Reunions.

What does that word bring to mind? Gathering for a family picnic on the Fourth of July? Losing a few pounds before you party with people you haven’t seen since high school graduation? Running into a former crush while you’re in your oldest sweats with no makeup on and standing in the line at the grocery store?

Any of the above situations can make for a great story filled with peril…or promise.

Who hasn’t heard about feuding cousins who buried the hatchet and became friends at a family reunion? Or the high-school sweethearts who found each other again—and tied the knot—after thirty years apart?

Romance novels often revolve around a reunion plot. I love that story line and include it in many of my books.

Obviously, one of the most important elements of a story, especially a romance, is getting and keeping the main characters together in a believable, uncontrived way. A reunion is a great way to accomplish that.

But this type of story is so much more than a ready plot device, a handy trope, a fallback for characters who need a quick and maybe cute intro.

One of the things I love best about a reunion story is that it brings together characters who have a past in common. Just think of the possibilities in that: two people with a history together.  Shared memories.  Unresolved conflicts.  Unforgiven and unforgivable hurts.

If that’s not good material for a relationship story, I don’t know what is!

In my opinion, a reunion plot makes for a richer, more complex story. It gives us a chance to see how two people who once walked away from each other can grow and change and improve. And best of all, it lets us see how those people who once made a mistake get a second chance.

My first published book, The Sheriff’s Son, is being reissued in new formats today. (Info on that below.) Just for fun, I’ve included before-and-after covers with this post.

The book is—you guessed it!—a reunion story. Sarah and Tanner were high-school sweethearts until the night of graduation, when he broke her heart. Here’s a clip from the beginning of the book with that all-important first meeting:

If one more straw would snap the camel’s back, as Daddy used to say, then one more debt, one more unplanned doctor visit, one more call from Kevin’s school ought to bring down a whole herd of cattle.

The thought of her son made Sarah sigh again. It was only a few weeks into the new school year, and in that short time, he’d given her more grief than in all seven years of his life combined.

At the sound of the bell over the bookstore’s front door, she smoothed the loose curls escaping from her braid and, ran a hand over the front of her dress. Halfway through the office doorway, she froze. Her mouth hung open, the greeting she’d intended to call out shriveling on her tongue, sliding back down her throat, curdling in her stomach.

Her “one more straw” had arrived.

A man stood at the front of the store, framed between a pair of ceiling-height bookcases.

Tanner Jones seemed to fill her vision, standing taller and more broad-shouldered than she ever remembered, but looking, unfortunately, all too familiar. Except for the deputy sheriff’s badge decorating his chest and the gun resting on his hip.

A frown rumpled his brow and his hand gripped the back of a bright blue T-shirt, pulling up with just enough pressure to keep the boy inside the shirt dancing on tiptoe.

A single mother’s worst nightmare. Doubled.

The son she never wanted to see in trouble.

The man she’d once loved. Once lost. And never wanted to see again.

~~

Hope you enjoyed the clip. I would love to hear your thoughts about reunion romances!

I’m giving away one reader’s choice of an autographed print copy of this book in the original version or one of my available backlist titles. (US mailing addresses only, please). To get your name in the hat, share a reunion story—one of your own or of someone you know.

Leave your comment by Friday, and a winner’s name will be posted in the comments over the weekend.

About the Author

Barbara White Daille lives with her husband in the sunny Southwest. Though they love the warm winters and the lizards in their front yard, they haven’t gotten used to the scorpions in the bathroom.

Barbara’s new series, The Hitching Post Hotel, features a matchmaking grandpa determined to see his three granddaughters wed. The series began with The Cowboy’s Little Surprise, and the latest book is The Lawman’s Christmas Proposal (just released in December). Cowboy in Crisis will debut in July 2016, with other books in the series to follow.

