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A BRIEF AND MOSTLY ACCURATE HISTORY OF THE CLIFFHANGER (and a giveaway)

SCROLL ALL THE WAY DOWN FOR THE GIVEAWAY…

SUPER CONGRATS TO MY GIVEAWAY WINNER…Peggy Stoudt

You have been emailed – please reply back to the email with your mailing address!

 

The cliffhanger has a long and storied history of authors ruining people’s lives and then acting surprised when those people retaliate. In 2026, readers leave one-star reviews that read like divorce proceedings.

They tag authors in TikToks set to dramatic prison sentencing audio.

They create entire Goodreads shelves called things like “authors who owe me therapy” and “personally victimized by this ending.”

One reader once live-streamed herself throwing a Kindle into a lake. The author reposted it. It got more engagement than the book.

But this isn’t new — the cliffhanger, unlike the book hangover (more on that another day), is as old as storytelling itself.

And readers have ALWAYS retaliated.

 

Allow me to present the (mostly factual) evidence.

 

Charles Dickens, 1841 When Dickens serialized The Old Curiosity Shop, readers in New York supposedly crowded the docks screaming “Is Little Nell dead?!” at incoming ships. What historians WON’T tell you is that a woman from Boston waited six weeks for the answer, didn’t like it, and mailed Dickens a box of angry bees. He never acknowledged it publicly. The bees were never recovered.

 

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 1893 When Doyle killed Sherlock Holmes at Reichenbach Falls, over 20,000 people cancelled their subscriptions to The Strand Magazine. One woman in Edinburgh sent him a letter that simply read “You beast” every single day for four months. Doyle reportedly kept them in a hatbox. When asked about it later he said “She wasn’t wrong.”

 

Scheherazade, circa 800 AD Technically the first cliffhanger girlie. If you don’t know her, she’s the narrator of One Thousand and One Nights — a king who executes his new bride every morning, and the woman who survived by telling him a story every night and stopping at the good part so he had to keep her alive to hear the ending. One thousand and one nights of “but WAIT” energy. She invented the game and honestly the rest of us are just paying rent in her house.

 

Thomas Hardy, 1895 After the serialized ending of Hearts Insurgent (later Jude the Obscure) left readers mid-crisis for three months, a rector in Wakefield publicly burned his copy and sent Hardy the ashes in an envelope with a note that read “Your ending, sir, as it deserves.” Hardy called it the best review he ever received.

 

Margaret St. James, 1978 The largely forgotten queen of the paperback bodice ripper who wrote the Savage Corsair trilogy for Zebra Books. Book two ended with the heroine unconscious on a sinking ship and the hero shot in the chest. Readers had to wait ELEVEN MONTHS for book three. During that time, St. James received so many threatening letters that her editor started screening her mail. One reader in Tulsa sent a handwritten alternate ending — 47 pages, single-spaced — with a note that said “Since you clearly don’t know how.” St. James framed it. It hung in her office until she died in 2004. No one knows where it is now.

 

Me, 2026 And now, in that proud tradition of writers who ruin people’s lives and feel no remorse, I present to you:

 

 

Hold on to your cliffhangers, the ride starts TODAY… and let me just explain the SPICE LEVEL IN THESE BOOKS OK? We’re not talkin’ 5 chili peppers. We’re not even talkin’ 5 EGGPLANTS.

We’re talking 🌶️🍆🔥💀⚰️.

That’s a chili pepper, an eggplant, actual fire, death, and a coffin.

THAT’S the rating system.

That’s what Legion does to Savannah and that’s what he’s going to do to you.

I PRESENT TO YOU.. SOME (more) EVIDENCE…

🌾 He eats her pussy until she sobs his name and then fucks her so slow she forgets her own life exists outside that room.

🛋️ She rides his cock in front of a room full of men while he plays with her tits and tells every single one of them she’s his.

🚿 Shower wall. She begs him to make her forget. He doesn’t stop until she does.

👀 He tells her to spread her legs and touch herself while he strokes his cock watching. Eyes locked…

🤚 She rides him slow with his hand around her throat. Light enough to breathe. Firm enough to remind her who’s inside her.

