Reader Kris recently commented that when she reread Lisa Kleypas’ Dreaming of You it DID NOT hold up at all. She wrote:
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the ask@AAR: What’s your favorite age gap love story?
We have 113 books tagged as age gap romances. 61 one of them are DIKs. They are, in general, not my jam. (That said, I adore What I Did for a Duke.) Why don’t I like them? I think it’s because I’m old. If I’d married someone 25 years older than me, he’d now be…
the ask@AAR: What kinds of stories would you like to see more of in romance?
We’ve talked here before about no-go stories in romance–narratives that readers just aren’t having. Many readers can’t abhor infidelity, others can’t stand violent heroes/heroines, etc… Today I’m curious what stories would you like to see more of in romance?
the ask@AAR: why do you read?
I’ve had a rather heated set of exchanges with my best friend Ann recently about our differing perspectives on why we read. She reads primarily to learn; I, to be entertained. She tells me “Oh, you should really pick up such and such a book about the failure of the medical system in our inner…
the ask@AAR: Whose story do you long to have told?
In anticipation of the upcoming Bridgerton show and because The Bridgertons: Happily Ever After was on sale last week, I finally read the latter. (We reviewed it here.) I was not impressed–So. Many. Babies.–although I found Francesca’s story touching. The last story in the book is about Violet Bridgerton
the ask@AAR: What’s the most romantic season?
Here in the American Southeast, summer is closing in. When Sophie and I walk in my neighborhood, people are out in shorts and slides, and the sound of air-conditioning hums all around us. It’s hot and humid and, by mid day, the intrepid runners pelting past us two old ladies–Sophie is almost 11–are covered in…
The ask@AAR: Are you excited for Bridgerton Season Three?
I’m starting to see ads for the third season of Bridgerton and I’m not sure if I’m excited or not. I very much enjoyed Season One but struggled with the choices made in Season Two. Romancing Mr. Bridgerton is my favorite in the series and, thus far, the chemistry between Colin and Penelope has been…

This is an experience we’ve all had. There are romances we loved back in the day that now make us shudder or, at the very least, wonder what on earth we were thinking.
Earlier this year, I tried and failed to reread Devil’s Bride by Stephanie Laurens. The prose was absurdly purple, Devil is kind of a dick, and Honoria is just plain silly a great deal of the time. Today, it is a hard pass and yet, when I look at Goodreads, I see that in 2013 I gave it four stars which, for me, is high praise.
How about you? What are books that really no longer work for you? Why?