Her first book, The Sheriff’s Son, has been reissued (today! J ) in both larger print and a new e-book version, available exclusively from Harlequin:  https://bit.ly/TSS-LP-HB.  The original version is also still available at most major e-tailers, including Amazon: https://www.amzn.com/B00N79F94I.

Find Barbara online:

Website  https://www.barbarawhitedaille.com
Newsletter  https://www.barbarawhitedaille.com/newsletter
Twitter  https://twitter.com/BarbaraWDaille
Facebook  https://www.facebook.com/barbarawhitedaille

Can you believe the first month of 2016 is almost over? Yeah, it’s all over except the weeping. I blew my goals for January. And I’m not sure why. I felt good after December’s little health hiccup. But February presents a new challenge and a chance to catch up!

What did I accomplish in January?

1. I wrote 1/2 of one book.
2. I wrote the opening chapters of another then put it away because I hated it.
3. I revised an older title and published it.
4. I compiled a short story collection of my own and published it.

And that was freaking it.

Just so you didn’t miss those newly published titles, here’s a reminder…

January Releases

Bent on catching her cheating fiancé in the act, Frannie Valentine got sidetracked by a little thing like dying. When she awakens, Frannie learns her pampered life will never be the same, so she turns to the man responsible for her undeadness and demands he take on the responsibility of giving her a little job training—in the PI biz.

Niall Keegan never intended to make himself a mate, but Frannie’s string of minor disasters, which ended with her dying in his arms, took the decision right out of his hands. While the mating part isn’t bad, making the disaster-prone Frannie a PI may just be the death of him.

Purchase here!

* * * * *

From New York Times bestselling author, Delilah Devlin, comes her third naughty collection of bedtime stories–enough for a week’s worth of sexy inspiration!
Included in this volume are… 

Big Brass Buckle — Caught in a sudden thunderstorm on a lonely stretch of Texas highway, I pull into a dingy little diner to wait out the rain, never dreaming the cowboy of my dreams would follow me inside…

Pitch Black — Passion lights the way for an ex-marine corrections officer rescuing a female CO trapped in a prison block during a blackout…

The Pleasure in Surrender — After the lady of the keep bars her gates to the barbarian the king commands she wed, the half-Viking knight scales the walls of her heart…

One-Track Cowboy — After tracking two lost hikers, a park ranger and a local rancher lose themselves to a wild passion…

How to Train Your Skjaldmaer — A Viking jarl tricked into marrying a shieldmaiden sets out to tame his fiery bride…

Johnny Blaze — A firefighter moonlighting as a male exotic dancer gives a librarian a birthday spanking she’ll never forget…

Red Dawn — A colonist living on a lonely Martian plain receives her new mate, a man culled from among the newly transported convicts…

Purchase here! And remember, RIGHT NOW, it’s just $0.99!

What’s coming in February?

Contest

Answer this to win a small Amazon gift card…

What story are you most eager to see from me next? The next SEAL? Another fireman? Cowboy? Werewolf? Witch? Stepbrother?

I’ll be sending out a new newsletter later today and announcing this month’s winner of a gift from me. If you aren’t already a subscriber to my newsletter, go here: Sign up for Delilah’s Newsletter!

UPDATE: Four winners are announced in the comments!

* * * * *

If you’ve followed me for long, you know I love, love, love writing short stories. I love to read them. (I don’t really have time to read much else!) I write so many, I am now publishing my third Strokes edition! Here comes the sales pitch… And what a deal I have for you! If you bought each of these stories individually, you’d pay $6.93. TODAY, you can buy this anthology for just $0.99!

There are seven stories, no cliff-hangers—these are self-contained short stories with a beginning and a Happy Ever After! And they cover a wide range of themes, from Vikings to Cowboys to Men in Uniform to a lovely little romance set on Mars… Seven stories designed to give you a week’s worth of bedtime pleasure!

I hope you’ll rush to Amazon and get your copy, because no kidding, that price won’t last long.

