While I personally did not need to know that the Bridgerton progeny had 33 children between the eight of them, there are futures I’ve wondered about. I was thrilled Meredith Duran finally gave us the story of Liam Devaliant, the Earl of Lockwood–his was a tale I’ve always been curious about. In romance, I’d say that while Julie Anne Long gave us hints in The Legend of Lyon Redmond, I hope someday we’ll know the true nature of the relationship between Redmond and Eversea parents. But the love story I will never get over not having is that of grownup Will and Lyra. (I hold out a stupid and beyond unlikely hope that I will get it in the conclusion of The Book of Dust trilogy.)
How about you? Is there a love story you are dying for an author to tell? Why?
Ooh! I can’t believe I forgot to mention the side character Mr. Delacorte in Lady Derring Takes a Lover and its sequel Devil in an Angel’s Arms. He is an older bachelor who works as a merchant, dealing in spices and exotic medicines and whatnot. His reason for being a guest at the heroine’s boarding house is to become more of a gentleman so he might eventually attract a wife. Delacorte is sweet, funny, and unintentionally crude. I laughed out loud and had to re-read the passage where he…
I think he would do well to find a no-nonsense widow about his age or an “old maid” who has completely given up on the idea of ever love. Dang it, I want Mr. Delacorte and the future Mrs. Delacorte to have an HEA!
I am convinced he will end up with Dot!
“Uncommon Vows” by Mary Jo Putney – Richard, the hero’s brother could have had a great story (possibly paired with the villain’s widow).
I haven’t read that one. adds to giant TBR list
AAR’s has a great DIK review that’s very spot on. It’s MJP’s only medieval and arguably her finest writing – even considering she was on top of her game in the ’90s.
Thank you!
Cat from The Windflower by Laura London is one I would like to see. Others I would like to see are more of the O’Banyon Brothers books by JR Ward. She had written some as Jessica Bird and then they were re-released under JR Ward. The Billionare Next Door was my favorite. I don’t think she will write any more of the family members but I would have liked to seen them.
When I found out that Laura London (Tom and Sharon Curtis) had stopped writing, I was so disappointed. I agree that Cat’s story begged to be told.
Other books I wish for include the stories of the Donovan twins, in the series Elizabeth Lowell began with Amber Beach. It is pretty clear that Lowell has stopped writing, and her website FAQs show that lots of readers would like those books, which will not be written.
I would be happy to see more books in Jayne Ann Krentz’s Arcane series, but it is pretty clear that has petered out, too. Krentz also did that weird follow-up with one of her historicals where she set up an obvious sequel, then dropped the characters and wrote a different book sort of premised on them — heroine had a red-headed heiress friend who passed as a coachman in an incident, hero had a friend who would inherit a bankrupt estate, I think in Surrender, which was followed by Scandal, the story of the heiress and the impoverished heir, but not the characters in Scandal. At first I did not even realize I was reading the implied “sequel.” I understand the reader does not always get what she wants, but I was disappointed that the specific characters only got an implied HEA, not their own book.
One book I had long ago hoped would lead to a series — and did not — was Carla Neggers’ The Knotted Skein. The heroine’s idiosyncratic and brilliant brothers, and her nephew, just begged for their own books. As far as I know, there were no follow-ups.
I always wanted to read a book about Dominic, Lord Dane’s illegitimate son, in the book Lord of Scoundrels. I thought he was an interesting character and would have liked to see how he developed and what his role ended up being in that family. I emailed Loretta Chase and asked if she ever considered writing a book with Dominick as the main character. She graciously replied to me. She said that she did not intend to write one about Dominick.
That could have been so much fun! But I can understand Chase not wanting to revisit Jessica and Dane.
I always wanted a book about Jessica’s grandmother. She is a great character.
Oh… yeah.
Cedric Allerdyce from My American Duchess by Eloisa James. I just need to read it!
KJ Charles’ Will Darling Adventures has 2 great characters, Phoebe and Maisie, and there are hints that they could be a couple. I’d love to see them get their own story, with Will and Kim as secondary characters. At the end of The Sugared Game there is a short blurb about the next book, Subtle Blood, and it looks like the focus is on Will and Kim again (makes sense as this series is called The Will Darling Adventures.) So I will keep hoping for a Phoebe and Maisie adventure.
Oh! Just thought of another answer for this question. I loved reading Cat Sebastian’s MM trilogy Seducing the Sedgwicks, but wish the final installment, Two Rogues Make a Right, contained a cameo appearance from Captain Philip Dacre from the first book, It Takes Two to Tumble. While I certainly don’t expect cameo appearances in sequels, I thought it was odd Sebastian had a nice continuation for Hartley and Sam as well as Ben, but the captain didn’t make an appearance. Was he away at sea or something?
