Follow Friday 4/26/12

Q: Have you had a character that disappointed you? One that you fell in love with and then “broke up” with later on in either the series or a stand-alone book? Tell us about him or her.

This doesn't happen to me often. I've read...I don't know, thousands of books in my lifetime, and I've only had a scant handful of character breakups. 

 1)Anita Blake, from the series of the same name by Laurel K. Hamilton. I lasted 10, maybe 11 books with this character. I loved her. I wanted to be her when I grew up. She liked stuffed penguins, I like stuffed penguins. She was a bad ass and a bad dresser and her social skills left a lot to be desired. And then she started having "on screen" sex. Which is fine, I can handle that. But then it escalated from vanilla to OH MY GOD WHAT IS GOING ON?? Which would have been fine in erotica, but I wasn't reading these books for erotica and...Seriously, Anita? Don't you have better things to do?

2)Sookie Stackhouse, brought to me by Charlaine Harris. This was a more benign break up, where I just lost interest after a handful of books. I came to the conclusion that the flaws in Sookie that initially seemed endearing were actually irritating as hell, and the stories weren't enough to make up for it.

3) V from the Black Dagger Brotherhood books by J.R. Ward, is in my personal doghouse, although the breakup is not official yet. I loved this guy through the first four books. Then he got his own story. And it was alright. I learned to be okay with it. But I maintain that he didn't end up with the right person, and I think deep down he'd agree with me. Evidence to this effect is given by the homo-erotic subtext between he and Butch. Plus now there are rumors that Ward said these two (married) men are sleeping together? Cheating isn't cool, dude. IDK, a breakup might be in order here. Those of you curious about the V/Butch issue, see HERE.