I feel like SO many books with “morally grey” mmc are literally just extremely abusive then later they always have an excuse—like “he was just misunderstood”

A lot of these books get advertised as romance, I understand it can be different in fantasy but most of the time I feel like I’m reading a bully romance where he hits her. I started Silvercloak and the mmc literally chokes the fmc with his belt the first day knowing her, it doesn’t feel morally grey it just feels abusive especially bc it’s obvious he’s the love interest. It feels like the author just wants to be edgy.

Even if characters are enemies it still makes me uncomfortable seeing the mmc beat the shit out of the fmc, at the end of the day it’s just a man who has the capacity to hit a woman. I’m not sensitive, I’m fine if they’re enemies and treat each other poorly but

I literally can’t keep reading books where he physically hurts her when angry. 🤷🏼‍♀️

I love how in AC0TAR our feminist king Rhysand is actually not the villain and the whole time he’s been perfect and never done anything wrong.

Looking for books where mmc abuses and treats the fmc like actual shit but we later find out it wasn’t his fault. I really love when he’s HORRIBLE to her but makes it up later (bonus points if he cheats but actually it wasn’t his fault)

This is pretty common but anyone know of a romantasy that has intense life or death trial and games? Most intense u can think of, like put in a cage to fight to the death

Books I like:

{The Serpent and the Wings of Night} I love vampires
{Sunrise on the Reaping}
{Phantasma} Blackwell my love
{Throne of Glass} only like for nostalgia
{Fourth Wing} mostly for nostalgia

Disliked/conflicting feelings :

{Powerless} god awful writing and characters
{Blood of Hercules} I hate why-choose
{Lightlark} had fun but rly easy to guess the twists
{A Court of Thorns and Roses} Feyres dumb & I hate EVERY man in this series
{The Prison healer} I rly liked the second one but this felt kinda depressing & I didn’t like Jaren, too golden retriever like for me.
{The Jasad Heir} I loved the second one but I didn’t care about the trials at all

Mine:

Rin & Kitay {the Poppy War}
Tisaanah {Daughter of no Worlds}
Zafira & Nasir {We Hunt the Flame}
Lestat {Interview with the Vampire}
Jacks {Once Upon a Broken Heart}
Helene {An Ember in the Ashes}
Diem & Luther {Spark of the Everflame}
Livia & Erik {The Ever King}
Septimus {The Serpent and the Wings of Night}
Jude, Cardan & Wren {Cruel Prince}
Aaron Warner {Shatter Me}
Violet & Xaden {Fourth Wing}

Don’t judge, some of these are bc of nostalgia

I feel like every time I read a book with “fae” they’re just these goofy ass ACOTAR elves with wings.

I’ve really only read a couple books that have written them correctly {Cruel Prince by Holly Black} (all her books from that universe) and {An Enchantment of Ravens}

I’m also just not into the whole “mate” thing. I think it’s repetitive and an excuse to have bad writing and u know the characters almost always end up together. Also it’s a way u don’t have to write relationships development and just say “don’t worry guys they’re soulmates”

Also SJM says “it’s super rare to fined ur mate”—then why tf does every character in ur books find theirs? It’s literally not special anymore because it’s in every. single. book.

It’s not like I dislike other fantasy species, I like ghosts, witches, dragons, angels & gods and I LOVE vampires. But I HATE all these dumbass fae dudes falling in love with teenage girls.

One of u FREAKS said if I liked The Ever King I’d like this… that was so evil bc going into this I was lowkey expecting romance but I got over 600 pages of torture porn.

I seriously tried to like this book, but it was some of the goofiest shit I’ve ever read. People constantly talk about how dark and disturbing it is, and it’s definitely really gross, but I would say it’s more cringe than anything. I had to suffer through hundreds of pages of Mireilles inner monologue with stuff like “he beat the shit out of me and put a dog collar on my neck… little did he know I’m into that” 😏

I did end up begrudgingly liking Mireille, she goes through SO much shit and never once gives up. She’s genuinely put through some pretty disgusting stuff and is strong thru it all.

