The "Happy" Factor

I started reading romance novels for the "happy" factor.  Not that my home life wasn't happy, of course it is. At the time, the complete bleakness of my job in local law enforcement left me emotionally empty each day. Just the simple stupidity that I encountered at work, peoples dumb choices that hurt someone, killed someone or got them arrested bottled me up and left me looking for anything with a happy ending. The suspension of belief came after I started reading Heather Graham parnormal novels that had been loaned to me by a friend. After the first novel, I was hooked. Every story had a seemingly happy ending, boy meets girl, they overcome some amount of strife or danger, and they solve the problem with emotional serenity, thrilled with the new life they've found. Throw an interesting amount of paranormal characters in there so that it's just a bit left of reality, perhaps some humor, and you've got a winner.

By day I was encarcerating people who are the bottom of our evolutional barrel. A man who had murdered two people for the equivalent of $50 in change. A women who had shaken a baby to death, even though she maintained that she hadn't done it. Boys caught with kilos of cocaine. Old men sentenced for raping children in their family. Women who were so drunk they'd left their babies to cook to death on a radiator cover. Couple this with the utter stupidity in the office, because let's face it, rocket scientists don't become police officers; and the inherant danger for everyone working there, and anyone else would be looking for a little escapism as well.

I'm a voracious reader. I still read about a novel a day. I love a good vampire novel on most days but I'll also look to werewolf, ghost, time travel, fairy and shapeshifters for a story as well. Some of my favorite characters, Mercy Thompson, Anita Blake, Harry Dresden,  Sookie Stackhouse, The Black Dagger Brotherhood, the Dark Hunters, Cat and Bones and more have amazing adventures and save themselves and the world time and again. Although not all of them get their happy endings, each book ends with a sense of rightness with the world that was completely lacking after each 10 hour shift. A sense of danger put to rest that my vocation missed. Danger seemed to follow me everywhere especially when our inmates threatened my family.

More recently, some of my authors haven't been delivering on the "happy" factor. Although Cat and Bones are safely tucked away in my mind, other charatetrs are left in turmoil at the end of the book. Tonight, I finished Lover Reborn by J.R. Ward. And while her books are always fun, this one finally gave our guy (Thorment) his happy ever, after losing his wife early on in the series. It took him about 10 books to get his gal, and while I'm happy it finally happened for him, I wonder why it took so long to get around to.

The most obvious answer, is that I had to read the 10 books in between to get there. And four years ago, I might have been downright distraught at the books lacking that "happy" factor. But now, I've gotten to know the authors voice, and her characters and I look forward to the journey more than the goody at the end. After all, these books aren't harlequin novels. It makes me look forward to more series like this, if there are any, that aren't just one night on my nightstand, but a journey through an alternate world so like ours but way more interesting. And I've realized that my "happy" is now coming from the anitcipation of the next book, and not just the end of the one I'm reading.