Incantatore asked Melissa Brayden:

Reading How Sweet It Is, I thought for a while you'd not put the great obstacle all romance novels seem to have near the end. The one leading to parting and anguish before true love triumphs again. Do you thing this parting to be always essential to love stories or is it possible for you to stir the reader's emotions in a different way? I don't mind going into that while reading, but I ask that myself often.

Melissa Brayden Incantatore,
This is an excellent question! I don't think it's necessary to pull the main characters apart, no. However, if the couple does find their way to each other before the climax of the story - I do think it's necessary to work in some sort of conflict. Does it have to be an official parting of ways? Not at all. But it happens to be a convention I enjoy as a reader - watching the couple work their way back to each other - and I find myself writing the convention at times as a result. I'm not sure it will always be that way - in fact it already isn't - but it's a nice old standby reminiscent of classic romance tropes. -Melissa

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