You’re reading a romance novel or one with a major romantic subplot and then the designated love interest of the female (or male) protagonist does something that hurts the protagonist and you hate them for it, and wish they didn’t end up together… but sure, they end up together.
Due to the nature of this discussion, spoilers from the books are included.
Example of how to write:
Gideon de Villiers from The Ruby Red Trilogy.
>!spoiler here!
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Mercedes from Count de Montecristo
The Farseer trilogy. I hated Molly when I was a teen, but when I reread as an adult I totally saw it from her PoV, my bad.
Same!!! I just reread those books last year and had the exact same switch in perspective. Her relationship with >!Burrich!< feels much more substantial and true.
I read it very young so with a child’s perspective: Amy in Little Women. I couldn’t comprehend either how Laurie could end up marrying the sister of the girl he professed his love for, or why Amy would want him afterwards.
This is also my least favorite, but Jo and Bhaer remains my favorite literary love story.
So much so that I can’t recommend the series to anyone knowing where it is headed, even though up until book 5 I fairly enjoyed it.
LITERALLY SAME.
It just sort of rubbed me the wrong way. It felt like Amy was plan b instead of being the one he truly loved.
This is exactly what I came here to write, so thank you for saying it!
Controversial opinion maybe but I always despised Ginny and Harry as a couple 😂 Ginny is uh… fine i guess.
I don’t recall really vehemently hating a love interest for quite a while, more like “these two characters don’t fit together at all” which is most in Harry Potter.
Conversely I couldn’t stand the drug out scenes with Harry and Cho, especially the fixation on how wet the kisses were. All of that relationship felt like it was written by an adult dumbing shit down for younger readers, not an adult writing like she remembered how that first kiss felt. Was 13 when I had mine, wasn’t in love with the girl but was completely enamored with her. I remember so much about it: my heart stopping after pounding so hard I could feel my pulse in my neck, the smell of lavender on her skin because she used this scented lotion her mom bought her, her long hair brushing my cheeks as it fell over my face. All those memories and nowhere in there is that “wet” BS Rowling was so fixated on.
Blech. I haven’t read that book in 15 years now and it still makes me shudder how badly Harry and Cho were written and how it brought the momentum of the book to a grinding halt.
Oh, believe me, Harry and Cho were not my faves either, but it was so obviously meant to be baby’s first relationship/crush so I didn’t really mind it that much. I don’t even remember anymore why I didn’t like Harry with Ginny or her as a character, but I guess it was the same as almost all HP couples: pretty much all of them were predictable and boring and straight. 😂
If there is one girl Harry had the most interesting dynamic with, it was Luna tbf. Hermione never felt more than his best friend to me.
lol @ “baby’s first relationship.” Nice.
And I agree too about Hermione. I like her a lot but never saw her as a romantic match for Harry. People burned a lot of calories being mad that those two never became a thing and I never understood where they were coming from.
Harry and Luna were a better match, IMO. I would have put Ginny with Victor Krum. I like to think of her having an international career and he would have gotten along with many of her brothers, I think, after some initial posturing.
Krum was 17 and ginny was 13 when they would have been together in the 4th book. Haven’t read them in a while, but I don’t remember too many other opportunities for them to meet up. Was already a creepy enough age difference with Hermione.
The Abandoned Empress. I hate hate HATE Ruve. I wish he was dead so Tia didn’t have to end up with him. I don’t care what anyone says, he literally r*ped her, tortured her and made her life a living hell. The ending almost made me want to kill myself from frustration.
I hated it at first too, but then *time travel*.
Still! I really don’t know how she didn’t get ptsd after all that he did to her. Carsien was so much better for her.
Rowan from TOG. He slaps the main character for saying something hurtful and is complete ass at the beginning. I couldn’t get pass it the way others seem to
what tf is TOG bro
I googled it and looks like Throne Of Glass, which I don’t think I’ve ever heard of before
There is a good chance that she was written by Ben Bova. His attitude about female love interests leaves much to be desired.
Ben Bova?
Google is your friend.
Granuailie or however you spell it from the Iron Druid series. She in an unbearable holier than thou backstabbing atrocity of a person that caused the whole series to go downhill and crash and burn in the final book. So much so that I can’t recommend the series to anyone knowing where it is headed, even though up until book 5 I fairly enjoyed it.
I generally hate reading these “romances” where the protagonist (writer) is grooming some teenage girl who just happens to be og so in love with this old balding middle aged man for some Gosh gee inconceivable reason.
Salems lot was a great book but the romance i. There was of this caliber, and I recently couldnt finish The Cat That Walks Through Walls by Heinlein because his main character spends waaaay too much time justifying why he should sleep with a 12 year old (although its just satire! Right? Right?)
But those decrepit hags of the same vintage just don’t understand poor sensitive writers! They definitely need a nubile old soul, not a rigid old nag /j
Ethan from The Unhoneymooners.
Russell in Girls Out Late/Girls In Tears. He steals Ellie’s idea for the art competition that he purposefully didn’t tell her about, then calls her a hypocrite when she submits another last-minute entry using a character based on stories her dead mum used to tell her, kisses one of her best friends after constantly calling her “tarty”, patronises Ellie and acts like she’s not an intellectual just because she doesn’t like the same movies he does and complains about her outfit when they’re going to a party and asks why she can’t wear something more “sparkly”, like he doesn’t think she’s glamorous enough for him, etc.
Michael Scott Rohan’s The Winter of the World is a great fantasy series, but the protagonist’s entirely superfluous enfatuation with Kara is uncritically written as love destined in the stars, which annoyed me to no end.
Ce’Nedra in the Bellgariad
to this day I remember her and shudder.
Hey, I just thought I’d let you know the spoiler cover-up in your post didn’t work. I think because you didn’t put a space between the !< and the T. Sometimes, it’ll show like it worked on your phone or computer but doesn’t for everyone else reading if there’s a hiccup.
Oops!
Rhysand from A Court of Thorns and Roses. I didn’t have much of a problem with him (though I never particularly liked him either) until he >!did not tell his pregnant wife that her pregnancy is high risk and she will likely die in childbirth. He didn’t allow anyone else to tell his wife, either. She would have died of the complications had her sister not found out how to save her!< this happens in the 5th book of the series, A Court of Silver Flames.
Your reason about Rhys is what made me stop liking the entire series. I also couldn’t stand the way he treated Nesta. It felt like everyone was obligated to live him or were his enemy.