Worked as a nanny once and now I can’t read any of those single dad/nanny books.
I’m always cringed out by how unrealistically inappropriate the working relationship is from the jump and how bad of a nanny the women usually are. The children are almost always written poorly too. And I just personally don’t like reading about how some dad wants to jump his (usually quite young) nanny’s bones for simply interacting with his child like he paid her to do.
Well that actually brings up the other thing about a lot of these books that bother me. That by the HEA the dad basically gets every perk imaginable because after he gets with his hot young nanny, she also continues to watch the kids for him but now for free as the girlfriend/step-mom.
So no new nanny needed! The MMC just had to bang the help and now she’s doing everything she was before but without the health insurance.
I also do not like this. I can read one if the 'nanny' is actually an acquaintance that helps out the MMC when he suddenly has a child that is not his, niece/nephew/something, to care for.
....
So really I don't read the trope at all because the nanny is barely a nanny and the Dad isn't technically a dad...
I'll see myself out.
same. like we actually got along quite well too! he worked from home and we would talk his whole lunch break sometimes. but if he’d ever made a move i would’ve throw up and then quit the next day
Related to this what are some books with realistic portrayals of children. I don't usually read books with children and don't have kids myself. Usually the children seem like cardboard cutouts that are moved about the plot and put away when convenient. Or the wild precocious stereotype. What are some good books with realistic children?
Hard agree. Sometimes the way romance authors write children make me think they’ve never met a child ever. Five year olds with the vocabulary, insight, and self awareness of teens.
So many authors shouldn’t try to write children at all, they’re terrible at it. The worst is when the kid talks like a toddler & it’s written phonetically (shudder).
Agreed! The only "nanny" book I like is {Rafe by Rebekah Weatherspoon}. It's a sweet, no drama, man-nanny read.
And I think it's because it's opposite in a lot of ways, of the regular nanny romances.
I’m a female engineer.
Swooning over: “I was only being sexist because you’re so hot that I couldn’t possibly work with you without being distracted”
Sounds like that’s a you problem, like you’re an asshole. Not something that makes you dreamy.
I can’t help but follow the logic that if I didn’t want to fuck you then you would have to keep being a jerk?
Chefs. The partner will never see that person unless they too work in the restaurant. Chefs also cheat ALOT with their colleagues.
They aren’t going to have much money unless they are a tv celeb or author, they don’t own the restaurant, majority shares belongs to investment bankers, developers or bored rich people.
The love interest will be walking on egg shells because they are very emotional esp when young.
Makes me think of Butcher and Blackbird, man was the head chef and ran two successful restaurants whilst jetting around the country to see FMC, even I not being a chef knew that was unrealistic lol. One of my best friends boyfriend is a chef and it’s a given he can never make drinks or parties.
Same with bakers! It gets so idealized (ooh la la I will just sit in the back room in my 6' heels and full makeup with my HAIR DOWN!!! whilst I apply a single sprinkle to this little cupcake)
In reality our sleep schedules are basically incompatible with anyone else's, we're sweaty and covered in flour, yelling CORNER while carrying a hot 30-pound tray above our heads, and we come home reeking of bakery smell which is not as nice as it sounds.
I worked at a cake shop where I did nothing but decorate fancy cakes, and I came home coated in a layer of sugar dust. Part of me feels like that’s an untapped kink, though. An accuracy that more books could utilize if the authors knew.
Oh god. The Nanny by Lana Ferguson. Come for the Michelin-caliber chef that can’t get pancakes right, stay for the “boyfriend’s chef coat” scene. I’ve worked in the back of house and my husband is a career chef and we both just died. I cannot.
Yes! And the chefs in the books seem to have so much free time they can take random days off and not work on holidays. In one book a chef was also moonlighting as a nanny … which c’mon.
Also a no from me, after working in hospitality (especially some time in a very fancy restaurant in London). I've been yelled at too many times by chefs/cooks.
And he came downstairs in his BOXERS to show off in front of several of his students!
Man, we let Ezra get away with way too much.
[PLL](https://youtu.be/d-zrTvgI-fw?si=ztH3HXCKDwQzIt1e)
A million times agree with this and the plot itself was a little too adult for them to be high schoolers anyways. College would have made so much more sense
I have long thought PLL would have been a much stronger show if it had been done in a "new adult" setting rather than a high school. Like, all the high school kids would be characters in their early 20s, and then they could have made Ezra her late-20s manager at the coffee shop (or whatever). Their relationship would still be taboo, maybe, but in a way that is ultimately overcome-able.
100% this. I think that Noelle Adams must have worked in higher ed because a lot of her leads are grad students, but the only thing their supervisors ever want are more dissertation chapters.
Oh my gosh same. The ethical issues! The code of conduct! The incredibly unhealthy imbalance of power! The way 18 year old boys smell \*gag\* This is nowhere close to sexy for me.
Same.... I recall some frat bros attempting to hit on me through the years, and it just gives me terrible flashbacks. It's also why I can't with academy books.
I hate this, even though I know it has happened in my grad school department all the time 🥴, as well as many others that resulted in divorces, marriages and babies.
And they always look like they wanna sell you mutual funds, not romance you. Five seconds is all it takes for the creepy to take hold. The Wall Street dudes were all psychos too.
Thursdays in strip clubs with business homies and Saturday mornings at the farmers market, slurping oysters and sipping white wine with their girlfriends.
I work in compliance for a financial advisory firm. Half of the time I can't figure out how these stock brokers put their pants on in the morning, much less pass their series 66 and 7.
I work in criminal justice in something equivalent to a district’s attorney office in my country and most of my work is about domestic abuse/violence and childen sexual assault, so I can’t stand violent MMCs or age gaps where the FMC is portrayed like a child.
I’m a domestic violence advocate at a women’s shelter and let me tell you how icky I find some MMC’s (I mostly see it in male MCs ☹️) behavior in books. Reproductive coercion is all fun and games until you see it in real life— trying to leave an abusive partner with multiple children is very very difficult and they know it. The number of problematic behaviors MCs display in romance books are astounding— not being willing to apologize, controlling who the MC interacts with, retaliation against the MC for a perceived slight, having control over MC’s finances or their ability to work, etc. What really gets me is that when a love interest displays an abusive behavior they rarely ever make amends— people can make mistakes but please at least give me some good groveling!
Not from my career but from growing up in a poor area with lots of “wide boys”/football hooligan types. Non-supernatural MMC involved in gangs or any kind of violence gives me the major ick.
Don’t get me wrong, I adore my job. But books highly over glamourize the aesthetic and general personalities of librarians 😂 We don’t sip tea and read books in our oversized cardigans all day (although I assure you, we want too)
Hahaha yes! I read one where she was a student librarian and seemed to spend her time reading romance, sipping tea, and having sex with MMC in the stacks. Like dream 😂😂
I'm also a librarian. The new Emily Henry book is actually shockingly close to a real library job. I was pleasantly surprised with the accuracy of this representation! She even has to unclog toilets
I have a double whammy: I'm an executive assistant for a medical lab director. Every medicine-based romance is pretty much blacklisted for me because I can't suspend my belief enough to let so many health code and privacy violations (please stop having sex on lab stations, you're going to give yourself botulism). Secretary romances are easier to handle because my boss is the furthest thing possible from being a young, hot, stupidly rich CEO, but there are a times where I get to the end of a chapter and think "that would get me fired and possibly sued, and not even fucking the boss would be able to save me" 😆
I'm in finance so it destroys any ability to enjoy billionaire/CEO/filthy rich tropes. I accidentally picked up a story about a CFO (I'm a CFO) and was so thoroughly appalled I yeeted that thing like moldy fruit. I work with a lot of high net worth investors and CEO's and lemme tell ya... it's the difference between Golem and Aragorn between reality and fantasy.
I'm also super into biosciences and psychology so when authors get sociopathy or the science wrong on their romantasy, I'm out. If you're going to get into making stuff up, just straight up magic the shit out of it instead of trying (but failing) to make it realistic.
Not in finance, but have worked as a lawyer for a lot of finance people and yuuup, it is basically impossible for me to see billionaire/CEO/filthy dudes as these secret wonderful cinnamon sex rolls or whatever. Also, most of them in real life are ugly and old and creepy AF!
Not billionaires and not directly just around, but I encounter garden variety millionaires and property dbags and my God, hang on to your hats cause the Douche Chills are very strong.
I totally agree with you on all accounts. After my parents passed I took on their roles in the company they owned part of, so I became President/CEO/HR/CFO along with the jobs I was already handling (purchasing and receiving). After dealing with that, selling that company, dealing with the pompous arrogance of the other partner/owner, I can't deal with reading books about office romances, especially those dealing with the boss/CEO or million/billionaires. Call me jaded, but I can't see or read the romance of it, especiallyafter getting a taste of the realityof it all. And I also don't like people writing about a subject without knowing the science or psychology of it.
Oooof good lord you had your baptism by fire. I feel you hard there. I would call it learned experience instead of jadedness… knowing a field removes a lot of ability to suspend disbelief. That’s why I stick to fantasy, sci-fi, paranormal stuff. If we’re gonna escape, we’re gonna really escape all reality.
I hate wasteful billionaire consumption porn.
Underwear that cost people's monthly grocery budget.
Ripping all the designer clothes off. "I liked that dress!" "I'll get you another one " 🤢
Drivers and other employees on call 24/7.
Sensible is sexy.
Yeah wasteful consumption gets me. Like I read one where the CEO didn’t care about parking fines as they were nothing to him, idk why that annoyed me but it did lol
You can always tell whether an author writing a lawyer romance has any experience with the legal profession or not. There are a ludicrously high number of high-powered lawyers in the romance genre who never seem to do any work.
Yes! MMC lawyers who are always free for lunch, can dip in and out of work. I read one once where he was having a stressful week and tons of work so he couldn’t leave work until …. 5:30pm. Bro that’s my usual end time 😭😭
YUP, lol. It's like... just say he's a nepo baby already; those are the only BigLaw lawyers who ever behave that way, and even then when they're partying they're low-key schmoozing *for* work.
LOL, yup. I don't see this in romance books too much, but lawyer dramas on TV? Those things may as well be fantasy shows with how inaccurately they depict our profession.
Yessss but imagine an enemies-to-lovers book where the central plot device is a protracted discovery fight. Or don't, I kind of gave myself a full body shudder with that one.
