HEAs in Romance – Necessary?
This is nothing new, the debate of the necessity of a Happily Ever After (HEA) in romance books. But it keeps rearing its head wherever curious romance readers go. And we are indeed curious. And opinionated. :)
Before I get too deep into ruminations on this subject, I’m talking PURE romances: books where the development of the hero and heroine’s relationship and romance is the main, centralized element which everything else revolves around, accentuates and amplifies – you know, those curious products that sit in the romance sections of bookstores. For example, Lisa Kleypas’s historical romances (Dreaming of You), or Linda Howard’s romantic suspense novels, or C.L. Wilson’s epic fantasy Tairen Soul series (yes, I know I keep going back to that one, but just look at all the minute details in that one – and yet the main romance is the core of it all!).
Books where the romance is NOT the main element in the book don’t apply to this type of discussion…or maybe they do. Yes, Kim Harrison killed off a major love interest of Rachel Morgan in the Hallows series…but that’s urban fantasy, not a romance. The romance in that series, and many others is secondary, or third and even fourth. Harrison HAS said she will give Rachel Marianna Morgan a HEA, but it’s not the driving force behind that particular series. So, if the romance isn’t numero uno, it’s probably safe to say a HEA isn’t high on its priority list. And that should be obvious when it won’t come till the end of a several book series. Does it make the book any less enjoyable? Speaking as a romance reader, no, it doesn’t, but I’m not looking for an urban fantasy to fulfill my romance requirements either.
I, for one, firmly believe a HEA is essential to the success of a romance book or series. It’s not hard to believe the topic would keep coming up, and with such wide and varied opinions. Things change. Romance isn’t the same as it was ten years ago even and I’d bet my coveted collection of books that, at that time, some couldn’t have imagined how much it would change and morph into today’s version of romance. But I truly think, no matter what else might change one day, the HEA will always be essential. If it’s not playing that starring role, well, it’s just not a romance, certainly not to this dedicated romance reader. It’s an urban fantasy, or a mainstream suspense. A straight fantasy or sci-fi. Obviously, something other than romance…right?
But I do know that some readers don’t necessarily feel that an HEA is necessary for a good romance too. I admit this concept is a bit foreign to me and I wonder how it could be called a romance without that HEA. Oh, I’m not talking Romeo and Juliet or something of that nature. I really do mean within what is labeled as romance mainstream these days, or what’s available in romance through ebooks or small press. But back to the thought that an HEA might not be necessary, should the book in question then be classified as something other than romance? Does it matter when our opinions on what makes a romance can vary so greatly? Certainly there doesn’t seem to be one set of rules for it all (and actually thank goodness for that), although publishers will usually have guidelines on the kinds of romance they want from their authors.
Also, there’s a lot of cross-germination going on within romance these days and things are changing, or so I believe. There are more and more books hitting the romance shelves that don’t seem to hit that personal romance requirement of mine, that of the couple’s romantic development as the main attraction. Here enters a series like Karen Moning’s Fever books, which I love with all levels of awesome. Moning has promised fans a HEA for Mac by the end of the series. As it stands now though? It’s not really a romance, unless one looks at it as one really loooong development to said romance. But the more I think of her Fever series, the more I could compare it to Harrison’s Rachel Morgan books. Both authors have said their heroines will get an HEA, but not till after several books. The Fever books are shelved in all my local stores in the romance section though, due, I believe, to her prior success in the romance arena. It’s not hard to see why all the confusion today. Some people will say that the Fever series, and even the Rachel Morgan books, are romances, simply because they have even slight elements of personal, sexual and emotional relationships within them. But is that really enough to label them as romance? And does the thought of a romance an a HEA being stretched out over several books mean it’s not a romance?
Here, again, I just have to bring up the Tarien Soul series. I think it’s doing all that, the romance, a fulfilling level of HEA-like scenarios in each book so far, exceptional worldbuilding and loads of action, secondary character and plot development…all while focusing primarily on the main couple and their romantic development over four books. It will always come back to: is it supporting, enhancing and empowering the main couple’s romance, and I believe the Tairen Soul series does. Can you think of any other series that has a similar set-up (about one couple) and is successful at maintaining itself as a romance series?
