Do your "true loves" not end up together?

and if so, do you consider it a cliche or a rip off when a writer does this? I think it's more a romance question than plot......or maybe a 50/50 thing.

Basically though, on this in particular story (series. Fantasy style) i allowed someone to contribute a love interest to one of my characters. I actually ended up really like the dynamics of the two and they eventually earned themselves the title of"true loves" however for some reason the way she's written him now.......I cannot realistically see him ever winning her back after this recent show down.


He has broken her heart repeatedly
Cheated on her emotionally for years/ended up involved in an illegitimate child issue
Put her down to make himself feel better
Because of him she ended up in a position for an arch enemy take advantage of her

--

I should say her background is she has been abused in every way before and he is aware of this
He also knows


That's just the cherry on top if it all.........

That being said, I don't really feel like going back and editing over all of the work and I decided minus some stuff to just go with it.


What do you think? Even if it was say.... 16 or so years down the road. Would you ever be able to forgive an author for allowing him to get her back yet again? Granted he wouldn't mess up anymore but in terms of story...she doesn't know that for sure.

If they don't end up together, it's not genre romance. Period.

There are lots of non-romance love stories that end up with the 'romantic' couple not together, (The Bridges of Madison County and Prince of Tides come to mind) so I don't see a problem with this as a plot, just don't try to market it as romance.

How would that not qualify as romance?

I think it does as long as it has some major romance throughout it. A lot of real romances never work out.

I mean my current novel is romance/ya

the other one has a lot of romance in it and it's certainly a better half of the story but they don't end up together.....geez, publishing guidelines are crazy. I mean lots of great romance stories have tragic ends.

So for my story I intended for them to be together but then he turns against her and she is imprisoned. She figures out a way to escape and he helps her, which gives her hope, but she goes "home" or his palace where he used to live. Basically she knows that she is going to have to fight him and there is a pretty big chance that she will die. So in my story the "true loves" end up together for about a scene and then she dies.

Romeo and Juliet is one of the most famous romances of all time, and I think we all know how that one ended.

No, my "true loves" don't end up together in the end. Or I don't think they do. It's a bit complicated because for most of the novel, my time traveler MC, comes off as dangerous and obsessive. You don't find out until the last chapter that he was my FMC's husand and after she died, he went back to the past to try and avert it. He didn't succeed, so I guess you can say that they don't end up together.

The whole story sets my two main characters up to be together and it chronicles their struggles and in the end too much is against them and they don't end up together, one actually moves to avoid the other. Do I feel like it is a bit of a let down? Yes, now that I think about it, it is a huge one but do I feel it is necessary? Absolutely. It is not just for a shock factor or a twist but these two people do not fit together as a couple. It just doesn't work the other way around.

You know the movie Vicky, Christina, Barcelona? Once this girl says "Only unrealised love can be romantic love" and I think that's SO true.
I just wrote the first book of two in a series and I am really torn about the ending of the second book. My FMC was forced to go to another country by her parents and all she wants is to leave and go back to her friends. But then there is this boy(my MC^^) and they fall in love, you know that part ... But I really do not know what to do in the end. Because there is no right decision! She has friends in her hometown, but she loves him and the other people she got to know in the new country. She can't just leave and go back to her hometown but neither can she stay and never see her best friend again. You see I'm not sure about my true loves.

Mine's not genre romance, but there's a major romantic subplot. My answer to this question is kind of a complicated long story I don't want to get into here (I don't talk about my ending), but the short answer is no. Different interpretations might be made, because like I said it's kind of complicated, but essentially no.

My story isn't focused on romance but there is a lot of romance in it between characters :P

In the story I just finished, no they do not wind up together. It was sad to write but it needed to be that way for now.