Zoe-anne Mckenna asked Penelope Douglas:

You explained Jared/Tate needed grow which was why Aflame was set up in FA. Is growing, in this way, something you felt Madoc/Fallon (because they married so young) or Jax/Juliet need(ed) to do too? Is the growth Jard/Tate go through necessary for the other characters? Do you feel they did grow, but in different ways than Jared/Tate?

Penelope Douglas Hi Zoe-Anne, great question!

Let's set the romance aside for a moment, and think about the whole gang individually. I felt, and this is just me, but I felt Madoc, Tate, Jax, and Fallon all were very strong characters. They were goal-oriented, they stood by their convictions, and they had a strong sense of self.

Jared and K.C. were the two that did not have these things, I felt.

If readers look back to Until You, you'll notice Jared is very confused even then. He knows he loves Tate, but that's it. He has no idea what he wants to do with his life, what he has to offer the world, or what he even likes about himself. Jared also has a lot of guilt about making Tate's high school experience so miserable. Given all of this, Jared doesn't think much of himself. It's weighing on him, and it's depressing.

Now, K.C. worked through her issues in Falling Away, so Jared was the only one that was left to work through. I know readers are concerned I invented drama, but if they remember Until You, there were clues that Jared still had growth to do (i.e. the meeting with the counselor, the fight at the end...)

I don't feel like the other couples needed what Jared needed. Like I said, they were already pretty strong individuals, and any growth they do now is different. And they make their SO's life better. They don't have the same self-defeating baggage Jared's carrying around. But for Jared, he clearly didn't feel he was growing with Tate. She was 20 feet high, and he was still small.

I hope that makes sense. It was my viewpoint as I wrote it, but I understand if readers still don't sympathize with him. <3

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