Comment to tell me which of the seven stories you are dying to read (click on the cover to head to Amazon for the list!), and you will be entered to win one of the previous editions of Strokes. And I’ll be choosing three winners!

Thank you, Delilah, and thank you everyone for stopping by.

When Delilah agreed to host me back in December, I had something completely different in mind as my topic. However, on December 24^th I received an early Christmas present…a positive biopsy result for breast cancer. What makes this suck even more (and yes, as a writer I should find a more eloquent word than ‘suck’…but simply put…it does suck!) is that this is my second time.

I’m not going to get into all the ugly and crappy (another under-used but perfectly descriptive word) things that surround this diagnosis, because that isn’t me. Fourteen years ago, I had to delay my first chemo appointment by a week because I was going through a divorce, moving out of my marital home, and celebrating my 36^th birthday.  But through this all, I stayed positive.

…And that is what I want to write about.

Yes, being diagnosed a second time with the dreaded “c” sucks and is crappy, but I’m not going to let it get me down or hold me back.  I’ve had a few friends…which is a ‘few’ too many…that were diagnosed with breast cancer after my first experience.  I told them all, I can’t guarantee that a positive attitude will help, but a negative one will certainly pull you down.

This time around, I have to say, I disagree. A positive attitude does help! I know my husband and many of my close friends were devastated to hear this news. My daughter didn’t know what to do…she was only 4 the first time through, and once this Christmas vacation was done she was heading back to university, a 2.5 hour flight away. And my mom, well this should never happen to your children—certainly not twice—and it doesn’t matter if they are 5, 15 or 50. But I am keeping a positive outlook that things will go as smoothly this time as last. I’m hoping to fly to Nova Scotia at the end of February, between what I believe will be my first two chemo appointments, to see my daughter play in her first university volleyball finals. And while I took time off from work last time, I have actually decided to work through my procedures this time (as long as my health or my doctor doesn’t say otherwise.)  My point here? NONE of my friends have given me the weepy face that often occurs when you tell people you have cancer. How can they think or act negative when I refuse to be brought down by it?

So whether it’s an illness, writing a book, or just living your life…stay positive. Think about the good things that lie ahead, or what’s the point? And whether you believe in God or chocolate to help get you through, surround yourself with positive things and positive people….because negative will definitely pull you down.

p.s. My 3 inch tumor was bigger than expected but my nodes were clean which means no spread. I don’t get the final results until 02/05…when I also get my chemo schedule, but in the meantime I have signed another contract with Wild Rose Press for a fantasy short, Love Supernaturally, and am waiting on a 2^nd contract from my YA publisher, Boroughs, for my Young Adult novella, California Blue. I continue to work, write, craft, dream and plan.

REAL LOVE (A Candy Hearts Story)

Her eyes and heart are open to new worlds and new possibilities.

 

 

As a young girl, Monda was placed into the tutelage of Mistress Teevac. Trained to use her empathic skills and educated in the ways to please a man, Monda is on her way to her new mate and master when her spaceship crashes. Rescued by a handsome space lieutenant, who literally makes her heart race, Monda’s eyes and heart are opened to new possibilities.

When Lieutenant Patrick Lancaster looks at the exotic Monda, he sees beautiful not alien. With an instinct to protect her and the desire to have her, he’d be honored to call her his own, but the starts have something else in mind. Or do they?

Excerpt:

Her face more angular than most. Her lips, thick. A constant pout, like she waited to be kissed. When he looked at her big blue eyes and long blue eyelashes, he thought exotic, not alien.

“Monda.” He reached to wipe the tear. No, it was not his place. He shoved his hand into his pocket. “I didn’t mean you. I don’t think of you as alien. I meant other aliens, like the green guys from Salvador. Have you seen them? About a meter high with pointed teeth. You can’t tell the males from the females except when they have their armor off.” He wanted to pull her into a hug. To comfort her and show her how sorry he felt. But she was promised to another, and while he might be an idiot, his mother also raised him as a gentleman. “Really, Monda, I’m sorry.”

