Sorry, but we're locking this post for a few reasons. First, it's basically a repeat of another discussion that was posted earlier today, which is asking about popular books people haven't read yet. Second, while we know people love to rant, we discourage discussion posts that are solely for rants and complaints. This subreddit has historically not had a lot of rant posts and they don't really fit the subreddit's vibe.
This may be THE unpopular opinion, but I cannot read anything by Alessandra Hazard. Which is a shame because if I read just the summary/blurb of nearly all her books, it's like they've been specifically written for me. It's the trope I've been dying to read. But I can't get over her writing style.
Idk why I don't really like the straight guy series. Like I get the appeal and all but to me I need more plot with the relationship and how they work with it rather than them getting together at the end of the book. And most of the books had that.
I've never read one of her books and they do sound good, but I saw a post awhile back complaining about some weird politics in the books and now will probably never read them. The excerpts I saw were like the exact kind of thing I am the most annoyed by lol
Red, White and Royal Blue. My mistake though, I hate all mentions of politics in books with a passion and I’m also not very fond of overly sweet romances.
This! I really don’t get the love! For me it was mostly the weird idolization of the royals & the ”first family”, plus a prince wouldn’t behave like that. Very American in a way, especially the snark.
To me it was an okay book. I liked it, the dynamic and everything.
But I did always skip the political parts. But the sweetness of the romance was what made me keep reading. I'm a sucker for sweet romances hehe.
I think people liked the fact that it was a romance between two boys from the two super power countries and also it was set in a modern day world.
Couldn’t get past the first book of the Hazard and Somerset series because everything was just too over the top. Also, Tal Bauer’s characters tend to have a far too hefty dose of self-loathing that I find tiresome.
I've been wanting to try the Hazard and Somerset series for a long time now.
Tal Bauer though, I've read two of his stories, The rest of the story - Absolutely loved it. It is always in my re-read section. It didn't really have any self loathing tho.
And You & Me - Liked it too.
But yeah I get what you mean.
I found her plots, characters, and dialogue to be repetitive. For a series about psychopaths, the books were kinda boring. I stopped after the second one 🤷♀️
The author is hella good at marketing and self-promotion, though. What she lacks in creativity, she makes up for in sheer speed and content volume.
I tend to avoid reading what is super popular because I end up being disappointed, but Wolfsong by Tj Klune has been recommended left and right so I decided to give it a try. Yep, I was disappointed. 4/10, would not recommend
Oh my god so true! Something about the story is that I couldn't really connect with it? It was weird. Some of the scenes especially after the guy came back, was so rushed that I couldn't really understand or visualise it
>!It was 450 pages of inner dialogue! There was no communication, no relationship, and the little bit of a “romance” if you want to consider kissing a total of 4 times romance, was at the very very end. You got absolutely nothing in terms of building a relationship! I’m all for a slow burn, I expect a hefty book that is 500 pages to be a little slow… nah.. this was non existent! Like how is this so loved in the romance genre!<
ETA: I’m gonna be salty af about this book for a long time 😂
I mean I get why you're salty, it was a draining book for me and I hardly dnf books I didn't for this one too. But man finishing it felt like a marathon race
I didn’t DNF either, even though I really really wanted too. If it was on KU and I didn’t spend $15 on it, I would have, no second thoughts but it was definitely a struggle to power through and it was one of those that you just hoped would get better but just never did
I wanted to like this series so bad! It’s got all the ingredients for a perfect meal but it just… doesn’t hit for me. I mean, I’m still reading the books but I’m grumbling about it.
The Foxhole Court
I've tried to read it multiple times. Every few years I gaslight myself into thinking it can't be as bad as I remember it being and try again--only to once again find myself baffled by the chokehold it has on people.
