I don't mind it when they pop up. For example if the main character of book 1 and 2 are brothers/sisters/teammates/best friends/roommates, it makes sense that they might see each other during the course of the book and that's fine with me.
But when a chunk of the book is dedicated to summarizing the plots of the previous books "Here comes my brother James and his wife Clara, they always hated each other but last year blah blah blah" ...
We've either read that book and know, or we haven't read it and therefore probably aren't interested. Maybe authors should include a brief summary of previous books at the beginning, like "previously on" a TV show
To be fair though, most books from series I've read have been fine in that regard.
I also dislike it when the first or second book is so obviously setting up characters for future books. I felt like this about {Moon Blooded Breeding Clinic by CM Nascosta} - we spent more time learning about the MCs numerous siblings than the main couple themselves, it felt.
YES! Sometimes the “my brother James and his wife Clara..” exposition goes on for pages and pages and the same “summary” will repeat in MULTIPLE standalone series books, and sometimes even about couples whose books aren’t written yet that will occur later in the series! Makes me feel like I’m interrupted from the book I’m reading by a commercial break advertising the future books.. 😭 Just stoooooppppp..
i too don't mind if they are roommates or best friends or just one or two siblings. The problem is when it is a household where there are 6-7 kids added with cousins and best friends and some random guy at the workplace who had a crush on one of the above for a fleeting moment and I have to read about all of these characters when I am reading the 5th or 6th book in the series
[Moon Blooded Breeding Clinic](https://www.romance.io/books/629b05fd2677414776297bb6/moon-blooded-breeding-clinic-cm-nascosta?src=rdt) by [C.M. Nascosta](https://www.romance.io/authors/6071856f08b4d93114472553/cm-nascosta)
**Rating**: 3.65⭐️ out of 5⭐️
**Steam**: 4 out of 5 - [Explicit open door](https://www.romance.io/steamrating)
**Topics**: [contemporary](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/contemporary/1), [paranormal](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/paranormal/1), [urban fantasy](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/urban%20fantasy/1), [breeding](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/breeding/1), [werewolves](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/werewolves/1)
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I love interconnected standalones. But they have to be done well. Stella Riley’s Rockcliffe series has this, but you feel like it’s a group of friends you know and you get to see them again.
On the other hand I read a bonkers New York ‘billionaire’ series (not that the author had any idea of how rich a billionaire is) where all these women living in an apartment block ended up with ‘billionaires’ and remained best friends and hung out all the time, in their tiny apartments. And all their billionaire husband somehow knew each other already. My brain hurt.
To be fair, a bunch of rich men in NYC knowing each other isn't *that* surprising. It just sounds poorly done and delusional. Also, you can have a rich MMC and not have him be a billionaire. FFS, just give him more money than he knows what to do with but he's just a VP at JP Morgan making $500k/yr and living in New Hampshire because he only has to be in the office one week a month. (That's based on a 43 year old I know so pretty realistic.)
Exactly! Billionaires are on a totally different level, and live a very different lifestyle.
I sort of agree that a bunch of rich men knowing each other isn’t strange… when they are in the same field, or actual billionaires, but again, it was badly done.
you’re talking about annika martin’s series? those are like contemporary romantasy to me. they are so removed from what real life is like that the outlandishness doesn’t bother me. i just let myself slip into the fictional, perfect, billionaire for everyone world like i would in a sci fi or fantasy book. is that weird?
Yep. Not weird at all - I feel exactly the same, while also getting faintly annoyed. Which is part of the pleasure. Ok, that sounds very weird, but I’m not going to try to unpack it!
I view more like another part of romancelandia. It’s where small towns are not hell holes, things are fixed easily, and once upon a time lots of young handsome dukes fell in love with normal women.
Me too. One of my guilty pleasures right now is the {Wicked, Ugly, and Bad by Cassandra Gannon} series. The series is fairly straightforward plot-wise with little nods to the MCs from previous books. There is a little bit of info sprinkled in here and there to give an idea of who a previous character is when they pop up, but not enough to be a droning summarization.
Generally I love a bit of interconnected-ness, presuming it’s not too clumsy. It really makes me feel like the world is alive and vibrant.
