How my taste in Romance Reads has Changed over the Years (My new expectations, low tolerance for fluff, and more)

Hey everybody! I hope your weekend is going good! I personally am not looking foreword to Monday tomorrow and am demonstrating my ignorance towards the world by crawling into a little hole in my house and searching new blogs endless online all while adding to my endless TBR.

(How I feel like should be after reading too many romance novel)

 I did however get a chance to finish up a couple of good books this past week reviews of which I have been telling myself to write up on Good Reads but for some reason I have been putting them off and crawling back into my shell of laziness and unproductiveness. I don't know if its because I'm a senior or if its because I'm dead inside but I have just been completely and utterly lacking in the motivation department lately. However on the flip side me avoiding my work has lead to a lot more extra time for reading! Hence my previous comment of finishing a few books! Both of which are:

 The Queen of Hearts by Colleen Oakes and The Problem with Forever by Jennifer L. 
Armentrout!

They were actually surprisingly good but that might of been in part because of my extremely low expectations when going into reading... yet they both ended up with four stars on Good Reads so that must count for something am I right?

Anyways as usual I have babbled for way to long and I haven't even begun to talk about what I originally planned to. Curse my ability to go on about nothing for forever!
  Okay so Romance. For as long as I can remember I have been drawn to romance books my whole life. It started around middle school when I read the fluff from Sarah Dessen and then that grew into Pretty Little Liars and somehow grew into a love for intense utterly world shattering love stories that can be found in my current book obsessions (those of which include ADSOM and ACOMAF as well as Crooked Kingdom)

(I love 90's Rom coms shout out to my She's All That fans!)

 I think I've always been a hopeless romantic and I am just now starting to come to terms with it. I mean I did just watch two rom coms in a row last night... so theres that (and for those of you wondering they were Mamma Mia and Letters to Juliet and if you haven't watched them I highly recommend! Though I don't have very high standards, there no oscar winners but they will make you feel good none of the less)

  Whether its romantic movies, TV shows with the ultimate power couples, or books with the most daring love scenes I will be sucked in in a matter of seconds and have no regrets for doing so. So I guess I'll start from the beginning with romance books I first started reading way back when.

1.  The Age of High School Romance books (otherwise known as Insta-Love and High School Stereotypes)

We all have done it even if we won't admit it to ourselves we have read a book were the popular boy changes his ways and fall for the new girl or the book where the popular girl dates the geek. They usually contain some sort of homecoming dance or prom where the girl gets a makeover and steals the boys heart.

 Yes as silly as it is to admit now these simple minded plot lines where what melted my heart and raised my expectations of high school romance considerably. And though I probably shouldn't admit this after ratting on them I still love a good 90's rom com where the guy gets the girl (and yes there may be a makeover scene or two) but sometimes you just have to watch She's All That or Ten Things I Hate About You, its just a life necessity.

Examples of these types of romance reads include:

  Perfect chemistry, The Lovely Reckless, The Problem with Forever, What happened to goodbye)

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2. Paranormal Romance (Vampires, Werewolves, Somehow "hot" Aliens the whole enchilada)

 Okay I will admit I am a sucker for paranormal romance and still to this day will pick up a totally off the wall unrealistic book filled with blood sucking vampires that somehow have the ability to love even though they no longer have the ability to pump blood to their own hearts.
 Theres just something endearing about the forbiddeness of it all and the complex plot twists that go along with discovering their secrets.
 Many of my all of time fav paranormal reads include: The Vampire Academy, The Bloodlines, Paranormally, Obsidian, and I'm sure there more I just can't think of them at the moment.

             

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3. The Princess and Prince spin off Stories (Theres a castle, a handsome prince and a typically kick butt female lead what more could you want?)

 The classic telling of a mystery prince and a princess meeting, falling in love and doing everything in their power to protect it. These books typically consist of a runaway princess or a princess locked up in her castle and the prince runs across her in an unconventional way such as in the forest when she's caught up in a trap or when there thrown together in a situation in where they need each other to survive.
 I have read many fairytale retellings some of which are AMAZING and crazy original and others that are crazy predictable and are basically bad screen writes of the same fairy tale we have all long memorized by now. Like if I wanted the same story I would just turn on the Disney princess movie for crying out loud!

(Ex: The Lunar chronicles, Cruel beauty, Reign of Shadows, Heartless, The Queen of Hearts, The Kiss of Deception, and The selection)

          

4. The Mean Girls series where it switches multiple POV and they all have their own agendas and dirty secrets ( ex LA candy, Pretty Little liars, The Thousandth floor, The A-List) 

  I don't know about you but I have read A LOT of series where there is a bunch of back stabbing chicks out to get one another and half the time when I'm reading them Im thinking to myself What the heck it going on? Why did you just do that? That just crossed the line- I need to take a break and collect myself! I don't even know how the characters keep it together! But then I stick around because I end up getting invested in a relationship and also because I like to read about girls who do adventurous crazy things (maybe because I don't have the guts to do half the stuff these girls do)
  Also there is usually some sort of character or evil source that is trying to tear all the girls apart and in that case they group up together to try and stop it. This happens several times in The Thousandth Floor series and is pretty much all thats going on in Pretty Little Liars which I don't think I ever finished now that I think about it.
 Anyways I have kind of a love hate relationship with these kinds of books but I still find myself picking them up once and awhile just to bring back old reading memories.

   

5. Epic Romance (Fantasy unrealistic romance where its them against the World and no one can stop their love!)

 This is my ALL TIME FAVORITE! Mostly because it is all I read now and I really cannot get enough of it! I mean theres just so much love its like you can feel it in your own heart! (or maybe thats just my sappiness coming out again) never the less these books steal my heart as the characters steal each others hearts! ( yes I did just say that- embrace the cheesiness that is YA romance)
  These are the loves that usually come about because the two are truly destined to be together. Its not Insta- love, this romance takes time to mature and usually grows over time into a love in which they can treat one another as equals. The guys isn't always saving the girl, instead they save each other they are one anthers biggest strength and greatest weakness and without one another they would most likely fall apart.
 That being said their love is often the most complicated because they either have personal boundaries that keep them from loving one another or they have other forces working to tear each other apart. There is usually some sort of fantasy war or battle going on or a near death experience for one or both of the lovers and there is never a dull moment between the two! Ahhh I just love these books!

(Ex: A darker shade of magic, A Court of Mist and Fury, The Winners Curse, Six of Crows)

  

      

So there you have it! The complete list of how my romance reads have evolved over time from fluffy high school romance to intense action packed fantasy my love for romance may have changed but I don't think it will ever go away!

What about you? Have your romance tastes changed over time? Read any good romance books or watched a good rom com lately? Tell me in the comments below!

-Bubblybooks