Tidbits
• Sasha's street name, the Wolf of Verkhoyansk, came from a news article about a "superpack" of 400 wolves attacking and killing dozens of livestock in the span of four days. His friend Eduard gave him the name as a joke, but it took off because of his work as a hitman.
• Just like the first book, I snuck in references to Russian culture in various places, such as the odd number of roses in Roan's bouquet and Sasha's preference for dill-flavored potato chips.
• Chapter 19 (the apple orchard and corn maze scene) was originally going to be a short story and that's it. At the time, I didn't know if I had it in me to do a sequel dealing with Roan's trauma. I did, obviously, and that story was incorporated into the larger book.
• While it might seem like Sasha has a magic dick that cured Roan's trauma, it didn't. The trauma is still there. It will always be there. But once they'd reestablished their intimate connection, Roan was able to focus on that and getting his vengeance. I wanted to give Roan's PTSD the space it needed to be authentic and let him and Sasha heal their relationship, but the first third of the book was incredibly difficult to write. Once they got to a relatively "good" place, I didn't want to dwell on the trauma anymore. I wanted to give Roan back his power and agency before ultimately letting them have their HEA.
• I also didn't intend for Frankie to be such a pain in everyone's ass, but I find it amusing in hindsight that readers hate her with a passion. To me, she was the embodiment of all of those well-meaning (or not so well-meaning) people who say the absolute wrong thing at the wrong time when it comes to people with trauma or mental illnesses. Like telling depressed people to "just cheer up" or "be grateful." Gee, why didn't the depressed person think about that?! All I can say is, thank GOD we have Frankies in our life to point out the obvious. As if dealing with our demons wasn't hard enough without unsolicited, toxic positivity from the people around us. /s