byaprilwinters

CHOICE and STORM are done!
          
          And so am I
          
          …..
          
          for a little while.
          
          I've been serializing these stories since February and it's been a privilege. And as much as I love the Brennans, they are exhausting most of the time, annoying sometimes, and intense always. Catherine especially — thank you for going all eight months with her. So I need a little break.
          
          I'll be publishing a few pieces of Uncomplicated in the meantime, so you don't forget about me entirely.
          
          WANTING will be next. Adam's story, and what happens once Elizabeth puts him to work. Coming to you this fall. Get the PSLs ready!
          
          If you can't wait, I put up a little taster https://www.wattpad.com/1655647294-wanting-chapter-one
          
          Till then, thank you for all the support and comments and conversations. I loved every minute of it. Even when I'm fairly sure you wanted to strangle me.
          
          See you all shortly.

Hello everyone,
          
          I come with annoying news: no STORM chapters this week! 
          
          My laptop decided now was a good time to give up on me. Most of the work is backed up, thankfully, but some final edits were lost, along with a chunk of material for Catherine & Dylan’s book three.
          
          I need this week to recover files rather than scramble to re-write from memory. 
          
          In the meantime, talk to me. What would you like to see next in the Uncomplicated series?
          
          Back on schedule next week.
          
          Thank you for being patient with this book. It has been a hard one to write, and you have been generous with it.
          
          Till next week,
          
          April ❤️

STORM has been heavy and I think we all need a little breather... I know I do
          
          So here is another warm installment of Uncomplicated; freshly written, just for this. A young Catherine and Dylan, an ordinary afternoon, and a decision made entirely out of love.
          
          Think of it as a soft place to land before we head back into STORM. Thank you for staying with me through the heavy chapters.
          
          We all earned a soft one <3

Chapter Four of STORM drops tomorrow, 5AM UTC.
          
          This is one of the hardest chapters I've written. I had to step away for a few days and go be with my flowers, just to shake off being in Kate's head.
          
          Read it when you have the space. Be gentle and kind with yourselves. Find me in the Conversations after if you want ... I'll be here. ❤️

STORM is finally here. Chapter One is out now.
          
          This is a story I didn't plan to write — but it grabbed me and wouldn't let go. I had to tell it. And it was difficult.
          
          STORM is not an easy read. And I know the timing is less than ideal, with summer holidays upon us — for that, I'm sorry. But I hope you'll come with me anyway. I hope it stays with you the way it stayed with me.
          
          I've tried to write about these things with the respect and care they deserve. If you carry lived experience of any of it and something in STORM doesn't ring true, I want to hear from you; gently or bluntly, my messages are open.
          
          If you need somewhere soft to land between chapters: being inside this story is the reason The Brennans: Uncomplicated exists. When STORM got heavy, I went and sat with them for a while. You're welcome to do the same.
          
          Two chapters a week, Tuesdays and Thursdays. Sixteen in all.
          
          A note before you begin: STORM deals with the loss of a child, maternal mental health, and a mother’s departure. Please read with care and take breaks if you need them. If any part of this story touches something in your own life, please don’t carry it alone. Talk to someone you trust, or find a crisis line at findahelpline.com. You matter more than any story.

A new chapter of The Brennans: Uncomplicated is out — The Shave.  An ordinary Saturday. Or so it seems.
          
          A year after where we left them in CHOICE... only they wouldn't leave me. Dylan and Catherine kept showing up at the edges of my day, the way people you've lived with do. So I followed them into the bathroom one Saturday and stayed longer than I meant to.

