There’s a ton of effort put into the first lines of a book. It’s the hook. It has to grab the reader, introduce compelling characters, and pose a question or questions that the reader needs to read on to find out the answers to.
But what about the last lines of a book? I haven’t seen them get nearly the airtime (or blogtime) that first lines do. And yet they are so important to the book as a whole. So, what kind of endings are there? As I see it, endings can be distilled into two categories:
Satisfying or Unsatisfying.
Of course, as the saying goes, one person’s junk is another person’s treasure. Writing is subjective. But in a romance, we want the happily ever after. We NEED the happily ever after. We know the hero and heroine end up together. So if happily ever after is a given, what makes one ending work well, and another seem trite or ring hollow?
I think it’s character. The more we relate to and root for a character, the more poignant or celebratory or whoo-hoo! the ending becomes. But aside from that, it’s knowing when to actually end the book. It’s that moment when the hero and heroine realize they love each other. It’s after they’ve fallen in love, and finally defeated the villain. It’s when they commit their lives to each other and get married. And sometimes it’s when they finally make love.
There’s no one way to end a story, but no matter how it’s done, the characters must have grown toward each other and the ending has to satisfy the reader emotionally. We have to BELIEVE that the hero and heroine really will live beyond the pages of the book and succeed in their relationship. We have to KNOW that no obstacle will tear them apart. As Scarlet O’Hara said, “After all, tomorrow is another day.” Even if tomorrow is not written on the page.
Did you believe Scarlet would win Rhett’s heart again? I did, way before the sequel came about.
Obviously no writer wants their book to end on an unsatisfying note, but there are those stories that end, and you turn the page wondering if you missed something. Is it supposed to end like that? Isn’t there anymore? It’s unsatisfying, as if the present is wrapped, but there’s no ribbon or pretty bow to make it complete.
I pulled a few random books from my bookshelf that I enjoyed. Here are their endings:
Project Daddy, by Kate Perry
“Yes,” he answered positively. Pushing my wild hair back from my face, he gazed at me seriously. “I love you, Katherine Murphy Fiorelli.”
I frowned. “I’m not a Fiorelli.”
“Not yet.” He kissed me, and it was soft and full of promise. “But soon, because don’t you think it’s about time you came home?”
I smiled, running a finger down his beautiful face. “It’s all I ever wanted.”
Kat’s definition of ‘home’ changed at the end of the book, but Perry did a nice job of bringing the heroine’s desire full circle.
The Duke and I, by Julia Quinn
He leaned down and kissed her. “ ‘Now’ doesn’t even compare to tomorrow. And tomorrow couldn’t possibly compete with the next day. As perfect as I feel this very moment, tomorrow is going to be even better. Ah, Daff,” he murmured, moving his lips to hers, “every day I’m going to love you more. I promise you that. Every day…”
You can’t get more clear than this that the hero and heroine’s love will continue on.
Black Ice, by Anne Stuart
“Don’t look so shocked, Chloe,” he said, touching her bruised mouth with his finger and then bringing it to his own lips. “I told you I wouldn’t lie.”
“I don’t suppose you’d consider just taking a short sabbatical, Jean-Marc?” Madame asked in a resigned voice.
I’m retired,” he said, looking into Chloe’s eyes, and everything else faded into nothingness. “And my name is Sebastian.”
Stuart also brings the reader back to the hero’s earlier statement that he’d never lie. It’s a nicely tied ribbon on the package of their love.
And my all time favorite ending (at least for now):
Practical Magic, by Alice Hoffman
But Sally doesn’t care if Gillian phoned Gary last week and asked what on earth he was waiting for. It doesn’t matter if he’s had the aunts’ address folded into his coat pocket ever since that phone call. By the time she runs down the bluestone path, it doesn’t make a bit of difference what people think or what they believe. There are some things, after all, that Sally Owens knows for certain: Always throw spilled salt over your left shoulder. Keep rosemary by your garden gate. Add pepper to your mashed potatoes. Plant roses and lavender, for luck. Fall in love whenever you can.
Hoffman’s happily ever after ending is less concrete than the others, but the promise of love is all that we need to know that Sally finds her happily ever after with Gary. Fall in love whenever you can. It’s as simple as that.
