When a Reader Gets It
There are reviews that make you smile. There are reviews that make you breathe a little easier. And then there are reviews that make you sit at your desk staring at the screen thinking, Oh my God. They got it.
I received one of those this week for Dark Night of the Soul, the first book in my War of the Brotherhood trilogy.
The reader gave it five stars. Which, obviously, made me happy.
Then I realized she had read the entire book in one day. Okay. That made me very happy.
But it was what she said about Anna and Kincade that nearly did me in.
“There is such a strong sense of trust between them now, even when they are arguing, worrying or trying to protect each other.”
That sentence is Anna and Kincade.
These two are never going to have what anyone would describe as an easy relationship. They are stubborn. They are opinionated. They are both convinced they know exactly what needs to be done, and unfortunately, they are often convinced the other person should simply get out of the way and let them do it.
They argue. They worry. They drive each other crazy. But underneath all of it is trust.
By the time Dark Night of the Soul begins, they have already survived Hell, holy relics, demons, angels, war, death, and more than one occasion when one of them probably should have listened to the other.
They know who they are to each other now.
Even if admitting it out loud is another matter entirely.
The reader also wrote this about Anna:
“She is no longer simply fighting because she has to. She is learning what it means to choose her own path and stand beside the people she loves.”
That one got me.
Anna has spent so much of her life reacting to what other people wanted from her.
The angels needed something. The relics needed to be found. The world needed saving.
Someone was always telling her what she was supposed to be, what she was supposed to do, or what destiny expected from her.
The woman we meet in Dark Night of the Soul has changed.
She is still sarcastic. Still reckless. Still stubborn enough to make the immortal warrior beside her contemplate several centuries of poor life choices.
But now she is beginning to make decisions because she chooses them.
She chooses her people. She chooses her home. She chooses the life she wants. And she chooses Kincade.
Speaking of Kincade, the reviewer wrote:
“Underneath all that control there is so much fear, love and tenderness when it comes to Anna.”
Yes. That man.
Kincade has spent more than two thousand years learning control. He is a warrior. A strategist. A former Brotherhood general. He knows how to assess a threat, command a room, and make very unpleasant things happen to anyone foolish enough to endanger the people under his protection.
Anna is different. Anna is the place where all that control starts developing cracks. Because he loves her.
And loving her means he has something to lose.
That fear underneath his protectiveness is incredibly important to me. I never wanted Kincade to be protective simply because he is a warrior and she is the woman beside him. His protectiveness comes from knowing exactly what it would cost him to lose her.
He has already chosen her over everything once.
He will keep choosing her.
And she will do exactly the same for him.
But perhaps my favorite observation in the entire review was this:
“The quieter moments between the action… gave the story a heart that made the bigger battles matter even more.”
That may be one of the nicest things anyone could say about this book.
Yes, Dark Night of the Soul has violence. There is danger. There is the Brotherhood. There are kidnappings, operations, plans, betrayals, and enough trouble to keep Walker Manor fully stocked with armed immortals.
But none of those things matter unless you care about the people caught in the middle of them.
The conversations matter. The courtyard matters. Anna’s relationship with her mother matters. Grace matters. The ridiculous moments around Walker Manor matter. The quiet touches between Anna and Kincade matter.
Those are the things that make the battles hurt. They are also what make surviving them mean something.
The reviewer described finishing the book as having:
“that wonderful feeling of finally being able to breathe after holding it for the entire book.”
And there it was. The exact feeling I wanted.
Because Dark Night of the Soul puts Anna and Kincade through hell. Again.
But when the dust settles, I wanted readers to feel that exhale. That moment when Anna comes home. When she reconnects with the people who love her. When she finally begins to understand that she doesn’t have to carry everything alone anymore.
I’ve lived with Anna and Kincade for a very long time.
I know every argument. Every scar. Every terrible decision. Every moment when one of them would absolutely burn the world down for the other and then complain about how inconvenient it was afterward.
So when a reader sees all of that—really sees it—it means more than I can properly explain.
That’s the strange and wonderful thing about publishing a book.
For months, sometimes years, these people belong mostly to you. Then you release them into the world. And every once in a while, someone comes back and says:
I saw what you put there.
That happened to me this week. And yeah. I might have gotten a little emotional about it.
Dark Night of the Soul, Book One of The War of the Brotherhood, releases September 15.
Anna and Kincade are only getting started.