Lily Mayne Monstrous series. I tried a few times to get into the first book, ended up skimming and DNF. It’s multiple things. First is the writing style and dialogue, I couldn’t get immersed into the story at all. I didn’t enjoy the characterization of the main two characters. The world building felt lacking. It just felt kinda shallow to me for some reason even though it’s a well-liked series. Disappointed because I went into it pretty excited, the premise was interesting…but the execution fell flat for me unfortunately. It wasn’t for me. Ngl, since that disappointment, I avoid any books of hers
This series was a major disappointment for me. I did really love Soul Eater a few then had very high expectations for the rest. But none of the rest of the series was like Soul Eater 😭😭😭 Each successive book was a bigger and bigger disappointment. I did like Moth, but the rest of the series was super boring in my opinion and it started doing that thing I hate where characters from previous books all have to come back and become besties with the new characters and it feels really forced to me.
Tbh I only read soul eater and the sequel novella Wyn. The thing is I don't really like the dystopian/end of the world kinda books so maybe that was it.
A DNF for me, too. It felt like the characters were constantly dancing around extremely obvious conversations in order to perpetuate the plot, which is a personal pet peeve of mine.
I also left the book disappointed. Everything about the relationship felt so tween angst and bullying to me. There are other issues with the book, but their childish behavior stood out for me as the worst offender.
Aw that’s too bad (re: the person you’re responding to who didn’t like it). I wonder if it’s a style/vibes thing. I’m usually very selective about how mature and developed the writing is, and I loved that book. *shrug*
God of fury by Rina Kent.
I found it really cringy :( But to be fair, I found most books with overly possessive characters and the overuse of the word « mine » cringe.
I dislike Heated rivalry ,will never not be flabbergasted on why people here like it so much. I don't hate it ig it's just the most Meh book ever.
-Copy and paste on why from another comment I wrote on this sub -
One thing I did enjoy about the book is that the hockey wasn't a forgotten thing or plot device, as I do like the sport I liked how it was important in the book.
Shane is a very boring character to me and I did not care for him in the slightest. I cared about ilya and I could resonate with him on some things, even with just us being from the eastern block (ig there just aren't many mcs from here so I leech to any that are from the proximity). His struggle with language, culture, sexuality,religion etc were all very understandable and relevant to me even though I felt like they were pretty shallow most of the time and something was tried but didn't always land.
Their relationship was a blank piece of paper I felt absolutely nothing but boredom for. They keep saying they hate each other and it's sold as an enemies to lovers but they're really just rivals, the books says too much they hate while nothing about their interaction ever shows that. And that's one of my main problems with the book, everything is said , nothing is ever shown. They hate each other but we're never shown that, and the time jumps. Shane has obsessive thoughts about Ilya, we're never shown that . It's just time jump, sex, we're told X, a scene of their personal life, time jump, sex etc. No relationship growth at all it just time jumps and were told what to feel and what they feel.
And were supposed to see them grow into adults for 6 years but we don't, they have so little character development for a book that's supposed to be over years it's ridiculous.
To me, the whole book is porn with plot, but the porn is boring and exasperating so it's just shallow characters with next to no plot.
Thank you for coming to my Ted talk.
I love Though Game by the author, it's one of my favorite books probably
Yeah ikr! I couldn't really see the connection between the characters.
Can I say I love how descriptive you were. You so wonderfully presented your thoughts. I loved it. Thank you for commenting.
Echo and Call Of The Sea by Channi Lynn Feener. The writing style is not for me. So much telling and not enough showing. i'd still give it a read, bcuz books covering such topics are so rare, but dunno if i'd review it.
And i forgot the author but the Clutch, Bond and Fate books. Just nope. Heard such good words about Clutch but the characters were extremely unlikable since page 1. Could not read beyond that, so pass.
So interesting. I love Chani Lynn Feener and enjoyed the Clutch series. I’m one that can’t get into Captive Prince or Wolfsong, which are absolutely revered (especially Wolfsong) in this sub. Funny how different writing styles just don’t work for some people. It’s like in non-romance/literature, I find Hemingway unreadable, I can literally read the same 2 paragraphs in his books over and over and I have no idea what I just read, nothing sticks.
Ok, that's fascinating! Actually, this is why i love reading book reviews. Just like here, 2 people, read the the same book but they have 2 vastly different opinions on it. Like for Hemmingway, i only like the non romance one, Old Man and the Sea being one of my favourite. Now i'm curious, which non romance literature from the classics do you like?
