LOVELY STEAMY BOOKS: What you'll Encounter by Vivien from Pages of Wonderland.

Today, let's welcome Vivien from Pages of Wonderland. She is here to tell us about all the different things we can encounter in the Romance Genre

Romance is unavoidable. It’s in Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Contemporary, Dystopian, and other genres. It’s everywhere. I’m not complaining. I love romance, but it has to be done correctly. I think it can make or break a book.

What You’ll Encounter:

-The Sexy Millionaire/Billionaire: Fifty Shades of Grey made millions of panties drop worldwide. You wanna know why? There was a millionaire/billionaire, tomato/tomato. A millionaire/billionaire can provide food, expensive wine, designer clothes, trips around the world, a really nice walk in closet, etc. They can make your fantasies come true with that annoying, arrogant grin and a swipe of their credit card. I’m typing this with so much disdain. They’re extremely arrogant and think they know what a girl wants (money). Then, the special snowflake, who doesn’t care about the money, comes around and turns his world upside-down.

-A Magical Creature: You might encounter werewolves, vampires, bear shape-shifters and things like that. It is, most definitely, Twilight’s fault.

I do like vampires, which I am slightly ashamed of. I have a soft spot for them. I guess it’s because they’re so mature and tortured by outliving love ones. They just make you sympathize for them, until they start biting people or when the girl starts begging to be changed. Ugh, Bella... Werewolves are not my favorite. I feel like the character is dating her golden retriever or a really big yorkie. I picture it more of a friendship than a relationship.

Alpha Male: I loathe this trait, but it’s in every romance book, unfortunately. It’s always the male in the relationship that is domineering or the dominate in BDSM. I always feel uncomfortable and I pity the girl. I find this sort of relationship to borderline rape. I hate that the girls don’t speak up for themselves, realize and/or leave the relationship. 

Arrogance: Every male love interest is arrogant. It’s overused. There are plenty of traits out there.

Insta-Love/Insta-Lust: Alpha Males are bad, but this is worse. A LOT WORSE. I like my romance to have a base, a little backstory, something! I want to read about the characters spending time with each other and getting to know each other snippet by snippet. It’s cute and I’m on the other side cheering them on like it’s a quidditch game. Telling the person you love them after knowing them for a week is unrealistic and irritates me, unless the characters spend every waking moment together, sharing their darkest secrets, dreams and aspirations in life. You can’t say I love you after a week. Insta-lust is fine in erotica because it’s erotica, what do you expect? But in fantasy, post-apocalyptic, thriller, no! I remember reading a thriller book with this self-involved bimbo, who got between the sheets after one day and was told I love you afterwards. I dropped the book and ran to the mountains.

Love Triangles: It’s incredibly popular in YA romance. I see this a lot in Jennifer L. Armentrout’s writing. Ex. Covenant Series and The Dark Elements. I think it’s so popular because it makes teenage girls jealous, as weird as that sounds. There are two hot guys competing to get the girl. But it objectifies women if you think about it. The girl is this prize that you flaunt in front of the loser.