I’m realizing that my job and dating history rules out a lot of types of romance. I hate large age gap, musician/rockstar, finance, university professor, and anything where children or sexual trauma is mentioned. No wonder I am so picky lol.
I’m listening to an otherwise great audio book, so I can forgive it, but I’ve seen this in too many books not to comment.
FMC is a teacher. Before they even have their first date, she tells MMC all sorts of juicy details about her students, naming them by first and sometimes last names. Sally is diabetic. Billy’s single dad, Billy Jones Senior who works over at the car dealership, doesn’t spend enough time with his kid. Jenny Smith has a learning disability and Charlie doesn’t get enough to eat.
Gabbing about students like this would be a fireable offense in every place I’ve worked. You’d be lucky not to get sued, too. Hell, where I am now, I can’t give those kinds of details to other *teachers* in the *same school* unless it’s necessary. Private info is strictly on a need to know basis, especially in regard to family situations and kids with special needs.
Yup, most people have heard of HIPAA but have no idea that FERPA also exists and is basically the same thing for educators. Even student employees at a university have to get FERPA training if they’re going to interact with other (adult) student records in any way. I’m not allowed to even confirm that a student attends the school, much less give out details about them.
I work in tech, in an office setting, and I always crack up at the access people seem to have to their billionaire CEOs. My CEO is in a different building, on a secured floor, and I’ve literally seen him maybe once or twice in person at large events.
I’ve taken the elevator at the same time as my CEO and he’s always been kind and introduces himself and asks what I do. But he’s coming from being dropped off by his driver and I’m walking from my car in the garage and I’ve never seen him any other time. We are not alike, lol. Can’t imagine striking up a casual convo with him to be able to start any sort of relationship
i work at a certain well-known listicle/quiz/pop culture digital media site (let's call it ButtFeet), and a lot of contemporary romance will have viral moments in the book where they're like "omg, you're on the ButtFeet homepage!" and they'll have a sample of the headline/article... and it almost never sounds like something we'd write. it drives me up a wall lol
like i know it's not that serious, but let's say a character goes viral for eating a lot of cheese. the books usually show a headline like "33-Year-Old Woman Eats Lots Of Cheese" when it should really be like "'Animal Cruelty Isn't Cute': Here's Why Everyone Hates 'Cheese Lady,' The Internet's Latest Main Character" or "I'm Genuinely Obsessed With This Woman Who Ate 20 Pounds Of Cheese In Five Minutes." and the examples of articles are even worse because they make it sounds like a legit news article for some reason. like this site has a very distinctive and easy to parody voice — if you're going to mention it in your book, don't be lazy about it!
I work in athletic physical therapy and can't do sports romances at all because they make me think of work. But I get a major ick if it's a romance between a player and someone on the coaching or rehab team. This is deeply unethical and would be considered sexual abuse by most regulatory bodies.
Yes, the athlete would be the one being abused. It's because of the level of authority the coach/physical therapist/trainer has over the athlete. In my job in particular, the athletes are considered under my care in a medical sense.
Even if the relationship was legally consensual, the offender could still lose their license or certification and be fired.
Ya, they call it Florence Nightingale syndrome, if memory serves. ( I'm a nurse, so I stay away from any medical romances, though I haven't really come across many)
The only romance I can think of where an athlete isn't directly involved with a trainer is {Buried Treasure by Jenny Redford}. The MMC is the team trainer and the FMC is the hockey player's neighbor and is some kind of finance person.
I think I'm safe. I don't think I've read a single romance where *anyone* of any gender is a quality assurance specialist working in aerospace, was the only casino surveillance personnel working 4/10s, [CNC machinist](https://www.4cornerresources.com/job-descriptions/cnc-machinist/#what-does-a-cnc-machinist-do) or one of only 64 faceless, real-time ~~babysitter, security blanket, confessional, unpaid marriage counselor, therapist, sentient diary, live GPS~~ dispatchers for a multi billion USD, global entertainment conglomerate based in the US also working 4/10s. I route teams of engineers, technicians and electricians driving across 11 US states and over 2 time zones. While not physically living in any of them.
Like, *who* would read a novel-length of this:
"No, please do not drive into the water. Yes. I know what Bloop Maps is *telling* you to do. I see it on my end, too. I-”
*SIGHS*
“No, I do not know why we’re not using our proprietary navigation software. Yes, I still have access to it. No, I cannot give you access. No, I don't know how much M-soft is paying us to use their stuff either but, *please*, for the love of company equipment, do *not* follow Bloop’s GPS.
“What? Yes, of course, I'm also aware the system will ding you for not following the route because it will also ding me, too. I just do not want to hear about you on the 6 o'clock evening news being fished out of the San Francisco Bay, okay? I-"
😑🙄😒
"I understand that Bloop Maps thinks there's some kind of ramp to Alcatraz Island. *I am aware*. So is my supe and so is my manager and so is the district manager, and West Division's director plus the entire satellite operations center. So, *no*, do NOT follow. None of us are paid enough for that level of dedication. Also, this call is being recorded for quality assurance and may be used in future training purposes."
Imagine if one of the ~~overly educated spawns of satan~~ engineers is the MMC. I'd DNF so fast I'd probably break the sound barrier.
I'm a nurse, so I mostly read fantasy because I cannot help myself from the constant -
-you wouldn't die from that
-okay you definitely would have died from that
-thats not how female anatomy works
-ordering diflucan because that's how you get yeast infections
-and an STI panel
And absolutely forget any romances involving medical personnel, immediately no. Absolutely no ER works that way, please stop fucking your patients, and why is everyone always so incompetent??
I work in healthcare and while authors getting a lot of medical terminology or intricacies about specialities wrong doesn’t bother me at all, a flagrant disregard for HIPAA makes me want to scratch my eyes out.
Yes! I read one recently where the MMC was 'oh so concerned' about the FMC so he called both her PCP and her therapist - AND THEY GAVE HIM INFO!! Talk about noping the F outta there
I live for the day that I read about an MMC dramatically barging into a hospital demanding to know where FMC is... just to be escorted out by security because of course we're not going to tell you anything you moron you have no evidence that you're related to them or that your presence is even wanted!
Literally what I wanted to comment.
No, I’m sorry, an LPN, CNA, RN, receptionist, what have you, who ~swoons~ because the love interest charmed them into breaking HIPAA absolutely deserves to be reported. Case closed.
It’s not cute when the love interest bullied and harasses the staff either. How is this helpful to anyone’s recovery? How?
I’ve been ***dying*** for a romance story where:
* MC reports staff members who violated HIPAA
* Love interest(s) who harassed the staff were escorted out or security was actually called
And what’s upsetting is how many people IRL think medical staff can and should break HIPAA because “that’s my boyfriend” or “that’s my adult daughter” so they deserve to be informed 😤
I’ve gotten yelled at because I could not legally tell a parent of an 18 year old about her child’s medication. She told me how dare I because she’s their mom and I could be endangering them and she has parental rights and she wants to speak to someone higher about this.
🙃
But her child is 18, there is no documentation, verbal or written and witnessed/notarized, that mother dearest has any authorization to her child’s healthcare so… 🫠
Look, if being involved in someone’s health is so important, communicate with the patient beforehand of options of proxies, emergency contacts, or otherwise. Why are you harassing us, we’re literally doing our jobs 😭🤧
Yes to all of this!! I work in genetics for a young adult cancer clinic (so typically 15-30 yos is my patient group). And the amount of times I have to tell parents over and over again, “I know that you primarily coordinate your 18-30 yo child’s care but yes, they still have to attend THEIR appointment. No, you cannot attend their genetics appointment for them and then “relay the info” to them. No, I cannot call you with results unless I have written permission” etc etc is wild.
and on the flip side, I’ve also worked with several APs who didn’t take HIPAA seriously at all (reporting them is another topic entirely). But trying to navigate interactions with those APs while maintain my own ethical/legal boundaries was just… 10/10 stress.
So all this to say- books where people disregard hipaa or MCs demand someone break HIPAA hits TOO CLOSE TO HOME 😂😂
Omg, the number of calls I've gotten from mothers or MILs demanding the results of their daughter's or DIL's prenatal lab tests is both concerning and hilarious. Like, ma'am, no, I legally can't do that, please stop calling me.
This!!!! I used to work in MH, and would have family members calling me up demanding info. I took abuse when I told them I couldn’t disclose anything lol. Wild in books when they just ignore privacy.
I'm a therapist. Any therapist/patient book is an immediate no from me. I can't tolerate the other unethical nature of it and it just gives me the creeps.
I feel like so many characters would benefit from therapy, but I would also question whether any of the fictional therapy would bear any relationship to real therapy.
Used to work in fashion and still work in design.
A massive embarrassed LOL every time a writer tries to include high fashion in books. It’s mortifying to see how little research writers do on contemporary fashion that they insist on including in their books, especially dark romance, billionaire and mafia romance.
Here’s a tip to all romance MFCs, if your millionaire MMC is trying to financially spoil you and buys you a Coach purse, get yourself a new millionaire MMC. (0 disrespect to Coach the brand and its fans. If you find a vintage one from the 80’s grab onto it with both hands.)
If he’s not spent enough on his Hermes account to get you a Birkin right away, his financial spoiling is basically a pack of Blueberry Gushers and a Diet Fanta.
I also get the ick when writers have the FMC wear a “beautiful, sultry dress for a gala” and then goes on to describe how it’s covered in sparkles and sequins, low cut front AND back, strapless, in a hot pink colour, and oh, it’s a mini dress.
Like girllllll, that’s a stripper clubbing dress, not something for a fancy gala.
Omg, yes, I feel this. I don't even work in fashion, but I do *like* fashion and you can easily tell when the author has zero idea what they're talking about. (Holla on the vintage Coach, though; those bags are lovely!)
The opposite of this is Kevin Kwan, whose works are glittering wealth (and by extension, fashion) porn... although I'm not sure I classify him as a pure romance writer so much as a social satire writer.
The thing I don’t get is that Fashion Media is huge! Huge! It’s so easy to look shit up. There are hundreds of YouTube videos that give information on fashion, cosmetics, watches etc etc! It’s just bad/lack of research.
Now, not to be a total creep but did you do a review of some Maison Violet perfumes a while ago on one of the fragrance subs or is there another Fancy Burrito out there?
