For starters what is it with books where both their parents have died in a car accident. A ridiculous amount of books use this format and everytime I come across it I end up putting the book down. I mean get an original idea, it seems a cop out idea where they want the character to have more depth so they'll make them have a traumatic past which they can easily do it without much character progression.
To show love the author uses sex. Sex does not equal love it shows lust. Books shouldn't need to do this to show intimacy-there is such a thing called TALKING. Don't get me wrong, when done well I like reading them but that I need more than that in a book so I can connect to the characters.
Another pet peeve I have is nightmares about their past. It seems a lazy way to hint to the reader about their traumatic past rather than the character developing until she opens up about her past. Also after studying sleeping cycles in psychology they are so unlikely for a different event to come up everytime she sleeps and if that was the case we have a different dream every 90 minutes why isn't she waking up everytime? I don't mind flashbacks too much when they are done well such as in 'Poision Study' by Marie. V. Snyder.
Finally, the last thing I hate in books is when they have multiple characters who's name all start with the same letter. My brain just can't cope and it takes a while till I can distinguish who each character is and if that doesn't happen early on, I normally end up putting it down because I can't be bothered trying to work it out any more.
