Last Month In Ridiculous Romance
I'm back to entertain you with another Ridiculous Romance Round-Up! As ever, blurbs are stolen from Amazon because that's not the part I want to snark. It's probably a good idea to assume there are spoilers behind the cut, and it's probably a good idea to assume I might make fun of tepid sex scenes. Ready? Let's begin!
( Two Against the Odds )
( Two Against the Odds )
Books need to keep their own explanations consistent between the beginning and end, and characters' motivations should change only when the character legitimately changes. Hint to romance authors: falling in love and being "reformed" by the "right person" is not a realistic basis for change. Very few people are truly reformed and stay that way.
I do get the appeal of Big Misunderstandings, but I try to avoid them. I want my characters to be intelligent, so even if they're oblivious to something that I know or readers know, I want them to react as they really would, or as somebody in reality would. Running away crying because I saw my boyfriend hugging another girl would never happen.
I expect that if any reader paused during a Big Misunderstanding scene, they would realize that 1) normal people don't hide parentage from someone who would not overreact about having a child, and 2) normal people don't wax suicidal over their significant other having a conversation with someone else of the opposite sex.
But see, you actually revise and can acknowledge that maybe your Big Misunderstanding doesn't need to be there. These people don't ever make it that far. Sad.
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