I got a reply.

So our wonderful author, Robert Liparulo, replied to my letter. I will not include a word for word of his reply because it was sent to my inbox and not included here. But he did tell me why he left the ends of each of the Dreamhouse Kings books at such important moments.

First of all, and the best reason I think, is that he didn't want to "wrap the book up nicely" when the story isn't finished. And you know what? I completely agree. I don't like when the books are wrapped up nicely. It's like each one has a separate ending when it's actually a series and shouldn't end until the series does.

Another reason was that when all the books are published for this series, they will be available together much longer than the time he's leaving his readers in suspense. He is correct in that, but it does not make it any easier on us now.

Now here is my reply, which I also sent to him:

To be quite honest, the avid reader that I am, I will most definitely hang in there and wait for the next book—while impatiently tapping my foot, drumming my fingers, and listening to the wheels turning in my head as I think of what could happen to the King family next.

It is fun having cliffhangers, but for the first few hours after finishing a book, I sit and stew about why it had to end there as unanswered questions roam freely in the space between my ears. So in my stewing, I wrote you my letter.

I'm sure I am not the only reader that gets to the end and goes “Oh my gosh! I need to know what happens!” And yet, I--as a loyal reader--will wait until the next book comes out because the need to know surpasses any disgruntled mumblings that may have come out of my mouth in those first few hours after the last page.

Also, I will admit, I am glad you don’t wrap up each book nicely. It makes these books just as interesting after the end as it is during the reading of it just because of the cliffhanger.