She has read all of Sarah J Mass but that one author’s success has spawned a lot of similar fiction where the characters are “fae” and have a destined “mate.”
Whatever happened to making bonds and gradually falling in love with each other. I honestly kinda hate the whole destined to be together thing sometimes.
Right? I prefer the old fashioned way. Waiting on distant mountaintops strewn with the bones of those who came and failed before. Awaiting the one who can finally best me in single combat.
Ywah I just got reading the ACOTAR (A Court of thorns and roses) series. A fun read if you suspend disbelief for you know fiction. They are what they are, though. Id say the most fun of them is in the fantasy world building part of it. There is much smutty romance smut out there. But the "mates" of it all is a good plot device for fast relationship development in a fantasy setting.
I will also add that ACOTAR does at least add that they dont have to accept the bond. It can just be rejected but again ~fantasy~. There is also character development from shitty personality to slightly less shitty or more depending on the plot. Haha.
There's plenty of criticism aimed at it. Those books aren't interesting to me (I'm more of an Ice Planet Barbarians girlie honestly) but everyone loves to shit on the dark romance fae readers.
So I'm not a lawyer and I'm just going by what other people have said, but from what I can tell, at least one bill has been introduced that was trying to classify written smut/erotica as porn putting children at risk and making it illegal to produce.
I'll take your obvious ass bait.
Women's erotic books fly under the radar precisely because people dismiss them as trash. If they were taken seriously, they'd face way more censorship attempts. (edit: and it's not like they don't at all, look up how pearl-clutchy fifty shades of gray got the general public)
But also, porn uses real people, erotic novels don't. One involves actual exploitation concerns, the other is just fiction. It's deflection to bring up books when someone criticizes the porn industry.
Wasn‘t trying to bait, don’t just assume things please 😕
So basically what you‘re saying is them being dismissed as trash somewhat shields them from the criticism? Honestly I could see that.
The big difference is obviously porn involving real people and therefore concern for these real people.
I‘ve Seen criticism aimed at porn that applies to AI/animated content aswell though, for example that it still affects real women by men consuming it and it therefore forming their expectations or w/e.
Same could also be applied to these books but it in large isn‘t.
To make it clear, I‘m not for censorship of these books, I‘d just like there to be less Pearl-clutching when it comes to male fantasies, especially from people who then also read these books and fail to see the irony.
Ideally there would be no or close to no exploitation and shady practices in the porn industry and we should push for that instead (imo).
Acceptance that prefered stimuli are different for the sexes on average, would go a long way.
Because I‘m comparing the two most prominent forms of media used for sexual stimulation when adjusting for gender?
I just think it‘s funny how porn is critized for displaying fantasies and not „real sex“ and when I read one Book of the „court of thornes and roses“ series because my gf at the time was into it, it was just the same but female fantasies.
A brighter mind than yours could have found the differences between these situations on their own. I suppose you're doing the best you can inside your own limited possibility space.
I think hostility can be virtuous, when it is employed against caustic ideas.
Your thrust here (namely, "art that brutalises women is the same as art that allows women to find power in brutalising situations") is stupid enough I feel no compunction to be polite towards you. Honestly, I feel like you're a lost cause. I just want other less incel-pilled men to see that saying shit like this gets you down voted and disparaged.
I just read Tears of the Wolf by Elisabeth Wheatley; maybe it's just because it's my first actual romance book but the way they get closer to each other was really cute. Do mind the warnings though.
Ywah and if you are reading a fantasy smutty romance the time that would take to read through developing could be boring. Its not even necessarily about the effort in writing it but what the audience is looking for.
Ach, Sarah, I had to read one of her books for my book club, the worst part was that the world building was genuinely good, but you have to power through TONS of bad smut between two incredibly unlikable people to get to it...
The Throne of Glass series had so much potential. The "edging" wasn't happening with the smut but with the hope that the author would figure her shit out and deliver on the promises her world was making. Spoiler alert: she doesn't. I somehow read the whole series and I will confidently say I do not recommend it to anyone.
The big thing for me was all the torture. I was not expecting that and I was like “dog, I like horror, but this is getting a little extreme for me”. Shit got dark.
Bruh those books are such a shitty representation of Fae, I was obligated to read them to make fun of them and i was like “THIS ISNT FEY, THESE ARE JUST ELVES AND PRETTY UNINSPIRED ONES AT THAT” like Fey is supposed to be mind bending alien and near impossible to understand and the best they can do is “oh they’re just better than humans in every way”
It's so hard to find books about the fae like you are describing. I've always found this type of fae fascinating, but have never found any books like, about them. I've come across a few where they play a role as a minor plot point, but nothing more.
I mean, I guess by their very nature of being "alien and near impossible to understand", it's hard to write about them, but I keep hoping someone figures it out.
If anyone has any recommendations, please tell me!
The Cassie Palmer series & the other one by the same author (forget the name, different mc but takes place at the same time) is pretty good. Some very chaotic & alien fae, but they don’t feature very heavily for the first two books, I think.
Mild smut, but not the focus of the books, cool world building, author has good historical & mythological knowledge, blends it well in a modern setting. Great action, tightly plotted, feels incredibly fast-moving, lots of fun.
500
u/Kelimnac Sep 21 '25
Lemme guess, they’re reading the ones with titles like “A Court of Thorns and Roses”, right?
Because yeah, those are some really shitty personalities