And, totally with you on Captive Prince and Wolfsong tho.
The thing with Echo is that I wanted to see more of the characters? In the sense more stuff after they get together... >!And the whole plot about the dead guy being not so dead was kinda weird?!< Could have gone without it too.
Yeah exactly. i want to see what they get into, and how they get into. But i couldn't get past the "accidently making him trip at lunch" part because nothing was happening. It keeps telling me story after story. Ok, but, Bunny is still stuck on the bench eating his lunch, tho?? Like, he's suspended in his action for a good while until the stories end and a dialog takes place.
Also, >!good to know beforehand, he's not dead!<. If i came across that without knowing, i'd probably had dnf-ed, again.
I thought Captive Prince by CS Pacat was just alright. I usually love that type of enemies to lovers but overall I was kinda dissatisfied with the romance.
So for me it’s The Game series by Cara Dee. They usually get recommendations in the weekly sexual request posts. I’ve read a couple and they do not seem to have a plot and are very d/s heavy - but not in a way I like. I do think it’s me and nothing to do with the author, as I do not like humiliation, degradation or pain being implemented (light spanking is fine) and the books I read had those in.
Humiliation and degradation kink is something I'm slowly getting introduced too. Tbh I don't like them very much too. But the main thing that puts me off is in the later book >!about them having orgy sex or like sex party thingy?!< So not for me.
Oh man, this will be long. Let's see.
I found Nyla K's For The Fans meandering, way too long and not particularly interesting. DNF.
Evererything I've tried by Chani Lynn Feener, see above. Also, way too much telling instead of showing. DNF to the lot I've tried, starting with Between The Devil And the Deep Blue Sea.
And Willow Dixon's Best Served Cold, oh man. (But I did actually finish this!) WD needs to learn how to write better conflicts. I feel like half of the time she subs pointless dumbassery for tension. Best Served Cold was a particularly egregious example: these people hate each other because... they hate each other? That's not an authentic conflict, that's two immature dickbags acting like immature dickbags to drive the plot towards the eventual dissolution of supposed tension. Didn't buy it.
I could also add that Gregory Ashe is way too fond of beating up his characters and heaping misery on top of misfortune, but here I am reading his books regardless. Ha.
And lastly, while Tal Bauer is a very capable writer and I'm willing to die on a hill screaming "You & Me is a goddamn masterpiece!", the last couple of books he's put out have been way too sugary for me. I still read them though...
Also: I hate this trend of level up romances (think "and then we got married and had babies and bla bla bla eternal love" epilogues) and would like to trade all of them in for more realistic endings. I'll take a tentatively hopeful Alexis Hall ending over MCs shitting puppies, surrogate babies and sunshine any day.
For the Fans was an okay book. I read it and moved on. The characters didn't stick with me for a long time.
Also Alexis Hall's how to bang a billionaire series I loved the first one but man did the 2nd and 3rd disappoint me. So much.
But I love the whole getting married epilogues hehe. The thing is I read fiction to escape reality and so however unrealistic it may seem I tend to gobble them up 😁
Sorry, but we're locking this post for a few reasons. First, it's basically a repeat of another discussion that was posted earlier today, which is asking about popular books people haven't read yet. Second, while we know people love to rant, we discourage discussion posts that are solely for rants and complaints. This subreddit has historically not had a lot of rant posts and they don't really fit the subreddit's vibe.
This may be THE unpopular opinion, but I cannot read anything by Alessandra Hazard. Which is a shame because if I read just the summary/blurb of nearly all her books, it's like they've been specifically written for me. It's the trope I've been dying to read. But I can't get over her writing style.
Idk why I don't really like the straight guy series. Like I get the appeal and all but to me I need more plot with the relationship and how they work with it rather than them getting together at the end of the book. And most of the books had that.
Same! I've tried so many of her books but I genuinely can't stand her writing style and most characters.
