User blog comment:Galadriadhar/Essay: Laterose and Martin the Warrior/@comment-71.112.34.233-20100629003924

well, jacques doesn't focus on romance. you have little hints at it, like martin/rose, tam/armel and matthias/cornflower, but you never really get into serious romance. (plus, you usually find out what happened in the prologue...)

HOWEVER i think the death of rose was just too major. jacques always ends up killing a significant supporting character or one of the more minor protagonists--mask and boar in mossflower, brag/saro in loamhedge (some may say they were the main characters, but still they weren't too well developed), piknim in pearls of lutra (though oh how i did hate to see her go). rose, meanwhile, is martin's love, companion, and a main protagonist. and thankfully jacques never did kill off a romance again.