I will always pick up books with plots based on these ideas:
*Nice, ordinary heroes (think Carla Kelly, or the so-called “beta hero”)
*PTSD, Napoleonic Wars-style; angstful spies from the same period
*Marriages of convenience
*Virginal males (not that you see this one often)
*Cross-class romances
*Secretly intellectual heroes/heroines (bonus points if society sees them as dilettantes)
*Equestrians, musicians, and the well-traveled
The author has to work extra hard to make me accept these plotlines:
*Virgin widows
*”It was all planned by our parents for us to fall in love! And we never knew!”
*Young heroines with no life experience
*Destined Love and/or reincarnation and/or Genetic Mating or scent-marking or whatever that makes the relationship instantly gel
*Misunderstandings that could be solved with one conversation
*Historicals in which all behavior is completely modern (though I can sometimes handle modern-sounding dialogue, depending on my mood and the book)
*Women who long to be Mastered by a Man, and not for occasional erotic thrills
*Men who Know What’s Best for their women and don’t learn better
*Long separations between hero and heroine, especially if reason is stupid
What about you?
I’m a little tired of hero and heroine at cross purposes. Like he’s CEO of a car manufacturer and she lobbies for the green movement.
I’m also over the angsty vampire hero.
Where are the HAPPY vampires? The cheerful ones, who make childrens’ birthday cakes?
LOL! Harry the Happy Vamp. Sounds like a kid’s series!
Sort of like Miss Spider’s Tea Party. None of the insects liked her because they thought she sucked bodily fluids, but she was a vegetarian.
This is a real kid’s book!