Knowing Me, Knowing You | (S/P)

Postface (PLEASE READ)

Hi, it's me...

Oh, the ironies of life.

When I started writing this story, my primal goal was just to prove to myself that I could write a nove— that I could finish it. I wanted to know if I could write decently, and if due to some miraculous fact, people were interested in what I had to say.

I never expected anything else to come out of it.

Although I got inspiration for the story from my own life in many occasions (particulary at the beginning), at some point of time Alexia and Nathaniel started writing themselves. These characters mean a lot to me, and I thank you for opening a space in your heart for them.

I know a lot (if not all) of you are upset at how things ended, but allow me to give you my take on it.

To begin with, I strongly stand by the notion that a story doesn't need a HEA in order to achieve what tantalizing, toe-curling romance novels do. I don't aim for thoroughly romanticized versions of reality, I aim at romantic realism. If this story made your heart swell with happiness, made you cry with no plausable reason, even laugh, got you angry with the character's actions (and let me pray to the heavens that it did!)...I think my mission here is complete.

I'm sorry to hear that some of you are so disappointed that you have decided to diminish the rest of the story and my writing for it. I'm sorry that you regret recommending this story to other people (thank you for recommending it to begin with, by the way).

I always knew how I wanted this story to end, but if you feel that my writing (the technical aspects of it) didn't add up, for that I sincerely apologise. I try to improve with each day; writing it's not as easy as it seems.

As for the characters themselves, Alexia has struggled a lot to stand on her own, to assimilate her feelings and accept them as valid ones. Nathaniel helped her a lot with those issues, however, she needs to realise how capable she is, how strong, resilient and forgiving she can be without him constantly reminding her of that.

And Nathaniel... we all know by now that our boy dives head-first when he falls in love. With him, I wanted to create the opposite version of what we normally see in romantic male leads these days; I wanted him to be sensitive, soft, I wanted to show that guys also get their hearts broken, struggle with insecurities, and deal with it in a different way than the normatives we're accustomed to. The only thing I regret about Nathaniel, is breaking his heart not one but twice! in a single novel.

What we normally see in this kind of stories, is the guy being the protective one, the one willing to risk his own happiness in order to protect the girl. And you know, at the beginning he was, he was overprotective towards Alexia and that's something that she definitely struggled to understand; that someone cared for her, that someone loved her that much. But at the end, she finally does, and that's what ultimately prompts her to take that decision— to break up with him. She knew that Nathaniel was willing to throw his entire career into the trash bin if that meant that she was going to be kept safe, that she was going to be happy. And she just couldn't do that, she couldn't do that to the man she loved.

Lastly, there's the fact of how naive they both were in their relationship—  let's not forget that Alex was only 21 in chapter 43. I think that, of keeping them together at this moment of time, at some point of another their relationship was going to fall down. I'm not saying that this is the exact reason the story took the road that it took, but it's something to think about and that hopefully you'll understand later on.

I'm aware this is not the happy ending we're accustomed to, and definitely not the one that most of you were expecting. But guys, this is what I'm giving you. This is what I created. I'm sorry. Those are the chances that you take when you start reading a novel; it might please you, it might not. However, I don't want to impose on anyone, so if you want to believe that there were ulterior motives for what the characters did and where the story went, you're free to do that.

Or if you want to straight-out hate me, that's also good, it's okay. It's great, actually, that this is provoking so many feelings on you. (I'm low-key loving how opinionated you're being about it).

That is the ending this story has, and I'm not changing it, nor writing any extra chapters.

And that's the beauty of literature; it doesn't matter if it makes you feel good or bad, what it's important is that it makes you feel. That although you might not agree with what is happening, and enjoy where the plot is taking you, you ride through those feelings and take something from it.

That being said, I DO think that Alexia Saunders and Nathaniel Rowlins are meant for each other.

Yes, yes. I did lie to you with the whole "this is the very end of their story blah blah.." My bad.

*drum roll, please*

As some of you already know, KMKY Book #2 has been in the works for a while now. I hope that you forgive me for playing at your heartsting with the ending of this one, but I'm even more hopeful that you'll stick by Nathaniel and Alexia's side and discover what life has in store for them in a near future...or maybe not so near...anyhow, I promise that there will be way less tears on that one (;

I know a lot of you have sticked with this story from the very beginning and you have absolutely no idea HOW THANKFUL I AM FOR YOU and how much I appreciate your support, for every single one of you.

Love you guys, so much. Thanks for everything, it's been a ride!

Love,
Kay.

P.S. If you haven't already, I'd strongly advise you to follow me so you don't miss any big announcements that might be posted in the upcoming weeks.