diff --git a/docs/reference/serializers/html.md b/docs/reference/serializers/html.md
index 6c73070a9..62f77167d 100644
--- a/docs/reference/serializers/html.md
+++ b/docs/reference/serializers/html.md
@@ -51,9 +51,9 @@ An array of rules to initialize the `Html` serializer with, defining your schema
 Deserialize an HTML `string` into a [`State`](../models/state.md). How the string is deserialized will be determined by the rules that the `Html` serializer was constructed with.
 
 ### `Html.serialize`
-`Html.serialize(state: State) => String`
+`Html.serialize(state: State, [options: Object]) => String || Array`
 
-Serialize a `state` into an HTML string. How the string is serialized will be determined by the rules that the `Html` serializer was constructed with.
+Serialize a `state` into an HTML string. How the string is serialized will be determined by the rules that the `Html` serializer was constructed with. If you pass `render: false` as an option, the return value will instead be an iterable list of the top-level React elements, to be rendered as children in your own React component.
 
 
 ## Rules
@@ -73,7 +73,7 @@ Each rule must define two properties:
 #### `rule.deserialize`
 `rule.deserialize(el: CheerioElement, next: Function) => Object || Void`
 
-The `deserialize` function should return a plain Javascript object representing the deserialized state, or nothing if the rule in question doesn't know how to deserialize the object, in which case the next rule in the stack will be attempted. 
+The `deserialize` function should return a plain Javascript object representing the deserialized state, or nothing if the rule in question doesn't know how to deserialize the object, in which case the next rule in the stack will be attempted.
 
 The returned object is almost exactly equivalent to the objects returned by the [`Raw`](./raw.md) serializer, except an extra `kind: 'mark'` is added to account for the ability to nest marks.
 
diff --git a/package.json b/package.json
index 0b80147c2..6478ad54b 100644
--- a/package.json
+++ b/package.json
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 {
   "name": "slate",
   "description": "A completely customizable framework for building rich text editors.",
-  "version": "0.14.15",
+  "version": "0.14.16",
   "license": "MIT",
   "repository": "git://github.com/ianstormtaylor/slate.git",
   "main": "./lib/index.js",
diff --git a/src/components/void.js b/src/components/void.js
index 2ebbc233f..0f51d0a17 100644
--- a/src/components/void.js
+++ b/src/components/void.js
@@ -128,7 +128,7 @@ class Void extends React.Component {
 
   renderLeaf = () => {
     const { node, schema, state } = this.props
-    const child = node.getTexts().first()
+    const child = node.getFirstText()
     const ranges = child.getRanges()
     const text = ''
     const marks = Mark.createSet()
diff --git a/src/models/node.js b/src/models/node.js
index 21b653efd..5e6d601ce 100644
--- a/src/models/node.js
+++ b/src/models/node.js
@@ -101,23 +101,53 @@ const Node = {
   },
 
   /**
-   * Recursively find all ancestor nodes by `iterator`.
+   * Recursively find all descendant nodes by `iterator`. Breadth first.
    *
    * @param {Function} iterator
-   * @return {Node} node
+   * @return {Node or Null} node
    */
 
   findDescendant(iterator) {
-    return (
-      this.nodes.find(iterator) ||
-      this.nodes
-        .map(node => node.kind == 'text' ? null : node.findDescendant(iterator))
-        .find(exists => exists)
-    )
+    const found = this.nodes.find(iterator)
+    if (found) return found
+
+    let descendantFound = null
+    this.nodes.find(node => {
+      if (node.kind != 'text') {
+        descendantFound = node.findDescendant(iterator)
+        return descendantFound
+      } else {
+        return false
+      }
+    })
+
+    return descendantFound
   },
 
   /**
-   * Recursively filter all ancestor nodes with `iterator`.
+   * Recursively find all descendant nodes by `iterator`. Depth first.
+   *
+   * @param {Function} iterator
+   * @return {Node or Null} node
+   */
+
+  findDescendantDeep(iterator) {
+    let descendantFound = null
+
+    const found = this.nodes.find(node => {
+      if (node.kind != 'text') {
+        descendantFound = node.findDescendantDeep(iterator)
+        return descendantFound || iterator(node)
+      }
+
+      return iterator(node) ? node : null
+    })
+
+    return descendantFound || found
+  },
+
+  /**
+   * Recursively filter all descendant nodes with `iterator`.
    *
    * @param {Function} iterator
    * @return {List} nodes
@@ -132,7 +162,7 @@ const Node = {
   },
 
