I haven't read that book so I can't comment on the specific content.
Sometimes your stories make me sad but that is not a criticism, even romance is not all sunshine, not do I think it ought to be. It's of course entirely your choice if you want to withdraw something from circulation, and I certainly think it is admirable of you to be so concerned about causing pain.

Best wishes in all your future endeavors!

This wasn't about emotional angst in a story, but more me accidentally causing pain or offense out of ignorance. I don't want that for readers. They shouldn't have to have their guards up while reading romance, especially something marked as innocent. Everyone deserves a fun (sad or happy fun) time with a romantic story. So I took it down.
Anyway, thank you. :)

...I appreciate you thinking of your audience so caringly, and its clear you feel pretty bad about this and were fully responsive.
Hurts to have to take the story down, I bet.

It hurts financially, for sure. This has not been a year with a lot of incoming money for me (and a lot of other writers, editors, artists etc). A year of not getting paid from a publisher and paying to rerelease things and me choosing to write stuff that is not my usual so didn't sell as much. It also is bad for the artist, who made that lovely cover.

But yeah, it had to be done.

I’m sorry that happened but I’ll still enjoy it and am glad I got it. I Will admit to being oblivious to what caused offence but that is not unusual for me.

R. wrote: "It hurts financially, for sure. This has not been a year with a lot of incoming money for me (and a lot of other writers, editors, artists etc). A year of not getting paid from a publisher and payi..."

I'm sorry to hear that. As I thought someone mentioned (maybe they edited it out?) there is also the option of keeping something available but having trigger warnings.

In this case, I don't really think that would work. But that is what I usually do if I feel there will be an issue.

I absolutely ADORE your books and I was really sorry to hear you had to withdraw one, but I have to say this: I will never understand Americans with their "trigger warnings", "safe spaces" and "woke" culture. If I wanted to avoid everything that triggered me, offended me or made me feel uncomfortable, I'd never be able to get out of bed in the morning. Constant warnings and long term avoidance of anything potentially distressing can actually be incredibly harmful. And I know what I'm talking about!

Sorry, had to get this off my chest...

You're a brilliant author. Thank you so much for your amazing stories!

Anne wrote: "I absolutely ADORE your books and I was really sorry to hear you had to withdraw one, but I have to say this: I will never understand Americans with their "trigger warnings", "safe spaces" and "wok..."

Oh I didn't have to withdraw it, I chose to! In all honesty, I am not really sure where the whole idea of quote-unquote safe spaces came from. No one I've talked to online over the years (for my books or for fan stuff or whatever) has ever demanded or even mentioned a safe space. Or asked me to remove anything from my work. Obviously, a perfectly safe space is impossible, anyway. That's not how the world works, something I think queer readers (and/or POC readers and/or disabled readers, and so on ) are fully aware of. More than fully aware of, really. Which is one of the reasons why I try to be careful with my content tags and things like that. Nobody looking for fun, romantic escapism should get unexpectedly hit with something traumatic if it can be helped, you know? With tags, they have informed consent, and everyone else can just zoom on past the tags if they like. In fact, I think most people do.

I totally get how some people think it's spoilery and don't like it for that reason (fair). Some other people think it's, I don't know, coddling or something. But honestly, again, I write romance novels, and I don't mind it. There are a lot of people out there every day in a very, very hostile world, and if they want to escape it for a few hours with my stories, then I will do my best to be kind to them.

Except, you know, occasionally killing off a character and making everyone cry. I might do that sometimes. :)

I'm sorry if this is oblivious but what was the triggering material? No one actually said it and I'm a bit lost...

There was something in the story was hurtful to some, and in light of the recent rise of antisemitism, I didn't want anyone to feel unwelcome or unhappy in what was supposed to be a fun story, so I just pulled it. I don't want to bring it up again because it seems to invite debate with people for some reason, and I don't want to debate it.

Fair enough. Thank you for responding.