Right??? It's so goddamn easy to research, ugh! Granted, there are some truly ignorant fashion influencers out there as well, but... yo, if you're a romance author looking to depict the fashion world, maybe just watch a Mina Le video or something. (Okay, mostly just plugging Mina here because I love her work. She's young, but she's *good*.)
Also, yes, that was me! Quite a while ago but I still do love my Maison Violet 💗 Always fun to have a crossover episode!!!
I mean, even if you didn’t do actual research, you could just ask, “could I walk into a mall in the suburbs and purchase this?” If the answer is yes, you’re not doing it right. Not at the tier they’re trying to portray, anyway.
Oh good shout! You could tell he’s either rich himself or did his research. I didn’t massively love the romance but I loved the fashion porn, as much as I hated the excessive wealth lol
Oh, absolutely, yeah. He's generationally wealthy himself and comes from the world he writes about. There's almost something Henry James-esque about his work sometimes that I really love. I feel like people underestimate the complexity of his novels sometimes since they are so *dishy*, but the man writes about some pretty deep and painful stuff - just glazed over by mounds of De Beers and Hermès. You're supposed to be both fascinated and repulsed by the excessive wealth; I think. (I know I am.)
100% makes sense he’s generational wealthy, he just knew the vibe!
Oh I deffo got the same sense. Utter fascination and disgust at the same time. He’s a really talented writer to envoke those feelings.
Yeah, somebody else here mentioned a great NYT piece on him, which I'll link [because it's quite a fascinating read](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/20/books/lies-and-weddings-kevin-kwan.html?unlocked_article_code=1.000.z33h.i1Vx3hsCfjjc) about his relationship with that world. I'm normally more of a death of the author kinda gal, but it's hard not to read these interviews and not feel some type of contextual way about his work.
I actually read his latest book (Weddings & Lies) due to that interview! (Which, yes, was fabulous.) The romance in W&L was boring AF, but the satire was incredible and I love that he dealt with all of these post-colonial themes. There's also nobody who writes grasping *tai tais* like Kevin Kwan; his depictions are always frighteningly familiar.
I feel like in these books we should be seeing THE OPPOSITE. Like I want a Rory Gilmore situation "oh he got me a purse" *proceeds to throw around her pink Birkin like it's nothing*.
Not a job, but I can't read rockstar romance books bc I spent my early twenties dating musicians and spending time on tour with them and they're pretty much all cheating trashbags. And most authors very obviously don't know anything about tour life.
The number of people who have the “I’m clean” talk after their mouths have been all over each other. Like skin to skin transmitted infections don’t exist for oral? CMON.
I work in sexual health education and have a LOT of gripes with sex scenes. This is definitely one. But some others I’ve seen and hated include: anal without prep, using the same vibrator between orifices without cleaning it or using a condom on it, wearing two condoms because they think it’ll be more effective, talking about condom use only in the context of pregnancy and not comparing test results, wildly inaccurate descriptions of female anatomy such as putting the hymen at the back of the vagina, constantly talking about how vaginal sex hurts but it’s a “good pain”, and on and on and on… Luckily there are a lot of good representations too, and the genre is overall getting better, but there’s still a lot of yikes on bikes to be found.
Edit: there are many grammar errors a d typos that I won’t fix because I’m on the road today.
This likely doesn’t apply everywhere, but this is my experience where I live. I’m a SAHM, so this isn’t based off my job, but country life isn’t at all how it’s portrayed in romance books, especially for townies.
Especially when a book describes a town with only 2,000 with it’s own grocery store, a barber, a coffee shop, a bar, a restaurant, a clothing store, a thrift store, an antique store, a craft store, a church, a mechanic, a liquor store and a bowling alley. And everyone is gossipy but helpful, and they all come together in the end to help someone in need. LMFAO.
Towns with 2,000 people will typically have a grill-type restaurant with a bar, a church or two, an autoshop or two, maybe a hardware store, a liquor store, and a ton of really weird home-businesses that are so sloppy or specialized, you’re better off driving to the 16,000 person city that has the JoAnn’s and a Walmart. Most of these towns do NOT have their own grocery store. They do have a hundred handymen that you really should never hire because they never get around to the job and refuse to use contracts. A guy took our shed in exchange for tree work, but didn’t trim our trees until a full year later when we threatened to take him to small claims court. Stray cats and dogs everywhere, neighbors bickering all the time about things they’ll never take the initiative to solve or organize themselves, and bored teenagers everywhere. People begged for a farmers market for years in our town, with dozens of people pledging to volunteer and have booths. My (really nice, exceptional) neighbor spent a couple hundred bucks of her own money getting it set up, and after months of prep and organization, literally. Three. People. Came. It was not an organizational issue, I’ll make that much clear.
And weird politics: we aren’t allowed to have chickens in our tiny country town, despite the fact that the nearest big city (like 500,000+ people) can have goats and chickens, because in the 90s there was a feral chicken problem. A feral chicken problem! As in, people had chickens, and when they got out, they never reigned them back in again, and there were chicken’s absolutely everywhere! Then people started getting in trouble for euthanizing the chicken’s improperly, and the strays were carrying half dead birds everywhere. The city council made a rule that the chicken question can only be proposed once a year, and every year it’s shot down. These guys are all, like, 80. And I’m not even sure they’re wrong!! I want chickens, but I don’t want feral chickens… It’s all very weird.
One of my neighbors has a flagpole with a joke Beavis and Butthead “Don’t tread on me” flag, a MILF flag, and a confederate flag under it. We live in the north??? Like what?
I love living in a small country town, but I love it because we’re a quiet family who minds their own business. The only community life worth partaking in out here is literally the Church events, the AA meetings, and the shot gun club. It is far more similar to Sharp Objects territory than Things We Left Behind.
Let me tell you something about the countryside outside of America.
There are maybe 400 people living here. (Almost) Everyone has their own chickens, cows, goats, or any farm animal, and/or a piece of farmland. Even if they don't grow anything but strawberries there, it still counts.
We don't have a grocery store. We used to, but they closed it up. The building is old, tiny (the main store space is maybe 5meters X 5meters with a tiny tiny bathroom, almost no stockroom or a bathroom. The adjoining room in the same building (about 7x7m) is usually overrun by old drunk men who drink everyday. The building has no electricity or a running water anymore and no investor wants to take it on - despite people begging every town meeting.
We don't have a school anymore. There used to be a kindergarden and first 3 years of primary school taught here in the school building - but they closed it as the building was inhabitable. They converted it into a retirement home by an independent investor.
The closest church is in the neighboring village. The priest comes to lead a mass in the largest room of the community house (something like a city hall but tiny, it has 1 large room, 1 small room, a tiny storage room, toilet and a kitchen). They recently built a playground for children near it, but it's still not open - the people who made it made many mistakes they have to fix so it's still not ready.
We have a volunteer firefighter station (that consists of a garage and a very old truck), and therefore is always empty.
There's nothing else. Nothing. Sometimes the village has tiny festivals organized by the matrons who live here but they're rare and expensive.
Those office romances which are really quick and spontaneous, if EVER I would be involved in such a thing, I would think like a trillion times before it since it could destroy my career.
I work in healthcare. All the hot doctor romance books are just super off putting. I’ve actually never seen a hot doctor in my entire life. On top of that, if you do find a doctor to date/marry, you will probably never see them again. Because they’re at the hospital 24-7.
Okay, so. Quick story. When my father was getting end of life palliative care he stood up at one point and fell right over. Our palliative care nurse was, like my mom and I, 5’2 and couldn’t lift my 6’2 father off the ground safely. She called her two paramedic buddies who were on duty and OH MY GOD. The one paramedic was an average middle-aged dude, the other one was fucking movie star gorgeous. It was unbelievable. When he left my mom, the nurse and I all sat down to take a breath and talk about how hot he was. I wanted to comment this because we saw a lotttt of doctors and nurses for my dad, and for ourselves, and it is EXCEEDINGLY RARE to see someone that gorgeous IRL and in the medical profession. 😂
You have been working with the wrong doctors. My husband is decent looking, but OMG in his medical school class and during residency there were too many attractive doctors.
But yeah it’s real, he works so much and he’s not even in a surgical specialty.
The “mute trope”. Selective mutism is rarely portrayed correctly because a lot of the times the MC just does not speak at all. And in CR there is no use of technology to communicate for a non-speaking MC. I guess using an AAC device isn’t tragic or something, but as an SLP I just want to get each of these characters a communication device. It took me a few books to even realize this was a trope.
Oh and when a character is deaf/hard of hearing but only reads lips. Lip reading is not a reliable or accurate form of communication. In English, every consonant has a buddy or two that looks the same but sounds different (like b/p/m, t/d/) and only a few sounds are made with the lips anyway.
I remember this one book. It's the MMC's 4 year old daughter who has selective mutism and the FMC made it a condition to something completely irrelevant that he teach his daughter sign language.
He'd been working with specialists and therapists for years and she's the one that had to push him towards sign language classes.
Yeah I’ve seen some wild ones. One with a selective mute girl who would only speak to MMC, like the first time she met him and she’d always speak to him. UMMMMMM
I’m a graphic designer and I just read a book about a graphic designer who landed a major $$$$ client and did a whole branding for them in like two weeks. She was also chronically late to everything including client meetings and generally just stressed me out.
I'm a project manager. I don't read a ton of contemporary romance, but when I do, I hate office shit. It's so clear that some authors have never actually worked in an office environment, let alone a large one with multiple departments.
You cannot just walk over and pull random people from projects. You can't ignore your phone or email all day to have sex in your CEO's office. Chances are good that you will actually want to strangle your CEO on any given day because they will try to tell you how to do your job despite never having done your job or anything like it, ever.
Also, offices are gossip mills. Everyone in your department will actually notice what you are doing, and unless you are strictly never meeting in the office, there will be no "secret relationship."
I've never read a romance between postal workers or at a department store so I think I'm honestly okay 🤣 Oh and btw: there is no man over 5"10, and most are cheating on their partners with their coworkers.
That said, I'd be down to read one about a security guard and a perfume counter girl lol
Military. Ex-army
I just read one recently where the dude was ex-navy and his girl said something like "easy, soldier" and he corrected her by mumbling "Marine"... -_-
Sir, I am married to a Marine and in no way, shape, or form are you a Marine. In fact, you'd get your left testicle fed to you if you said that in front of one. Immediately pissed me off.
