March 15th, 2010 — Author Interviews, Contemporary, Cowboy, J-L, Mystery, Western
Keira: What made you decide to write about cowboys?
Joanne: I’ve always loved Western history, and when I first moved to Wyoming, I was amazed to see how much of the Wild West is still alive and kickin’ out here. Libby makes a comment early in the book that moving to Wyoming and seeing a guy wearing chaps is like moving to Austria and finding your neighbors decked out in Lederhosen, and that’s how I felt. Cowboys are the norm here in Cheyenne, especially during our annual Frontier Days rodeo, but at first, they seemed like another, very exotic species to me. I was like a googly-eyed tourist for the first two years I lived here, just taking in all the frontier flavor.
Keira: What does it take to win a cowboy’s heart?
Joanne: Well, it turns out they’re humans like the rest of us, so I think they’re looking for what all men look for—though a tight pair of Wranglers doesn’t hurt when it comes to getting things started! Seriously, though, I think what cowboys want in a wife is different from what they want in a girlfriend. When things get serious, all of a sudden honesty and smarts matter a lot more than looks!
Keira: What makes a hero perfect? What makes Luke Rawlins a hero readers will fall in love with?
Joanne: To some extent, what makes a hero perfect is imperfection—or at least, his own awareness that he has a few flaws, as well as a sense of humor that lets him laugh at them.
What makes Luke special is that the qualities that draw him to Libby are the ones that might drive other men away—her independence and spirit. He also understands that she’s been hurt and he’s willing to wait until she’s ready for a relationship. At one point in the story, Libby tells him to give up, that she’s damaged goods. His reply is simply, “You’ll heal. I’ll help.” I think that’s the heart of the book, and the essence of Luke’s appeal.
Keira: You’ve worked in bookstores all your life; what’s your favorite job in one? What would you say is the biggest perk?
Joanne: It’s hard to say what my favorite job is. I loved management because I could make a difference; I love being a bookseller because I get to sell my favorite books; and I loved being a buyer because it was a lot like shopping!
But the biggest perk? I met my significant other at the store; he was my best customer! And my favorite:)
Keira: Cowboy Trouble takes place in Lackaduck, Wyoming. Is the town fictional and are they lacking ducks there? Does Lackaduck resemble small town life in Wyoming?
Joanne: Lackaduck is a combination of many small towns in Wyoming, with elements taken from each. To some extent, it’s also my hometown of Cheyenne, distilled and condensed.
As for the lack of ducks, I don’t know. I just love weird town names, like Bug Tussle, Kentucky and Burnt Corn, Alabama. I wanted a name that had that kind of quirkiness to it, and Lackaduck just popped into my head and declared itself. A writer’s mind often makes about as much sense as calling a town Bug Tussle!
Keira: This next question is tough. Ready? How do you define romantic love?
Joanne: Oh, that is tough, because to some extent, it’s indefinable. I think the core of it is that the two people in love know, deep down, that they belong together, and that being together makes them complete. Being with that person gives you a feeling of deep satisfaction that makes the stress of everyday life trivial in comparison.
Keira: If you were in a romance novel, what subgenre would you be in and why?
Joanne: I’d be in one of those zany contemporary romances where the heroine always has her head in the clouds and screws up a lot!
Keira: In your opinion, is it tougher to write mystery or romance? Do you do anything in particular to keep track of key points and facts?
Joanne: I think they both have their challenges, and it really depends who you are. I originally started “Cowboy Trouble” as a mystery, but Luke and Libby couldn’t keep their hands off each other and their love story totally took over. Romance just comes naturally to me.
To keep track of the story, I use multicolored sticky notes. I write in the attic, and I stick the notes to the slanted ceiling above my desk. The different colors represent different elements of the story, and I move them around to make changes as the story takes shape.
Keira: What is your secret guilty plot or character type that you love beyond reason?
Joanne: I love gutsy screwball heroines! Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum is probably the best example. My favorite books have a mixture of humor and kick-a** adventure.
Keira: Shameless self promotion time: What’s next?
