I have been struggling with focus and a massive project at work that is mentally draining me. Because of that, I needed something to take my mind off things and relied on my go to therapy – reading a book. “Between the pages of a books is where I want to be!”
Nothing could be more true and I was lucky enough to have received an arc of SOLID GOLD BACHELOR by Kathye Quick which is now available for pre-order. The ARC was received in exchange for an honest review.
I really enjoyed this second chance at love story between the responsible rich girl and the bad boy rock star from the wrong side of the tracks. Add in mobsters, murder and a secret baby and the story had my attention until the very end. Plus the icing on the cake was that it was set in New Jersey, adding that hometown element to the feel of the story.
There are some tried and true romance hooks from which we can create fun stories. Today I’m sharing some of my favorites (and not so favorites) and I hope you’ll chime in and offer your two cents.
As you may guess from my books, Opposites Attract kind of thing, or in my case, the kick-ass heroine out to tame the alpha hero, is one of my all-time favorites.
Marriage of convenience
A slight twist on a classic – the geeky guy blossoms into the hottie everyone wants
The arranged marriage (look for that in the follow-up book to THE PRINCE’S GAMBLE – July 2012)
Millionaire playboy (and toss in some royalty to that in THE PRINCE’S GAMBLE)
The love triangle (got a bit of this going on with a little menage in THE VAMPIRE’S CONSORT)
Reunited lovers
Military themes
One of the ones I find hardest to like is the secret baby story. Yes, yes, I did write one of those (SOLDIER’S SECRET CHILD) and I have to confess that it took me nearly a month just to figure out how to justify not telling someone about the baby and how to craft a believable and yet emotional response from the hero to the revelation that he had a teenage son!
So what are your favorite and not so favorite romance hooks?
Being asked to participate in a continuity series by Harlequin is always an honor, delight and a challenge. The latter was especially true of my participation in the COLTONS continuity which included my novel, SOLDIER’S SECRET CHILD.
It takes a lot of work to create a series of intertwined and yet stand alone stories. I think it’s a testament to the amazing editors at Harlequin who put these series together and then ask the authors to write a particular novel. I have to confess I was a little surprised by which one of the six books in the series I was asked to write.
First of all I was pleased that they didn’t ask me to write the book with the Latina heroine. It’s nice not to be typecast.
But a book about a woman who had a secret baby and hasn’t told the military hero father about him in seventeen years? Hmm. That part was a little harder for me to wrap my head around. In fact, it took me nearly a month to try and understand the motivation behind such a secret and why now, after so many years, it was time for the secret to be revealed.
Being a character-driven writer, that motivation was key for me so that I could craft a hero and heroine with whom readers could identify. At that end of that month of agony, I found the motivation: Love.
Love for Fisher Yates, the hero of the piece. Respect of his dreams and how they would be derailed by an unexpected pregnancy. I won’t say unwanted because that’s the farthest thing in Macy’s mind. Macy is a woman filled with love for her child, the man she marries and loses, and for Fisher.
The story challenged me to show that and to demonstrate how love survived, buried deep in the hearts of two people who had to place duty and honor before what they both wanted most – each other.
