Real Women Aren't Always What We Expect

So I've gotten really great feedback for the most part with my novella, Loving Jiro. I did get one bad one recently that made me think. See in it, my heroine deals with physical and sexual abuse from her boyfriend and then she meets the hero, a really hot, really rich Japanese assassin.

Anyway, the thing that pisses off some readers is the fact that my heroine dealt with a lot of crap from her boyfriend and for the most part put up with it. She had tried to run away, but he always found her, so at the time she met the hero, she was just struggling to make ends meet.

The truth of the matter is that in real life, women who are being abused have different reactions. You might think that if it was you, you'd kill the guy or run away successfully or whatever. Yet, I know women personally who've been in this situation who could not see their way clear except through the help of someone that came into their lives who helped them to believe first that they deserved more, and second that it was possible to have more.

As I wrote this story, I thought of my friend whose husband abused her for years. She left countless times. One of her kids had a complex about always keeping his shoes and coat on in readiness to run, he was so traumatized. But this woman did not get free until she met a man who was extremely kind to her. They became friends, and eventually she learned to stand, to be strong, and now they have been married more than a decade.

Your ideal might never to take something like this, and never need a man to rescue you in the first place. We could get angry and look down on people, but the reality is that there are women like this, who need someone to believe in them, someone who will be their strength until they gain their own.

My character grew from a woman who would work hard to pay her bills while suffering daily under her boyfriend's cruelty, to a woman who took care of business on her own, but after the love of Jiro helped her along the way. Think about it. If a trained assassin offered to kill the one that's hurting you, would you take him up on the offer or would you learn to stand strong?

These are some of the issues that Kiara had to deal with, but loving Jiro made everything work out in the end.

Jordyn Tracey
http://www.sugarandspicepress.net/