Let’s talk truth. Category romance has always received a bum rap. Touted as formulaic, with cardboard themes and tropes galore, many hard core romance readers have also admitted they love the big single title but would never deign to pick up a category romance novel. This was never my problem. I adored category romance and ploughed through them like a pre-menstrual woman in a Godiva factory. Still, I did find myself frustrated many times as my favorite tropes were either not used in a fresh way, or the story fell flat. Certain limitations seemed to restrict the freedom of the author’s voice, and I always craved just a bit…more. When I first penned THE MARRIAGE BARGAIN, I wrote for myself. I wrote about my all time fave trope — marriages of convenience — but I decided to write it my own way. My hero kissed another woman. I peppered it with lots of snappy humor and tons of dialogue. I originally wrote a secondary subplot of an older romance, which got deleted later in the editing process, but I didn’t hold back. I wrote the kind of story I wanted to see in the genre I adored. And it got…