Too Much Sex?

I have a confession to make - I love to read bad reviews on bestselling authors. Yep. Even those of my favorites, it brings me a little sense of joy to see one and two star reviews. Maybe it just makes me feel better that I don't have all five star reviews. Or maybe, I feel like even those who are in the top of the game have those who dislike their work.

While going through an author's reviews, an author whom I used to love her work, I noticed a trend in the reviews - too much sex. I won't name the author, as I'm not into giving bad reviews (or at least giving out the names), but I will tell you this is a bestselling author who happened to have a great series...until about halfway through the series. It then turned into bestiality fetish erotica. The storyline just disappeared.

Now, obviously, I have nothing against erotica, or really great sex scenes, but this author seemed to have decided as long as someone was having sex she no longer needed a plot for the books. Many of her previous fans have dropped both series and opted to find other new authors.

This whole thing got me thinking; what would it take for your most hardcore fan to turn their back on you?

When we pick up a book, whether this is a new-to-us author or someone we've been reading for years we expect a certain kind of writing. With the author I spoke of above, we expect the character to be stubborn, and almost paranoid that every male is a chauvinist. We also expect gory murder scenes, great plots, a little suspense, and a great crime solving ending. However, in the last half of both series, it seems the author got either bored, or was being pushed too hard to complete too many books in such a small amount of time. I don't know which, and probably will never know.

In a way, it's kind of like certain genres of books or movies; in romances, we expect a happily-ever-after. In suspense, we expect a great who-done-it. In horror, we expect to feel like we should be reading/watching through our fingers. What we don't want is a romantic hero who decides at the very end he doesn't really love the heroine, and wants to now become a celibate monk. We don't want to watch a suspense where you can guess who did it in the first five minutes. And we really don't want characters who had certain opinions about sex and monogamy to suddenly become oversexed sluts with a tendency to screw animals.

I'm sure some of you know which author I've been talking about, but we'll let the name stay anonymous. In the meantime, have you ever stopped reading your favorite author because they suddenly stopped playing by the rules they created? What really turns you off about a book?

My top favorite cliches....

I'm an urban fantasy and paranormal romance author. But, for some reason, my darling muse has decided she would make me obsess over a YA idea - seriously?! This got me thinking about the different types of books, which then fed the research of cliches. Here are a few of my favorites (typed with a dash of sarcasm)...

1. The love triangle - The sweet, kind natured boy wants the shy girl. But, so does the bad boy. Every YA book I've read has a similar love triangle. Gotta tell you, in all my years of life I've never had this type of love triangle. Hell, I don't think I've had any type of love triangle. But, it's fiction, fantasy, make believe. Therefore, we allow it, forgive it...even crave it. Need an example? Bella, Edward, Jacob....'nuff said.

2. YA in general - Okay, not so much a cliche as a hot trend. Adults everywhere are reading YA novels, therefore, authors everywhere are punching them out. Why? Is it like reliving our teen years? Don't know about you but I have no desire to do those years again!

3. Immortal lovers - So these creatures - usually vampires, and almost always male - fall for the shy, sweet girl and pledge their everlasting love. Sooooo, this 100 something year old creature who poses as a teen falls for a teenage girl, who just happens to have the maturity to know she wants to spend the rest of eternity with said boy? Yeeeaaah....I thought I wanted to spend the rest of my life with my boyfriend at sixteen - until we broke up and I moved on. Need an example? TWILIGHT! Love the books, love the movies, love the concept, but now, every book is doing something similar.

4. Hot guy/Gorgeous girl - Really? Every main guy is studly, hot, and usaually a jock. Of course, we find out later he's actually insanely intelligent and sensitive. The other side is the female...always so beautiful, yet she thinks she's plain. And the females are almost always shy. Enough already! Not all girls are shy and awkward, regardless of age!

5. Unknown, yet useful magical talents - How the hell did you go through life not knowing you could become invisible? Why is it these talents only manifest themselves when extremely useful and convenient?

6. Happily ever after - Yeah, yeah. People want their romances to be happily ever after, or happily for now. Can't we skip the falling-in-love-in-two-days thing? Can we avoid instant attraction, fall in love at first sight, and spend all of eternity together? I've yet to meet a single person who fell in love quickly and actually lasted.

Do you have any hated cliches? Let me know if I missed any crucial ones...