I've long been a fan of Bones, and Temperance Brennan sure made forensic anthropology look exciting. So, when I saw that Laura Griffin's books, the Tracers series, feature forensic scientists, I was so excited.
With Laura Griffin's fifth full-length book, TWISTED, recently out, I had a lot of catching up to do! But I hadn't read any of Laura Griffin's work before, so when I saw she had a novella, Unstoppable, I decided to start there. (Unstoppable is also part of the Deadly Promises anthology.) After all, she did say on her website that all her books are standalone.
Kelsey Quinn and Gage Brewer immediately drew me into the story. Since they met and were together for such a short time, when Gage, being a SEAL, was called back into duty, he had no choice but to go. But before he did so, they made a promise to do everything they could to keep their romance and love alive. It was a good and realistic ending for me. I closed the book with a satisfied sigh.
And I was ecstatic when I saw on Laura's website that Kelsey and Gage are going to be main characters in an upcoming full-length novel, SCORCHED. Woo hoo! I love these two characters and I do want to read more about them. I imagine them furthering their romance in SCORCHED, where Gage is going to protect her because Kelsey's in danger. It gives me good shivers just anticipating reading the book. (Coming October 2012)
I searched out the blurb in Amazon (surprisingly, Laura didn't have it in her website), and this sentence made my heart stop: "Navy SEAL Gage Brewer knows his relationship with Kelsey is over and done."
What!!!
How could that happen? This is Romance, where my promised HEA is FOREVER AND EVER AND EVER. I felt betrayed and vowed I'm never going to read Laura Griffin again.
After I calmed down (after a good night's sleep), I realized several things, two things actually:
1. I loved the novella's ending because it was realistic. And to be true to reality, a relationship, even a fictional one, has its ups and downs. If a fictional relationship were smooth-sailing, there wouldn't be any conflict and it would make for a really boring book. THEN, I would probably quit reading.
So though initially I don't like it much, I understood why and how their relationship could be over. Their work would've kept them apart, plus maintaining a long-distance relationship is truly hard. My feelings of being betrayed are slowly ebbing by the second.
Plus, knowing Kelsey and Gage are going to have a second chance, this time in a longer book with higher stakes, I'm feeling stirrings of excitement once again. I'm definitely going to read SCORCHED.
2. That I would feel betrayed means I was really invested in Kelsey and Gage. Somehow, in a little over a hundred pages, Laura Griffin was able to make me care about her characters. And for an author to be able to do that means she's good. Very good. Now why would I stop reading an author like that?
While waiting for SCORCHED, I'm going to go back and read the Tracers series from the first book. And if I'm feeling industrious, you'll read the reviews on The Romance Reviews. *wink*
~ by Ashia
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