The top 9 romance novel villains I HATE and never want to see again

There are so many things to love about romance novels. But just like in any genre, not all books can be winners. And one thing that can ruin a romance novel at lightning speed is a crappy villain. With that in mind, here are the top 9 romance novel villains I HATE and wish authors would stop creating (please and thank you):

The “Imma explain everything before I kill you” villain

Isn’t it super convenient when a villain takes the time to explain all of his complicated, dastardly plans before killing the hero/heroine? It’s also lazy writing in my opinion. What kind of real villain isn’t just going to kill the hero and heroine as soon as he has the chance? To do otherwise is just bad...villainy.

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The “Jealous other woman” villain

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Yeah, the evil other woman who sets out to ruin the heroine’s life simply because the hero loves her? That bitch has GOT TO GO. Why can’t women just get along? I’ve had enough of the girl-on-girl hate to last a lifetime.

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The villains who have sex

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Villain sex scenes—often thrown in to show something gross or cruel or degrading that the villain does to someone in an attempt to demonstrate how evil they are—are an overused plot contrivance and I loathe them. They’re gross. In my romance novels, I only want to read about the hero and heroine having sex. Everyone else can just take a cold shower as far as I’m concerned.

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The one-dimensional villain

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No one is 100% evil. Even Buffalo Bill from Silence of the Lambs was good to his dog, for God’s sake. Villains without dimension are boring and unbelievable and I have no time for them in my romance novels.

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The unnecessary villain

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I’ve read novels where 95% of the conflict was internal, then at the very end, the author throws in a completely unnecessary villain. Not every book NEEDS a villain. It’s OK to just have internal conflict.

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The cliche villain

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The conniving other woman, the evil twin, the smarmy sports agent, the relentless, uncaring reporter who only wants the story, the wicked mother-in-law...BORING!! I want to read about interesting villains, not cliche villains.

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The page-hogging, attention-crazed villain

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Sometimes you can just tell that an author REALLY loved his/her villain. Like, maybe even more than he/she loved their heroes and heroines. How can you tell? When it seems like the villain has more page time than anyone else in the story, it’s pretty clear that the author loved their villain a little too much. If I wanted to read about a villain doing villainous stuff, I probably wouldn’t have chosen a romance novel, you know?

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The weak villain

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Don’t you just hate it when the villain has been built up throughout the entire book as The Big Bad, then he’s easily defeated in about 2 pages at the very end? Yeah, me too.

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Mr. Obvious

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When I know who the bad guy is by chapter 2, I have very little motivation to keep reading. It just makes me want to yell at the hero and heroine and ask them why the hell they can’t figure out who the bad guy is when it’s so bloody obvious everytime he speaks.

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What about y’all? Which romance novels villains bug the crap out of you? Let’s discuss!

And while we’re ranting…
​

The anatomy of a DNF romance​

The 9 types of romance heroes I HATE​

Top 9 things that need to change about romance novel sex scenes​