Showing posts with label TEXAS REDEEMED. Show all posts
Showing posts with label TEXAS REDEEMED. Show all posts
Monday, September 16, 2013
An Excellent Defense with Isla Bennet
Today I am happy to introduce my fellow Montlake Romance author, Isla Bennet, who recently celebrated the release of her first book, TEXAS REDEEMED.
Here's the blurb from Amazon:
Ranch owner Valerie Jordan learned the hard way that people carve out their own destiny. She knows firsthand what can come of one night of unchecked attraction and lost inhibitions. And she also knows there’s only one way to handle guarded missionary doctor Peyton Turner: with caution. Thirteen years ago, they went from being friends to lovers to strangers.
Here's the blurb from Amazon:
To save himself and outrun his past, Peyton disappeared. Now the prodigal son of Night Sky, Texas, is home—though he has no intention of staying. But once the revelation that he and Valerie share a troubled teenage daughter sends him on a hunt for answers, there’s no avoiding one another…no ignoring the undeniable desire that draws them together.
Texas Redeemed is a passionately written and emotionally gripping story of lust and risk, love and forgiveness, of confronting the damaging secrets of the past for a chance at redemption.
Before graduate school, before college—before high school, even—and certainly before I composed even one word of my debut contemporary romance, TEXAS REDEEMED, I was a romance fiction enthusiast. It all began with Judy Blume’s FOREVER, and soon after reading that I was toting thick historical romances and dog-eared series paperbacks in my book bag. I read on the school bus, in the cafeteria and in the library. I developed a mature vocabulary and quite an imagination. Years after starting my secret tryst with the genre I went to college and realized that there should be nothing “secret” about reading romance. It was there for me when I was a kid trying to figure out what kind of adult I wanted to be. It gave me the unshakable love for reading and writing that I have today. I appreciate what it offers to readers—but what I don’t appreciate are people who degrade the genre based on ignorance.
XOXO to Terri Osburn for introducing me to this terrific group and
hosting me on this kickass blog today!
Texas Redeemed is a passionately written and emotionally gripping story of lust and risk, love and forgiveness, of confronting the damaging secrets of the past for a chance at redemption.
Before graduate school, before college—before high school, even—and certainly before I composed even one word of my debut contemporary romance, TEXAS REDEEMED, I was a romance fiction enthusiast. It all began with Judy Blume’s FOREVER, and soon after reading that I was toting thick historical romances and dog-eared series paperbacks in my book bag. I read on the school bus, in the cafeteria and in the library. I developed a mature vocabulary and quite an imagination. Years after starting my secret tryst with the genre I went to college and realized that there should be nothing “secret” about reading romance. It was there for me when I was a kid trying to figure out what kind of adult I wanted to be. It gave me the unshakable love for reading and writing that I have today. I appreciate what it offers to readers—but what I don’t appreciate are people who degrade the genre based on ignorance.
In literary criticism classes and creative writing workshops
alike, I’ve been asked this question: “But you’re so smart—why do you read (or
write) romance?” That is quite possibly the biggest complisult (backhanded
compliment) ever tossed my way. It feeds some of the stigmas and fallacies
attached to romance fiction, such as 1) romance appeals only to unintelligent
people and 2) highly educated people can’t understand or enjoy complex, sexy
and relatable characters that face real conflicts and somehow overcome them to
achieve ultimate happiness. And 3) book smarts is the only measure of
intelligence. Not everyone has the opportunity to obtain higher learning.
Sometimes, it’s the stuff outside of textbooks and classrooms—life lessons—that
offers a true education.
So here’s the deal. I don’t like the segregation in academia
that values literary fiction but not popular fiction … or, say, the work of a
Brontë but not the work of a contemporary romance author. Not that romance
fiction needs to be intellectual, but I think it can be educational. After all,
it taught me a great deal about men, women, friendship, careers, sex and relationships.
It’s true that this genre isn’t for everyone, but it shouldn’t be written off
for containing themes of romance, passion or seduction when these very same
themes can be found in the most celebrated works of Homer, Shakespeare and
Austen.
So, readers, why do
you read romance? Writers—why do you write romance?
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