🌙 He bends her over and makes her beg. Makes her say every filthy thing out loud. Then takes her from the back for the first time while she screams she belongs to him.

💀 He pulls out and grabs her hair. She takes him in her mouth tasting herself while looking up at him with innocent eyes.

👅 He edges her until she’s writhing. Then goes slow and deep with eye contact until they came together.

🏜️ No panties. He finds this out with his fingers. Makes her confess every fantasy she’s ever had about him before he’ll touch her again.

🔥 TEN TIMES in twenty-four hours. She tells him she’s never been this horny in her life. They were very late for dinner.

 

So, YES, I WILL DESTROY YOU WITH CLIFFHANGERS, BUT I PROMISE… YOU WILL LOVE IT

I will not be elaborating further, I will not be apologizing, and I will not be accepting mail.

Especially bees.

Be brave and get BOOK 1 – DUST & FLOWERS now…

Amazon

Weekly releases won’t kill you… much.

 

 

Win a signed copy of DUST & FLOWERS plus a VERY SUPER COOL sticker pack OF ALL YOUR FAVORITE BOOKISH TROPES!

 

LEAVE A COMMENT BELOW TO ENTER – ANSWER THIS QUESTION…

What is your FAVORITE EMOJI to use for your spice rating?

MY ANSWER

I have to say, that coffin is workin’ for me 👅 but the headstone is a natural progression! 

And the skull is my personal fav!

What’s Yours?

P.S. I will choose winners WEEKLY for the Legion Giveaways – a new giveaway every week! So stop by next Friday too! If you’re waiting on the winner for the last giveaway (Story Fodder), I haven’t picked one yet because I’ve been waiting for the books to arrive, but I will choose this weekend! So if you haven’t entered yet, go do that!

235 Responses

    1. Well crap! I use the 🔥, I know it’s boring but gets my point across.. no one is wondering why a 👨🏻‍🚒 is in the spice category.. but the 👨🏻‍🚒 is what I really wanna use… 🙋🏼‍♀️🤦🏼‍♀️🤷🏼‍♀️

      Reply

  2. I’ve never even seen the tombstone and skull! I think chili peppers. Your books are SO spicy!! Love that about them. 🙂

    Reply

    1. I’m amazed at the variety of emojis that can be used for book spice… But I usually stick with the easily interpreted 🌶️ 🫦 and 🍆

      Reply

  25. I’m gonna be honest and say that I really wasn’t aware that there was more than just 🔥 and 🌶️ to describe spice. Thanks for this. #themoreyouknow

    Reply

  27. I just use the universal pepper lol 🌶️!!! The more peppers 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️ the better!!! 😘😘😘

    Reply

  34. I’m not a real big spice emoji girl. I read anything from clean/ behind closed doors romances to dark romance that includes erotica, but if there is too much for me I skim through it. I guess if I’m using emojis for spice I use the🔥and either use 3 or 5 as the top.

    Reply

  38. 💦 the squirting emoji! Everyone uses the eggplant or chili pepper but the 💦 tickles me for some reason.

    Reply

  44. Just like I have a favorite writer, I have a favorite artist who has a song “Coffin” ⚰️, so I would have to go with ⚰️, because Why not?

    Reply

  45. 🫦 I’m a lip biter. I never really know when im doing it. It has been known to send guys crazy (so I’ve been told). It drives my husband absolutely crazy (in a good way). So, now, it makes me think of flirty and spicy ratings.

    Reply

  62. 🥵🌶️ these are the only ones I’ve ever used for spice level. Yep I’m boring.. but that email was not!!

    Reply

  66. 🌶️❤️‍🔥 are my go to emojis for spice. I like cliffhangers they build good anticipation for the next book and give me something to look forward to. Thanks for the history on the cliffhanger 😊

    Reply

  67. Very interesting cliffhanger history. Since reading today’s post, never seen the ⚰️ or 💀 for spice level so they would have to be my new ones when I use them.

    Thank you for the chance.

    Reply

  79. 🌶
    This series is beyond fantastic. It made me uncomfortable. It took me so far out of my comfort zone that after reading it I needed a mindless fluffy rom-com. I loved Legion and Savannah. You are an awesome author. And yes, I have a list of cliffhanger questions.

