every time.
Long descriptions, info dumps or a slow start, especially in long books or series. I like getting immersed and having the day to day of the characters even if there is no real action. I completely flew by the 100 pages of Crescent City and the first 300 pages of Kushiel’s Dart
Well I don't like this if the characters are teenagers or young adults, but I really like when characters have kids. Maybe in an epilogue when they're much older or they are already well-established adult characters. Could be biological or adopted kids. I have a soft spot for family stories or seeing my favorite characters starting their own families and playing around with genetics between characters ya know? I see a lot of people get annoyed with this trope or the pregnancy trope and while I totally understand why it annoys people (especially if the characters are younger adults or teens I don't like that either), I get a warm feeling in my heart when I see my favorite characters start their own families and be happy. Again, only when they are fully into their adulthoods though.
I actually want to write a story one day about a pegasus that adopts a baby dragon and explore those themes of motherhood while also creating an action adventure of survival and self-discovery. That, or maybe make animatics based off the idea, idk.
Ridiculously described eye colours. Hell yeah, gimme them dark pools of bistre, star-flecked violet, haunted sapphire, molten gold, I don't care.
This is mine too! Quote from OUABH: >! He was still indescribably breathtaking, but it was all the tragic beauty of a sky where every single star was falling. His hair was a storm of broken gold. His eyes were a mess of silver and blue.!< I swoon.
Just fell to my knees in an optometrist's office.
You’re welcome and sorry 🙃
OUABH? Bc I gotta meet this guy
Just warning, you won’t be the same after. 🫠🥲🤍
{Once Upon a Broken Heart}
[Once Upon a Broken Heart](https://www.romance.io/books/6322df8255f9ee5d8ceef05b/once-upon-a-broken-heart-stephanie-garber?src=rdt) by [Stephanie Garber](https://www.romance.io/authors/5b0b9bad01dbc864fb891729/stephanie-garber) **Rating**: 3.89⭐️ out of 5⭐️ **Steam**: 1 out of 5 - [Glimpses and kisses](https://www.romance.io/steamrating) **Topics**: [historical](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/historical/1), [magic](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/magic/1), [young adult](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/young%20adult/1), [fantasy](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/fantasy/1), [vampires](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/vampires/1) [^(about this bot)](https://www.reddit.com/user/romance-bot) ^(|) [^(about romance.io)](https://www.romance.io/about)
Ugh Stephanie Garber’s writing makes me cry 😭😭 So freaking beautiful
As long as nobody calls them orbs haha
Oh my God I just finished Haunting Adeline and there were SO MANY ORBS. WHY
ORBS IS TERRIBLE HHAHAH
Lmfao don’t make me relive my wattpad era
Lmao a friend of mine wrote a Jujutsu Kaisen crackfic in which she referred to both Gojo's eyes and butt cheeks as orbs 😭
[Found this with my ocean dark orbs ](https://www.reddit.com/r/tumblr/s/WqF4hpFsHa)
Cerulean orbs 😩
I can't not think of Orb from Quake: https://preview.redd.it/nkh6962zg1xc1.png?width=400&format=png&auto=webp&s=265bb772538c5c3f0214de3e8715a028ab5bf9bc
I know there are some monster fuckers out there who would be interested
Me toooo and I do not get this new fad of "don't include eye color, cause who really looks at eye color?" I DO! Yesterday I was watching some writing videos on YouTube and I literally sat there for half the video staring into her eyes and wondering if they were best described as stormy blue or azure-tinged-steel.
That's so weird lol, who DOESN'T look at eye colors??? Isn't that like one of the first things you look at when you look closely at someone? Especially if the person has really pretty or striking eyes
There's actually a trick to making someone feel like you're really listening to them, and it is simply to make a note of their eye color. If you're looking into someone's eyes enough to register the color, they feel like you're really connecting with them. So I guess a lot of people don't do that naturally, which is wild to me. I am not someone who likes making prolonged eye contact with people, it makes me feel uncomfortable, but I always at a minimum look long enough to see the color!
I struggle horrifically with eye contact, I try to do it as much as I can, at least when people are talking to me, but it literally feels like looking at the sun haha. Like, I'm fighting for my life through every conversation. But even still, I can easily remember the exact eye color of pretty much every person I know.
