Trials and Tribulations
Okay, let me just say that I HATE weak female leads. They drive me up the wall.
Take, for instance, the latest three books that I've picked up and then put back down halfway through because I just can't stand them any more.
The first involves a teenage girl who has magical powers (big surprise), and attracts the attention of a vampire-esque guy at her high school. (No, this isn't Twilight, just another knock-off). So this guy keeps playing her. Like a lot. One day he'll be all over her, another he'll be all over another girl right in front of her. And this chick is like "okay, no way. I am not letting you near me again you womanizing bastard" which makes me go "yay!". Then the guys smiles at her, and she gives in. If it happened once I could allow it. But after at least 75 pages of this I can't take it any more.
The next one involves a woman who is a police detective. She worked hard to get where she is, and she's very no-nonsense. Until, of course, the right guy comes along. Now she has some mystical bond with him such that whenever they're touching, she's all over him. When she has some room and can clear her head, she hates him and wants nothing to do with him. It's not even hate!sex. Whenever she's with him, she is totally in love with him, whenever she's away from him, she can't stand him. This tension goes on for an ENTIRE SERIES. I got through the first book, but couldn't even get past the prologue of the second book.
The last one is a werewolf chick, who is supposedly the only werewolf chick alive. She explains, right off the bat, that she doesn't kill people because as a wolf she has wolf instincts and those say that killing people for fun is a human thing to do. Then she goes on to explain that as a werewolf, she will cheat on her boyfriend at the drop of the hat because of her animal instincts. That's not a plot hole, that's a plot CANYON.
I hate that most of these books aren't even classified as romance, they're classified as science fiction, because they have monsters and/or magic in them. I think if anyone ever got around to making a sub-genre called science fiction romance, it would be the cesspool of the literate world (that's not to say I wouldn't read books from that genre, just that most of them would be absolute drivel).
In retaliation, I enjoy books like The Dust of 100 Dogs, about a girl who was a pirate captain then got cursed to live 100 lives as a dog. She's strong, she's independent, and she knows what she wants and how to get it.
Or another one, Graceling, is about a woman who is independent, can survive on her own, knows what she wants, and isn't afraid to ask for it. She isn't some "flower just waiting for a man to make her bloom". She finds a man she likes, she'll take him to bed. If she doesn't like him, she won't. It's so refreshing to find books like that.
Take, for instance, the latest three books that I've picked up and then put back down halfway through because I just can't stand them any more.
The first involves a teenage girl who has magical powers (big surprise), and attracts the attention of a vampire-esque guy at her high school. (No, this isn't Twilight, just another knock-off). So this guy keeps playing her. Like a lot. One day he'll be all over her, another he'll be all over another girl right in front of her. And this chick is like "okay, no way. I am not letting you near me again you womanizing bastard" which makes me go "yay!". Then the guys smiles at her, and she gives in. If it happened once I could allow it. But after at least 75 pages of this I can't take it any more.
The next one involves a woman who is a police detective. She worked hard to get where she is, and she's very no-nonsense. Until, of course, the right guy comes along. Now she has some mystical bond with him such that whenever they're touching, she's all over him. When she has some room and can clear her head, she hates him and wants nothing to do with him. It's not even hate!sex. Whenever she's with him, she is totally in love with him, whenever she's away from him, she can't stand him. This tension goes on for an ENTIRE SERIES. I got through the first book, but couldn't even get past the prologue of the second book.
The last one is a werewolf chick, who is supposedly the only werewolf chick alive. She explains, right off the bat, that she doesn't kill people because as a wolf she has wolf instincts and those say that killing people for fun is a human thing to do. Then she goes on to explain that as a werewolf, she will cheat on her boyfriend at the drop of the hat because of her animal instincts. That's not a plot hole, that's a plot CANYON.
I hate that most of these books aren't even classified as romance, they're classified as science fiction, because they have monsters and/or magic in them. I think if anyone ever got around to making a sub-genre called science fiction romance, it would be the cesspool of the literate world (that's not to say I wouldn't read books from that genre, just that most of them would be absolute drivel).
In retaliation, I enjoy books like The Dust of 100 Dogs, about a girl who was a pirate captain then got cursed to live 100 lives as a dog. She's strong, she's independent, and she knows what she wants and how to get it.
Or another one, Graceling, is about a woman who is independent, can survive on her own, knows what she wants, and isn't afraid to ask for it. She isn't some "flower just waiting for a man to make her bloom". She finds a man she likes, she'll take him to bed. If she doesn't like him, she won't. It's so refreshing to find books like that.