The Lowest Possible Bar

When you are reading a romance, it is not supposed to be considered a plus that a romantic hero manifests a normal quality of adults who are not criminals, and who are able to walk, talk, and hold down a job.

That is a lack of red flag, not a plus.

Also, when your heroine has “high standards” that are really incredibly low, depressing standards, it is not a plus if the romantic lead manages to shimmy over that low bar.

The new romance trend is for heroes and heroines not to have been involved with anyone ever, because they are just that much of workaholics, or because any free time is spent on the Internet. This is probably realism, sadly enough.

However, such persons are then supposedly ready to have sex almost as soon as they meet the right person, even though they are no longer teenagers and have severe levels of social inexperience. Yeahhhhh, I think it might take a tad bit more than that.

Also, “anyone having sex a lot with X will eventually marry X, no problem” as well as “all your relatives are cool with that. and they will treat your new significant other just like you are married now” is not realistic. Hoboy, nope. Maybe you could do worldbuilding of this sort, where “sex = unbreakable monogamous bonding for life,” but in that case, you would expect some fairly major world building consequences.

(It’s a world built around psychic powers, and I was reading a book several books into a series, so maybe psychic powers are the monogamous pair bonding mechanism, and I just hadn’t gotten that far. Shrug.)

Even with psychic powers, it’s ludicrous to say, “Everyone is very worried about the heroine having gotten a concussion,” and then say, “Right after she gets out of the hospital, she should be nursed only by the guy she just met.” Even if they are empathic toward each other, and even if the guy is a nice guy who previously saved her life, how does this make sense? Does that give him magic nurse powers?

And why would a family want to put the guy in this position? No pressure, just an assumption that the guy wants to spend 24/7 with an injured person he hardly knows. If you had just fallen in love with someone, wouldn’t it be awfully stressful to see that person injured, and not be able to take any time out whatsoever?

Also, they are in a foreign country, and magically they have a kitchen full of American foods for the guy to cook, even though they are in a place where it would make more sense for food to be prepared elsewhere and for him not to have to cook. Because she’s sick, liable to throw up at any time for any reason, and he’s nursing her 24/7!!! Come on!

Oh, and the guy IS NOT AMERICAN, and yet is supposedly able to make typical American foods for sick people, as opposed to typical foods for sick people in his own country. I’m a little more likely to extend some grace on this one, but still.

Oh, and when you have a concussion, you should take a long bath in a hot tub, with the guy you just met. Because it’s totally safe to engage in an activity that sometimes causes healthy people to faint, as long as you have one person with you. Sure.

Finally, a major life event that screams “the heroine has no judgment or self-esteem” is not something you want as cute backstory for her, when she holds down a high security job and is supposedly trustworthy, and has never been abused, and in fact is held in high esteem by pretty much everybody around her.

It’s especially bad when you have the heroine being careful in other ways, and when all the terrifying backstory is just supposed to be quirky and funny.

I was really disconcerted to find all these problems in a humorous, fluffy, and not terribly explicit romance series. I know romances tend to have dreamlike logic, but holy cow. I also felt bad, because the narrative style really was fun and funny, and I can see why the writer has a lot of fans.