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| LOL by Lilyofthevalley |
I’m a fan of Small-Town Romances. The main reason why I like them is because they tend to be character-oriented stories that mostly focus on the romance. They deal with a variety of subjects that go from the hilarious to the dramatic. The secondary characters are interesting, as they should be considering their main role is to keep us interested to read the next book. And overall they feel like comfort food; they make me feel good and, well, comforted.
However, the same reasons why I love Small-Town Romances are the reasons why I dislike them: the characters can be repetitive; the lighter tone means that the subject remains underdeveloped; the secondary characters overtake the story; and comfort food becomes boring after eating it repeatedly. I've noticed that these issues tend to develop when the series extends beyond the third book. What starts as a trilogy, becomes a sextet, and in Robyn Carr’s case, twenty books and counting.
One example of this is the Fool’s Gold series by Susan Mallery. The first book was fantastic, and even though the next two weren't as good, they had fully developed characters and interesting, albeit incredible, stories. But the series kept growing and the stories and characters started to blend in together. And the last set of books was so appalling that I decided to quit the series.