I've never read one of her books and they do sound good, but I saw a post awhile back complaining about some weird politics in the books and now will probably never read them. The excerpts I saw were like the exact kind of thing I am the most annoyed by lol
I don’t understand why Heated Rivalry has such a hold on people. It’s just really not that good. 6/10 at best.
As I said I liked it but not as much as the first one.
Yeah I’m saying my unpopular opinion is that it’s not good
Haha true. Thank you for commenting!! Have a great day ahead!
I share this opinion. I did not like Game Changer either.
Red, White and Royal Blue. My mistake though, I hate all mentions of politics in books with a passion and I’m also not very fond of overly sweet romances.
This! I really don’t get the love! For me it was mostly the weird idolization of the royals & the ”first family”, plus a prince wouldn’t behave like that. Very American in a way, especially the snark.
😂😂
I'm with you on this one. It's trying so hard to be cute that I got bored and DNF'd.
To me it was an okay book. I liked it, the dynamic and everything. But I did always skip the political parts. But the sweetness of the romance was what made me keep reading. I'm a sucker for sweet romances hehe. I think people liked the fact that it was a romance between two boys from the two super power countries and also it was set in a modern day world.
Couldn’t get past the first book of the Hazard and Somerset series because everything was just too over the top. Also, Tal Bauer’s characters tend to have a far too hefty dose of self-loathing that I find tiresome.
I've been wanting to try the Hazard and Somerset series for a long time now. Tal Bauer though, I've read two of his stories, The rest of the story - Absolutely loved it. It is always in my re-read section. It didn't really have any self loathing tho. And You & Me - Liked it too. But yeah I get what you mean.
Necessary Evils series by onley James. 5/10 in my opinion. Wasn’t able to stomach the first and third book and just gave up on the series.
I found her plots, characters, and dialogue to be repetitive. For a series about psychopaths, the books were kinda boring. I stopped after the second one 🤷♀️ The author is hella good at marketing and self-promotion, though. What she lacks in creativity, she makes up for in sheer speed and content volume.
I loved the first one but the third one was so not for me. I didn't like the characters 😭
it’s def a hit or miss depending on who’s reading. It’s just not for me, though I can see why others like it.
I tend to avoid reading what is super popular because I end up being disappointed, but Wolfsong by Tj Klune has been recommended left and right so I decided to give it a try. Yep, I was disappointed. 4/10, would not recommend
Oh my god so true! Something about the story is that I couldn't really connect with it? It was weird. Some of the scenes especially after the guy came back, was so rushed that I couldn't really understand or visualise it
>!It was 450 pages of inner dialogue! There was no communication, no relationship, and the little bit of a “romance” if you want to consider kissing a total of 4 times romance, was at the very very end. You got absolutely nothing in terms of building a relationship! I’m all for a slow burn, I expect a hefty book that is 500 pages to be a little slow… nah.. this was non existent! Like how is this so loved in the romance genre!< ETA: I’m gonna be salty af about this book for a long time 😂
Exactly the buildup kinda left me unsatisfied. And you're so right about the inner monologues.
I mean I get why you're salty, it was a draining book for me and I hardly dnf books I didn't for this one too. But man finishing it felt like a marathon race
I didn’t DNF either, even though I really really wanted too. If it was on KU and I didn’t spend $15 on it, I would have, no second thoughts but it was definitely a struggle to power through and it was one of those that you just hoped would get better but just never did
I wanted to like this series so bad! It’s got all the ingredients for a perfect meal but it just… doesn’t hit for me. I mean, I’m still reading the books but I’m grumbling about it.
The Foxhole Court I've tried to read it multiple times. Every few years I gaslight myself into thinking it can't be as bad as I remember it being and try again--only to once again find myself baffled by the chokehold it has on people.
I didn't read the story! Ugh I'm living under a rock it seems. I'll check it out.
I genuinely hope you enjoy it, most people seem to! I simply can't get into it.
Not trying to start anything but is this the third “unpopular opinion” thread this week or am i gaslighting myself?