“I know,” she whispered.

“What I mean is you’re an alien but not an alien. You don’t look like an alien. Of course any guy would be honored to have a girlfriend like you.”

“Any guy, but you.”

Buy Links:

Wild Rose Press: https://www.wildrosepublishing.com/maincatalog_v151/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=195&products_id=6593

About the Author:

Charlotte Copper lives in Stouffville, Ontario – that’s in Canada, eh. When she isn’t working at her full-time job, Charlotte likes to craft, read, go to movies, and, of course, write. Charlotte hopes to have all of her stories published some day because, as a romance writer, she believes in happy endings!

Contact Information:
Email:  charlottecopper.author@gmail.com
Website:  https://charlottecopperauthor.com
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/charlotte.copper.52
Twitter::  @charlottecopper   https://twitter.com/CharlotteCopper

Lately, I’ve become a bit more analytical in my thinking about books. One of the things I’ve considered is what I like in a romance hero and who writes that hero best.

Linda Howard is the first author who comes to mind who writes the heroes I love. They are uber-alpha, supremely capable in every situation, and yet (often) completely befuddled by their attraction to and adoration of females who don’t necessarily make sense to their male minds.

My first Howard novel was Midnight Rainbow starring Grant Sullivan, secret operative extraordinaire, and a feisty rich woman. I don’t remember much about her, but I do remember that Sullivan was pretty darned swoon-worthy, especially considering I was a teenager when I read that book. But Sullivan’s not the only one. John Medina, who finally got his own woman in All the Queen’s Men after having cameo appearances in previous books, is another super spy who doesn’t break a sweat while the bullets are flying around him.

Howard’s heroes don’t have to be mercenaries or spies – though I’m certainly not complaining! – but they will be men who can maintain control of 99% of their environment. Ben Lewis, the Amazon guide in Heart of Fire, and James Diaz from Cry No More (one of my desert-isle keepers) are two men who may take questionable moral stances in some situation, yet they are 110% devoted to the safety of their women, even when they don’t understand what the women are planning or why.

She has also written two of my favorite cops (though I do adore Nelson deMille’s John Corey, but those aren’t romance, so we’ll save those for another day) in the hilarious Sam Donovan from Mr. Perfect and Dane Hollister in Dream Man. Honestly, who can resist a man who ends up with sympathy labor pains?

And speaking of Danes, or Dains as it were, I have to add Sebastian Ballister, the Marquess of Dain, from Loretta Chase’s Lord of Scoundrels to my list. Not only is Dain another uber-alpha male completely confounded and besotted by Jessica Trent, LoS is simply one of the best romance novels ever written. Ever. Seriously. I’m pretty sure there are scientific papers quantifying that.

And one more author whose heroes I love? Laura Florand. If you haven’t read her chocolate or perfume series, get on it! She creates these gorgeous French men (and gorgeous French settings!) who are tough and rugged on outside, but molten chocolate on the inside – sweet, dark and delicious. Dominique Richard from The Chocolate Touch is my favorite of Florand’s bad boy chefs, but Gabe and Patrick are chocolatey heartthrobs as well (The Chocolate Rose and The Chocolate Temptation respectively). Honestly, though, if you’re going to read Florand’s books, just start at the beginning of the series with The Chocolate Thief and know that the books get better and better the more you read. Full disclosure, the first book in the series is actually my least favorite…though I do love that hero as well, Monsieur Sylvain Marquis.

Tl;dr (too long;didn’t read)—I dig supremely capable alpha males who are drop-kicked by love!

Tell me who your favorite heroes are.

On Monday, February 1st, I’ll randomly choose one commenter to win a free digital copy of one of my novellas. Winner gets to choose between Three Little Words and One Night in Savannah. Very different heroes in those two stories, but I love them both!

