Officially in My Fusspot Era

This year I have read an absolutely insane amount of books (250+), and I have come to some decisions. First, I am slowing down because I want to retain more of the content. Second, I have been in a genre rut with psycho thrillers and romance, and I want to read more broadly in 2026. I don’t mean more fiction genres, but other types of books entirely, such as poetry, biography, and science. Third, when I do read genre fiction, I plan on being much fussier. 

This all is basically just me clarifying stuff for myself; I expect it to have zero interest to anyone else. I needed a place to vomit my thoughts.

I won’t read a contemporary romance novel if the meet cute involves clumsiness/ spilling of food, beverage or paperwork. Post meet clumsiness may be acceptable depending on the circumstances. In The Hating Game, Lucy was trying to make Josh jealous and tripped/ fell in her sexy dress and high heels, dumping out her purse all over the floor. That was funny and cute, but it was also cringe because I would have sprained my ankle. It’s like the scene in Miss Congeniality when Gracie strides out all gorgeous and blows Eric’s mind… then she falls. These are not technically meet cutes!

I won’t read a CRN or any kind of mystery where the plot could be obliterated by one session with Google. I mean, come on. Any type of fake ID/ mistaken identity motif is not going to work in a modern story unless the character has bought fake creds from a super hacker. Or if they’re a government agent. 

I don’t want to read books with teenaged protagonists. This is handy because it rules out genres that already don’t appeal to me, such as fantasy and young adult. I can’t bear anything about high school drama, nor do I want to see teens saving the world in some dystopian yuck. But what about Victoria Holt? All her heroines are teenagers. Great question! I am tired of her books and don’t plan on reading any more of them, so that works out. Granted, teens were different back when and way more mature, but even so. Also, I am suspicious of that “new adult” genre full of people under 30. They’re annoying and not much different from high schoolers.

I still like romances, though I am on somewhat of a break, but I don’t want to read about second chances. They annoy me. I just finished a holiday romance (The Eight Heartbreaks of Hanukkah by Jean Meltzer) that had not only a second-chance motif but also was full of ghosts (a la A Christmas Carol), and I liked it enough to give it three stars. But I consider it an exception, mainly due to the fabulous job Jean did in describing migraines and related issues, including rationing meds because insurance allows only nine pills per month. In general, however, I don’t care for ghosts or exes hanging around past their expiration dates. 

What else? I don’t like the trope of the grumpy boss (billionaire or not) and his “sunshine” romantic interest. Why does the man always get to be the grump anyway? I am over mafia romances because they’re all the same. I am not a fan of contemporary characters who “hate” each other and end up in a fake-dating situation because there’s never actually a need for it other than to satisfy the terms of a will, but characters who are willing to sell their souls for a chunk of change don’t appeal to me anyway. Maybe hater dater fakery is acceptable in a Regency or other old-timey romance, depending on the details. Back then, people had fewer options. I am not ruling out CRNs though ~ they just need to have better plots than the standard omg I spilled coffee on the cutest guy but it turns out he’s my hot new boss and totally grumpy because his grandma cut him from her will unless he gets married in 30 days and he really needs her farmland to develop an enrichment camp for orphans.

Now we come to murder, blood, and gore. In general, I am not a fan of graphically described injury and death, but I do love mysteries and detective stories, so I will tolerate gore for the sake of the story. If I see from the book jacket that the main point of the novel is to come up with gruesome torture scenes, then that’s a hard pass right there. It’s one thing to describe a death in context of a police procedure, but it’s quite another to witness the writer revel in bloody descriptions. I don’t want to go inside the mind of a maniacal serial killer who gets off on amputations, etc. There are so many gross books out. But I also don’t want to read cozy mysteries, where bodies are bloodless and the murder scene smells like pumpkin spice candles. 

Horror is too disgusting and disturbing for me. I gave it a chance with the Haunted series by Lee Mountford back in October because I liked the first book, but they became a nonstop river of gore. The last few books were basically a skim because of all the rotting corpses and mangled eyeballs. Shudder. I’m reading a murder mystery right now that is all about the various clues and psychological aspects of the characters. (So far, there haven’t been any disturbing passages.) That is what I like in a story, not descriptions of death or how bodies look in the morgue. The same goes for any book about relationships ~ I want to read rich and vivid details about the characters’ mental and emotional worlds, not a boring recitation of sex romps. 

This also means I will be more discerning re the books I am willing to read for my book clubs, especially the online club.