My first book by Harlow James was Guilty As Charged. I picked it up as an ARC from the PR company and I fell in love. It wasn't long before I joined the author's ARC team and have been delighted to read all of her books since.
I was thrilled to meet her at Book Bonanza in 2022 when she was attending as a reader just like me. We were able to hang out together and I got to know this lovely woman who is passionate about her job, her family, and her writing. Like many authors with jobs in sensitive settings, the author uses Harlow James as a pen name. She is beautiful, brainy, and brave: teaching advanced math to high school students by day, as a wife to her meant-to-be, and as the mother of two gorgeous children at home.
Here is her official bio:
Harlow James is a wife and mom who fell in love with romance novels, so she decided to write her own.
Her books are the perfect blend of emotional, addictive, and steamy romance. If you love stories with a guaranteed Happily Ever After, then Harlow is your new best friend.
When she's not writing, she can be found working her day job, reading every romance novel she can find time for, laughing with her husband and kids, watching re-runs of FRIENDS, and spending time cooking for her friends and family while drinking shots of tequila.
Twenty Questions:
1. What is your favorite food?
Sushi and any type of Mexican food
2. Do you have a favorite color?
Teal and coral. Those are in my logo and they were my wedding
colors.
3. What time of day do you prefer to write?
Mornings. My brain is fresh, but evenings are when I do most of my
writing during the school year.
4. What does a day in the life of Harlow look like?
I am up by 5:30am, get my kids and myself ready, teach for 7 hours,
come home and nap (if there’s time to), soccer practice, cooking dinner,
spending time catching up with my family, and then a little time to read or
write before bed.
5. Are you a plotter or a pantser?
I’m a little bit of both. I like to have a rough idea of pot
points to hit, what the third act conflict is going to be, the characters
internal and external conflicts and emotional arcs, but then I have found that
I enjoy letting my characters fill in the rest. I type my stories using Word,
and will add in details to my rough outline as I write so I don’t forget to
include things. This process works well for me.
6. What is your favorite part of author life?
Connecting with my readers. When I get messages that they enjoyed
my books, that’s the best part, hands down.
7. What is the most challenging part of author life?
Marketing. LOL I hate it, but it’s necessary. I’ve started
treating this “hobby” of mine as more of a business this year, and I feel the
difference.
8. What kind of books are your favorite to read? (Contemporary,
historical, fantasy, sci fi, monster, paranormal, etc.)
Contemporary. I like something that feels like it could be real.
9. Do you have a favorite trope to read or write?
Favorite to read and write is enemies to lovers, fake dating, or a
marriage of convenience.
10. Do you have a favorite character from any of your books?
What makes him/her your favorite?
This is like asking if I have a favorite child. LOL. As of right
now, Walker from Everything He Couldn’t is probably my favorite male character
I’ve written. Charlotte from Never Say Never has a lot of me in her, but
Penelope from Now’s The Time was SO fun to write.
11. What is your favorite part of a book to write?
The first draft, because after that I have to reread it so many
times that I get sick of the story. LOL
12. What is the hardest part to get through?
The beginning, especially if it’s the first book in a series.
Setting up a new world is time consuming, so I analyze the beginning a lot.
13. Do you draw inspiration from real life?
All the time. I think there’s an aspect of me in every one of my
books, and I can be listening to a song, see a couple out and about, or see
something online that sparks ideas.
14. What inspiration did you have to write Walker and Evelyn’s story?
The idea of their story came to me two years ago, but when I went
back to this series, I came up with the idea of a marriage of convenience and
got so giddy about it. I’ve only written one other one, My Unexpected Vow, so I
was eager to do it again. I wanted something angsty in this series that would
pull on the reader's heart strings, and I think I accomplished that.
15. What made you decide to write a series set in a small town like
Newberry Springs?
I listen to a lot of country music, which inspired this town, but
the song Friends Don’t by Maddie and Tae inspired Everything to Lose, and then
the series grew from there.
16. Who has been the hardest character to connect with so far while
writing this series?
Forrest, that grump. LOL He did NOT want to talk to me when I
started writing his book, but as the story went on, I got more of a feel for
him. Evelyn was a closed book too, but I loved writing her as her walls came
down. Wyatt was a challenge at first, hence why I didn’t release his book after
I wrote it. I had to go back and figure out who he was before I felt
comfortable publishing that story.