HEAs can vary, and they can vary widely. It doesn’t mean it has to be the happy family, married with kids. It doesn’t have to be a the Brady Bunch, or anything that society deems traditional or even right and moral. If it engages the emotions, pulls us into the story to the point we’re rooting for the couple, experiencing their joys and disappointments and happiness, I’m just fine if they’re boyfriend and girlfriend forever and ever amen. I don’t care if it’s two guys, two girls, three people or a demon and an alien duo. If the book was good enough to make it work, then I will appreciate the happy ending, whatever it may be, because I will have become invested in their story, in their romance.
Romance is definitely present in other books. It can indeed rear up at the end and provide a HEA of sorts for characters in a mainstream fiction, sci-fi or suspense book. It would be darn difficult to keep it out of books completely. Romance is part of life, in some form or another. Relationships, that need for love, support from another person, it has a niche in just about everything we do. So I find it interesting, the notion that mainstream or small press romances don’t necessarily NEED to have a HEA, that a romance book can still be a romance book without the couple ending in some kind of happy, together situation by the last page. To me, that means it’s some other genre. Not a lesser genre, just a different one. Would we say a sci-fi was still one with one of its genre’s most important elements missing?
And then, what makes a romance is certainly more and more a subjective topic. What are your requirements for a good, satisfying, keeper shelf romance? Does a HEA figure in to your requirements? Why or why not?
November 2009
October 2009
September 22, 2009
December 1, 2009
December 29, 2009
August 2009
December 29, 2009
August 25, 2009
September 2009
November 3, 2009
August 4, 2009
October 13, 2009
September 1, 2009
December 1, 2009
January 5, 2010
February 23, 2010
October 28, 2008
February 2, 2010
February 2, 2010
February 2, 2010
February 23, 2010
March 2, 2010
March 23, 2010
May 3, 2010
Yes, I like to read happily ever afters and I like to write them.
In the past, I’ve written women’s erotica where there’s not necessarily been a clearly defined happily ever after, and that was right for me at the time. But the older I get, and the more I write, the more I want and need HEA.
Obviously it’s not always marriage and kids, but at the close of the book I like there to be the sense that the couple are together for good, and through thick and thin, and through the ups and downs ahead. Like in life, really.
When I read, I want to be smiling at the end, and feeling that ‘all’s right in the world’ glow.
If the hero and heroine go through hell and back, I want my HEA. I need some sort of the light at the end of the tunnel by the end. I don’t necessarily need the white picket fence, but something to the effect that our couple are together and somewhat, if not totally happy.
You can have a great love story without havin an HEA. Just look at Gone with the Wind or Titanic. But when I read a book marketed as a romance and/or that claims to be one *coughcoughLoverEnshrinedcough** I expect a good love story that ends with a HEA. And if the HEA isn’t there at the end of the book, I’ll be pissed off big time. Some of what stores shelve in romance isn’t romance though and it can be misleading for uninformed consumers. For instance, Moning’s FEVER series is definitely not romance to me, as opposed to her Highlanders. I believe KMM even said before the release of Darkfever. It’s good paranormal/urban fantasy with a hint of romance that gets bigger with each book and therefore shouldn’t be shelved with romance. But then, it’s not literature either, so I understand bookstores for not quite knowing what to do with it. Somewhere with the Jim Butcher and Tanya Huff books, probably.
Portia, thank you. That is exactly what I was thinking. Closing the book at THE end, smiling, feeling fulfilled at the couple’s HEA. There’s really nothing else like it for me in reading books.
Katie, that’s another good point, the fact that we often read through some enormous struggles before getting to the end. A HEA does seem to make it all the more worth it.
I think that an HEA is necessary in romance too. Otherwise, there isn’t much of a reason to invest in the story and characters emotionally only to see them go their separate ways. That is just a tortuous journey, imho.
I also don’t mind if it takes a few books for that to happen. Especially if the journey is worthwhile, they grow and expand as characters, etc. Sometimes the HEA can be even more satisfying if they have to overcome obstacles to get to each other as opposed to being happily together from the get go.
UF, on the other hand, doesn’t need a HEA as much as Romance because of focus, as you said. I also think that because of crossover, that the HEA is and should be one of the defining elements that keeps the genres from totally diluting each other.
