The Conditions of Will

The Conditions of Will is a contemporary romance novel that centers the romantic arc of Georgia Carter and Sam Penny, tracing the challenges they face while seeking their happily-ever-after ending. True to the parameters of romantic fiction, Georgia and Sam do achieve this happy ending after overcoming a series of conflicts, miscommunications, and obstacles to their love. Hastings’s novel also embraces romance tropes—such as forced proximity, forbidden love, lovers-to-friends, love triangles, and secrets—to build the narrative structure and establish its stakes and themes. From Georgia’s perspective, she and Sam are forced to spend a protracted amount of time together in the same space when they both travel to South Carolina for Will’s funeral, where they have no choice but to interact with one another. Despite their immediate attraction to each other, the characters’ romance is forbidden since Sam is Oliver’s AA sponsor and responsible for Oliver’s well-being. Oliver’s feelings for Sam create a twist on a love triangle that serves as an additional obstacle since Georgia knows that pursuing a relationship with Sam will upset her brother. The two end up in a secret affair that sets up the climactic reveal when Oliver discovers that Sam and Georgia are together. He feels betrayed by the two people he most believed he could trust. Oliver’s anger tests the strength of Georgia and Sam’s love. Hastings uses these tropes to create narrative tension and develop her characters’ arcs.

The Conditions of Will belongs to the subgenre of romantic suspense, with elements of psychological drama. As Suzie Morrow explains in her article “Contemporary Romantic Suspense: An In-Depth Genre Guide,” the contemporary romance subgenre combines “suspenseful plots and intense emotional connections, all set against the backdrop of the present day” (Morrow, Suzie. “Contemporary Romantic Suspense: An In-Depth Genre Guide.” Sea Crow Books). Titles of this subgenre toy with the conventions of the psychological thriller romance, the dark romance, and the contemporary romance novel. In particular, romantic suspense novels offer a blend of “tension and mystery,” “moral complexities,” “fear,” and “danger” (Morrow). In The Conditions of Will, Hastings creates suspense using the mysteries surrounding Georgia’s father’s will, sexuality, and hidden past.

Hastings nuances these genre and subgenre conventions by presenting an array of complex characters. Her protagonist, Georgia, a particularly complicated character, is intuitive, insightful, reflective, and interrogative. She grapples with a traumatic past, but she’s willing to apply her therapeutic studies to her relationships in the present and evolve, giving her a dynamic arc. Her return home to Okatie catalyzes her and Sam’s romance, while also launching her personal growth journey. Hastings writes the novel from Georgia’s point of view instead of dividing the novel between her and Sam’s narrative voices—a common structure for romance and romantic comedy novels. By giving Georgia sole narrative authority, Hastings establishes The Conditions of Will as Georgia’s account alone and centers the plot on her pursuit of healing, romance, and renewal.

The Conditions of Will is in conversation with other contemporary romance and romantic suspense novels like Parker S. Huntington and L. J. Shen’s My Dark Romeo, Kate Stewart’s Flock, and Mercedes Ron’s My Fault.