Originally posted by: LizzieBennet
I don't remember deets but I know I was annoyed with River at that point 
, Honestly, this is why most single PoV romances don't work for me (there are exceptions of course). The MMC ends up feeling very one-dimensional and everything feels like a deus ex machina - like you wait until the last chapter and find out he was always down bad and he was the one that did xyz for the FMC and it has always felt like a copout to me because for me, a romance is all about the journey of two people. I wanna see both growing.
Did you know Christina Lauren is actually two people? I get what you mean about their writing though. It's the exact same feeling I had with two of their celebrated books: The Unhoneymooners (the MMC was a dick here again during the 3rd act break up - this is why I don't like 3rd act break ups! 
) & Love and Other Words.
I've read well done single PoV romances before so I can't speak against them, bcz when done well they're really very satisfying to me (same with love triangles, I love them when they're done well but so many authors manage to botch it up). Especially when they sneak in that single chapter somewhere with the other PoV just to show us what was really going on. It feels a lot like real life then, bcz unfortunately you always have only single PoV irl 
no luxury of the other PoV unless they openly come out and communicate but for these to work, the scenes need to focus a lot on the dialogue and the non-verbal cues. I think that's where most writers fall off. And irdk why that is, bcz when I write romance, my favourite part is the dialogue and non-verbal comm. I squeal and giggle every time I manage to include subtle hints of the growing feelings! 🤭❤️
Anyway, I honestly think fanfics manage to do the single PoV better. They rarely have dual POV anyway, and since they often have a much lesser wc than novels, they know to make the most out of every scene. You can just tell by the scene that the other character is going through it too 
Oh yeah, I just found that out this month while reading the end note of TSE! They're apparently two besties who write together. I had no idea 
I'm gonna start using "them" too, it just slipped my mind since I've been calling them she for so long.
Those are the exact two books I've read before and omg Lizzie, you just made me feel so validated rn. I was really put off by the Unhoneymooners bcz of that 3rd act shit. Even though it's been a long time and I don't really remember the plot anymore, I really felt like the FL was sorta left alone to fend for herself in the end. It was her against the world, and the ML was a part of that world instead of being on her side. I think I didn't even want them to get back together in the end 
but everyone in my group loved that story sm, I really thought I was the only one feeling this way. I left that group after a while, bcz I realised we didn't really have similar preferences. I'm so glad I met you! 
you have a lot of matching thoughts to mine 
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