Taste of Cyn

Wicked: For Good And Romance Endings

By Cynthia Sax on June 19, 2026

Spoiler Alert – This post will talk about Wicked: For Good, the second and final movie concluding the story of the Wizard Of Oz’s ‘Wicked’ Witch, and it WILL contain spoilers. If you haven’t yet watched this magical movie with a solid romance novel-worthy ending (YES!!!!), you might wish to skip this post.

I was dreading watching Wicked: For Good. I loved the first movie so very much and the trailers looked like the second part of Elphaba’s story would ruin that for me.

It didn’t ruin it. At all.

It made me love the story MORE.

I LOVED Wicked: For Good.

The characters held true. The relationships evolved and grew stronger. The tie-ins to the original Wizard Of Oz were magical. The girl power and friendship rocks messages remain.

And the ending…the ending, my friends. It had all the aspects of a great romance novel ending.

It was unexpected and hard fought for.

During the dark moment, I truly thought all hope of ANY sort of happy ending was impossible. I definitely didn’t think there would be a romantic happy ending.

Yet there was.

And it was delightful and different, not-at-all what I thought their romantic happy ending would be like yet it was perfect for them.

This is definitely a movie to rewatch when writing an ending to a romance novel. It is inspiring.

(smiles)

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Hamnet And Grief

By Cynthia Sax on June 5, 2026

Spoiler Alert – This post will talk about Hamnet and it WILL contain spoilers. If you haven’t yet watched this heart-wrenching movie based on the book by Maggie O’Farrell about the life of the WIFE of William Shakespeare, you might wish to skip this post.

I recently watched Hamnet and wowsers, I think this is the best movie dealing with grief I’ve ever watched. It is definitely a three hanky watch.

One of the things that makes it so good, so touching is…much of the movie is happy. We see and feel the happiness, the love, the building of hope.

The main character, Anne, Shakespeare’s wife, has a realistic, some might say rather cynical view on life. She doesn’t expect much from life or from other people.

This changes throughout the movie. She begins to hope. She forms connections with other people, with the community. She laughs. She smiles. Joy surrounds her.

Then she experiences a great tragedy and that hard-found hope is yanked away from her.

She is sad, of course. We often talk about the sadness with loss.

But she is also angry, really, really angry. And that is a part of grief also.

As is the feeling of isolation, the feeling we are grieving alone, that the rest of the world has moved on and forgotten yet we haven’t and we don’t ever want to.

The answer to this isolation in the movie is brilliant. That answer and Anne’s reaction to it made me cry even harder than the initial tragedy.

This is a great movie to watch right before writing the dark moment, the big make-the-reader cry moment in your romance novel.

But have some tissues on hand when you do this!

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