Just because the writer, reader and general populous know how the book is going to end doesn’t mean it’s not a book worth reading – or writing. In fact, I have discovered that writing the books with a required ending is more challenging than writing ones without.
But the one thing that a book must have to count as a romance novel at all is either a Happily Ever After or Happily For Now. The reader goes into the story knowing that everything is going to turn out all right in the end, better than all right, no matter how dire the circumstances may seem.
Holland Rae, Writer 