I do agree in some ways with that. It makes things predictable, but also doesn't address the reality that it's very hard to maintain a HEA in today's world. It's certainly possible, but it takes work.

And in chick lit with the HEA not required, it allows a bit more emotional involvement when you think the perfect guy might get away in the story. I know I had that feeling when I read Exes and Ohs by Beth Kendrick. In romance, you know something miraculous will happen and the HEA will occur. Not always a bad thing as I do love to read romance, but it does not allow for the truly unexpected to happen.
 

True. Although I am still the idiot reader who turns to the back of the book within the first few chapters just to make sure that everything turns out okay in the end, regardless if it is Romance, Mystery, Fantasy, etc.
 

Ooooh, my blood would have been boiling. Who cares about realistic? Action movies make buttloads of money and they're not realistic. LoTR won an Oscar (or two), and it's wholly made up. That's BS.

I think we're conditioned to think that tragedy is worth more than happiness, and that only a life filled with sadness is worthy of any sort of attention. We're uncomfortable with HEA because suffering is a virtue in the US. It's got nothing to do with realism. Really.

Anyway, I'm not stupid; when I read a book with a HEA, I don't necessarily think that the couple rode off into the sunset and lived a harmonious life forever. Probably the hero put too many frivolous purchases on the Visa at some point and the heroine freaked out, and then at some point she wanted a dog and he didn't. Maybe one of them was tempted into an affair, and they had to go to counseling.

The point is, who are these people? Can they not imagine a world where people don't stop living just because the book stops? It's freaking called imagination.
 

I did tell them at one point that I felt a bit sad for them that they couldn't believe in a happy ending. But then, I'm not the best person to ask about HEA since I have several examples of HEA that people would never buy in a million years.

Example #1: My parents. My parents had seen each other or talked to each other in several years. Shortly before my dad got out of the Navy he heard that my mother had moved back to his hometown, and the first thing he did when he got into port was buy her an engagement ring (he was that sure that they were meant to be together). The were married less than three months later.

Example #2: My best friend's parents. The story of their courtship is straight out of a romance novel. They had been dating for only two weeks when my friend's mom discovered she was pregnant (needless to say the baby was someone else's). My friend's dad immediately proposed so that she wouldn't have to go through it alone. They got married about a month later and have been married for over 30 years. When you seem them together they still act like newlyweds, not old married people.

If that's not a HEA then I don't know what one is.
 

I found this post very interesting, and quite sad. An inability to belive in happily-ever-afters? I do think it's a sign of the times we live in. I understand why some people, especially younger generations, think HEAs are unrealistic. But how sad that they prefer to settle for happy right now. Why not hope? Why not dare to dream? Why settle? Where's their adventurous spirit? Jeez. The more I think about this, the more depressed I get. I do, however, appreciate being enlightened. Thanks for sharing, Kelly.
 

Don't be too depressed! There are still plenty of readers out there who want a HEA. It's just that those readers currently aren't taking a class with me. :-)
 

I can kind of understand why the happy right now might be more believable than the HEA. I think that the distrust of the HEA is a function of social forces at work. Really, if you know that half of all marriages end in divorce, reading about happily ever after can seem sacharine and fake. It requires a lot of suspension of disbelief sometimes to find the HEA convincing, while happy for the time being seems much more likely.

For me, the HEA isn't an absolute requirement, which is why I like Chick Lit. I get frustrated with the uniformity of the HEA as it appears in most romance novels, as if all happy couples must live their lives the same way. Connubial bliss in suburbia, surrounded by offspring and extended family in perpetuity. Bleh.