I recently read a book on my Kindle that I absolutely LOVED. I thought the romance between the two main characters was charming and deliciously racy (this was not a YA book), and I would have bought the sequels (two of them) immediately – if I hadn’t checked the reviews on Amazon. I read a little … and then I went ahead and read some more … even the spoilers. Now I’m not sure I want to read these books.

I know there has to be some romantic tension to make a book interesting. But do they have to break up? If I find out that the male love interest is going to be absent from most of a sequel – do I want to read it? These two people had enough strange circumstances in their lives to keep any sequel lively, why did one of them have to turn into a jerk? Is it the Moonlighting Effect?

Some of you may remember Moonlighting. It was an entertaining and highly successful show – as long as Maddie and David were at each other’s throats and never quite getting together. And when they finally hooked up … ugh, the show went downhill fast and was mercifully cancelled.

Come to think of it, House has been pretty awful since House and Cuddy hooked up. I’m not sure why their romance has led to less interesting medical mysteries, but it has.

What is it about our nature that makes a happy couple less interesting? Is the fictional tension all in the chase? Is it just too boring if the two people who found each other in the first book stay together?

Will I read the sequels of this book I loved so much? We’ll see. I think I’ll read something else first, and then if these characters are still on my mind after that, I’ll probably give in …

What do you think? Am I being a big baby? Ha! — and is it hypocritical of me to complain, considering how We Hear the Dead ends?

(Although that wasn’t my fault. History was history …)