Book Pet Peeves

We've all been there. You start reading a book and want to throw it across the room for one reason or another. I have a few pet peeves when reading and here they are in no particular order.

Characters with no common sense. There are some loopy characters and they can be written in a way that make them endearing. Then there are those characters that do everything wrong and while reading we just can't believe that there could be a person that ridiculously dumb or naive. I mean have they spent the last 20 years in a nunnery? Unless they have been sequestered away in a room somewhere for years on end, please don't make them knuckle dragging stupid...mmmkay?

Books ending on a cliff hanger. Don't do that! I am very likely to never read another of your books if you do that. I want each book to have an ending. It can be part of a series and still have an ending.

Sending the reader a message. If you have a message you want to convey then rent a billboard, don't write it into your book. I don't want to feel like I am in school and you are teaching me that abortion is bad, god is good, the devil is bad, witchcraft is evil, or the government is too big. I don't want to be preached at while reading my book.

And my biggest pet peeve is when the male character treats the female character really really bad but she has feelings for him and keeps giving him time to come around or to show his softer side. Then all of the sudden they fall in love and all is forgiven like he never really hurt her feelings or made her cry through 99% of the book. No, no no. Can you say abusive relationship? Is this really the message authors want to convey to younger women who are reading their book? It's not alright to put up with verbal abuse and then forgive the guy because he now says he's in love with you.

I'm not talking about characters that have some sexual tension and just don't get along at first and there are a few mistakes made or he's the boss and treats her a little mean because he doesn't want to fall in love and he's trying to keep her away. I'm talking about some historical type books where the guy is a total Alpha Ass and forces her to have sex with him because he tricks her into marriage and sex is his right, locks her in her room for months on end all the while telling her if she gets pregnant he's taking the kid and raising it himself with the help of a nanny because she's just a stupid woman who was too dumb not to be fooled by him...type of story but by the end of the story he sees her for the kind hearted wonderful woman she really is and falls for her and she forgives him. I call Bullshit.