   /**
-   * Recursively filter all ancestor nodes with `iterator`, depth-first.
+   * Recursively filter all descendant nodes with `iterator`, depth-first.
    *
    * @param {Function} iterator
    * @return {List} nodes
@@ -282,14 +312,13 @@ const Node = {
    */
 
   getClosest(key, iterator) {
-    let node = this.assertDescendant(key)
-
-    while (node = this.getParent(node)) {
-      if (node == this) return null
-      if (iterator(node)) return node
+    let ancestors = this.getAncestors(key)
+    if (!ancestors) {
+      throw new Error(`Could not find a descendant node with key "${key}".`)
     }
 
-    return null
+    // Exclude this node itself
+    return ancestors.rest().findLast(iterator)
   },
 
   /**
@@ -406,16 +435,7 @@ const Node = {
   getDescendant(key) {
     key = Normalize.key(key)
 
-    let child = this.getChild(key)
-    if (child) return child
-
-    this.nodes.find((node) => {
-      if (node.kind == 'text') return false
-      child = node.getDescendant(key)
-      return child
-    })
-
-    return child
+    return this.findDescendantDeep(node => node.key == key)
   },
 
   /**
@@ -649,10 +669,10 @@ const Node = {
     let last
 
     if (child.kind == 'block') {
-      last = child.getTexts().last()
+      last = child.getLastText()
     } else {
       const block = this.getClosestBlock(key)
-      last = block.getTexts().last()
+      last = block.getLastText()
     }
 
     const next = this.getNextText(last)
@@ -743,10 +763,13 @@ const Node = {
 
     let node = null
 
-    this.nodes.forEach((child) => {
-      if (child.kind == 'text') return
-      const match = child.getParent(key)
-      if (match) node = match
+    this.nodes.find((child) => {
+      if (child.kind == 'text') {
+        return false
+      } else {
+        node = child.getParent(key)
+        return node
+      }
     })
 
     return node
@@ -755,7 +778,7 @@ const Node = {
   /**
    * Get the path of a descendant node by `key`.
    *
-   * @param {String || Node} node
+   * @param {String || Node} key
    * @return {Array}
    */
 
@@ -764,17 +787,50 @@ const Node = {
 
     if (key == this.key) return []
 
-    let child = this.assertDescendant(key)
     let path = []
+    let childKey = key
     let parent
 
-    while (parent = this.getParent(child)) {
-      const index = parent.nodes.indexOf(child)
+    // Efficient with getParent memoization
+    while (parent = this.getParent(childKey)) {
+      const index = parent.nodes.findIndex(n => n.key === childKey)
       path.unshift(index)
-      child = parent
+      childKey = parent.key
     }
 
-    return path
+    if (childKey === key) {
+      // Did not loop once, meaning we could not find the child
+      throw new Error(`Could not find a descendant node with key "${key}".`)
+    } else {
+      return path
+    }
+  },
+
+  /**
+   * Get the path of ancestors of a descendant node by `key`.
+   *
+   * @param {String || Node} node
+   * @return {List<Node> or Null}
+   */
+
+  getAncestors(key) {
+    key = Normalize.key(key)
+
+    if (key == this.key) return List()
+    if (this.hasChild(key)) return List([this])
+
+    let ancestors
+    this.nodes.find((node) => {
+      if (node.kind == 'text') return false
+      ancestors = node.getAncestors(key)
+      return ancestors
+    })
+
+    if (ancestors) {
+      return ancestors.unshift(this)
+    } else {
+      return null
+    }
   },
 
   /**
@@ -819,10 +875,10 @@ const Node = {
     let first
 
     if (child.kind == 'block') {
-      first = child.getTexts().first()
+      first = child.getFirstText()
     } else {
       const block = this.getClosestBlock(key)
-      first = block.getTexts().first()
+      first = block.getFirstText()
     }
 
     const previous = this.getPreviousText(first)
@@ -876,6 +932,34 @@ const Node = {
     }, Block.createList())
   },
 