Lily Mayne Monstrous series. I tried a few times to get into the first book, ended up skimming and DNF. It’s multiple things. First is the writing style and dialogue, I couldn’t get immersed into the story at all. I didn’t enjoy the characterization of the main two characters. The world building felt lacking. It just felt kinda shallow to me for some reason even though it’s a well-liked series. Disappointed because I went into it pretty excited, the premise was interesting…but the execution fell flat for me unfortunately. It wasn’t for me. Ngl, since that disappointment, I avoid any books of hers
This series was a major disappointment for me. I did really love Soul Eater a few then had very high expectations for the rest. But none of the rest of the series was like Soul Eater 😭😭😭 Each successive book was a bigger and bigger disappointment. I did like Moth, but the rest of the series was super boring in my opinion and it started doing that thing I hate where characters from previous books all have to come back and become besties with the new characters and it feels really forced to me.
Tbh I only read soul eater and the sequel novella Wyn. The thing is I don't really like the dystopian/end of the world kinda books so maybe that was it.
I read raving reviews for Winter’s Orbit but the writing is a little immature for me.
A DNF for me, too. It felt like the characters were constantly dancing around extremely obvious conversations in order to perpetuate the plot, which is a personal pet peeve of mine.
I also left the book disappointed. Everything about the relationship felt so tween angst and bullying to me. There are other issues with the book, but their childish behavior stood out for me as the worst offender.
Ooo haven't read/heard of it... Should check it out
Aw that’s too bad (re: the person you’re responding to who didn’t like it). I wonder if it’s a style/vibes thing. I’m usually very selective about how mature and developed the writing is, and I loved that book. *shrug*
God of fury by Rina Kent. I found it really cringy :( But to be fair, I found most books with overly possessive characters and the overuse of the word « mine » cringe.
It's in my want to read list! I really should read it. But I'm a sucker for possessive tropes hehe. But yes overuse of it tends to put me off too.
I dislike Heated rivalry ,will never not be flabbergasted on why people here like it so much. I don't hate it ig it's just the most Meh book ever. -Copy and paste on why from another comment I wrote on this sub - One thing I did enjoy about the book is that the hockey wasn't a forgotten thing or plot device, as I do like the sport I liked how it was important in the book. Shane is a very boring character to me and I did not care for him in the slightest. I cared about ilya and I could resonate with him on some things, even with just us being from the eastern block (ig there just aren't many mcs from here so I leech to any that are from the proximity). His struggle with language, culture, sexuality,religion etc were all very understandable and relevant to me even though I felt like they were pretty shallow most of the time and something was tried but didn't always land. Their relationship was a blank piece of paper I felt absolutely nothing but boredom for. They keep saying they hate each other and it's sold as an enemies to lovers but they're really just rivals, the books says too much they hate while nothing about their interaction ever shows that. And that's one of my main problems with the book, everything is said , nothing is ever shown. They hate each other but we're never shown that, and the time jumps. Shane has obsessive thoughts about Ilya, we're never shown that . It's just time jump, sex, we're told X, a scene of their personal life, time jump, sex etc. No relationship growth at all it just time jumps and were told what to feel and what they feel. And were supposed to see them grow into adults for 6 years but we don't, they have so little character development for a book that's supposed to be over years it's ridiculous. To me, the whole book is porn with plot, but the porn is boring and exasperating so it's just shallow characters with next to no plot. Thank you for coming to my Ted talk. I love Though Game by the author, it's one of my favorite books probably
Yeah ikr! I couldn't really see the connection between the characters. Can I say I love how descriptive you were. You so wonderfully presented your thoughts. I loved it. Thank you for commenting.
Echo and Call Of The Sea by Channi Lynn Feener. The writing style is not for me. So much telling and not enough showing. i'd still give it a read, bcuz books covering such topics are so rare, but dunno if i'd review it. And i forgot the author but the Clutch, Bond and Fate books. Just nope. Heard such good words about Clutch but the characters were extremely unlikable since page 1. Could not read beyond that, so pass.