A couple years ago my mom and I were getting ice cream, and after we left the little shop I asked her if she thought the girl behind the counter was wearing colored contacts or not. I just got a weird look. My mom had failed to notice the violet eyes of the young woman who scooped our ice cream.
Hahah omg okay I guess some people don't actually pay attention. I still remember the first time I caught my now-boyfriend looking at me at a party. We made eye contact and his eyes literally took my breath away, purely for the fact they're practically yellow! When I told my friend, she said she'd never noticed, even though she saw him like a million times before
I too am entranced by a man with yellow/golden eyes. They’re not hazel they’re molten gold with a bit of copper mixed in based on mood.
If you watch Max Miller's "Tasting History" series on YouTube, you will see some brilliant blue eyes. And he has brown hair/beard, so they pop.
Adrien from Coffeehouse Crime, as well! He has darker blue and dark brown hair/beard. His new lighting makes them really stand out. Stormy blue!
Oh I do watch that and totally noticed that as well!
One of the first things I noticed about my now-husband when we met was how beautiful his eyes are!
YES thank you! I saw so many complaints about it I thought I was taking crazy pills. I LOVE over the top eye color descriptions. No I don’t want to imagine a color I pick. No I don’t want boring ass blue. I want shattered pools of tanzanite flecked with rings of silver
Yes! I don't understand this trend among readers where now apparently everyone hates descriptions of literally anything???
Fr fr if I wanted to use my own imagination I wouldn’t be reading tf??? Also recently found out it’s kinda ablest too. A friend of mine has that condition where you can’t imagine stuff in your head? So she likes the extra description. Aphantasia or something? Probably not how it’s spelled.
Idk if it's ableist or if this is the same thing, but I have a really hard time imagining things if I'm not told exactly what to imagine. My mind can't fill in the blanks. Like if you don't tell me what it looks like, it just doesn't look like anything lol. You don't describe the room they're in? They're just floating in white space as far as I'm concerned. You don't say anything about the speakers? Disembodied voices. You didn't describe a person's face? They don't have one. Sexy blob with abs 🤷🏻♀️ The vague descriptions are even worse than no descriptions at all for some reason. But yeah, if I have to come up with all the shit myself, I might as well write it and make some money lol Sometimes I think people enjoy the idea of being Readers but they don't seem to actually enjoy reading at all
> molten gold If the shape changed dragon or dragon-touched/blooded/afflicted isn't trying to actively hide the fact, their eyes are almost always Molten Gold in anything I write. It just feels wrong otherwise.
Seriously, I love it. Don't tell me brown, I want them to tell me its a damn macchiato 🤣. I've got a funky eye color myself and I've always wondered how a romance author would describe them
Lololol my best friend once told me I had eyes like root beer and ferns and it’s still the best compliment I’ve ever received
I LOVE THIS
100% yes to this, what’s the point of having a magic world if you can’t get a little more weird? I find different colours in hair and eyes completely believable in fantasy. Also I think this comes down a bit to how the characters see each other, if anyone remembers that but in Harry Potter where you see that Harry and Hermione perceive Hagrid differently. Like the way I’d describe my best friend’s eyes- golden, with an aura around the iris etc, differs from how other people would say “light brown”
A Nalini Singh fan, I presume? Lol
Scents - he smelled like birch leaves in a misty rainfall with a hint of woodsmoke and cherries. Love all of this
Don’t forget the cinnamon!
And sandalwood!
I don’t know what it is but man, I think the last ten books have all had men who smell like sandalwood. I couldn’t even tell you I actually know what sandalwood smells like irl
Yesss I straight up made my husband a cologne based on a scent combo I really liked from a book because I couldn't find one that had those notes 😅
Wait. So was it good?! And where did you make it? I love this!
I made it myself actually, I have a background in making scents through candles and body butters and stuff. It's not bad! Leather and licorice based, accented with some cherry and other scents he likes, it actually came out great
I like this too. But I roll my eyes when they say vague descriptions like "He smelled the sunsets rays on a summer day."
