It seems that every romance reader has their own personal favorite tropes that they’re drawn to when they select a romance to read. You know, those little hooks like secret baby, enemies to lovers, brother’s best friend stories that they just can’t get enough of? One of my longest standing favorite tropes is the Ugly Duckling to Swan/Makeover trope. You know, when the girl, for whatever reason, is never really “seen” by the man of her dreams until some miraculous makeover? Fortunately, my idea of a swoony-worthy ugly duckling retelling has changed from when I was thirteen to now. Back then, it seemed the idea was that WE had to be the ones to change, like poor Sandy did for Danny in Grease. Today I’m glad that we can recognize that if our heroine ended up with a guy who only saw her AFTER the big makeover, she’d be stuck with a superficial twit who never really loved her for her inner beauty and character. When I set out to write this ugly duckling story, I wanted the woman to be funny and spirited and already attractive in her own personal way—but lacking the confidence to see herself in the…

In my most recent two books – RESISTING THE REBEL and THE REPLACEMENT CRUSH – the heroes save the heroines from creepy guys. Both books are definitely rom-coms, but deal with an important issue facing girls and women – jerk guys who intimidate and bully girls to try to get what they want. While I consider myself a strong feminist and completely support girls standing up for themselves in every way possible, there are times when it’s not enough- when someone else needs to step in. Standing around as a disapproving spectator doesn’t cut it – good guys need to step in. In RESISTING THE REBEL, the hero Caleb has the school “bad boy” reputation, while the real bad guy Gus puts on a phony act to try to win over Mandy, the heroine. However, as the story progresses Caleb realizes what Gus is up to, so he sets out to 1) prove to Mandy that he’s the better guy, 2) protect her from Gus, and 3) demonstrate his superior kissing skills, because this is a rom-com, after all. In THE REPLACEMENT CRUSH, Jake the Snake is a more serious threat. He intimidates the heroine Vivian and threatens her, after…

About MAY THE BEST MAN WIN Opening five lines: On the upside, the prelude had already begun, and chances were good that Mozart’s Sonata in E-flat Major pumping through all those organ pipes would cover any sounds of distress emanating from St. A’s sacristy. Jase Foster crouched in front of Dean Skolnic, groom du jour, and cursed. This had to stop happening. “You think she’s gonna notice?” Dean asked, wincing as Jase pulled one strip of duct tape after another off the garbage bag of ice currently secured to Dean’s shoulder. “The arm?” Jase clarified, because while he wasn’t an every-Sunday kind of guy, they were in a church so he couldn’t flat-out lie. Theme: Enemies-to-lovers, second-chances Inspired by: An intense discussion over the myriad flavors of “HOT” guys came in…and the subsequent dive into Pinterest’s man-candy files that left me with a handful of “tuxedo-fine” morsels, and a story idea about a group of best men I just couldn’t ignore. Order: First in the Best Men Series MAY THE BEST MAN WIN Scrap book: https://www.pinterest.com/miralynkelly/may-the-best-man-win/ About Emily Klein… Emily’s first thoughts about Jase: Best man her butt. Seriously, how did Jase Foster keep getting this gig? Obviously, the guys…

  He’s quiet. My other characters made things (relatively) easy for me. They let me use their voices to establish personalities and explain things and move the plot forward and all that good—and necessary—stuff. George, though…George is not a talker. He made me work for it. Instead of words, I had to use body language and facial expressions and grunts to define him. Despite this, it was surprisingly fun to write George. Once he did start speaking to Ellie, everything he said had extra importance. He’s like that quiet person we all know in real life. When that person finally says something, we all go quiet and listen. He’s willing to change. There’s something so special about his conversations with Ellie. He doesn’t talk to anyone else, but he’s willing to push himself out of his comfort zone because there are things he wants to say to her. This shows how very important Ellie is to him. It was late in final edits (really, really late) before my editor realized that George never told Ellie he loved her. We hadn’t noticed that scene was missing because it was so obvious that he did. After all, he talked to her. Of…