Guest Vivian Arend

THE REALITY OF ROMANCE

When I mentioned to a reader I was working on the second book in the Six Rack Ranch series, she was very excited, until she learned that the heroine was a widow with three little boys.

"Kids in a romance? A hot romance? That's not possible."

O_o

Really?

Movie stars get warned to never work with children or animals, because they tend to steal the show. I was told having kids in a romance would ruin the story, or at the least, ruin the mood.

Fine. Great. That works for all those single men and women who I can write about meeting and falling in love, but it's not reality. Single parents need love. Heck, married people still need romance and love. All the people warning me away from writing a book with children involved—do they think romance disappears the instant a woman breeds? That there isn't love after childbirth?

Bull-hockie.

So I stuck to my guns and wrote about Beth, a young widow recovering from the car accident that took the life of her first husband. She's got three boys under the age of eight and she's carrying a lot of baggage. Things that the hero, Daniel, is more than willing to help her through. They meet, they meet again, and suddenly I got a taste of where writing romance with children gets difficult.

Yes, it's much easier to write a single woman arranging a tryst than a thirty year old trying to find a time and place to get together with someone she's interested in. Beth has not only her agenda, but her sons to worry about—their wellbeing and their happiness. It's not only a couple looking for a happily-ever-after, but a family.

That's the reality of life. It's not always easy, but men and women do it every day—they do what's necessary for their families, they sacrifice for their children, and they try their best to find happiness in the midst of the work.

In the end, I'm very pleased with how Beth and Daniel come together. And those three little boys were very much a part of the entire adventure—and that's real.

I hope you enjoy Rocky Mountain Haven, their story.

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If you'd like to try a taste of the Six Pack Ranch, I have an ebook copy of winner's choice—either book one in the series, Rocky Mountain Heat, or an ARC of book 3 that will be releasing March 13, Rocky Mountain Desire. Leave a comment to be entered: What's a favorite romantic moment/gift/touch you love? To me, candlelight=romance in a big way.

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Rocky Mountain Haven

Six Pack Ranch, Book 2

It's the quiet ones that take you by surprise.

Beth Danube's emotionally abusive husband is dead and buried. So is her heart. It's no big deal, she has all she wants: her three little boys and a fresh start in a small Alberta town. What she doesn't want is another man in her life—not now, maybe not ever.

After ten years of unsatisfactory, missionary-position sex, she never expected her libido to reawaken. One look at sex-in-boots Daniel Coleman in a Calgary bar, though, blows the dust off her sexuality.

Sensing an edge of desperation, even fear, beneath Beth's come-on, Daniel finds himself giving in to the powerful urge to let his normally subdued desires run wild. The lady wants non-judgemental, non-vanilla sex? She's got it—in and out of the bedroom.

At first, friends with blazing-hot benefits is more then enough. Then she realizes Daniel is burning away the protective fortress around her heart…and the guilty secret she dare not reveal.

Warning: One woman determined to retake control of her life, a man with the single-minded purpose of offering her—and her body—everything she needs. Inappropriate behaviour in barns, change rooms, and oh-my-gawd phone sex with a cowboy.

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First Chapter: Excerpt

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