I think one reason books are getting really trope heavy (besides laziness) is that authors have started viewing their books like internet media. They want their book to appear in as many search results as possible, and algorithms are increasingly presenting tropes. "Because you liked enemies to lovers, here are 100 other enemies to lovers books". So authors are doing the equivalent of keyword stuffing: trope stuffing. Put every trope you can think of into the book so you can list them as keywords. Algorithms don't recognize original concepts. We may soon have to look at the last page of search results for the original books.

The super snarky and aggressive girl is a very cheap shortcut to write  "strong female characters", imo.

Yeah we have a quantity over quality problem right now.

Your point of characters only finding each other hot instead of actually loving each other makes me think more authors should have seen the The Swan Princess movie as a kid.

Gotta agree on the language. Nothing breaks immersion like characters saying something "for the win" or that someone is "hot as f$%#"

"I can't handle the characters that have a chip on their shoulder and are also really stupid" -- YES YES YES.

The modern language drives me crazy in particular when everyone talks like a 14-year-old that just discovered swear words. That was part of what threw me off about Fourth Wing, was even the old generals spoke like modern teenagers.

"Moronically snarky MC " 😂yes! I cannot stand this type of main character, it completely ruins a book for me.
It also feels like there are only two typed of girls/women that exist in fantasy romances: either a snarky badass or a quirky wallflower (who also suddenly tends to become snarky when she meets the love interest). It's so frustrating!

I agree with all other points as well, especially the All Lust, No Love and constant descriptions of how hot the characters are. Our society is already so hyperfocused on appearance that seeing the same thing in books is just annoying. I don't want to read about square jaws and chiseled abs, I want to read about emotional and intellectual connections the characters develop.

The repetition in the rhythm of titles drives me nuts. A Song of Ice and Fire, A Court of Cliches and Tropes

Im really tired of how all the protagonists became queen in the end even though they said at beginning they hate royals and nobles but as soon they "fall in love with a prince" they change themselves. Also that trope: oh-I-was-a-lost-princess .

The “stupid, snarky protagonist” only works for me if they actually have some consequences for being stupid and snarky, like they get fired because they rudely refuse help from a more experienced person (setting themselves up to both fail their task and burn their bridges at that workplace at the same time). It’s the stupid, snarky protagonists who somehow are always proven right and somehow always succeed that pop up all over the place though, and they drive me nuts.

I just want characters to be competent adults. Why is that such a high bar?

A good way I spot these same old romantasy novels is by checking the book covers. The book covers also seem to follow a certain trend.

I think the reason I wasn’t impressed with ACOTAR is because it’s basically a wattpad story and I read too many of those as a teenager 😂

What drives me away from YA Fantasy at the moment is the fact that nearly every synopsis sounds like this: random girl in a very interesting fantasy world goes on an even more interesting quest to save x from y - but of course she can not do this on her own or with the help of her friends and family, no! To do that she needs to team up with this mysterious guy who she should hate but who is also insanely hot which is why they fall in love so screw the plot and throw the world building out the window!

Shrek has the best fantasy romances - there, I've said it 😄😄

Honestly the height thing 🤣 all these men are like 6’5” and “massive” 😂😂😂

Just say "Fourth Wing"

Enemies to lovers (or friends!) is such a trip for me. Either the author writes it too soft so the main characters aren't really enemies--more like mildly inconvenienced with one another upon first meeting--or they go in HARD and it feels too mean and personal to come back from 😅

It’s giving “A [place] of [noun] and [other noun/verb]” 😂