Can you take this?

Open Book Stamp
Welcome to Open Book Blog Hop and Romance on Wheels.  Today, we’re talking about what we hope reader’s take away from our books when they read them.  I’ll tell you what I think, you tell me if I’m way off.  Deal?

When I wrote my first book, Second Chances, which I later retitled to Designing Samantha’s Love, I had looked around for a book that featured mature characters who had been there, done that, so to speak and a nice heartfelt romance with some spicy scenes thrown in.  I had a hard time finding more than a couple here and there, and so I sat down to write.  I figured I’m pretty average and if I was looking for a book like that, there must be others looking for one too.

Since then, I’ve written seven other books and I’m currently plotting my eighth.  I’d say my books have a theme, maybe a couple of themes.  First, love can happen when you least expect it. I’ve seen it in real life, so I know it’s true.

Second, life isn’t always pretty, clean, or easy.  As humans, we screw up.  We live life and go through things, some of our own doing, some not so much. But, we aren’t given a handbook on life when we come into this world. Based on how we were raised and the environment we grew up in, we handle things differently.  Sometimes we handle things well and sometimes we fall short.  My characters do to.  They have or had made mistakes, they aren’t always politically correct and they don’t always have the best manners.  But, I hope my characters come off as real, and in the end learn to do the right thing.

Third, I always, always have a happy ending.  I believe every book should end that way, even though life doesn’t.  But I’d like to leave my readers feeling good about the ending and, selfishly, I need that for my characters so I can sleep at night.

Did I get it right?  Let me know.  Then, hop on over and see what my fellow bloggers want you to take away from their books.

8 thoughts on “Can you take this?”

  1. I worry about some of the things I put mu characters through. But knowing I’m going to give them a happy ending helps.

  2. I Love the build up, all of the angst and heartbreak we have to go through to get to the happily ever after!! I am a glutton for punishment lol

  3. You got it right. As a reader of “just about anything” I can tell you that a story with a satisfying ending, (even if it’s one I didn’t see coming!), is a lot more memorable than a cliffhanger or a senseless ending. I’ll remember the story where the main characters die and the families deal with the aftermath with way more clarity than I will the story where the main and/or secondary characters die… the end. That’s a little extreme but I hope you get my point.

    • I love getting a reader’s perspective. Thank you, and I do get your point. I read a book like that once and I was so pissed off I vowed to never read that author again. I need a happily ever after.

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