Diabolos Ex Machina

Yours Until Dawn by Teresa Medeiros

It's officially official: I am sick to death of seeing the surprise ending abused in popular fiction. A good ending is not necessarily unexpected -- nor is the unexpected necessarily a good ending. Not everybody needs to have a secret identity Teresa Medeiros I'm talking to you!

The premise of a blind, self-absorbed war hero being returned to health and vigor by a nurse determined to brook no nonsense is both appealing and classic. In this case, it also happens to be fairly well-written and thoroughly absorbing. The banter is fair enough to pass as realistic, and there is one particularly riveting scene where hero Gabriel, disappointed by a dead-end avenue to return his sight, is thoroughly drunk and intent on suicide -- heroine Samantha talks him down and gets soundly kissed for her pains. And then she gets to keep the gun.

All this is utterly, utterly wasted by the revelation at the end of the book. Honestly, it was Kaiser Soze all over again -- I felt shocked and betrayed, newly aware of the presence of evil and deceit, which is fine for The Usual Suspects but not so hot when it appears in a romance novel and when the one who's been deceiving me is the heroine who by this point really ought to have my full support.

Ms. Medeiros clearly feels that her cherished revelation is the key to undoing that tired old Evil Other Woman cliche: by making the heartless fiancee and the tenderhearted nurse the same person, we are clearly meant to understand the full, rich humanity of both, or something. As it turns out, I merely lose all interest in the happy ending. I feel gypped. Gypped, I tell you!

See if I read any Teresa Medeiros after this. Honestly.