His Turn (The Turning Series Book 3)
Page 27
I don’t really have a lot of opinions on polygamy. I don’t know enough about it to be honest. I think most relationships, even very non-traditional ones, can work if people are invested. I think that was the whole theme of His Turn. In the beginning Bric wasn’t truly invested in anything and by the end, he is. I think Nadia was like that, as well. They are very much alike in this respect. In fact, they might more alike than any other couple I’ve created so far.
It was kinda cool to explore people who clash because they are too much alike instead of being opposites, because that can be a problem. Maybe opposites attract for a reason? Other than the laws of fucking physics, right? Ionic bonding and magnetism and all that shit. Maybe when you’re attracted to your opposite they complete something inside you that’s missing?
I kinda believe that (as long as the differences aren’t too insurmountable).
Which presents a problem for couples who are too much alike. Especially when they both like to be in control. I am the first to admit that I’m a control freak. I like being an Indie author because I have complete, one-hundred percent control over just about everything. Sure, the distributors can really fuck with my day if they want to. The Zon can change rules and one email from them can turn my whole world upside down. But they are a global corporation, so even though they write the rules, they also try and abide by them. I can trust them not to fuck with me too hard. So even if I get a bullshit email from them complaining about my table of contents being in the back of the book and threatening to take it off sale, I can shoot back a logical response and eventually, if I make a big enough deal about it, someone in power—someone I can trust to make logical decisions—will get back to me and sort it out.
Trust is the key word here. People who like to be in control only give it up to others they can trust.
Smith learned to trust Chella. That was the easiest relationship of them all because both Chella and Smith are logical, responsible people who have made good decisions in their lives. Chella learns to trust Smith when she figures out he’s not really a dick, he’s just stuck in this weird outdated worldview because he thinks his money will corrupt him. And Smith learns to trust Chella when he realizes she actually understands herself and her needs. She’s not really afraid of who she is or what she might be. She just needs to work through it, and she does that in a very step-wise fashion with her therapist and by playing the game. In fact, Smith and Chella are probably the least damaged of all these characters.
Quin and Rochelle are probably the most trusting of all the characters. Rochelle shows up and gives in. Immediately. She blindly (and probably simplistically) trusts these men to give her what she needs. She accepts the rules and moves on to build something with Quin. Quin is just one of those good guys. He didn’t need a lot of prodding to trust Rochelle. He just let the love happen. He probably got too complacent, but his issues were all about not being enough. And he had his friends to fill in the gaps. Opposites attract, right? But in this case, it was the oppositional aspects of his friends, and not Rochelle, who completed him. He just needed to learn how to get that on his own. Quin grew from beginning to end more than the others, in my opinion. Because Quin didn’t need Rochelle. He wanted her. And he gave up something very precious to him, something he did feel he needed, in order to keep her.
But Bric is a whole other animal, man. He’s fucked up. I could’ve written so much more about his dark mind but I didn’t want to lose sight of the story, which is the romance. And there was a romance, it just took Nadia and Bric almost the entire book to submit to it. Because submission requires trust. Giving in and letting someone else inside your darkness is a big fucking deal. Everyone has some kind of trigger event that makes them question things or even (cough) become cynical. So Bric grew up in a very specific way that made no sense to him, or, if I’m being honest, most people he probably encountered outside that family. He wanted to pretend it was something it wasn’t. Nadia forced his trust. He was having a vulnerable moment. Brother dead, family calling, plus he’d just lost the only people that made him feel normal. So her mind game on the way to Montana hit him pretty hard. Hard enough for him to hit back during the one moment Nadia decided to stop playing and trust him for real.
Trust is a big deal when you’re playing games like this. Hell, in anything, really. So now that the Turning Series is over I can look back on everything and try and make sense of it in a big picture way. And the big picture is… people get hurt or they have preconceived notions about themselves. And they don’t want to share that shit or experience it again so they come up with coping mechanisms. Smith and his weird view of money. Chella and her shame. Rochelle’s and Quin’s fears of turning into their parents. Bric hiding his family and Nadia hiding her mistakes. But when you fall in love trust is kind of a prerequisite, ya know?
So that’s it. The game is just a coping mechanism. One way to get past the past and move forward. And I really like these characters so I’m glad they got their happily ever after. I mean, yeah, when you’re writing romance you gotta end up with the HEA, but if we didn’t doubt it would happen along the way—where’s the fun in that?
The Turning Series is over but I have decided I like this world and I’m gonna keep it going. New game, new players, new everything starting in January 2018. There will be at least four books in The Taking Series and even though Jordan will not be the main character in the first three, he’s gonna be driving this trainwreck. I’ll tell you guys a little more about who the real Jordan is in the EOBS of the first book. Because he’s a real guy… lol. He’s not this guy I’m writing about, but it’s all gonna be a very cool ride and I can’t wait for him to read it.
So I hope you enjoyed this little peek into the forbidden. I know I did. ;)
Thanks for reading, thanks for reviewing, and I’ll see you in the next book—WHICH IS FIVE, BITCHES! And you can get it on pre-order right now, right HERE.
Julie
JA Huss
About the Author
JA Huss is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of more than thirty romances. She likes stories about family, loyalty, and extraordinary characters who struggle with basic human emotions while dealing with bigger than life problems. JA loves writing heroes who make you swoon, heroines who makes you jealous, and the perfect Happily Ever After ending.
You can read her writing craft and marketing articles at her website and chat with her on Facebook, Twitter, and her kick-ass romance blog, New Adult Addiction. If you're interested in getting your hands on an advanced release copy of her upcoming books, sneak peek teasers, or information on her upcoming personal appearances, you can join her newsletter list and get those details delivered right to your inbox.
JA Huss lives on a dirt road in Colorado thirty minutes from the nearest post office. So if she owes you a package from a giveaway, expect it to take forever. She has a small farm with two donkeys named Paris & Nicole, a ringneck parakeet named Bird, and a pack of dogs. She also has two grown children who have never read any of her books and do not plan on ever doing so. They do, however, plan on using her credit cards forever.
JA collects guns and likes to read science fiction and books that make her think. JA Huss used to write homeschool science textbooks under the name Simple Schooling and after publishing more than 200 of those, she ran out of shit to say. She started writing the I Am Just Junco science fiction series in 2012, but has since found the meaning of life writing erotic stories about antihero men that readers love to love.
JA has an undergraduate degree in equine science and fully planned on becoming a veterinarian until she heard what kind of hours they keep, so she decided to go to grad school and got a master’s degree in Forensic Toxicology. Before she was a full-time writer she was smelling hog farms for the state of Colorado.
Even though JA is known to be testy and somewhat of a bitch, she loves her #fans dearly and if you want to talk to her, join her Facebook fan group where she posts daily bullshit about bullshit.
If you think she’s kidding about this crazy autobiography, you don’t know her very well.
SEE ALL HER BOOKS HERE