What I appreciated about Hartley and Sam’s cameo was that their presence in the story actually had direct bearing on the romance plot between the two current leads. I thought this was a really nice touch as opposed to when prequel characters just drop in to say “hi.” I hope more romance authors take this route in the future so we can see the continuing adventures of previous characters without them crowding out the narrative or just getting an obligatory sentence. It’s a tricky balance to pull off, but Sebastian did it (mostly) with aplomb.
I would say it was a combination of two things:
Hartley and Ben are Will’s brothers and Martin is their childhood friend – Philip wouldn’t know them that well.
Also Geography – Philip and Ben live in the North of England so travel takes time. Plus someone has to stay behind to look after the children and the school!
Good points. But considering they did see Ben at one point in the book, I would have appreciated a little mention of the captain- even if it was just to say he was away. (Maybe he did get an obligatory mention. If he did, it was so short, I missed it. :))
Did anyone else read the Emmeline Truelove series by Juliana Gray that ended with book #2 A Strange Scottish Shore and left the time traveling H/h in the past with no resolution of the red-headed villain, the new duke’s story (wanted that), or the total reason/method behind the time travel. The H/h were happy but I was bummed. I wanted it finished and all the characters’ stories told.
I’ve always felt that Callie’s brother from Sarah MacLean’s Nine Rules to Break When Romancing a Rake deserved his own story – he was so lovely and supportive to her. He was always up late at night in his study, so it seemed like he had a lot of worries or a secret or something.
I can’t really recall a couple that I wanted to know more about, though I’m certain there have been a few. But there are characters that have been killed off quite unreasonably and those are books that need to be rewritten imo!
One of my favorite books for 40 years or more is the Winds of War duo by Herman Wouk. There is a character, Leslie Slote, who sacrifices a great deal and makes huge personal changes in his life only to be killed on D-Day. He was very flawed but deeply honorable and after reading about him across 2 books and about 2,500 pages he deserved better.
I finally thought of one!! Ha ha! I’m always amazed at how you all remember so many detail from the books you read. I honestly don’t remember the details. However, I love Linnea Sinclair’s sci-fi rom books, and Games of Command is one of my favorites. For years I held out hope she would write a sequel to the book with Kel-Paten’s brother as the hero. I also wanted her to write more books in the Finder’s Keepers universe, which was so interesting.
Oh! I thought of another. In Serena Bell’s fabulous Sleepover, the hero has a brother Brooks and the heroine has a friend Hattie. They are both characters I really wanted to see what happened to!
I had hoped Pamela Clare would write a romance for the antagonist William in the MacKinnon Rangers series. However, she seems pretty focused on writing contemporary romantic suspense with no sign of returning to historicals.
According to the FAQs on Clare’s website, she plans to write Lord William’s story, but that may not have been updated in… a while. She does seem focused on contemporary stuff, which probably sells better. I wish it was up to the level of her older I-Team books – the journalism-driven plots were much more interesting to me than her current work.
There’s a novella that updates on the life of William after his captivity and provides some closure on his previously antagonistic relationship with the brothers. I think he’d make a great “tortured” hero, would love to read his tory for sure.
I was super disappointed this year to find out that Blue on Blue by Dal Maclean is the last planned book for the entire group of characters. I was sure as I was reading it that there was plenty more to come for James, Ben, Will, Tom . . . and that the barrister and the agent were up next!
It will probably never happen, but when I read KJ Charles’s Society of Gentlemen books, I was struck by how each book in the series had a couple who would have made really interesting main characters in their own books: Verona and Sergeant Rawling in A Fashionable Indulgence, Will Quex and Jonathan Shakespeare in A Seditious Affair, and Eustacia and Philip or Ellie (Cyprian’s mother) and Rev. Fleming in A Gentleman’s Position. And Zoe Shakespeare should be in all the books, but I can’t see her interested in anything romantic ;)
I’m still waiting for Rose Lerner to publish a book with Rafe (from True Pretenses). It’s been years!
Another character who should have had her own book is Juana from Susanna Fraser’s The Sergeant’s Lady. Fraser is yet another author who seems to have disappeared. Where have all the authors gone?
“Where have all the authors gone?” Long time passing… ;-)
I think there are a number of factors for author disappearances:
1) Being an author generally isn’t a lucrative profession. Every author has the potential to be the next James Patterson, E.L. James, Stephen King, etc., but it works out for very few people. When it doesn’t work out over a long enough period, a lot of authors give up.
