I had a post ready for today, but I liked this suggestion from Chris even better, so … thanks, Chris!

Here’s something for Valentine’s Day.

Have you ever fallen out of love with a favorite author? Was the last book you read by the author so bad, you broke up with them and haven’t read their work since? Could they ever lure you back?

Don’t forget to leave a link to your actual response (so people don’t have to go searching for it) in the comments—or if you prefer, leave your answers in the comments themselves!

My relationships with some authors, such as my YA favorites, have been part of a specific time and place in my life, and I’ve moved on. In other cases, quite frankly, I like to think my taste has improved and I just don’t want to spend time with some writers anymore; no offense meant to any Danielle Steel fans, but that’s why I haven’t read anything of hers for over twenty years. When a guilty pleasure becomes more “guilt” than “pleasure,” it’s no longer worth it to me, and then there’s that whole “so many books, so little time” conundrum to deal with.

But I do have some regrets over the fact that I have fallen out of love with Alice Hoffman. I loved many of her earlier novels, and I’ve never minded the elements of magical realism she’s worked into a lot of her stories. Perhaps this is just one of the hazards of a long novel-writing career, but some of her more recent material has just felt redundant to me, and the gothic overtones and romanticized melodrama have become a bit much. Here on Earth was probably the book that first made me realize that our relationship had changed; there was far too much Wuthering Heights in it for my taste, and I have a long-standing antipathy toward Wuthering Heights.

I’ve read some of her subsequent work, but I seems that I’m not charmed by her quirks anymore. As I said, though, I do regret this falling-out with Ms. Hoffman, since she was one of my “must-read” favorites at one time. I still pick up her books at the bookstore, read the summaries and flip through them, but I’m not sure I’ll go back to her unless one or both of us makes some changes. In my observations, reunions don’t stick unless you’ve truly resolved your issues, so as long as I still have mine I’m not optimistic about our long-term prospects.

For other tales of author love gone wrong, visit the comments on the main post at Booking Through Thursday. Happy Valentine’s Day!