Context to the question; recently a friend asked for book recommendations with older FMCs, I offered some suggestions then, a few weeks later, she told me she didn’t enjoy the books. (Which is fine and not at all the point here). When I asked why, she explained that the older FMCs weren’t what she expected, and it was less that she wanted a more mature character and more that she didn’t want to keep reading huge age gaps.

Similarly, I’ve seen comments on slow-burn romance books that the slow-burn is too slow, when the slow romance is the main reason for the story and, obviously, once it resolves the story is at an end? (At least, that’s my expectation of a slow-burn romance -- but again, I guess expectations can differ? Which is kind of the point I'm awkwardly trying to make, I guess?)

And I’ve found myself that I go into a lot of fantasy/romantasy books that end up having really drawn out academy/school sections (which I just do not enjoy) because some part of my brain will read the synopsis and believe that the whole ‘she must train to save the world’ or whatever just means she’ll have a few training bouts, not that she’ll be sat in a classroom for half the book going over the history of the setting.

So, I guess what I’m asking is; do you ever have expectations for a book/genre that you perhaps shouldn’t have? Or do you always go into book knowing what you’re going to get and only reading books where you’ll find that exact thing? And, have you ever thought that you wanted something from a book, only for it to turn out that you don’t even like that thing? Has a book ever missed your expectations so dramatically that it put you off reading anything similar?