Joanne: Next is “One Fine Cowboy” which will be released this fall. It’s another cowboy contemporary about a psychology grad student/animal rights activist from New Jersey who goes to a horse-training clinic in Wyoming to learn about inter-species communication. The cowboy who’s teaching the clinic isn’t much for talking, but it turns out he’s an expert in non-verbal communication.
Keira: Is there anything else you’d like to share with us?
Joanne: Just a big thank you for inviting me for an interview. I love your site – your reviews are fun to read and I think you do a great job of helping readers make informed choices.
And for readers – I hope you enjoy reading “Cowboy Trouble” as much as I enjoyed writing it!
COWBOY TROUBLE by JOANNE KENNEDY—IN STORES MARCH 2010
Fleeing her latest love life disaster, big city journalist Libby Brown's transition to rural living isn't going exactly as planned. Her childhood dream has always been to own a chicken farm—but without the constant help of her charming, sexy, cowboy neighbor; she'd never have made it through her first Wyoming season.
Handsome rancher Luke Rawlins is impressed by this sassy, independent city girl. But he yearns to do more than help Libby out with her ranch…he's ready for love, and he wants to go the distance. When the two get embroiled in their tiny town's one and only crime story, Libby discovers that their sizzling hot attraction is going to complicate her life in every way possible…
Buy: Cowboy Trouble
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Joanne Kennedy has worked in bookstores all her life in positions ranging from bookseller to buyer. She is a member of Romance Writers of America and Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers, and won first place in the Colorado Gold Writing Contest and second place in the Heart of the Rockies contest in 2007. Joanne lives and writes in Cheyenne, Wyoming. For more information please visit http://kennedysmyth.com/ and http://www.cowboytrouble.com/.
Giveaway: 2 copies of Cowboy Trouble are up for grabs. Perfect for anyone in the mood for a lighthearted mystery! Open to US and Canadian readers only. Sorry international readers! To enter ask Joanne a question. One entry per relevant comment; multiple entries allowed. Ends: March 22, 2010. Best of luck!
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February 24th, 2010 — 3 Stars, Contemporary, Divorced, Guest Reviews, M-O, Secret Agent, United States of America
By: Cara Lynn, guest reviewer
The Marriage Game by Fern Michaels is a light summer read.
I figured by the description it would have some humor, and it does.
Samantha Rainford returns from her honeymoon to find she has been served divorce papers. She is both shocked and heart broken. She is going to be paid off with a check for $5000. When she visits the attorney, she learns there are three other wives before her who have all been treated the same way. She determines that she will not get mad, she will get even. She enlists the aid of the other wives to extract their revenge.
Meantime, she and a girlfriend attend an FBI training school -- seriously, how remotely possible is that! where they both flunk out. But they've learned a thing or two.
Then they are recruited for a secret ops camp deep in the mountains of NC. How Samantha gets the better of her recruiter is one of the funnier portions of the book. The only way the two of them will join is if the other wives come along too.
The cast of characters in the mountain includes the head trainer who is endangered by his past if he comes off the mountain (Pappy), and the cook (who turns out to be his father), a dog that is part wolf (Alpha), and the other teams that are being trained.
This section of the book is interesting as the characters are developed. The better part of a year is spent on the mountain. Samantha passes with flying colors, but Pappy doesn't want her to have the life that he has had. He is in love with her, though she doesn't know it. And he doesn't know she was ever Mrs. Rainford.
How she and the other women -- they find he has a number of other ex-wives that they find out about, and that might not be all, who are also included in this -- exact their revenge is a cute part of the story. And how it interweaves with Pappy's story is believable.
I give it a 3.
I've never read any of her books before, but judging from this, I will see if I enjoy the others as much.
With all that FBI and special agent secret op going on The Marriage Game sounds like a cross with Miss Congeniality. What do you think?
Buy: The Marriage Game
If you have a novel that you finished and were thinking of writing a review on, LRP would love to have you as a guest writer. Please check out our submission guidelines for more details.