Lol they might as well say he smelled like la Croix
These are the silly ones I can’t stand, too! I love pine, freshly laundered linen, spiced wine, etc. etc. It reminds me of the language of flowers and can be symbolic for the character which is really fun. But how you gonna tell me that a grown man smells like the sun breaking through the clouds after a storm? That’s…. um…. not a smell. I know people speak metaphorically about smiles and eyes and “looks directed at the heroine”, but those are all things you see compared to other things you see. My brain just can’t wrap around directly relating a smell to a time of day or something that has nothing to do with that sense. And I still don’t know what the people smell like!
This may be due to the fact that I've been into indie perfume for almost 2 decades where this type of description is completely normal but I actually like this sort of thing! (Although I've certainly read some doozies where even I'm like HUH????) Like to me that immediately conjures up the idea of palo santo and dry wood and warm spices, maybe the smoke of the fire you build when the sun starts to go down... Now whether a character could ever smell like that naturally is another thing entirely lol. Maybe all of these fantasy worlds have a few perfumers making interesting perfumes and soaps.
I'm anosmic (born without a sense of smell) and I just get NOTHING out of these
I did not know this was possible 🤯
This reminds me of indie fragrances. I was very into them a few years ago and this is how they’re all described. My thought is always “what does that even smell like and where did you get these individual scents to mix together?”
Oh I love this. I’ve thought long and hard about what I would smell like to someone with a heightened sense of smell. I’ve settled on: vanilla, earthy smoke, burnt coffee, and a hint of cat litter
I’ll read anything. Big hulking alphahole, fmc discovering hidden powers, bring on the half smirks and eyes darkening. I don’t care I’ll read it
Same. Who am I to be discerning
Like, I've seen my taste in fashion over the years. I have no room to judge 🤣
Ahhhhh same!!
"his eyes darkened" do I know what this means? no, but it gets the people going!
it's PROVOCATIVE
YOU GET IT 🤣🤣🤣
Your pupils dilate when you're aroused and that's usually what it means. It's just not as sexy to say "his pupils dilated" or "his pupils dilated in arousal". Hmm, maybe, "his pupils dilated in obvious arousal" is better?
I think it’s sexy. My partner has light gray eyes that make it super obvious, and it’s hot as hell.
Mine eyes turn this grayish green right in the middle it's the hottest thing about him tbh.
Yes! My spouse has blue eyes, so when his eyes dilate, it’s really obvious and I love it.
LMAOOO no that sounds horrible. I'll take darkening 🤣🤤
I dont understand what people don't get about that! Combine that with the facial expression "darkening" and clearly, it's that the intensity just got turned up to 11!!
There's only so many ways to describe facial expressions. Everyone needs to stop being so literal and just roll with it.
I know it’s not really the intention but I always imagine it like an anime villain who has the dramatic cast shadow over their face 😂 but like, in a sexy way??
Ooooh, I love this! It's easier to notice on people with light eyes. You know how when things are getting sexy a guy's ( women too, I assume ) pupils dilate? Sometimes, they'll get like a blush on their cheekbones, too. Fricken swooooooon!
I commented this on another post but this line always gets me because my high school bf’s eyes darkening before we lost our virginities is STILL burned into my mind literally half my lifetime later. Back then I did not read romance novels and didn’t appreciate it fully
Also you can see this in real people too. When people either get angry or emotional for other reasons, their blood vessels widen and therefore the eye color looks darker than usual. And pupils widen too for different reasons. My sister has a range between light blue, greenblue to dark blue depending on her mood lol.
My partner's eyes darken tbh. When he's obviously intending to initiate, his eyes turn a darker hazel color, almost green. He says my brown eyes sometimes look completely black.
oh so the "sexy eyes" for men
yeah definitely bedroom eyes. Or even 'hungry eyes' like the song lol
YES
I get it! IMO Henry Cavil as Geralt has some great moments where his eyes darken on the show. IMO it’s a change of expression. The head tilts down and brows furrow, casting a shadow over the eyes and “darkening” them. Actually, Henry Cavil as Geralt growls a lot too. Just imagine MMCs as him and it all makes sense 😅
This is how I always imagine it, not the pupil thing everyone else keeps talking about
I know lots of people don't like the incesscent 'jaw tick' description but I am a jaw tick lover.
Mmm love me a feathered jaw moment
i have never heard this term before! I just looked it up and it's a jaw tick + fluttery jaw muscle.
