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Book Details
Soft Rebound
The first hookup after a long relationship is always meaningless. Right?
Still reeling from his divorce two years ago, Joe Larson sleepwalks through life until a chance encounter with Liz Jensen jolts him awake. Their sexual chemistry is undeniable, but Liz is fresh off a broken engagement and has no intention of letting anyone get close. Joe must overcome his fear of being hurt again if he is to convince Liz that love does not mean being powerless and that their rebound fling is actually their happily ever after.
Purchase Link
https://books2read.com/fionaembers
Author Bio
Fiona Embers writes angsty, steamy romance about heroines who are too much and heroes who can’t get enough. She lives with her family in the American Midwest and drives in the snow like a champ. Fiona also writes dark speculative fiction (horror, sci-fi, and fantasy) under the pen name Maura Yzmore.
Social Media Links
https://linktr.ee/maura.yzmore_fiona.embers
How SOFT REBOUND Came to Be
By Fiona Embers
SOFT REBOUND is the second book in my Mad City Moments series with Evernight Publishing. Yet, it was never supposed to happen!
The first book in the series, SHOOT YOUR SHOT, was also my debut novel. I loved the main characters, Roxie and Chris, and the two helped me through many of my novelist growing pains.
Liz and Joe appeared as Roxie’s good friends of many years, and also befriended Chris in the book. They are warm, understanding, wise, and very much in love. Their role in Chris and Roxie’s story was decidedly supportive. And Chris and Roxie, lovable boneheads that they are, needed a lot of support! They both had issues with their families and consequently a lot of trouble finding and accepting love, so Liz and Joe’s counsel was sorely and frequently needed.
Liz and Joe had everything figured out; their love was deep, committed, and unburdened by human folly. When SHOOT YOUR SHOT came out, people absolutely loved them. Who wouldn’t? They were the best. Absolutely perfect.
Then some readers asked me to write Liz and Joe’s story. I was originally planning on the second book of the series being the book about Rick from SHOOT YOUR SHOT, another beloved character, but the response to Joe and Liz was so strong that it made me stop and think about a prequel novel on how they met.
But the problem with perfect people is that perfect people coming together perfectly doesn’t make for compelling fiction. If I decided to give them a story, it would have to be one where their nature as genuinely good people who crave commitment would not be in question, but there would still be enough tension to make for a interesting read. Furthermore, both Liz and Joe already had established personalities and appearances that I had to work with. However they met and fell in love had to be within those constraints.
But the idea of writing their book excited me, and it didn’t take long to decide to set aside Rick’s tale (which will now be Book 3) and start working on Liz and Joe’s. They were both people who craved romantic commitment, so that had to be reflected in their pasts. They also had family in Minnesota, which was a throwaway detail from SHOOT YOUR SHOT, but now became a key element in Liz and Joe’s backstory, plus I had to figure out how to get them both to Wisconsin.
I mulled over ideas for weeks before things clicked. Given Joe’s age and values, he had to have been married before and the failure of this relationship was a sore spot for him. Liz was several years younger than him, but given her personality it was unlikely she had been playing the field, so I had her in a long engagement that had fallen apart. Once those two elements were in place, the pain of heartbreak would be enough to provide these two lovely people with enough reluctance and tension to fuel a book. Liz’s being plus-sized provided an additional element to her characterization and her relationship with both ex-fiance and Joe.
Asking the question how Liz and Joe met with Roxie enabled me to spend more time with Roxie and have her in the role of a hilarious sage, advising Liz on the finer points of vibrator choice and flirting with men in bars. Another lovely surprise was Bobby, Liz’s brother, who materialized out of thin air and whose relationships with Liz and with Joe’s work colleague Trey provided a lot of depth and texture to the book.
Once I had the main beats of the plot figured out, the title SOFT REBOUND came to me immediately. This does not happen often; I agonize over titles for a long while and usually finish a whole piece (short story or novella or book) before I settle on one. This book was about Liz and Joe’s rebounding with each other, and the rebound would not be hard but rather soft and cushioning because these loving people would stay together… And so the title came, and the rest is history.