+  /**
+   * Get the first child text node.
+   *
+   * @return {Node || Null} node
+   */
+
+  getFirstText() {
+    return this.findDescendantDeep(node => node.kind == 'text')
+  },
+
+  /**
+   * Get the last child text node.
+   *
+   * @return {Node} node
+   */
+
+  getLastText() {
+    let descendantFound = null
+
+    const found = this.nodes.findLast((node) => {
+      if (node.kind == 'text') return true
+      descendantFound = node.getLastText()
+      return descendantFound
+    })
+
+    return descendantFound || found
+  },
+
   /**
    * Get all of the text nodes in a `range`.
    *
@@ -1070,10 +1154,13 @@ const Node = {
    */
 
   removeDescendant(key) {
+    key = Normalize.key(key)
+
     let node = this
-    const desc = node.assertDescendant(key)
-    let parent = node.getParent(desc)
-    const index = parent.nodes.indexOf(desc)
+    let parent = node.getParent(key)
+    if (!parent) throw new Error(`Could not find a descendant node with key "${key}".`)
+
+    const index = parent.nodes.findIndex(n => n.key === key)
     const isParent = node == parent
     const nodes = parent.nodes.splice(index, 1)
 
@@ -1183,8 +1270,22 @@ const Node = {
    */
 
   updateDescendant(node) {
-    this.assertDescendant(node)
-    return this.mapDescendants(d => d.key == node.key ? node : d)
+    let found = false
+
+    const result = this.mapDescendants(d => {
+      if (d.key == node.key) {
+        found = true
+        return node
+      } else {
+        return d
+      }
+    })
+
+    if (!found) {
+      throw new Error(`Could not update descendant node with key "${node.key}".`)
+    } else {
+      return result
+    }
   },
 
   /**
@@ -1210,6 +1311,8 @@ memoize(Node, [
   'filterDescendants',
   'filterDescendantsDeep',
   'findDescendant',
+  'findDescendantDeep',
+  'getAncestors',
   'getBlocks',
   'getBlocksAtRange',
   'getCharactersAtRange',
@@ -1228,6 +1331,7 @@ memoize(Node, [
   'getDepth',
   'getDescendant',
   'getDescendantDecorators',
+  'getFirstText',
   'getFragmentAtRange',
   'getFurthest',
   'getFurthestBlock',
@@ -1235,6 +1339,7 @@ memoize(Node, [
   'getHighestChild',
   'getHighestOnlyChildParent',
   'getInlinesAtRange',
+  'getLastText',
   'getMarksAtRange',
   'getNextBlock',
   'getNextSibling',
diff --git a/src/models/selection.js b/src/models/selection.js
index 38e2c9f4a..237d58bf6 100644
--- a/src/models/selection.js
+++ b/src/models/selection.js
@@ -149,7 +149,7 @@ class Selection extends new Record(DEFAULTS) {
 
   hasAnchorAtStartOf(node) {
     if (this.anchorOffset != 0) return false
-    const first = node.kind == 'text' ? node : node.getTexts().first()
+    const first = node.kind == 'text' ? node : node.getFirstText()
     return this.anchorKey == first.key
   }
 
@@ -161,7 +161,7 @@ class Selection extends new Record(DEFAULTS) {
    */
 
   hasAnchorAtEndOf(node) {
-    const last = node.kind == 'text' ? node : node.getTexts().last()
+    const last = node.kind == 'text' ? node : node.getLastText()
     return this.anchorKey == last.key && this.anchorOffset == last.length
   }
 
@@ -203,7 +203,7 @@ class Selection extends new Record(DEFAULTS) {
    */
 
   hasFocusAtEndOf(node) {
-    const last = node.kind == 'text' ? node : node.getTexts().last()
+    const last = node.kind == 'text' ? node : node.getLastText()
     return this.focusKey == last.key && this.focusOffset == last.length
   }
 
