The Romance Reviews

Thursday 23 September 2010

Two New Releases...my thoughts...



This is a book nobody expected would sell. Warning: If you're squeamish, stop right here!

Anytime Darlin' touches on some very difficult subjects. When the reader first meets the heroine, Eleanor Devlin Barre, she is seventeen years old. She's been beaten and raped by her legal guardian. It's the middle of winter and she's crawled into the back of a store, looking for a warm place to hide. The man who comes to her rescue, Jake McKenna, is another issue, a touchy issue. He's twenty-four and Devlin is seventeen when their worlds collide. Granted, she's only six weeks shy of her eighteenth birthday, but still, she's seventeen.
Over the course of months, Jake and Devlin develop feelings for each other. Jake doesn't act on his feelings. Devlin tells him she loves him, which is why, when push comes to shove, Jake walks away, allowing her to live her own life and figure out what she really wants. But he never forgets her. Four years later, when there is a chance for the two of them to reconnect, he seizes the opportunity with every passionate bone in his body.
This was a very difficult subject to tackle, but I had a man in mind - my husband, who back when I was Devlin's age, was my honorable hero, my Jake McKenna. He walked away for six years, but when our lives intersected again, there was no second guessing and not a single backwards glance.
Anytime Darlin' either resonates with readers or it doesn't. For the most part, I think readers feel the real emotion behind the story and the soul to soul connection between Jake and Devlin. The book is selling better than I ever imagined.

Now for the rollicking good time: One Four All is a lighthearted menage set a hundred or so years in our future. The story involves three friends in the Special Forces of Khubuk, sent to protect the wife of a bureaucrat, only to discover she's not his wife at all, but a kidnapped princess. Not only is she a kidnapped princess, but according to the laws of her land, Zhinshu, she must choose three men to be her consorts. Hmmmm....how convenient! This book is my first, and possibly my only menage. Despite the fact that the relationships are the focus of this adventure, the mere idea of science fiction seems to scare readers away. The jury is still out - I have no idea how this book will sell, so I'm waiting to begin the planned sequel. The princess Lira Pakan does have a younger sister...

5 comments:

Lindsay Townsend said...

Hi Julia,

I think the honourable hero in your Anytime Darlin is exactly that - he feels but doesn't act on his feelings until the heroine is adult and the horrors of her past put behind her to a degree. I think it sounds a wonderful read!

So does your fun sic-fi romance, One Four All!

Lovely contrasting work.

I wish you great success with both!

Julia Rachel Barrett said...

Thanks, Lindsay.

Savanna Kougar said...

Julia, I think you're right about ANYTIME DARLIN'. It's one of those books readers will either deeply resonate with, or not.

My books are that way, although, not for the same reasons. Yours is an intense story with an honorable hero and a happy passionate ending. Mine are controversial in other ways.

Congrats on your new release, ONE FOR ALL... that is a cool sci fi premise. Most of my sci fi erotic romances have sold pretty darn well. So, there are readers who have a yen for ER sci fi.

Wishing you many happy sales.

Savanna Kougar said...

Oops, ONE FOUR ALL... the brain went on auto pilot.

Julia Rachel Barrett said...

Savannah - don't sweat it! I came up with the title and I keep wanting to call it All Four One!