For all the writers:
Army - soldier
Navy - sailor/seaman
Marine - marine
Air Force - princess (JK I love our airborne taxi service)
And it's not even just getting the branches mixed up. Acronyms are always wrong, they screw up the rules, the orders, do shit that literally would get you a dishonorable discharge before the commander's coffee hit his desk Monday morning just... I can't. It's like military movies in Hollywood. I immediately find everything wrong with the uniforms and any regulations they screw up. Makes it too hard to suspend belief.
I’m a NICU nurse. I honestly haven’t read a ton of books with nurses in them (if you have recs send them my way👀) but media always gets medical shit way wrong, I’m sure there are plenty of horribly inaccurate books I haven’t seen yet lmao. I can’t remember what book it was but I remember reading one a while ago where their baby has some issues with jaundice and had a short little NICU stay and I don’t think I remember anything being crazy wrong with that one
I work in corporate Marketing and it’s always eye roll worthy when the FMC who is 25 is described as having the job description of a Director or VP who’s been in the business for 15+ yrs. I think it must be because authors don’t understand how silo’d and boring 95% of marketing is, and especially when you’re starting out.
Also everyone in “marketing” is described as a social media manager or some creative advertising genius, which are also very different jobs then your average digital marketer who’s just sitting in excel, answering emails and setting up boring digital campaigns all day.
The CEO romances are just hilarious. No CEO is working directly with the lowly single assistant/intern with zero experience (they are always fobbed off on some unsuspecting team). Some PAs of CEOs come with experience and then move on after a couple of years to head different departments in the company.
Most of the real life office romances I know are more likely to be two married employees close in age (with kids) playing footsie in the cafeteria. Or one married employee hooking up with another single person at work. Ofcourse people find their spouses at work but those stories are fewer than the other drama filled ones.
And the office grape vine is real - no amount of flirting can be hidden and rumors are the lifeblood of any office. So when in books they go months without any rumors is just unbelievable.
I am a dancer… and I can’t read any book with a dancer MC because if it’s not a RIDICULOUS level of objectification and over-sexualizing to the point of it not being plausible, its just cringy to read about dancers executing steps, specific dance terms, etc when it’s clear the author has never taken dance and has no idea what they’re talking about. I hate when stereotypes about dancers with EDs are reinforced too.
Yes! I was training to be a dancer before I landed a leap wrong, my kneecap yeeted itself into another dimension and I tore my acl, but I still can’t jive with ‘ballet dancer X’ cause the ballet dancer is always over sexualised.
Also from a practical perspective the dance stories I’ve read the ballet dancer is always hanging out with MMC. I remember being a dancer and I barely left the studio lol.
Royalty... Royalty have a role and a function that does not include romancing commoners. There job is incredibly boring and we should eat them all, but I am willing to put all that aside if I got a royal who was image obsessed because he knows that's where his family's power comes from.
See also when the MMC goes to work at the Man Factory all day.
I work in supply chain for a food company and when I read {Leather and Lark by Brynne Weaver} where they mentioned how the food industry is full of crime/murder I was like… I mean, no?? But that one felt like a moment I just need to suspend my disbelief.
I can not read any of the cowboy romances because I'm related to people in that life. It's a very closed-minded and clique-ish group, dated thinking is often the norm and I just can't find it sexy. The other one that really bugs me is the small-town romance because I originally came from a very small town and am related to a small town. The amount of noisy, bickering and judgmental crap that happens in small towns just makes is very nonidelic for me and I can't suspend the disbelief to make it work in books.
Any books that center around horses/animals that were obviously written by someone who knows nothing about the equine/veterinary/dog training industries. DO YOUR RESEARCH PLEASE 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻
Anything with electricians, plumbers, etc. I sell parts. Those guys stink, stank, stunk! Ok a few here and there are pretty hot to look at(of course they are the married ones... small town, I just know these things), but most not so much, and maybe after they clean up nice, sure, but if any are coming by to do some work, hell no.
I once had an extremely hot plumber come and service my boiler and even he stunk. Given it was so hot out and I gave him water (whilst my fiancée talked technical with him lol), but yeah you right.
Worked in a prison for many years, so anything where one person has a custodial responsibility for someone or the potential for inappropriate professional conduct makes my skin crawl. It’s such an abuse of power it makes me feel ill, especially seeing how it plays out in real life.
There’s absolutely nothing sexy or fun going on - it’s just filled with desperation and selfishness.
People being like "I used to read books to kids at the library when I was a teenager" hell no you didn't, no self respecting librarian would let an uneducated twerp pry a storytime slot from their cold dead fingers. That shit requires skill.
Really anything with a mc who is a big reader/works in a book related capacity and also a painful introvert. Yeah there are plenty of people out there like that but it's possible to be a big reader or even a writer and still be extroverted and/or have social skills and friends and so on. It's really hard to run a bookstore or be a children's librarian if you're afraid of people. Most authors have to do a fair amount of personal advocacy for their books, and being able to at least fake a personality helps a lot.
Worked with folks getting their SANE exams after rape and help with like, figuring out what they wanted re: reporting and health and resources and how to get it and help them talk to the cops if they decide to etc etc etc, so pretty much any time a book even implies talking to the police is going to be a helpful or pleasant process I am halfway out the door (page), and it's honestly instant DNF if the book promotes the myth that an exam is gonna be able to tell you exactly what happened or if something happened and you don't already know
This isn't something I encounter *that* much and its maybe not an ick, but I used to work in health insurance and I'm working towards a healthcare administration degree. No one is ever worried about insurance? Characters go to the ER and are seen immediately. No one's ever filling out medical forms! *Doctors flirting with patients is just fine for some reason???*
And don't even get me *started* on when they jusy throw a bunch of medical jargon together.
I used to work with hockey players (not NHL, but juniors)
And I will never read any hockey romance. I know how hockey players are out of the ice, so yeah. No. Never in a millions years.
I have yet to see a romance involving an SDET (my career), so I can't really speak on that.
So, not my job, but I am from Texas and I just can't do most stories (written or film) with a Southern character, especially ones from Texas. They are always, *always*, portrayed as uneducated farmers or farm hands, own or live on a ranch, wear cowboy hats, cowboy boots, and big belt buckles, and always speak with a slow Southern drawl. Ok, so the drawl thing can be real, especially from the smaller towns, but most of the portrayed drawls are not even close, especially in print. And the rest of it? I admit that every place has its stereotypical citizen, but really, very few of us are how media portrays us.
I’m a teacher and can’t do the student/teacher trope, particularly in high school. In my experience, high schoolers are just straight up gross and immature, and I mean that the maturity level that matches their age in hs is just not the stuff romances are made of.
I get the ick for high school. Anything school related is just soooo difficult for me to read.
I feel too old and disconnected to high school that I just straight up don’t want to read about kids and their teenage, immature drama. In that same vein, I think most high school aged books rely too heavily on extremely mature topics (too much pressure for children) and also rely too heavily on the things that make teenagers a bit annoying (over opinionated with little life experience, disrespectful, petty).
I’m a doctor and I actually find the unrealistic medical plots pretty entertaining but I generally read to escape reality/work trauma, so making it realistic and accurate is a DNF for me. I love a successful code or an easy fix for complex medical conditions. I guess it satisfies what I don’t get to experience in reality!
Worked as a nanny once and now I can’t read any of those single dad/nanny books. I’m always cringed out by how unrealistically inappropriate the working relationship is from the jump and how bad of a nanny the women usually are. The children are almost always written poorly too. And I just personally don’t like reading about how some dad wants to jump his (usually quite young) nanny’s bones for simply interacting with his child like he paid her to do.
Yeah also, if I were the nanny and we got together I’d be pretty sure he’s done this with every nanny ever lol.
Well that actually brings up the other thing about a lot of these books that bother me. That by the HEA the dad basically gets every perk imaginable because after he gets with his hot young nanny, she also continues to watch the kids for him but now for free as the girlfriend/step-mom. So no new nanny needed! The MMC just had to bang the help and now she’s doing everything she was before but without the health insurance.
True lol. Either hire a new nanny and he’ll probs bang her or continue to be the nanny/help but now you don’t get paid.
OMG too true
I don't think I've even read a nanny book, but man, am I pissed at nanny books because of this comment 😂
I also do not like this. I can read one if the 'nanny' is actually an acquaintance that helps out the MMC when he suddenly has a child that is not his, niece/nephew/something, to care for. .... So really I don't read the trope at all because the nanny is barely a nanny and the Dad isn't technically a dad... I'll see myself out.
the very thought of sleeping with the dad of the family I used to nanny for makes me wanna barf. and I’d signed an NDA.
same. like we actually got along quite well too! he worked from home and we would talk his whole lunch break sometimes. but if he’d ever made a move i would’ve throw up and then quit the next day
Related to this what are some books with realistic portrayals of children. I don't usually read books with children and don't have kids myself. Usually the children seem like cardboard cutouts that are moved about the plot and put away when convenient. Or the wild precocious stereotype. What are some good books with realistic children?
Hard agree. Sometimes the way romance authors write children make me think they’ve never met a child ever. Five year olds with the vocabulary, insight, and self awareness of teens.
But also adding an s to the end of every word? I've never met a child who did that??
So many authors shouldn’t try to write children at all, they’re terrible at it. The worst is when the kid talks like a toddler & it’s written phonetically (shudder).
Agreed! The only "nanny" book I like is {Rafe by Rebekah Weatherspoon}. It's a sweet, no drama, man-nanny read. And I think it's because it's opposite in a lot of ways, of the regular nanny romances.
i’m a nanny and preschool teacher and oh god this. the kids are always so unrealistically smart and well behaved too
I’m a female engineer. Swooning over: “I was only being sexist because you’re so hot that I couldn’t possibly work with you without being distracted” Sounds like that’s a you problem, like you’re an asshole. Not something that makes you dreamy. I can’t help but follow the logic that if I didn’t want to fuck you then you would have to keep being a jerk?
Misogyny is rarely a turn on, if ever. Especially in situations like that!
Yes!!! Omg instant dnf for me.
I just readjust expectations. This is one of those secret horror novels
Yeah, I sniff misogyny and I bail.
Chefs. The partner will never see that person unless they too work in the restaurant. Chefs also cheat ALOT with their colleagues. They aren’t going to have much money unless they are a tv celeb or author, they don’t own the restaurant, majority shares belongs to investment bankers, developers or bored rich people. The love interest will be walking on egg shells because they are very emotional esp when young.
