Keep Me Hanging On...

So I'm reading this fabulous book. The characters meet, interact, have sex for pages and pages...and suddenly declare their love for one another and vow to live happily ever after. The End.

(Sound of screeching tires)

Whaaaaat?

Whoa; back up a minute. When was the last time you met a stranger, or reconnected with a past lover, and after a night of passion, lived happily ever after?

'But wait, Kenze...this is fantasy!'

Yeah, I know. But what I love is a little realism mixed in. I want to know what happens after they clinb out of bed and let the Real World know of their connection. What happens next? What happens when the hero returns to his apartment and finds a letter from an old girlfriend? Or the phone rings and he has an emergency and can't see his new lady love for another twenty-four hours? What happens if she calls her best friend and bubbles over with her good news, only to be met with 'Are you out of your FREAKING MIND?'

Yes, it can happen. I want to know that the two people I'm reading about will have a lasting relationship, and they would walk through fire in order to be with each other.

Now I've never stopped reading books by authors who do this, and I've never stopped reading a series simply because characters were killed off, or unbelievable circumstances arose; I've only stopped reading one particular series because by book #3 I was so disgusted with the general plot, writing, etc. I think the author could have done better. And the only other reason I'll stop reading a book is if I find myself skimming the pages, not really reading. If it's not holding my interest by chapter 2 or 3, forget it. I'll likely put it down and maybe try again in a year or two...or ten, when I come across it in a box somewhere. Or in the case of e-books, if I can't remember what it was about and open the file. It all depends on my mood at the time I'm reading.

And now you know why Gone With The Wind, Centennial, Hawaii, and books by John Jakes, Herman Wouk's Winds of War, and The Woman of Substance series are my all-time favorite print books to read. (Running a close second would be Lavryl Spencer, Nora Roberts, and Marion Keyes.) E-books? Anything by Anny Cook, Brynn Paulin, Bronwyn Green, Cindy Spencer Pape, Mona Risk, and Kelly Kirch.