Author: JHarte

A Second Chance at a Love that was Meant to Be

I love second chance love stories. My all time favorite is Persuasion, by Jane Austen. I’m not sure why I’m so drawn to them, except I love the idea of a soulmate, and that even problems and time can’t prevent that love from existing.

On September 27, 2016, my homage to second chance at love hits bookstores. It tells the story of Mitch McKenna (Lexie’s brother from Drawn to Her) and Sydney Preston, who in college thought they had their lives all planned out, but it all came apart. Ten years later, they meet again, and while the attraction and longing is there, Mitch isn’t about to let his heart be broken again.

Stay tuned for excerpts, advanced reviews, and launch day plans that will include fun and freebies!

Meant to Be: Southern Heat Book Two

Charming and sexy, detective Mitch McKenna lets women into his bed—not into his heart. When his first love left him in a lurch, crushing his soul, Mitch swore off relationships and love. After all, any woman who chooses what her parents want over what she wants is not worth fighting for.

Or is she?

Successful New York doctor, Sydney Preston left the only man she ever loved to follow the path that her parents paved for her. When a tragic incident at the hospital threatens her life, Sydney moves to Virginia to rekindle the spark with her ex-fiancé.

But Mitch isn’t interested in reigniting the flame that fizzled out long ago. Will they both allow resentments and misunderstanding spoil their chance of discovering what was meant to be?

Meant to Be is available for pre-order at all your favorite online retailers:

Haven’t read Drawn to Her: Southern Heat Book One?

You don’t have to read Drawn to Her in order to follow Meant to Be, but you’ll be introduced to all the characters, and enjoy a fun, southern romance if you do. Learn more and read an excerpt of Drawn to Her.
It’s Hard to Kill with Mistletoe and Other Things I’ve Learned as an Author
There is a writing adage to “Write what you know.” While this is faster and easier, it’s also limiting. If I wrote only what I knew, Tess would wear plain old undergarments instead of expensive French couture lingerie. Jack would drive an old Honda instead of a Tesla. The only thing that I know is chocolate.

The challenge of making things up when you write is being as accurate as possible. To that end, sometimes I need to do research. While research in school was tedious and boring, research for writing fiction can be very interesting. Here are a few cool things I’ve learned when doing research for my books:
1. You can’t poison someone quickly with mistletoe, which is why Santa was stabbed in Death Under the Mistletoe.
2. Stabbing someone in the mid-back on the side can still be fatal. I had to figure out where to stab someone in the back to avoid a fatal injury for Meant to Be: Southern Heat Book Two.
3. Chocolate with nibs is yummy. Scharffen Berger’s chocolate with nibs makes an appearance in for Deadly Valentine.
4. There’s such a thing as Moonpie Moonshine, although I haven’t been able to taste it yet. Moonshine shows up in Meant to Be: Southern Heat Book Two.
5. I hate to fly (like Jack Valentine), but I learned how to fly a Cessna through a Youtube video for a new cozy mystery I’m writing.
6. I have learned how to make a chocolate martini. You can find the recipe in ‘Til Death Do Us Part: A Valentine Mystery Book 4.
7. I knew the French Blue eventually became the Hope Diamond, but learned that when the original stone was cut into the French Blue, there weren’t enough cuttings to make more jewelry. The French Blue shows up in With This Ring, I Thee Kill: A Valentine Mystery Book 3. I also take some liberties with the cuttings.
8. The Grimms were disturbed brothers. I have a new character who likes fairy tales, so I’m reading Grimm’s’ stories and others.
9. The southern accent is the most similar to the English of our forefathers than the accent in other parts of the U.S. I used this plus other cool stuff I learned about the southern accent in a free ebook How to Speak Southern.
10. There’s a mystery surrounding the Confederate treasury and gold. I have been thinking of using it in a Delecoeur novella, but I might save it for something else.
11. It’s legal to make beer and wine at home for personal consumption in Virginia, but not moonshine.
12. Franklin County, Virginia is the “Capital of Moonshine.”
Writing Great Love Scenes

I’ll be on a romance writing panel with fellow authors Ellen Butler and Kelly Eadon at the Virginia Writers Club annual symposium. While romance doesn’t get much respect in the writing field, it’s the most popular genre fiction. Why? I think it’s because it’s loaded with emotion. But many might argue it’s sex, even though not all romances have, or even allude to, sex.

However, while many romance readers like intimate scenes, sometimes kinky ones even, they don’t want them just for sex sake. If that was the case, they’d read erotica or watch porn. Good love scenes in romance aren’t just there for the titillation; they serve a purpose to the plot and character development. Love scenes shouldn’t be written as a play-by-play of a technical manual: Touch here, insert there.

After studying my favorite romance authors, I’ve learned that what makes a great love scene isn’t so much the mechanics, as much as it is the emotions and sensuality. Some of the best love scenes in books don’t mention body parts hardly at all, and yet, they’re sexy and sensual.