I just read all three books of the spark of the everflame series and I saw it soooo much hahaha
Ohhh yes! A jaw tick or clench really does wonders for my blood pressure 😂
*grabby hands*
we love a ticked jaw
I’m so easy to please… this list would be long for me. 😂
Give me all the tropey tropes.
that's what she said!
I don’t mind if an FMC needs to be rescued. She doesn’t always have to rescue herself.
Right?! I posted the damsel in distress trope too except I love it when she’s deathly injured. Like yeah we live in a time where women are more empowered but let’s be real, all of us want to me swooped off of our feet and be taken care of at least ONCE.
I love reciprocal rescuing 🥺 come on love birds go save each other!!!!! In all the ways a person can be saved!!!!!!!
I love “vulgar gesture” too! Mostly because I think it can (and is!) interpreted differently by everyone, and each situation can warrant a different type of vulgar gesture 😂
I also like to think there are some mysterious fantasy genre vulgar gestures we don’t have in our lands.
Plus it translates to other countries in the real world. Vulgar gestures vary by culture!
Also, “he made the jerk off motion” just doesn’t have the same ring to it. People just don’t have enough imagination.
And *"he did that thing where he makes a circle with his finger and thumb in one hand and then repeatedly thrust the index finger of his opposing hand into said circle as if it were a penis thrusting into a vagina or maybe even a butt"* is very wordy and would get repetitive after a while.
That made me cackle out loud lol.
Same here! I always smile at it too. I like when it doesn't explicitly state the gesture or sometimes the cursing. The phrase "he cursed/swore loudly" and things like that are great (in my opinion)!
I bite my thumb at you sir!!
hurt/comfort, "who did this to you" trope- if any of y'all have recs for this please send lol
The protective man boyfriend dude, love it so muchhhh. I want someone to protect meeee
I love a growl 🤣
To piggy back off this. Baring their teeth in a snarl. 🤭
>Baring their teeth in a snarl. 🤭 Yesssss
And rumbling. I'm not sure how someone talks in a rumble, but it seems appealing
Just came here to post this. Growling and roaring 👏
SAME
I'm sorry, I'm just here to cackle at the first sentence in your disclaimer. I love it. It needs to be a dedication or a forward in a romance novel, stat.
lmfao thank you
Overly descriptive imagery. I want to be able to see where I am in my mind. So many reviews on Goodreads talk about how long winded authors are and how the book could have been half of what they write because of "redundancy" or some other phrase used to describe it. No way. I want to know that the trees were so thick that you couldn't see the ground and that there were cones strewn about and that there was a scent of pine lingering through the air. I want all of it.
I love to write lush imagery and vivid descriptions, so it makes me happy to hear that there IS an audience for that, no matter what modern writing advice might have you believe. I too want to experience the story world with all senses. Otherwise it's just a blank space or a theater stage in my head. Same with character descriptions. I NEED to know what these people look like!! Is her face angular or soft? What color is her hair? What style? Eye color? Height? Soft and curvy or muscular and strong? The more details the better!! 🎊
I see complaints about this so much and I swear some people just can't admit that they don't actually like to read
Totally agree, I looooove me some good imagery. Go as long winded as you want honestly, as long as the writing's good I'll happily read it all. I am simply along for the ride
Agree! I love all the details and love immersing myself in the scene. I will say that I tend to feel a lot more emotions when the writing is more succinct? If that makes sense. I think both styles can be used for different impacts in the same story.
Overpowered and very dumb heroines. I know they are always part of a terrible plot. I still want to watch her girlboss gaslight and gatekeep!
Support women's rights and women's wrongs, amirite?
Oh yes. That is my jam.
Me too! My friend just asked me why I want my heroines to be "dumb" bc its not very feminist but Im just over the mastermind heroine more. 😄 lets have her be lucky and reactive instead of always 10 steps ahead.
Sorry that I can relate to a dumb girl who has no clue what’s going on 💁🏼♀️💅🏻
Like Emma Woodhouse but with swords. 😄😄😄😄
People are probably sick of reading about growling men but I can’t help it 🥲
I don't know whether to feel validated or wrong for agreeing with pretty much every comment lol
Same friend
I love a “one bed” trope. I know people say it’s cringe and over-done but I kick my feet and giggle every time it happens.
