Tag: laurie larsen

Childhood Sweethearts (+giveaway)
Giveaway · Romance Tropes · Roundup

Childhood Sweethearts (+giveaway)

Jaycee Weaver36 Comments

Childhood Sweethearts + giveawayWhat’s your favorite trope within CCR? I see this question asked a lot, and I have to admit I am one of those people who can’t choose a favorite ANYTHING to save her life. I mean, in all the breadth of the whole world, why would I limit myself? I do find myself drawn to some more than others, however, and one of my top ten favorites is childhood sweethearts.

Here’s how I’ll define childhood sweethearts, in case you’re wondering: a couple who knew each other as children/young teens and either one or both experienced a strong affinity for the other.

Best friends? Counts. Childhood crush? Definitely counts. Next door neighbors sweet on each other? Totally counts.

As you can see, I might be a little liberal in my definition of childhood sweethearts. But considering a little quick research (thanks to DuckDuckGo) reveals that only about 2% of the population marries their childhood first love and the numbers aren’t much higher for marrying a high school sweetheart, there’s got to be more to the story than two kids who’ve loved only each other most of their lives.

Perhaps that’s what makes childhood sweethearts such a wonderful trope—how well it pairs with others. Think about it. Second chance romances, reunion romances, marriage of convenience, friends to lovers… and that’s not even factoring in the various subgenres like cowboy romance, Southern romance, etc. The options are fairly limitless and equally appealing.

I’ve written a number of friends-to-lovers type books (and read a gazillion more), but childhood sweethearts is something I’ve only played with a couple times in the past year or two. I have to say, though, it’s a lot of fun keeping each story unique!

For example, in This and Every Christmas (which released individually on Oct 1), Noah and Clari met several times as kids. It was fun crafting vignettes in which their annual meetings were memorable enough they’d recognize each other years later. I got to pair this novella with the single dad trope, throw in a tree farm and a music teacher, all under the umbrella of the Christmas romance subgenre.

The sequel to this tale is coming up at the end of the month in the 2021 Christmas Lights collection Home for Christmas (eBook) and individually (paperback) October 26. Now and Forever Christmas is technically a friends-to-more/second chance romance, but since they were young teen sweethearts, I think it sort of counts.

I’m kind of loving this trope right now, if you can’t tell. The third sister will get her HEA in 2022 with Not Another Christmas, but for that one I’m twisting the childhood sweethearts into childhood enemies who gradually discover more. I’ve never done enemies-to-lovers, but that is one of my top five favorite tropes, so I’m kind of excited to finally write one.

And of course, I can’t forget to talk about Braver With You, which is in the upcoming Save the Date collection. I’m sure you’re tired of hearing me talk about this one (LOL! we’re in the home stretch, people!), but I’m really attached to Ashlyn and Conrad. This is the purest (as in, closest to the definition of) childhood sweethearts story I’ve written… or read for that matter, now that I think of it. They’ve only ever loved or dated each other and never faced a potential breakup. From their first pretend wedding as kids to the one they’re stressed over now, there’s never been a doubt in either of their minds that this was forever. These guys are the 2% statistic who defy the odds, and I adore them. Just because they’re sweet, though, doesn’t mean there isn’t trauma or chaos on the horizon they have to work through!

Have I enticed you to check out more of this fun trope? I hope so. And because I love contributing to your already out-of-control TBR pile, I’ve got a great list of other titles in CCR for you to choose from!

Starting with a randomly assembled list from several Inspy Romance authors and a couple others just because I can:

Okay, I’m letting the list get away from me. I know many more of our IR authors and CCR favorites have titles that fall under the “childhood sweethearts” heading, so I will leave the rest to YOU to put in the comments so I can add to my own out-of-control TBR. Influence away, my friends. Tell me why the title you’re commenting with qualifies! At the end of the week, one lucky commenter will be selected at random to win an eBook of their choice between This and Every Christmas or Braver With You (an ARC). Looking forward to reading your comments!

