One of the things I love about the romance genre is how many strong heroines there are. Gone are the days of damsels in distress. The women of modern romance writers might be from ancient eras, Victorian times, futuristic or fantasy words, or from our own time, but they have one thing in common – they can take care of themselves.
Stranded in the wilderness, these warring hearts will be forced to work together—or die together.
Gavin Summerfield—an arctic wolf shifter with a fear of flying—has to fly into the vast lakeland wilderness of northern Minnesota to track down his suspect—where his ability to shift will come in very handy. Imagine his chagrin when his pilot turns out to be the woman who tasered him last time they saw each other. Things are off to a rocky start…again.
Arctic wolf shifter Amelia White isn’t entirely displeased to see Gavin again, but priorities shift when their plane is sabotaged and goes down in the middle of nowhere. As their attraction grows, Amelia hopes Gavin doesn’t discover the secret she’s been keeping…she knows he could never forgive her…
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | iBooks | Kobo | IndieBound
What makes the White Wolf Pack special?
Not only are the white wolf pack the first and only Artic wolf pack I’ve written about, they’re the only pack that is newly turned, none of them having been born as lupus garous. Both conditions—being Arctic wolves in the States (where they normally don’t live) and being newly turned wolves (which means trouble for them with shifting at the wrong times, particularly when the full moon appears)—can cause real conflict for them. It began when two of their PIs, all of them best of friends, went on a bear hunt and disappeared. Cameron and Gavin had to search for them, believing something bad happened to them. As PIs and best friends, they had to find them no matter what.
SEEKING MR. WRONG by Tamara Morgan
I had a phone conversation with my editor the other day in which I was forced to admit that I am a Follower of All Rules. Sure, I write about jewel thieves and con men, and planning a heist is one of my favorite ways to spend a Saturday night, but when it comes to real life, I’m kind of a stick-in-the-mud. I obey all traffic laws, return found wallets, and defer politely to authority. The closest I ever came to theft was accidentally not paying for a shirt from Target. (Spoiler alert: I went back in and paid for it.)
Which is why I love to let my jewel thief heroine in the driver’s seat when it comes time to sit down and write. She’s not afraid to break rules and play with what’s allowed. She’ll twist plots and charm her way in (and out!) of any tight situation. If you want to live large—and get away with it—she’s a much better source of information than I am.
The first romance I read, which is still one of my favorites, is Fast Women by Jennifer Crusie. Here is the opening paragraph.
The man behind the cluttered desk looked like the devil, and Nell Dysart figured that was par for her course since she’d been going to hell for a year and a half anyway. Meeting Gabriel McKenna just meant she’d arrived.
I love Jennifer Crusie’s snarky, smart heroines with their relatable problems and the heroes they square off against. The banter is always great, and the way the characters react seems realistic. There’s no insta-love. Usually it’s more insta-irritation because the characters get under each other’s skin.
I love writing my own snarky banter, and I aspire to create quirky characters like Jennifer Crusie’s. She always gives her characters some real life hobby or interest, which makes them seem more real. I was curious about the Clarice Cliff pottery mentioned in Fast Women and did a little investigating, which lead to several purchases of Clarice Cliff, The Art of the Bizarre reproductions on ebay.
Falling in Love at Le Grand’s Carnival Fantastic Isn’t Easy
In my novel, By a Charm and a Curse, Emmaline King is suffering from a curse that has petrified her skin, rendering her unable to feel anything except a brutal cold. One of the conditions of the curse is that she’s now tied to the carnival, unable to stray too far from its confines.
Benjamin Singer has traveled with and worked for the carnival since he was five years old. And though he knows better than most the benefits of the magic that keeps the carnival performers and workers safe and happy, he’s tired. But he and his best friend have a plan – they’re going to leave the carnival behind and strike out on their own.
It is the absolute worst time to fall in love.
WARNING: I tried hard not to give away spoilers, but it was hard to say what I loved about my book boyfriends without doing so. Though I tried to be as vague as possible, read at your own risk!
Marcus from The Mark of the Lion series by Francine Rivers. Marcus was my book boyfriend all throughout high school and college. I’ve since progressed in my thinking, and looking back, he’s not really that great. I remember even while I was reading the series (all 10+ times I’ve read it!), there were some red flags in the way Marcus acted, but since my reading was limited in my Christian high school, I just thought that was the way men were, and had a right to be. Plus, this is a historical fiction, and the controlling way Marcus acts probably lines up with the way the culture was in Ancient Rome, where women didn’t have any rights. THAT said, apart from his controlling, condescending nature, Marcus is all shades of swoonworthy. Attractive, humorous, rich, and with a lot of power in society. And those four features are what I used to fashion Kalen Rydell with. Fun Fact: Kalen used to have the exact same characteristics as Marcus, but like I said, I’ve since progressed in my thinking and transformed him into what a real gentleman should look like. 😉
Maxon from The Selection series by Kiera Cass. Who else likes the innocent boy who’s never touched a girl? I love Maxon’s innocence, and I love how he doesn’t expect the women to fall all over him, even though he’s the prince and they’re at the palace for him. Like Maxon, Kalen is in a high position in society, and women basically throw themselves at him, yet when Lark, a slave, enters his estate, he doesn’t expect her to act like that at all.
