Beware the massive SPOILERS here for Devoted to the Don.
I made a lot of choices as I was writing and editing Devoted to the Don. This page is just a collection of random facts about what I did and didn’t include in the book, and my reasoning.
Characters who didn’t reappear
I had plans to have some scenes with Sonny Vegas, to tie up his relationship with the Morelli Family, but that whole thing is…complicated. So I’ll be revisiting Sonny and his Family in a new series down the track set in Las Vegas. (He’ll might also pop up before then in the West Coast series – maybe!)
I also cut a sequence where Sonny Vegas sent some of his men with Angelo and Bax to help out with the hospital siege. But in the end, I didn’t think Angelo Messina would need any help with that situation.
La Fenice Opera House
In the first draft, Luca and Finch got a little farther along in their attempt to contact La Contessa at the opera in Venice. They approached her in the bar during intermission but were turned away by her guards. There was more conversation between Finch and Luca about La Contessa and her pet, and comparing relationship dynamics.
I cut those scenes out because they slowed down the action too much, and also because I wanted La Contessa to be a more shadowy figure. She doesn’t have much of a public persona beyond being a patron of the arts – although Luca recognizes her for who she is underneath that mask.
Who was supposed to die but didn’t?
Originally, I was going to kill off Frank D’Amato. He was supposed to die in the hospital siege, but I changed my mind and decided that I’d kill him later during a scene set at his house in Italy, where he would sacrifice himself to save Celia, Marcy and Finch.
Why didn’t I? Mostly because I just couldn’t bring myself to kill Luca’s brother at Christmastime. Yeah, I’m a sucker. But also because Finch has lost so many people along the way, and because a big theme throughout the books is found family, I decided he should keep his Brother Frank.
Is Conor going to be okay?
Poor Conor. He was – at one point – going to get his very own book in the Morelli Family series! But plans changed, and I actually have hopes of doing a Donovan Family series down the line. If and when I do, Conor will be starring in his own book and, yes, get his own HEA.
As for his doomed relationship with Rory in Devoted: At one point, that romance was a larger storyline in the book, but I cut a lot of that subplot in the end because the book was already very long, and I wanted to focus on Finch and Luca. For Conor it will have been a traumatic experience and a betrayal of trust, which he will hopefully get to deal with in his own book.