I spent last week reading a few popular romance books that were being recommended on Tik Tok. I honestly should have known what I was getting into because pickmeism and LVMs have seeped so surreptitiously into society that practically everything reeks of them. If any of you were planning to pick up any of the three books (more like two books and one movie adaptation because I was lazy) that I’m going to trash, I hope that I’m going to save you some time and let you leave knowing you didn’t really miss out on anything. Obvious spoiler warning.

Book 1: The Spanish Love Deception. The plot follows Lina, a woman who works at an engineering consulting firm in New York City. She’s actually from Spain and moved to America because she had dated a professor and the relationship ended horribly. I would just like to say that this part is not her fault and I will not be assigning a pick me label for this aspect, but she’s pretty fucking annoying regarding everything else. She needs a fake date to her sister’s wedding and her sister’s groom is the brother of her professor ex. She’s one of those girls who think that being single and showing up alone would mean that she’s pathetic and unworthy. The author could have made her out to be a capable woman in STEM unafraid to stand on her own two feet and have her worth be beyond who she’s fucking, but the whole book reeks of the miserable single woman trope. The main guy, Adam Blackford, was cold to her initially and he threw her off, so instead of apologizing and willing himself to come correct, he allowed her to hate him for almost two years and we as the audience are supposed to find him pining her for that long as something romantic. He agrees to be her fake date, they go to Spain together and he showers her in upgrades to first class and all these gentlemanly manners that ultimately were bullshit to me really because he still wasted her time and was otherwise petty to her for the past two years. He also made no effort to properly court her, ask her out, or respect her enough to not hook up. Him driving her home in the rain, buying her tacos and making sure that she doesn’t faint from dieting for the wedding could have been concluded as things any decent person would do but they apparently made every Tik Tok girl hail him as the ultimate book boyfriend. The relationship went straight to hooking up right after the wedding and everything was made to fall right into place regarding their feelings and everything. He said I love you waaaaay too quick (without having taken her on any proper dates beyond the pretense of their fake dating ordeal btw!) and took advantage of her when she was drunk by kissing her up and down. The author could have also addressed the obvious abuse of power wielded by her professor ex who dated her when she was an undergrad, but chose to spotlight the single and miserable woman trope through to the end. This book rewards the bare minimum for men and gives women all these accolades only to make their relationship status the main focus.

Book 2: The Love Hypothesis. This one is disgusting right off the bat with its student x professor dating trope. It starts off with the main character, a PHD student named Olive, randomly grabbing the main guy Adam Carlsen for a kiss to convince her best friend to date her ex because apparently they click so well together. Might I add that her best friend purposely flirted with her date during what was supposed to be their little outing. Despite her many accolades, Olive has no respect for herself and puts herself in so many stupid situations that she could have easily gotten out of. She then enters into a fake dating agreement with the guy, who surprise surprise was into her for almost two years and we’re supposed to find this romantic even though it’s gross as fuck because he’s a professor and she’s a student. Did I mention he’s almost a decade older too? Their dynamic follows a straight to hooking up trope with no proper courting or any effort made to let her know of his true intentions. The author also writes Olive as a whole 26 year old woman who barely knows anything about sex so the sex scene reeks of such an imbalance of experience between Olive and Adam. It was also awfully written. Save your time.

Book 3: The Hating Game. Rivalry between coworkers. She thinks he hates her but he’s been into her all along. Fake dating and straight to hooking up dynamic without any real effort to court the girl. You guys see where I’m getting at?

Anyway, don’t read any of these books. I’m getting a bit annoyed so I’ll end it here 😩