My sister just threw a book across the room.
Reason?
Though it was labeled a paranormal romance, the h/h were apart at the end of the book. I’ll read it, because now that I know how it’ll end I won’t be disappointed — and she said that otherwise, it was a fantastic book. Just that she was looking forward to seeing how they overcame everything and ended up together. So what might have been a really great read for her was pretty much ruined at the end because of the expectation created by the labeling (and fifteen years of reading romance). Sigh.
There was apparently an epilogue, though — and a baby. I guess that’s supposed to make up for the fact that the h/h won’t be together until after she dies.
An unconventional HEA (in that they aren’t together until LONG after the book ends?) Yes. But is it happy if they’re apart? I just don’t know. I don’t see how it’s much different from a human character dying at the end, and the other saying, “Oh, but we’ll be together in Heaven.” That just doesn’t work for me as a romance … but it might work for me just as a love story.
If you want to know what book it is, click here (and Megan did say it was a really good book, so it might be worth it, as long as you know going in). If you’re a reader who doesn’t mind that kind of ending in a romance, don’t click so it won’t spoil the surprise.
In other news, I was stuck at a gathering that I didn’t want to be at, so I took (and read) the novelization of 30 Days of Night. And cried at the end. The book freaked me out, too. It’s not the same as the graphic novel (how awesome is that?) but still a good before-bedtime read. I’m going to look for Tim Lebbon’s other horror work now, because I’m in that kind of mood.
Gah, back to work on stuff that I’m really supposed to be doing.
Saw the trailer for 30 Days of Night movie.
Looks awesome.
!
I’m hoping for good things (although I probably won’t see it until it hits the rental store, sigh)
The non-HEA paranormal romance seems to be a growing trend. Huh. Are reader expectations and tastes shifting?
I know the trend is making me a lot more cautious as a buyer/reader; I’m starting to not take the happily ever after as a given. If I know in advance it’s not going to end with the hero and heroine together, like you said my expectations of the book would be different…but I’d also be less likely to buy, because I’d just pick up an urban fantasy or YA or something instead. HEA is the reason I read romance.
Charlene, I’m the same way. For example, 30 Days of Night?
HUGE SPOILER HERE
MASSIVE
I MEAN, I TELL THE ENDING
Has a married couple who are separated due to trivial (and not so trivial) problems. And over the course of the novel, in the life-or-death situation, they reclaim their love, and in order to save his wife, the husband sacrifices his life and turns himself into a vampire to beat the bad guy … then sits with her as the sun comes up, because he knows if he continues living as a vampire, he won’t love her, and he won’t be human.
It’s incredibly romantic, and heartbreaking, and perfect for the characters — and I absolutely love the story. But it’s horror (and, okay, I already read the GN so I knew it going in) so I didn’t expect the HEA.
With romance, I do. And when I start seeing romances showing up without a HEA, it makes me cautious, too. It makes me not want to try new authors, because I don’t trust that I’m going to get what I’m buying the book for (that they’re in love and together).
My sister, even though she really liked the book and thought it was great, is mostly going to remember the disappointment of the ending, so I doubt that she’ll pick up the author again, because that … trust? is gone.
But me … I will, because I won’t have that disappointment, because I know that I shouldn’t expect an HEA. And if had been marketed as urban fantasy, or chick lit, or a love story, or whatever, I wouldn’t even have to know the ending in advance to enjoy it, because I wouldn’t have any expectations (except, you know, the expectation of a good story).
So I don’t like the trend of non-HEA. I know what I want when I buy a romance, and I know that I used to get it. Now … I don’t, and that doesn’t make me a very happy consumer.
I am in the middle of reading the book your sis threw across the room. Not a HEA, so very sad. But she has some part of him and her heart will go one! **cue violin music**
I saw the trailer for 30 days and was more “eh” about it. But I do have a soft spot for Josh Harnett. yum.
I just saw Eastern Promises. What a gory movie! Too mcuh throat slashing. Yuk. But there is a bit of a romance under it all, but again not the HEA you are expecting.
Adding to this post with
BIG SPOILERS ABOUT THE BOOK IN QUESTION
Hero makes a big romantic sacrifice that means they can’t be together. (Romantic!) So he tells her, “live your life, be with other men, be happy — and we’ll be together with true love in time”
The more I think it, the more this is not even a happy ending to me — because even though he’s saying, “go live a happy life” there’s the thought that for the next fifty years or whatever, there’s a huge chunk of something that’s going to be NOT AS GOOD and MISSING.
So she takes another lover … but that lover CAN’T be the love of her life, because the love of her life is waiting for her in Hades. So, what, she’s always comparing them? Always thinking, “I can’t wait until I die so that I have something that’s Twue Luv?” It sells that future love interest short, doesn’t even give him a shot, because her heart is taken forever and ever. Oh, it doesn’t mean that she won’t LOVE the new guy … but that it won’t be to the standard of Twue Luv.
