Welcome to My Author Blog
Thanks to Alex J Cavanaugh for hosting the Insecure Writers Support Group.
Thanks to Kathy and author Cindy Thomas for hosting!
How do you like St. Patrick’s Day? I attended the University of Notre Dame for grad school so I have a special place in my heart for the Irish. I’m excited to make these brownies for a St. Patrick’s Day potluck at work.
Book one of my complete romantic suspense trilogy The Conduct Series is on sale for $.99 for a limited time. Get With Good Behavior HERE.
I’m stoked to announce there will be a sequel to my college volleyball romance Blocked. Stay Tuned for Aced (Blocked #2) in late 2015.
Feeling lucky? You can with both With Good Behavior and Blocked, as well as a $10 gift card, by entering on the Rafflecopter.
a Rafflecopter giveawayAnd be sure to hop over to these blogs, little leprechauns!
Time for the Insecure Writers Support Group, when we vent our troubles and encourage each other in this crazy thing called writing. I appreciate Alex Cavanaugh for his brainchild! Please join us if you dare.
How’s your work-in-progress coming along? I started writing the sequel to my college volleyball romance Blocked. This one’s titled Aced, and features the romance between a 24-year-old Mexican American med student and a 22-year-old African-American volleyball star.
I’m rather conflict averse, but I find myself exploring some controversial topics in these novels. Blocked battles political differences, and Aced explores racial differences. Though I feel uncomfortable with conflict, discussing opposing points of view can be an enlightening experience in real life. I hope to offer a balanced take on touchy subjects in my writing.
Does your first draft feel like utter crap sometimes? I try to trudge through but writing can feel so difficult some days!
Congrats to my pub sister Debra Anastasia for the success of her crazy-ass comedy Fire Down Below! She has the wildest, dirtiest sense of whack ball humor!
A number of authors have created an amazing giveaway opportunity for you.
There are many great prizes and Marissa Dobson donated the grand prize, a Kindle Fire. Be sure to visit and like some of the amazing authors who have joined.
Below you will find at least one way to enter from each author. Good luck. Some of the amazing prizes are:
I’m bursting with excitement for the release of Nicki Elson‘s new novel Vibrizzio! I was lucky to be a pre-reader and I LOVED this hilarious story–see my review HERE.
Nicki writes with two goals in mind: #1 to keep the characters realistic, even when their circumstances are anything but, and #2 to make the reader feel. Watch for her new title Vibrizzio, coming in 2015 from Swoon Romance. Her published works include Three Daves, a light-hearted romantic romp through a 1980s college campus, Divine Temptation, a romantic novel of angelic proportions, and Hans & Greta: a Twisted Fairy Tale Novella. Her published short stories include “Sway” (available as a single), “I Don’t Do Valentine’s Day” (part of A Valentine Anthology), and “Impressionism 101” (included in the debut issue of Insatiable: The Magazine of Paranormal Desire
Thanks to Kathy from I Am A Reader for hosting…
Ah, books. Most of us love ’em so much we dream about them.
A disturbing dream inspired my current novel, Twin Sacrifice.
How much do you enjoy books with a dreamlike quality? Not so much dreamy in a romantic way, but more like you can’t tell if the plot is a dream or reality. I don’t like to feel confused when I read. So I’m hesitant to read Never, Never even though I lurve Colleen Hoover.
It would be a dream for you to win a $10 gift card! I’m also giving away an ebook of my college volleyball romance Blocked. Enter here:
a Rafflecopter giveaway
And don’t forget to enter two giveaways on the sidebar of my blog *points right*.
Now take a bunny hop over to these blogs to win cool crap!
Worlds are realigned on one winter’s night.
AmazonUS | AmazonUK | AmazonAU | AmazonCA
Jess & Sasha –JSAuthors. The co-authors come as a package deal with extravagant ribbons laced on top. Their combined enthusiasm is seen as a pink sunrise, uniquely captivating. They share a love for writing, fictional romance, passion-fruit tea lemonade, sweetened and shaken on ice, as well as the color pink. Their combined efforts to share their internal monologues, since they share a brain, can be found in The Date Series.
Today I’m psyched to have author Rumer Haven to the blog! I loved her ghostly historical romance Seven for a Secret. After my review, stick around for the interview and giveaway.
Seven For A Secret by Rumer Haven
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Secret Lives, Secret Deaths
“There’s souls not at rest here. It’s a troubled place, this.”
A historical romance set in Chicago, one of my favorite cities? Sign me up! The classy cover also drew me in.
In the year 2000, 25-year-old Kate moves into Camden Court, an apartment complex that used to be a 1920’s hotel. She meets a cast of quirky elderly neighbors who report they didn’t find the former tenant Olive in Kate’s apartment until three days after her death. *shudders* Then Kate gets locked in her bathroom, and it feels like she’s not alone. Eek!
Kate works at a museum with her boyfriend Dexter. While Dexter is sweet, he’s no Jake Ryan from Sixteen Candles. (The 80s and 90s references made me happy.) Kate also feels intrigued by her hottie neighbor and wants to take a “break” from her relationship with Dex. (Anyone who knows the Ross/Rachel saga from Friends worries this won’t turn out well.)
As Kate gets to know spunky Vera and kind-hearted Leo from the geriatric crowd, they tell her more about the ghostly Olive and her older sister Eva from the well-to-do 1920’s Hughes family. The story then travels back through time to the scene of a decadent house party, full of flappers and moonshine. Bachelor Lon meanders through the crowd with cynical distaste, until he comes upon an “exquisite nymph” of a woman, Eva.
Lon first notices Eva’s eyes:
They burned with a jade green he’d once seen in a great bonfire, the hottest of flames devouring all they came into contact with.
A bit of foreshadowing, perhaps? Sadly, Eva is betrothed to a man from another of Chicago’s socially elite families. But Lon won’t give up easily.
The historical romances in the 20s and 00s gradually pulled me in deeper to the point that it felt like I lived in Camden Court myself. The descriptive writing style authentically captures the proper debauchery and impending sense of doom from the twenties. This is a long novel, which allows both stories to unfold at their own pace (unlike my dissatisfaction with jamming two stories into one in Ugly Love).
One story has a happy ending and the other ends on a tragic note, but a common thread woven throughout is the search for love with the right partner, no matter how tangled the threads (or bonds) of life become. Kate’s friend Blair tells it so well:
“Kate, trust me. When a guy’s genuinely into you, the rules don’t apply. Real love isn’t a game, and that’s how you’ll know it when you see it. You’ll recognize The One when you aren’t overanalyzing him. You’ll just … be, and it’ll play out organically.”
And Kate responds:
“Why do I always feel like Enya should be playing in the background of your advice? I can almost smell herbal incense spraying out of my phone.” Hehe.
View all my reviews
And now I interview Rumer:
Jennifer Lane (JL): Welcome to the blog, Rumer. I loved the uniqueness of Seven for a Secret. What sparked the story for you?
JL: I also love Chicago! What made you choose the Windy City for the setting?
JL: You’re an editor and an author. Which started first? What is your favorite thing about both?
JL: What is one thing about publishing that has surprised you?
JL: What are you working on now?
Thanks to Mary from Bookhounds and Kathy from I Am a Reader for hosting!
If you’re in the US, I’ll buy you a paperback copy of Making Faces or a similarly priced book. If you’re outside the US, I’ll buy you an ebook of Making Faces or a similarly priced book.
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Now hustle over to these blogs to discover their favorite reads:
Jennifer Lane Books 