The other day I was pondering why some books work better for me than others; why some books leave me dissatisfied at the end, even when they meet the genre conventions of the HEA. Perhaps I'd had too much pizza but I came up with what I like to call "the bell curve of the HEA". (*I'm aware that it's not actually a bell curve, but it is a curve and it sounds good so I'm keeping it. Also, maths isn't my strong suit. Go with me here.)
It isn't an absolute answer, but it does go toward explaining why some books don't work for me.
In most romance novels (perhaps this is true of other genres also but I'm sticking with what I know), the "happiness graph" might look something like this:
