In the last few years, I’ve read well over a thousand romance novels. I started with contemporary, then moved on to Regency and other English stories. Then I got into other historicals. My faves are Western and Scottish historicals. I don’t claim to be an expert on romance novels, but I have formed opinions based on my extensive reading.
I’ve read so many books—typically a book a day—that I have to keep a list of what I’ve read. There are only so many plots, and I can’t always be sure I’ve already read a book if I read it several years ago, so I check it against the list, which is now 117 pages long. I list books by author. A number of those authors I’ve tagged as “NO MORE.” I’ve reached my tolerance level on those. I may have added comments on a particular author’s books such as “stupid woman,” “stupid, stupid, annoying woman” or “world’s stupidest woman.” My particular pet peeve. (Yes, and I realize that’s arrogant; I can only imagine what people would write about my books.)
Other comments include “too slow, “enh,” “not feeling it” and “didn’t like the characters.” I’ve also found books boring, too dependent on misunderstandings and too similar to previous books by the same author. Sometimes books are too technical or too historical for my taste. At this stage of the game, I don’t want to have to slog through I book. I’m reading for pleasure now.
I read romance novels at three different speeds—normal, speed read and super speed read. Originally I read every word of every sex scene, but there’s only so many ways you can do it, and I found myself flipping through 10-page sex scenes, skimming the pages. That’s my speed read mode. Super speed read is when I read 50 or 100 pages and am just not into it, yet I’d like to know how it ends. So I skip to the last 20 or 30 pages.
Now that you know how many books I don’t like, you should know that the majority of the romance novels I read do give me pleasure. Including mine, but what do I know?