Personally, I cannot abide a book in which the hero is emotionally unavailable and shows no character development.  A prime example of this is Black Ice.  The book is ruined for me if this occurs.  Also, some of Garwood's medievals come to mind like the bride (or was it the wedding?) I've been able to get past most other problems in a book including one in which the hero rapes the heroine (shadowheart) if the hero redeems himself and reforms in the end. Do you have a pet peeve like this that absolutely ruins a book beyond redemption for you?

hmm..I think having something unexpected 'off the wall' thrown in does it for me. for instance, I was reading 2 different harlequin intrigues(ok not that I expect super greatness from a short book like these but I've read lots and lots of good ones..)anyways, in both both people were 'normal' yet in both the guy gets hurt - one by a pain injection where it feels like all the bones are broken yet is okey dokey because he feels the woman touching him..in the other he gets a poison that just a small amountkills but is miraculously  healed by magic..no magic mentioned in the book at all til that one scene..geez...just didn't  'jive' with the story.

black ice didn't bug me too much btw though he didn't seem very feeling even at the end but I think from his background that for him to not kill her meant he loved/cared for her period..you know? he was trained ot have 'no' feelings yet he does for her nd even goes out of his way to save her. not the lovey dovey romances and I think she probably could've shown that p art of him more, esp in the sequel..so I'm hoping ice blue will have more of the 2 previous book's characters more developed...

I will toss a book when the hero sleeps with another woman after getting together with the heroine.  I don't care if it is a marriage of convenience and he goes back to his mistress (or visits a brothel in American historicals), I don't care if he is a spy who has to seduce info out of another woman, I don't care if the heroine has severely p*ssed him off and he cheats in anger - there is no reason that will keep me reading after this happens.

I've never read a book where the heroine is the one who cheats, but that would be a dealbreaker for me, too.

Katrina

I get very turned off when the heroine gets all self righteous, especially when they have been separated for years and she really expects that the man didn't see anyone else during that time.  Be real!

Sherri

Katrina, i don't like those storylines either. Too much of that in real life, i would rather escape from that while im reading.

I also will stop reading if the hero has sex with another woman after he's met the heroine.  Of course, it depends on the context.  For instance, if that happened before the time of the book and isn't described, I'm usually okay with it.

Characters are important in the story to me, but I don't necessarily need them to have some great change by the end of the book.  As long as the author has created characters that I'm interested in, I'm happy to see a story play out between them without any great change happening.  The exception to this is the main-characters in long-running serials.  An example, I've long since stopped reading LKH's Anita Blake books and I'll probably read Jim Butcher's Dresden books until I die.  It's all about character developement.

Another deal-breaker is when books have no romance.  I don't mean that they can't be steamy or dark or fun, but I have to feel a sense of connection between the hero and heroine.  It it's not there, I get bored.

I cannot get through a book if either hero or heroine exhibits signs of rampant stupidity. You know- bad decision after bad decision, constant bickering over nothing, idiotic situations. I just can't get into it if there is no empathy on my part. I have to care what happens to them and if they're TSTL, it ain't happenin'!

If either has multiple partners I'm out of there.  Don't care why/where/when/how, if they've got several affairs going on, I'm totally turned off.

I can agree with most of what was previously stated (except I loved Black Ice), but I recently started a book and only made it through the first couple of chapters b/c I just didn't like the two main characters. Also, I hate it when I read a book that is so good and interesting, only to be left with a really horrible ending. This happened with a Heather Graham book that I read in the last month.

Infidelity is my big no-no; I'm okay if the hero and heroine aren't 'together' yet, but once they pass that commitment line, it turns in to a wall-banger for me. 

I will pretty much read anything (not that I enjoy everything I read, but I am willing to give anything a try), but I agree with the infidelity issue...even if it is an arranged marriage as in historicals.  Once the hero and heroine meet, I don't want to see them with others...even if they aren't romantically involved yet.  Also, I don't mind if they have past relationships before they met, but it sometimes bothers me to see them involved with others in the actual book (for example, before they meet or get together they are in a relationship with someone else).  I don't toss a book or throw them (I usually keep reading), but it does kind of leave me with a sour feeling.

Also, I prefer my romance books to have happy endings and provide some type of closure...unless it is a connected series and I know that going in.  I hate picking up a book that is part of a series and not realizing it and being completely lost.  I prefer series books to be able to stand alone as well.