    Reply

    1. Congrats Peggy! You are my super Dust & Flowers Giveaway Winner! Emailing you now, please look for it and reply! – Julie

      Reply

  89. Probably 😩 cause it’s usually the one I actually make like ‘damn why can’t I have a man do that to me 😩’

    Reply

  94. The ❤️‍🔥is my usual go to. Though you’ve inspired me to think outside the box. I might switch so something else like 💦 or 🧨

    Reply

  95. I don’t personally use them for ratings, but my favorite is the flames. 🙂 (Probably because I have a thing for firefighters.) lol

    Reply

  125. I go with the usual…🌶🔥
    When I am felling silly I like to send my husband sayings using… 🐱🍑🍆😋

    Reply

  127. It kinda depends on the mood I think, and what’s going on…

    🚀 – when it’s a fast, hard, long ride.
    🌋 – a slow build and spectacularly showy blaze.
    ⚡️- a quick and powerful zapping burn.
    🐦‍🔥- a burn to you ashes and make you whole again heat.

    All leaving you like… 🫣🫨🤯🫠

    Reply

  137. The purple devil, hot peppers, or fire emojis all work for me. The hotter the book, the more emojis to use.

    Reply

  140. I’ve never seen the coffin or tombstone used, I normally use chilli peppers or fire 🔥 I’m new to your books but have just downloaded dust and flowers and it will be on my tbr!

    Reply

  153. I use a variety of emoji’s depending on the level of heat: 🔥 🍆 🍑 🥵 🪭, each have their own weight in conveying the hot factor!

    Reply

  157. Spice rating depends on how hot I thought🍆🌋💣💥🔥🌶👍🤔👀🙄😱🙈🤦🏼‍♀️❄🍋

    Reply

  159. I would have to say the 🕯️or the lovely 💃. You see I like to be discrete ( at least a little bit ),in case someone finds my list!! Thanks for the chance! Much ❤️!

    Reply

  166. Oh boy, love this! My favorite one is hard. Different stories evoke different feelings. Here are my top favs 🥵🫠😈

    Reply

  173. No emoji does it justice! Been following this author for a long time! Never ever disappoint.🔥☄️💥🌋🫣🎇

    Reply

  174. No emoji does it justice! Been following this author for a long time! Never ever disappoint.🔥☄️💥🌋🫣🎇

    Reply

  179. I’m basic bitch 🍆 🔥 😈 kinda girl. As long as there are a bunch of them I’m all in! (No pun intended 😜)

    Reply

  183. You are cracking me up! I feel old – I don’t use many emojis because well … I’m old … so I just use words. If they made a real big cock emoji (the eggplant has always seemed kinda gross to me – like the only thing it makes me think of is purple sex toys), I think we need a smutt section of emojis on the phone, like how about washboard abs emoji. How about handcuffs – they have an emoji for that, I think, so I’ll try to start using that one.

    Reply

  188. This series sounds incredible and I am ready to embrace ALL the spice!!
    Hmm my typical go to is a variety of or multiples of 🔥🥵🌶️
    I love the coffin though… reminds me of a book years ago, the fmc said they’d have to bury her in a Y shaped coffin if she got f*^#ed any harder!! 🤣

    Reply

  190. 🔥🌶️👏🤯👌🫦👅🗣️🦫💥🌬️☔️🍆🍆🥇🏆🎟️🚨🧨⚰️🚬🪦🚿❤️‍🔥♨️🆘⁉️📢🗯️😻

    Reply

  194. Wow, I can’t believe your doing another giveaway. You are a very kind author. Even with your no BS attitude. 😉You still doing giveaways like it’s Xmas again. Lol. I probably use the fire🔥 if I do use them. It’s rare usually people know the book is spicy or if I was surprised it was spicy I’ll say something. Sometimes that happens. Did not know what I was getting into. Oh I remember my first RH book 😂 back in 1907. And sometimes when I think I have read everything there is. I get a 🤔😮 moment.

    Reply

  203. Okay – I don’t usually use the emojis, but I’d lean to the wet splat (💦) — but usually I describe instead. I did a review recently that said the book should come in a brown paper bag with a bottle of lube, it was so good. (the dirty talk was TOP TIER).

