Callie Hutton on romance series: To read or not to read?

Callie Hutton, author of the new The Highlander's Choice, the latest in her Marriage Mart Mayhem series, explores what's so appealing about reading a romance that's part of a series

Callie: We all know that lovely feeling when you get to the end of a very satisfying book. The hero and heroine have worked out their differences, declared their love for each other and walked off hand in hand into the sunset. Ah, lovely. We close the cover (or tap the page on our Kindle) and sigh. They had a true happily ever after.

But did you ever wonder how happy their happily ever after was?

That is why I write historical romance series. I always want to know what happens when the book ends. In my books, I usually throw in an epilogue, mostly mentioning a new baby or a child or two. But does that really satisfy? You're still seeing only one moment/minute/day in the life of the hero and heroine you've grown so close to.

I want the dirt.

Did he really reform his rakehell ways? Did she actually continue the work she found so satisfying that the hero conceded at the end she could continue? Did they rebuild the burned-down barn? What happened when that lovely 4-year-old new stepdaughter became an eye-rolling, door-slamming teenager?

All right, so maybe we don't really want all that information, but I think it's nice to see characters from a former story make an appearance in a new book.

In my Marriage Mart Mayhem series, the first book (The Elusive Wife) is about a man who is forced into a marriage with a woman he immediately abandons. The basis of that story is he was rather, um, drunk. And doesn't remember what she looks like when he runs into her in a London ballroom. Sticky situation for him since the heroine doesn't enlighten him.

In that book, the hero has a best friend, who has his story next. In The Duke's Quandary, Drake is caught in a compromising situation with a woman, Penelope, who is the absolute opposite of what he wants in a wife. But — he does the honorable thing. Jason from The Elusive Wife makes an appearance in that book, and it was fun to write a little bit about him and Olivia and how they settled into marriage.

Penelope has become a character that many of my readers have told me is their favorite heroine in the series. She is a botanist and digs in the dirt. Not exactly a ladylike pastime in the Regency era. Since she is so loved, I bring her into the next two books, The Lady's Disgrace and The Baron's Betrayal. Many of my readers were very happy to see her lovable, bumbling ways.

Both The Lady's Disgrace and The Baron's Betrayal feature two of Drake's sisters. He also makes an appearance as well as his lovely wife. He is still head of his family, and taking care of them all, as well as bouncing a baby boy and newborn baby girl on his lap. He is also following his wife around when she digs in the dirt so she doesn't fall and hurt herself. Did I mention Penelope was clumsy?

My newest release in the series, The Highlander's Choice, is set far away from the ballrooms and sparkling life of Regency London and takes place in ... you guessed it. The Highlands. In this book, another of Drake's sisters, twin Sybil, makes a journey to Scotland to attend the wedding of a dear friend. And meets her knight in shining armor along the way.

What is it about series that most readers really love? I asked my street team and got these responses.

"I would buy the next book in a series, I love how the characters connect. They are sometimes family or friends who help the hero or heroine in a situation." Another street team member said, "Series give me that warm fuzzy feeling of reuniting with old friends." And this comment was especially interesting: "I was begging for Tristan's story waaaay before it was written. That scoundrel was worth waiting for."

That commenter was referring to The Baron's Betrayal.

It seems a lot of readers enjoy series. I do, myself. I love to read them, and write them. How about your reading preferences? Stand-alone or series? Family series or community series?

About The Highlander's Choice:

The Scottish Highlands, 1815

Lady Sybil Lacey is every inch the proper English gentlewoman. She's horrified to attend her best friend's wedding in the Scottish Highlands—a wedding to a barbarian Scot, no less. For aren't Scots naught but brutish, whiskey-swilling lechers in rough kilts? So to find herself secretly attracted to the tall and devastatingly handsome Scottish laird of Bedlay Castle is quite disconcerting...

Liam MacBride is convinced that English ladies are silly sassenachs who think of nothing but social events and clothes. So why is he intensely drawn to Lady Sybil? All they do is quarrel...until loathing turns into inexplicable lust.

A tempestuous, fiery romance between an English lady and a Scottish laird is quite scandalous enough...but no one is more shocked than Sybil when she discovers her laird is betrothed to another.

Find out more about Callie and her books at calliehutton.com.