I Love This Genre and I Will Absolutely Roast It

She is already tired. He is still brooding.

I love this genre. Genuinely. Enthusiastically. I have decades of reading history and shelves worth of emotional investment behind me. I choose these books on purpose. I seek them out. I reread them. I defend them to people who think they are all the same.

And because I love it, I will absolutely roast it.

Loving Something Does Not Mean Ignoring Its Nonsense

Affection does not require blindness. Enjoyment does not cancel out critique. Loving something deeply often means noticing its habits, its tics, and its recurring nonsense more clearly than anyone else. I read enough of these books to see the patterns. I read enough to recognize when a trope stops being charming and starts being unintentionally hilarious.

That does not mean I hate it. It means I am paying attention.

Somewhere along the way, certain words stopped being sexy. Certain character behaviors stopped feeling dramatic. Certain scenes crossed a line where my brain simply opted out and replaced tension with comedy. Once that happens, there is no going back. The spell breaks, and suddenly the brooding love interest is no longer mysterious. He is an angry chicken laying eggs in my mind forever.

That moment does not ruin the genre for me. It makes it funnier.

Affectionate Roasting Comes From Familiarity

Roasting is not rejection. It is familiarity. You do not roast things you do not care about. You roast the things you have read too much of, thought too hard about, and internalized deeply enough that your brain starts making connections without your permission.

I can love strong heroines and still laugh when everyone in the room starts pacing like it is an Olympic event. I can enjoy shifter romances and still spiral when I think about the logistics of clothes. I can swoon over intensity while quietly begging characters to sit down and use an inside voice.

None of this comes from cruelty. It comes from closeness.

This genre gives me comfort. It gives me escape. It gives me community. It also gives me moments where I have to put the book down, stare at the ceiling, and accept that my brain has permanently sabotaged a perfectly serious scene.

That is not a flaw. That is part of the experience.

Affectionate Roasting Is Part of the Deal

So yes, I will roast it. Lovingly. Repeatedly. With specificity. I will poke fun at the words that have lost all meaning, the tropes that trip over themselves, and the moments where drama tips into accidental comedy.

I will also keep reading. Keep recommending. Keep finding books that hit exactly right.

Both things can be true.

If you love this genre too, you already know what I mean. If you have ever laughed at a moment that was clearly meant to be intense, you are in the right place. If your brain has ever ruined a word forever, welcome.

This is not mockery from the outside. This is affectionate roasting from deep inside the house.

If you love this genre and also have thoughts, I want to hear them. Tell me the word your brain broke, the trope that flipped from intense to ridiculous, or the scene you can never read the same way again. This is a safe space for affectionate roasting!