    Reply

  204. Depends on the spice. Usually 🥵 or🔥.

    Full transparency… I will be stealing your headstone idea. I hope you see it as flattery, because I love that it’s unusual.

    Reply

  205. For me it’s either the 🔥,🌶️,🥵 and sometimes even a combination of. ☠️🥵depending on the spice

    Reply

  206. I hadn’t seen a coffin emoji! After reading this excerpt… It might just become my new favorite.
    My normal go to emoji is: the sweating emoji! 🥵 🥵 or the fire emoji! 🔥🔥

    Reply

  217. There are so many emojis to choose from and it depends on the book as to which I would choose to use. These are some I use in addition to 🔥🌶️🍆
    Hot panter: 🥵
    The wave: 🌊
    The regular panter:😮‍💨
    The melter: 🫠

    Reply

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Newest Book

Mark your Calendar!

Releasing on

March 20, 2026

Book of Legion – 5

SKULLS AND LACE

Every prayer gets answered. Not all of them are from God.

Their love story has always been impossible—ranch heiress and outlaw biker, angel and demon, the girl in white dresses and the man covered in biblical warfare tattoos.

Savannah’s life is content. Her engagement to a senator’s son is brand. Everything has been managed, controlled, and performed to perfection.

Legion’s life is hell. His family was destroyed long before he was born. His ending predetermined long before he met the Little Ashby Princess in a silo.

They’ve been stealing moments since they were teenagers, burning for each other in a world that keeps demanding they choose sides.

Now it’s time.

Necessary reckoning.

Spectacular collision.

Brutal reality.

 

Time to burn it down, boys.

 

SKULLS AND LACE

 

Every prayer gets answered. Not all of them are from God.

 

Inside the pages you can expect:
🏍️⛓️🔥 Outlaw Biker Romance

💎🖤🔧 Rich Girl / Poor Boy

⛓️🔒🖤 Property Of

🖤🥀⚔️ Morally Gray/Anti-Hero MMC

🔥👁️⛓️ Obsessed/Possessive MMC

🚫❤️🥀 Forbidden Love

👑💍🖤 Only Her

🖤⚔️👑 Only Him

💕🏠💫 Childhood Sweethearts

⚔️🔪💀 Touch Her and Die

🔥🌶️🥵 Primal Spice

🤫🔐🖤 Secret Relationship

Get the e-book:

AMAZON
Book of Legion – 4

Smoke and Honey

Always on the outside lookin’ in.

 

In this war between heaven and hell, someone has to bleed. Legion Kane understands this to his core. He’s spent his whole life being trailer trash with no future.

Savannah Ashby was a dream. Perfection wrapped up in designer prairie dresses and equestrian boots. An angel to his demon.

And now, she’s his savior.

But salvation looks a lot like surrender when you’re recovering under the Ashby roof. Sleeping in their guest room. Eating at their table. Watching Mercy get everything he never could’ve given her—ponies, new clothes, a bedroom with a door that locks from the inside.

Hardest part is… spoiled looks good on his baby sister.

And Ashby money is something Legion will never have.

Ponies and presents.

Princess in training.

Dynasty wealth.

Always on the outside lookin’ in.

Some men weren’t built to stay.

SMOKE AND HONEY

Where the right side of the tracks meets the wrong side of everything.

 

Inside the pages you can expect:

🏍️⛓️🔥 Outlaw Biker Romance

💎🖤🔧 Rich Girl / Poor Boy

⛓️🔒🖤 Property Of

🖤🥀⚔️ Morally Gray/Anti-Hero MMC

🔥👁️⛓️ Obsessed/Possessive MMC

🚫❤️🥀 Forbidden Love

👑💍🖤 Only Her

🖤⚔️👑 Only Him

💕🏠💫 Childhood Sweethearts

⚔️🔪💀 Touch Her and Die

🔥🌶️🥵 Primal Spice

🤫🔐🖤 Secret Relationship

Book of Legion – 3

Scars and Promises

The cruelest thing hope ever did was show up.

Two families.

One blood, one found.

Eleanor Ashby became obsessed with Legion Kane the day he was born. The evidence is in the vault—thousands of photos spanning two decades, all bound up in a book with his name on it.