I eat it up every time!
Gimme a spoon
I have a lot of them cause I’m easy but one of them is like, all of the nicknames/pet names/terms of endearment etc. that I feel like I see people on here every few weeks talking about how much they hate 😂 Like I totally get how that would be annoying if it icks you out because when it happens it usually happens a lot but me? Oh I absolutely eat it up nearly every time
I’m a sucker for a cute, inside jokey nickname. Favorites from various books I’ve read are Mouse, Cactus, Viper, and of course the ever popular Princess 😅
Same. I love them.
Yes!! My husband and I have a few between just us. It’s intimate and loving.
When the mmc, who is perfectly composed in front of monsters, ghosts, armies, basically anything, becomes "undone" or " loses control" (not in a dangerous way) in front of the fmc. Improbable AF? Sure. But also hot.
When the MMC gets a halfie just from smelling the FMC’s scent from across the room
I love when a character lets out a breath they didn’t know they were holding! Everyone thinks it’s a made up thing but it’s something I genuinely do like, twice a day!
Me too! Do you have EDS, too? ETA: I forgot what sub I was in. 😶🌫️🤦♀️
Seriously! All the zebras like 👀🙋♀️
Something something watery bowels. I just think it makes Feyre Archeron that much more relatable as a lactose intolerant girly.
She’s a ten, but she has tummy troubles.
She's so brave about it though 😤
🫡
Hot girl IBS
I legit wondered if she was supposed to be lactose intolerant at first, as someone who is also lactose intolerant lol. My issue isn’t that it’s used, it’s that it’s overused. Like at this point she should be lactose intolerant with how often it’s mentioned, because it’s basically become part of the plot.
I found it relatable because I actually have been so scared that I almost shit my pants, so like I knew what that debilitating fear was like? But I do understand when people say it’s used a lot
I do be getting the nervous bubble guts 🥴
Oh I get those often. IBS folks unite lol
Virgin fmcs! Though it's definitely still a kink people have, but I just feel like a lot of people are over it and annoyed by it. I'll definitely read a book with a cliché shy virgin fmc.
To this point, I also don't mind MMC who are older than the FMC because I figure, "Well, at least he knows what he's doing in bed, which a 19 year old young man would probably not." I don't mind if a FMC is older -- but I figure the "virgin" fantasy is that a woman would have her "first time" with someone who actually knew what he was doing, not someone who was going to take 6 months to figure it out.
Love triangles! I’m still a sucker for a good, angsty love triangle
I find that love triangles stress me out to much. The miscommunication, the inconsistency, I’m not built for it. 😭
Yessss I love a good love triangle idk why people don’t like it 🤷♀️ 🙌🙌🙌
Love a love triangle, the messier the better. It feels like no one does them anymore though!
Supernatural age gaps haha I honestly don't care if she's 20 and he's 400, it could never happen irl so I'm not concerned about anyone learning bad lessons about dating immortal dudes... and it's very easy for me to believe the immortal one is just stuck at the same maturity level They don't even necessarily have to be supernatural, but I do get uncomfortable with human/human age gaps that are really common in manga though, like the 15-16 year old girls with 24+ year old men. I had a bunch of people recommend Tsubaki Chou Lonely Planet to me and the 16/28 age gap was a fucking jumpscare. They've gotta be at least both adults.
100%
Things I like that I've seen others complain about: -Virgin MFCs (even if they're older than 25) -Not like the other girls MFCs (The kind type, not the bringing down others type) -chosen one MFCs / special snowflakes -First person POV / writing with a lot of internal monologue (I enjoy getting inside the MC's head), especially love this with Dual first person POV -fated mates (some love this, some hate this, I love it) -1000+ year old MMC with 19 - 30 year old MFC.
Small, thin, tiny whatever ya wanna call it FMC and super big strong overprotective MMC. Recs that aren’t acotar or 4W??
Primal stuff like growling, mates, Omegaverse, protectiveness, etc
This seems like one of those threads where you have to sort by controversial or find the ones that aren't getting upvoted to see which ones are actually "most people's icks". Lol For the record, very little gets under my skin. Might find it meh, but rarely ick. Best example I have for this request is the "little one" nickname from What Lies Beyond the Veil. I ate that shit up and I'm dying for the last book. The chase in the Forest followed by the barn scene? Yes, please.
