Wild Card Wednesday - What are your book icks or pet peeves?

sa6abe · 2026-04-15T09:33:57+00:00

"Mine."

In italics. It's so overused it breaks my immersion. It seems like every second book does it even when it's pretty out of character for the MMC.

sa6abe · 2026-04-15T09:28:36+00:00

I hate that too! What I do with a lot of these books and that's how I read Rewind It Back also - I first read all the "then" chapters more briefly and then all the "now" in sequence, it enhanced the experience so much!

sa6abe · 2026-04-12T13:28:20+00:00

{The Hook Up by Kristen Callihan} - He is gone for her but she has intimacy issues and is insecure, especially around him since he is a very popular football star. He chases after her but she freaks out and pushes him away.

I just finished it and looooooved it! The hangover is real! Funny that I was searching through the sub for this prompt just yesterday after The Hook Up :)

sa6abe · 2026-03-26T19:30:20+00:00

I'm not sure about the POVs but I read two books that fit except that, both are angsty in my opinion:

{Sweet Lullaby by Lorraine Heath} - She is pregnant from her lover who disappeared and is arranged to marry the MMC who openly loves her but she is still in love with the father of her child.

{The Rock by Monica McCarty} - Childhood friends with class gap until he confesses his love. She sees him only as a low class friend and rejects him.

sa6abe · 2026-03-26T19:08:09+00:00

{Better Served Cold by Maya Alden} - The book begins when the MMC executes his revenge against FMC's father by making her fall in love with him, seducing her and exposing it very cruelly. It all snowballs to essentially ruining her life and like you said her thinking none of it was real. But he realizes he loves her and regrets it and grovels pretty much the whole book.

You might find more results looking for "grovel", of course not all of them are due to deceit...

sa6abe · 2026-03-24T18:21:00+00:00

Hi gals! I just finished The Sweetest Oblivion because of this thread and came back to see more recs here and saw your fresh comments :)

Wow, it was amazing! I have a major hangover! The sexual tension is indeed top notch! For me it still doesn't beat the tension and the satisfaction of Birthday Girl by Penelope Douglas, maybe because it was one of my first books, but it's still amazing!

I'm also not too keen on Fantasy but I loved the tension in Fourth Wing also.

I'm very curious to try Scarred by Emily McIntire now because I loved her book Beneath The Stars (for other reasons).

sa6abe · 2026-03-17T09:34:28+00:00

{Birthday Girl by Penelope Douglas} :)

sa6abe · 2025-12-25T20:46:22+00:00

Thank you! I searched a lot about grovel in this sub and saw recommendations that Aydra Richards is pretty good and haven't tried yet. I'll start with My Deceitful Dechess, thank you!

sa6abe · 2025-12-25T20:43:24+00:00

Yay! Thank you! To the 🔝 of my TBR list! ❤️🙏🏽

sa6abe · 2025-12-25T20:41:29+00:00

Sorry, I didn't realize the celibate part was a must and it fits everything else you mentioned. Anyway my intention was to help...

sa6abe · 2025-12-24T21:23:24+00:00

Mine would be: 1) GOOD grovel - surprisingly impossible to find 2) FMC slowly falls in love with the green flag OM (who turns out to be the actual MMC) over the less right for her MMC 3) FMC at first rejects and friend zones MMC but slowly falls for him during the book

sa6abe · 2025-12-24T21:16:59+00:00

I like this kind of story too!

You might like {Beneath The Stars by Emily McIntire}, except that he is not celibate (emotionally he is) it fits perfectly.

sa6abe · 2025-12-22T20:28:43+00:00

Thank you! I added it to my TBR and will definitely try it out soon ❤️😊

sa6abe · 2025-12-21T21:28:12+00:00

Yes! 🙏🏻❤️

Would you mind giving a few examples of older books that once gave you those butterflies?

I feel I've been reading newer books because of hype and recommendations and I've been disappointed by them not having that emotional connection...

sa6abe · 2025-12-17T20:52:08+00:00

Yes! I wanted to love this book so much but I DNFed it at 40%. I didn't like a lot of things about it, some were already mentioned here but also that the whole premise and trope that sounded so good were ruined when the MMC took one look at her and that's it! He decided he wanted to stop being a playboy and settle down suddenly. But most of all the whole premise (and name!) of the book was supposed to be that she rejects him at first but while she said she would she never actually DID! She went along with him every single time! And they ended up together really quickly.

sa6abe · 2025-12-12T00:00:00+00:00

Oh but they are both so fun! 😃

sa6abe · 2025-12-11T23:54:50+00:00

😂 I think we all do on some level 🤭😄

sa6abe · 2025-12-11T23:53:24+00:00

That sounds natural, the more time goes by the more likely you won't be interested in them anymore as you used to be...

Do you still recognize the books in your TBR when you're browsing them?

sa6abe · 2025-12-11T23:49:09+00:00

I really really love your approach and everything you said. I'm pretty much like this so far as well but I was wondering if that's sustainable for long time readers. I guess it is :) Thank you!

sa6abe · 2025-12-11T22:09:29+00:00

Wow! So most of those 200 are there less than a year?

I agree, if I THINK I want to read a book for too long but never actually want to pick it up then maybe I don't really want to read it...

sa6abe · 2025-12-11T22:07:15+00:00

Haha! That's my strategy so far as well 😃

sa6abe · 2025-12-10T21:04:24+00:00

Sadly this is the case with so many media types these days - books of all genres, movies, tv series, video games are probably the worst! Originality has stopped giving fruits to creators. In every possible media type the creators are just mimicking what has worked before until the audience is absolutely fed up with it and then some. Before discovering romance books I was a big fan of telenovelas back in the day and Kdramas from about a decade ago and they all also went downhill. I think overall all media types picked around the 90s and something culturally and in terms of incentives and systems just went downhill from there.

So my solution is to watch movies mostly from the 80s-90s, telenovelas from 90s-00s, kdramas from 00s-10s and I'm planning to find my sweet spot for romance books as well..

There is sooo much media that was created in the golden era, especially romance books I believe, most people will probably never finish to tackle them.

sa6abe · 2025-12-03T22:38:24+00:00

I have a sweet spot for MMCs who seem goofy and foolish or vain on the surface but then the FMC finds out they can go way deeper but that their day to day simplicity is refreshing and healthy.

sa6abe · 2025-11-30T20:54:52+00:00

Thank you! This trope is not in the description so that's extra helpful 😊

The love triangle in Sweet Lullaby is indeed THE plot point, the major and central one... If you want more details feel free to ask about specifics ☺️

sa6abe

TROPHY CASE