Romance in an Ongoing Series and Unfortunate Events

Teal Deer (TL; DR)

Romance in an Ongoing Series and Unfortunate Events

It’s been almost 20 years and fans are still pissed Kim Harrison killed off Kisten in For a Few Demons More, breaking the possibility of HEA five books into The Hollows series. I stuck it out for several books afterward, swallowing my discontent with the series antagonist becoming Rachel’s new love interest and Harrison’s mishandling of queer vampire Ivy. But when she also killed off supporting characters Matalina and Ceri—who were both in rock-solid relationships with their partners—it was the beginning of the end for me. I packed up and left The Hollows in 2014.

“But Suleikha, urban fantasy isn’t romance. It technically isn’t bound by the same rules.” I’m sure that is the hair that many a writer, editor, and publisher have split. However, when you build a series using romance conventions, knowing a good chunk of your audience is invested in the love stories, you don’t get to bail out without some consequences—which, in this case, means losing readers that you pulled a bait-and-switch on. See also: Deck and Sophia in Suzanne Brockmann’s Troubleshooters, a military romantic suspense series that focused on one or two couples per book and set a few to simmer for the future.

The original back cover copy and vendor descriptions for 2009’s Dark of Night obscured who the central pairing is—unlike every other book in the series before it. Listing the pairings for 13 books in a row and starting it up again after this one is weird, right? If you go look, you’ll see that the current description on Amazon does specify that Sophia’s love interest is Dave, who pines for her across several books. So somebody must’ve realized, at some point, that the blurb needed fixing. What was the logic behind the initial decision to hide that Deck/Tracey and Dave/Sophia are the focus? I can’t even begin to guess. But I would’ve liked to know before diving in. I distinctly remember getting a few chapters into Dark of Night and realizing it wasn’t the story I’d expected. Nothing so dramatic as a gut-punch, but perhaps a little gut-slap. I felt duped. I still own 19 of Brockmann’s books in paperback and hardcover. I didn’t chuck them in a bin or set anything on fire. But my trust in her HEA delivery was irrevocably altered, and it’s still a bit of a sore spot. If I ever decide to go back and reread, perhaps I’ll feel differently. But I’m not ready to do that yet. Give me a few more years to wallow in my crankiness.

Brockmann and Harrison have justified the choices they made—more than once—and stood by them. As is their right! It’s entirely possible one of them will stumble upon this newsletter, so I want to make it clear that I believe authors are free to do whatever they want with their own characters. As a writer myself, I’m never going to demand anyone listen to my opinions and act accordingly. I often say that writing isn’t like ordering at a fast food restaurant and a reader can’t have it their way. You can’t force a writer to build a custom romance novel like a burrito with extra guacamole. The flip side of that is that an author can’t expect readers to keep returning to a place that disappoints them for nourishment. They’re always entitled to DNF and walk away. And that’s why it’s so important to build a world and characters that will encourage as many of them as possible to continue coming back.

Speaking of rewards and celebrations, there’s been a glacially slow romance building between Mallory and Duncan since the beginning of Kelley Armstrong’s Rip Through Time historical mystery series. I slapped my couch cushions, kicked my feet, and giggled like a schoolgirl when we got significant movement in their relationship in the latest installment, An Ordinary Sort of Evil. I trusted that it would happen eventually and I was prepared to wait even longer, which made it all the sweeter when they addressed their feelings in book five instead of book eleventy-seven. The key word here is trust. Frost and Armstrong both knew to make a promise and keep strengthening that promise—like the writing equivalent of a vow renewal. Countless talented authors of ongoing romance-centric series are out there doing the same.

Happily ever after isn’t just a neat little bow tying up a predictable package. It is a workhorse pulling the plot and characters—and the readers—all the way through to the very end. HEA is not a one-time thing. It’s not static. It’s in perpetuity.