Originally posted 2008-08-11 05:26:24. Republished by Blog Post Promoter
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January 21st, 2010 — About, Kiss and Tell
Kiss and Tell is going to be the start of a new series of posts here at Love Romance Passion. The idea came to me last night when I was talking with my fellow romance novel reading friend about how heroes in romance despite having less wiggle room in appearance/wealth/status than their heroines, they are surprisingly unique across authors and within the writing of a particular author. We got to wondering if this was because the women writing them put pieces of their own real life hero into the fictional model. Did the author ever write a story basing a hero entirely on her own flesh and blood one? And perhaps he's never consciously influenced the heroes in the stories, but that doesn't mean he isn't a hero in his own right.
Authors Answer This: In the end what makes him, your husband (or boyfriend), your hero?
Male writers are welcome to tune in by answering what makes their wife or girlfriend their heroine. Similarly writers with same sex partners are invited to share as well. Just switch out any references below to the appropriate gender/status.
Why Participate?
You mean you might need other reasons than a chance to tell all how wonderful your partner is? If you write a byline to go with your article to introduce yourself, you can include any and as many links as you want to direct readers on where to find you. That's some pretty good PR right there because LRP has a solid Google PR.
How to Participate:
Participation in this series is pretty basic and virtually painless (unless of course you insult your lover in some grievous fashion, then I'm sure it'll be pretty painful. But as that is nearly impossible to do you should be fine. Grin.)
Post details: Include photo of husband to go alongside article. Photo could also be of you and your husband or one of the whole family. There is a 250 word minimum. No maximum as we'd love for you to share your courting anecdotes, happily ever after tales, gossip and dirt. Feel free to include any links to blogs and websites to feature alongside your submission.
Video details: Potentially less time spent on this than writing a post, and you can tell a lot in a very short period of time. Please make your video between 2 minutes and 5 minutes in length and under 100 MB. We'll host you on YouTube at Love Romance Passion's channel and share the video with blog readers. Twice the exposure!
Email article and photos to Keira at reviewromancenovel[at]yahoo[dot]com.
Photo Credits: 1, 2
Originally posted 2009-01-11 13:22:15. Republished by Blog Post Promoter
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January 16th, 2010 — 4 Stars, ARC, Artist, Comedy of Manners, Contemporary, J-L, Teacher, United States of America
Rich Ronaldi got dumped! It’s not the getting dumped that bothers Rich, what bother Rich is the fact his boss and friend, Craig Stewart, wants to meet his “steady stable girlfriend” at a benefit coming up. Not sure which man asked this, Rich goes by the assumption that it is his boss and not his friend. The only way to get Gina (Rosalie’s best friend) back in time is to prove he is willing to change and become a relationship guy… aka a Domestic god!
Recipe for Changing a Selfish Slob Boyfriend into a Domestic God:
- Dump boyfriend and tell him his cooking and cleaning ability will be the basis of any future relationship.
- Add one girl who’s willing to teach him domestic skills live with him.
- Stay clear while he burns food, explodes the dishwasher, and catches laundry on fire.
- Let him simmer for a while and when he finds cleaning cathartic take him off the burner and get ready to enjoy the change.
**Word of caution, watch out for the girl who’s teaching him how to cook and clean! She may just like what she uncovers under the surface.**
Becca Larsen is Annabelle’s best friend and Mike’s half sister from the last domestic god novel, Too Hot to Handle. She’s an artist who works in clay and oils. It is her unfortunate luck that Annabelle rented out the Park Slope apartment to her and her sister Rosalie rented it to their brother Rich. The man is a hopeless slob and very annoying!
As a reader I found Becca annoying. How’s that for irony. There were plenty of moments where she wasn't but in my opinion, Rich carries the novel. He does it so well and he’s just so cute about everything you can’t help but sigh a little over him.
Rating: 4 Stars
Buy: Breakfast in Bed
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November 29th, 2009 — 4 Stars, Contemporary, Guest Reviews, Handicap, S-U, Sports, United States of America
By: Cara Lynn, guest reviewer
I was visiting friends, and this book was sitting on the coffee table. In spare moments I picked it up to read. I had not heard of the author before, yet the book jacket intrigued me, telling that Jill Shalvis' books are well received and making the story seem interesting.