Gah!
So it doesn’t even feel like HEA (in the future) but FHAaW (Finally Happy After a While).
Is the heroine in a good place emotionally at the end? Yes. It’s an uplifting ending, and she’s been empowered, la la — but although it’s romantic and has an effective love story … I don’t know, it just doesn’t feel like a Romance if they’re apart and she has other lovers and has to raise her kid by herself and finally, finally, she gets to be with him after a while.
Nah, I wouldn’t expect a HEA in something like that — only in books labeled “romance” on the spine
And I definitely don’t need a HEA to find something romantic. I love a lot of stuff without a HEA. It’s just in the romance genre I don’t really like it so much (at all).
“So it doesn’t even feel like HEA (in the future) but FHAaW (Finally Happy After a While).”
And I should probably add that it’s the paranormal aspect of this that ruins the “happy” for me. The “we’ll be together in Heaven/Hell”.
If he’d let her go and that was it, and she lived her life like crazy, found another love (or didn’t, because I’m not going to say that “happy” means she’s in love with someone or finds a partner) … but the very fact that he lets her go with the “we’ll be together again” that ruins it for me, because it places a claim on her that doesn’t ever let go.
katiebabs brought up Titanic — and the reason that ending worked for me was because Rose wasn’t living with the expectation of being with Jack again … it just ended up there, after she lived a full and happy life (at least, that’s the sense I got). He didn’t lay a claim on her before he died of hypothermia: be happy, and we’ll eventually be together again.
That claim, that “we’ll live in true love again just after your death” then seems to trivialize the rest of the life in a way, no matter how empowered she is to face the rest of it.
I was really expecting Rose to have Leo’s er.. Jack’s baby. That would have been a major cliche, so I am so glad she didn’t!
I bawled my eyes out at the end of Titanic. And no movie since then.
Hmm to love in Hell with Hades or to be on Earth and to have loved than not? So profound for a Sunday night!
Tell your sister that desperate times call for desperate measures. Sometimes you have to change the ending in your head. Just like that hero that has red curly hair that suddenly turns to black in Chapter 2. You gotta do what you gotta do.
The last two paranormals I read didn’t have happy endings, both were part of a series. One was a Nocturne, and the other part of a series. This last one was a HUGE wall banger. I hope this isn’t a growing trend. I love romances. The loose strings get tied up, the endings are happy…or should be.
If this keeps up I’ll have to start reading in a different genre! LOL
***Lover Unbound, JR Ward SPOLIER ******
This book also ending with a non-traditional HEA (if you can call it that). The message boards for Ward are exploding with negative reader feedback. I wasn’t that upset but definitely let down by the ending.
I did have the desire to throw the book across the room but I was just glad I could stop reading. Yikes!
V and Jane~~~They’re HAPPY. They’re TOGETHER. Textbook HEA.
Kerry Allen: I completely agree. Textbook HEA. Worked for me. What bothered me more was the stupid, stupid inconsistancies working Z’s storyline into V’s book. I thought maybe I missed something, but I read it multiply times (because I’m a freak that way) and, yup. still there. Grrhh. But not a wall banger. Too much fun for that.
excuse my mental retardation: Multiple times NOT multiply times.:oops:
Haven’t read this, but it sounds an awful lot like Requiem for the Devil. That wasn’t a billed as romance, though, so be forewarned.
Lover Unbound has to be the most unconventional HEA I have ever read. The ending gave me a good chuckle and I am not sure if it was happy one, or a bit sad by Jane.
At least V will have a great hands on approach!
Aren’t over 50% of the books bought romances? Meaning all the other genres combined – horror, fantasy, non-fiction, crime etc. have to squeeze into the other 50%
It seems to me that publishers are stretching the label to get into that market. But ultimately it backfires because I think readers are once burned twice shy.
I like urban fantasy, but if I buy a book labelled as a romance I expect it to be a romance, and for me that means the h&h end up together. That’s both alive.
As an aside Lover Unbound is the first BDB book not to have Paranormal Romance on the spine. I also think it’s a pretty conventional HEA, it’s comparable to the ending of LE. The unconventional thing would either have been to let things remain as they were – no interference, or to have a mortal mated to a vampire. For the record I hate the Casper thing – enjoyed the rest of the book, just didn’t like the ending.
The ending of LU doesn’t bother me — a ghost and a vampire can have a HEA, IMO. Where it goes off for me a little is that there is no precedent for a ghost in the worldbuilding, which leaves me scratching my head. If even one had been introduced in the series before Jane turned into Khasper, or if a ghost had ever been hinted at, I’d have no problem with it at all. I am interested in seeing where Ward takes it in the next book — surely she’ll clarify and build on the Khasper bit (I’d hope). So the HEA wasn’t the issue for me, just the way getting there.
