Your books span a wide variety of romance genres (billionaires, cowboys, everyday heroes, etc.), do you have a favorite?
I love small towns–the quirkier and the more fun side characters the better– and then I love to throw characters who are totally out of their element in small towns into one! Lol! I really love blue-collar heroes and those “everyday heroes” like Zach in Completely Yours. The guys who are heroic as just a usual part of their lives without even trying.
What three qualities does an irresistible love interest have to have?
Ooh, male love interests? Awesome heroes? Well, a sense of humor is number one! For sure! Self-deprecating humor is especially great 🙂 They have to be crazy about the heroine. Even if he’s fighting it or she’s an “enemy” there has to be something that he finds irresistible about her. And he has to be the heroic type– meaning, the guy who will step up and step in when needed. Whether it’s a dog that needs to be rescued, protecting someone in a bar fight, literally saving a life (hello hot EMTs 😉 ), giving someone’s grandma a ride to her book club or repairing the town gazebo! Lol! That kind of stuff. He just steps up and gets stuff done because he’s a good guy and can’t help it.
How do you create chemistry between characters in your books?
I always know one character first. Sometimes it’s the guy, sometimes it’s the woman. And then I get to know them…figure out what situation they are in and why they are the way they are (grumpy, playboy, alphahole, wounded, nerdy, sweet, super confident/ kickass, whatever).
Then I think about what kind of person does he/ she needs in his/her life to become the best version of themselves. Sometimes it’s someone opposite. Sometimes it’s that person who just “gets them” right away. Sometimes it’s someone who’s known them for years but never really *seen* them…there are so many great combos of this! 🙂
But the chemistry comes when you put two people together who need each other on some level even if they don’t know it or want it (sometimes that makes the best chemistry of all!), who push each other to be more/ better, who “get” each other (even if they don’t want to) and who is that “other half”.
If you could escape into one of the worlds you’ve created in your books, what character would you become and why?
Oh, I definitely want to be Kennedy Landry from Crazy Rich Cajuns, part of my Boys of the Bayou series! She’s just this free spirit with SO much sass, a huge loving family, a don’t-give-a-f*** attitude that I WISH I could have! 😀 Oh, and amazing tattoos and various hair colors 😉
What did you do to celebrate after you finished writing Completely Yours?
What I do after every book! 🙂 I took a deep breath, I let myself sleep in the next morning, and then I started the next book. LOL!
What’s next for you? Are you working on a new project? If so, can you give us a teaser and/or an expected release date?
I’m working on the first book in a NEW series!! I’m SO excited about this series and can’t wait to spill ALL the details! That series kicks off in April!
But I have the last book of my Hot Cakes series coming out on January 19th! I love this series and this book so much, but it’s also the end of this series (at least for now) so it’s a little sad thinking about not spending time with this group of people who’ve been in my life and mind for the past year and a half!
Here’s a peek at Gimme S’more!
A hot boss, friends-to-lovers romance…
Piper Barry was in love with an amazing, brilliant, funny, good-looking man.
Who, at least twice a day, she wanted to smother with the stuffed dragon that sat on the corner of his desk.
Okay, maybe not smother. That was extreme.
But duct tape over his mouth? Oh yeah, she thought about that often.
“Is spit better than snot?” Oliver Caprinelli, that man—and her boss—asked her as she crossed his office to refill the water pitcher by the window.
“In every single context, yes.” Piper was also aware that in any other workplace with any other boss, that question would be strange. Here though, not so much.
On her way back past his desk, she set the two folders and the manila envelope she carried in front of him. He was just one of her five bosses and the least likely to open those folders or that envelope. She put them down anyway.
“Grant said that a soda flavor called unicorn piss wouldn’t sell well,” Ollie said, almost as if he was thinking out loud.
He did that a lot. Thought out loud.
That never stopped Piper from chiming in though.
“And you think that calling it unicorn snot would make it sell better?”
This wasn’t even the strangest conversation she’d ever had with Ollie.
“Wouldn’t you assume that unicorn piss or snot tasted good?”
She wrinkled her nose. “No.”
“Why not?”
“Uh, piss and snot.”
“But unicorn,” he insisted.
“I have never, not once, thought about the taste of unicorn… anything.”
“Well, think about it now. Yes, good?”
What she thought was that working for Oliver Caprinelli would be a lot better if he didn’t think out loud.
If he just sat there looking cute, things would be great.
“Why are we talking about unicorns?” she asked. “If you’re adding something new to Warriors, you can do better. Unicorns are overdone.”
The chances that this was about Warriors of Easton, the video game that Oliver and his four best friends had turned into the biggest-selling online game of the decade, was very good. It was nearly all Oliver thought about.
Ever.
Even when she wore her sexiest dresses. And the body oil that all of the other guys said smelled like spicy candy and that made them walk extra close by her desk every time they passed just so they could get a whiff. And when she worked late just so it could be only her and Ollie in the office after dark.
“It’s not for Warriors,” Ollie said. He still sounded distracted.
Honestly, he sounded distracted 90 percent of the time he talked about anything.
The man was a genius and his thoughts were always going in a million directions. It was one of the things that fascinated her most about him.
And that made her think about picking up the dragon on his desk and stuffing it in his mouth. Trying to get Oliver’s attention was hard enough. Keeping it was nearly impossible.
And if anyone wants to check out the Hot Cakes series, I’ve got a FREE series starter!
You can grab Sugar Rush for free from your favorite retailer here!
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