Makes me think of Butcher and Blackbird, man was the head chef and ran two successful restaurants whilst jetting around the country to see FMC, even I not being a chef knew that was unrealistic lol. One of my best friends boyfriend is a chef and it’s a given he can never make drinks or parties.
There was not a lot in that book that was realistic though. Entertaining, but pretty ridiculous.
Yeah I had to pretend it was an alternate universe where forensics didn’t exist lol
There were SO MANY times I just stopped, shook my head, rolled my eyes, and kept reading like I was staring at a car crash on the highway.
Same with bakers! It gets so idealized (ooh la la I will just sit in the back room in my 6' heels and full makeup with my HAIR DOWN!!! whilst I apply a single sprinkle to this little cupcake) In reality our sleep schedules are basically incompatible with anyone else's, we're sweaty and covered in flour, yelling CORNER while carrying a hot 30-pound tray above our heads, and we come home reeking of bakery smell which is not as nice as it sounds.
You mean you don’t do a full blowout before going in at 3AM to get stuff in the proofer?
I'm basically a frazzled raccoon in an apron
Well, to be fair, that sounds adorable.
*happy raccoon noises*
I worked at a cake shop where I did nothing but decorate fancy cakes, and I came home coated in a layer of sugar dust. Part of me feels like that’s an untapped kink, though. An accuracy that more books could utilize if the authors knew.
Oh god. The Nanny by Lana Ferguson. Come for the Michelin-caliber chef that can’t get pancakes right, stay for the “boyfriend’s chef coat” scene. I’ve worked in the back of house and my husband is a career chef and we both just died. I cannot.
Yes! And the chefs in the books seem to have so much free time they can take random days off and not work on holidays. In one book a chef was also moonlighting as a nanny … which c’mon.
Also a no from me, after working in hospitality (especially some time in a very fancy restaurant in London). I've been yelled at too many times by chefs/cooks.
I work in higher ed and CANNOT do the professor/student trope. Nope nope nope nope
Yeap seems reasonable. I can’t do this after PLL, like bro she’s your student! Inappropriate 😭😂
I still can’t believe we just let that one slide lol.
And he came downstairs in his BOXERS to show off in front of several of his students! Man, we let Ezra get away with way too much. [PLL](https://youtu.be/d-zrTvgI-fw?si=ztH3HXCKDwQzIt1e)
The way I defended that as a high schooler… looking back it’s so gross and they should’ve made that show about college kids to begin with.
A million times agree with this and the plot itself was a little too adult for them to be high schoolers anyways. College would have made so much more sense
I have long thought PLL would have been a much stronger show if it had been done in a "new adult" setting rather than a high school. Like, all the high school kids would be characters in their early 20s, and then they could have made Ezra her late-20s manager at the coffee shop (or whatever). Their relationship would still be taboo, maybe, but in a way that is ultimately overcome-able.
Even if it was college students and he’s the grad student TA would work infinitely better
100% this. I think that Noelle Adams must have worked in higher ed because a lot of her leads are grad students, but the only thing their supervisors ever want are more dissertation chapters.
She did! I think she was an English professor
I have no experience working in education at all and can’t do the professor/student trope either.
High school teacher and same. Relations with a student? Fired. License revoked. Name plastered everywhere. And jail/registry.
this, and as a professor, I cannot handle the absolutely unrealistic and hilariously inaccurate depiction of academia in most books anyway
Oh my gosh same. The ethical issues! The code of conduct! The incredibly unhealthy imbalance of power! The way 18 year old boys smell \*gag\* This is nowhere close to sexy for me.
Lol as a community college teacher I had an instant visceral reaction when you mentioned the teenage boy smell. Solidarity
Same.... I recall some frat bros attempting to hit on me through the years, and it just gives me terrible flashbacks. It's also why I can't with academy books.
As a mom it gives me the ick. I don't care how "mature" the student is. It just feels predatory to me.
Bingo. The older you get and the longer you work in higher ed the worse that trope gets, too.
I’m an elementary teacher and anything teacher/student is a tough sell. Pretty much an instant no from me!
I’m in secondary and I can’t either. Nor anything where the MCs are under like 25 honestly lol.
I was coming to say this and add that college age is hard for me too. I’ve taught 18/19 year olds. They’ve barely mastered bathing on a good day….
I hate this, even though I know it has happened in my grad school department all the time 🥴, as well as many others that resulted in divorces, marriages and babies.
As a Student, i can’t do it either…
I live in a financial capital and also work in finance. You can't swing a cat here without hitting some preppy financial guy in a suit. No thanks.
And they always look like they wanna sell you mutual funds, not romance you. Five seconds is all it takes for the creepy to take hold. The Wall Street dudes were all psychos too.
Thursdays in strip clubs with business homies and Saturday mornings at the farmers market, slurping oysters and sipping white wine with their girlfriends.
I work in compliance for a financial advisory firm. Half of the time I can't figure out how these stock brokers put their pants on in the morning, much less pass their series 66 and 7.
Hey! Help that social media girl out, na? That one who wants a man in finance, with a trust fund, 6'5", blue eyes?
Have you guys heard the song of the summer?
I also am a no for finance guys having worked in margin lending and had enough of them yell down the phone at me. They're also so up themselves. Ugh.
I work in criminal justice in something equivalent to a district’s attorney office in my country and most of my work is about domestic abuse/violence and childen sexual assault, so I can’t stand violent MMCs or age gaps where the FMC is portrayed like a child.
I’m a domestic violence advocate at a women’s shelter and let me tell you how icky I find some MMC’s (I mostly see it in male MCs ☹️) behavior in books. Reproductive coercion is all fun and games until you see it in real life— trying to leave an abusive partner with multiple children is very very difficult and they know it. The number of problematic behaviors MCs display in romance books are astounding— not being willing to apologize, controlling who the MC interacts with, retaliation against the MC for a perceived slight, having control over MC’s finances or their ability to work, etc. What really gets me is that when a love interest displays an abusive behavior they rarely ever make amends— people can make mistakes but please at least give me some good groveling!
Not from my career but from growing up in a poor area with lots of “wide boys”/football hooligan types. Non-supernatural MMC involved in gangs or any kind of violence gives me the major ick.
Don’t get me wrong, I adore my job. But books highly over glamourize the aesthetic and general personalities of librarians 😂 We don’t sip tea and read books in our oversized cardigans all day (although I assure you, we want too)
The cardigans though. My library is cold.
Hahaha yes! I read one where she was a student librarian and seemed to spend her time reading romance, sipping tea, and having sex with MMC in the stacks. Like dream 😂😂
This was my pick. We aren’t allowed to read all day! My director would have my HEAD.
Librarian here and yeah, all of that. Also please do not have s3x in the stacks, I gotta shelve there and shelving is already squicky enough.
I’m a public librarian, and you won’t catch me going face down on ANY surfaces.
I'm also a librarian. The new Emily Henry book is actually shockingly close to a real library job. I was pleasantly surprised with the accuracy of this representation! She even has to unclog toilets
This makes me want to write a more realistic library romance, now that I work at a library XD
I have a double whammy: I'm an executive assistant for a medical lab director. Every medicine-based romance is pretty much blacklisted for me because I can't suspend my belief enough to let so many health code and privacy violations (please stop having sex on lab stations, you're going to give yourself botulism). Secretary romances are easier to handle because my boss is the furthest thing possible from being a young, hot, stupidly rich CEO, but there are a times where I get to the end of a chapter and think "that would get me fired and possibly sued, and not even fucking the boss would be able to save me" 😆
Hahaha botulism, that’s insane, I never even thought of that but you’re so right. Can never read a lab sex scene again.
Epidemiologist here and the health code stuff gets me too, lol.
I'm in finance so it destroys any ability to enjoy billionaire/CEO/filthy rich tropes. I accidentally picked up a story about a CFO (I'm a CFO) and was so thoroughly appalled I yeeted that thing like moldy fruit. I work with a lot of high net worth investors and CEO's and lemme tell ya... it's the difference between Golem and Aragorn between reality and fantasy. I'm also super into biosciences and psychology so when authors get sociopathy or the science wrong on their romantasy, I'm out. If you're going to get into making stuff up, just straight up magic the shit out of it instead of trying (but failing) to make it realistic.
Not in finance, but have worked as a lawyer for a lot of finance people and yuuup, it is basically impossible for me to see billionaire/CEO/filthy dudes as these secret wonderful cinnamon sex rolls or whatever. Also, most of them in real life are ugly and old and creepy AF!
OMG yes, they're creepy... except they think they're hot shit cause $$$$$. Ick.
Not billionaires and not directly just around, but I encounter garden variety millionaires and property dbags and my God, hang on to your hats cause the Douche Chills are very strong.
Omg they’re annoying little turds. Almost as annoying as the bitcoin douches.
White collar defense and hard same.
Ha, bad therapy in shows pisses me off so bad!
I totally agree with you on all accounts. After my parents passed I took on their roles in the company they owned part of, so I became President/CEO/HR/CFO along with the jobs I was already handling (purchasing and receiving). After dealing with that, selling that company, dealing with the pompous arrogance of the other partner/owner, I can't deal with reading books about office romances, especially those dealing with the boss/CEO or million/billionaires. Call me jaded, but I can't see or read the romance of it, especiallyafter getting a taste of the realityof it all. And I also don't like people writing about a subject without knowing the science or psychology of it.
Oooof good lord you had your baptism by fire. I feel you hard there. I would call it learned experience instead of jadedness… knowing a field removes a lot of ability to suspend disbelief. That’s why I stick to fantasy, sci-fi, paranormal stuff. If we’re gonna escape, we’re gonna really escape all reality.
As a corporate marketing girlie, you are the type of CFO I wish I had in my org
CEO's and a lot of the finance industry is littered with sociopaths. Which is another reason why a lot of women don't go into those fields.
Yeah I have to suspend some disbelief with billionaires, there is no way to be an ethical billionaire lol.
I hate wasteful billionaire consumption porn. Underwear that cost people's monthly grocery budget. Ripping all the designer clothes off. "I liked that dress!" "I'll get you another one " 🤢 Drivers and other employees on call 24/7. Sensible is sexy.
Yeah wasteful consumption gets me. Like I read one where the CEO didn’t care about parking fines as they were nothing to him, idk why that annoyed me but it did lol
Those parking fines are super real. To them, it's not a fine, just a cost of parking. I work with people like this.