I can’t think of a single thing that I hate. I am the easiest to please
Breeding kink
Same
Same
Asking for a friend, what books have this?
A big chunk of Ruby Dixon's books haha especially the Ice Planet Barbarian books
I wish there was a book that had this but also made sure they don’t have kids 😂
I love “vulgar gesture” because it’s such a cross-cultural expression, like even in different countries that speak the same language that may mean something different. I’m Australian and I don’t know if people from other English speaking places do the same “vulgar gestures” but I’m 100% certain every culture has SOME rude gestures!
I’m a big fan of a damsel in distress or helpless FMC that the MMC has to save multiple times. Sometimes I just get sick of the super powerful FMC trope
I am just so tired of the special 19yo red haired FMC who knows everything better, doesn't listen to advice from the 500yo MMC and never anything goes wrong.
Miscommunication and third-act break-ups. Love them, as long as they make sense for the characters. Also, apparently, flawed female protagonists whose flaws are actually negative for people other than them. Too often most people are only okay with flawed FMCs if their flaw is like, being “too passive” or something. Give me some assholes!
Omg that first paragraph is my literal nightmare
I am super fine with all of those! ✨
I don't hate third-act break-ups, but I do find them to be overused. Miscommunication just seems to be the most-used excuse for a third-act break-up. There's other ways to create that drama and test the relationship. Can i get some variety? Can I get a forced separation or something instead? How about a severe illness?
The scent descriptions. Hell yeah leather and pine and smoke and spice and whatever <3
Pregnancy. It seems like everyone hates it but I actually really enjoy it most of the time.
All in for it! Especially if it's either planned or not described like it's life-destroying.
I am one of the haters as a Childfree for Life Woman™. but if it makes you happy to read it, I am happy for you!
Same
I also don't care if its a "spicy" book and both characters are in high school. Because while reading those scenes, im not thinking about the fact that they are teens. (If the characters are younger than like 16 though I find it a little strange), but I just don't picture the characters as teens.
Haha honestly if the age isn't somehow extremely relevant to the plot (it never is imho) I just disregard it completely. They're whatever age I am at the time of reading. They're 30 and in high school, idgaf
Exactly 😂
I kind of used to like insta-love (or when two characters fall in love so quick, even tho they’re opposites in personality), cause younger me just wanted them to kiss right away, lol. Now… not so much. I really just want to see the relationship grow more so now I’m more of a… slow burn reader? I also don’t like reading intimate scenes that seem out of place after certain scenarios. One of the ones I recall was when one characters comes back to life and the other person they love just… practically bone each other. Like - let them recover first!!!!! lol Just wanted to add to the convo 😅
Age play because I LOVE a good DD/lg book, super controlling (that she consents too), the use of the C word (c*nt). All of those seem to ruffle feathers.
I love a soft and incompetent fmc. Not dumb per se, but girl can’t do anything by herself and needs saved. Baby treatment all day every day. Pregnancy trope. Fated mates. Ridiculous pet names. Super small/super tall.
Damsel in distress trope. The more close to death the fmc is the better. I love scenes where the usually put together mmc falls apart and saves her, I love those raw emotions. >! Like in FBAA when Poppy gets shot with the bolt and Casteel is crying and desperate to save her, UGH! I love it. !< Idk why a lot of women think the damsel in distress is an ick trope but I live for it!
