I've been noticing a trend in several young adult series I've finished recently. The girl and boy fall madly in love (as they are wont to do) and decide 'yuppers, it's totally appropriate to get married now' and then, before you can say 'baby makes three' she's pregnant.
Maybe I'm showing my age - or maybe I'm just an old prude - but I totally hate this.
For me, the biggest offender was a series that had been doing so well - yeah, the love went from 10-to-70 a little too fast, but it was sweet. Then this seventeen (barely) year old girl is proposed to by her boyfriend that she's known for less than a year. They get married and then, after about a week, they start talking about children and she admits that, although she's done nothing to not get pregnant, she hasn't even considered the possibility of getting pregnant. (Needless to say, before the end of the book, they are excitedly looking forward to her first baby.)
This is actually a very extreme example, to me, but it illustrates what I've been dealing with nicely. Honestly, from a reader who's more than a little past the actual age of young adult, I find reading about seventeen year olds getting married uncomfortable - especially the way it's portrayed, as though they are this grand, fated couple that can't wait two or three years. No, it has to be now because they just love each other so much. (Which, yeah, I know that's a thing with teen romance, but I, thankfully, avoided it then and I still wish to.)
I know, in history girls, especially, were often around sixteen when they got married, but … I don't know. Maybe because that was in the past and I've been reading modern day novels or fantasy that, except for this, seem rather progressive.
If I'm being totally honest, when I was an actual young adult, the last thing I wanted to read about were girls my age getting married and having babies. Seriously, there were enough romance novels that ended that way. I wanted something besides the gut swooning romance. (Which is totally why I didn't read YA books at that time, but mysteries instead.)
So, what do you think? Do you like it when your YA couple has an all encompassing HEA with marriage and babies? Or are you more like me and don't want marriage added to the romance just yet? And do you know any actual young adults (or are you one) that actually wants to read about the couple getting married?
