When a Romance isn't a Romance...

A couple of weeks ago I read "FaeFever" by Karen Marie Moning. KMM, as she is called by her fans (which I used to be, but not anymore, but, ugh, I am getting ahead of myself AND digressing, AGAIN! Sheesh.)has written 3 books called the DarkFever series about a young woman, Mac, who travels to Dublin to find the killer of her older sister. In the process she discovers that she and her sister were sent away from Ireland from practically birth to protect them from the Fae, who would kill them for their ability to see them without their glamour that usually hides them from human-kind. Imprisioned UnSeelie Fae may found a way to escape, and human-kind and Seelie face untold horrors from these UnSeelie if they do escape.

I was thoroughly disgusted with the novel. Did you notice I called it a novel and not a romance? That's because, as a far as I can tell, 3 books into the damn series, I have yet to have read a romance.

So, that begs the question. When IS a romance a romance? RWA and Wikepedia define it as such- "Novels in this genre place their primary focus on the relationship and romantic love between two people, and must have an "emotionally satisfying and optimistic ending." A very pretty definition that I would say has a few qualifiers. With the advent of Laurell K. Hamilton and Sunny, I would say it could also be the love between 2+ people. But the key part is the "emotionally satifying and optimistic ending". More than anything, I think this is inherent and vital to a true romance.

Elda Minger once wrote a novel (which I can't seem to find now, but I KNOW she wrote it!) where the heroine, at the end of the novel after finding true love through many hardships, is doused with gasoline and engulfed in flames, ultimately dying.

I threw that book across the room when I was finished. (and haven't read her since!)

FaeFever is not much better. Granted, the heroine doesn't die a horrible death at the end, but (WARNING: Spoiler alert) she does get gang-raped by 4 lust-inducing UnSeelie. Am I supposed to feel better because she didn't die and had many orgasms? 3 novels, and I have yet to figure out who she is eventually going to hook-up with. I can try to guess, but KMM has made it extremely difficult to do so.

KMM has been, up til this series, a romance writer. Yes, her novels were dark, but that only made them more appealing as that seems to be one of the trends in romance nowadays. And let me be clear, her DarkFever series is categorized as romance and that's where you find it in a bookstore.

The reality as I heard it from a major book buyer is that there is a love/hate relationship with this series. After reading the reviews on Amazon.com, I feel vindicated that I am not the only one who felt personally betrayed by the ending. And the biggest question is has this series translated into more sales for the author? The answer is no.

Then why do it? The reality is that I am now wary of her as a writer. Will I be buying the next book in her series? No. Will I be reading the next book in her series? Probably not, or at least not until I read reviews that she finally has reached some sort of positive resolution. Considering she hasn't even finished the 4th book, I fear I will have a long wait.

And let me end this long-winded diatribe by saying that fantasy as a genre is fine. Just call it that. Don't expect me to read 3+ books full of horrors and be okay with the fact that its categorized as romance.

I want my romance with a happy ending and a side of positive relationship, thank you very much!