Rex & Juliet storyline...

How the hell was she going to write the next book in the series while she was deadlocked in an unconventional marriage of convenience with her ex? She could scrap what she’d written in London and take out the whole Rex reconciliation storyline, but then what? In the previous book, the main focus had been Juliet repairing her relationship with her father, interspersed with colorful sexcapades to offset the serious, emotional undertones. She planned for book five to be the finale, but couldn’t picture a fitting end for Juliet, who hadn’t made any serious connections throughout the years, just as she hadn’t in real life. The only recurring character was fucking Rex, who drifted in at inopportune moments for comic relief or with an entertaining anecdote, when he checked on his ex-wife. After she saw Roth in Colorado, Rex came on stronger than he had in years, forcing a confrontation that made Juliet leave him stranded on the side of the highway, holding up the middle finger as she left him behind. And when she was in London, she continued that scene with Rex showing up at Juliet’s house to finish what he started—bringing their past, which had always been an off-limit topic, into the spotlight and crossing every boundary Juliet created since she found him cheating on her.

Were Juliet and Rex meant to be together, or did Juliet deserve a fresh start with a man who hadn’t hurt her, and she didn’t have such a tumultuous history with? Unlike her, Juliet had a choice and didn’t have to follow her path.

During her attempts to write after Dad died, she considered bringing back a past fling who had made a fortune and wanted a second shot. Or, she could introduce a new character. But, starting a relationship from scratch and ending with a wedding was a cliché, considering all the men Juliet had been with. What would make this new guy stand out? What about him would make Juliet give up her independence? She had a feeling the readers weren’t going to buy it and honestly, neither would she. And Sarai would flip. She wouldn’t understand why the series deviated so much from her life. But she would understand the fictional ending if she published the book after her second divorce.

 Jasmine cursed as she set her half empty cup aside and stalked through the penthouse. What the hell was she going to write if she couldn’t work on the series that had made her? That everyone was waiting for? She didn’t have to write to financially support herself anymore, but writing had always been grounded her mentally and emotionally. And Juliet had been her anchor for seven years. Attaching herself to a fictional world where she could do anything she wanted kept her sane. She needed to be able to retreat to a place where she wasn’t weighted down by the Hennessy (or Roth) name and could be herself. 

**This is a raw draft of Bitter Confessions. Please do not share or distribute.

Jasmine's in quite the conundrum with this series. And the fact that close friends and family now know it's based on her real life is just pure hell.

It's really interesting because I remember seeing a comment years ago about why Jasmine didn't make more of an effort to disguise the character's names (Rex & Juliet). Jasmine's writing life is kind of similar to my own where I published for years (12 novels) with no one noticing. In the beginning, there's really no need to hide anything because you're writing for yourself and no one's interested. Even though you publish, you never think anyone will actually read your work. And then, something takes off and you have no idea why. Jasmine wrote the series for herself. To cope with her confusion and loneliness during that time when he was making his way in London and now the series has acquired it's own fan base who have their own wants for the characters. It's a very strange feeling to have people talk to you about something that you wrote at your lowest. To them, it's just a story, but to the writers, they usually have gone through something to write something heart-wrenching.

Jasmine's inner monologue here where she's trying to decide a fitting end for the series is something I think about all the time. There are always easier routes you can take to end a story. I could have made Bitter Heat a standalone and taken out the angst, dialed Roth down ten notches, and nixed the Kaia reveal before the wedding & Maximus' letter. Roth could have declared himself to her in the library. Got down on his knees and promised he would spend the rest of his life making up for what he said to her that horrible night in London. The end. But I didn't do that and am now realizing the cost of all this conflict--I'm 4 books in and counting. But, I figure there's so much material and I'm only planning on going this deep once, so might as well see it through to the "bitter" end. Heh heh.

I prefer the characters having a lot of history and therefore lean toward second chance romances. This means you're dealing with their history and the present, which is more complicated than someone you meet at a bakery and are just getting to know. I'm actually not opposed to reading those types of books and have written some myself where they meet and end with a HEA. But nowadays, I find myself wanting to dig deeper and seeing where the characters are years later and starting there. What do you guys prefer?