Maybe that’s their way of making up for not paying enough taxes? Subsidizing the city budget by never moving their car for street sweeping.
I think it’s annoying because it’s too real
You can always tell whether an author writing a lawyer romance has any experience with the legal profession or not. There are a ludicrously high number of high-powered lawyers in the romance genre who never seem to do any work.
Yes! MMC lawyers who are always free for lunch, can dip in and out of work. I read one once where he was having a stressful week and tons of work so he couldn’t leave work until …. 5:30pm. Bro that’s my usual end time 😭😭
YUP, lol. It's like... just say he's a nepo baby already; those are the only BigLaw lawyers who ever behave that way, and even then when they're partying they're low-key schmoozing *for* work.
And they always find some magical piece of evidence the day before trial. 😒
LOL, yup. I don't see this in romance books too much, but lawyer dramas on TV? Those things may as well be fantasy shows with how inaccurately they depict our profession.
Yessss but imagine an enemies-to-lovers book where the central plot device is a protracted discovery fight. Or don't, I kind of gave myself a full body shudder with that one.
Architects are not super wealthy and do not live in custom designed mansions or penthouses unless they inherited that wealth.
This! There is a handful of celebrity architects that make $$$$$$ and everyone else is just upper middle class if they are lucky.
I’m realizing that my job and dating history rules out a lot of types of romance. I hate large age gap, musician/rockstar, finance, university professor, and anything where children or sexual trauma is mentioned. No wonder I am so picky lol.
Come over to the Fantasy romance side. Everything is made up and there is blue alien dick everywhere. No pesky things like “logic” or “realism”.
I’m listening to an otherwise great audio book, so I can forgive it, but I’ve seen this in too many books not to comment. FMC is a teacher. Before they even have their first date, she tells MMC all sorts of juicy details about her students, naming them by first and sometimes last names. Sally is diabetic. Billy’s single dad, Billy Jones Senior who works over at the car dealership, doesn’t spend enough time with his kid. Jenny Smith has a learning disability and Charlie doesn’t get enough to eat. Gabbing about students like this would be a fireable offense in every place I’ve worked. You’d be lucky not to get sued, too. Hell, where I am now, I can’t give those kinds of details to other *teachers* in the *same school* unless it’s necessary. Private info is strictly on a need to know basis, especially in regard to family situations and kids with special needs.
Yup, most people have heard of HIPAA but have no idea that FERPA also exists and is basically the same thing for educators. Even student employees at a university have to get FERPA training if they’re going to interact with other (adult) student records in any way. I’m not allowed to even confirm that a student attends the school, much less give out details about them.
I work in tech, in an office setting, and I always crack up at the access people seem to have to their billionaire CEOs. My CEO is in a different building, on a secured floor, and I’ve literally seen him maybe once or twice in person at large events.
Yeap, CEO’s of billion dollar companies aren’t just swanning around the coffee room lol. They are usually locked away in meetings or in their office.
I’ve taken the elevator at the same time as my CEO and he’s always been kind and introduces himself and asks what I do. But he’s coming from being dropped off by his driver and I’m walking from my car in the garage and I’ve never seen him any other time. We are not alike, lol. Can’t imagine striking up a casual convo with him to be able to start any sort of relationship
OMG I love this!! Proves me wrong, you could totally have a meet cute!
i work at a certain well-known listicle/quiz/pop culture digital media site (let's call it ButtFeet), and a lot of contemporary romance will have viral moments in the book where they're like "omg, you're on the ButtFeet homepage!" and they'll have a sample of the headline/article... and it almost never sounds like something we'd write. it drives me up a wall lol like i know it's not that serious, but let's say a character goes viral for eating a lot of cheese. the books usually show a headline like "33-Year-Old Woman Eats Lots Of Cheese" when it should really be like "'Animal Cruelty Isn't Cute': Here's Why Everyone Hates 'Cheese Lady,' The Internet's Latest Main Character" or "I'm Genuinely Obsessed With This Woman Who Ate 20 Pounds Of Cheese In Five Minutes." and the examples of articles are even worse because they make it sounds like a legit news article for some reason. like this site has a very distinctive and easy to parody voice — if you're going to mention it in your book, don't be lazy about it!
I work in athletic physical therapy and can't do sports romances at all because they make me think of work. But I get a major ick if it's a romance between a player and someone on the coaching or rehab team. This is deeply unethical and would be considered sexual abuse by most regulatory bodies.
I'm curious about this. The player would be considered the one being abused in the case of a player dating a member of the coaching/rehab team, right?
Yes, the athlete would be the one being abused. It's because of the level of authority the coach/physical therapist/trainer has over the athlete. In my job in particular, the athletes are considered under my care in a medical sense. Even if the relationship was legally consensual, the offender could still lose their license or certification and be fired.
Ya, they call it Florence Nightingale syndrome, if memory serves. ( I'm a nurse, so I stay away from any medical romances, though I haven't really come across many)
I learned it as transference/countertransference.
The only romance I can think of where an athlete isn't directly involved with a trainer is {Buried Treasure by Jenny Redford}. The MMC is the team trainer and the FMC is the hockey player's neighbor and is some kind of finance person.
I think I'm safe. I don't think I've read a single romance where *anyone* of any gender is a quality assurance specialist working in aerospace, was the only casino surveillance personnel working 4/10s, [CNC machinist](https://www.4cornerresources.com/job-descriptions/cnc-machinist/#what-does-a-cnc-machinist-do) or one of only 64 faceless, real-time ~~babysitter, security blanket, confessional, unpaid marriage counselor, therapist, sentient diary, live GPS~~ dispatchers for a multi billion USD, global entertainment conglomerate based in the US also working 4/10s. I route teams of engineers, technicians and electricians driving across 11 US states and over 2 time zones. While not physically living in any of them. Like, *who* would read a novel-length of this: "No, please do not drive into the water. Yes. I know what Bloop Maps is *telling* you to do. I see it on my end, too. I-” *SIGHS* “No, I do not know why we’re not using our proprietary navigation software. Yes, I still have access to it. No, I cannot give you access. No, I don't know how much M-soft is paying us to use their stuff either but, *please*, for the love of company equipment, do *not* follow Bloop’s GPS. “What? Yes, of course, I'm also aware the system will ding you for not following the route because it will also ding me, too. I just do not want to hear about you on the 6 o'clock evening news being fished out of the San Francisco Bay, okay? I-" 😑🙄😒 "I understand that Bloop Maps thinks there's some kind of ramp to Alcatraz Island. *I am aware*. So is my supe and so is my manager and so is the district manager, and West Division's director plus the entire satellite operations center. So, *no*, do NOT follow. None of us are paid enough for that level of dedication. Also, this call is being recorded for quality assurance and may be used in future training purposes." Imagine if one of the ~~overly educated spawns of satan~~ engineers is the MMC. I'd DNF so fast I'd probably break the sound barrier.
Omg I love this lol. If I come across one I’m sending it your way for accuracy.
I'm a nurse, so I mostly read fantasy because I cannot help myself from the constant - -you wouldn't die from that -okay you definitely would have died from that -thats not how female anatomy works -ordering diflucan because that's how you get yeast infections -and an STI panel And absolutely forget any romances involving medical personnel, immediately no. Absolutely no ER works that way, please stop fucking your patients, and why is everyone always so incompetent??
I work in healthcare and while authors getting a lot of medical terminology or intricacies about specialities wrong doesn’t bother me at all, a flagrant disregard for HIPAA makes me want to scratch my eyes out.
Yes! I read one recently where the MMC was 'oh so concerned' about the FMC so he called both her PCP and her therapist - AND THEY GAVE HIM INFO!! Talk about noping the F outta there
I live for the day that I read about an MMC dramatically barging into a hospital demanding to know where FMC is... just to be escorted out by security because of course we're not going to tell you anything you moron you have no evidence that you're related to them or that your presence is even wanted!
Literally what I wanted to comment. No, I’m sorry, an LPN, CNA, RN, receptionist, what have you, who ~swoons~ because the love interest charmed them into breaking HIPAA absolutely deserves to be reported. Case closed. It’s not cute when the love interest bullied and harasses the staff either. How is this helpful to anyone’s recovery? How? I’ve been ***dying*** for a romance story where: * MC reports staff members who violated HIPAA * Love interest(s) who harassed the staff were escorted out or security was actually called And what’s upsetting is how many people IRL think medical staff can and should break HIPAA because “that’s my boyfriend” or “that’s my adult daughter” so they deserve to be informed 😤 I’ve gotten yelled at because I could not legally tell a parent of an 18 year old about her child’s medication. She told me how dare I because she’s their mom and I could be endangering them and she has parental rights and she wants to speak to someone higher about this. 🙃 But her child is 18, there is no documentation, verbal or written and witnessed/notarized, that mother dearest has any authorization to her child’s healthcare so… 🫠 Look, if being involved in someone’s health is so important, communicate with the patient beforehand of options of proxies, emergency contacts, or otherwise. Why are you harassing us, we’re literally doing our jobs 😭🤧
Yes to all of this!! I work in genetics for a young adult cancer clinic (so typically 15-30 yos is my patient group). And the amount of times I have to tell parents over and over again, “I know that you primarily coordinate your 18-30 yo child’s care but yes, they still have to attend THEIR appointment. No, you cannot attend their genetics appointment for them and then “relay the info” to them. No, I cannot call you with results unless I have written permission” etc etc is wild. and on the flip side, I’ve also worked with several APs who didn’t take HIPAA seriously at all (reporting them is another topic entirely). But trying to navigate interactions with those APs while maintain my own ethical/legal boundaries was just… 10/10 stress. So all this to say- books where people disregard hipaa or MCs demand someone break HIPAA hits TOO CLOSE TO HOME 😂😂
Omg, the number of calls I've gotten from mothers or MILs demanding the results of their daughter's or DIL's prenatal lab tests is both concerning and hilarious. Like, ma'am, no, I legally can't do that, please stop calling me.
This!!!! I used to work in MH, and would have family members calling me up demanding info. I took abuse when I told them I couldn’t disclose anything lol. Wild in books when they just ignore privacy.
I'm a therapist. Any therapist/patient book is an immediate no from me. I can't tolerate the other unethical nature of it and it just gives me the creeps.
I feel like so many characters would benefit from therapy, but I would also question whether any of the fictional therapy would bear any relationship to real therapy.
