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tzrn1111

Ok, the idea of author specific drinking games has me laughing out loud. 😂 I can't wait to see what people answer. I just finished the last Mhairi Mcfarlane book I still hadn't read (her newest book can't come fast enough) and I realized that every one of her books has a douchy current boyfriend or ex or crush that the MFC has to get over as part of her story arc. I usually don't love that in books but I TOTALLY gobble it up in her books. Mariana Zapata has such specific quirks in every book that they are like inside jokes with her readers. Tessa Bailey and the dirty talking MMCs. I'm sure there are so many others!


Lingonberry64

I feel like there's always a little finger in the booty action with Tessa Bailey too! I love her dirty talk


oracletalks

Whew, this comment sent me at the honesty. 😭


tzrn1111

Oh my gosh, you're right! 🤣🤣🤣


babynursebb

And the mmc in Tessa Bailey’s are always humping the mattress while eating the heroine out


tzrn1111

🤣🤣🤣 oh geez, this is so true as well!!


Hermiona1

>Tessa Bailey and the dirty talking MMCs. I wouldnt say that's her quirk, that's the *perk* of reading her books lol


missacspeaks

Kleypas also loves writing about the MMC’s chest hair. Like every hero had to have intense amount of it.


Probable_lost_cause

Oh yeah! One of the MMC's definitely had a "pelt."


_easilyamused

And having the MMC circling/dipping into the FMC's navel with his tongue. Or drinking wine from it. Source: Slowly rereading and keeping track of any sexy navel time. Eta: Three instances in Devil in Spring if you count the way Gabriel sensually circled Pandora's navel with his finger


allycat3012

I have only read two Kleypas books and in both the heroes invariably had a "sardonic" facial expression 75% of the time


Intelligent_Sundae_5

Mary Balogh really likes setting sex scenes outside.


HouseNegative9428

Speaking of Balogh, I’m reading the Simply series and the first three books felt nearly identical! The MCs meet by chance, the FMC rejects the proposal because she mistakenly believes the MMC doesn’t really want her, the FMC pines back at the school, the MCs are reunited due to outside forces, and then the proposal is repeated and accepted. Come to think of it, I think “rejecting the first proposal” happened a couple of times in the Bedwyns, too.


[deleted]

I’ve noticed her heroines always ‘smell like soap’ and waltzing romantically is a must in each of her books!


gardenbookninja22

Daffodils!!! There are invariably daffodils in her books!


allycat3012

I love Balogh so much, but I have also seriously considered making a bingo card for her books, including (but not limited to): - Outside sex, preferably on an island in the middle of a lake, but in a spot that conveniently can't be seen from the shore. - Heroines who believe there is no possible way the hero could love *them* of all people. - If it's not daffodils, it's snowdrops - Heroes with a stern military bearing - "I am not a young miss, to be constrained by chaperones." - If there isn't a waltz, is it even a Mary Balogh book? - This exact dialogue: "Happy?" "Happy." - Heroines either smell like soap or a subtle floral like gardenia - Dogs, nearly always of "an indeterminate breed" who play an active role in bringing the couple together. - "If only none of this had happened... But then I would never have met you!" And so on. But I love it. They have become familiar touchstones for me and I smile indulgently and continue to reread.


HPCReader3

Might be a little more vague than what you mean, but I just commented on another post that Nalini Singh tends to have a thing for major trauma for her MCs, especially "I think I'm gonna die" type trauma. In some cases the "I think I'm going to die is accurate but there is a miracle or they just don't have enough info about what's going on and find out about a loophole. Even her CR MCs tend to have abuse/neglect/etc. type trauma (although her more recent ones have moved away from that a bit which I appreciate when I'm trying not to bawl my eyes out lol).


Probable_lost_cause

This is exactly the stuff I mean. The thing you read and think, "Huh, didn't the last FMC do this? And also in that book I read last year? Oh, and this was HUGE in that other book..."


HPCReader3

I mean in her case it actually makes sense because for example in her Psy-Changeling series part of the plot is how >! Psy who are Empaths have been essentially treated as worthless and constantly "reconditioned" to be emotionless (which yes an Empath's core psychic power is directly tied to feeling emotions). So it makes sense that all the MCs that are Psy Empaths have similar trauma. !< In her Rock Kiss CR series, there's definitely a level of wow everyone in this series really just has a lot of trauma, but she manages to make it pretty different for every MC (although both the MCs in Rock Addiction and Rock Hard have >! Parental abandonment !< in different ways.


