A Conversation & Contest With Jill Shalvis

My dear friend Jill Shalvis and I both have novella releases this month. We got together to talk about the books and the couples in them. You can check it out here and over on Jill’s blog HERE.

Before we get started, I thought it might be good for you to see inspiration photos we each used for our heroes. Here’s Jill’s for her hero Sawyer in MERRY CHRISTMAS, BABY:

She’s so subtle. Here’s my inspiration for Ward in RUNNING HOT:

Now onto the chat…

We both love alpha heroes, smart heroines, romance novels and reading each other’s books. We also both have a novella out this December. HelenKay’s is a romantic suspense. No serial killers or stalkers. Just bad guys with big weapons who need to be stopped…the usual. Jill’s is a visit with a beloved couple in the Lucky Harbor series [Note from HelenKay: Sawyer continues to be my favorite Shalvis hero, and I may have begged for this...maybe.] Despite the similarities in reading and writing tastes, the couples in these books are not exactly alike. Take a peek:

Sawyer and Chloe in Jill’s MERRY CHRISTMAS, BABY are already married. that means their relationship runs smoothly and nothing ever goes wrong and… [Note from Jill: Wait, what?]

“I’m not a piece of china,” she said.

“No one would ever mistake you for one,” he responded, and she was pretty sure it wasn’t a compliment.

[Note from HelenKay: I’m still trying to recover from the idea of marriage meaning everything runs smoothly.]

The heroine in HelenKay’s RUNNING HOT, Tasha, is a bit ticked off in her early meetings with the hero, Ward. Lucky for her, he is not at all threatened by a strong woman.

“You should know, if you move your feet even one inch I will punch you in the junk so hard I’ll have to send an apology to the future kids you’ll never have.” She winked at him. “Got that, stud?”

Sweet hell. Enemy or not, mercenary or con woman, she was so fucking hot. “You have my attention.”

[Note from Jill: I like Tasha’s style.]

Both heroines are smart…and they know a good thing when they see it:

From Chloe:

His dark brown eyes could be cool and unreadable—his cop eyes—or soft, melting chocolate, like when he was feeling frisky, though she hadn’t seen that side of him lately.

From Tasha:

She’d been sold one version of Ward. Now she faced down

another. Commanding, a guy fully in charge and trained as a weapon. He just got hotter, which sucked for her.

[Note from Jill: We need more photos of these guys.]

[Note from HelenKay: I am always in support of more dude photos.]

And these heroines never lose their spirit, which is why these alpha men love them:

From Chloe:

“Officer Hottie,” she murmured, and had the pleasure of seeing the big, badass, steely man grimace at the nickname he hated.

From Tasha:

Her stomach did this weird bouncing thing. She half hoped she’d come down with malaria, because if this was some sort of reaction to Ward and his words, she was in deep trouble.

While we think Sawyer and Ward would get along just fine if they met, we know Tasha and Chloe would began plans for worldwide domination…and we love that. We hope you’ll give both books a try and see what you think.

CONTEST: How about a giveaway? We’ll give away copies of each! The winners will be randomly selected from those who comment here, on my FB page and on Jill’s blog.

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