Use of the word "manhood" is mandatory

For years, I've loved reading cheesy romance novels. They were always a nice escape into a world of ridiculously good-looking people that had money, attitude, manners, sensuality and the opportunity to set out on adventures. Sure, the sex in the books was always written about in incredible detail, to the point where some exploits would have me blushing ... at a book. But more than that, they were just fun to read.
But I think the unthinkable has happened. This is twice now, in as many books, that I've set them aside, put them under the bookshelf, or sighed in exasperation at the hero and heroine's antics. Tonight, I put a book that I was approximately 120 pages into under my bookshelf, with nary a thought as to what was going to happen next or how it would end.
To understand these books is to see the predictable outline that each one follows: boy and girl meet either in a cute way, or in a mysteriously dangerous way; both have physical attraction to each other, but immediately sense the intelligence lurking behind each other's eyes; both concede to their attraction, but are too stubborn to admit that they like each other, because of some ridiculous misunderstanding or plot sabotage; they decide to seduce each other to get what they want, and unwittingly, fall in love; life-threatening incident occurs, and they realize how much they feel for each other; now working together, the couple foils the crime or solves the mystery; finally, they fess up to their feelings. (Prologue: Still so much in love, they are happy and expecting their first child.)
Tonight's moment of disinterest comes courtesy of the hero, Dillon Caxton, who decides that the best way to gain the trust of the heroine, Priscilla Dalling, is to seduce her. He actually goes through that thought process, and thinks to himself (and I paraphrase here), "If I want her to trust me, I have to get her into bed." Brilliant, absolutely brilliant. The simplicity of his plan is amazing. This was the exasperated sigh that I mentioned earlier.
Anyway, I've put the book away, and can say with a measure of anticipation and delight that no more of the books in my to-be-read pile are romances. At this moment, I don't feel like I have the patience for them. I foresee it staying like that for some time.