My assistant sent me a review of SILK Volume One today for me to look at. She does that occasionally with reviews she thinks I should see. (I don’t read reviews unless she sends me them, so anyone hoping to convey something to me through a review should email me directly instead. And please know I always answer back.) Below is the review verbatim:
I loved the Heart of Stone series so much I began to follow KM. The first Club X was great but you lost me after that. Still I read on and now I must say enough. K M has a multitude of followers so she won’t miss this one. I guess I need more plot and less intimacy, yes it was stated before I clicked so no fault there. This is a well thought out and a great read if that is for you! Still a complete five stars plus for Heart of Stone Trilogy.
I won’t bother going into the fact that I included a very clear warning about what the SILK serial is and how it’s more erotic than my other books. I also won’t go into the fact that the book she reviewed is the FIRST OF FOUR BOOKS in this serial and therefore just the beginning. Neither of those issues are what I’m talking about today.
To this reviewer and others like her, I say thank you very much for loving the Heart of Stone series. I love Tristan and Nina’s story just like you do. I truly do. And for you, I wish I could write that series over and over. But I can’t.
It’s interesting that the reviewer seems to think that there wasn’t enough plot in the Club X series. Three brothers, all with their own stories, and the women they fall hard for, also with their own back stories and characterization. A non-romantic side plot (just like the Heart of Stone series, by the way) that threatens all their happily ever afters. The only real difference between the two series is that the Heart of Stone revolved around one couple and Club X revolved around three.
I get emails from fans of the Club X series all the time, and when we get to talking about my books and I mention the Heart of Stone series, they’re generally nice but not as enthusiastic as Heart of Stone fans are about Tristan and Nina’s story. When I ask why, they routinely tell me that series just wasn’t sexy enough. And the opposite is true for some Heart of Stone fans with the Club X series. See a pattern here? And for those readers who find me because of the SILK serial, Tristan and Nina’s story will possibly be entirely too sweet for them if they loved the eroticism of Ian and Kristina’s story in SILK.
The reality is that I wish I could just be a Lather, Rinse, Repeat author. My job would be infinitely easier. Believe me. I wish I could just write the same story over and over and make people happy. I confess sometimes when people are asking for more of the same story I secretly envy those writers who can do this. I think to myself how great would it be to find something that makes tons of money and then just do it over and over? The problem is that I’m not that type of author. I write the stories my characters tell me, and while Tristan and Nina are permanent residents inside my head, their story has basically been told. Yes, there are other parts of it still untold, but they don’t seem to want me to write those since they aren’t talking to me about them. Without them talking to me, there is no story for me to write.
So to this reviewer who thought SILK Volume One was a well thought out and great read and any readers who still wish for me to write another book like the Heart of Stone series, I say again: Thanks for loving Tristan and Nina and I’m sorry I can’t write that story again for you. You see, I write the stories that my characters tell me and right now, I don’t have characters like Tristan and Nina telling me another story like the Heart of Stone. That each story is different isn’t something I regret, though. This is the kind of writer I am. I promise my readers to write the best stories I have in me, but I can’t promise they’ll all be Tristan and Nina.
And to this reviewer and anyone else who would like more plot and less sexiness, I have my Sons of Navarus series under my Gabrielle Bisset name that’s quite heavy on plot and a bit less erotic than SILK and Club X. It’s paranormal, but it’s got what you want. What it isn’t is the Heart of Stone series.