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This combustible chemistry ended up making the book more an action adventure romance and less the action adventure with romantic elements, I'd started out to write. There's nothing wrong with the book being hot and full of romance, with the perspective that it could also be called a romantic suspense, and therefore, I was able to get more readers, particularly romance readers, to take a serious look at the book.
Then the second book came along. It was a fun book to write with the heroine of the first book now having an added occupation that put her in the thick of the DEA hero's assignment. In Secrets of an Aztec Temple there were many scenes where the two were apart, doing their own thing, and then coming together not only because of their chemistry but the plot that was thickening. ;) The chapters of only one character's point of view without the other main character around, made this book more like my initial idea for the series. Which brought this book back to my original, action adventure with romantic elements.
Now, I am working on the third book of the series Secrets of a Hopi Blue Star. After writing the brief synopsis which lays out the plot points, this book will have even less interaction between the hero and heroine. Making it more along the lines of an action adventure book. The hero and heroine start the book with a heated scene and they separate one going to the NE corner of Arizona and the other to the Arizona/Mexico border. Then they meet up a couple chapters later for a steamy night and then go their separate ways once more for the rest of the book until, the end. There will be scenes with both characters, but more with the heroine. After all, the series is titled: Isabella Mumphrey Adventures not The Isabella and Tino Adventures.
Do you readers feel disappointed if you start a series and the book is hot and steamy romance, then as you read more books int eh series with the same characters the romance gets less and less lines on the page?
Blurbs for the two published books in the Isabella Mumphrey Action Adventure Series:
Secrets of a Mayan Moon
(Readers Crown Award)What happens when a brilliant anthropologist is lured to the jungle to be used as a human sacrifice
Child prodigy and now Doctor of Anthropology, Isabella Mumphrey, is about to lose her job at the university. In the world of publish or perish, her mentor’s request for her assistance on a dig is just the opportunity she’s been seeking. If she can decipher an ancient stone table—and she can—she’ll keep her department. She heads to Guatemala, but drug trafficking bad guys, artifact thieves, and her infatuation for her handsome guide wreak havoc on her scholarly intentions.
DEA agent Tino Kosta, is out to avenge the deaths of his family. He’s deep undercover as a jaguar tracker and sometimes jungle guide, but the appearance of a beautiful, brainy anthropologist heats his Latin blood taking him on a dangerous detour that could leave them both casualties of the jungle.
Secrets of a Mayan Moon is available at Windtree Press, Kindle, Nook Kobo .
Secrets
of an Aztec Temple
Revenge is not always sweet…
Isabella Mumphrey can’t leave a puzzle alone. This time she
attempts to use her anthropology knowledge to uncover who is stealing priceless
artifacts from an Aztec Temple in Mexico City. She believes the discovery will
prove her worth to the World Intelligence Agency.
Tino Constantine is also in Mexico City. He has infiltrated a drug
lord’s organization to find enough evidence to not only prove the man’s illegal
activities, but to bring him down for numerous deaths. Namely those of Tino’s
family. When the love of his life, Isabella, strolls into his enemy’s
home, Tino is challenged with the choice of saving her or fulfilling his
revenge.
www.patyjager.net
www.patyjager.blogspot.com
Looks like a really good book.. :)
ReplyDeleteThanks Teena! I hope readers like the third as much as the first two.
ReplyDeleteIt doesn't bother me that there is less steamy sex as long as they start getting back together more in newer books. Some people will be disappointed though, Paty.
ReplyDeleteSandy, That's what I'm worried about. But using all my research and the plot I've chosen, I can't see a way to have Tino and Isabella together more in this story. Unless I have them both captured...
DeleteSeems to me that you follow where the story leads. If readers love the characters, they should enjoy the story regardless of the heat level. As I read the blurbs, it doesn't look as though you've promised one way or the other.
ReplyDeleteDarlene, that's true. I don't treat the series as a romantic suspense because I feel it is an action adventure.
DeleteIf a reader falls in love with the characters in the first book, I believe they will follow through the series. It's like the Janet Evanovich "Stephanie Plum" series with one heroine and her adventures that includes two separate love interests and is now up to book 20. Not sure if she's ever settled on a hero...
ReplyDeleteTerri, Thanks for commenting. That's kind of the way I started this whole series with Stephanie Plum in mind. Isabella is the main character and just because she found a man in the first book doesn't mean he gets as much space on the pages as she does.
DeleteI think that good authors change and grow and their characters should as well. I love to read books that are a part of a series because I see that progression in the characters' lives.
ReplyDeleteHI Melissa! Thank you for stopping in and your words that are what I feel about this series.
ReplyDeleteI have enjoyed the series so far and am more interested in the characters and plot than whether or not they have sex.
ReplyDeleteHi Caroline, Thanks! That's the way I hope most readers of the series feel. They want to see what new "adventures" they have and how they get out of them and not their romps.
DeleteAs Stephen King's editor always told him, "The book is boss." Each book - even in a series - will create its own path.
ReplyDeleteDanita Cahill
Thanks Danita! I like that saying and will put it on my computer!
ReplyDeleteI'm afraid I'm going to have to put just one tiny fly in your ointment, Paty. For me, the first book sets my expectations for the series. Romance in #1? Then I expect romance in them all. If I come to the series later on, and it's billed as romance, then I'll expect it in every book. You e-pub, yes? Then I'd make sure there's some kind of explanation in the e-descriptions that let's the reader know there is a varying amount of romance (or any other element.) Once a reader has, as everyone said, fallen in love with the characters, then I think yes, it may not matter. On the other hand...it might matter more! Just find a way to let your readers know about the variety in advance, and then I think you'll be fine.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the advice Meggan. There's romance just not as heavy, kind of like a normal relationship. Once the initial glow fades, there is still romance, just not as often. Most of the description talks about the plot and not the romance. I guess I'll see what happens when the third book comes out.
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