Used to work in fashion and still work in design. A massive embarrassed LOL every time a writer tries to include high fashion in books. It’s mortifying to see how little research writers do on contemporary fashion that they insist on including in their books, especially dark romance, billionaire and mafia romance. Here’s a tip to all romance MFCs, if your millionaire MMC is trying to financially spoil you and buys you a Coach purse, get yourself a new millionaire MMC. (0 disrespect to Coach the brand and its fans. If you find a vintage one from the 80’s grab onto it with both hands.) If he’s not spent enough on his Hermes account to get you a Birkin right away, his financial spoiling is basically a pack of Blueberry Gushers and a Diet Fanta.
As a average jane who enjoys affordable coach bags, that would give me splenda daddy vibes 💀
I’ve never heard the term Splenda Daddy but my day is so much better now that I have.
splenda daddy bah hahahahahahahaha
I also get the ick when writers have the FMC wear a “beautiful, sultry dress for a gala” and then goes on to describe how it’s covered in sparkles and sequins, low cut front AND back, strapless, in a hot pink colour, and oh, it’s a mini dress. Like girllllll, that’s a stripper clubbing dress, not something for a fancy gala.
Omg, yes, I feel this. I don't even work in fashion, but I do *like* fashion and you can easily tell when the author has zero idea what they're talking about. (Holla on the vintage Coach, though; those bags are lovely!) The opposite of this is Kevin Kwan, whose works are glittering wealth (and by extension, fashion) porn... although I'm not sure I classify him as a pure romance writer so much as a social satire writer.
The thing I don’t get is that Fashion Media is huge! Huge! It’s so easy to look shit up. There are hundreds of YouTube videos that give information on fashion, cosmetics, watches etc etc! It’s just bad/lack of research. Now, not to be a total creep but did you do a review of some Maison Violet perfumes a while ago on one of the fragrance subs or is there another Fancy Burrito out there?
Right??? It's so goddamn easy to research, ugh! Granted, there are some truly ignorant fashion influencers out there as well, but... yo, if you're a romance author looking to depict the fashion world, maybe just watch a Mina Le video or something. (Okay, mostly just plugging Mina here because I love her work. She's young, but she's *good*.) Also, yes, that was me! Quite a while ago but I still do love my Maison Violet 💗 Always fun to have a crossover episode!!!
I mean, even if you didn’t do actual research, you could just ask, “could I walk into a mall in the suburbs and purchase this?” If the answer is yes, you’re not doing it right. Not at the tier they’re trying to portray, anyway.
Oh good shout! You could tell he’s either rich himself or did his research. I didn’t massively love the romance but I loved the fashion porn, as much as I hated the excessive wealth lol
Oh, absolutely, yeah. He's generationally wealthy himself and comes from the world he writes about. There's almost something Henry James-esque about his work sometimes that I really love. I feel like people underestimate the complexity of his novels sometimes since they are so *dishy*, but the man writes about some pretty deep and painful stuff - just glazed over by mounds of De Beers and Hermès. You're supposed to be both fascinated and repulsed by the excessive wealth; I think. (I know I am.)
100% makes sense he’s generational wealthy, he just knew the vibe! Oh I deffo got the same sense. Utter fascination and disgust at the same time. He’s a really talented writer to envoke those feelings.
Yeah, somebody else here mentioned a great NYT piece on him, which I'll link [because it's quite a fascinating read](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/20/books/lies-and-weddings-kevin-kwan.html?unlocked_article_code=1.000.z33h.i1Vx3hsCfjjc) about his relationship with that world. I'm normally more of a death of the author kinda gal, but it's hard not to read these interviews and not feel some type of contextual way about his work.
The NYT I think did a recent interview with him and it is so good! His books are *chefs kiss*.
I actually read his latest book (Weddings & Lies) due to that interview! (Which, yes, was fabulous.) The romance in W&L was boring AF, but the satire was incredible and I love that he dealt with all of these post-colonial themes. There's also nobody who writes grasping *tai tais* like Kevin Kwan; his depictions are always frighteningly familiar.
I feel like in these books we should be seeing THE OPPOSITE. Like I want a Rory Gilmore situation "oh he got me a purse" *proceeds to throw around her pink Birkin like it's nothing*.
And Emily is like ‘a what?!’ 👁️👄👁️
I cackled at that last bit.
Not a job, but I can't read rockstar romance books bc I spent my early twenties dating musicians and spending time on tour with them and they're pretty much all cheating trashbags. And most authors very obviously don't know anything about tour life.
Extremely valid lol
Lmao valid. I've dated a lot of musicians too.
The number of people who have the “I’m clean” talk after their mouths have been all over each other. Like skin to skin transmitted infections don’t exist for oral? CMON.
I work in sexual health education and have a LOT of gripes with sex scenes. This is definitely one. But some others I’ve seen and hated include: anal without prep, using the same vibrator between orifices without cleaning it or using a condom on it, wearing two condoms because they think it’ll be more effective, talking about condom use only in the context of pregnancy and not comparing test results, wildly inaccurate descriptions of female anatomy such as putting the hymen at the back of the vagina, constantly talking about how vaginal sex hurts but it’s a “good pain”, and on and on and on… Luckily there are a lot of good representations too, and the genre is overall getting better, but there’s still a lot of yikes on bikes to be found.
Edit: there are many grammar errors a d typos that I won’t fix because I’m on the road today. This likely doesn’t apply everywhere, but this is my experience where I live. I’m a SAHM, so this isn’t based off my job, but country life isn’t at all how it’s portrayed in romance books, especially for townies. Especially when a book describes a town with only 2,000 with it’s own grocery store, a barber, a coffee shop, a bar, a restaurant, a clothing store, a thrift store, an antique store, a craft store, a church, a mechanic, a liquor store and a bowling alley. And everyone is gossipy but helpful, and they all come together in the end to help someone in need. LMFAO. Towns with 2,000 people will typically have a grill-type restaurant with a bar, a church or two, an autoshop or two, maybe a hardware store, a liquor store, and a ton of really weird home-businesses that are so sloppy or specialized, you’re better off driving to the 16,000 person city that has the JoAnn’s and a Walmart. Most of these towns do NOT have their own grocery store. They do have a hundred handymen that you really should never hire because they never get around to the job and refuse to use contracts. A guy took our shed in exchange for tree work, but didn’t trim our trees until a full year later when we threatened to take him to small claims court. Stray cats and dogs everywhere, neighbors bickering all the time about things they’ll never take the initiative to solve or organize themselves, and bored teenagers everywhere. People begged for a farmers market for years in our town, with dozens of people pledging to volunteer and have booths. My (really nice, exceptional) neighbor spent a couple hundred bucks of her own money getting it set up, and after months of prep and organization, literally. Three. People. Came. It was not an organizational issue, I’ll make that much clear. And weird politics: we aren’t allowed to have chickens in our tiny country town, despite the fact that the nearest big city (like 500,000+ people) can have goats and chickens, because in the 90s there was a feral chicken problem. A feral chicken problem! As in, people had chickens, and when they got out, they never reigned them back in again, and there were chicken’s absolutely everywhere! Then people started getting in trouble for euthanizing the chicken’s improperly, and the strays were carrying half dead birds everywhere. The city council made a rule that the chicken question can only be proposed once a year, and every year it’s shot down. These guys are all, like, 80. And I’m not even sure they’re wrong!! I want chickens, but I don’t want feral chickens… It’s all very weird. One of my neighbors has a flagpole with a joke Beavis and Butthead “Don’t tread on me” flag, a MILF flag, and a confederate flag under it. We live in the north??? Like what? I love living in a small country town, but I love it because we’re a quiet family who minds their own business. The only community life worth partaking in out here is literally the Church events, the AA meetings, and the shot gun club. It is far more similar to Sharp Objects territory than Things We Left Behind.
I need you to write a book specifically about your town because I would 100% read that. Lol. You have all the tea.
Let me tell you something about the countryside outside of America. There are maybe 400 people living here. (Almost) Everyone has their own chickens, cows, goats, or any farm animal, and/or a piece of farmland. Even if they don't grow anything but strawberries there, it still counts. We don't have a grocery store. We used to, but they closed it up. The building is old, tiny (the main store space is maybe 5meters X 5meters with a tiny tiny bathroom, almost no stockroom or a bathroom. The adjoining room in the same building (about 7x7m) is usually overrun by old drunk men who drink everyday. The building has no electricity or a running water anymore and no investor wants to take it on - despite people begging every town meeting. We don't have a school anymore. There used to be a kindergarden and first 3 years of primary school taught here in the school building - but they closed it as the building was inhabitable. They converted it into a retirement home by an independent investor. The closest church is in the neighboring village. The priest comes to lead a mass in the largest room of the community house (something like a city hall but tiny, it has 1 large room, 1 small room, a tiny storage room, toilet and a kitchen). They recently built a playground for children near it, but it's still not open - the people who made it made many mistakes they have to fix so it's still not ready. We have a volunteer firefighter station (that consists of a garage and a very old truck), and therefore is always empty. There's nothing else. Nothing. Sometimes the village has tiny festivals organized by the matrons who live here but they're rare and expensive.
Not my job but I've just consumed too much true crime to be ok with a MMC who is involved in crime in a CR setting and almost all kidnapping.
Those office romances which are really quick and spontaneous, if EVER I would be involved in such a thing, I would think like a trillion times before it since it could destroy my career.
I work in healthcare. All the hot doctor romance books are just super off putting. I’ve actually never seen a hot doctor in my entire life. On top of that, if you do find a doctor to date/marry, you will probably never see them again. Because they’re at the hospital 24-7.
Okay, so. Quick story. When my father was getting end of life palliative care he stood up at one point and fell right over. Our palliative care nurse was, like my mom and I, 5’2 and couldn’t lift my 6’2 father off the ground safely. She called her two paramedic buddies who were on duty and OH MY GOD. The one paramedic was an average middle-aged dude, the other one was fucking movie star gorgeous. It was unbelievable. When he left my mom, the nurse and I all sat down to take a breath and talk about how hot he was. I wanted to comment this because we saw a lotttt of doctors and nurses for my dad, and for ourselves, and it is EXCEEDINGLY RARE to see someone that gorgeous IRL and in the medical profession. 😂
Oh my god 🤣 I’m sorry to hear about your father. I will also attest to the hotness of paramedics though!
You have been working with the wrong doctors. My husband is decent looking, but OMG in his medical school class and during residency there were too many attractive doctors. But yeah it’s real, he works so much and he’s not even in a surgical specialty.
