Raine Balkera - Romance Author

Genre -  Romantic Suspense Series -  Austin Heroes #2 Pages -  246 Publisher -  Loveswept Pub Date -  July 26, 2016 Kindle Edition -   Link Voice -  3rd P Sexual Content -  3/5 Language -  mild A cold case leads to blazing-hot temptation in this novel of romantic suspense from bestselling author Kathy Clark. For readers of Nora Roberts and Karen Robards, Almost Forever pairs a rugged lawman with a woman who may just be a murderer. Justin Archer is a Texas Ranger through and through, a loyal man devoted to the dangerous job he loves. But when the grisly discovery of a skeleton in a local vineyard turns an old missing-persons case into a vicious homicide, Justin finds that the toughest challenge of his professional career will be keeping his hands off his chief suspect: the dead man’s beautiful, young trophy wife. Did Lori Roberts kill for vast material gain? The only thing Justin knows for sure is that their chemi...

I'll jump right in on this one because it's been on my mind for a while now and today encountered another 'trigger' instance that pushed me to write about it. I'm talking about Romance Reader / Reviewer reviews again. It's obvious (to me) that there are quite a few Romance readers (perhaps readers of other genres, too) who are very narrow-minded and live in-the-moment so as not to be taken seriously. However, when they under-rate a novel based on that way of thinking/believing, it does the author no justice -- which is why I've decided to speak my mind on the topic. If you follow me (lol) then you're aware of my having read a number of novels in a variety of genres. However, my favorite remains Romance novels, and I write Contemporary. On a daily basis, I browse this category in search of new reading material and will habitually scroll down to the reviews section and read them. I'll admit that most reviewers are honest when they...

Transition Week With my 2003 Hyundai Elantra finally repaired, insured, and road-worthy after nearly two years sitting idle in the driveway, I am once again a Road Warrior as well as a Weekend Writing one. And with that awesome fix comes new job opportunities. I started a new ParaPro assignment at another Preschool, but this time the students are not special needs so... no biting, kicking, punching, random screams to induce heart attacks, and no child's general lack of social engagement. However, one of the three educators I help has a very bad attitude toward the parents of these At-Risk preschoolers, which is sad, but I'm learning how to ignore negative vibes. New News I have a new camera (Nikon), so on overcast days I'll be back to my old habit of hunting down the ideal images to shoot, and with Fall in full swing now, this should be an exciting and (hopefully) impressive endeavor. Also acquired a new work space. Which isn't nearly as clunky...

The Brides of Paradise Ranch - Spicy Version (left) Genre -  Historical Romance, Victorian, Mail-Order Bride Pages - 181 Published -  December 25, 2015 Sold by -   Amazon Series -  Book 1 of 5 Language -  clean Sexual Content -  1/5 Narrative -  3rd For Corva Collier, life as a mail-order bride in the quirky town of Haskell, Wyoming, is her last chance for escape. She longs for a peaceful life away from the darkness of her past, where she can create the paintings that are close to her heart, and where she hopes she can grow to love her husband. But how do you love a man who was persuaded to marry you against his will? Franklin Haskell never planned to marry. What woman would want a man who was crippled due to his own arrogance? But when he is offered the chance to help a woman in crisis, he agrees to wed. Corva is so much more than he expected, and when a baseball game gives her the chance to shine, he loses his heart. ...

AUTHOR BLOG CHALLENGE To be honest, some of the Post Topics for this challenge do not apply or interest me (right now) so I'm skipping around with this one. Character Inspiration A lot of different factors go into the creation of any, one character in any of my novels. Most often, however, they are based in-part on someone I actually know who went through some type of adventure-mishap-calamity that intrigued me to the point of devising an entire novel derived from said instance. For example, in Sing to Me , Liv is loosely based on a girl from my high school years who was attacked for being 'too pretty' as the truth became known. She was transferred to Franklin after the insane kidnap and hours of mindless torture the girl suffered at the hands of an immature girl who couldn't quite deal with her own insecurities. Liv's circumstances in my novel are not dramatized but my own idea of something similar in order to avoid a lawsuit. Neal, th...

For whatever reason, I have this uncanny ability to bump into these types of posts well after the fact, and although I'm too late to the party, I have left instructions (below) for you to start this hop at its real beginning and follow through from there. IWSG (Insecure Writers Support Group) has a monthly Blog Hop which occurs on the first Wednesday of each month. This month, the question posed is:   When do you know your story is ready? Never. Even when I feel 98% sure it is a go, I suffer heart palpitations, anxiety, and self-doubt as I upload the formatted material online. An indicator that I'm through messing around and ready to launch is a gut feeling, but the meter never reaches 100% regardless of the stage at which I feel like it is time to put the baby to bed. I work with two incredible BETA readers, and their helpful and candid advice has made me feel lots better about myself as a writer and about my writing, but I am not yet to the point of being able...

THE WEATHER It's raining here in SE Michigan, and after a severe drought that began in late May and lasted until late August, RAIN is a welcome weather occurrence. Except when it lasts for days (like it has) and causes flooding (which it is). please ignore the word EPIC The clouds are rolling in not from the West but the East to bring Atlantic moisture, which means heavy downpours (since Wednesday). It also means clean, fresh air that smells semi-tropical, and I love that. Of course, this puts a "damper" on my nightly sky viewing pleasure, and it's also being reported that the Northern Lights (aurora) may be visible as far south as here for the next few nights. In other words, once this Low moves off to the east in a few days, the sky will clear and the Aurora sightings will have passed. It's a bucket list item, and one of these days I'm going to head WAY up north with camera in tow, hopeful about catching a glimpse of ...

After having read at least a handful of Romance novels in at least three different sub-genres that all utilized the Hate Turns to Love trope, I started to wonder about the reality of such an occurrence. Which is odd coming from me because I don't read (or write) Romance for the reality factor, but bear with me. You've likely come across at least one story in a Romance where the H and h start out loathing one another (use of the word Hate inserted here) and fight like crazy through 3/4 of the book before eventually calling a truce and getting busy between the sheets. I've read at least two Regency's where the H and h don't waste any time in that regard yet continue to bicker, argue, fight, and loathe one another 3/4 of the way through the story before finally calming down and acting civil. It's crazy! I've also watched even more Asian dramas that utilize this hate-start trope, so I feel somewhat expert on the topic and I don't care for it ...