Forgive me if this post sounds like I'm kvetching but I have an upper respiratory infection and a massive headache from over-medicated sleeping at the wrong angle and I feel like death on white, no mustard, as well as a wee bit sorry for myself.
Now, when good characters go bad. I'm not talking about heroes becoming villains here. No, I'm referring to the revisit sequence in a series, when a character you loved in a previous book have become entirely different people in follow up books. The feisty heroine we rooted for is nothing but a nagging baby mill. Or the gutsy hero we fell in love with has obviously castrated himself and handed the family jewels over to the little lady. Or worse, the witty banter devolved into petty bickering. This drives me nuts. What happened to the living the Happily Ever After? Frankly, if this is how they are going to carry on I'd rather not read about them.
As an author, I know what it's like to fall in love with a character, to wonder what his or her HEA is like. The temptation to revisit the magic they gave you is great, just to know them that way again. But I've always maintained that I'm a reader first and as such I want to keep my fantasies of my favorite characters intact. I love series books, but there comes a time when the world has been beaten to death and the characters are just tired. Let them rest in peace and leave while the party is in full swing I say.
What about you? Do you like revisiting already paired-off characters? Or do you find that your own version of HEA is better left undisturbed?
4 comments:
I just wrote the most brilliant response and Google devoured it. I was trying to say that I enjoy "touching base" with couples from previous books in series offerings, but I can't say that I've ever read a "round 2/after the HEA" book I truly enjoyed. The magic that made the first book is seldom as sizzling during round two...
I'm dying to know what book you were thinking about when you wrote this!
Google is such a pain in the ass, eats my good stuff all the time.
It wasn't just one book, I've had that happen several times across the board, from self published to bestselling authors.
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