Since my brain isn’t fully engaged today, (the bratlet got me sick)  I’m going to hijack an idea and make my own.

1.)  An unrealistic medical person.

I worked as a nurse for nine years.  NINE years… and I think it’s fair to say I have a fair understanding of the medical profession. Nothing irritates me more than a book where the hero or the heroine are some sort of medical professional and I seem to know more about the medical field than they do.  And I’ve been out of it for a while now.  It doesn’t matter if it’s privacy issues, if it’s actual medical or physiological errors, or what.  If the characters do something stupid that no decent medical professional would ever do, it’s going to jar me.  If it happens repeatedly, it will throw me out of the story and I won’t finish it.

2.) Too many hang ups. 

Yeah, we’ve all got our hang ups but if the H or H can’t make a move without tripping over one or two or ten of their hang ups, I don’t wanna read it.  I read to relax, not to read about hang ups.

3.) Social issues

Call me shallow.  But like I just said, I read for relaxation and getting into social issues isn’t going to help me relax.  I have enough reality in my life so I don’t want it in my books.

4.) Characters acting…out of character

We’ve all read the party girl who was really a virgin.   Under certain circumstances and from certain writers, I can buy that.  But more and more books are coming out with either the heroine is a wall flower by day and seductress by night, or vice versa, and they seem just a little too-contrived.

5.) Sex for the sake of sex

I want to read a romance.  That means the romance and the sex need to mean something.  I hate it when the sex is just thrown in.  I also don’t generally like it when the H&H are getting it on within a page or two of meeting each other.

6.) A heroine with good metabolism.

No, I don’t mean I don’t want to read about a heroine who never eats or one who is overweight. I don’t really care one way or the other, unless the heroine is constantly eating and when people comment…she has good metabolism.  Maybe it’s just jealousy since I don’t have good metabolism.

7.) Main characters who are hung up on previous loves

To an extent, this can work.  But unless they move past that hang up in the first 1/3 or 1/2 of the book, for the most part, I don’t want to read it.

8.) Orgies

I don’t mind a romance with a menage.  I’ve written a couple.  But I don’t, and won’t, read a book about one woman pairing up with three, four…more…in the book. It doesn’t matter if it’s before the hero or not. I don’t want to read about either of the main characters have sex with multiple partners for the sake securing position, getting protected, etc etc etc.  Only times where I ever really bought the line for the heroine to have sex with more than two guys was Cheyenne McCray’s King of Hearts & Lora Leigh’s August series. 

This applies to the hero for me too.   I don’t want him getting it on with anything with breasts.

And actually, this applies for most things I read.  I picked up a book and while I’m enjoying it, on most levels, I have definite issues with it.  I don’t like books where sex is considered meaningless or as the means to an end.

9.) Unanswered questions

I don’t mind cliffhangers.  Really.  I don’t mind them at all unless of course it’s going to be months, years before I get the next book. But cliffhangers aside, please please please answer questions that are pertinent to the story.  Otherwise, don’t let the questions get asked.

10.) A heroine that gets walked on.

Now I don’t mind if the heroine starts out pretty meek and has to grow.  As long as she does it within character.  But I hate reading about doormat heroines that are willing to concede to the big strong man on everything. 

Okay, there’s my ten.  What are some of yours?