17. This book deals with grief and guilt. What kind of research
did you do in those areas to write this book?
I think everyone can relate to those two emotions, so I drew on
some of my own. I had to do research into fire fighting to make sure that the
story line made sense, but I think I mostly drew from my own experience and
fear to feel guilt over someone else’s death. I never want to feel that in my
life.
18. What is your favorite part of writing an interconnected series?
Returning to the same world is like picking back up with friends,
AND I love that as a reader, so it makes writing it that much more fun.
19. What is the hardest part of writing an interconnected series?
The time lines and remembering details. I struggle with not
writing myself into corners because then it influences future books to where I
can’t make certain changes, and I hate that.
20. What’s next after Newberry Springs?
I have The Ladies Who Brunch coming out in audio next year, and
then I think I’m going back to rom com, but I don’t want to lock in that idea
just yet ;)
Ironically enough, I never realized I’d be living out those lyrics in my own life when I fell for my best friend’s girl—and then my best friend, John Schmitt, died.
Add on the fact that she was pregnant with his child and that I’d been harboring feelings for Evelyn months before all of this happened, and well, now?
Now the lyrics to that song don’t sound so bad anymore.
The worst part is, I’m the one to blame for his death which made facing her an even harder pill to swallow, so what did I do? Pretend like she didn’t exist anymore, even though it was virtually impossible because she was everywhere in our small town of Newberry Springs.
Flashforward six months and suddenly Evelyn finds herself in a legal battle she never saw coming, and I can’t just stand by any longer and pretend like my heart isn’t in shambles.
So I suggest the unthinkable.
I offer to marry her, help her prove that she’s a fit mother and her daughter is being raised well despite John not being in the picture.
But Evelyn doesn’t know that being near her gets my blood pumping, even more so after avoiding her for months.
She doesn’t understand that doing this favor for her is a way for me to gain retribution for John’s death and take a chance to find out if she can reciprocate my feelings.
And she doesn’t get that by being there for her and loving her and her daughter that I’m doing everything that my best friend couldn’t.
My Review:
#SingleMom #MarriageOfConvenience #Firefighter
#FirstResponder #SmallTown #HealingLove #ARC
5 STARS
Book two in this small-town interconnected series can be read
as a standalone and ends with a HEA. It is written in first person from an
alternating dual POV.
Walker and Evelyn share intense grief and guilt after losing
John “Schmitty” in the line of duty.
They are both attempting to move forward yet are not that successful
until life pushes them together. The
solution to the current crisis is obviously to get married. I love how Walker
steps in immediately to care for Ev and her daughter. I really enjoyed how fast Walker bonds with
Kaydence and how honest he is with Ev when it comes time to discuss
feelings. They help each other heal in
ways they never could have alone. Walker
is 100% swoony, brave, fiercely protective, gentle when he needs to be, and
perfect for Ev. Ev has had some rough
times that have made her distrustful. It
takes her a little bit to realize that when Walker is all-in her really means
it. She is a loving mother and a
wonderful friend who turns out to be exactly what Walker needs in his life.
There are moments of sadness, grief, anger, passion, and
romance in this book. As I finished the
prologue, I looked at my husband and told him that I already knew this would be
one of my top reads of the year. At the
conclusion of the book, my thoughts on that have not changed. The author takes a complicated and realistic
relationship between two well-developed characters and builds a love story that
I absolutely adored. Their story is so
beautifully written. They heal together
in a way that joins them forever. They
have plenty of steamy moments, but my favorite times are when they are
stargazing, or when they bond as a little family unit. I adore it when they each have the depth of
their emotions sneak up and surprise them.
Every book by this author is better than the last. It is a wonderful thing to read as that
happens. You really don’t want to miss
this one. It is my new favorite by this
author.
Do you want to meet Harlow in person? She is signing at two events this year and tickets are currently still available for them. For the planners: She is also planning to be in Portland , Oregon, New Orleans, and Las Vegas in 2024.
Ticket link and more information here:
Ticket link and more information here:
HEA Reader Event Tickets, Fri, Nov 3, 2023 at 7:00 PM | Eventbrite
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