Wendy asked Nikki Kitchen:

From a technical perspective I was surprised the chapters from one book flow to the next when with slight tweaking and more emphasis on a cliff-hanger at the end each story could standalone. Did you do this for any reason besides breaking the 800 pages into small segments?

Nikki Kitchen I wanted the books to read as one, that's why each picks up where the last left off. That's also why my covers are uniform. My husband questioned me when I chose to have the books flow together. He asked why I didn't have each as a standalone. While I feel that each book can hold it's own, story wise, I don't think the stories can be complete without the others. I don't feel that Nora and Tony's affair can completely be understood without the reader knowing about their relationship in Mafia Princess. When you find out how many times Nora breaks Tony's heart you understand more why his family hates her and wants her dead. In Mafia Queen (which you haven't read yet so I'll try to not give anything away) it's hard to feel the pain and isolation Nora feels, and how hard it was for Nathan to do what she ordered him to do (Chapter 79), when you don't know their full history together.

I feel that a standalone within a series has the same characters but you don't necessarily need to know what happened in the previous, and future, books. Mafia Series isn't like that. The story, the emotions, the characters, aren't complete if you only read one book.

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