Today, when I write love scenes, I start with the frame of mind of the characters. Are they making up? Are they feeling sad and lonely? Are they playful? Are they needing connection? In Worth the Risk (free novella with my newsletter subscription or membership in my street team), Max and Madeleine have several love scenes. The first is about discovery and finally giving in to the attraction. The second reveals deeper feelings, and yet, a fear of sharing them. The reunion scene is all about reconnecting and filling the void at the loss they felt when they separated. So not only are their bodies touching, caressing etc, but their minds are at work as well. We can feel the longing and the desire, which increases the sensuality of the mechanics. At least that’s now I see it.

With the release of Fifty Shades of Gray, we’ve seen the popularity of highly explicit romances rise. Having read a few of these, I find my concept of a good love scene holds true. Yes, these books show more sexy details, provide a greater diversity of positions, and use courser language, but ultimately, what makes them sexy and romantic is what’s going on in the characters’ heads and hearts, not just what’s happening between their bodies.

What do you think? What aspects do you like best about a great love scene?
Drawn to Her Release Day Giveaways!!
It’s here! Drawn to Her, book one in the Southern Heat Series is finally available.

To celebrate, there’s a ton of stuff going on including a Kindle giveaway, free ebooks with every order (and pre-order), fun activities, blog tours and much more. Check out all the fun and activities in store today:

FREE ebooks with every purchase of Drawn to Her. EVERYONE who buys a copy (or pre-ordered) of Drawn to Her can also pick up the following for free:
- How to Speak Southern – A fun and informative guide to the south to compliment some of the southernisms in Drawn to Her.
- Worth the Risk – Delecoeur Adventure Book One
- Endangered – Delecoeur Mystery Book Two
- On the Rebound – Excerpt of Jim Cangany’s wonderful romance
Visit the Drawn to Her Goodie Giveaway page for details on picking up your free ebooks. You can pick up your copy of Drawn to her at your favorite retailers: Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, iBooks

Win a Kindle, plus other great prizes, meet and mingle with other authors and have fun at the Drawn to Her Facebook party. From 11 am to 7 pm eastern standard time, visit the Drawn to Her release party on Facebook to join in on all the fun, and enter to win cool stuff, including a Kindle!
Review: A Thing of Beauty

A Thing of Beauty by Bianca M. Schwarz
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I’ve had to sit on my review of A Thing of Beauty as I worked to gather my thoughts about the book. I really enjoyed it, but have difficulty expressing why. At first glance, A Thing of Beauty is a historical romantic suspense, but it’s not your typical historical, romantic or suspenseful novel.

My first challenge was to get rid of My Fair Lady’s Audrey Hepburn and Rex Harrison in my mind as the characters Eliza and Henry. It wasn’t too difficult as the Eliza and Henry of Schwarz’s world are younger and a bit grittier.

In the beginning, Eliza escapes from a brutal step-father who has sold her to another man. She was found beaten and barely alive by Henry, who takes her home and nurses her to health. These two should be complete opposites; Eliza from a poor, barely educated family and Henry, from wealth and privilege. However, the two forge a friendship over books and a curiosity about the world. They also become embroiled a mystery involving sadism and sex trafficking.

Two things really struck me about the book. One was the contrasts. The world outside of Eliza and Henry is dark, violent, heinous, but the world between Eliza and Henry is wonderfully sweet and pure. Both of them have reasons to be bitter, jaded and untrusting (especially Eliza), and yet, they’ve retained enough of themselves to forge an incredible bond. And while Eliza is in the inferior position, her friendship and love do as much to heal Henry as his help healed her.

The second thing that stood out was the untraditional ending. It made me think of Jane Eyre and how I’ve always wondered if Bronte considered not having Mrs. Rochester die at the end, and if she hadn’t, would Jane have accepted Edward’s invite to be his mistress, now that Jane had her own source of financial security. In A Thing of Beauty, Eliza is faced with the same societal constraints as Jane. She needs marriage to provide a secure future, and a good marriage won’t come her way if she isn’t a virgin. But she tosses that aside for Henry. While she’s young and naive about some things, she knows exactly what she’s risking. Of course, this risk is lessened a bit through Henry’s help in security her family’s property (an inn), which provides her with income, but still, her choice to be his mistress will caste her in a low light in society.

In a traditional romance, Henry would find a way to marry her and they’d have their HEA. However, at least in this installment, that’s not what happens. While Henry is no hurry to marry, in order to introduce his illegitimate daughter into proper society when she’s of age, he needs to marry well, and that would not be the case with Eliza. Eliza knows and accepts this. So while you don’t get the love and marriage HEA, you do get two people who love and care for each other, who are together because they want to be, and that is romantic.

Of course, the die-hard romantic in me hopes that will change in further installments, but so far Schwarz is remaining true to the times in which the book is set, which adds more realism.

It should be noted that many parts of the book are violent and gritty, and that the love scenes between Eliza and Henry are detailed. I enjoyed all of it, but some readers who might not be expecting it might be be surprised by it.

I’m looking forward to future installments of the series and have my fingers crossed that Eliza and Henry will eventually have their HEA!

View all my reviews