How about you? Any favorite endings that satisfied you as a reader? Or, on the flip side, any endings that just didn’t work for you and left you unsatisfied?
Related posts:
It’s not a romance, but the end of Stephen King’s The Dark Tower gave me chills. It was the ultimate example of coming full circle. I stared at that final page for who knows how long, mouth gaping, thinking “Wow.” Eventually I graduated to saying “Wow.” That’s the only time I’ve ever come across an ending that resonated like that.
I imagine I’ll get beaten about the head and shoulders for this answer, but I’ve always loved the ending of Gone With The Wind.
Yes, I know Scarlett is the antithesis of the likeable protagonist, and I know there’s much tragedy within the last fifty pages of the book. I know she loses the only two men she’s ever loved (or, in Ashley’s case, THOUGHT she loved) AND her little girl, AND her best friend.
But those closing lines…. “”Tara. Home. I’ll go home, and I’ll think of some way to get him back. After all, tomorrow is another day.” ….pretty much epitomize my outlook on life. Hope, and the everlasting promise that tomorrow CAN be a better day. That every day is another chance to pick yourself up, dust yourself off and start all over again. (Somebody stop me before I break into a chorus of “High Hopes.”)
I write pretty dark. My characters’ “black moments” often seem like the pit of ultimate doom, even to me. But I work hard to deliver that happy, satisfying ending, because I believe in redemption. I hope I deliver.
I know some folks froth at the mouth when Gone With The Wind is called a “romance” — and maybe it would be better categorized as “women’s fiction” — but I find the ending very uplifting. And yes — satisfying.
I believe in Scarlett’s tomorrow. I believe in her learning curve. I believe she’ll prevail, and be redeemed, through her own stubborn nature and willingness to work for her redemption. And I don’t need that spectacularly crappy sequel to know she gets her happily-ever-after, with or without Rhett.
*dons helmet and shoulder pads and braces for impact*
The endings that make me groan
are the ones where everything is wrapped up.
I love the novels with
a few minor storylines still dangling.
It allows me to continue the story in my head.
Plus it is a little more realistic
(real life isn’t all resolved on the same day).
And endings are just as important as beginnings.
Especially with those of us that read
the ending before buying the book.
Outstanding post, Misa! You’re so right. The endings really are so very important. Reading those examples makes me want to read those books, particularly Kate Perry’s. I have no idea who Kate Perry is, but that ending makes me want to find out. I love the journey of reading a good romance but it’s the combination of being good along with a great ending that makes the book a keeper for me.
On the other hand I love Christina Dodd’s romances, but I’m almost never satisfied with the endings in her humorous romances. They’re often abrupt and I’m rarely convinced that the hero loves the heroine as much as she loves him. Without a serious, strong variation on the romance “money shot” of the declaration of love, then the ending isn’t satisfying to me. I want evidence that the hero is truly, madly, deeply in love.
One of my very most favorite endings comes from a fairy tale, ‘The Day Boy and the Night Girl’ by George MacDonald. The two characters had been taken as a witch’s experiment, one raised completely in the dark, and one raised completely in the light. They never were supposed to meet…but then they did. And this is how the story ends:
The king gave them the castle and lands of Watho, and there they lived and taught each other for many years that were not long. But hardly had one of them passed, before Nycteris had come to love the day best, because it was the clothing and crown of Photogen, and she saw that the day was greater than the night, and the sun more lordly than the moon; and Photogen had come to love the night best, because it was the mother and home of Nycteris.
I want resonance in my endings. Does that make sense? I like the sensation of “rightness” that washes over me. I don’t need (and often don’t like) the gushy “I love you.” “No, I love you.” ending. It frequently feels forced (men, in my experience are far more likely to do something to SHOW you that they love you than to say it).
Oh, I’m so with the commenters
about the “I love you” part.
If as a reader,
I have to have
the characters say the words
to know that,
then its a wallbanger.
I also dislike the long flowery speeches.
Often from the guy’s point of view.
As usual I *heart* Kimber. LOL! It just ruins the book for me when the bad-ass alpha guy goes all mushy. It’s sooooooooooo wrong. But I love it when he makes some kind of little gesture that lets you KNOW how much he loves her.
Kerry, I’ve never been a huge Stephen King fan, but I think I’ll add the Dark Tower to my TBR pile just to experience the ending you talk about! It sounds truly amazing.