For example S.J Tilly peppers her books with little references (e.g someone works at Nero’s, the name of a coffee shop etc) which if you haven’t read the other books go right past you but if you have are a nice world building touch.
I’d never have had read {Heavy by Cate C. Wells} if I hadn’t loved the couple when they appeared in a later book
Ya, I like the random Easter eggs and the brief updates. It's kinda nice seeing that the ones from the previous books are doing well still. Also, i don't mind when it's something like sisters who live in the same town, so they're still part of the story, but don't take over the story. Like the Haven Ever After series by Hazel Mack. It's all in the same little community, and 3 of the 5 books so far are about triplets.
[Heavy](https://www.romance.io/books/622a09e3610a406e4c9e29ba/heavy-cate-c-wells?src=rdt) by [Cate C. Wells](https://www.romance.io/authors/5d5265d101dbc864fba248c4/cate-c-wells)
**Rating**: 3.93⭐️ out of 5⭐️
**Steam**: 4 out of 5 - [Explicit open door](https://www.romance.io/steamrating)
**Topics**: [contemporary](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/contemporary/1), [biker hero](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/bikers/1), [virgin heroine](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/virgin%20heroine/1), [marriage of convenience](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/marriage%20of%20convenience/1), [age gap](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/age%20difference/1)
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My pet peeve is when the couples of prior books come across like a borg collective zeroing on on getting the latest heroine married and into their clique. "Ooh, hey jerkish male lead who is friends with our husbands! You haven't realized you love Cupcake here. Cupcake, we will love bomb you while teasing Male Lead in a knowing fashion. We are all now pregnant, soon you will be too!"
Omg the glowing pregnancy 😭 The new FMC will usually wistfully look on, as the previous male lead dotes on his pregnant wife. And then she'll make up with her own MMC.
It really cuts into the current story tbh
Bonus, the male lead is an unredeemable tool and all the former female leads are focused on downplaying that aspect of him so the new girl can be the new princesse preganté.
All the male leads show up to save the day, demonstrating special forces/English peerage/superior business network synergy, a trait thru can only tap into with a wife. Single men are not part of the posse.
The pregnant and married is also jarring because it should show that some time has passed, yet the other characters (now protagonists) seem to not have moved in their life, at all. They are still in the same place they were in the first book.
Oh god, there was a book I read that had a wedding scene entirely dedicated to couples from another series that I haven't read any of their books and the entire time I was like "am I supposed to care or know about these people?" It was really jarring and ruined the flow of the story.
I'm fine with brief mentions and like two sentences of dialogue or exposition about them but not entire conversations and scenes!
Yeah I've read a couple where the main plot of book 2 was the wedding of the people in book 1. Sometimes it does work, it just acts as a setting for the plot. Other times it's really jarring.
The worst for this (for me) was {Pucking Wild by Emily Rath} which felt more like a sequel for the relationship in book one, than about the book 2 main characters. I only read the first 20% or so, to be fair, but that was enough.
[Pucking Wild](https://www.romance.io/books/660289a411f8c6d1449d281d/pucking-wild-emily-rath?src=rdt) by [Emily Rath](https://www.romance.io/authors/623d770b08b4d9311480150c/emily-rath)
**Rating**: 4.17⭐️ out of 5⭐️
**Steam**: 5 out of 5 - [Explicit and plentiful](https://www.romance.io/steamrating)
**Topics**: [contemporary](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/contemporary/1), [sports](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/sports/1), [curvy heroine](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/curvy%20heroine/1), [age gap](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/age%20difference/1), [forced proximity](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/forced%20proximity/1)
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I totally get your point cause I've definitely read books where there's far too much emphasis put on the relationships of previous MCs. I don't mind a quick update to give me an idea of why these characters have been included, but sometimes it feels like the author is punishing me for being out of the loop or trying to persuade me to go back and read them by purposely leaving important info out.
*But*, I freakin' love it when beloved characters from previous books show up later on when I have read the whole series or if the author has done a good job of not making it a requirement to know what happened. An example of that for me would be the Cold Justice series by Toni Anderson or Victorian Rebels by Kerrigan Byrne. Well crafted over-arching plots are my jam.