Mary, you make a compelling point there with Gone with the Wind.
I think one reason too that the Fever series is in romance sections is because it is crossing threads with her previous and most recent Highlander romance books. In that regard, that may be where some confusion is coming in too.
The interesting thing about the Black Dagger books is it’s really challenging us as to what a HEA can be. I mean, first ever human heroine ending as a ghost for me, but it still wasn’t plausible by book’s end, not for me. Lover Enshrined was just…well, you know what I think it is. *g* After that one, I no longer cared to keep looking at how the BDB could’ve changed romance as whole, simply because it’s clear the series is not meant to be romances anymore. It’s not the HEA issue for me though with them, it’s the lack of romantic focus in a 500+ page book (for two books in a row now), that, as you said, claims to be a romance.
Lisa, that is such an excellent point, the fact that elements that make a romance, and elements that make another genre what it is, NEED to be there, else they could dilute one another. Thank you for putting that into such understandable wordage lol. I was struggling.
I think it’s the difference between romance and romantic.
If I’m reading a book marketed as a romance then I expect a happily ever after. I wish publishers would bear this in mind when they market UF as PNR. Jackie Kessler’s Hell’s Belles is a great story but (to me) it isn’t romance.
I very rarely read what I consider to be straight romance – that’s romance that’s not been combined with fantasy/UF/scifi. Maybe the closest I come is Nalini Singh or Kresley Cole.
But romantic? One of my favourite books is The Time Traveller’s Wife which is about the relationship between two people. Does that have a happy ending? A lot of people would say no. And I was in floods of tears towards the end, but when I closed the book I was smiling. But I couldn’t read anything for two weeks after.
What I wish about the BDB is that it hadn’t metamorphosed halfway through the series. For me, it’s not too bad, but for readers who prefer a more traditional format they’ll always compare new books to the first three. Even as a non-romance reader I still think the first three books are the best written.
Uh yeah, I agree on Kessler’s succubus books. They are a hoot and entertaining as hell (pun intended), but no, not a romance to me either.
Couldn’t agree more with your take on the BDB books! The first few (four for me) really set a high standard for the series. It should come as no surprise to anyone that folks are a bit upset at this point with LEn.
Interesting topic and one that I think about all the time. Seriously. I am new to Romance , I only recently started reading the genre and one of the reasons why I love it so much is that there is a HEA waiting for me at the end.
This is very strange to me, because prior to reading romance I did not care one way or the other , in fact some of my favorite books are Gone With the Wind, Wuthering Heights and I am sucker for Shakespeare’s tragedies. Now, the HEA has become so important to me that I may shy away from other genres altogether if I know things end badly and then I feel guilty for not reading other stuff that could be good but would not bring me the said smile in my face. Crazy, I know.
I think LesleyW has a very good point in separating romance and romantic. All of the examples I cite above are romantic but can not be categorised as romance. And yes, to get to the point, what I am trying to say very convolutely is that romance must have a HEA – It is what defines the genre, in my opinion. If it doesn’t have a HEA it is not romance.
And to answer your other question: a romance gets to my keeper shelf when everything comes together – good writing, good timing, good hero and heroine. If you add some well-researched or well developed background, then it is in the front of the keeper shelf. I would say all Loretta Chases and most Julia Quinns belong in there. A few Lisa Kleypas. Meljean Brook and most definitely the Tairen Soul series which is just stumpendous.
I’ve read some incredibly beautiful love stories that don’t end up with an HEA, but those are usually in Literature; NOT in what we call mainstream “Romance.” When I purchase a romance, I WANT a romance, which equals an HEA. I don’t care if they are paranormal / historical / M/M/F or M/M or whatever — if they say Romance, they end with an HEA.
I love KMM’s Fever series, and I’m devouring it, and waiting impatiently for the next book. However, to me, this series is definitely not in the Romance category… weather Mac gets an HEA at the end or not!
Ana, thanks for weighing in especially with you being a recent add-in to the romance genre.
I too will read romance for that ensured HEA, the happiness the book will end in, and like you, the smiles it will give me. You know I don’t read too many weighty issued books. Sometimes I can read them, but primo reading entertainment for me are romance books, so yeah, I’d like for them to end happily.
