Top Ten Tuesday #95

Hey everyone! I hope you’ve had a good week so far, I’ve been extremely busy for the past couple of days applying for work experience at publishers/newspapers for over the summer, it’s actually kind of scary, reminds me that I’m an actual adult now and have to think about future career plans. When the hell did that happen? I swear I was a teenager like five minutes ago? Anyway, enough of me rambling about my strange feelings about adulthood, let’s get to the actual topic at hand. Yes, I’m back with another Top Ten Tuesday for you all this week, courtesy of the lovely ladies over at The Broke and The Bookish. They’ve given us pretty much free rein with this week’s topic, making it, Top Ten Books That Need More/Less X In Them, so I’ve decided to do Top Ten Books That Need Less Romance In Them. Don’t get me wrong, I love my ships, all of them, but sometimes romance is just not want I’m after! I want sassiness, killings, adventure, banter, friendship and not always romance! Is it too much to ask to have some characters that remain single? I didn’t think so. So here we go, my Top Ten Books That Need Less/No Romance In Them:

1. Throne of Glass series-Sarah J Maas

Don’t get me wrong, I love the Throne of Glass series and Sarah J Maas is one of my favourite authors, but as much as I enjoy some of the ships in the series, I wish everyone didn’t have to be paired off. And I think that sometimes there is a little too much focus on the romance and not enough focus on the war/death/destruction parts of the story which are actually more interesting.

2. A Study In Charlotte-Brittany Cavallaro

The romance was one of my biggest bugbears with this book. It didn’t seem at all realistic, it wasn’t well developed and honestly, I would have preferred if there had been more of a focus on Charlotte and Jamie’s friendship and them solving the mystery rather than hearing about how obsessed with Charlotte Jamie was all the time.

3. The Hunger Games Trilogy-Suzanne Collins

I loved this series, I did and I get that the romance between Katniss and Peeta was important to the plot, but I don’t see why Gale had to be added into the mix. I’m sure if the plot line had just been the star crossed lovers without a third person in the triangle then it would have been perfectly fine. And sometimes it feels like the romance overshadows the whole point of the book: Katniss entering the Games to save her sister. I wish more time had been spent on that relationship rather than her romances with Gale and Peeta.

4. Stealing Snow-Danielle Paige

Oh my goodness the romance in this one drove me crazy! There was not one love interest, not two love interests, but THREE love interests! THREE. There was no reason for that, Snow did not need to be dithering over three guys. I would have much preferred if we’d had more of Snow’s character development and her learning to use her powers, rather than her dithering over these three guys.

5. Graceling-Kristin Cashore

I just felt like the romance in this book had very little point to it at all and I wouldn’t have missed it if it wasn’t there. Plus Katsa and Po’s relationship felt so rushed and hardly developed to me, I wouldn’t have minded if they had just stayed friends, at least it felt like they had chemistry as friends, it did not feel like they had chemistry as lovers.

6. Caraval-Stephanie Garber

I actually loved the romance in this one, slow burn, characters really getting to know each other, it was everything I love in a YA romance. So it’s not so much that I would have liked the romance not to be there at all, I would have just liked a little less focus on Scarlett and Julian’s relationship (much as I loved it) and a little more focus on Scarlett and Tella’s relationship (#sisterlyloveforthewin).

7. Snow Like Ashes-Sara Raasch

The return of the dreaded love triangle! Seriously? Must we do this again? One of the reasons I got so bogged down reading this book was having to read page after page of Meira drooling over either Mather or Theron or at points both. I’d much rather have had more Primoria history (cause that was actually more interesting than the story itself sometimes!) or them saving the Winterians, focusing on what actually needed to be done, rather than which beau Meira found cuter at that point in time.

8. Slated-Teri Terry

UGH I HATED THE ROMANCE IN THIS BOOK! Kyla just went on and on about how she loved Ben, without even really knowing him at all. There were many reasons why I disliked this book, but the romance was a major factor and I could definitely have done with less of it in this book (which is saying something since there’s not all that much in there to start off with!).

9. Red Queen-Victoria Aveyard

Whilst I appreciated that the romance in this book took a backseat, I still wish that there hadn’t been a love triangle and that the chemistry between Mare/Cal and Mare/Maven had felt more present. It’s not the worst book with romance that I’ve ever read, but I’d have loved it if there was more focus on Mare’s growth on her own without the need for the romance aspect. Or if there had just been the focus on Mare with one love interest, rather than two.

10. A Court of Thorns and Roses-Sarah J Maas

I mean this book reads more like a romance novel that just happens to be set in a fantasy world. Take out the Fae and it would pretty much be just that. I get that the romance was key to the plot of the book, but I could have done with less of the sex and more of Feyre’s family relationships, development of the faeries, seeing the different worlds etc. The book obviously wouldn’t work without the romance, but I think it could have been toned down a little and still been a good book.

I’m going to stop there, because otherwise I might go overboard! As you can tell, not the biggest romance fan! Have you read any of these books? Did you think there was too much romance? Any books that you’ve read that you think have too much romance? Let me know in the comments!

I will be back next week with another Top Ten Tuesday, the topic is naturally Valentine’s related (ugh) and it’s Top Ten Favourite Romance Tropes/Types. I’m going to go with my Top Ten Favourite Slow Burn Romances (since those are the only types of romance I actually like). That’s next week but in the meantime, I have a discussion post that I’m hoping to have up by the end of the week, so stay tuned for that!