Kailee Reese Samuels - THESE SONS…

I’m going to ramble for a bit.

Many of you know we had a pretty significant car wreck Thursday. We’re bumped and bruised, but we’re fine. But we’re gonna ramble…

I started the SONS set after A&E last winter. This is important only because A&E was a tremendously difficult write for me on an emotional level. I struggled with it. I fought with it. But A&E was a story I had been building on and wanting to tell for almost 10 years. Suffice it to say, I released A&E and in the throes of my own sadness, I started being really reflective about Juliet, Sal, and this world I’ve built.

I realized I had 2 gaps.

Whoops.

The first one was between 22 and Juliet. More specifically, between Sal’s first wife, Kaci Hope dying and Sal & Iris beginning their romantic relationship. The years rested between 2011-2014.

The second gap (sort of) is one the reader’s don’t actually know about yet. I know of its existence and I’m releasing a trilogy to cover the blank space of a main character between 2015-2018. This is the first time I’ve mentioned it. It’s not so much of a gap as a I want to color in those pages to give a more complete picture. It is a pre-emptive move so I don’t have a gap. Lesson learned from the first gap. 😉

Originally, I only intended to release one Sons book, but something out of the blue happened.

I fell in love with the Sal and Deacon together. They had this amazing, comical, blunt chemistry. And at the time, coming off of the really depressing write of A&E, their bounce off of one another was music to my ears and the bandage to my depleted soul. So, when I say I LOVE these two together, I seriously do mean it.

They fixed me when nothing else would.

When writing Saint, I laughed, I cried, I cursed, and those boys accepted all of my emotional baggage like good little punching bags. But by the end of it, I started to see the whole picture and knew I couldn’t (or hadn’t) completely covered the first gap of 2011-2014.

Sal cannot just disappear for three years.

Where is he?

What is he doing?

Who is he with?

Is he drinking himself into a stupor or finding relief in any number of warm, welcome places?

I had to know the answer to all those questions. So, the idea started building that I needed these SONS–all four of them–Sal, Deacon, Nick, and Dom. I needed their backstories. The bits and pieces. From different perspectives and in a most unusual delivery (if you’ve read Saint, you know what I mean). A few of the scenes are current to where we are in the TAT book 1 (post-SKL), but a good deal of the story is based between 2011-2014.

Saint released on Valentines.

Some people loved it; some people looked at me curiously. Some people fell in love with Deacon; some demanded more #alphasandwich. Upon my six month reflection, I think Son of Saint is without a doubt in my top 5 writes. It takes me about six months to have enough distance away from the story to be able to assess the whole experience. I still have not re-read A&E, but I plan to.

This month. Before 2019.

So this whole thing with the SONS and A&E kind of bind together in my mind as a writer, even though the stories have absolutely nothing to do with one another. I couldn’t have picked two more opposite stories than those two, but yet, for my writerly brain–they fit.

Because my schedule is beyond tight in 2019 with books and signings, I wanted to finish up this series. Son of Angel (Dom), Son of Cirque (Nick), Son of Master (Sal) will all three be coming out very soon. And technically, they all need to come out before Hey Pretty. So that is the plan.

3 Sons. Then HP.

If you’re a fan of Sal and haven’t read Son of Saint, you should. His bromances and friendships with these guys is a memorable and fun jaunt. Besides the rest of the SONS are coming soon!

SON of SAINT is on SALE for $1.99!

In the emotional heartache of A&E, Bleu and Alex discover love amidst her struggles with mental illness. It is a raw look at the journey to find happiness.