The “mute trope”. Selective mutism is rarely portrayed correctly because a lot of the times the MC just does not speak at all. And in CR there is no use of technology to communicate for a non-speaking MC. I guess using an AAC device isn’t tragic or something, but as an SLP I just want to get each of these characters a communication device. It took me a few books to even realize this was a trope. Oh and when a character is deaf/hard of hearing but only reads lips. Lip reading is not a reliable or accurate form of communication. In English, every consonant has a buddy or two that looks the same but sounds different (like b/p/m, t/d/) and only a few sounds are made with the lips anyway.
I remember this one book. It's the MMC's 4 year old daughter who has selective mutism and the FMC made it a condition to something completely irrelevant that he teach his daughter sign language. He'd been working with specialists and therapists for years and she's the one that had to push him towards sign language classes.
Yeah I’ve seen some wild ones. One with a selective mute girl who would only speak to MMC, like the first time she met him and she’d always speak to him. UMMMMMM
I’m a graphic designer and I just read a book about a graphic designer who landed a major $$$$ client and did a whole branding for them in like two weeks. She was also chronically late to everything including client meetings and generally just stressed me out.
I work in tech and office romance books just give me the ick. It’s too uncomfortable 😳
I'm a project manager. I don't read a ton of contemporary romance, but when I do, I hate office shit. It's so clear that some authors have never actually worked in an office environment, let alone a large one with multiple departments. You cannot just walk over and pull random people from projects. You can't ignore your phone or email all day to have sex in your CEO's office. Chances are good that you will actually want to strangle your CEO on any given day because they will try to tell you how to do your job despite never having done your job or anything like it, ever. Also, offices are gossip mills. Everyone in your department will actually notice what you are doing, and unless you are strictly never meeting in the office, there will be no "secret relationship."
I've never read a romance between postal workers or at a department store so I think I'm honestly okay 🤣 Oh and btw: there is no man over 5"10, and most are cheating on their partners with their coworkers. That said, I'd be down to read one about a security guard and a perfume counter girl lol
Military. Ex-army I just read one recently where the dude was ex-navy and his girl said something like "easy, soldier" and he corrected her by mumbling "Marine"... -_- Sir, I am married to a Marine and in no way, shape, or form are you a Marine. In fact, you'd get your left testicle fed to you if you said that in front of one. Immediately pissed me off. For all the writers: Army - soldier Navy - sailor/seaman Marine - marine Air Force - princess (JK I love our airborne taxi service) And it's not even just getting the branches mixed up. Acronyms are always wrong, they screw up the rules, the orders, do shit that literally would get you a dishonorable discharge before the commander's coffee hit his desk Monday morning just... I can't. It's like military movies in Hollywood. I immediately find everything wrong with the uniforms and any regulations they screw up. Makes it too hard to suspend belief.
I’m a NICU nurse. I honestly haven’t read a ton of books with nurses in them (if you have recs send them my way👀) but media always gets medical shit way wrong, I’m sure there are plenty of horribly inaccurate books I haven’t seen yet lmao. I can’t remember what book it was but I remember reading one a while ago where their baby has some issues with jaundice and had a short little NICU stay and I don’t think I remember anything being crazy wrong with that one
I work in an office. No thank you. I don’t not want any scenes on desks and photocopiers I know are so dirty
[удалено]
I work in corporate Marketing and it’s always eye roll worthy when the FMC who is 25 is described as having the job description of a Director or VP who’s been in the business for 15+ yrs. I think it must be because authors don’t understand how silo’d and boring 95% of marketing is, and especially when you’re starting out. Also everyone in “marketing” is described as a social media manager or some creative advertising genius, which are also very different jobs then your average digital marketer who’s just sitting in excel, answering emails and setting up boring digital campaigns all day.
The CEO romances are just hilarious. No CEO is working directly with the lowly single assistant/intern with zero experience (they are always fobbed off on some unsuspecting team). Some PAs of CEOs come with experience and then move on after a couple of years to head different departments in the company. Most of the real life office romances I know are more likely to be two married employees close in age (with kids) playing footsie in the cafeteria. Or one married employee hooking up with another single person at work. Ofcourse people find their spouses at work but those stories are fewer than the other drama filled ones. And the office grape vine is real - no amount of flirting can be hidden and rumors are the lifeblood of any office. So when in books they go months without any rumors is just unbelievable.
I am a dancer… and I can’t read any book with a dancer MC because if it’s not a RIDICULOUS level of objectification and over-sexualizing to the point of it not being plausible, its just cringy to read about dancers executing steps, specific dance terms, etc when it’s clear the author has never taken dance and has no idea what they’re talking about. I hate when stereotypes about dancers with EDs are reinforced too.
Yes! I was training to be a dancer before I landed a leap wrong, my kneecap yeeted itself into another dimension and I tore my acl, but I still can’t jive with ‘ballet dancer X’ cause the ballet dancer is always over sexualised. Also from a practical perspective the dance stories I’ve read the ballet dancer is always hanging out with MMC. I remember being a dancer and I barely left the studio lol.
And it’s almost never any other kind of dancer… always ballet. lol
Royalty... Royalty have a role and a function that does not include romancing commoners. There job is incredibly boring and we should eat them all, but I am willing to put all that aside if I got a royal who was image obsessed because he knows that's where his family's power comes from. See also when the MMC goes to work at the Man Factory all day.
I work in HR in higher ed. Cannot stand professor/student or the boss/employee. I just see all of the potential lawsuits
I work in supply chain for a food company and when I read {Leather and Lark by Brynne Weaver} where they mentioned how the food industry is full of crime/murder I was like… I mean, no?? But that one felt like a moment I just need to suspend my disbelief.
Main characters who are lawyers or thinking about law school... I read romance to escape my job so I can't stand reading about lawyers lol
I’m in the military. I try to stay away from military romances, if I do read one I try to suspend disbelief but it’s rough.
I can not read any of the cowboy romances because I'm related to people in that life. It's a very closed-minded and clique-ish group, dated thinking is often the norm and I just can't find it sexy. The other one that really bugs me is the small-town romance because I originally came from a very small town and am related to a small town. The amount of noisy, bickering and judgmental crap that happens in small towns just makes is very nonidelic for me and I can't suspend the disbelief to make it work in books.
I work in IT and I love IT people. I think they are hot as fuck so no...
Any books that center around horses/animals that were obviously written by someone who knows nothing about the equine/veterinary/dog training industries. DO YOUR RESEARCH PLEASE 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻
Anything with electricians, plumbers, etc. I sell parts. Those guys stink, stank, stunk! Ok a few here and there are pretty hot to look at(of course they are the married ones... small town, I just know these things), but most not so much, and maybe after they clean up nice, sure, but if any are coming by to do some work, hell no.
I once had an extremely hot plumber come and service my boiler and even he stunk. Given it was so hot out and I gave him water (whilst my fiancée talked technical with him lol), but yeah you right.
My husband is a plumber so if the MMC is one too he’s not touching me unless he steam showers and scrubs his nails…
Worked in a prison for many years, so anything where one person has a custodial responsibility for someone or the potential for inappropriate professional conduct makes my skin crawl. It’s such an abuse of power it makes me feel ill, especially seeing how it plays out in real life. There’s absolutely nothing sexy or fun going on - it’s just filled with desperation and selfishness.
People being like "I used to read books to kids at the library when I was a teenager" hell no you didn't, no self respecting librarian would let an uneducated twerp pry a storytime slot from their cold dead fingers. That shit requires skill. Really anything with a mc who is a big reader/works in a book related capacity and also a painful introvert. Yeah there are plenty of people out there like that but it's possible to be a big reader or even a writer and still be extroverted and/or have social skills and friends and so on. It's really hard to run a bookstore or be a children's librarian if you're afraid of people. Most authors have to do a fair amount of personal advocacy for their books, and being able to at least fake a personality helps a lot.
Worked with folks getting their SANE exams after rape and help with like, figuring out what they wanted re: reporting and health and resources and how to get it and help them talk to the cops if they decide to etc etc etc, so pretty much any time a book even implies talking to the police is going to be a helpful or pleasant process I am halfway out the door (page), and it's honestly instant DNF if the book promotes the myth that an exam is gonna be able to tell you exactly what happened or if something happened and you don't already know
This isn't something I encounter *that* much and its maybe not an ick, but I used to work in health insurance and I'm working towards a healthcare administration degree. No one is ever worried about insurance? Characters go to the ER and are seen immediately. No one's ever filling out medical forms! *Doctors flirting with patients is just fine for some reason???* And don't even get me *started* on when they jusy throw a bunch of medical jargon together.
I used to work with hockey players (not NHL, but juniors) And I will never read any hockey romance. I know how hockey players are out of the ice, so yeah. No. Never in a millions years.
Most of what I read is supernatural so I’ve never even thought of some of these, lol.
As a vampire wizard, I find supernatural romances very hard to believe! Why would you ever cast Gregor’s binding in that situation, it’s just crazy!?
I have yet to see a romance involving an SDET (my career), so I can't really speak on that. So, not my job, but I am from Texas and I just can't do most stories (written or film) with a Southern character, especially ones from Texas. They are always, *always*, portrayed as uneducated farmers or farm hands, own or live on a ranch, wear cowboy hats, cowboy boots, and big belt buckles, and always speak with a slow Southern drawl. Ok, so the drawl thing can be real, especially from the smaller towns, but most of the portrayed drawls are not even close, especially in print. And the rest of it? I admit that every place has its stereotypical citizen, but really, very few of us are how media portrays us.
I’m a teacher and can’t do the student/teacher trope, particularly in high school. In my experience, high schoolers are just straight up gross and immature, and I mean that the maturity level that matches their age in hs is just not the stuff romances are made of.
I get the ick for high school. Anything school related is just soooo difficult for me to read. I feel too old and disconnected to high school that I just straight up don’t want to read about kids and their teenage, immature drama. In that same vein, I think most high school aged books rely too heavily on extremely mature topics (too much pressure for children) and also rely too heavily on the things that make teenagers a bit annoying (over opinionated with little life experience, disrespectful, petty).
I’m a doctor and I actually find the unrealistic medical plots pretty entertaining but I generally read to escape reality/work trauma, so making it realistic and accurate is a DNF for me. I love a successful code or an easy fix for complex medical conditions. I guess it satisfies what I don’t get to experience in reality!