*As an Amazon associate, I may receive a small commission from any links clicked in the lists above.
Unkissable (and other unconventional titles)
Author Thoughts · Roundup

Unkissable (and other unconventional titles)

Jaycee Weaver33 Comments

The cover is unarguably the single biggest draw to a reader in deciding whether or not to choose a book. A close second, though, is often the title. Just the other day, I read a comment online from a woman who couldn’t bring herself to read a friend’s book simply because the single-word title was off-putting. (Of course, my brain immediately pondered the likelihood of a novel titled Moist.)

It got me wondering, though, like poor lovesick Juliet—what’s in a name? Would a book by any other title be just as sweet?

From an author standpoint, titling is hard, especially if you’re an indie without the benefit of a marketing team of experts who understand both genre expectations and what sells. Sometimes a title will simply come naturally as we’re writing. Sometimes it takes as much brainstorming as the book itself. And realistically, without that panel of professionals, how do we know what single word or short string of words is going to lure in the reader while conveying everything it must?

After all, not every romance can follow that old formula of The _____’s  _______ or Her/His ________ ________, right? They’d all start to feel a little Mad-Libs-like after awhile. I thought it would be fun for today if a few of our Inspy Romance authors shared one of their titles that at first glance might not make sense for contemporary Christian romance!

To kick things off, I’d like to share the title of my upcoming fairy tale twist on The Frog Prince, which will be releasing May 25th as part of the Once Upon a Summer collection. Writing this tale was a bit of a challenge for several reasons. To start, the original Grimm’s fairy tale is only about a page and a half long. There’s a spoiled princess, an enchanted frog who’s really a prince, a pond and a golden ball, a broken promise, a ridiculous hissy fit, and a loyal servant whose heart had been banded with iron so it wouldn’t break. Disney’s recent Princess and the Frog was no help since it isn’t based on that fairy tale at all, but is instead their loose twist of a different tale, The Frog Princess (E.D. Baker).

What struck me while writing was how very unlikable the princess was in the Grimm’s story. Why did the prince fall in love with her? Why would my frog prince want a kiss from such a snotty diva?

And why would I name my fairy tale—the very tale we get our pop-culture fascination with kissing frogs from—Unkissable?

Weird choice, I know, but the title came when I set out to give Charlotte a redemption story. I made her a Hollywood reality star with a reputation for throwing fits. Her prince is Jaime Reyes, the younger brother of Derek, the hero of A Splash of Love, my Little Mermaid retelling in 2019’s Once Upon a Christmas. I wanted to focus on retelling the story with as many elements of the original tale (sparse as they were) as possible, but as Christian fiction, bring her redemption and grace and restoration. The reader deserves to know why the frog prince wants to help her, befriend her, and ultimately be kissed by her.

Enough about my tale, let’s look at a few of my awesome Inspy Romance friends’ titles (don’t worry, I have their permission and it’s all in the spirit of camaraderie and fun). While they may not make sense for a romance at first, when we step back at examine the series they’re part of or read the story itself, the titles work.

First up, Laurie Larsen’s Pawleys Island Paradise book 5, Path to Discovery. At first glance, we might assume it’s a self help book. But in the scope of the series, we notice the other titles follow the same format of ___ to ____ (the way to a state of being). Clever, right?

Or how about Valerie Comer’s Dandelions for Dinner? The fourth installment in her Farm Fresh Romance series seems a little odd, but every book has a title with an edible (who knew dandelions were edible?!) fresh food. BTW, this series is really cute.

Janet W. Ferguson’s Going Up South doesn’t exactly scream romance either. However, when you realize the bad-boy hero has no where to go but up (while having to go South!), it totally makes sense.

I asked Tabitha Bouldin about her upcoming island romance, Stealing the First Mate. We laughed over it sounding like a historical pirate romance. In reality, it’s about unrequited love and a boat tour! It sounds super fun and I look forward to checking it out when it releases the end of the month.

My good friend Toni Shiloh’s short A Proxy Wedding made me scratch my head at first. What in the world did it mean? Turns out, two people agree to stand in as proxy so their two friends serving in the military could get married, and they discover feelings of their own along the way.

As you can see, in the end, these titles do make sense (and they’re some pretty fun stories, too). I’m sure we could talk unconventional titles for romances a good long while, so why don’t you share a few you’ve come across in the comments. What made you decide to read the book? Do you think Unkissable is an odd choice for a fairy tale retelling?