by CD Reiss
Acknowledgments
Gentle reader, welcome to the space where I acknowledge my mistakes, shortcomings, and facile assumptions. I am sure this list is incomplete. Should any other oversights come up, it will get longer.
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The Roman goddess of war was Ballona, but if Loretta said that, your brain was going to say either “she’s wrong” or “she’s right,” because we were all taught it was Minerva. For fuck’s sake—half the damn internet says it’s Minerva. I thought it was Minerva myself, but God forbid I don’t triple check a thing before typing it. Anyway, it’s my job to get pulled out of the story by humble details…and it’s also my job to make sure reality doesn’t pull you out. In this case, to keep from distracting you, I chose common knowledge over facts.
Regarding Marco—torture doesn’t really work if the person being tortured is withholding information about things that are really important to them. It feels like it should, but it doesn’t. It’s a narrative convenience and trope convention. Do I feel great about using it? No. But it does a lot of heavy lifting to express both main character’s development. If you call me lazy, I won’t fight you.
We can talk endlessly about Neapolitan camorra hierarchy and how it compares to the Sicilian Cosa Nostra, but we’d be wasting a lot of time with things that don’t matter, or that have changed, or that the English-speaking world has internalized from movies and books. Let’s not, because my next Mafia series (beginning with Take Me) will loosely borrow from the ‘ndrangheta, and I don’t want to hear anyone say it’s wrong because it’s not the Sicilian mob.
The last student clinic I visited was USC’s in 2003, because I thought I was pregnant… and I was! Was there an OB right there, on staff? Maybe? Maybe not? Is it common to have one hanging around the clinic, ready to take appointments in the 2020s? No clue. But did you believe it as you were reading it? I hope so.
On another student clinic note… misoprostol in the blood would not be caught by a simple, back-of-the-clinic tox screen, so I fudged for the sake of narrative convenience. If you know of a more realistic way she’d catch it at the clinic, drop me a line and I’ll fix it.
When I needed to know how hot a fire had to be to melt an ancient iron crown, I called my friend Leonidas Moustakas from Adam’s Forge. He’s a blacksmith, which is ten shades of awesome but he’s also an scientist, which meant quick answers weren’t coming. He thought it would be wise to make an iron crown and destroy it in a coal-burning fire to test the exact temperature and time. I thought if he was into making a crown, it would be best to put it on the cover and skip the whole testing part.
Is the Corona Ferrea actually magical? Or were the men who kneeled before it and the men who swore it was hot to the touch experiencing mass hysteria? I have no idea. I couldn’t commit to adding magic into the story any more than I could commit to traditionalist men choosing to bow to a woman’s power. Both are equally unlikely.
I got the Zippo-beats-bullet idea from the original Hong Kong version of Hard Boiled, directed by John Woo—which you should totally watch. In checking to find out if the bullet-blocking abilities of steel lighters was possible I wound up here, here, and here. Now, are these stories apocryphal? Maybe. Does the effectiveness of the Zippo lighter as a bullet-stopper depend on the angle and the firearm and blah blah blah? Sure. Do I care? Nah.
Can we talk about guns and gun safety? My editor, Cassie Robertson at Joy Editing, noped Santino training Violetta at all because they’re romantically involved and double-noped him getting touchy/kissy with her while handling live weapons. She’s obviously right about all of it. I kept it all because I needed it all, and it was cute where the story needed something lighter, not because I think it’s a better way. Everything I know about handling firearms, I learned from movies. Everything she knows, she learned from experience. So, though it seems too obvious to mention, I will anyway. Please, for the love of God, don’t take any of the activities or behaviors around guns in my books as an example to follow.
You’ve asked where exactly these books take place. It’s a good question. The answer is… nowhere. I built Secondo Vasto out of my imagination. I wanted it to be possible anywhere in the landlocked United States. As I got to the middle of Mafia Bride, the story needed the terrain to be more precise, so I honed in on a particular state and region. I’ve left clues to it in this book. If you figure out the general area, I salute you, but don’t waste time looking for the river or the university. The specifics are made up, map and all.
Also by CD Reiss
The Edge Series
Rough. Dark. Sexy enough to melt your device.
He’s her husband but he’s rougher and more dominant than the man she married.
Rough Edge
On The Edge
Broken Edge
Over the Edge
The Submission Series
The USA Today bestselling Series
Monica insists she’s not submissive. Jonathan Drazen is going to prove otherwise, but he might fall in love doing it.
One Night With Him
One Year With Him
One Life With Him
The Games Duet
The New York Times bestsellers.
He’ll give her the divorce she wants on one condition. Spend 30 days in a remote cottage with him, doing everything he commands.
Marriage Games
Separation Games
The DiLustro Arrangement
Twisted. Dark. Gritty. Will knock you off your feet story.
An epic mafia romance trilogy that sets a new bar for just how dark a hero can get.
Mafia Bride
Mafia King
Mafia Queen
Paige Press
Paige Press isn’t just Laurelin Paige anymore…
Laurelin Paige has expanded her publishing company to bring readers even more hot romances.
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CD Reiss
Jenna Scott
Raven Jayne
JD Hawkins
Poppy Dunne
Lia Hunt
About the Author
CD Reiss is a Brooklyn native and has the accent to prove it. She earned a master’s degree in cinematic writing from USC. She ultimately failed to have one line of dialog put on film, but stayed in Los Angeles out of spite.
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Since screenwriting was going nowhere, she switched to novels and has released over two dozen titles, including two NY Times Bestsellers and a handful of USA Today bestsellers. Her audiobooks have won APA Audie Awards and Earphones Awards.
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She resides in Hollywood in a house that’s just big enough for her two children, two cats, her long-suffering husband and her massive ego.
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To find out when her next book is coming out, sign up for her mailing list here or at cdreiss-dot-com.
