It's the end of the book as we know it

The ending to every book is crucial. You can write a stellar book, keep the reader spellbound the entire time, but if you mess up the ending, what does the reader remember?

A lousy ending.

But what makes a GOOD ending in a romance novel... since it is February after all... the month of LOVE!

The Sigh Factor

For ALL endings, no matter the genre, I think there is a common rule (er, okay, guideline, but this is pretty close to a rule if there was one!)

The ending needs to be SATISFYING!

For a romance, I'll even go a step further.

Hero and Heroine have to be TOGETHER at the end. Not always married, but pretty close!

There, I said it. Debate it if you will. Disagree with me or what not. But when I reach the last page of a "romance" novel, I better be 100% sure that these two people are going to end up together. No probably. No foreshadowing. No "I like you so let's see where things lead...." Blah, spit in the sand, throw book across the room. (So I'm a wee bit dramatic....)

Now, if you write suspense with layers of romance, that's a bit different. Same with women's fiction with a romantic element. If romance is secondary and you aren't branding the book as a romance, then do with it what you want--as long as you still have a satisfying ending.

I know I'm coming off highly opinionated on this, but it's important. There's a trust issue that comes into play when a reader invests time to see how this romance will play out. If the book ends with the romance unresolved or unsure, the trust is broken.

By the way, a sequel that resolves it does not make things okay. The only time I was okay with that was Francine River's Mark of the Lion series. But I gotta tell you, unless your first name is Francine and last name is Rivers and you end with the heroine being ... (well, I won't ruin the ending...) good luck with that:-)

The non-eye-rolling Factor

Ever read a book and got to the end and it was just... corny? It's like a writer got to the end, was tired, word count was up, and said, okay, we'll resolve everything and end it now. Two pages later, The End.

An ending should be natural to the story. Organic and needed. Your black moment, right before your ending, should be so bad that you have no choice but to redeem the situation. And your redemption needs to be something more than, "They changed their minds, fell in love, and kissed, the end."

In short, your ending needs to be believable.

The Messy Factor

When we write our novel, there are all sorts of lose ends. For the most part, these need to be tied back up at the end to create our satisfying ending. But they don't have to be nice, neat and predictable. Feel free to add a little pizazz... make your reader glad they finished because they did NOT realize that was going to happen.

This does NOT mean that Joe doesn't kiss Jane and they don't live happily ever after.

And it does NOT mean that Jane slaps Joe and goes and kisses John instead.

But it does mean that Jane might be really close to kissing John before she realizes that Joe is her real true love, and John might get mad and go and try to kill Joe in a jealous rage but Jane steps in and takes the bullet instead and ends up in the hospital, critically ill and Joe comes and they kiss sweetly so as to not hurt Jane and Joe promises to love and cherish her for the rest of their lives.

Anyway, probably a horrible example, but point is, twist it up a little. Think outside the box. Throw your reader a curve-ball, but don't leave them hanging.

Discussion: How do you come up with your endings? What are your favorite type of endings? Do you, like me, absolutely hate it when a romance novel doesn't end with "boy and girl together forever"? Or am I the only romance-novel-purist out there?