Alright, I’ll admit it, how a book ends is majorly important to me. I mean, make it or break it important. The same goes for movies, which is why I NEVER go see movies based or read Nicholas Sparks books. Either he or she die at the end, and I’m sorry, that just kills it for me. I’m not saying all books/movies have to have happy endings, but they should at least wrap all the plot points of the book.

So what got me on this rant?? I’ll tell you. I just finished ‘Captivated by You’, by Sylvia Day. Don’t get me wrong, I love this series and she’s a great writer, but the end of this book is TERRIBLE. It ends in the middle of the scene and there are like plot points hanging. I’m sorry, writing after The End, “Gideon and Eva’s story continues in ‘One with You,’ coming soon,” is no excuse for not ending the story of that book!

Look, so far all the books I’ve published are sequels, but I made sure to wrap up all the major plot points and story lines that are central to each book. If you read only up until the third book in the series, and didn’t read the last two, you would never feel like “Oh my God! You never told me X.” Yes, there are secondary story lines that continue develop in each book, and each book builds on the last, but when you get to the last page of each book, I really wanted the reader to feel like they were satisfied with the ending. Yes, there are unanswered questions, but nothing that detracts from the ending of each book. Maybe I wrote them this way because I’m such a stickler about bad endings. If so, my readers reap the benefits of that.

So back to my annoyance with Sylvia. What annoys me is how this book is such a page turner, and you’re just left hanging at the last page.  I’m sure either her or her publisher think this is supposed to make you desperate for the next book, but does it really?? I mean, how excited am I to have that happen to me again. Honestly, I’m not sure I’ll be getting it unless I KNOW it’s the last book in the series.

It really doesn’t have to be this way, which is what annoys me most. Look at the Fifty Shades of Grey books. (SPOILER ALERT!!!!) The story of book one is: they meet, they get together, it’s hard, will she stay, No, she leaves. Does it make you desperate to get Fifty Shades Darker? Heck yeah, but at the same time, when book one ends, it ends and it’s a hell of an ending.

So, Miss Sylvia Day, This is your one and only warning …. Do it again and you’ll be receiving a sternly worded letter from me with suggestions on how you should have ended your book.

-Jennifer