The author of 'The Matzah Ball,' a Chanukah novel, wants Jews to read more romance

(JTA) - Jean Meltzer always knew how "The Matzah Ball," her first novel, would end.

"The rule of romance is that there has to be a happy ending; the characters have to get together," Meltzer told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. "If they don't get together, that's not a romance; that's literary fiction."

So (not-really-a-spoiler alert) it was a foregone conclusion that protagonist Rachel Rubenstein-Goldblatt, a best-selling Christmas-themed romance writer who has kept her career from her observant Jewish parents, would wind up with Jacob Greenberg, her Camp Ahava crush who is now throwing the gl...