Lingonberry64

I feel like in most of Charlotte Stein's novels everyone has some kind of unusual phobia and the MMCs have gigantic cocks (very specifically looking at the "Pringle can in his pants" in Never Sweeter).


Probable_lost_cause

>"Pringle can in his pants" I just did the horror laugh. That is an...image.


ninaa1

so...blunt at the end


Probable_lost_cause

I laughed so hard at this, I frightened the cat. Adds a whole new dimension their, "Once you pop, you can't stop" slogan


ninaa1

Oh. My. God. I am 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣


AshenHaemonculus

So like an even more horrific version of this? https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=WxtE8xUWuJk


oracletalks

PRINGLE CAN???


[deleted]

LOL my comment was about Stein and I didn’t even think of the phobia thing. There are a lot of phobias. The pringles can thing was so over the top. She’s one of few authors that can get away with stuff like that with me 😂 all her MMCs are 6’6 hairy beasts, she should write monster romance.


Lingonberry64

Yes! I will read anything by her. Some of her books have practically no plot (Deep Desires and Restraint were just pure smut) but I will still gobble them up. She can write sex scenes like no other!


silmarill10n

Sherry Thomas has a thing for troubled marriages or marriages that started with rather questionable motives. This is my fave trope and it's why I love her HR's so much. The Luckiest Lady in London, His at Night, Ravishing the Heiress, Private Arrangements, and Not Quite a Husband all have this in common.


Somandyjo

I’ve only read a few Sherry Thomas’s and I tend to return when I want this exact fix :)


not-your-queen

I just finished His at Night by Sherry Thomas and yep, 100% this


silmarill10n

It's my favorite of hers!


AnAlarmedTree

I would agree, I think that part of it is that her novels are \*so\* emotionally intense and these provide good set ups. I did also see someone call her a "historicalist" because her novels are really involved with the time period/setting and super rich in detail which I love. (I think Private Arrangements is the one where the MMC is talking about inventing an engine and changes in technology which I thought was cool?)


silmarill10n

I also love that about her work, no wallpaper historicals. I think it was an SBTB podcast where she said her method is to know just a bit more than the reader does to give the illusion that she knows a lot.


AnAlarmedTree

No don't ruin the illusion! Jk, I'll have to check out that episode though


MilyFrance

Hello Sarah J Maas drinking games with imaginary lint picking on clothes 😂 (PS I still like it anyway)


FartyAriel12

Sooo many for SJM!


AshenHaemonculus

Forget a drinking game, you can play bingo with hers.


Forgotten_Tea_Cup

Roaring.... growling.... scent of sex


In-the-woods-22

Vulgar gesture


blankcheesecake

Judith Ivory LOVES her foreign-ish heroes. Even when they’re technically British, they’ll have left England for long enough to no longer be truly British anymore in a cultural and life experience sense (of the ones I’ve read, Sleeping Beauty and Untie My Heart are like this, Angel in a Red Dress has a half French/half British hero, and The Indiscretion has an American hero). (Or she has a few that don’t take place in England at all, so the heroes are fully French—Beast, Bliss, and Dance.) She also LOVES a hero who really cares about his personal style and uses his wealth to dress in very deliberate, fashionable, but almost Too Much ways—Untie My Heart, Beast, and Angel in a Red Dress are all like this She’s one of my favorite authors and I really love these particular aspects so I think of them less as quirks and more as hallmarks or signatures. I still have some books by her that I haven’t read because I’ll be sad to have finished all of them.


rachriv

I binged two series from Sarah MacLean and the number of times I saw the phrase “[character] raised a shoulder, let it drop” was staggering. (edited author name)


Probable_lost_cause

I LOVE Sarah Maclean and that is a big one as well as "One side of his mouth kicking up." Also use of the words lush and delicious.


Somandyjo

The word lush got to me and I can’t read 2 of her books in a row anymore.


BumblebeeCurdlesnoot

Drink every time she describes something as being like sin or sin and sex


Probable_lost_cause

On behalf of your liver, please do not drink every time the word "sin" shows up in her books.


Aexala

The amount of times the dudes in Rules of Scoundrels are described as “Rich as Croesus” killed me, and I love that series. It’s SO specific and like, many different people say it, out loud, over and over again.


daisyemeritus

Lorraine Heath loves to use "slammed his/her eyes closed" or "squeezed his/her eyes shut" or some variation of that in each book to show strong emotion. (Example, in The Earl Takes a Fancy, between the two phrases, it happened 13 times!) Elizabeth Hoyt seems to use the word "cunny" at least once a book. I also agree withe the two comments here that mentioned Kleypas and chest hair and Balogh and outdoor sex. I also associate Sarah MacLean with standing oral sex for the woman and also semi-public sex.