@@ -216,7 +216,7 @@ class Selection extends new Record(DEFAULTS) {
 
   hasFocusAtStartOf(node) {
     if (this.focusOffset != 0) return false
-    const first = node.kind == 'text' ? node : node.getTexts().first()
+    const first = node.kind == 'text' ? node : node.getFirstText()
     return this.focusKey == first.key
   }
 
@@ -261,7 +261,7 @@ class Selection extends new Record(DEFAULTS) {
     const { isExpanded, startKey, startOffset } = this
     if (isExpanded) return false
     if (startOffset != 0) return false
-    const first = node.kind == 'text' ? node : node.getTexts().first()
+    const first = node.kind == 'text' ? node : node.getFirstText()
     return startKey == first.key
   }
 
@@ -275,7 +275,7 @@ class Selection extends new Record(DEFAULTS) {
   isAtEndOf(node) {
     const { endKey, endOffset, isExpanded } = this
     if (isExpanded) return false
-    const last = node.kind == 'text' ? node : node.getTexts().last()
+    const last = node.kind == 'text' ? node : node.getLastText()
     return endKey == last.key && endOffset == last.length
   }
 
diff --git a/src/models/state.js b/src/models/state.js
index 20e9e4601..61a2b1b83 100644
--- a/src/models/state.js
+++ b/src/models/state.js
@@ -45,7 +45,7 @@ class State extends new Record(DEFAULTS) {
     let selection = Selection.create(properties.selection)
 
     if (selection.isUnset) {
-      const text = document.getTexts().first()
+      const text = document.getFirstText()
       selection = selection.collapseToStartOf(text)
     }
 
diff --git a/src/serializers/Readme.md b/src/serializers/Readme.md
index 7130a0ed9..2ade83fac 100644
--- a/src/serializers/Readme.md
+++ b/src/serializers/Readme.md
@@ -8,10 +8,12 @@ This directory contains the serializers that ship by default with Slate. They ar
 
 The `Html` serializer offers a simple way to serialize and deserialize an HTML schema of your choosing.
 
-It doesn't hardcode any information about the schema itself (like which tag means "bold"), but allows you to build up a simple HTML serializer for your own use case. 
+It doesn't hardcode any information about the schema itself (like which tag means "bold"), but allows you to build up a simple HTML serializer for your own use case.
 
 It handles all of the heavy lifting of actually parsing the HTML, and iterating over the elements, and all you have to supply it is a `serialize()` and `deserialize()` function for each type of [`Node`](../models#node) or [`Mark`](../models/#mark) you want it to handle.
 
+If called with `{render: false}` as the optional second argument, the serializer will return an iterable list of the top-level React elements generated, instead of automatically rendering these to a markup string.
+
 
 #### Raw
 
@@ -20,4 +22,3 @@ The `Raw` serializer is the simplest serializer, which translates a [`State`](..
 It doesn't just use Immutable.js's [`.toJSON()`](https://facebook.github.io/immutable-js/docs/#/List/toJS) method. Instead, it performs a little bit of "minifying" logic to reduce unnecessary information from being in the raw output.
 
 It also transforms [`Text`](../models#text) nodes's content from being organized by [`Characters`](../models#character) into the concept of "ranges", which have a unique set of [`Marks`](../models#mark).
-
diff --git a/src/serializers/html.js b/src/serializers/html.js
index e501de439..41e8d79a6 100644
--- a/src/serializers/html.js
+++ b/src/serializers/html.js
@@ -225,12 +225,16 @@ class Html {
    * Serialize a `state` object into an HTML string.
    *
    * @param {State} state
-   * @return {String} html
+   * @param {Object} options
+   *   @property {Boolean} render
+   * @return {String|Array} html
    */
 
