Throwback Thursday - Stripping the Sub

 

#TBT to Stripping the Sub!!!!!

When I was writing the Stronghold Doms, this was one of the books I was most looking forward to because I could not WAIT to get to Ellie's story of healing. I knew, from the moment I introduced her, who she was, what she'd gone through, and that she was going to be getting her HEA with Master Michael.

This book does come with TW for discussion of a past assault/rpe though it's not depicted in the book.

Leading up to this book, a lot of the other characters had guessed a little bit about Ellie and talked about it. We saw lots of her and Master Michael kinda circling around each other. Found out that they'd known each other in the past.

In some ways this was both one of my easiest and hardest books to write. Michael and Ellie fit together SO well, but I also had to get through a lot of real life issues that can be hard to handle. I used a lot of conversations I've actually had with my friends and husband as the basis for the conversations in the books. Sadly, I also used a lot of the experiences I and my friends have had as basis for what each of the characters has been through, including Ellie.

This was such an important book for me. One that I knew was going to be difficult material but that I wanted to write anyway. I actually like to tackle some kind of issue in pretty much all of my books, but it's usually a little more subtle (in Sassy Sub, it was Angel having a bunch of close guy friends and that being OKAY and not creating an actual love triangle, Taming the Tease was a curvy heroine who loved her body, Mastering Lexie was my take on big brother's best friend, Breaking the Chain was toxic exes, Bound to the Past was about falling back in love - not never having fallen out of it).

This one felt pretty in your face. And I did worry that people wouldn't want to read about such serious subject matter in a kink book. What ended up happening was that I got so many messages and emails after the book came out, thanking me for it and readers sharing some of their own experiences. Which both warmed my heart that it meant something to them and made me incredibly sad how many people were touched by the book because they'd had their own experiences.

To this day, I think this might be one of the most important books I've ever written.