My love affair with paranormal romance started, as it always does, with a few talented women. To know when it all started, we’d have to go back… way back to 2005.
Nope wait, I think we need to go back even further. To 2001 when a little-known Canadian author named Kelley Armstrong published her first Women of the Otherworld book called “Bitten,” which was turned into a TV show a few years ago. It was really my first introduction to an action-packed, paranormal-being populated world with a female lead and a really incredible hot male hero. She had the best forum for writing on her website, and I visited often and got a lot of advice and information there. Kelley even blurbed my first published book “Hell Kat,” which Kensington Publishing published in 2005 under my pen name Vivi Anna. I think Kelley is one of the most underrated authors out there.
Sometimes, one stubborn Capricorn is all it takes…to drive Wesley Hidaka to crazy, flirtatious lengths.
Wesley loves annoying his RA Lloyd Reynolds. He just can’t help it. Lloyd is focused, decisive, grounded. He has this amusing ability to follow rules.
Of course Wesley wants Lloyd to break one…or three hundred.
Sometimes, one diabolically grinning Gemini is all it takes…to have Lloyd laying down the law and marching Wesley straight back to his dorm room.
It doesn’t stop Wesley teasing again. And again. And again…
But damn. Lloyd doesn’t crack easily. He’s full of principles. He’s unshakable.
He’s the perfect friend to have when Wesley needs help. Like with his truant brother and his old high school principal.
Sometimes, one little lie is all it takes… to find Wesley fake-engaged to his off-limits RA.
What can he say? It seemed like a good idea in the moment . . .
TOP TEN REASONS YOU NEED A FAKE FIANCÉ
Hey guys,
Thank you so much for having me on your blog! Today’s pretty exciting for me as the third book in my Signs of Love series is making its ways to readers’ Kindles. Gemini Meets Capricorn is the story of Wesley, a flirtatious & adventurous Gemini and Lloyd, a rule abiding & down-to-earth Capricorn. But rules or not, Lloyd’s helpful nature comes to the rescue when Wesley needs a fake fiancé to prove to his mum that being gay is not just a phase…
A fake fiancé can come in handy in quite a few situations – and I’ve got the top 10 right here for you! Enjoy!
No. 10 – to make someone jealous
Be careful what you wish for . . .
Once upon a time there was a totally ordinary boy who fell for a cold, beautiful prince. Only it’s not a fairy tale, it’s my life. The prince is a billionaire called Caspian Hart. And we’re trying super hard to live happily ever after.
He’s everything I want, need, and can’t resist: a man who looks like a god and bangs like the devil. Except he’s still got his rules and he’s still got his secrets . . .
But if there’s one thing Caspian’s taught me it’s that you should never settle for less than you’re worth. And I’m worth his trust. I have to show him that I see him. That I’m not afraid of his passion, or his power, or his past. And that I won’t settle for less than everything.
Spankers & Blood Suckers
Y’know what’s overrated? Originality.
It’s probably not quite true that there are no new ideas. After all, the number of possible ideas is presumably infinite, although the lion’s share of that infinite potentiality would most likely be made up of nonsensical nonstarters like fire made out of eggs or a rock opera about the agricultural revolution set to the music of Fleetwood Mac. And every so often a new idea will turn out to be genuinely cool (I wouldn’t entirely want to lay money against someone making the Fleetwood Mac crop rotation jukebox musical work) but I think what’s always puzzled me is the notion that the merit of an idea should be assessed on the basis of its novelty rather than on the basis of its, well, merit. I mean, yes, there are certain things that I’m well-aware are a bit overplayed. I own enough zombie-themed board games that I am not in any especial hurry to rush out and buy another zombie-themed board game. But I don’t think I’d ever actually declare myself to be done with zombies.
In fact, I wanted my hero to be like a Jane Austen version of James Bond. Imagine 007 in breeches, and you have the resourceful Rafe Pomeroy, Earl of Beckport. He’s not as fickle as Bond but equally seductive, and he displays a touch more humour, combined with a dash of gallantry.
And he wears a tricorn hat. I don’t know what it is about them, but these three pointed hats on a handsome man just make me MELT. I guess I fell in love with Dick Turpin on TV when I was a kid—for those who don’t know, the character was based on a real-life highwayman back in the 1700s, who became a bit of a folk hero. I adored the romantic image of the dashing highwayman, holding a swooning damsel in his arms as he courteously relieved her of her jewelry.
