Books where the author REALLY knows the world they are describing, competence porn if you will! I want to learn while being lost in a romance while feeling like i'm actually there!
If there's a reddit community that can help me with this, I know it's this one.
For some reason, I find it so hard to find books that 'feel smart'... and recently I've been finding myself getting sooo bored where the main story is solely about the pining, with nothing else going on... girl meets boy... they resist... they get together... story over. I want world building, stakes, books that 'feel smart,' I basically want to drown myself in competency.
Since I know this likely feels really vague, here are some examples of books that have scratched this itch:
- Bringing down the duke by Evvie dunmore (I legit learned more about the suffragist movement from this book than I did from school lol, and loved how much of a hustler the FMC was.)
- Match me if you can by SEP (Never thought I'd get so into the world of American football, but here we are - again, loved the FMC, and the power dynamics at play).
- Love Theoretically by Ali Hazelwood (Loved her depiction of postgraduate degree life, and really enjoyed learning about the difference between theoretical physics vs experimental physics)
- The Hating Game by Sally Thorne (ok, while her depiction of the publishing industry was kinda...unbelievable, I *did* believe the workplace culture and the stakes felt high!)
- The Fever Series by Karen Marie Moning (I get that this series is absolutely unhinged, but the world building and the author's dedication to the insanity was 10/10 and I am obsessed, and again, super strong FMC).
Basically, i want smart female leads, a world the author really spent time building/learning, and EXTRA points if its enemies to lovers, but not required. Open to all genres, sci-fi romance, romantasy, contemporary...
I hope this is not too controversial but authors that I really cannot stand because they fall short of this "genre" (for lack of better words) are Tessa Bailey, Meghan Quinn, Emily Henry, Sarah Hogle, and Scarlett St. Claire... to me, they read as just too generic and cookie cutter romcom!!!