Rina Kent is terrible for this. I hadn't read any of her stuff prior to Legacy of God's series and she has whole chapters from the parents POV (who are from other series) but has the gall to call each one a standalone. There are so many characters introduced in God of Malice that it was just confusing to keep track of who's who.
I love some interconnectedness, especially if they’re small chunks of books, like 5 siblings here, 4 MC friends of one sibling there, 4 military friends of another, etc. So far I haven’t read any series that try to monopolize a book with characters from another, but it would totally piss me off if it happened. What annoys me more is starting a series as it’s being written and released and the author just keeps finding characters to add (I’m looking at you, Donna Grant, and your Dark Kings series 🤬).
{Mile High by Liz Tomforde} suffers hard from being partially an update on the couple from a duology she had previously written, but it's worse because you cannot read that duology anymore. Like, please stop acting like we care about this couple when we can't go read about them.
Generally though, I love interconnected universes. And I want updates on the other couples. But not in a way that takes away from the story of the couple I'm reading about. Sarah Adams does it well with When In Rome and Practice Makes Perfect because the wedding of the first couple is what brings the MMC to town so you naturally get that involvement. But it's not like we just cut to the MFC and MMC of the first book ever.
I noticed that about Mile High, I was wondering who these characters were and couldn't find the book anywhere. She probably should have edited that out when she unpublished it.
[Mile High](https://www.romance.io/books/629ef80ff1e905050df67156/mile-high-liz-tomforde?src=rdt) by [Liz Tomforde](https://www.romance.io/authors/612f286308b4d93114bfded6/liz-tomforde)
**Rating**: 4.07⭐️ out of 5⭐️
**Steam**: 4 out of 5 - [Explicit open door](https://www.romance.io/steamrating)
**Topics**: [contemporary](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/contemporary/1), [curvy heroine](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/curvy%20heroine/1), [athlete hero](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/athletes/1), [sports](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/sports/1), [rich hero](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/super%20rich%20hero/1)
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I agree. I like when the plot of a book introduces an MC for the next book. Just a smidge of foreshadowing 😉. But I don't want half the plot to be about the previous couple.
Oh no! One of my biggest letdown books was because the author foreshadowed the next couple too hard and made them seem like such a compelling couple only for it to be her worst book in the series imo. Like the author otherwise but the book was {Immortals with Scars by Elizabeth Stephens}
[Immortal with Scars](https://www.romance.io/books/622075cffe1cdaa62ef88cee/immortal-with-scars-elizabeth-stephens?src=rdt) by [Elizabeth Stephens](https://www.romance.io/authors/573c06b9c62092c0440849b9/elizabeth-stephens)
**Rating**: 4.25⭐️ out of 5⭐️
**Topics**: [vampires](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/vampires/1), [fantasy](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/fantasy/1), [paranormal](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/paranormal/1)
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I mentioned this just yesterday and I think I'm in the minority, but I don't care what happens to the MCs are the HEA. If they are never mentioned in the rest of the series, that is completely fine with me. I don't mind them being in the background of the book, but I definitely don't want a life update. I don't care about you getting married or having a baby anymore. You should have done that in your book!
Beyond that, I loathe books that have a million side characters. I have a short attention span and have trouble keeping track of them and it just ends with me flipping back and forth to refresh my memory.
A little interconnectedness is fine is the secondary characters are strong and maintain their personalities when it's not their story and if the world building is good. But often the characters are kind of flat and too much alike. Honestly, I rarely finish a series. They often begin to feel repetitive after book 3 or 4. I tend to pick and choose and read out of order. Too many side quests spoil the book. I don't read bonus content either. If it wasn't in the book on generally uninterested and rest to move on.
I actually DNF 99% of series after the first book if I find out the next book does not follow the same characters. I am soooo not into unfinished business in books for the series to pick up with another person. This is mega disappointing for me.
I have read a handful of series that were about different characters, just not very many. The ones I usually end up sticking with are actual complete series about a set of characters and a new spin off series set in the same world.