Hilcia, the Fever books really aren’t romances, are they? The sexual tension surrounding Mac and Jerricho is intense and page-turning goodness, but it doesn’t even carry the hallmarks of romance, their relationship. There’s no love, no tenderness or caring. It always animalistic in nature, alpha, a kind of survival of the fittest relationship…not that I find anything wrong with it lol.
And I have a feeling that this version of a HEA from Moning will be totally different re her other books, her romances.
I’ve got to get this Tairen Soul series if everyone keeps raving about it.
Lesley, I would love to hear your take on it if you do read it. It’s bound to be one of my all-time favorites. I’ve heard some think Elysetta, the heroine, is a Mary Sue, but I just didn’t see her that way. My only complaint is Wilson only managing to write a 1000 page manuscript for the series’ pitch to the publisher. *g*
Lesley, you must! it is one of the best series around.
Kmont, Talking about Tairen Soul, guess what I got in the post today! ; ) I nearly had a heart attack.
*grips desk, which is hard to do when typing*
Ana, did you get the third book in a wonderful series that I’ve been talking about incessantly in today’s post alone? Does it have big, flying black cats? Does it have Elden mages? DID YOU GET THE THIRD TAIREN SOUL ARC IN THE MAIL???
If not, please forgive *hysterical laughter*. I’m just a tad bit obsessed with the Tairen Soul books. Muuahaaahaaa…ha..ha?
In short, as it just so happens YES I DID muwhahahahahahah!
Seriously, that is the ONE book I most want to read and when I saw it I was jumping up and down and screaming like a madwoman. Yeah, this series bring teh obsession.
*THUD*
*SWOON*
*WHAAAA!!!!!!*
Ana, you are the blogger bomb! Good for you! It is probably at the peak of my TBR list for the year. Well, duh, lol. Yes, I’m sooo jealous, but glad for you too. I bet you are reading it already? Aren’t you? You opened it as soon as you saw it, peaked around….didn’t you? DIDN’T YOU?!
LOL, I went straight to read the ending LOL. I suck.
But the worst thing? No, can’t read it properly right now and I won’t until August. argh !!! Can you believe that? I have SO MANY books to read right now, July releases and then holidays with my sister. I won’t have free time to read it until August. It’s making me sick.
I hijacked your comments section sorry! : (
*feels Ana’s forehead*
*checks her pulse*
*checks own pulse*
Ana, humans don’t really, really need sleep. You could be reading King of Sword and Sky at night and doing all that other wonderful stuff by day. I know you’re super organized and a good blogger for all the dedication you just briefly described, but…
*checks Ana’s temp again*
I tell you what…I will very graciously and magnanimously offer to take KoSaS off your hands for a little while.
SIGH.
LOL, you did not, Ana. No worries. We ARE discussing one of the most heavenly series to date!
You are kindness in person *g*
LOL, OK, if you say so. We shall let them think so. *whistles*
I like my HEA. I don’t just read Romance books for the hot sex, no ma’am! *grins*
But seriously, what’s a romance book without a HEA?
Wendy, the hawt secks IS nice, but yeah, it’s not the only attraction at the romance theme park. That’s one of my hot buttons, when the entire genre or its readers get dismissed because of the sex factor.
If the book is a series – I don’t HAVE to have the HEA at the end of book 1. But there ABSOLUTELY HAS to be a hero/heroine that are destined to have a HEA right from the very beginning. I can wait until the end of the series for the payoff as long as I know without question that there will be one. But all deals are off if somewhere in the series, the hero/heroine change or one gets killed off. That’s one thing that keeps me from reading Stephanie Myer. By the sounds of it, Bella may not end up with the original hero. And I can’t read the Stephanie Plum books as romance because for me, it has to be Joe and I’m not sure if it will be.
But if it’s romance – there MUST be a HEA. Has to be, has to be, has to be. That’s why I READ romance.
A big WORD to heroes or heroines that get killed off in a romance. Not cool at all.