Savannah has to face the facts. The Ashbys don’t protect people. They devour innocence and call it charity. Even Colt—the one she thought was the good brother—proves it.

The Badlands MC don’t even know the meaning of the word charity.

Everything is earned. Every act of kindness comes with a price.

Outlaws don’t care about feelings, they care about brotherhood.

How far will you go for the club.

How much will you give for the patch.

It better be everything, or there will be consequences.

Property of.

Infected brand.

Angels and demons.

The backside of twenty-three?

SCARS AND PROMISES

The cruelest thing hope ever did was show up.

 

Inside the pages you can expect:

🏍️⛓️🔥 Outlaw Biker Romance

💎🖤🔧 Rich Girl / Poor Boy

⛓️🔒🖤 Property Of

🖤🥀⚔️ Morally Gray/Anti-Hero MMC

🔥👁️⛓️ Obsessed/Possessive MMC

🚫❤️🥀 Forbidden Love

👑💍🖤 Only Her

🖤⚔️👑 Only Him

💕🏠💫 Childhood Sweethearts

⚔️🔪💀 Touch Her and Die

🔥🌶️🥵 Primal Spice

🤫🔐🖤 Secret Relationship

Book of Legion – 2

Blood and Grace

Down on your knees—it’s time to choose sides.

Forty-seven thousand acres of Ashby land. Six generations of Montana dynasty. And one daughter who was never going to be allowed to choose a man called Legion.

They were caught at the silo at midnight. Same place they’ve been hookin’ up for years.

What happened at the silo should’ve ended them. Her family made sure of it. But violence doesn’t kill what they have. It only makes the bond stronger.

Now Savannah has to prove what it means to stand by her man and Legion has to convince forty-seven patched members of the Badlands MC that protecting her will be worth it.

Outlaw clubhouse.

Public claiming.

Loyalty test.

Church At Dawn.

 

BLOOD AND GRACE

 

Down on your knees—it’s time to choose sides.

 

Inside the pages you can expect:
🏍️⛓️🔥 Outlaw Biker Romance
💎🖤🔧 Rich Girl / Poor Boy
⛓️🔒🖤 Property Of
🖤🥀⚔️ Morally Gray/Anti-Hero MMC
🔥👁️⛓️ Obsessed/Possessive MMC
🚫❤️🥀 Forbidden Love
👑💍🖤 Only Her
🖤⚔️👑 Only Him
💕🏠💫 Childhood Sweethearts
⚔️🔪💀 Touch Her and Die
🔥🌶️🥵 Primal Spice
🤫🔐🖤 Secret Relationship

Book of Legion – 1

DUST AND FLOWERS

Their secret just became everyone's problem.

Savannah Ashby has been photographed 70,000 times—-every smile, every outfit, every moment of her perfect ranch heiress life has been documented on social media by her dead mother’s cameras.

Legion Kane came out of Whitefall Prison with nothin’ but an expired driver‘s license, $27 in his wallet, and a name that means biblical demon possession.

She wears another man’s three-carat diamond.

He wears a fresh MC brand burned into his chest.

They’ve been meeting in secret at an abandoned silo since they were kids.

Now her family wants him dead, his MC wants him loyal, and the only thing that matters is what happens when she meets him at midnight, whisperin’ his name like a prayer.

 

Montana badlands.

Outlaw bikers.

Ranch royalty.

War is coming.

 

DUST AND FLOWERS

 

Their secret just became everyone’s problem.

Please note: This is the first book in an ongoing serial. Every novella ends on a cliff. Novellas will release weekly through book five.

Inside the pages you can expect:
🏍️⛓️🔥 Outlaw Biker Romance
💎🖤🔧 Rich Girl/Poor Boy
⛓️🔒🖤 Property Of
🖤🥀⚔️ Morally Gray/Anti-Hero MMC
🔥👁️⛓️ Obsessed/Possessive MMC
🚫❤️🥀 Forbidden Love
👑💍🖤 Only Her
🖤⚔️👑 Only Him
💕🏠💫 Childhood Sweethearts
⚔️🔪💀 Touch Her and Die
🔥🌶️🥵 Primal Spice
🤫🔐🖤 Secret Relationship

 

Now in Audio