About the Author

Taylor Reynolds writes hot, contemporary romance that often features active military or veteran characters. She is a native Californian who currently lives in Northern Virginia with a dog and a cat.

Hello, I’m Melanie Jayne and I write romance with older characters. By saying that, I don’t mean women in their early thirties. Nooo, I am talking about women that have made more than a few laps around life’s track. I do this because I can barely remember my twenties and to be honest, my life didn’t get really interesting until many years had passed.

I find that too often in fiction, especially romance, the female characters top out in their early thirties or are into their sixties. The older women are portrayed as the meddling interloper or the crazy relative. Well I’m here to tell you that women can be so much more.

I love creating my female characters. They have had years to work through their issues with their families. Not that she can change things but she can anticipate, or won’t be surprised by actions and reactions. Hopefully, she is to the point where she has identified the negative influences in her circle and shed those “friends”.  She may not completely know herself but she has a good idea what she doesn’t like and what she doesn’t want around her.

I usually find that she has just made or experienced a major change in her life. She can start over and do things her way, the better way. In my latest book, You Only, Hale Cameron has just returned to the small town where she grew up. Years before she left her fiancé and the town behind. Now she must find her place in the community that has kept the story of how she broke Finn Webber’s heart alive.

Hale has her share of baggage, she was abused by her mother and fears that she may share some of Lydia’s traits. She left a successful career to take over the reins of her family’s farming operation. After years of therapy, she believes that she lost her chance at love. Perhaps she isn’t really worthy of romantic love?

Her close friends have her back and help her navigate small town life. She must also deal with Finn. He is now the mayor and a popular bachelor. He never understood why Hale left and demands an explanation. Her reasons confuse him, almost as much as his attraction to her.

As couple addresses their past, Finn learns that he did not really know Hale at all. The new and improved Hale excites and entices him with her intelligence and forbearance. She is trying to fit in and become a leader as expected due to her family name.

In the book, Hale has doubts but continues working toward her goal. She was so much fun to write because she wants to move forward. I love that she knows her faults, but accepts that we all have them. She is unapologetically sexual and is not afraid to discuss her past and what she hopes will come to be. She is human and has worked very hard to be okay with that. I think that is what I love most about her. She knows that she isn’t perfect and isn’t surprised when those close to her screw up. She looks deeper than the what but more into the why.

Women are so much more than the number of years that they have graced the earth and I hope that one day, we will stop seeing them as their age but more for their wisdom.

About the Author

Melanie Jayne lives in on a grain farm in Central Indiana with her long suffering husband and Ginger the monster dog. When she isn’t writing, she’s dealing with repairs their old farmhouse and she loves to read.

You are invited to follow her:

www.ReadMelanieJayne.com

@MJSmut on Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram

Melanie Jayne on Facebook

Check out today’s shiny new releases in Cat Johnson’s Hot SEALs Kindle World! I’m so envious of the excitement! Alas, I’m not part of this release. I couldn’t manage to get my butt in gear to finish my story in time, but yay for you! There are 11 new titles ready for you to download now by some of the best military romance authors in the biz!

Okay, so the banner makes it hard to see the yumminess. Guess, you’ll just have to click on the titles below to check them out!

Surrender to a SEAL by Normandie Alleman
All In by Aliyah Burke
Claimed by a SEAL by KaLyn Cooper
SEALed in Texas by Marissa Dobson 
Homebound for You by Yvette Hines
Revealing Love by Maryann Jordan
SEALed for Life by Donna Jane McDonald
A Daye with a SEAL by Donna Michaels
Darwin’s Evolution by Siobhan Muir
My SEAL Bodyguard by Paige Tyler
Herding Cat by Sabrina York 

I know you’ll enjoy the stories! And in April, I will be a part of another release blitz. I’ve already got my story started. I won’t mind one bit if you nag me to make sure I finish in time! 🙂

Good luck to the authors! And congrats to Cat Johnson!