Laura Kaye finds it's hard to let go of Hard Ink series

HEA welcomes Laura Kaye to share what she's going to miss most about her Hard Ink series, which finishes up with today's Hard to Let Go.

Laura: I'm thrilled to be visiting the HEA blog today for the release of Hard to Let Go, the last full-length novel in my romantic suspense Hard Ink series and my 20th published novel. The Hard Ink series is the third full series I've finished and the one I'll miss the most (so far!). I've spent the past two years writing in this world, and the big cast of characters that makes up the series feel like good friends at this point! They're certainly "people" I enjoy spending time with. Which makes it very hard to wrap up the series and say goodbye.

These are the things I'll miss the most about writing in the Hard Ink world:

• The bromance. I seriously love writing funny, sarcastic and even intense emotional scenes between male characters, and the Hard Ink series gave me room to do that in spades. At the beginning of the series, the first survivors of an Army Special Forces unit are separated, fragmented and on bad terms, and it was such a joy to put them back together again. My three favorite bromance scenes include Shane and Nick's sparring match/fight in Hard as You Can, Easy's confession to Shane in Hard to Hold On To and Beckett's confession to Marz in Hard to Let Go.

• Jeremy's T-shirts. Jeremy Rixey's character surprised me in so many ways. He's the brother of the hero from the first book in the series, and I never anticipated the central role Jeremy would end up playing, or how much I would love writing his upbeat personality and dirty humor. Nor did I realize when I first wrote him wearing a "Route 69" T-shirt that innuendo-filled T-shirts would end up being one of my and readers' favorite things about the series. You would not believe the number of hours I spent Googling "dirty funny T-shirts," but I had so much fun doing it.

• The Hard Ink building. The world of Hard Ink is so vividly real in my mind. And, of course, much of the setting is in fact based on real places in downtown Baltimore, not far from where I live. I kinda feel like I've lived in the renovated Hard Ink warehouse with the team for the past two years. I can move through the building — the first-floor tattoo shop, the second-floor cavernous gym and the Rixeys' apartment, and the unfinished third-floor apartment — like they're places I've been to many times. Like they're places where I've made so many special memories. Have you ever watched the last episode of a long-running TV show and watched them turn out the lights on the set for the very last time? That's sorta what it feels like inside my head.

• The redemption. I love writing tortured heroes, and I'm not sure they've ever been more tortured than in this series. And that made the redemption stories each man had individually, and that they found together as a group, so powerful, satisfying and emotional to write. And the fact that I could tackle real-life issues veterans are facing along the way — like PTSD, depression, suicide, adjustment to civilian life, injuries, amputations and more — made the love they find and the justice they restore all the sweeter.

I think many writers feel this way when they close a series, especially one they've been working on for a long time. There's an old writers' joke about how the voices we hear in our head are real. But it's true. Which makes it really bittersweet for me to say good-bye to the men of Hard Ink.

Thanks for reading,

Laura

About Hard to Let Go (courtesy of Avon):

Beckett Murda hates to dwell on the past. But his investigation into the ambush that killed half his Special Forces team and ended his Army career gives him little choice. Just when his team learns how powerful their enemies are, hard-ass Beckett encounters his biggest complication yet—a seductive, feisty Katherine Rixey.

A tough, stubborn prosecutor, Kat visits her brothers' Hard Ink Tattoo shop following a bad break-up—and finds herself staring down the barrel of a stranger's gun. Beckett is hard-bodied and sexy as hell, but he's also the most infuriating man ever. Worse, Kat's brothers are at war with the criminals her office is investigating. When Kat joins the fight, she lands straight in Beckett's sights ... and in his arms. Not to mention their enemies' crosshairs.

Now Beckett and Kat must set aside their differences to work together, because the only thing sweeter than justice is finding love and never letting go.

Find out more about Laura and her books at www.laurakayeauthor.com.