On Gothic Romance Deal Breakers

I picked up a newish gothic romance novel yesterday and got a few pages into it, hoping to read and review it for Gothicked (my gothic romance review blog). Then I put it down. I picked it back up and read to page ten and put it down again.

I thought about why for a minute, and here’s what I decided. It had a “deal breaker” in it– for me anyway. The deal breaker in this novel is that the heroine can see ghosts– lots of ghosts– and the narrator lets us know that by page two or maybe three.

For some reason, that’s not my cup of tea. I like my heroine to be surprised by a ghost (or two possibly) twenty-five or more pages in. I want seeing this ghost to scare her like it would scare me. It’s not something I’ve had happen everyday, and for some reason, I like my heroines (and heroes) to have similar experiences. Seeing ghosts as a hobby is not something I’m convinced by, I guess. And it’s just not as scary to know that the heroine is used to it.

So, the “I See Dead People” thing is a deal breaker for me when I read gothic romance. I might finish the novel, but I’ll be turning my nose up through much of it.

How about you? What’s your deal breaker in gothic romance or any other book genre?