After all the bad news I’ve been getting lately, I needed something to make me smile. What better way to brighten my mood than sexy, male eye candy. I found these new photos of German model, Lucas Buchwald. He’s the young man whose face graces the cover of A Rose to the Fallen. There are only a few people in this world that I think have perfect faces and Lucas is definitely one of them. His body is pretty flawless too!

I don’t know if some of you are aware, but the guy on both the old and new covers of A Rose to the Fallen is a professional model from Germany named Lucas Buchwald. Two years ago, I mailed him a signed copy of my book and he sent me photos of himself with it. I spoke to him through email and he really is a sweetheart. He’s funny too! Anyway, I found a new photo of him still looking as gorgeous and “Tristan-y” as ever!

There will be spoilers in this post, so if you haven’t read A Rose to the Fallen and don’t want to be spoiled, I suggest you stop reading now.

Before I get to the point, I want to say to those of you who understood or liked the paranormal weaved throughout A Rose to the Fallen, this post isn’t addressed to you and you don’t have to read it. I’m directing my comments to the people who:

- Don’t get it.
- Think the paranormal didn’t work in the story.
- Think I just threw it in there as an after-thought.
- Think it didn’t make sense that Tristan is an angel. Read more »

Author and screenwriter Anastasia Blackwell posted a list on her blog from surveys of popular romance forums for Most Dangerously Jealous, Obsessive, Possessive Alphas in Romance Novels. My Tristan from A Rose to the Fallen made the list. According to her, “Crazy in love, jealous, obsessive, possessive males make intense romance heroes.” Well, Tristan’s friend Marco doesn’t call him a “psycho Brit” for nothing, and his brother Jake was spot on when he called him out for being obsessed with Bridget. I know the list is in random order, but it’s nice to be #1. She also mentioned Tristan last month in a list for Top Ten Jealous Alpha Males in Romance Novels. Yeah, I know Tristan has major issues. I like to think of him as a flawed diamond—beautiful and perfect on the surface, until you look inside and see all the ugly imperfections. I love my beautiful, flawed psycho Brit, and wouldn’t write him any other way.

I recently read this discussion on Amazon where people started talking about A Rose to the Fallen. I was actually surprised. The most common gripe was about Tristan being bisexual, and the sex scene between him and Justin. This includes the claim that Bridget was acting out of character. In between people complaining about that, they had issues with the ending, the paranormal aspect, and the editing. I popped in for a quick minute to thank one person who did enjoy my book. She wanted to read more from me, as long as the hero was straight, so I told her about The Howling Heart. Riley is a 100% heterosexual werewolf. Anyway, the whole point of this post is that reading the discussion reminded me of an earlier post I wrote in response to readers’ comments about the gay sex in my book and Bridget’s actions. I wanted to just copy and paste it into the discussion, but then I thought, That’s just too much text. Oh well.

I haven’t done one of these in a long time. I recently read a post on Tumblr from a reader named Hanie. She says A Rose to the Fallen is her favorite novel and she loves Tristan. He’s her ideal man and she wants to meet her own Tristan. If she reads this… Hanie, I’m glad you enjoyed my book so much that it’s your favorite. It’s makes me feel good to know my book is someone’s favorite because there’s A LOT of books out there. And I’m happy my character has made an impact on you. I hope you meet your own Tristan one day. Thanks again!

I don’t know the official title of this lovely artwork. I happened to find it when I was searching for desktop wallpapers. It’s probably my favorite male angel artwork now. I especially like the subtle halo of smoke. It’s a very nice touch. The artist’s name is Nathie and he’s from Germany. His smoking blond angel reminds me a little of Tristan before he fell from heaven to be reborn. I never described what he looked like when he was a soldier fighting under Archangel Michael’s command. Maybe he was buff with long hair like this.

I received an email from a reader named Darlene who lives in Australia. She told me she enjoyed A Rose to the Fallen and loves Tristan. Included in her email was a song suggestion for him. The song is a cover for Air’s “Sexy Boy”. The cover was played in the controversial commercial for Axe Excite body spray with female angels falling from heaven because a guy smells so good wearing the body spray. Then they throw their halos on the ground because they want to do naughty things with him. I agree with Darlene that this version of the song makes me think of my fallen angel Tristan, especially with the angelic chorus and string instruments in the background.

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This lovely photo was sent to me by one of my readers named Katrina. She said the guy reminded her of Tristan. Neither of us know who the photographer is. I like the photo, but I think the only things missing are a few tattoos on the model’s arms. Then he’d really resemble Tristan. I do like the black bracelets he’s wearing. That’s definitely Tristan’s style. He’s fond of black bracelets. However Tristan looks to you, that’s the head you should imagine attached to this sexy torso. Thanks Katrina! I’m glad my character made an impression in your mind.

There will be spoilers in this post, so if you haven’t read A Rose to the Fallen and don’t want to be spoiled, I suggest you stop reading now.

Moving along…

I’m writing this commentary in response to some of the emails and reviews I’ve read regarding the topic. I’m not surprised some of my readers have a problem with what I’ll call “The Tristan & Justin Chapter”. I’m not going to apologize for what I wrote because I don’t regret writing it, but I will explain my reasons for those of you who thought:

- The story could’ve done without it.
- It was out of character for Bridget to have the boy-on-boy fantasy and ask Tristan to fulfill it.
- It was out of character for Tristan to agree to do it.
- If Bridget loves Tristan so much, why would she want to see him with another guy? Read more »