Arranged marriage/marriage of convenience – Something about having this dedicated person with whom you have agreed to form some kind of deep and cooperative relationship (that might lead to love) is really romantic to me. Emphasis on the choice, though – I don’t like it when it’s forced or intended to be temporary. I like to see commitment to making the relationship work.

A lot of my favourite C-dramas fit this niche, but I can’t think of many books like this off the top of my head, so please do give me some recommendations if you can think of any.

Worldbuilding related to language, gender or different forms of social organisation and hierarchies – These are my pet topics, whether it comes to my academic research, books I’m reading or things I’m writing. A series that does this really well is the Imperial Radch series by Ann Leckie, and the alternative social hierarchy elements were also partially what attracted me to The Second Death of Locke by V L Bovalino.

High fantasy (esp. with a unique magic system) OR sci-fi set in space – Since fantasy and sci-fi are some of my favourite genres, I thought I would do one that covers both. I like high fantasy because it’s able to play around with new cultures, species etc so much more (see my point above), and I especially love interesting magic systems. For sci-fi, I’ll gobble up anything set in space, whether that’s in our solar system or a galaxy far, far away. For some of my favourite sci-fi reads, check out this post.

Mature characters and relationships – Of course, all characters are flawed and have an important lesson to learn, but unless your character is, say, 13, I want to see some work being done before page 1. If you can give your 25/45/65-year-old character a tragic backstory, you can give them some degree of character development in that backstory as well. A good example is The Incandescent by Emily Tesh: the main character has plenty of flaws and prejudices, but she’s also already addressed some of them. This makes her believable as an accomplished, complex but likeable adult character.

Atmospheric – I love any mention of either magical realism (especially the kind that comes with beautiful setting descriptions) or anything set in the mountains. Any sort of beautiful, atmospheric description of setting will definitely interest me – even if it can’t hold up a bad story by itself. I have a list of atmospheric book recommendations, although I might need to do an updated one soon.

Korea, Taiwan, China – I’ve lived in both Korea and Taiwan, and my research (I’m doing my master’s degree at the moment) is on premodern Korea and China. Some good ones I’ve read so far are Lady Tan’s Circle of Women by Lisa See (premodern China) and Ghost Music by An Yu (modern China). For some of my favourite Korean books, you can check out my post on the best Korean women in translation, and I also have a post on books about/set in premodern Korea.

Solarpunk/hopepunk – These are subgenres of sci-fi that focus on collective struggle and provide a vision of hope for the future, rather than prioritising the heroic actions of the individual or a nihilistic view of society’s issues. Solarpunk specifically also looks to a future that is more sustainable and in harmony with nature. I definitely think we need a bit more hope and also some inspiration for alternative ways to live at the moment, so I love this subgenre.

I need to read more of these works, but a classic example I loved is the Monk and Robot series by Becky Chambers. 

Tea – Tea is my One True Love aside from books, so you can bet it will make me automatically interested in a book, whether that be nonfiction or fiction. I have a post recommending some of my favourite teas if you’re interested, and eventually I’ll make a post for recommending books with tea in them.

Miscommunication – It’s overdone and frustrating. A little bit here and there for a chapter or two, I can deal with, but if your plot crumbles with one even somewhat coherent conversation, then I’m going to get annoyed pretty quickly unless you have a really good reason for it.

Amnesia/memory loss – I dislike this largely because it often indicates a plot almost entirely based on miscommunication. If the story is about the effect of amnesia or memory loss on individuals and their communities, I wouldn’t mind it, but when it’s used as a plot device to create drama… no thank you. 

Love triangle – No. Just no. I don’t enjoy it, I think it’s usually pretty obvious who someone’s going to end up with, and I don’t find it a realistic situation most of the time.

Often, love triangles end up with a character who is basically emotionally cheating or a borderline/full-on toxic/obsessive/dangerous love interest who refuses to take no for an answer. Either way, yuck.

Forbidden romance/fated mates – Both of these can be done well and poorly, but I generally dislike them regardless. 

Forbidden romances often rely on brief, highly tense and highly passionate encounters. This not only robs me of my favourite part of any romance – the small, everyday things, and seeing two characters work through issues and towards common goals together – but it also makes me worry that the relationship will just fizzle out once the sense of rebellion or danger is gone because there is so little real connection built between the characters.

Fated mates are similar: the characters feel like they’re only together because they’re supposed to be, but lack a genuine connection.

Not like other girls – I can do without the internalised misogyny. (Or backhanded compliments, if this attitude comes from a male character.) Being like other girls is actually pretty great, thank you.

Dystopia – A combination of reading way too many of these books growing up and general despair at the state of the world right now means I’d much rather read something hopeful than spend a lot of time reading about another corrupt government. Dystopias that are less focused on government corruption, e.g. a more post-apocalypse vibe, can still work for me. 

Tournament/game/competition – I think I read too many of these growing up as well, and I find the plots quite obvious and repetitive at this point. Again, not one that can never be done well, but it’s likely to put me off a story unless there’s something else to draw me in.

Magic schools (in adult books) and YA/Adult crossover – These two go together for me because they put me off for the same reason: they are adult books that read like YA novels. I’m fine with YA books with characters that read like teenagers – that’s the point! But when a book is marketed as adult and the characters still act sixteen, I feel lied to and I’m often not in the mood – if I were, I’d be reading YA. Having been burned a few times, I now know to expect this if a book is marked as crossover, but when it’s just marked “adult” and I’m caught by surprise….
(*cough* Arcana Academy *cough*).

Infidelity/cheating in literary fiction – I avoid this in romance books as well, but it’s pretty rare. However, infidelity sneaks into so much literary fiction as a plot device, and every time I feel like it cheapens the story or minimises the impact of the message, as well as making the character infinitely less likeable. This is especially the case when it’s portrayed as a kind of emotional processing for a character we’re supposed to root for. I’m sorry, but there are ways to process emotions – even distaste for your spouse – without cheating.

If the point of the story is infidelity, that is different, since that is something that does happen and we need stories addressing it (although I’m still not likely to pick up such a book), but I especially hate the infidelity-as-plot-device elements of so many stories that I otherwise love.

Christian fiction – I have no issue with books that have religious characters or include religion as a theme, and, of course, all authors with religious (and non-religious) beliefs are going to write books that reflect those beliefs in terms of the themes they discuss. However, as someone who is atheist and has complicated feelings about organised religion, books that are marketed specifically as ‘religious books’ appealing to a religious demographic are just not going to be something that I enjoy. Which is fine, since I’m not the target audience!