With Hearts to Hear| ✔

|Fun Facts|

1. I really struggled to write this, really struggled. I spent the first half+ hating this story because all I could focus on was how wrong it was and how much I wanted to change. This book is literally the definition of 'Just finish.' I like it a little bit more now, but man all I see when I look at it is how much work it needs to fix the mess that this story is.

2. Rachel is the first ever bisexual character that I've written! Again one of the things that I want to go back and change to give better depth to when I re-write.

3. Rachel and Killian are the first couple that don't have a sex scene, and that was not really planned. They start off as a really sexual explosive couple, and I wanted to save any real focus on their sexual encounter until later when it actually has greater meaning to them both instead of it just being for fun.

4. If I'm not mistaken they're also technically the only characters that (re)wait until marriage?

5. In my original planning, Rachel was actually going to be a YouTube/social media star who got popular because if her musical talent.

6. She was also going to leave Killian in the restaurant scene, because of the way Adelia treats the waiter who was also her friend. (it was not supposed to be freddy, he kind of just surprised me) I'm a little upset I didn't fit it into because it was high drama, but realistically I couldn't find a way to resolve it and have it fit into the story.

7. Adelia's character really changed a lot as I was writing. Initially her reason for not liking Rachel is because she sees humans as inferior in a way that almost racism. But that sort of morphed into an excuse because she's really clinging to the little control she has because honestly I couldn't stomach writing a bigot... (Damien filled my quota for this series.)

8. Killian was going to be a toxic alpha, his relationship with Rachel was going to be toxic and dysfunctional but it didn't fit with the vibe and vision of the rest of the series.

9. There was supposed to be so much more scenes with Rachel playing music!! Particularly in her difficult moments, definitely something I want to add in my rewrite.

10. This is by far the longest book in the series! The other books fall between 40-70 thousand words. With Hearts to Hear is over 100k words.

11. This is the other book that made me write the entire series. This and with Eyes were the 2 clearest in my mind in terms of characters and the kind of issues that would crop up.

With all the anticipation to start writing I knee I wanted this perfect, and I think that's part of why I don't like this first draft at all - I know what I wanted for this story and I feel as though this isn't it.

12. I wanted to include a song with every chapter, or at the very least a playlist, but it was actually really difficult to find songs that fit with every chapter, and honestly after the first 7ish? chapters I honestly forgot.

13. I really think this might be the first book I rewrite in this series, because it took WAY TOO long to get to the real premise which was their second chance romance. I already have an idea of how to re-do it, but it will mean rearranging things, and possibly cutting at least half of the existing draft. The joy of 1st drafts right...

14. As much as I had vividly come up with the characters, and the main situation that surrounded the story, the rest of it was just made up on the spot. If a lot of it feels oddly paced or a little bit directionless that's probably why.

15. IT HAPPENED AGAIN; not too long after starting this WIP, I met real people named Rachel and Diana.

16. Adelia's backstory kind of took me by surprise. I knew for a fact she was not Killian's father's fated mate, a huge part of this story was that Killian's pack does not really believe in fated mates. But the depths of her grief, and the ways that it manifests, honestly it came together in a much more beautifully that I had ever imagined when I first began writing.

17. The Epilogue is immediate after the story because I really struggled to see further into the future for these two. My hope is that we'll get to see them a lot in the next book and maybe get more of a glimpse into what their future together looks like.

18. I think Rachel is the first female MC that I've written that has straight hair.

19. This book is also the first book to showcase both families of the main characters for a sustained amount of time. Both Adelia and Anita are introduced quite earlyish and make continued appearances right up until the end.

20. I actually found it really difficult to describe the other couples in the wedding scene because Rachel hadn't met them properly and couldn't use names. It felt like a nice vague detail, and hopefully I did it well enough that you could tell who is who.

21. This book took me a year and a half to write... can you tell I was really struggling with it...? #(Lol really struggling with the fun facts too)

22. I redesigned the covers for this entire series probably about 4 times, but the most recent redesign was purely for this story. I wanted the cover to have a brown girl on the cover to reflect the actual character in the book, but my god, it was SO FRICKING HARD to find POC models oh my gosh. It should be criminal.

23. With Hearts to Hear is the only title in this entire series that I don't absolutely hate, and it's the only reason I haven't tried to completely rename the entire series as many times as I've redone the covers.

24. So even though I started writing this in... 2021? The characters have been with me since I was writing Belle's Beast, which is the first ever book I wrote on here (circa 2017.) They went through a lot of changes to get to the point where they are now and are so far removed from what the original idea started off as, but I think this was a story I was always going to write, series or not. (Its just a shame it's 1st draft looks nothing like the vision I was aiming for)

That's all I've got for now! I hope you'll all stick with me when you see what I'm working on next!! :)