I just read The Love Hypothesis and was honestly so surprised by how much I liked it (and honestly their texting was what won me over, I love that lowkey secondhand anxiety/excitement from texting a crush… I felt it in my bones while I was reading). I have a sample on my kindle for The Wedding Crasher, I’ll have to get the full version soon!
When I found out TLH started as Reylo fic I'd already read it twice and fallen in love... so it does put the picnic "he's totally shredded" jokes in context... but yeah I'm a sucker for a well-placed epistolary bit. Wrote my college thesis on epistolary YA coming of age novels, it will always be a soft spot for me!
I have not read The Love Hypothesis (But I read Love on the Brain and the Love to Loathe You 3 novellas in 1 book Ali Hazelworth just released).
Without getting too much into spoilers, I enjoyed reading all the books, but I also see that Ali Hazelworth is mostly sticking with enemies to lovers, and also that the men are very similar in style/looks/attitudes). Reading so many books, do you prefer an author to be able to write different scenarios/types of characters? Or if they they are good at one thing, are you okay if they stick to that thing?
This is a really great question, and one I think about a lot (and try to reference in my reviews here!). There are some authors who write extremely different books every time, even if there's a similar voice and genre, who I absolutely adore: Sally Thorne and Beth O'Leary are the first examples that pop into my head. You never know what you're going to get with them, they are masters of form and craft, but if you like more than one of their books you'll likely try them all because you trust them. That being said, a drawback is that if you REALLY like one of their books, you're unlikely to get another like it. I desperately want another Hating Game / The Flatshare, and I probably never will.
Then there's the authors who write kinda the same thing over and over again: Ali Hazelwood is definitely a good example here (though she's got so few books out and I hope we get a better sense of her overall career with Love Theoretically coming out soon). Ali Hazelwood absolutely has my fucking number and enemies to lovers in STEM careers is catnip to me, so I'm never gonna be UPSET if she continues to write roughly the same couple in different scenarios over and over, but you can definitely tell she comes from fanfiction, where that's more the expectation. It's the ultimate distillation of why romance is so beloved among so many; there's a deep comfort in familiarity and, to an extent, predictability (guaranteed HEA for example). And if someone has your fucking number, it's hard to be mad they continue to deliver exactly what you want, even if it eventually gets a little repetitive. Then you move on.
Then there's the authors in the middle, authors who, if you like one book, you'll almost certainly like them all, who write books with a handful of archetypes they tend to revisit but without carbon-copying too many details between. Authors like Kate Clayborn, Christina Lauren, Emily Henry, Tessa Bailey, most historical romance authors. I think like most people I prefer this style of author, with a clear POV and preferences (nearly every Tessa Bailey hero is the same, she just swaps out scenarios and heroines) that you have a good idea of before you know anything else about a book.
But if something sounds interesting enough, or if it's by an author I trust, I'm game for it all. That's why I read so many books, there are truly so many options to explore!
I just read The Love Hypothesis and was honestly so surprised by how much I liked it (and honestly their texting was what won me over, I love that lowkey secondhand anxiety/excitement from texting a crush… I felt it in my bones while I was reading). I have a sample on my kindle for The Wedding Crasher, I’ll have to get the full version soon!
When I found out TLH started as Reylo fic I'd already read it twice and fallen in love... so it does put the picnic "he's totally shredded" jokes in context... but yeah I'm a sucker for a well-placed epistolary bit. Wrote my college thesis on epistolary YA coming of age novels, it will always be a soft spot for me!
I have not read The Love Hypothesis (But I read Love on the Brain and the Love to Loathe You 3 novellas in 1 book Ali Hazelworth just released).
Without getting too much into spoilers, I enjoyed reading all the books, but I also see that Ali Hazelworth is mostly sticking with enemies to lovers, and also that the men are very similar in style/looks/attitudes). Reading so many books, do you prefer an author to be able to write different scenarios/types of characters? Or if they they are good at one thing, are you okay if they stick to that thing?
This is a really great question, and one I think about a lot (and try to reference in my reviews here!). There are some authors who write extremely different books every time, even if there's a similar voice and genre, who I absolutely adore: Sally Thorne and Beth O'Leary are the first examples that pop into my head. You never know what you're going to get with them, they are masters of form and craft, but if you like more than one of their books you'll likely try them all because you trust them. That being said, a drawback is that if you REALLY like one of their books, you're unlikely to get another like it. I desperately want another Hating Game / The Flatshare, and I probably never will.
Then there's the authors who write kinda the same thing over and over again: Ali Hazelwood is definitely a good example here (though she's got so few books out and I hope we get a better sense of her overall career with Love Theoretically coming out soon). Ali Hazelwood absolutely has my fucking number and enemies to lovers in STEM careers is catnip to me, so I'm never gonna be UPSET if she continues to write roughly the same couple in different scenarios over and over, but you can definitely tell she comes from fanfiction, where that's more the expectation. It's the ultimate distillation of why romance is so beloved among so many; there's a deep comfort in familiarity and, to an extent, predictability (guaranteed HEA for example). And if someone has your fucking number, it's hard to be mad they continue to deliver exactly what you want, even if it eventually gets a little repetitive. Then you move on.
Then there's the authors in the middle, authors who, if you like one book, you'll almost certainly like them all, who write books with a handful of archetypes they tend to revisit but without carbon-copying too many details between. Authors like Kate Clayborn, Christina Lauren, Emily Henry, Tessa Bailey, most historical romance authors. I think like most people I prefer this style of author, with a clear POV and preferences (nearly every Tessa Bailey hero is the same, she just swaps out scenarios and heroines) that you have a good idea of before you know anything else about a book.
But if something sounds interesting enough, or if it's by an author I trust, I'm game for it all. That's why I read so many books, there are truly so many options to explore!