-  serialize = (state) => {
+  serialize = (state, options = {}) => {
     const { document } = state
     const elements = document.nodes.map(this.serializeNode)
+    if (options.render === false) return elements
+
     const html = ReactDOMServer.renderToStaticMarkup(<body>{elements}</body>)
     const inner = html.slice(6, -7)
     return inner
diff --git a/src/transforms/at-current-range.js b/src/transforms/at-current-range.js
index c028eff5a..b0b116074 100644
--- a/src/transforms/at-current-range.js
+++ b/src/transforms/at-current-range.js
@@ -70,7 +70,7 @@ export function _delete(transform) {
         after = selection.collapseToEndOf(previous)
       }
     } else {
-      const last = previous.getTexts().last()
+      const last = previous.getLastText()
       after = selection.collapseToEndOf(last)
     }
   }
@@ -113,6 +113,7 @@ export function deleteBackward(transform, n = 1) {
 export function deleteForward(transform, n = 1) {
   const { state } = transform
   const { selection } = state
+
   return transform
     .deleteForwardAtRange(selection, n)
     .collapseToEnd()
@@ -156,9 +157,10 @@ export function insertFragment(transform, fragment) {
 
   if (!fragment.length) return transform
 
-  const lastText = fragment.getTexts().last()
+  const lastText = fragment.getLastText()
   const lastInline = fragment.getClosestInline(lastText)
   const beforeTexts = document.getTexts()
+  const appending = selection.hasEdgeAtEndOf(document.getDescendant(selection.endKey))
 
   transform.unsetSelection()
   transform.insertFragmentAtRange(selection, fragment)
@@ -167,17 +169,13 @@ export function insertFragment(transform, fragment) {
 
   const keys = beforeTexts.map(text => text.key)
   const news = document.getTexts().filter(n => !keys.includes(n.key))
-  const text = news.size ? news.takeLast(2).first() : null
+  const text = appending ? news.last() : news.takeLast(2).first()
   let after
 
   if (text && lastInline) {
     after = selection.collapseToEndOf(text)
   }
 
-  else if (text && lastInline) {
-    after = selection.collapseToStart()
-  }
-
   else if (text) {
     after = selection
       .collapseToStartOf(text)
@@ -495,7 +493,7 @@ export function wrapInline(transform, properties) {
   }
 
   else if (selection.startOffset == 0) {
-    const text = previous ? document.getNextText(previous) : document.getTexts().first()
+    const text = previous ? document.getNextText(previous) : document.getFirstText()
     after = selection.moveToRangeOf(text)
   }
 
diff --git a/src/transforms/at-range.js b/src/transforms/at-range.js
index c09a792af..8da14dad5 100644
--- a/src/transforms/at-range.js
+++ b/src/transforms/at-range.js
@@ -65,6 +65,8 @@ export function deleteAtRange(transform, range, options = {}) {
 
   let { state } = transform
   let { document } = state
+
+  // split the nodes at range, within the common ancestor
   let ancestor = document.getCommonAncestor(startKey, endKey)
   let startChild = ancestor.getHighestChild(startKey)
   let endChild = ancestor.getHighestChild(endKey)
@@ -76,18 +78,16 @@ export function deleteAtRange(transform, range, options = {}) {
 
   state = transform.state
   document = state.document
-  ancestor = document.getCommonAncestor(startKey, endKey)
   const startBlock = document.getClosestBlock(startKey)
   const endBlock = document.getClosestBlock(document.getNextText(endKey))
+
+  // remove all of the nodes between range
+  ancestor = document.getCommonAncestor(startKey, endKey)
   startChild = ancestor.getHighestChild(startKey)
   endChild = ancestor.getHighestChild(endKey)
-
   const startIndex = ancestor.nodes.indexOf(startChild)
   const endIndex = ancestor.nodes.indexOf(endChild)
-  const middles = ancestor.nodes.slice(
-      startIndex + 1,
-      endIndex + 1
-  )
+  const middles = ancestor.nodes.slice(startIndex + 1, endIndex + 1)
 
   if (middles.size) {
     // remove first nodes directly so the document is not normalized
@@ -110,6 +110,9 @@ export function deleteAtRange(transform, range, options = {}) {
   if (normalize) {
     transform.normalizeNodeByKey(ancestor.key)
   }
+
+  transform.normalizeDocument()
+
   return transform
 }
 
diff --git a/test/serializers/index.js b/test/serializers/index.js
index 95e08aafe..79a372611 100644
--- a/test/serializers/index.js
+++ b/test/serializers/index.js
@@ -1,11 +1,14 @@
 
 import assert from 'assert'
+import type from 'type-of'
 import fs from 'fs'
 import readMetadata from 'read-metadata'
 import strip from '../helpers/strip-dynamic'
 import { Html, Json, Plain, Raw } from '../..'
 import { equal, strictEqual } from '../helpers/assert-json'
 import { resolve } from 'path'
+import React from 'react'
+import { Iterable } from 'immutable'
 
