Modern Good Reads discussion

The Italian InheritanceThe Italian InheritancePossible spoiler alert
Well I just finished reading this book and yes it was a contemporary romance novel but low and behold ..It didn't all end happy! I have to say I thought what is going on . Being fairly new to genre after about 20 odd books you get the general gist of the stories Hell that swhy we read them Everything always works out as it suppose to Girl get Boy get married or plan to win the day etc. Well don't get me wrong 90% all followed the rules but this "maverick" writer bent one them I nearly passed out with surprise

At one time ,with movies I thought of creating a database, with warning system (not unlike the age appropriate system we have now)but this one would grade on F for Feelgood movie. H for Happy ending. I for inconsistent to Genre, and maybe even WTF for The heroine dies! or they don't get married and they never live happily ever after!! Could certainly have the same for books!

Kenzie wrote: "The Italian InheritanceThe Italian InheritancePossible spoiler alert
Well I just finished reading this book and yes it was a contemporary romance novel but low and b..."

I read a romance book by 'she who will not be named' (so incensed I can't actually form her name in my brain!) not so long ago where the 'H' took 600 pages to actually fight his way to be with his 'h'.

There were several battles to the death, raging wolves, tyrannic parents, kidnapping, jealous rivals, epic war, a spell in a dungeon, and any number of other things going on but when he actually gets to live a HEA, she goes off with some guy in a short battle frock(apparently he had a great pair of pins!) and has the 'H' s baby and he (the H) doesn't mind and goes off and marries some random French woman who runs a bakery!!!

600 pages!!!! And all the rubbish happened in the last 10...I nearly threw my beloved kindle across the lounge!

I am a sucker for a happy ending.. I don't like books where the H or h die or their relationship doesn't have some sort of happy ending. They don't have to marry in the end, but I'd like a proposal at the very least. Life is too short to read books with tragic endings.

Maybe i'm crazy. I like when writers mess with my head. To me, if you intended to make me cry or laugh or throw my book across the room, and I cry or laugh or throw my book across the room...you did what you set out to do. And that probably means your book is killer!!

Teshelle wrote: "Maybe i'm crazy. I like when writers mess with my head. To me, if you intended to make me cry or laugh or throw my book across the room, and I cry or laugh or throw my book across the room...you d..."

That's an excellent point Teshelle and I too have read some books that actually make me sit back and breathe deeply when that happens. Those are the exceptional ones that we all hope to discover.

The ones I detest are when you actually feel cheated by the writer. The book I was referring to above just looked as though the writer had lost her way and she wrote the quickest way out of all the hero's and heroine's difficulties that she could think of. I think she was out of ideas and desperate to finish the book. It was very disappointing after all the time invested.

David Weber wrote a book about an invasion of Earth by aliens. The book was about the struggle between them. Then, in the last pages, vampires suddenly showed up and destroyed the aliens. Give me a break.

Stan wrote: "David Weber wrote a book about an invasion of Earth by aliens. The book was about the struggle between them. Then, in the last pages, vampires suddenly showed up and destroyed the aliens. Give me..."

Bwahahahaha! Almost worth reading for the laugh!

There is something awful about being left hollow at the end of a book...It's not even a 'cliffhanger' (something I detest) but just an empty sort of feeling, though that of course means that the author has done a good job. I still prefer a good HEA.

Dianne wrote: "I'm curious what readers think about cliffhangers. I recently read a book an author had sent me for review. When I got to the end I was definitely left hanging. Contacted the author and told him he..."

I would agree with you most of the time, but there are occations when for a very good reason there is a choice to the type of ending you perceive. This is not a hollow ending it just that you chose the conclusion depending on your outlook.

In my view, cliffhangers should be left for chapter endings. Even seen the end of Twin Peaks? Very annoying.

Now, about writing cliffhangers. What makes a cliffhanger a cliffhanger? The emotion that is evoked in the reader. What's going to happen next? Cliffhangers are not necessarily scenes of a person hanging from a cliff (for example) they are chapter endings in which something happens that causes the reader to look up at the clock, note that it is midnight, and say, "Just a few more pages."

Here it comes, she thought, trying to keep tears from leaking. He's going to break up with me.
He took a deep breath, took her trembling hand in his shaking fingers and asked, "Will you marry me?"
End of chapter

If the reader ABSOLUTELY must find out what happens next then that was a successful cliffhanger.

I was conned while on holiday just this week with a cliffhanger book. It was actually very good and I was well into it and then it suddenly ended with the characters literally hanging in a life and death situation.

I've been conned before into buying several 'episodes' of one book so I just deleted the blasted book from my kindle.

Every book must have a satisfactory ending to the present story. However a author is well advised to leave a threat for a continuation. Walk away and have the choice to return. Just like Jason Bourne, or like Stieg Larson and his 'Girl with the Dragon Tattoo". The books you can read individually and be satisfied with the story, but then again they blend in with each other. We also have the individual characters that create a stand alone book and continue into a series. Daniel Silva's Gabriel Allon, and Conelly's Hyronimus Bosh. Many of these books lean on the previous volume, but all have a satisfactory ending, like each event comes to pass tonight and we wake to a new day, a continuation just briefly interrupted.

Erich wrote: "Every book must have a satisfactory ending to the present story. However a author is well advised to leave a threat for a continuation. Walk away and have the choice to return. Just like Jason Bour..."

Girl with the Dragon Tattoo became even more fascinating to me when I realized the book was one big comeon for the real story in the next two books.

I felt cheated by all the hoopla for Sylvia Day's Bared to You. It's advertised as a trilogy, which should be three connected books, not one book for three price tags! I only read the first, which was good, but when I realized I would have to pay more than a hard-cover price for the full e-book, I said no way. Don't call a three part story a trilogy.
As for romance, it's practically the definition - a love story with an HEA. Otherwise label it Women's Fiction.