​I’m writing my very first Novel! Need opinions 🙂

Looking for some view or opinions on my thought process for my first novel.

Genre: Adult Romance Fantasy

I’m just letting ideas come to me and going with the flow, writing random chapters to eventually all come together, but I do have a whole timeline/plan for the plot. I decided I want my first book to be a stand alone.

My current issue is I’m a big fan of darker romance, I want to feel emotion from the novel. Which leads me down the path of wanting my MMC to make an ultimate sacrifice in order to save FMC and the realm—so he has to die. And I don’t want magic to revive him, which was my original idea.

Original idea was that he still makes the sacrifice and dies. FMC is told that a Pool Of Souls exists within the far sea cliffs along the eastern shores. She takes him to the pool, this is how the pool would work: if you place a dead soul into the pool it will either take them and send them to their eternal sleep where their soul belongs, or it will gift them life again because their soul still belongs to another that is living (Aka predictable but heart warming soul mate trope). This way I can lead into a second novel, where he is gifted life again BUT its eternal, he never ages again and is now immortal. The FMC is not.

But I’m leaning more toward my MMC dies and is not revived. FMC is crushed but must continue living, somehow shape the ending bitter sweet. I feel often in fantasy the life is revived somehow and it is quite predictable.

Thoughts?!