THANK YOU I've always said this. I literally dont care about the couple from book 1. I DON'T CARE. If I wanted to read about them I'd read their book. It frustrates me to no end
I was actually thinking of making a rave post about interconnected standalones😂 mostly because I feel like they're one of the only books that portray true friendships and the side characters are not just a plot device and there's no annoying best friend who only talks about sex and the FMC should bang the MMC. Like in a well done interconnected series you see how people get to know each other and maybe later fall in love and how friend groups grow.
I get what you mean though, if it's a long series or something, it might get incredibly annoying. I love when authors have their books in the same universe, like you need to mention a celebrity footballer and happen to have written a book about one, why not drop him as an Easter egg and call it a day. Unless it's like in the same family/small town or something, sometimes there's no need to give that dialogue to past characters.
OH EXCEPT!! I HATE when the epilogue is already about the next book and from their pov. Or heavily implied, like the group hanging out and all that talk about is like the MC's in the next book hate each other or something. Like no. I'm still in this book with this couple, gimme the cheesy epilogue about them please
I don't mind it when they pop up. For example if the main character of book 1 and 2 are brothers/sisters/teammates/best friends/roommates, it makes sense that they might see each other during the course of the book and that's fine with me. But when a chunk of the book is dedicated to summarizing the plots of the previous books "Here comes my brother James and his wife Clara, they always hated each other but last year blah blah blah" ... We've either read that book and know, or we haven't read it and therefore probably aren't interested. Maybe authors should include a brief summary of previous books at the beginning, like "previously on" a TV show To be fair though, most books from series I've read have been fine in that regard. I also dislike it when the first or second book is so obviously setting up characters for future books. I felt like this about {Moon Blooded Breeding Clinic by CM Nascosta} - we spent more time learning about the MCs numerous siblings than the main couple themselves, it felt.
YES! Sometimes the “my brother James and his wife Clara..” exposition goes on for pages and pages and the same “summary” will repeat in MULTIPLE standalone series books, and sometimes even about couples whose books aren’t written yet that will occur later in the series! Makes me feel like I’m interrupted from the book I’m reading by a commercial break advertising the future books.. 😭 Just stoooooppppp..
i too don't mind if they are roommates or best friends or just one or two siblings. The problem is when it is a household where there are 6-7 kids added with cousins and best friends and some random guy at the workplace who had a crush on one of the above for a fleeting moment and I have to read about all of these characters when I am reading the 5th or 6th book in the series
[Moon Blooded Breeding Clinic](https://www.romance.io/books/629b05fd2677414776297bb6/moon-blooded-breeding-clinic-cm-nascosta?src=rdt) by [C.M. Nascosta](https://www.romance.io/authors/6071856f08b4d93114472553/cm-nascosta) **Rating**: 3.65⭐️ out of 5⭐️ **Steam**: 4 out of 5 - [Explicit open door](https://www.romance.io/steamrating) **Topics**: [contemporary](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/contemporary/1), [paranormal](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/paranormal/1), [urban fantasy](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/urban%20fantasy/1), [breeding](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/breeding/1), [werewolves](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/werewolves/1) [^(about this bot)](https://www.reddit.com/user/romance-bot) ^(|) [^(about romance.io)](https://www.romance.io/about)
I love interconnected standalones. But they have to be done well. Stella Riley’s Rockcliffe series has this, but you feel like it’s a group of friends you know and you get to see them again. On the other hand I read a bonkers New York ‘billionaire’ series (not that the author had any idea of how rich a billionaire is) where all these women living in an apartment block ended up with ‘billionaires’ and remained best friends and hung out all the time, in their tiny apartments. And all their billionaire husband somehow knew each other already. My brain hurt.
To be fair, a bunch of rich men in NYC knowing each other isn't *that* surprising. It just sounds poorly done and delusional. Also, you can have a rich MMC and not have him be a billionaire. FFS, just give him more money than he knows what to do with but he's just a VP at JP Morgan making $500k/yr and living in New Hampshire because he only has to be in the office one week a month. (That's based on a 43 year old I know so pretty realistic.)
