Girl meets boy. They have two conversations together… Sparks fly… And then BOOM! They’ve declared their undying love for one another and have officially started planning their wedding and picking out baby names.
Queue my dramatic eye roll.
Typically when this happens, I usually think to myself ”WTF just happened? They don’t even know each other!” You've all come across this at some point and know exactly what I’m talking about here, trust me. Oftentimes I read a book that I’m really starting to enjoy, but then I get a dose of the dreaded “insta-love” and am completely turned off and ready to start something new. In my opinion, it just makes everything feel so unrealistic. I mean, it just seems too far-fetched believing that the heroine/hero fall in love three seconds after making eye contact.
My point is, clearly many people don’t care for this particular theme. Too many times I’ve seen readers often complain about it in their reviews, myself included. So why does it keep happening? You’d think that if readers constantly spoke out against it, authors would take note and stop incorporating it into their stories. In a perfect world, we’d all move past insta-love and jump straight into well-developed relationships instead. Unfortunately, I just don’t see that happening anytime soon. *sigh*
So, what do you think? Do you like Insta-Love or wish authors would spend more time developing relationships?
Ugh insta-love, it's a bit of a pet peeve of mine. I have seen really bad cases. Like page two, the very first time they spot each other and bam they are instantly ready to battle family and friends to be together. I don't like reading it. I can understand it to some degree, because the author wants to show that this is a once-in-a-lifetime kind of love, and they want the reader to know that it is going to go the distance, but I think insta-love needs to be slowed to insta-attraction (completely different in my opinion) and then built on to become love. I do have to admit I have a somewhat fast falling for each other scene in one of my books, but primarily because they have a history from high school. They already know each other and were attracted to each other since then, but circumstances drove them apart.
ReplyDeleteWe're totally with you on that! Insta-attraction is awesome, let us feel the connection! But insta-love doesn't always feel real. There are times when we're left questioning WHY they love each other when they don't even know each other.
DeleteThanks for commenting! :)