Uber Writers and Satisfying Endings

Here is a the link to the newest review of SWTA on the Romance Reviews Today website:

RRT SWTA

I like the way the reviewer gave such great hints without spoiling the plot. It isn't easy to do, especially with books that deal with secrets and double-agents, who to trust or not to, and spy games vs agendas.

I myself enjoy spoilers and go on the web specifically looking for them. I've been known to google for hours for LOST clues and PRISON BREAK spoilers because I want to know so badly. There are some readers who would do that--go looking for spoilers of coming books because they want to know so badly. And then, there are readers and viewers who studious avoid any hints of the book or show because it would destroy their enjoyment. I've read many posts deriding the poor inexperienced web-poster for not warning of SPOILERS in the topic of their posts and thus, in effect, gave away crucial plot points.

Does it bother you too? Or are you one of those who cheerfully scan through the last chapter of the book first before beginning to read?

Anyway, SWTA has a few pretty big secrets around which a reviewer has to carefully write. I'm still crossing my fingers nothing will be revealed on Amazon ;-). There were several readers/reviewers who hated Facing Fear who spoiled its big secret on Amazon when it first came out. Gah, I hated that. Not the review, but the spoiler because that was the climax in FF!

I haven't started the first book of the year yet, but I definitely have many choices! I think I'll start with Susan Johnson's newest historical. I've sort of given up on her but I loved her so much and I've heard good things about the newest one. Either that or something from the TBR.

My last read for the year was the fourth book in the Crimson series, A Darker Crimson by Carolyn Jewel. She did something shocking and this is a SPOILER! (See how I so neatly segued to my own reviewing, heh heh) DO NOT CONTINUE READING if you don't like spoilers:

In A Darker Crimson, Carolyn Jewel has a triangle between the heroine, the hero-vampire, and a demon-lifemate. This in itself is unusual because paranormal romances usually have the hero as the soulmate/lifemate forevah theme. But in this book, the heroine is bonded to her mate but loves her hero.

Then Jewel does something else: she has the demon soulmate "mate" (have sex) with our heroine and though she did enjoy it, she hadn't wanted it. After that Jewel has our heroine having sex with the vampire-hero! This is a risky move for a romance writer, imo, and I applaud that.

However, after "bonding" (marrying) ala-Feehan Carpathian style, to solve the triangle, Jewel frees the heroine by having her kill her demon bond-husband-soulmate! It doesn't matter to me that the demon-husband-soulmate is about to kill her love-vampire. He is in the right, in this case, because he is demon-pissed off that the damn vampire was, umm, sleeping with his soulmate!

This ending left me feeling so sorry for the demon-bondmate/bad guy because...well, he had my sympathy. He showed such promise as a tragic figure--a demon whose bondmate was something he hated, a female woman! And of course, Jewel didn't help by drawing him as a bad-ass and powerful cool looking demon without the horns and bad skin condition ;-).

Sometimes spoilers do prepare the reader for elements like the above that might upset readers who are into "soulmates together forevah" themes. I'm not really into that so that part didn't bother me. It was just that I liked the demon more than the vampire-hero! Now that sort of soured the HEA for me.

END SPOILER.

I guess a book that gave me these reactions is good for the writer in me. It made me think about how to write out of a box and yet have a satisfying ending to a problem. I'm not sure whether I gave a satisfying solution to poor Brad, who had a sort of similar problem about Lily in SWTA. His story is far from over, of course. Maybe that's why I mourn the death of that demon in A Darker Crimson. His story was far from over too.

I think I wrapped up the Crossfire series pretty well, bringing a reunion of sorts in the form of a wedding. But as a writer, I realize I can't make everyone happy because a CERTAIN SOMEONE has already pointed out that there is NO RICK in the book. LOL. You girls just want Jed and Rick in the same room having a pissing contest, that's all!

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