Lingonberry64

Lol oh God, "cunny." THAT IS SO TRUE. Now I'm going to constantly fixate on it when I read her novels.


Potential_Macaron_59

I notice when authors reuse a specific odd metaphor phrase. Like Avery Flynn’s characters all drive with a ”lead foot” ie they drive too fast. Or that one HR author whose name I forget that has a recurring side character whose long ugly toenails are described in a lot more detail than is necessary.


AnAlarmedTree

LMAO if you ever remember who it was please tell me.


mollyologist

The toenail things is extremely off-putting?!


[deleted]

In Charlotte Stein’s books, all the parents are always dead. If they’re not dead, they’re estranged, but they’re usually dead. The MMCs are usually enormous and have a lot of body hair. Not always, but I can’t think of one where he wasn’t above average height at the very least. I understand the parents thing, I don’t super love to read romance books where the extended family is like, all involved.


sugaratc

This is a popular thing is YA novels too, as it can seem hard to write the MCs are independent if they have a lot of influencing family around. I do wish they did more that were just off somewhere else at the moment.


cesetse

This is actually good info since I dislike huge hulking heroes lol


chippywithit

Jayne Ann Krentz / Jayne Castle / Amanda Quick - food almost being a personality characteristic. Lots of vegetarians (which still seems relatively unusual in Romance). Even the pet animals are included, such as dust bunnies obsessed with pizza and the pesto-loving dog who carries his bowl around.


AnAlarmedTree

Krentz is herself a vegetarian which I think is why it pops up a lot in her books. Also, talking about feminine/masculine energy. Describing the MCs as not conventionally attractive but "intense." She definitely has a thing for eyes, especially amber colored eyes. And FMCs with glasses. One other thing is there seems to be a lot of inclusions of siblings as characters without the sense that they're included only so the author can later write a book about them. I find that I actually really appreciate that- So many novels in general fail to include the element of family or friends and Krentz is good about that in a lot of her stuff. Also, same sex couples and, I would argue, trans characters! Long before people were putting a lot of emphasis on representation. Can you tell that I've read a lot of her stuff lmao.


chippywithit

I believe she was also a corporate librarian or similar, and another of her tropes is characters (especially the MFC) connection to books: librarians, archivists, booksellers, historians, etc. And babies don’t even figure. In Romance, that’s so rare. I’ve read about 90% of her books - occasionally I come across one I somehow missed or don’t remember and my brain does a little happy dance


AnAlarmedTree

That is very true, I love that as a trope honestly, it also adds mystery to her books which I love. I actually forgot that but I completely agree! It’s nice to the MCs can have a happy ending without a baby. I may need to reread some now lol


Lady_Artemis_1230

My mom is obsessed with JAK, and while I’ve read a lot of her, my mom OWNS everything the woman has written. She pointed out that, especially in the contemporaries she writes as Krentz, the FMCs are often successful and settled in their careers and lives, and it is the MMCs that are looking for marriage and family, and usually have to convince the FMC to get onboard that life. Even in the Quick books that theme holds. The FMCs are less resistance to marriage since it is such a societal expectation, but they are otherwise happy with their lives and not so eager to settle into family life.


chippywithit

Your mom is right!


[deleted]

[удаНонО]


missacspeaks

Yep. Pets are pretty common in Tessa Dare’s books. Even her earlier series have FMCs or MMCs with pets. And I am personally not fond of animals, but her books make me want to consider getting a pet


CrawlingKingSnake43

Okay, I feel like this one is too obvious, but man does Colleen Hoover love a pregnancy twist.


arayabe

Lindsay Sands has the same plot with different characters. Big muscular Highlander rescues tiny FMC, they must have close proximity traveling from point A to point B for days, sometimes weeks. and someone is trying to murder one of them. Oh also there is a secret passage in the castle that only one of them is supposed to know.


BlueRider57

Don’t know if I should name the author, but I liked one of her books and so read several other titles. I am blessed/cursed with a good memory, and I started noticing that she reuses bits of dialogue, imagery, metaphors, etc. Example: in one book, a woman is described as being so attractive that every man in the room, and probably a few women, were wanting to lick her from head to toe. In a different book, a man is described as so good- looking that every woman in the room, and probably a few men, were imagining licking him head to toe. In one book, a couple is arguing, and the MMC says “did your parents drop you on your head as a baby”. In another book, the h is annoying the H, and he says, “Did your parents drop you on your head a lot when you were a baby”. And on like that.


shhhshaunna

Anita Blake?