I think the stupidity gets to me too though the one that really got on my nerves(though I've read stupider LOL! guess it was just bad timing for my mood, etc) but the sequet to 'my spy' has a woman who knows someone is prettymuch trying to kill her and has may go after her sister..there's a friggin' Seal of all people to 'protect' her yet in spite of it all she heads out by herself without telling him and goes to a stupid warehouse with a bunch of misfits to promote her latest book...I mean, if someone tries to kill you with witnesses and you have a Seal there why be so freakin' independent?? anyways, that really rankled with me at the time! reckon I'm the only chicken in the world who'd be hiding in the house under the bed making the Seal check out everything before I venture outside the door(can tell I'd make ag reat story huh??!!) :-)

there's a scene in a book that I, of course, can't recall the name of, but the two characters have meet, he's a tortured man, and she see's him in a window looking at her when a woman comes up behind him and draws him away.  She's stunned.  They've not been "together" yet, but there's something going on between them.  You'lll think I'm wacked, but this was a big woohoo for me.   Roselin told me about the book, and I loved it!  That was of the best scenes in the book for me.  And I loved Black Ice too.  I didn't feel it was a lack of character development for him but that his character was so hurt by his life and experiences, that what he did for her and gave to her was stupendous for him.  Just how I felt about it ... understand other's don't agree. 

Correction, Susanna, you'd be the only smart one hiding in the house under the bed making the Seal check out everything before you venture outside the door. Sometimes smart is very sexy...

hmm..smart is sexy?  well I guess it'd be better to hide IN the bed UNDER him to be safe huh?! better idea! I think I'm gonna have to order a couple books off your shelf..my willpower is fading and I just got the first book in a series in a deal and I think I saw the 2nd on your shelf..though I don't know if I'll like it since it's historical and that'snot my usual sorta reading after burning outon all the bodice rippers in the late 80s/90s..but darned if it doesn't sound good along with another...hmmm...maybe someone will beat me to it LOL!

Karen, I guess the way you summed it up about black ice is what I was thinking...I mean, he was a killer with no feelings and for him to not only save her once but to go after her yet again when she took off then to go to another country and save her again...that took a lot for him.

in the bed under him is definitely  a better idea!

I'm with Rose. I hate it when the character, usually the heroine, is so stubborn she just can't think about anyone but herself.

Karen, I think I read that book- was it a historical? The woman had some sort of hold on the man. I'm thinking it was Cheryl Holt maybe? But, I know what you mean. Alot was expressed in that short scene.

OK, now I have to know the book.  Please, think of it and let us know.

Yeah, that whole "she knows there's a threat but gosh darn it that hero isn't gonna tell her what to do."  I call it the "Oppositional Heroine".  I feel like it's a sign that the author thinks that strength, maturity and independence equal saying and doing the exact opposite of what the hero wants her to do.  This includes everything from calling him before she goes out to having sex.  I'm becoming less and less impressed with this "character" trait. 

In real life, I don't want a guy that finds that attractive.

God, my biggest pet peeve right now is a constantly injured H or a book where more than 50% of the pages are spent with the H in bed being cared for by the h.  It's such a convenient plot device, and is SO overused in historicals I am about to pull my hair out. I'm reading one now where the H *IN A HISTORICAL* is recovering from a PUNCTURED LUNG.  PUNCTURED! Yah, no stretching the bounds of reality there, huh?

Sonya, it always amazes me in the stories where the guy is shot and barely survives being able to go at it for 4 pages the next day!

Isn't the book Karen is talking about Outlaw's Embrace by Francine Rivers? I seem to remember someone mentioning it in a earlier thread  and it interested me so I put it on my wishlist. I have it on autorequest and am #8 of 15.

Infidelity is also an issue for me. However, I just read a beautiful, but gut-wrenching love story that infidelity was a big issue in. It's 'The First Time' by Joy Fielding. I cried buckets over this book. The H definitely redeemed himself in the end. It was just so sad and yet beautiful at the same time. I know that sounds weird, but you just have to read it to understand.

Pam

SPOILER re Animal Instincts by Showalter.

Yes, it was Outlaw's Embrace!  I might have it -- I'll check for you, Pam.  It was very good.  I'm reading Animal Instincts by Showalter right now, and I like it a lot but the heroine is being persued by this fantastic looking, quick witted, kind, etc etc guy and she's blowing him off - though of course she wants him - because she had a terrible marriage.  I could smack her!  But I'll keep reading cause it's really a good book.

Pam, I can't find Outlaw's Embrace -- darn it.  If I do, I'll PM  you.

Thanks Karen. I sure hope you can find it. Looking forward reading it.

Pam