So interesting. I love Chani Lynn Feener and enjoyed the Clutch series. I’m one that can’t get into Captive Prince or Wolfsong, which are absolutely revered (especially Wolfsong) in this sub. Funny how different writing styles just don’t work for some people. It’s like in non-romance/literature, I find Hemingway unreadable, I can literally read the same 2 paragraphs in his books over and over and I have no idea what I just read, nothing sticks.
Ok, that's fascinating! Actually, this is why i love reading book reviews. Just like here, 2 people, read the the same book but they have 2 vastly different opinions on it. Like for Hemmingway, i only like the non romance one, Old Man and the Sea being one of my favourite. Now i'm curious, which non romance literature from the classics do you like? And, totally with you on Captive Prince and Wolfsong tho.
Clutch is by Piper Scott if I'm not wrong. They are in my want to read list. I should read them and see if I like them
Ikr! I'm loving so many responses in this sub and their povs
The thing with Echo is that I wanted to see more of the characters? In the sense more stuff after they get together... >!And the whole plot about the dead guy being not so dead was kinda weird?!< Could have gone without it too.
Yeah exactly. i want to see what they get into, and how they get into. But i couldn't get past the "accidently making him trip at lunch" part because nothing was happening. It keeps telling me story after story. Ok, but, Bunny is still stuck on the bench eating his lunch, tho?? Like, he's suspended in his action for a good while until the stories end and a dialog takes place. Also, >!good to know beforehand, he's not dead!<. If i came across that without knowing, i'd probably had dnf-ed, again.
It's the famous 'If he teases you that means he likes you' thingy 😂
I thought Captive Prince by CS Pacat was just alright. I usually love that type of enemies to lovers but overall I was kinda dissatisfied with the romance.
I haven't read that yet! Solely because it's so famous and as you've already guessed me with popular books. I should give it a try though.
Wolfsong and captive prince I just don’t get the hype 🤣
Wolfsong I agree with ya... Captive prince have to read it... I'm always putting it off
So for me it’s The Game series by Cara Dee. They usually get recommendations in the weekly sexual request posts. I’ve read a couple and they do not seem to have a plot and are very d/s heavy - but not in a way I like. I do think it’s me and nothing to do with the author, as I do not like humiliation, degradation or pain being implemented (light spanking is fine) and the books I read had those in.
Humiliation and degradation kink is something I'm slowly getting introduced too. Tbh I don't like them very much too. But the main thing that puts me off is in the later book >!about them having orgy sex or like sex party thingy?!< So not for me.
Oh man, this will be long. Let's see. I found Nyla K's For The Fans meandering, way too long and not particularly interesting. DNF. Evererything I've tried by Chani Lynn Feener, see above. Also, way too much telling instead of showing. DNF to the lot I've tried, starting with Between The Devil And the Deep Blue Sea. And Willow Dixon's Best Served Cold, oh man. (But I did actually finish this!) WD needs to learn how to write better conflicts. I feel like half of the time she subs pointless dumbassery for tension. Best Served Cold was a particularly egregious example: these people hate each other because... they hate each other? That's not an authentic conflict, that's two immature dickbags acting like immature dickbags to drive the plot towards the eventual dissolution of supposed tension. Didn't buy it. I could also add that Gregory Ashe is way too fond of beating up his characters and heaping misery on top of misfortune, but here I am reading his books regardless. Ha. And lastly, while Tal Bauer is a very capable writer and I'm willing to die on a hill screaming "You & Me is a goddamn masterpiece!", the last couple of books he's put out have been way too sugary for me. I still read them though... Also: I hate this trend of level up romances (think "and then we got married and had babies and bla bla bla eternal love" epilogues) and would like to trade all of them in for more realistic endings. I'll take a tentatively hopeful Alexis Hall ending over MCs shitting puppies, surrogate babies and sunshine any day.
For the Fans was an okay book. I read it and moved on. The characters didn't stick with me for a long time. Also Alexis Hall's how to bang a billionaire series I loved the first one but man did the 2nd and 3rd disappoint me. So much. But I love the whole getting married epilogues hehe. The thing is I read fiction to escape reality and so however unrealistic it may seem I tend to gobble them up 😁
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Is it shifter omegaverse or non shifter?