Sagas

Today I read the review for "That perfect someone" by Johanna Lindsey, from the Smart Bitches site. I haven't had the pleasure - or displeasure - or reading that particular novel yet, but something that the review's author said impressed me.

This particular novel is the number 10th in the Malory-Anderson saga, and with 9 previous books you have plenty of couples to revisit. The author (of the review) wrote that at one point she felt like reading the literary version of "Days of our lifes", with a lot of characters from previous books, suspicious timelines, and a villain who doesn't have any reason to be mean except the requirements of the storyline.

That got me thinking, and I discovered that I have a love/hate relationship with sagas. On one hand, I like to see characters from previous books and read how they're doing (quite well, thanks, still living happily ever after). On the other, there are some books that parade characters and couples from previous books, who - sadly - have lost much of their charisma and personality and now are reduced to be a rather pale imitation of the spunky/tempestuos heroine or the domineering/brooding hero, surrounded by perfect children. The worst part is that the principal couple is robbed of a lot of reading time/scenes/importance because of the presence of all this other "relatives".

What's wrong with a single title? I can remember some that are pretty good, among them "Secret Fire" (J. Lindsey), most of Linda Howard's books, "Shanna" (K. Woodiwiss, although Ruark has a small cameo in "Petals in the River").

It looks like in the last time it's all about series. There's the Malory/Anderson (Lindsey), Montgomery (J. Deveraux, although I like how she follows a family through centuries, and there's never more than 4 books closely related), Bridgerton (Quinn), Cynster (Laurens), Fallen Angels (Putney), Malloren (Beverley), Bedwyn (Balogh), Changeling/Psy (Singh), Wallflowers (Kleypas), Carsington (Chase), etc...

Maybe they should stop after the 4th book. I can handle 3 previous couples, but 10 is way too difficult. Or maybe get all the relatives together in one big scene (like the Central Park picnic in Sweet Liar, by Deveraux) to give them a chance to wave hello and then disappear.