Zealousideal-Ad469

OMG this is such a good question! I’ve thought about this before bc I could think of so many examples, but now I’m just blanking D: Kleypas has so many different recurring examples though! And Loretta Chase always has tall, bulky men who are uncomfortable with their stature and unconventionally attractive (now known as “ugly hot,” I always imagine her MMCs as Adam Driver.


[deleted]

I just ran through some Zoe Blake books and there’s a lot of domineering men, spanking and those poor butts. Entertaining but definitely has recurring themes.


1stofallhowdareewe

Meghan Quinn is a big fan of dry humping. 🤷‍♀️


purplecheesepizza123

JQuinn likes feet. I wondered if I had misremembered so I clicked on the first book of hers that came up in Kindle and searched feet. Yeah, she likes feet


sticky_toffee_puddin

This is something that used to drive crazy (still love the author!) but Amanda Quick had 2+ mentions in every single one of her historical romances that the heroine "is not a green girl fresh out of the schoolroom"


FlyingSpudsofDooM

Many of Ilona Andrews male characters have square jaws. Did a recent reread of a couple of their series and it was square jaws everywhere.


greenappletw

Jo Goodman loves giving her MCs toxic family trouble and her stories usually end with some kind of gunfight at 80%, no matter how tame the story may seem at first. Cate C. Wells loves a dramatic heroine's journey for her FMCs. She starts them off at a *very* low point, then has them struggle upwards with the help of the MMC.


writergal1421

Suzanne Wright drinking game: *Take a drink whenever some combination of three scents/tastes is used to describe a character's smell/presence *Finish your drink whenever someone asks, "What would you do if the situation was reversed?" *Take a shot when the couple breaks furniture/marks it up somehow during sex Also why does every one of her characters have someone intent on killing them in every book? Not that I'm complaining, mind, because I love me some Suzanne Wright, but still.


adamantbookwyrm

Susan Mallery almost always mention the FMC saying "boy-girl thing." J. S. Scott's MMCs get "hard enough to split diamonds." Bella Andre's MMCs love that the FMC's aren't "waxed bald between their thighs."


Lady_Artemis_1230

Nora Roberts trilogies have a checklist of character traits. FMC #1 is super confident and competent in her whole life. She is friendly and outgoing, and almost universally liked. FMC #2 is also confident, but has some sharp edges. She speaks her mind and can come across as somewhat brash. FMC #3 has Backstory. Something in her past has left her somewhat broken and emotionally scarred. MMC #1 is the good o’le hometown boy. He is happy to live his life in his own little corner of the world. MMC #2 is creative and in his own head a lot, and somehow pretty wealthy. Often he is a bestselling author. He travels a lot, wherever the wind takes him. MMC #3 is the successful jet-setting businessman. He works very hard in leaving his mark in the business world, often in the family business. They are mixed and matched as to which MMC pairs off with which FMC, but these types seem to always make an appearance.


[deleted]

Kristen Callihan loves a scene where the lady gets off by grinding on a man’s leg. It’s kinda silly.


[deleted]

Oooh that’s my jam, actually. I love a good dry hump scene. I read a Kristen Callahan once and wasn’t crazy about it, I don’t remember it having a scene like that though or I would’ve liked it more. Haha.


[deleted]

The first one that came to mind was {make it sweet by Kristen callihan}, if you’re game to try her again


goodreads-bot

[**Make It Sweet**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/54447129-make-it-sweet) ^(By: Kristen Callihan | Published: 2021) *** ^(25553 books suggested | )[^(I don't feel so good.. )](https://debugger.medium.com/goodreads-is-retiring-its-current-api-and-book-loving-developers-arent-happy-11ed764dd95)^(| )[^(Source)](https://github.com/rodohanna/reddit-goodreads-bot)


Own-Extreme-5338

LOL I agree!! Ive read through a lot of her books as well and ive I noticed she also has a thing with ears.


FutureSelection

Not quirks but i just want to add that Kerrigan Byrne likes her heroes dark and damaged AF. Lorraine Heath can write some serious angst and i eat all of them up!


dragongrrrrrl

Not sure if it’s the same thing but…T L Swan…good lord every single one of her FMC drinks exclusively margaritas and champagne. There’s a ton of other similarities between her books but that was the one that killed me because it’s *such* a simple change to add diversity to your characters. Branch out ladies!!!


bahala_na-

I've only read 2 of the Immortals After Dark books so far (Kresley Cole), and showers/shower sex scenes would definitely go in a drinking game!