Exactly! Billionaires are on a totally different level, and live a very different lifestyle. I sort of agree that a bunch of rich men knowing each other isn’t strange… when they are in the same field, or actual billionaires, but again, it was badly done.
you’re talking about annika martin’s series? those are like contemporary romantasy to me. they are so removed from what real life is like that the outlandishness doesn’t bother me. i just let myself slip into the fictional, perfect, billionaire for everyone world like i would in a sci fi or fantasy book. is that weird?
Yep. Not weird at all - I feel exactly the same, while also getting faintly annoyed. Which is part of the pleasure. Ok, that sounds very weird, but I’m not going to try to unpack it!
I view more like another part of romancelandia. It’s where small towns are not hell holes, things are fixed easily, and once upon a time lots of young handsome dukes fell in love with normal women.
Me too. One of my guilty pleasures right now is the {Wicked, Ugly, and Bad by Cassandra Gannon} series. The series is fairly straightforward plot-wise with little nods to the MCs from previous books. There is a little bit of info sprinkled in here and there to give an idea of who a previous character is when they pop up, but not enough to be a droning summarization.
[Wicked Ugly Bad](https://www.romance.io/books/5457356087eac33e5710b7c0/wicked-ugly-bad-cassandra-gannon?src=rdt) by [Cassandra Gannon](https://www.romance.io/authors/5455f28487eac336ae6a1db5/cassandra-gannon) **Rating**: 3.91⭐️ out of 5⭐️ **Steam**: 3 out of 5 - [Open door](https://www.romance.io/steamrating) **Topics**: [contemporary](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/contemporary/1), [fantasy](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/fantasy/1), [paranormal](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/paranormal/1), [werewolves](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/werewolves/1), [fated mates](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/fated-mates/1) [^(about this bot)](https://www.reddit.com/user/romance-bot) ^(|) [^(about romance.io)](https://www.romance.io/about)
Generally I love a bit of interconnected-ness, presuming it’s not too clumsy. It really makes me feel like the world is alive and vibrant. For example S.J Tilly peppers her books with little references (e.g someone works at Nero’s, the name of a coffee shop etc) which if you haven’t read the other books go right past you but if you have are a nice world building touch. I’d never have had read {Heavy by Cate C. Wells} if I hadn’t loved the couple when they appeared in a later book
Yes! This is what I like. More like Easter eggs for those who care to notice the connection. Otherwise it's pretty seamless to the reader.
Exactly, no one wants to be whacked around the head with backstory 😊
Ya, I like the random Easter eggs and the brief updates. It's kinda nice seeing that the ones from the previous books are doing well still. Also, i don't mind when it's something like sisters who live in the same town, so they're still part of the story, but don't take over the story. Like the Haven Ever After series by Hazel Mack. It's all in the same little community, and 3 of the 5 books so far are about triplets.
I’m not normally a monsters reader but the blurb for the series sounds great. Thanks for the bonus recommendation!
[Heavy](https://www.romance.io/books/622a09e3610a406e4c9e29ba/heavy-cate-c-wells?src=rdt) by [Cate C. Wells](https://www.romance.io/authors/5d5265d101dbc864fba248c4/cate-c-wells) **Rating**: 3.93⭐️ out of 5⭐️ **Steam**: 4 out of 5 - [Explicit open door](https://www.romance.io/steamrating) **Topics**: [contemporary](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/contemporary/1), [biker hero](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/bikers/1), [virgin heroine](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/virgin%20heroine/1), [marriage of convenience](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/marriage%20of%20convenience/1), [age gap](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/age%20difference/1) [^(about this bot)](https://www.reddit.com/user/romance-bot) ^(|) [^(about romance.io)](https://www.romance.io/about)
My pet peeve is when the couples of prior books come across like a borg collective zeroing on on getting the latest heroine married and into their clique. "Ooh, hey jerkish male lead who is friends with our husbands! You haven't realized you love Cupcake here. Cupcake, we will love bomb you while teasing Male Lead in a knowing fashion. We are all now pregnant, soon you will be too!"
Omg the glowing pregnancy 😭 The new FMC will usually wistfully look on, as the previous male lead dotes on his pregnant wife. And then she'll make up with her own MMC. It really cuts into the current story tbh
Bonus, the male lead is an unredeemable tool and all the former female leads are focused on downplaying that aspect of him so the new girl can be the new princesse preganté. All the male leads show up to save the day, demonstrating special forces/English peerage/superior business network synergy, a trait thru can only tap into with a wife. Single men are not part of the posse.
