I am a big fan of romance in stories. If there isn't at least a little romance, I can sometimes lose interest. However romance focused novels often don't do it for me. I'm more into light romance, and romance novels are rarely that. I have read a few I enjoyed, but often they are either over the top, or REALLY depressing.
I wanted to list things I like about romance, and things I dislike about romance. This applies to both romance as a main plot and romance as a subplot (which romance as a subplot is better in my opinion). These likes and dislikes apply only to myself. I'm not trying to say these things are bad, or anything. I just don't like them personally. If you like them, that's awesome!
Let's start with the things I dislike so we can end on a positive note.
• rushed romance now I think people think they want rushed romance because they just want the characters to get together so badly, but in reality when they do get together quickly it just becomes boring. In most cases it is the chase that really gets you invested in the relationship. That's why slow burns are top notch.
• love at first sight I do of course believe that you can be attracted to someone at first sight, but even that is kinda boring to me. I'd rather the characters meet in an interesting way then them being instantly attracted to each other in this dramatic and romantic way. Like the two love interests bumping into each other and getting into an argument (though not particularly original) is far more interesting to me than the characters looking at each other and having a dramatic revelation about how they've just seen their soulmate.
• predictable this is very common but you know when a character enters a scene and you just know they are going to be the love interest? Often in books you can tell by the way people are described, like if you say "a tall and attractive boy approached" you are probably going to suspect he's the love interest. Which this is fine obviously. Often I do know immediately who the love interest is going to be, but I still love the relationship. Often I even write romance like this. But I LOVE LOVE LOVE unpredictable and surprising relationships.
• just a love interest this is another one that's pretty common, but when the love interest is just there to be a love interest. I mean obviously characters are often only in a story for that reason. I just think it's really cool when the love interest has a story of their own.
• dramatic speeches declarations of love make me cringe. Sometimes even when characters just say "I love you" I cringe. So often it just comes off as really dramatic and cheesy. I prefer it when feelings are shown rather than stated. An exception to this is in The Blue Castle by LM. Montgomery. In this story one character risks his life to save another character when she's stuck on a train track and there is an oncoming train. It is how willing he was to risk his life for her that makes him realize he loves her, and he does tell her, and i love it. I guess I just want proof that they do love each other before they confess. (Btw The Blue Castle is an amazing and underrated book which I 100% recommend. You can find it on Wattpad).
• sex and touching reading about sex makes me uncomfortable. I also hate when characters are too touchy. I'm not about the physical stuff, I prefer emotional stuff. Especially when they have sex right away after confessing their feelings? Like what?
Example: Jonathan and Nancy from Stranger Things. Don't get me wrong, I do ship them, but after they kiss it's definitely implied that they had sex and I find that really weird, especially considering Jonathan's character? Like id think he'd be really awkward about it and not rush into it but apparently not . . .
• overly described kissing I would prefer if people just wrote "they kissed" rather then went into great detail. Like yes I enjoy reading about the way they are feeling emotionally, but I don't enjoy reading about the physical details. My favorite kiss ever is Harry and Ginny's first kiss in Harry Potter. It's so satisfying but without any uncomfortable physical detail.
