Before I get to the point, I want to say to those of you who understood or liked the paranormal weaved throughout A Rose to the Fallen, this post isn’t addressed to you and you don’t have to read it. I’m directing my comments to the people who:

- Don’t get it.
- Think the paranormal didn’t work in the story.
- Think I just threw it in there as an after-thought.
- Think it didn’t make sense that Tristan is an angel.

The paranormal aspect in A Rose to the Fallen is meant to be subtle. For the heroine, Bridget, it was like a little itch in her brain. It told her something was different about Tristan, but the itch wasn’t so severe that it caused her to keep scratching and investigate the mystery behind his abnormal abilities. That’s why I didn’t have Tristan displaying too much of them continuously in the story. It would’ve turned the plot into something completely different and put the focus more on him. The story is not about Tristan. It’s not about fallen angels. It’s not about Tristan’s past life as an angel. It’s about Tristan & Bridget’s RELATIONSHIP. The paranormal is just a twist in the story. It explains why:

Tristan can hear Bridget’s soul speak.
Tristan shares Bridget’s emotions.
Tristan can seduce people against their will. (It’s one of the reasons he was a man whore)
Tristan heals quickly.
Tristan can move really fast.
Tristan has exceptional hearing.
Dying people can see Tristan’s true form.
Autumn has a psychic connection to Tristan.

I wrote Tristan to be an unconventional fallen angel. You’re not supposed to think someone like him could be an angel. That’s the whole point. He doesn’t even believe it himself. He tells Bridget, “You and I both know that I’m no bloody angel.” But Bridget believed in her heart that he was an angel, and in the end, she discovered she was right.

In the prologue, you are introduced to a young boy who frightens his dying grandfather and speaks telepathically to an unknown girl. Those scenes are meant to stick in your head while you get to know Tristan in the story. You later realize the boy was him, and you learn WHY he frightened his grandfather, WHO he was talking to and HOW he was doing it. The prologue sets the stage for the paranormal activity in the book.

I didn’t want A Rose to the Fallen to be a 100% contemporary romance novel. Those types of love stories are boring to me because they happen in every day life. I need fantasy, paranormal, or sci-fi with my romance to keep me entertained if I’m going to write hundreds of pages. Those are the kinds of love stories I read, so that’s what I enjoy writing. I wanted to write a paranormal romance, but not something like my second novel The Howling Heart. That story is heavy on the romance AND the paranormal. A Rose to the Fallen focuses more on the romance, and is light on the paranormal.

So, at this point, if you still don’t get it or think it worked in the story, then I can’t help you.

Moving along…

I’m writing this commentary in response to some of the emails and reviews I’ve read regarding the topic. I’m not surprised some of my readers have a problem with what I’ll call “The Tristan & Justin Chapter”. I’m not going to apologize for what I wrote because I don’t regret writing it, but I will explain my reasons for those of you who thought:

- The story could’ve done without it.
- It was out of character for Bridget to have the boy-on-boy fantasy and ask Tristan to fulfill it.
- It was out of character for Tristan to agree to do it.
- If Bridget loves Tristan so much, why would she want to see him with another guy?

First, I really don’t think homophobic people should read my book. I wouldn’t recommend it. I would never recommend a book to someone if I know they’ll be disgusted. The fallen angels in MY world are ALL BISEXUAL. I don’t care if you don’t believe angels can be gay. When you write your OWN novel about fallen angels, you make them the way YOU want. My angels don’t discriminate who they love based on gender. Homophobia and homosexual intolerance is a HUMAN problem. It only becomes a problem for Fallen when humans make it a problem for them. I don’t believe God condemns gays. I believe he loves everyone and so do angels. I’d also like to say that being bisexual doesn’t make Tristan less of a bad boy, less masculine, or less of a man. A person’s sexuality does not define them.

Secondly, how many times in the story did Tristan tell Bridget he’d do anything for her? Did you think he was lying? She asked. He did it. End of story. How is that out of character? He’s bisexual, so he doesn’t have any qualms about being intimate with another man. If you’re in a relationship with someone you truly love, you’re supposed to be able to share your secret sexual fantasies and fulfill them for each other. As long as it involves consenting adults and no one gets hurt or killed, I don’t see the problem. If your soul mate won’t fulfill your sexual fantasies, then who will? A stranger?

I had multiple reasons for adding the gay sex scene and introducing Justin’s character. Let me start with the reasoning behind Justin’s character. He’s one of the catalysts in the story which tests Tristan & Bridget’s relationship. He’s a Fallen and has the same seduction power that Tristan has. A love triangle with a human guy would’ve been pointless. Tristan’s brother Jake wasn’t a threat to their relationship because Bridget wasn’t remotely interested in him. Tristan needed to meet his match and have real competition, someone Bridget would have difficulty resisting. All humans have a hard time resisting Fallen when they seduce you. To quote Bridget, “…I still don’t know how you can seduce me so easily and I can’t ever resist. No one has ever been able to manipulate me the way you do. One look from you and I’m no longer in control of myself.” I whispered in total trepidation and uncertainty, “It’s like you bend me to your will. How do you have this power over me?” More importantly, Justin is the one who made Tristan reveal his secret. If Bridget had never run away after cheating on him, Tristan never would’ve chased after her and revealed how he found her. His Fallen abilities allowed him to find her. Justin set up the pins and Tristan knocked them down.

Lastly, I’ll comment on the actual sex scene between Tristan and Justin, and about Bridget. I’ve read reviews where people said my book was predictable. Well, this scene wasn’t predictable. Most of my readers didn’t see it coming and some were bothered by it. Hence the reason I’m writing this response. I think it’s unfair that some women don’t say much about guys who have fantasies about seeing two beautiful women have sex, but they have a problem when a woman has a fantasy about seeing two beautiful men have sex. Double-standard much? Why is it okay for men, but not for us? That’s one of the reasons I wrote the sex scene. Men aren’t the only ones who enjoy seeing same-sex couplings. I wanted to show my readers that women do too.

I’ve also read reviews where people commented on the clichés in my story. You know what else is cliché and predictable? A ménage à trois. That’s why Bridget just wanted to watch Tristan with another man and not get involved herself. It’s not out of character for her to have the boy-on-boy fantasy. There’s a thing called “character development”. Characters should change and grow. Certain events or people affect them that cause them to behave differently than they normally would, or change a part of their personality. Bridget was not going to be sexually timid throughout the entire book, especially if she’s in a relationship with someone like Tristan. The more time she spent with him, the more she started to lose her inhibitions and gain confidence. He awakened a dormant sexual liberation inside her. Not to mention, it’s usually the good girls who have the naughtiest thoughts and desires. They’re just too afraid to act them out. Luckily for Bridget, she had someone like Tristan to make her fantasy a reality.