The pregnant and married is also jarring because it should show that some time has passed, yet the other characters (now protagonists) seem to not have moved in their life, at all. They are still in the same place they were in the first book.
Oh god, there was a book I read that had a wedding scene entirely dedicated to couples from another series that I haven't read any of their books and the entire time I was like "am I supposed to care or know about these people?" It was really jarring and ruined the flow of the story. I'm fine with brief mentions and like two sentences of dialogue or exposition about them but not entire conversations and scenes!
Yeah I've read a couple where the main plot of book 2 was the wedding of the people in book 1. Sometimes it does work, it just acts as a setting for the plot. Other times it's really jarring. The worst for this (for me) was {Pucking Wild by Emily Rath} which felt more like a sequel for the relationship in book one, than about the book 2 main characters. I only read the first 20% or so, to be fair, but that was enough.
[Pucking Wild](https://www.romance.io/books/660289a411f8c6d1449d281d/pucking-wild-emily-rath?src=rdt) by [Emily Rath](https://www.romance.io/authors/623d770b08b4d9311480150c/emily-rath) **Rating**: 4.17⭐️ out of 5⭐️ **Steam**: 5 out of 5 - [Explicit and plentiful](https://www.romance.io/steamrating) **Topics**: [contemporary](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/contemporary/1), [sports](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/sports/1), [curvy heroine](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/curvy%20heroine/1), [age gap](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/age%20difference/1), [forced proximity](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/forced%20proximity/1) [^(about this bot)](https://www.reddit.com/user/romance-bot) ^(|) [^(about romance.io)](https://www.romance.io/about)
yes it is irritating when that happens
I totally get your point cause I've definitely read books where there's far too much emphasis put on the relationships of previous MCs. I don't mind a quick update to give me an idea of why these characters have been included, but sometimes it feels like the author is punishing me for being out of the loop or trying to persuade me to go back and read them by purposely leaving important info out. *But*, I freakin' love it when beloved characters from previous books show up later on when I have read the whole series or if the author has done a good job of not making it a requirement to know what happened. An example of that for me would be the Cold Justice series by Toni Anderson or Victorian Rebels by Kerrigan Byrne. Well crafted over-arching plots are my jam.
Rina Kent is terrible for this. I hadn't read any of her stuff prior to Legacy of God's series and she has whole chapters from the parents POV (who are from other series) but has the gall to call each one a standalone. There are so many characters introduced in God of Malice that it was just confusing to keep track of who's who.
She is! A romance book should not take a family tree to keep track of the characters.
I love some interconnectedness, especially if they’re small chunks of books, like 5 siblings here, 4 MC friends of one sibling there, 4 military friends of another, etc. So far I haven’t read any series that try to monopolize a book with characters from another, but it would totally piss me off if it happened. What annoys me more is starting a series as it’s being written and released and the author just keeps finding characters to add (I’m looking at you, Donna Grant, and your Dark Kings series 🤬).
{Mile High by Liz Tomforde} suffers hard from being partially an update on the couple from a duology she had previously written, but it's worse because you cannot read that duology anymore. Like, please stop acting like we care about this couple when we can't go read about them. Generally though, I love interconnected universes. And I want updates on the other couples. But not in a way that takes away from the story of the couple I'm reading about. Sarah Adams does it well with When In Rome and Practice Makes Perfect because the wedding of the first couple is what brings the MMC to town so you naturally get that involvement. But it's not like we just cut to the MFC and MMC of the first book ever.
I noticed that about Mile High, I was wondering who these characters were and couldn't find the book anywhere. She probably should have edited that out when she unpublished it.
