How many times have you gone to Amazon to look at a book, and it tells you it has an HEA? Some of us (a lot?) read books just for the HEAs. Real-life is difficult and sometimes we just have to read something to restore our faith that we're going to be okay.
I was reading a book recently that talked about how the MC's life had a beginning and a middle, that there was no end. And that makes sense. Until we're gone, there is no end to our personal stories. There are only a beginning and a middle.
Books are the same way. There are a beginning and a middle. But the book is over. It has an ending. But is that really the end of the story? Yes, maybe, but is that the end of the story for the characters? No, not really.
Think about it. How many books have an epilogue to tell you what happens later? How many books do we read and start to believe in the characters? How many times do we become invested in their stories? No, the characters are not (generally, unless it's non-fiction) real. They don't have real lives. But for that space in time, while we read their stories, in our minds, they are real. We imagine them in our minds, picture the events. We keep reading to find out what happens. For that moment, they are real. For that moment, their stories will not end with the book.
So no, these books have no end. They just have a beginning and a middle. And now that this blog is complete, I'm going to try to get some work done on my book's beginning and middle.