Modern Good Reads discussion
Romance
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Frustrating Endings!
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Another thing that drives me crazy is when you have a time travel romance, and something bad happens and the girl is jerked back into the present and the guy is dead and suddenly she meets the reincarnated version of the man she left behind.Just seems like a cop out to me unless it is done well. One of my favs is A Knight in Shining Armour, but I've seen it several times since that book came out years ago, and sometimes, it feels like it has been copy and pasted right from that book.
That just drives me crazy Danielle. Especially when the heroine recognizes the reincarnation hero's flashing blue eyes or some such drivel. Peggy Henderson writes the Yellowstone Series and she does time travel romance very well. Not read any daft reincarnations in her books.
Exactly! I will have to check her out. I've been needing some new reading material. :)
I will be looking at Constructing Marcus when I am on my hols in a couple of weeks time. Thanks for that Dianne. Looks most interesting.Carrying on with the paranormal/romance theme I have read 2 books by new author John Saunders. (Renatus and Renatus 2) They are gritty paranormal detective stories with a healthy dose of romance thrown in and both have an excellent end.
For me it was also interesting to see the differences in how a male writer tackles romance. I know that John's books are really aimed at the Mystery/Thriller reader but the women are a very strong part of the first book and integral to the plot by the second. The paranormal was well done in these books too.
I was surprised at how many genres the books crossed and they still had an excellent ending. No loose ends but a nice hook for the next books in the series.
Dianne- Since I kind of started out writing paranormal stuff (I've always been the weird stuff girl) that part was the easy part. I read paranormal romance (Sherrilyn Kenyon to name an author), but I had never tried writing romance before. So, I figured I would give myself a challenge to see if I could tone down my gory bits and actually write a romance. It wasn't easy. Since I was doing it as YA as well, I had to be careful with the heat level while still making the whole thing believable. I'll be honest, it was out of my comfort zone. My other stories don't have a lot of romance in them and I had to broach how far I wanted to show Emma and Marcus' relationship and to what level I wanted them to get intimate. I did help myself out by making Marcus created in an earlier time, so that helped me decide as well.
I'm pretty happy with the result. I really like Emma. I love the way she ended up being strong, even when she was expected to break.
Jackie- THanks! I hope you like it.
I only find endings frustrating when they are hurried and badly written. I want to savour the end.I know I'm committing blasphemy, but I think the end of Pride and Prejudice is disappointing: it should have ended with a kiss, not with a tail.
If you want to take a look at a book with a non-frustrating ending look at LOTR. The ending is drawn out and takes place after the big climax. I think this is where many writers make a mistake. After the climatic chapter, do some closure with the characters.
Dianne wrote: "Stan, hate to look dumb, but what is LOTR?"Lord of the Rings
Stan wrote: "If you want to take a look at a book with a non-frustrating ending look at LOTR. The ending is drawn out and takes place after the big climax. I think this is where many writers make a mistake. ..."Ha! That's like classical music...It's what I call 'The defy you not to clap' moment!
It's a bit like a 600 page book that I read where the hero ended up going off with some random woman who only entered the story on the second to last page! Feels like it was a complete waste of time reading the blasted thing.
Name and shame so we don't all share the same fate. (so long as it isn't one of my books of course! Tee Hee!)