Dear DannyMo (comment #19)

Thank you for your wonderful compliments. I'm so glad you enjoyed CRY FOR PASSION. I, too, was struch with Rose and Jack's profound loneliness. When I finished SCANDALOUS LOVERS, I knew I had to write their story, and happy ending, however bittersweet it might be.

I do believe that readers may have had a better understanding of Rose and Jack if they had first read SCANDALOUS LOVERS. However, I tried very hard to make CRY FOR PASSION a stand alone book. It's difficult when writing a sequel to know just exactly how much background information is necessary. I know that I as a reader am really annoyed with an author who spends half a book recapping the one that came before; on the other hand, in a sequel, certain things have to be included from the first book. I've always admired authors who include just enough information to whet the interest of readers while doing justice to the characters. I hope I achieved that.

As I wrote previously, I thought about writing an epilog for CRY FOR PASSION. But it would have taken place several years later, when women finally were granted the right to divorce (without a husband committing bigamy, deserting her or committing incest). So I thought it rather fitting to end the book when both Jack and Rose found the courage to face their greatest fears: Jack confronting Parliament in the name of a woman (and freeing Rose!) and Rose confronting her husband and literarlly holding their lives in her hands. They both let go of the past in order to seek a future with one another, and really, that was what it was all about.

Grazie,

Robin Schone