Tales from the Dark Side...of Love Giveaway - Maria Savva on the Darker Side of Love - and a Cover Reveal!

The Darker Side of Love

Many of my novels and stories have a romantic love theme running through them. A few touch upon the darker side of that emotion.

In my novel “A Time to Tell,” one of the main characters, Penelope/Penny, is a victim of domestic violence.

Domestic violence is a topic that I wrote about because of my experience working as a lawyer for mainly women (but also some men) who had suffered abuse at home. I was inspired to write a book including domestic violence as a theme because the people I met left a lasting impression on me.

Meeting so many victims meant that my character Penny is inevitably drawn from many of the women I met. For example, one woman who was being represented by my firm when I was training to be a lawyer, went through a kind of metamorphosis. When she came to start proceedings against her violent husband, she really did look like a completely different woman from the woman who, months later, was divorced from the man who had caused her so much pain. She was much more confident afterwards. There was a total change in her outer appearance.  As if she’d had a professional make-over.  She wasn’t the only woman I noticed go through that outward change, but she was the first and it stuck in my mind.

In my book, “A Time to Tell,” we see Penny at the beginning of the novel wearing old clothes, looking thin and bedraggled.  Later on, when she is free from David, her aggressive husband, she is dressed smartly and looks much happier, healthier, and seems to take more notice of her appearance.

The theme of domestic violence crops up again in my short story, “What the Girl Heard,” in my collection “3”.

One of the most common reasons I heard for women staying long-term with violent partners was that they ‘loved’ them. They thought they could change them. This seems to define to me, the meaning of ‘the darker side of love.’

Bianca’s Note: It’s heartbreaking that even with all the support and information out there about domestic violence, it remains such an epidemic.  Thank you to Maria for sharing the inspiration behind her writing.

In addition to offering an eBook copy of her book, “Haunted” (enter below for your chance to win!) I’m extremely honored that Maria has chosen my blog to do a cover reveal for the second edition of her forthcoming book, “A Time To Tell.”  Visit her at http://www.mariasavva.com/site/ for more information!

 

 

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