2) Burnout is very real. While readers can gobble up story after story after story, pumping them out to keep up with consumer demand and advances can be brutal. So, in addition to the money factor, a lot of authors give up due to pure exhaustion.
3) With firestorms all over the internet nowadays, a lot of authors are running scared. Who wants to keep writing stories when a bunch of bored, perpetually aggrieved whine bags with nothing better to do than write rants keep trying to get everybody to boycott you and defame you all over the internet? It’s enough to make some people say, “Forget it. I’m going back to working for the power company.”
4) Between controversies and changing trends, it’s not unheard of for authors to write completely unrelated books incognito under new pen names. So, the authors might still be out there, but they could be in hiding while building new fan bases elsewhere.
5) Sometimes authors just need a break from a particular genre. So, again, they might be out there, but maybe they’re writing thrillers or mysteries or sci-fi or whatever else under a completely different name they haven’t made public. Writers can only write so much, so switching to another genre often means abandoning other work. I know for myself, the few readers of my work under a different name must think I’ve fallen off the face of the earth after two years of no output. I’m still here, but for the time being, I’ve switched over to smut for various reasons. If it happened to me, it definitely happens to other authors too.
6) Finally, some writers are probably fortunate enough to be able to retire. Can’t say I’ve met any in that category, but kudos to the ones who can.
I belong to a facebook group that focuses on audiobooks, and they have a very hard and fast rule: NEVER give out a pseudonym for an author or narrator. Period. You’ll be immediately removed from the group.The reasoning is that many authors and narrators choose pseudonyms for personal/private reasons and if they don’t make it public knowledge, we aren’t to reveal it either. While that may make it frustrating to track down an author you love who is now writing a different genre under a different name, it makes sense that if they have chosen not to reveal that information to their fans (harassment, burnout, etc.), we should respect that wish.
I was listening to a male narrator and realized I knew his voice under a different name. Being curious I looked him up on google, and after much digging, found out I was right. So obviously there are ways to find out, but it helped me realize that while I might not know why he is keeping these identities separate, he does and I should respect it.
“… it makes sense that if they have chosen not to reveal that information to their fans (harassment, burnout, etc.), we should respect that wish.”
Yes. Not to mention safety and reputation issues, especially for authors whose writing might jeopardize their day jobs, relationships with their family members, etc. Romance and erotica authors in particular have to be careful because we’re still not at a place culturally where everyone can handle adults having adult lives off the clock. And even if we did reach that point, not everyone wants to be loud and proud about everything. Writing under a pseudonym is a bit like living in the closet. It would be nice if there didn’t have to be a closet, but the closet should still be a legitimate choice for those desiring extra privacy and separation between and among different facets of themselves.
It’s sad that’s the case even today but I believe it. Even being known as a woman (in particular) that reads romance or erotica would affect some people’s opinion of you and possibly even your day job.
Being a “public” figure would possibly open you up to who knows what from some people.
I agree completely. There is an author I really enjoy who is known to have another well known name she publishes under that she keeps secret.
Like you, I figured out what the other name is (because I’m a voracious reader and the language and style is very distinct)but have never mentioned the other anywhere, particularly not on the internet.
If the author is keeping it secret for a reason that’s their business and to me it would be like doxxing someone.
I agree. If a writer has made it public that she writes as X but also writes as Y (for example, Caitlin Crews/Megan Crane or Zoe York/Ainsley Booth), that’s fine. But if an author has tried hard to keep her X and Y names completely separate, we should respect that. One of my very favorite romance writers, Kati Wilde, writes fantasy under another name. She has not revealed that those two names are actually the same person, so I respect her decision—although I’m always curious and every time a new fantasy book is released, I wonder if it could be her (however, I should state for the record that I don’t read much fantasy).
I don’t think it is a secret, but I’m not sure it is widely known that Simon Vance has recorded a lot of classic and NF audios as Robert Whitfield. I love the audio for Captain Blood, which he recorded using that name.
6) lavyrle spencer & Judith krantz
LS: she said somewhere that she had earned enough so she was stopping. And did.
jK: she was worried about being too old to write well, and her books getting worse, and stopped.
Just snippets read somewhere, sharing gossip.
I also miss Susanna Fraser. The Sergeant’s Lady is one of my favorite novels. I wish she had written more novels and more stories set during the Napoleonic wars.
I’ve been waiting to read more about Rafe as well. I really hope Rose Lerner will someday write his story. Lerner’s next publication, as far as I know, is an F/F romance The Wife in the Attic, which should come out on the 9th of February next year, so I reckon it’ll be some time before Rafe gets his turn. I’m really excited about The Wife in the Attic too, though.