The plot revolves around two people each suffering their own hurts and in need of each other, though they don't know it. Katie Kramer was in a horrific auto accident, the only survivor of a bridge collapse, and has flashbacks nightly in her dreams. Cameron Wilder, in a moment's lack of attention because he was thinking of his girlfriend's cheating, suffers an injury that ends his career as a snowboarder.
Katie feels she must make changes in her life and begin to live life as if it were an adventure, for she knows only too well how quickly it could end. She takes a temporary job in the Sierras for an outdoor adventure business, Wilder Adventures and Expeditions. She has no intention of staying, but plans to move on to her next adventure. Cam shows up in the middle of the night, after being estranged from friends and family, suffering pain, both mental and physical, and finds her in his bed.
And so it begins.
She gets under his skin. She knows just the right way to get past his defenses, learning slowly of his accident and what makes him tick. He's never cared to explain himself to anyone before, not even his family.
Along the way, there is an assorted cast of other characters, including his brother and his aunt -- and his ex-gf. There is both humor and poignancy in the book, and very, very good (and believable) sex scenes as the two fall in love and decide where their lives will go from here.
Perhaps they offer each other both salvation and adventure that will last a lifetime.
I'm going to read another of her books.
Rating: 4 Stars
Share with Love Romance Passion your latest read! Learn about our review submission guidelines here.
Originally posted 2009-03-13 05:17:17. Republished by Blog Post Promoter
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October 23rd, 2009 — 2 Stars, Book Review, Category, Contemporary, Executive, Gentry, Great Britain, Housekeeper/Maid, J-L, Mistress or Courtesan
This is about another plain Jane like yesterday’s book. Her name however is Jessica and she’s the cleaning lady at the hero’s office. She works on his floor and makes his office ready for the next day. Since he works late hours they run into each other often.
Later in the novel we learn that before the novel started the hero would use Jessica as a sounding board and sometimes he even took her advice. Jessica finds these moments the most intimate of her time spent with him – and this is after they’ve slept together!
The hero comes up with a crazy insane idea that if he arrives to parties already spoken for, perhaps his friends won’t attempt to hook him up. He gets Jessica to be his fake girlfriend and then his real mistress. She agrees figuring she’ll never have another chance with a man like him or Salvatore himself. Overtime she realizes being a mistress is very cheapening especially as she’s falling in love with him.
When he tells her he can’t possibly marry her because she wasn’t a maid as she had sexually relations with at least one other guy. He then proceeds to tell her that the woman will marry will be a virgin and Sicilian. It really just confirms what she already knew but it was very unromantic to say the least.
This novel wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t very good. There were a lot of plot elements that cold have been exploited. I felt like the author dropped them in and then decided to forget about them. For instance, Jessica’s roommate was very jealous about Jessica’s new position as Salvatore’s mistress. Then there was the selling of the diamond bracelet he gave her, the blowup was big but read very inauthentic.
Rating: 2 Stars
Buy: Bought For The Sicilian Billionaire's Bed 
Buy eHarlequin: Bought for the Sicilian Billionaire's Bed
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December 4th, 2008 — Gifts, News
Alec Greven is a 4th grader who began to write his book on dating advice when he was eight. He spent time observing boys and girls on the playground at school and wrote down things he saw that worked and also things that didn't. The book is full of little pearls of wisdom. For instance:
"Whatever happens, just don’t act desperate. Girls don't like desperate boys."
Desperation never looks good on anyone. Desperation also translates to needy, clingy, whiny, and exceedingly urgent. Think sweaty palms, babbling, mumbling, shifty features, and occasionally a mean comment or too. This leads into this next gem:
"Many boys who have crushes don’t know how to act around a girl. Some boys tease girls they like and are mean to them. Some boys say silly things to girls and act goofy. Some boys think they are acting cool by showing off."
Who is the book for?
Wives have given it to husbands as a joke. Alec Grevan says it's for anyone and others say it's for ages eight to eighty. He says boys should start young. I say if you're eighty and started at eight and still haven't figured out girls to some extent then something is wrong! The inside has cute little black and white line drawings and covers forty-eight pages.
And before you ask this little heartbreaker doesn't have a girlfriend or even a crush at the moment. Grevan is currently on tour for his book as has two other books written about talking to moms and dads.
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