Monday Cheer

One of the things I love about romance stories is the happily ever after. I need the HEA in the books I read. Please don’t give me the ‘he dies, she dies, everybody dies’ ending.

I should have known back when I was in college studying Shakespeare with a professor who was heavily into the tragedies, that romance was my genre–while everyone else in class was gravely discussing the deep meaning and tragic literary motifs, etc. of Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet and Othello, my mind was wandering off trying to see how they be replotted to give those characters a happy ending. Which, of course, left me confused. I was a Lit major, for heaven’s sake, I was supposed to be into grave, profound and deep. For a Lit major Ulysses is light reading, yes?

Fortunately,  that year I also discovered the Harlequin and Silhouette racks at the local library. It was a shore town and they had a healthy stock of “Summer Reading” books. I may have remained confused in my writing future, but there in that tiny library were HEA’s by the armful.

So I love romance. I love romance stories even more when the author can make me suspend my belief in the hero and heroine’s certain HEA and really worry ‘how are they going to make it through?’

I recently finished Brenda Joyce’s Dark Embrace and she had me staying up far too late turning those pages to find out if Brianna and Aidan would really survive. Of course, they would, and did, but she had me hooked.

What book has had you anxious to turn the pages lately?