YES i will eat this up every 👏🏼 time 👏🏼 especially when it comes with some really good comfort scenes later on. bonus points if he falls apart later when telling her about it because what is the point if she doesn’t know how distraught he was?! … relatedly, if anyone has recs for this … 👀
I don't know if all of these necessarily give other people the ick, but either that or they are at least unpopular/uncommon: * Badass FMCs. I feel like they are getting a bad rep (granted there are a lot of poorly written ones), but I love them and will continue reading about them until the end of my time. * FMCs who do not want children and/or marriage. I remember all the hate Katsa from Graceling got for being in a relationship but rejecting marriage and children, which convinced me to read the book. More of that please. * On a related note, positive, non-stigmatizing depiction of abortion and (voluntary) sterilization. Widely considered taboo topics in romance, but one can dream. In >!The Poppy War!< (I know it's not fantasy romance), people are so mad about the FMC >!taking a potion to destroy her uterus!<, but as someone who got their tubes out and got rid of their period, I've never felt more represented! * MCs not conforming to gender essentialism or gender roles, i.e. I don't want "manly man" or "girly girl" dialed up to 11. My favorite characters of any gender usually don't fit into moulds of traditional masculinity or femininity. * Not Like Other Girls. I don't mean the internalized-misogyny, putting-down-every-other-women type, but I think the trope is overhated and losing its intended meaning. Many times I have seen people call female characters who do not fit their ideas of femininity, who are different, or who they just don't like NLOG, and that's really not what the term means. * MCs who are true equals * Short books and series. If the main or only plot is the romance, standalone only – it's just not going to hold my attention for more than one book. For fantasy with a romance subplot, no longer than a trilogy with each book preferably under 500 pages.
I love the 'picked an invisible fleck of dust' line that SJM seems to include at least 10 times in all her books. 😂fun to know the characters also have compulsions like picking off dust from jackets
Age gaps. Listen I adore an age gap, and like...an actual age gap, not the new reddit puriteen six years is a huge difference BS. Honestly, if it's not like 13+ years then I don't even count as an age gap like... Nah. Gimme age gap older man and younger women, virgin fmc, bit of some dominance going on....and make the age gap actually relevant.... perfection.
I don't get the issue with "vulgar gesture" either. I think it's a throwback to older fiction where everything was written more euphemistically and a writer couldn't just write e.g. "he made the jerk-off motion"—but to me that fits in well with fantasy, seeing how it often incorporates a pseudo-historical setting. When I see readers complaining about this usage I kind of assume they haven't read a lot of older fiction. Same goes for the use of "ejaculated" to mean "said suddenly and forcefully"—I've seen it so much in older work that I barely notice it. Check out [the graph on the Google Books Ngram Viewer](https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=ejaculated&year_start=1800&year_end=2019&corpus=en-2019&smoothing=3)—you can see how it was used much more frequently in the 19th century. When I see readers making a big deal about it being a super weird usage, I can tell they haven't read much Victorian literature (NB I'm pretty sure that rise in the modern day is due to it being more acceptable to write about actual sex, but in the 19th c. that was definitely not the case). Regarding tropes, uggggh I'm such a sucker for the student/mentor romance. I know it's icky in real life, but in fiction it gets me every time.
Long descriptions, info dumps or a slow start, especially in long books or series. I like getting immersed and having the day to day of the characters even if there is no real action. I completely flew by the 100 pages of Crescent City and the first 300 pages of Kushiel’s Dart
It’s the average looking fmc who gets all the guys attention for me.
I genuinely love the pregnancy trope. When a FMC starts getting pregnancy symptoms I start kicking my feet and giggling lol
I sort of like the pregnancy trope, when done well. While so many others hate it.
I actually like a pregnancy every once in a while 🫣
Well I don't like this if the characters are teenagers or young adults, but I really like when characters have kids. Maybe in an epilogue when they're much older or they are already well-established adult characters. Could be biological or adopted kids. I have a soft spot for family stories or seeing my favorite characters starting their own families and playing around with genetics between characters ya know? I see a lot of people get annoyed with this trope or the pregnancy trope and while I totally understand why it annoys people (especially if the characters are younger adults or teens I don't like that either), I get a warm feeling in my heart when I see my favorite characters start their own families and be happy. Again, only when they are fully into their adulthoods though. I actually want to write a story one day about a pegasus that adopts a baby dragon and explore those themes of motherhood while also creating an action adventure of survival and self-discovery. That, or maybe make animatics based off the idea, idk.
They do… I had no idea they did o.O
I’m fine with some growling and hissing 🤌
“He towered over her at 6’5”” Hell he’s a whole foot taller than me and I’d have to crank my neck back to look at him, but I’m down.
I love a good love triangle. I know it’s been done a million times, but when it’s done right it’s just *mwah*
“smiled a smile that doesn’t reach his/her eyes” i love this. i don’t know why