I'm with KayM on the spelling, grammar and word order errors. I can take any of the pet peeves mentioned but these will turn me off faster than anything.

I experienced this earlier today. The book was professionally edited. I use the p-word loosely. The editors worked very hard on subject verb agreement and sometimes appeared to work too hard. There was a scene where, to shorten a run on sentence to just my peeve, the MC grabbed " a couple of tomatoes from a bowl and sliced it" Couple is singular, but it seems to me the tomatoes are being sliced, not the couple (or the bowl). Even if that's proper grammar to you the whole sentence needed to be rewritten to flow better, not made grammatically correct. While there weren't as many errors in that book as I've seen in some there were a few that were cringe-worthy like "He knew Brad wouldn't ever say nothing to anybody."

The mistakes were off putting, the story wasn't particularly good, and I'm still trying to make myself finish it. I need to go back and reread some of the things I haven't read in a while I suppose. Much of the newer stuff I've been reading just isn't at a level I'd consider enjoyable.

That said, I have my own pet peeve... glaring spelling, grammar and word order errors. Those who self publish I still can understand and accept a few errors. But a book that is handled by a publisher, and every second page has an error on it? Nope. I have put many books down after a chapter, no matter how interesting the story, just because I cannot get past those errors.

BIGGEST Pet Peeve ever!! A better paid editor, proofreader, best friend, or Cat (yes, Cat) could do a better job!

Simple Writing trick: Read everything in reverse! Start with "The End" and work backwards. Reading backwards interrupts the reading flow. Errors will jump out to the reader/editor/etc!

[James3490]

I have a problem with bad grammar, too. My biggest pet peeve however, is authors putting MF books in the middle of the series. I hate to skip order, but they force me to skip a book or simply to not read the series all together. If I wanted to read MF romance books I'd read a Harlequin; I'm gay- I don't want to read about MF sex scenes.