Speculation in a Reincarnation Romance Series

When I tell people I write reincarnation romance stories, it’s often difficult to explain precisely what I mean.

What is a reincarnation romance?

Put simply, it’s a story of love that spans lifetimes. The characters in the Metaphysical Love Stories series do not simply stumble upon each other once every few thousand lives. Rather, they are drawn to each other, like an invisible chain connects them.

For A and Z (the primary characters in Soulmates and Fated Tides), this connection feels like the pull of a wandering bee toward a flower, like the connection between the moon and the tides. When Audrey meets Zachary in chapter 2 of Soulmates, she feels “the earth tip slightly, as if it meant to push her toward him.”

For T and Y (side characters in the first two books, and the main focus of the upcoming third book), the pull toward one another is much more intense. As our friendly, omniscient narrator phrases it in the prologue of Fated Tides, “Together, T and Y are what happens when a molecular cloud collapses in upon itself, forming a star.”

Does this pull always result in a happy ending?

No. In fact, sometimes it ends in tragedy.

But sometimes it ends beautifully, and that is what my books are about.

Now, about that speculation.

Working with multiple lives in a series could have been tricky if I let it be. But rather than getting bogged down in the details, I had a lot of fun speculating instead. The first thing I addressed while writing Soulmates was time.

How does time work in a reincarnation romance series?

The answer is indirectly addressed in my books. Time is not linear, as our narrator posits in the prologue of Fated Tides: “For our main character’s journey is not linear, and neither is yours. There is no beginning, middle, or end to the many lives of the characters in these tales.” Therefore, each book explores past lives of the characters that could very well be future lives. In Fated Tides especially, there are plenty of past-life vignettes that feel very futuristic and heavily inspired by sci-fi. Despite this, every past life vignette opens the same way: “Once, he was…”

In sum: time doesn’t matter, because true love transcends it.

How does space work in a reincarnation romance series?

The next thing I asked myself was, if these characters have lived multiple lives throughout time, who is to say they haven’t lived lives across space as well?

Who, indeed? In Soulmates, we get the first glimpse into the nature of space in the fourth past life vignette. In this past life, A was a soldier, marching off to fight in a war waged by a land called “Lynderia.”

In Fated Tides, we see some of Z’s past life experiences set on other planets as well.

It has long been a hope of mine to make the primary setting of one of this series’ books on another planet (hint: book 3!!).

What about gender?

I approach gender in my books in much the same way I do in my own life. The general approach is this: gender is a social construct. It is, in so many words, completely made up. However, it is also true that on an individual level, gender identity is deeply important. Each and every person’s experience with their gender is valid, important, and deeply personal.

It is for the former reason that my characters are often born in differently gendered bodies in each of their lives—it is for the latter reason that they are always referred to with the same pronouns: she for A, he for Z and T, and they for Y.

So, what’s the point?

What is the point of writing the love stories of my characters across numerous lives? Why intersperse the main stories with chapters about their past lives when I could just write a whole bunch of standalone novels with no interruptions?

The point is, dear reader, to express a deeply held and fervent belief—one I believe will instill a sense of hope, belonging, and purpose in every single person who reads my stories. My narrator said it best at the end of Soulmates, so I will end with this thought:

“If this is not something you have experienced, dear reader, there is still hope.

For time is a plentiful thing, though perhaps you cannot see that yet. There is time, in this life or another, or somewhere in between, to love and be loved in exactly the way your heart desires. For this is what it means that the universe is expanding. We are all reaching, whether we know it or not, toward love.

In the winding spirals and branches of the illusion we call ‘time,’ the universe itself reaches toward love, too.”

Happy Reading.

To read Soulmates, click here. To read Fated Tides, click here.