Selah, I’m with you on Gone With the Wind. I have friends who’ve NEVER read it and I think it’s akin to sacrilege! Of course I have fond memories of that movie. My mom and her friend took my best friend and me to see it in a theatrical release when we were in 5th grade. Then, in college, my boyfriend (now husband) and I went to see the 50th anniversary showing of it at the historic Crest Theater in Sacramento. So romantic. And I think Scarlet is a great heroine with fabulous growth!
The Kimbers rule! No trite “I love you” moments, pleaes!
Barbara, Kate Perry is a fun read! She has a new book coming out in September. Project Date. Her blog is fun, too!
Shira, ‘The Day Boy and the Night Girl’ by George MacDonald sounds intriguing! I’m adding that to my pile, too!
Kalen, sounds like you and the Kimbers are sympatico! I like my endings to resonate, too. They need to leave me feeling, well, satisfied. And just saying I love you isn’t enough. Or even meaningful, at that point. You’re right, it’s the act of showing that love that really speaks to the emotions of the characters.
Misa, I actually am not a Stephen King fan myself, but The Stand and the Dark Tower books don’t read like the rest of his novels. They’re more epic in feel and about as poetic(?) as he gets, as opposed to what I consider an overly casual, plodding, and workmanlike style in most of his work.
On the other hand, I like his short fiction and nonfiction a lot, so maybe he’s just best in short doses or really, really long ones.
Incidentally, if you want the full impact of that ending, you have to read all 7 Dark Tower books. Not that anyone would be so crazy as to start a series at book seven, of course. (twitch, twitch, spasm)
I don’t necessarily have to see the words I love you, but I want an indication that the love is there.
In one of my recent favorites, Megan Hart’s Dirty, neither character ever said the words, but throughout the book it was obvious that the hero loved the heroine. At the end when the emotionally distant, one-night stand preferring heroine says, “We need each other. He has become unique to me in all the world.”
That was the “money shot”, the variation on I love you that makes for a satisfying ending for me.
A friend gave me her copy of The Stand to read, but I’m daunted by how long it is and my spectacular lack of time! My husband read it, though, and loved it. 7 books in the Dark Tower series! Yikes. I better get busy, eh, Kerry!
I agree, Barbara. It’s that change and emotional growth that really counts.:smile:
re: The Stand. Get the original version — the one from which the editor made him cut 18,000+ words. The second version, with all the deleted words reinstated by SK, demonstrates to the world how a really good editor improves a manuscript.
As for endings …
Okay, personal story here.
I hate Mountain Dew. Don’t know why, I just do. (Actually, I don’t drink any sodas now, but when I did I was a solidly cola guy. Valerie can drink colas, but she vastly prefers the “green drinks.”)
Twenty-three years ago Valerie and I relocated to Wilmington for a job opportunity which promptly fell through. We had a winter lease on a beach front condo — one of three families in an otherwise empty building. Spring was coming and when the beach season started we were going to be kicked out in favor of vacationers willing to pay twice our monthly rent per week for a view of the waves. There were three of us, Valerie, our 1-year-old daughter and me, with no income and dwindling savings trying to find jobs and a place to live. (Okay, the 1-year-old wasn’t looking for a job, but you get the visual.) We were driving around in our six-year-old Lynx with the broken air conditioner in the midst of a futile search for work or housing, I forget which, and Valerie and I started arguing. I don’t mean an intellectual debate, I mean screaming at each other. Hot and humid and broke and hopeless will do that to a couple. I decided I was thirsty. We had a supply of apple juice for our daughter and tap water in bottles, but I needed a soda. Mostly I needed to get away from Val. I swung into a stop-and-rob and got out without a word, slamming the door so hard Valerie shouted “Great! Break the car!” I knew I had exactly enough money for one drink in my pocket — all that was left of my spending money for the week, I tracked that down to the penny. I went in the store determined to buy my cola and stand in the air conditioning to drink it while Valerie and our daughter waited in the car. I was that mad. Except two minutes later I got back in the beaten-down Lynx and handed Valerie a Mountain Dew. I never said a word, but Valerie still remembers that as the single most romantic moment of our marriage — the instant she was certain that no matter what, we would make it.
For the ending of a romance to work for me, there has to be a Mountain Dew moment.