LI pet peeves

Missus Akasha · Mar 26, 2012

Okay, so I was re-reading a new paranormal YA novel. When I read it the first time, I really liked the plot and the characters but felt like I had missed something because there were a lot of questions unanswered at the end of the story. So I decided to re-read it again to catch any details that I accidentally skipped over.

The first time around, I liked the love interest. However, after reading it the second time, I increasingly began to dislike the love interest. His snarky/smug/hard-ass/pretty-rich-popular boy attitude just rubbed me the wrong way as I put more effort into reading the story again.

He smirked way too many times.
Always had something smart-ass/sarcastic to say (not that this is necessarily a bad thing because I do it often, but this character did it at very wrong moments when the lead female was scared or very serious about something).
He was always found leaning against something (a wall, a car, etc.).
He sexually harassed the lead female multiple times.
Scared the shit out of her sometimes.
He was always at the right place at the wrong time conveniently.
He was rich, handsome, and probably STD-infested because he slept around with the entire school (and lead female only held the chicks who slept with him accountable and not him).

The list could go on and on and on, but needless to say, I was kind of mad at myself for not catching this shit the first time. The overwhelming amount of pet peeves made me put this book down and decide not to figure out the rest of the unanswered questions of the plot.

So I have to asked. What are some of your pet peeves about love interests in the YA genre?

totopink · Mar 26, 2012

Most of my pet peeves I find myself writing. Probably because most of my pet peeves are cliches that it's easy to fall into.

I think the worst one has got to be being amused, all the time, at everything. WHY LOVE INTERESTS, WHAT IS SO AMUSING?

thebloodfiend · Mar 26, 2012

Everything you've listed annoys me. It's why I don't like reading PNR/UF anymore. All of the love interests seem like cookie cutter, potential spouse abusers that you're running to divorce.

Was this book Mara Dyer by any chance?

lolchemist · Mar 26, 2012

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! Don't even ask me this, I can write a whole book about the subject. The #1 thing has to be the rich/handsome/popular trifecta though, especially if the MC or author keeps gurgling on and on about it.

The next one is "bad boy." what exactly IS a "bad boy" anyways?? A rude creepy person that nobody likes? That's what it seems like to me, the way most of these so-called "bad boys" are written.

Missus Akasha · Mar 26, 2012

thebloodfiend said:
Everything you've listed annoys me. It's why I don't like reading PNR/UF anymore. All of the love interests seem like cookie cutter, potential spouse abusers that you're running to divorce.

Was this book Mara Dyer by any chance?

O.O

That is a really good guess. How did you know?!

@totopink: I've always wondered that too, LOL!

@lolchemist: The rich/handsome/popular thing is something I'll tolerate if done right, but for the most part it's not. I don't know if rich teenage guys would take their girlfriends to fancy restaurants after school and trips to different places. Why can't a guy be hot and poor? Or unpopular and poor?

Becca C. · Mar 26, 2012

I totally knew it was Mara Dyer after the first, like, two sentences of the OP

Didn't like that book at all. In fact, the only good memories I have of it are the cliffhanger chapter endings (it was impossible to put down) and the fact that it was the first ebook I read on my brand-new ereader so I had fun with that.

I hated Noah Shaw. He just felt like a mish-mash of all the supposed "desirable" YA LI traits. And he suffers from the condition I like to call British For No Reason.

mickeyDs4 · Mar 26, 2012

I always seem to write the kind of guys my exes were. Smart, funny, longish hair, motorcycles, grunge band wannabes.

totopink · Mar 26, 2012

I'm so intrigued now, I'm going to have to read this book.

Elysium · Mar 26, 2012

Becca C. said:
And he suffers from the condition I like to call British For No Reason.

*snorts*

Hehe.

I think the LI from my old wip suffers from the same condition.

Becca C. · Mar 26, 2012

Elysium said:
*snorts*

Hehe.

I think the LI from my old wip suffers from the same condition.

Haha, nice. Hey, those accents are swoon-worthy, I totally get it. But when the story takes place in Florida and has no other mention of or connection to England (like in Mara Dyer), it really makes no sense.

mickeyDs4 · Mar 26, 2012

Becca C. said:
Haha, nice. Hey, those accents are swoon-worthy, I totally get it. But when the story takes place in Florida and has no other mention of or connection to England (like in Mara Dyer), it really makes no sense.

I think I prefer the Louisiana Southern accent more than I do the English.

lolchemist · Mar 26, 2012

totopink said:
I'm so intrigued now, I'm going to have to read this book.

Haha, me too! Half of me wants to read it to see how bad it is and the other half just wants to KILL IT WITH FIRE!!

Becca C. · Mar 26, 2012

mickeyDs4 said:
I think I prefer the Louisiana Southern accent more than I do the English.

Yeah? I really like Irish and Scottish accents for the sexiness... French accents, not so much. Study in a French Immersion program for eight years and all French accents will remind you of your teachers.

courtneyv · Mar 26, 2012

My biggest pet peeve is underdevelopment in the LI, where he/she is so cardboard, and I really can't stand a sudden, mad, passionate love "just because!!!"

The dark, dangerous-seeming, brooding guy is getting pretty old too. They all seem so much the same to me.

JQTrotter · Mar 26, 2012

Pretty much everything you just listed. I'm sick of the rich boy thing since I think that just makes things easier in stories. I'd like to see the poor rich guy.