 /**
  * Tests.
@@ -46,6 +49,14 @@ describe('serializers', () => {
           strictEqual(serialized, expected.trim())
         })
       }
+
+      it('optionally returns an iterable list of React elements', () => {
+        const html = new Html(require('./fixtures/html/serialize/block-nested').default)
+        const input = require('./fixtures/html/serialize/block-nested/input.js').default
+        const serialized = html.serialize(input, { render: false })
+        assert(Iterable.isIterable(serialized), 'did not return an interable list')
+        assert(React.isValidElement(serialized.first()), 'did not return valid React elements')
+      })
     })
   })
 
diff --git a/test/transforms/fixtures/at-current-range/insert-fragment/end-block-multiple-blocks/fragment.yaml b/test/transforms/fixtures/at-current-range/insert-fragment/end-block-multiple-blocks/fragment.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..e1fea2c54
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/transforms/fixtures/at-current-range/insert-fragment/end-block-multiple-blocks/fragment.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,17 @@
+
+nodes:
+  - kind: block
+    type: list-item
+    nodes:
+      - kind: text
+        text: fragment
+  - kind: block
+    type: list-item
+    nodes:
+      - kind: text
+        text: second fragment
+  - kind: block
+    type: list-item
+    nodes:
+      - kind: text
+        text: third fragment
diff --git a/test/transforms/fixtures/at-current-range/insert-fragment/end-block-multiple-blocks/index.js b/test/transforms/fixtures/at-current-range/insert-fragment/end-block-multiple-blocks/index.js
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..79217cfcb
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/transforms/fixtures/at-current-range/insert-fragment/end-block-multiple-blocks/index.js
@@ -0,0 +1,41 @@
+
+import assert from 'assert'
+import path from 'path'
+import readMetadata from 'read-metadata'
+import { Raw } from '../../../../../..'
+
+export default function (state) {
+  const file = path.resolve(__dirname, 'fragment.yaml')
+  const raw = readMetadata.sync(file)
+  const fragment = Raw.deserialize(raw, { terse: true }).document
+
+  const { document, selection } = state
+  const texts = document.getTexts()
+  const first = texts.first()
+  const range = selection.merge({
+    anchorKey: first.key,
+    anchorOffset: first.length,
+    focusKey: first.key,
+    focusOffset: first.length
+  })
+
+  const next = state
+    .transform()
+    .moveTo(range)
+    .insertFragment(fragment)
+    .apply()
+
+  const last = next.document.getTexts().last()
+
+  assert.deepEqual(
+    next.selection.toJS(),
+    range.merge({
+      anchorKey: last.key,
+      anchorOffset: last.length,
+      focusKey: last.key,
+      focusOffset: last.length
+    }).toJS()
+  )
+
+  return next
+}
diff --git a/test/transforms/fixtures/at-current-range/insert-fragment/end-block-multiple-blocks/input.yaml b/test/transforms/fixtures/at-current-range/insert-fragment/end-block-multiple-blocks/input.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..27f668fe2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/transforms/fixtures/at-current-range/insert-fragment/end-block-multiple-blocks/input.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,7 @@
+
+nodes:
+  - kind: block
+    type: paragraph
+    nodes:
+      - kind: text
+        text: word
diff --git a/test/transforms/fixtures/at-current-range/insert-fragment/end-block-multiple-blocks/output.yaml b/test/transforms/fixtures/at-current-range/insert-fragment/end-block-multiple-blocks/output.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..66415017e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/transforms/fixtures/at-current-range/insert-fragment/end-block-multiple-blocks/output.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,17 @@
+
+nodes:
+  - kind: block
+    type: paragraph
+    nodes:
+      - kind: text
+        text: wordfragment
+  - kind: block
+    type: list-item
+    nodes:
+      - kind: text
+        text: second fragment
+  - kind: block
+    type: list-item
+    nodes:
+      - kind: text
+        text: third fragment
\ No newline at end of file