I Confess...I Did It. I Skipped

Heather Long
September 13, 2010

I wish I could say it was because I just had to know who the bad guy was, that the suspense was so tense I just couldn’t stand it any longer. Unfortunately, that was not the case.

I picked up a book from an author new to me- the first in a series. What I thought was going to be an exciting new paranormal romance, was so disturbing that by the time the black moment was about to occur I just couldn’t read it. In my mind, I couldn’t put these two people through what was supposed to rip them apart and break them down. Even knowing that they would then, somehow, discover that only their love could put the pieces back together for them.

It was tense. It was action packed. It was filled with bad people doing bad things and yes, there was a romance. The hero and heroine had met, were attracted to each other despite being at odds and the characters packed an emotional punch. Too much of one.

The characters were totally kick-butt kind of people, tough and dangerous to know. As a reader along for the ride I knew the only thing that was left to really bring them low was to start killing people they had finally let in and started to care for. There was no release from the tragic for me. The love growing between the hero and heroine was not enough to lighten the darkness of the plot. At the point that I skipped to the end, the book had become an emotional drain. I was too aware of the “the book” instead of a great story or these two people I want to get to know. It was exhausting to read.

There is the rub.

The characters were obviously deep and well crafted enough for me to instantly get into them and feel the emotion of the scenes as they unfolded. It takes a talented and powerful writer to pull me directly into the head of the characters so completely. As a writer, I want that power! But, even knowing that it was well written, I had to skip to the end. Just to be sure that indeed there would be something of a happy ending before I put myself through any more emotional turmoil.

This was the first time that had happened to me. I’ve been bored into skimming a book. I’ve even been scared into skimming a book- only in horror though. I know when I am reading a romance that whatever happens, whatever the hero and heroine go through, love will find a way in the end. I’ve never been pulled out of a romance because the love story, as epic as it was, just couldn’t triumph over the characters’ misfortune. Even with them overcoming their emotional walls, admitting their love, defeating the bad guys and getting to be together in the end, I wasn’t satisfied. I couldn’t envision a future for these two. I’m hoping that in the next book of the series, which I will read to give the author another chance, will give me some hope for these characters.

What about you? Have you ever been too emotionally involved in a story that you had to let it go?

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