My biggest pet-peeve is anything Edward Cullen related. When I was reading Twilight to try and figure out why it was so popular (and it was an easy read since it was almost purely dialogue and absent of describing anything beyond Edward being like a Greek god's statue...) it constantly annoyed me.

A paranormal guy that stalks his love interest freaks me out. In no reality should a writer try to convince young adults that that's romantic and not freakishly creepy.
I'm sick of possessive paranormal guys that try to control what the girl does (or who she socializes with)
On the flip-side (female love interests) I'm sick of silly girls that center their entire lives around the guy.

Right now that's all I can think of without repeating what's already been said.

Niiicola · Mar 26, 2012

Becca C. said:
And he suffers from the condition I like to call British For No Reason.

Missus Akasha · Mar 26, 2012

courtneyv said:
My biggest pet peeve is underdevelopment in the LI, where he/she is so cardboard, and I really can't stand a sudden, mad, passionate love "just because!!!"

The dark, dangerous-seeming, brooding guy is getting pretty old too. They all seem so much the same to me.

This! This! This!

I can't stand underdevelopment especially if the lead characters spend most of the time doing just about nothing. Perfect time to develop them! Their likes and dislikes, fears, and hobbies. Their favorite foods. Their family background. Gimme something. I think it is so unfair to the characters.

Nowadays, the action and plot doesn't pick up until the middle or the very end of the book. I'd like to read somewhere about the characters that I could possibly relate to because let's face it, I don't think anyone can fully relate to the idea of being a teenager and falling in love with an angel, demon, vampire, whatever and the consequences that come with it.

I've noticed that authors nowadays keeps the details to a minimum when it comes to their lead female characters. They'll describe the love interests for hundreds of pages, but the only description you'll get of the lead female is most likely that she is a plain-looking blond or brunette with pale skin.

Niiicola · Mar 26, 2012

I agree with you guys to a certain extent, but I actually don't mind Mr. Perfect Love Interest every so often. It's kind of like eating a whole bunch of ice cream. Sure, I feel guilty afterwards, but I enjoy it while it's happening.

Missus Akasha · Mar 26, 2012

Niiicola said:
I agree with you guys to a certain extent, but I actually don't mind Mr. Perfect Love Interest every so often. It's kind of like eating a whole bunch of ice cream. Sure, I feel guilty afterwards, but I enjoy it while it's happening.

Don't get me wrong! I don't mind a reading a guilty pleasure every now and again. If a love interest only had pet peeves 1, 3, and 6 of my list, I think I could deal with that. But if a love interest scares the lead female, makes her feel insecure, sexually harasses her, and thinks of most of the female population as blowup dolls then it's no longer a guilty pleasure for me, lol.

FabricatedParadise · Mar 26, 2012

Oh man... I did bad things with my first MS apparently. No wonder it ended up trunked.

Although, my love interest was Irish for no reason.

Hmmm... *sneaks off to edit current WIP*

Chazemataz · Mar 26, 2012

Mara Dyer really annoyed me because it was so well written but the plotline and characters were just bleh. I also don't understand why the MC & LI have to fall in all-consuming, passionate, fiery, world-ending love in the first novel of a series. Can't they just sort of like one another by the end with maybe a kiss?

Missus Akasha · Mar 26, 2012

I am guilty of the French thing. I love French stuff. Gaspard Ulliel. *swoon*

The lead male in my WIP is French, but only because he is based off of a famous historical person who was French and I felt it was completely pointless to Americanize him.

@Chazemataz: I absolutely agree. Mara Dyer is VERY well written. That is why I gave it a second read because I felt like I was missing something within the details because I didn't want to stop reading it or go back because it was so good. I was very captivated by the mood of the story and the first time around, Noah intrigued me. But the second time when I actually sat down and took a good look at it, I felt very disappointed.

The romance really threw me off because some of the things that went down between Noah and Mara didn't really develop their relationship to me. For example, the pet owner/dog situation.

Mandiloo322 · Mar 26, 2012

I suppose my pet peeve is when the LI is always described as "beautiful." I've never seen a truly beautiful guy, outside of a painted canvas. I don't like the word "beautiful" much anyway because it's so vague - thank goodness LI always gets a whole paragraph about his appearance whenever he enters a room.

JQTrotter · Mar 26, 2012

Chazemataz said:
Mara Dyer really annoyed me because it was so well written but the plotline and characters were just bleh. I also don't understand why the MC & LI have to fall in all-consuming, passionate, fiery, world-ending love in the first novel of a series. Can't they just sort of like one another by the end with maybe a kiss?

I'm with you there. If it's a series sometimes I'd rather be taunted with wanting the two characters to get together so badly that it's the main reason that I'm dying to get the next book.

little_e · Mar 26, 2012

Tall men.

Movies which cast girls who are absurdly pretty.

LI pet peeves

I'm a monster. I'm a saint.

Cory

Shooting stars.

I'm a monster. I'm a saint.

believe

Shooting stars.

Twitchy

I'm a monster. I'm a saint.

Twitchy

I'm a monster. I'm a saint.

Can be bribed with circus peanuts

I went to sleep a poet

I'm a monster. I'm a saint.

[Shhhh....I'm writing.]

Trust: that most precious coin.