A Challenge

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I ain’t gonna link to it, but I’ve said it so many times–HEA is in the eye of the reader. I was going to post this at Jorrie’s blog but I decided not to because I have a challenge for you, dear readers…….Name for me a book that might not fall under the banner of romance that has an HEA (boy gets girl).

I’ll go first……..Good Grief by Lolly Winston (there’s a link to your right). Woman’s husband dies, woman has complete mental breakdown involving chocolate, broken dishes and bunny slippers, woman pulls herself together, moves and sells house and gets a job. Woman ends up owning own business, taking care of MIL with Alzheimers, takes in her “Little Sister” (from big brothers big sisters) AND gets the guy at the end.

So, yeah death isn’t exactly the funniest, happiest subject in the world and Lolly’s main character could have been a total dishrag but she so wasn’t. The writing is excellent, and the book is funny (and poignant) at times. Not a romance. If I had to stick a label on it, I’d say it falls somewhere between chick lit and women’s fiction (eyeing Sybil).

This book is on my keeper shelf. :tater:

Since Lyn mentioned her book (Leaving Mama available now from Samhain) I thought I’d point ya’ll toward her blog where she’s got a bit of a contest going. I WISH I had time to read it for her now 😑

13 thoughts on “A Challenge

  1. I cannot even remember the last “non-romance” that I read (not recently anyway)… I have read a lot of series in the past (Reigen Rielly, Stephanie Plum, Lucas Davenport etc…) and they sometimes do get the signif other at the end, but you never know if they will be together in the next book so I don’t know if that counts.

  2. I was thinking the same thing. The Stephanie Plum books. Not romance, but she occasionally gets her man. :kiss:

  3. *sigh* I’ve never read Stephanie Plum (and I know Sasha’s a fangirl :kiss: ). I hate books when the series is so far along-I should probably try Metro Girl.

    Trace…I’ll have to check it out and thanks for playing along! I tried to read California Girl but something about it just didn’t work for me.

    Come on ya’ll, keep em coming!

  4. Jennifer Weiner: In Her Shoes, Good In Bed – she’s a HOOT.

    :woohoo: My 1st mainstream? – lol

    Let’s see, there’s also :tater: …well, I’m thinking. The only others I can come up with are film scripts, such as Grosse Point Blank, et al, and mysteries such as the Emelia Peabody mysteries by Elizabeth Peters.

  5. My frist thought was Gone with the Wind. Maybe not a traditional romance in modern day terms, but definitely not an HEA. The classic Wuthering Heights has a tragic ending. As a reader, if the HEA doesn’t feel like something the characters would do, I can’t buy it.

  6. I’ve been thnking all day and it hurts. But I’m bound and determined to come up with one – just didn’t want you to think I was ignoring you.:heythere:

  7. Sheesh…haven’t had much reading time lately…

    I can do movies too–not that they ended with a walk down the aisle necessarily, and people were hurt or killed–but with the H/h together and happy as far as we can SEE…a lot of the Hitchcock films. Blade Runner. Independence Day. Airplane. .

    Books?
    Dean Koontz, “Whispers” is the only one I can think of off-hand.
    I gotta do more reading…

  8. I spend more time on your blog than I do my own – lol – but I was up last night trying to think of other non-romance where boy gets girl, and I thought of one of my FAVORITES – it’s a book – it’s a movie based on the book by Richard Russo (I think!) called Nobody’s Fool, and I simply loved that darn thing, but it’s huge…long. Movie starred Paul Newman, and his son’s character makes up with his wife at the end when they were divorcing. It was also Jessica Tandy’s last film, alas. Marvelous actress. But the characterization in that book was superb, just dry.

    Cece, THANKS for the plug. Alas, nobody’s biting – lol. However, publisher told me last night that it was sent to 35 places for review, so surely SOMEBODY out there likes mainstream.

    πŸ˜† Love ya, girl. I am sooo looking forward to seeing you again in Atlanta!!!

  9. Cece, I have California Girl but haven’t read it yet. I love Stephanie Plum! Only read two of the books so far, though πŸ™‚