Whether you are a person that despises cheaters and would never forgive or a person who believes that sometimes in life betrayal happens despite loving your significant other - reading about this type of betrayal is painful and uncomfortable when it is portrayed as raw as it was in this book. If I were to try and understand Dylan - I think he has prided himself in always being in control, and taking care of everyone around him. The dependable person. The rock, the steady one. It may not have been face front in this book, but there were many snippets of how he took care of Catherine and his kids throughout the yrs. So when big changes started happening, Elizabeth leaving, Catherine going on her trip, his kids not needing him as much, mid life crisis -  him being the dependable one, he started feeling not as needed anymore, he started to lose his sense of self. In walks Riley. He made the choice to explore something (deluding himself that as long as he keeps this to himself and contained nobody gets hurt)  and let himself do something for himself and only. Not as the rock of the family, not living as how his family views/depends on him. And it unlocked something he didnt foresee. Not changing his love for his family, but realizing things about himself. The problem is - him being the steady one was just as much part of him as the new things he realized were missing from him. He realizes that his choice to do something for him - is no matter how you explain it an unfathomable betrayal to the people he loves the most. He realizes he should have made a different choice when he started to feel uneasy. And in the end he chooses his family again while sacrificing parts of him he never realized were there. On top of that he now has to carry for the rest of his life, that he failed being what he always was to his family. The loyal one, the caretaker, the steady one. All because of wrong but human (forgivable or not) choices.
          
          

I need to talk about this story because I went into it thinking I knew exactly who I was supposed to hate.
          
          Older married man. Younger woman. Affair. Midlife crisis.
          
          Easy, right?
          
          Except it was not easy at all, and that is what made this story so uncomfortable.
          
          Because Dylan does betray Catherine. There is no way around that. But the part that messed with me is that he does not feel like a cartoon cheater. He feels like a man who loves his wife, loves his family, has built an entire life that looks successful from the outside… and still somehow feels like a stranger inside it.
          
          And honestly? That made it worse.
          
          Catherine is not written like a clueless wife or a flat obstacle in the way of the affair. She feels real. Their marriage feels real. Lived in. Familiar. Heavy with years and routine and tenderness. That is what made the story hurt more, because it did not give me the comfort of fiction where everything is dramatic enough to judge easily.
          
          This felt too real.
          
          It felt like watching people make choices that damage everyone, while still understanding exactly how they got there.
          
          And Riley… I ended up feeling sorry for her.
          
          Because by the end, I was not only asking, “How could Dylan do this to Catherine?” I was asking, “How many people did Dylan have to hurt just to feel alive again?”
          
          The ending hurt because Dylan choosing Catherine made sense, but it did not feel clean. It felt like he put himself back together in the shape everyone needed him to be.
          
          But what happens to the part of him that woke up with Riley?
          
          And what happens to Riley after being someone’s awakening, but not their choice?
          
          I liked this story. I did not enjoy reading it. 
          
          When is your next story? 

I think Catherine choosing to move forward is what guts Dylan. He might have expected an explosive reaction but Catherine wants to move past that and is challenging him to choose to be all in or not. He might not recover of the fact that he chose to cheat in a time when everything in their life was going well. He alluded it himself, Catherine might have cheated but they were both in the darkest moment of their life, contrast that to where he is. He had it all but chose to start something with Riley. He might have some affection for Riley as she represents a world with no responsibilities and accountability like his, but he knew she was temporary. Still, I feel that he wouldn't have ended the affair had Riley stay after their conversation, after telling her blatantly that he wouldn't choose her over his family. Nonetheless, cheating is hurtful, whatever the context is..may it be like I assumed what happened to Catherine or what happened with Dylan. It's truly devastating. I also imagine what will it entail for the children, they always suffer the brunt of it. Thank you author for this story! it's one of the most raw and real I've read so far 

I truly believe Dylan  didn't love Riley.  He loved the world she represented. I think Dylan was a man who realised that he was getting older. And he got scared. That fear created feelings inside of him that Riley's actions,not Riley,the woman, filled. If he had gone and talked to someone about his fears,this story wouldn't have been born. But the idiot didn't.  He grabbed onto the world that Riley represented (youth,vitality,thrilling, etc) and arrogantly told himself that the affair was what he was owed. Dylan realised,and he said that himself,he let their (Catherine and his) partnership down. Dylan didn't love Riley. Despite what I read,and the inferences he made about how he felt whenever he was with Riley,Dylan was able to let Riley go quite easily. The affair was the sympton,not root cause as devastating and wrong as it was. I'm probably the minority in my thoughts,and I'm ok with that. .