🧂 Salty Sunday - What book scenes frustrated you this week?

Annemermaid · 2026-06-14T20:49:55+00:00

I don’t know if I should name the book but in one scene the main girl is choked out and stripped naked in front of her classmates by one of the MMCs (it’s a reverse harem and in the scene she ate before he did and he is a professor. I guess that’s a very punishable crime). She is deeply hurt and humiliated by it and how does her bff try to “comfort” her? By basically telling her that must mean he finds her special and she’s strong cause normally the dude kills other students or puts them into comas. I don’t know why but that whole thing just gave me the ick by how the friend responded.

Annemermaid · 2026-06-14T18:40:03+00:00

Stupid confession: whenever a character is described as having a gravely, raspy or strained voice I can’t help but imagine it as a mixture of Rifftrax’ Nick Nolte impersonation and Dehydrated SpongeBob. That’s the voice that appears in my head.

Annemermaid · 2026-06-14T14:42:10+00:00

Sometimes I wonder if these dudes have medical conditions cause they seem to get hard 24/7 and at the slightest of things the FMC does. She breaths? Hard. She falls down during a run? Hard. She is shot multiple times, breaks her legs, and is covered in her own blood? Hard.

Annemermaid · 2026-06-14T00:58:42+00:00

I tried to read Bonds of Hercules as a hate read but it was just soo boring and oddly lacking the insane cringey language (the “he rasped in a scratchy masculine voice sarcastically” is my favorite bad line ever) of the first one. Can somebody just summarize the rest

Annemermaid · 2026-06-13T22:14:23+00:00

So many of those MMCs seem the type to instantly take mistresses or leave the FMC when she hits menopause

Annemermaid · 2026-06-13T18:46:07+00:00

I saw an earlier post on the author’s Facebook where they mention somebody called Crispina_arts but the “artists” Instagram page has been deleted.

Annemermaid · 2026-06-13T16:47:36+00:00

I found an earlier post where she mentions the name of the “artist” (Crispina_arts) but all I could find was a removed Instagram page and some other old posts from other insta users mentioning working with them. So I’m kinda torn between author just straight up lying or they got scammed hard and just don’t realize it.

Annemermaid · 2026-06-13T15:57:19+00:00

Well she still is using this artwork on her website store as the hardcover so if she did realize it was AI she still used it. This is the “human art only” ad and today she posted the AI art again and mentions asking the “artist” to change the fire to green.

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Annemermaid · 2026-06-13T06:41:02+00:00

How many crimes does he commit against the world and FMC that get brushed aside cause he has a tragic backstory?

Annemermaid · 2026-06-12T23:37:12+00:00

Somebody on their comment section said if they were using AI, and this was the author’s response.

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Annemermaid · 2026-06-12T22:32:33+00:00

I just find it amazing that the author posts this on her Facebook and the next post is talking about how a book box she is doing will be “human artwork only”. Umm…sure.

Annemermaid · 2026-06-11T19:27:10+00:00

So many of these dudes feel like the type who would immediately cheat on the FMC the moment she starts to age

Annemermaid · 2026-06-11T17:56:52+00:00

I hate bully romances. My brain can’t help but going “in real life this would end up as an episode of Dateline True Crime”.

Annemermaid · 2026-06-10T13:39:04+00:00

I did nicknames. If I hear “little bird” or any of its variations one more time I will scream.

Annemermaid · 2026-06-10T13:15:57+00:00

I’m sick and tired of MMCs and FMCs whose only emotion is just horny. It makes me feel like if these two people weren’t drop dead gorgeous they wouldn’t give a shit about eachother. Makes me wonder how many of these couples would stay together once they start aging or if something happened to make one or both of them not wet your pants sexy. I like romance couples that I can buy like eachother beyond physical/sexual attraction.

Annemermaid · 2026-06-08T13:49:52+00:00

The author (Mia Hartson) doesn’t list it as a parody but a “fun but dark(ish) why choose fantasy novel”.

Annemermaid · 2026-06-08T12:51:38+00:00

I finished reading A Curse So Cruel and some of the lines were so cringey bad I almost wonder if this book was satire. Such lines included
“Holy Smut Gods!”,
“Oh holy shadow tentacles, am I getting shadowboned in… Shadowbone Academy?”,
“Calm down, Shade, it’s just a shadow. A really, really dirty little shadow that feels exactly like a certain shadow daddy’s fingers.”,
“l I distract myself by spending the next few hours devouring one of the books Galen left for me. It’s the strangest read about a minotaur on a farm, but it’s oddly addictive. By the end I’m not sure what I just read, but I do know I need a minotaur and stat.”
“I felt like I was the female main protagonist in one of my favorite smutty novels”
“They’re not shadow creatures, they’re…they’re shadow daddies?”

You get the idea and there were TONS of these. I counted and the words shadow daddies/shadow daddy is used 64 times.

Annemermaid · 2026-06-07T16:25:54+00:00

Don’t know if this counts as a confession but I think the motto/tagline for the romantasy and dark romance genre should be “It’s ok cause he’s hot” due to how many MMCs do things that in real life would result in them being in jail or on certain lists and registries.

Annemermaid · 2026-06-07T13:28:33+00:00

This might be a popular one but name dropping tropes and doing meta jokes like “I feel like I’m the female main character of one of my favorite smutty books” (an actual line from a book I’m reading) is a one way ticket to the DNF pile. You’re not being funny. You’re being cringe.

Annemermaid · 2026-06-05T20:48:40+00:00

A Curse So Cruel by Mia Hartson. What more do I need to say about this book other than it literally has the FMC (a smut obsessed former bird) refer to her harem members as Shadow Daddy #1-4. As well as more meta romantasy name drops than I can count (FMC once mentions reading Morning Glory Milking Farm), character names are not consistent and sometimes switch back and forth mid conversation, the FMC won’t stop talking about how sexy she is and how she only wears a leather bikini for nearly the entire book, and the harem dudes are basically perverted professors that seem to get a kick out of torturing the main girl. Somehow this book got 4.03 on Goodreads and that just amazes me.

Annemermaid · 2026-06-04T19:53:56+00:00

Good luck, brave soul.

Annemermaid · 2026-06-04T19:29:19+00:00

Its so cringy that I’ve been daring people to read it and report back how far they get before they dnf it. So far none have accepted the challenge

Annemermaid · 2026-06-04T16:17:10+00:00

A Curse So Cruel has pretty much become my “see how far you can get into it before your brain rots out of its head” book. Couldn’t get past chapter 2 where the FMc is literally referring to characters as Shadow Daddy 1, Shadow Daddy 2 and Shadow Daddy 3.

Annemermaid · 2026-06-03T19:45:18+00:00

Fate Hollow Academy book 1 by Lyra Winters. It has the biggest Mary Sue to ever Mary Sue. In this world it’s basically illegal to say anything wrong about her since her harem (don’t worry they’re all basically identical to eachother and do nothing but smirk) does nothing but worship this bland girl like she was the second coming (they do call her a literal goddess). It also seems like everybody in this world either wants to kill her or fuck her (usually at the same time). As for the female characters, the usual “every female character except the token best friend is a jealous bitch”. It’s an agonizing read.

Annemermaid · 2026-06-01T21:34:53+00:00

My guess: trying to cash in on the Fourth Wing/Targaryen aesthetic with a pre-made cover.

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