If this focused more on Mireille and Death trying to escape than the torture I really could’ve liked it. As for the story in general—I have very conflicting feelings about it bc if this turns into a love story between her and the Death guy, I could definitely see myself really liking it, but if she goes back to Valen (guy who assaulted and tortured her) I will actually crash out.

I’ve seen people saying they can’t decide between Valon and Death and I’m genuinely like wtf are u talking about 😐

Death definitely wasn’t perfect, he was rude at times and kinda (not rly) betrayed her at the end.

In comparison to Valon who tricks her into having sex with him, murders her family, assaults & tortures her for weeks.
Yes they both suck but one of them is WAY worse.

I just wish the abuse wasn’t romanticized so much—I donno, some ppl like that so maybe this just wasn’t for me.

Some people were annoyed at the ending, but it was probably my favorite part of the book. I was so happy for Mirelle when she tricked Valon def best part. It was kinda funny how while they’re trying to escape they just start monologues, like are you guys not in a hurry?

Anyway if there’s a book that’s dark and doesn’t have torture porn & there’s good consent (between love interests) I’d love to hear it 🙏🏻
though I don’t really trust any of u after ts

I’m not saying it’s bad to have a virgin fmc but I just hate when they make it a big deal.

I feel like a lot of time especially in this genre being a virgin implies that they’re younger and fantasy mmc’s are usually older. On its own this can be fine but a lot of the time it’s written in a pedophilic way.

18-19 yr old fmc’s with 8 ft tall 500 yr old fae man is so common in fantasy. I’m not against age gaps, like 25-30 yr old with a 100-900 yr old in fantasy I’m honestly fine with but why do age gaps always equal: virgin teenage girl with old man? 😭

Again this doesn’t rly have to do with the character being a virgin, more of how it’s portrayed. Idk, I don’t see a lot of ppl talk about this and I feel like I’m the only one who thinks it’s weird.

People told me Lara from Bridge Kingdom was the villain but she literally only did what she thought was right, I want a book with an actual villain or villain like fmc

Adult fantasy where FMC has trauma (especially around men) and MMC is preferably very morally grey but cares about consent.

I want consensual

Books I like:

{The Serpent & the Wings of Night}

{The Ever King} (fmc doesn't have trauma but MMC is morally grey and respects boundaries)

I would say {Jasad Heir} but I really hated how much they beat the shit out of each other.

What I don't like:

Fated mates
Pregnancy & breeding stuff
Why choose

Adult fantasy where FMC has trauma (especially around men) and MMC is preferably very morally grey but cares about consent.

Books I like:

{The Serpent & the Wings of Night}

{The Ever King} (fmc doesn’t have trauma but MMC is morally grey and respects boundaries)

I would say {Jasad Heir} but I really hated how much they beat the shit out of each other.

What I don’t like:

Fated mates
Pregnancy & breeding stuff
Why choose

I feel like I haven’t really been liking a lot of book couples lately. I usually like one person way more than the other, but I’m curious who everyone else’s favorites are & why.

Also I lowkey don’t like almost any SJM couple except maybe Manon & Dorian (I’ve read all her books)

Mine are:

Jude & Cardan {Cruel Prince}
Nasir & Zafira {We Hunt the Flame}
Sylvia & Arin {The Jasad Heir}
Jacks & Eva {Once Upon a Broken Heart}
Tisaanah & Max {Daughter of no Worlds}
Keris & Zarrah {The Inadequate Heir}
Luther & Diem {Spark of the Everflame}
Violet & Xaden {Fourth Wing}
Aaron & Juliette {Shatter Me} (nostalgia)

books where the mmc is genuinely kinda evil

don’t like when he’s actually secretly been a great person this whole time and every bad action is excused. Cough cough Rhysand

HAS TO BE CONSENSUAL

books I like:
{throne in the Dark}
{once upon a broken heart}
{the cruel Prince} (didn’t love the bully trope)
{The Shadows Between Us}
{Bound and Tide} (current read, so far liking it)

Dislikes 👎🏻
Reverse harem
Bully trope
Mates
Pregnancy trope
Werewolves

Likes 😊
Action packed
Kidnapping
Vampires