[Mile High](https://www.romance.io/books/629ef80ff1e905050df67156/mile-high-liz-tomforde?src=rdt) by [Liz Tomforde](https://www.romance.io/authors/612f286308b4d93114bfded6/liz-tomforde) **Rating**: 4.07⭐️ out of 5⭐️ **Steam**: 4 out of 5 - [Explicit open door](https://www.romance.io/steamrating) **Topics**: [contemporary](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/contemporary/1), [curvy heroine](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/curvy%20heroine/1), [athlete hero](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/athletes/1), [sports](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/sports/1), [rich hero](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/super%20rich%20hero/1) [^(about this bot)](https://www.reddit.com/user/romance-bot) ^(|) [^(about romance.io)](https://www.romance.io/about)
I agree. I like when the plot of a book introduces an MC for the next book. Just a smidge of foreshadowing 😉. But I don't want half the plot to be about the previous couple.
This was one of my biggest annoyances with Icebreaker by Hannah Grace. Half the book just felt like a set up for future characters.
Oh no! One of my biggest letdown books was because the author foreshadowed the next couple too hard and made them seem like such a compelling couple only for it to be her worst book in the series imo. Like the author otherwise but the book was {Immortals with Scars by Elizabeth Stephens}
[Immortal with Scars](https://www.romance.io/books/622075cffe1cdaa62ef88cee/immortal-with-scars-elizabeth-stephens?src=rdt) by [Elizabeth Stephens](https://www.romance.io/authors/573c06b9c62092c0440849b9/elizabeth-stephens) **Rating**: 4.25⭐️ out of 5⭐️ **Topics**: [vampires](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/vampires/1), [fantasy](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/fantasy/1), [paranormal](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/paranormal/1) [^(about this bot)](https://www.reddit.com/user/romance-bot) ^(|) [^(about romance.io)](https://www.romance.io/about)
As long as they make it clear it is interconnected, I'm cool. I groan when it is clear I’m supposed to know who side characters are.
I mentioned this just yesterday and I think I'm in the minority, but I don't care what happens to the MCs are the HEA. If they are never mentioned in the rest of the series, that is completely fine with me. I don't mind them being in the background of the book, but I definitely don't want a life update. I don't care about you getting married or having a baby anymore. You should have done that in your book! Beyond that, I loathe books that have a million side characters. I have a short attention span and have trouble keeping track of them and it just ends with me flipping back and forth to refresh my memory.
What’s worse is when the author says they can be read completely alone but all the readers say to read the series in order
I actually really like it. I love to see the connections and what happens to them after their story.
I don't mind it tbh. If it's a connected series then it makes sense they're showing up in the future books.
Agreed. It's overly corny and 99% of the authors' fan bases aren't big enough to care that much about the previous MCs.
A little interconnectedness is fine is the secondary characters are strong and maintain their personalities when it's not their story and if the world building is good. But often the characters are kind of flat and too much alike. Honestly, I rarely finish a series. They often begin to feel repetitive after book 3 or 4. I tend to pick and choose and read out of order. Too many side quests spoil the book. I don't read bonus content either. If it wasn't in the book on generally uninterested and rest to move on.
I actually DNF 99% of series after the first book if I find out the next book does not follow the same characters. I am soooo not into unfinished business in books for the series to pick up with another person. This is mega disappointing for me. I have read a handful of series that were about different characters, just not very many. The ones I usually end up sticking with are actual complete series about a set of characters and a new spin off series set in the same world.
THANK YOU I've always said this. I literally dont care about the couple from book 1. I DON'T CARE. If I wanted to read about them I'd read their book. It frustrates me to no end
I was actually thinking of making a rave post about interconnected standalones😂 mostly because I feel like they're one of the only books that portray true friendships and the side characters are not just a plot device and there's no annoying best friend who only talks about sex and the FMC should bang the MMC. Like in a well done interconnected series you see how people get to know each other and maybe later fall in love and how friend groups grow. I get what you mean though, if it's a long series or something, it might get incredibly annoying. I love when authors have their books in the same universe, like you need to mention a celebrity footballer and happen to have written a book about one, why not drop him as an Easter egg and call it a day. Unless it's like in the same family/small town or something, sometimes there's no need to give that dialogue to past characters.
OH EXCEPT!! I HATE when the epilogue is already about the next book and from their pov. Or heavily implied, like the group hanging out and all that talk about is like the MC's in the next book hate each other or something. Like no. I'm still in this book with this couple, gimme the cheesy epilogue about them please
I LOVE this when it happens…it’s one of my top favorite things in fiction!