My Journey of Writing Saved – A Brain Dump
Spoilers galore! Please don’t read this if you haven’t read the book.
Saved was written as a standalone but could technically be called Dominator 4 unofficially as the story picks up where Unbound (Dominator 3) left off and shares the story of Alessandro & Holly who we met in Book 3 (Holly, who we first learned about in book 2).
Some people have taken issue with Holly. And I knew this would happen. Here’s the thing about this book. It was written for the antihero. It was written for the reader who roots for the bad guy and wants him to be redeemable while still being who he is, at his core.
It was written to give that antihero who didn’t think he was worthy the unconditional love he needed.
Imagine having that unconditional love? It was a concept I started to feel in The Dominator with Tommy & Tia and this story took that concept to the next level.
A bit of inspiration from this story came from Maleficent. If you’ve seen the movie, the girl, Aurora, is pure light and love. She just gives love in abundance and it slowly breaks the evil and plotting Maleficent down.
Holly seemed to know that if she persevered, she’d get to the other side with him. How did she know that? What made her so sure?
She saw things in him, hints that he wasn’t the bad guy. The night he violated her ass, he cried into the back of her neck. When he’d melt a little toward her his back would go up and he’d try to push her away through mistreating her. He kept trying to keep her safe from him. But yet he had to watch over her and his defenses kept getting melted by her devotion, her ‘light’.
She hadn’t had a lot of kindness in her life, but she hadn’t given up. And maybe that was because of the love that her older sister Angelica gave her. And she was kept safe in the compound and that worked on her mind for two years, giving her time to develop that crush on him, seeing that he saw her as special when others were mistreated. When she jumped into his arms during the fire that solidified things even further.
He didn’t think he was worthy of that love she kept offering, but this book’s underlying concept was just that — getting forgiveness when you don’t deserve it. Having a perfect other half to complement you. It was also about facing your demons. I wanted Lex to have to face what he did when he started to give in to another possibility in life. He was ready to try to live again but needed a revelation. I wanted him to see the fallout of some of his actions and fear losing Holly. He needed that and Holly needed that dose of reality, too. She needed time apart from him after he left… to know she was strong enough to keep persevering with him, but in a different way. It took her out of the ‘prisoner’ mindset so that they could move forward together with different roles.
A few of the less than glowing reviews didn’t like the fact that Holly and Alessandro spent so much time apart throughout the book. But to me, that proved their connection. He tried to keep her safe and keep her away from himself but yet they both felt that pull, regardless. Each time they met, the pull and the connection was that much more evident.
For those who’ve read the whole series and who also read the Nectar trilogy, maybe you’ll appreciate this little Easter Egg, too. If you’re not a PNR fan, this might seem hokey to you or will be lost on you…
A paranormal theory was in the back of my mind while I wrote the story as a possible theory for Holly’s unending conviction that he was worth her love.
Tristan and Kyla from the Nectar trilogy got engaged at Venetia, the restaurant from the Dominator series. At the end of Essence, they spotted Dare and Angel having a meal together and Kyla had thoughts about the fact that Angel had eyes that almost glowed, that the blue sapphires could point to vampire lineage.
All vampires from my universe have talents / powers / intuition.
Angel and Holly have the same eyes. Eyes they got from their mother. Their mother was a BITCH (hence the female vamp bitch switch?). Maybe Holly had some sort of innate intuition about what Alessandro truly needed because she had a little bit of telepathy.
Even the paranormal stuff aside, I am thrilled with the overwhelmingly positive reactions with this story and I hope to revisit Holly & Alessandro in the future.
Saved was also finished off in a way that leaves the door open for a future potential story. That story is already brewing in my brain but I am not ready to talk about it as I have no idea what the timelines would be. I’ve disappointed people with timeline ETAs in the past and have learned it’s better to be vague about dates unless I’m absolutely sure, especially when there are sequels that I’ve already promised.
And the muse is a fickle thing so it’s best this way.
Until next time…. thanks for reading & thanks for the support of my books.
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