Ann — I really loved Requiem for the Devil … and I did go into it knowing it wasn’t a romance, and without knowing what to expect. And was perfectly happy with the ending, because I had no expectations.
So it’s the labeling of the book discussed above a romance that bothered me, not the lack of a HEA.
Lesley — I think you’re right: at the heart of it, it’s a marketing and sales issue. There’s a love story in a book, there’s a genre raking in cash, so publishers slip in the love-story books without a HEA hoping to rake it in, too.
Would Khasper be Jane’s new BDB warrior name?
I was thinking some of LU might BE the setup for Tohr and Wells. Ya know, “dead isn’t necessarily final.” I really, really cannot see that brutha transferring his affections to some other woman, so he has to get her back somehow. Doesn’t he? DOESN’T HE?!?!? (Actually, Tohr’s probabhly lhying dhead in a dhitch somewhere and Wrath’s jhust frontin’ ’bout feelin’ him, yo.)
You know, I’ve been seeing a lot of talk about HEAs lately, about how they are often becoming non-traditional…and I wonder if it’s simply a reflection of the times? People are becoming more cynical about marriage, more marriages are ending in divorce, open marriages and open partnerships are more accepted…so maybe ideas of what makes one person’s happy ending “happy” are changing, as well?
I have a friend in Iceland who has two children by different men, doesn’t plan to marry either man, has relationships with both, and considers that her happy ending. And she says her lifestyle is very normal there.
Personally, I like a traditional romantic ending. I want a commitment, and I’ve been disappointed with romances that didn’t have that traditional ending.
I remember a time-travel romance I read once (can’t remember the title or author) that, up until the end, was great — the heroine went back in time, fell in love with the hero, came back to the present…but the hero didn’t. However, she ran into him in reincarnated form, and though he didn’t remember, she knew, and knew they were together once again.
I was SO upset!
So yes, give me my traditional ending, but the odd book with a non-trad ending adds variety, so while I probably won’t like them, it doesn’t mean others won’t.
And I’ll bet it’s fun to write something so radically different!
Larissa — that’s Jude Devereaux’s (sp) A KNIGHT IN SHINING ARMOR! I hated that ending with the passion of a thousand exploding supernovas — for years, I kept looking for a sequel, because that ending was WRONG WRONG WRONG!
And ever since, I’ve hated reincarnation stories. But I know a lot of people LOVE that book, so yeah, what do I know?
“(Actually, Tohr’s probabhly lhying dhead in a dhitch somewhere and Wrath’s jhust frontin’ ’bout feelin’ him, yo.)”
Kerry — LMAO!!
I was wondering about Wellsie, too — but I do remember reading somewhere that Ward has stated that Wellsie isn’t coming back (because of all the fighting in the Cellies about it, she stepped in to settle the question once and for all). So maybe it’ll be in a reincarnated form? But I doubt a ghost, sigh.
That’s right! Okay, thanks for clearing up the title and author mystery! That book made me steer clear of both reincarnation AND time-travel romances! Though I will say that I loved Linda Howard’s Son of the Morning!
S’funny I was reasonably okay with Knight in Shining Armor, but as a rule I’m not too keen on the whole reincarnation thing. It just feels a bit off somehow.
Okay, you’ve got me intrigued about the book your sister threw across the room.
What’s the title of it?
I wasn’t thinking Wells would be a ghost, more like Tohr would do what V wanted to do to Jane before the SV stopped him because it would be a Very Bad Thing. I love a Very Bad Thing in a story.
The reincarnation thing I still don’t get. Didn’t Darius die just recently? Then how is he John? Vampire souls can hijack full-grown (or nearly) bodies?
But this becomes an issue of faith in the storyteller for me. Hopefully it will eventually be explained to my satisfaction, but in this particular case, even if it isn’t, it’s not a killer.
I do not like reincarnation love stories. I just feel that someone learning to love again is a much more profound story. Reincarnation strikes me as taking the easy road. I think Lesley is with me on this one. JRW has stated that Wellsie isn’t coming back, and I believe that also includes reincarnation.
Wasn’t there also a big furor over the Candace Steele novels because of a non-HEA or something like that. I think that in shoe-horning as much as possible into the “romance” designation, problems crop up when a book isn’t a conventional romance. It’s a tough call because I’m all for breaking boundaries, but romance readers have a serious expectation of a happy ending. That does constrain where you can go. I suppose it’s like having a mystery where they never catch the bad guy…
I think I just read the book you are talking about. After watching 30 Days of Night, even. The Great Sacrifice worked in 30DoN; not so much in the book. It was all about my expectations — I didn’t expect an HEA in the movie, but seeing “Paranormal Romance” on the bookspine made me expect one in the book. Grrr.:twisted: