Yeah-- she really goes some dark places with her books and it's not going to be getting any better with the next one. I love that about her.

I'm dying for a book about Alaric, and Riley's sister (can't remember her name).

There is a midpoint between preferring pablum or pain and angst. Some of us don't revel in suffering and unrelenting hopelessness. I can cope with "real" just fine, thanks. But if there's not an inkling that there's not going to be some sort of victory at the end--it may just be moral--then I won't be going on that trip.

This same friend also got shit for her series from paranormal romance fans because she had the utter crust and temerity to make the vampires, for the most part, eeeeeeeeeeee-vil.

Excuse, has anyone seen my eyes? They seemed to have rolled out of my head.

Critic runs into them again after the show ends and asks how the like it now tha they've seen the whole show. The couple turn to her, eyes wide with horror and choke out: "he killed her!".

Typo, I think this is more or less what happened to me with the book that just got canceled (it was loosely based on Carmen). My primary editor knew the story and loved it, but I don't think the other people in the publishing house did-- so there were aspects of my lead character that in the words of the publisher, made her "unlikable." (She's very independent to the point of being a loner and is somewhat acerbic.) But as I said to my agent, "Um,, hello, Carmen? At least my lead (Soledad) isn't an amoral slut who steals and breaks men's hearts for sport."

But if there's not an inkling that there's not going to be some sort of victory at the end--it may just be moral--then I won't be going on that trip.

That's the thing, though, Connie-- Alyssa doesn't go down the dark and twisty road just for the sake of it and because it's romance, the main characters do get their happy at the end. She's not deviated from this in two books and two novellas-- the emotional payoff is there. So I'm willing to go along for the ride with her. I was just so struck by the fact that this reader said she loved so much about the series, yet was unwilling to trust that Alyssa would ultimately give the characters the HEA. I mean, for me, as a reader, the payoff is generally so much better the higher the stakes and odds overcome.

I'm dying for a book about Alaric, and Riley's sister (can't remember her name).

Quinn. Everyone wants that book. And IIRC, that story is about three books off, maybe four. Justice comes out next, then Alexios, then Brennan, then I think Alaric and Quinn will get their story. Unless she decides to change up Brennan and Alaric.

Slightly spoiler speculation below for anyone who might have interest in reading the series but hasn't yet.

Me, I'm just perverse enough that I'd give Alaric and Quinn a brief, fleeting moment of happiness, then have something happen to one of them. Story-wise, I have a hard time seeing how they could have a happy ending, they're both such damaged individuals.

But this is probably why I haven't yet succeeded in being published in adult romance and why I will most likely never write a series.

Oh, I agree -- Alaric can't have a happy ending with anyone, and especially not Quinn. It doesn't have to be a *traumatic* ending, a violent ripping them apart, but they can't be together for long; it just wouldn't work and still be true to the character(s).

Everything Will Be Fine For My Woobie And His Heroine, So Please Don't Write Anything That Might Make Me Worry, Even If You Resolve It In The End, Because I Don't Like That Scary Feeling For Even A Few Chapters.

I admit, I do enjoy this sort of thing now and then, in certain moods. Usually when reality is Not Going Well, and I need to believe that someone, somewhere is actually happy.

Wouldn't want it on a regular basis, though. And would only get upset if something was marketed as a comfy literary blankie and turned out to be very otherwise. And even then, I'd beef at the marketing department, not the author.

and accept that some (many?) people want their fiction to be pure comfortfood - some kind of narrative equivalent of Twinkies.

Hence the popularity of the Twilight series.

Twinkies that twinkle?

I admit, I do enjoy this sort of thing now and then, in certain moods.

I also enjoy this in certain moods too, although what I usually end up doing in those moods in rereading. This is why there are some books I've read 10+ times. However, I would never think of asking the author to write a different type of book.