You know, I think it’s really damn hard to write a happy ending that isn’t chintzy, and there’s nothing that will kill my enjoyment more of a book than an ending that rocks of romance-novel-fodder. I know I can be pretty picky about it. Sometimes the happily ever after does bother me. It’s not realistic – and I know that the point of romances isn’t to be realistic – but I think it’s possible – it’s possible – hm – to write a romance that doesn’t have a happily ever after. Just because it’s not a happily ever after doesn’t mean it’s a sad ever after. All right, now my brain’s churning with ideas. But sometimes it annoys me so ever lovin’ much that things get all patted together at the end. Not to say that I don’t love me a good HEA when it’s well written and fits. But in my mind sometimes that’s the most annoying part – knowing that this guy and this girl will end up together after all. It sort of weirdly makes me think of William Golding saving all the boys on the island.
Which ones do I keep? The ones that work – like Ana said, the ones where the writing, story, characters, and plot all accomplish something. Jennifer Crusie has yet to disappoint me, I like most Nora Roberts trilogies (the Morrigan’s Cross trilogy was a big exception to that rule), Jude Deveraux historicals (especially The Duchess, which flirts with an abnormally non-romance novel ending). I have high hopes for more Julia Quinn – I’ve only read The Lost Duke of Wyndham so far.
HEA to me is when at the end of the book the hero and heroine have acknowledge their love for each other and the reader knows that they will have a life together. They don’t have to be blissfully happy with stars in their eyes. I don’t need the wedding, baby etc. but a good romance should show me HOW they got to the HEA. I don’t want to be left scratching my head thinking, “Why is she with Tom when she seemed better paired with Harry?”
The Tairen Soul series I look at as a very long romance novel that just had to be split into 4 books. Love that series!
Kate, yep, the HEA definitely needs to make sense. If somewhere along the way, some kind of magical spell takes hod and we never really see why they fell in love, a HEA doesn’t seem to make sense then. I think I can give the reality part a bit of a slide…but it does need to be realistic for the BOOK. Not sure if that’s what you were meaning, or if you’re strictly meaning our reality, as we live life, etc. But if you’re OK with there being no HEA, have you read a book labeled as romance that didn’t have one? I’m really curious to know the title. Or is it just that you are OK with a HEA that’s not all candles and moonlight and roses, but tamped down a bit? Kind of an OK-Ever-After, I guess?
Leslie, I think that’s a good way to describe HEA for today, that the couple has acknowledged their love for one another. It leaves the door open for any kind of possibilities within different HEAs and books.
I don’t think I’ve ever read a romance without an HEA, and I don’t particularly expect to, to be fair. I don’t think I want an ok-ever-after either…it’s sort of hard to explain. Sometimes I feel like it’s cheap to read a book knowing that John and Jane are definitely going to end up together, but the ones that feel genuinely cheap to me are the ones where really there is nothing else going on – no conflict, no plot, no problems. I don’t know if I’m asking too much, but sometimes the HEA is just ridiculous and more obvious than normal. I’m sorry I can’t think of a good example right now. The reality part – I think I have a hankering for a bit more of our reality in the books, not that I want to see the dirty diapers or dishes piling up in the sink, but something that I can imagine (particularly in contemporary reads) being possible. If there’s a magic spell going on or a head injury for a personality change or no real change of hearts outside the great sex, that’s not particularly intriguing or realistic for me.
I feel like I’m not explaining myself so well – I’m sorry! I’ve not had any coffee yet. :)
Kate, I think I understand…is it simply that you prefer more realistic romances. like contemporaries as opposed to paranormal?
i agree that in order to reach that HEA, there DOES need to be a good conflict, reasonable problems that could possibly keep the hero and heroine from attaining that HEA. I want to feel at some point that it might not happen…lol, does THAT make sense? Simply enough, they just have to WORK for it, not have their HEA handed to them.
kmont, what you said in your second paragraph makes perfect sense to me. I think we all know that they’ll end up together – it’s a romance, after all, that’s how they’re written – but it is really nice having a decent enough conflict of some variety that it may not happen! Yes, not having it handed to them…I second that. I think I just like a bit more reality, and not the everyday-sort of reality, just a bit of warts-and-all.
Funny enough I tend not to read a ton of contemporary, and the only paranormals I’ve ever read are the Nora Roberts Morrigan’s Cross trilogy (which I didn’t like) and her ongoing Seven series (which I do.) I’m far more a historical reader, though I’ll read anything when it’s written well.