Top Ten Books I Wish Had Less Romance

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created at The Broke and the Bookish.

It wasn't as easy as it should have been for me to decide what to do for this topic. I almost went with ten books I wish had more diversity - but then that would be like - what? - 80% of the books I read? So, I decided to go this way instead. While I do find myself reading romance novels, I don't usually like romance of any sort in my books. So... Books that I think would have been better without the romance... Won't this be fun?



The Master Magician by Charlie N. Holmberg
(Man, I almost forgot about this trilogy.) So, the first two books have a bit of romance in the 'hot for teacher' kind of way. And it was actually kind of cute - the same way a crush can be. But this third book threw that all away and had way too much romance in my opinion. (I was also left very displeased with it, but that's another subject.)

Falling Kingdoms by Morgan Rhodes
Whole series!

Cleo, Jonas, I'm looking at the two of you. Practically any moderately handsome, age appropriate man Cleo talks to, she falls in love with. (And, girl, I love you, but really?) And any age appropriate woman Jonas spends time around, he falls in love with. (And, boy, I don't love you so go away.)

Valor's Trial by Tanya Huff
Not to say I don't still love this series, because I do, but I... Well, I prefer my Torin to be badass and take no names and just more like she was in the first book. (Pheromone hangover and all.) Instead of this slowly building - romance? I mean, is it romance? Anyway, don't love this choice because that's not what I grabbed this series for.

Fire Falling by Elise Kova
I'm actually putting off reading the next book in this series until I feel I can handle the drama and angst that is inherent to this romance. I definitely miss the tentative friendship from the first book and would have loved to see more of that than the two steps forward, one step back romance.

Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo
It's not often I can say this, but: I didn't finish the series because of the romance. Definitely partially because it was even in there - but also, majorly because of who the romance was between. Because, no. Just no.

Winds of Fate by Mercedes Lackey
It's probably not fair at all to have this book on the list, because the sum total of what I remember about it is that it had way too much romance for me. (And something like a cat shifter.) I'd read this at a point in my life when I was down on all romance and...I would have liked it more then if it'd had no romance. (I do wonder about my thoughts now were I to dig it out, knowing what it was.)

Blooms of Consequence by Breeana Puttroff
Call me cold-hearted but, while the previous three books were fun in a tooth-rotting fluff sort of way, this book suffered from the too much romance too fast syndrome that so many YA books do for me. When we have a sixteen - oh, excuses, seventeen (like, barely) - year old girl that is preparing to take over the kingdom that she didn't even know was hers, I personally think the last thing I want to deal with is her wedding to a boy that she's known less than a year. (Even with the wonky time dialation, and it's a lot less than a year in your earth time.) (Yay, I finally got to say 'your earth time'!)

Starbridge by A.C. Crispin
This is definitely not to say that I didn't pretty much adore this book, but... The romance was needless and cluttered things up. We had an awesome story that would have been just as good without the romance and, perhaps, even better. So...yeah. Not to mention the guy was kind of...unlikable and I'm somewhat wondering what she sees in him. Course, I totally understand what he sees in her because she's awesome - and could do so much better. :)

Retribution Falls by Chris Wooding
Whole series!

So, I love these books despite the constant love/hate, we have a past rubbish between Trinica and Frey. I do sort of get it, but Frey was often a jackass/moron (choose whichever word better suits in this instance) and got even worse when Trinica was involved. And she was truly not as interesting as Frey thought she was.

Lady of Devices by Shelley Adina
It's been ages since I've read this book/series, so I might be only imagining things, but I'm pretty sure there was a love triangle and a relationship switch mid-stream. And then, from what I've heard because I stopped before this happened, another possible love interest was introduced for the girl to flirt with because the guy she liked wasn't paying her enough attention. *sigh*






You know, this actually brought up some books I'd nearly forgotten about. And with so many of them, it was because of the romance itself.

What did you do this week? Do you agree with me that sometimes books just don't need romance? I even want to know if you disagree with me, so do tell!