Tag Archives: IRromance

Review > Time Out (Book 3 of the Irving University series) by Jim Cangany

28 Tuesday Jun 2016

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 Time Out by Jim Cangany
Time Out
by Jim Cangany (Goodreads Author)

4-stars

Read from June 01 to 06, 2016 — I own a copy


Time Out is the third book in the Irving University series and although I have read the previous two (see my reviews here and here), I believe this could be read as a standalone. There are characters from the other books, but the author does a great job giving enough background to catch you up to speed quickly.

The main character, Karen, is a middle-grade teacher and basketball coach, not unlike her older brother, Greg, who coaches women’s basketball at fictional Irving University. She was once a promising player until her ulcerative colitis got in her way. She isn’t bitter about it, but chooses to use her gifts however she can. She is laid off from her teaching job at the end of the term, so Greg is able to get her a temporary job at Irving running the girls basketball camp over the summer. He also secures her temporary housing. Enter her landlord and neighbor, Terry, and his energetic daughter, Hanna. Hanna, a middle-grade student who wants to play basketball, makes instant friends with Karen who becomes a big help for Terry, a single father who’s struggling to make ends meet.

I’ve mentioned before (probably in my other Irving reviews) that I’m not big on sweet romance. However when reading this series, I never feel like I’m missing out on something. The author does a great job of giving us the satisfying romance. He also shows us a different slice of life we may not be familiar with. Terry’s mom is Native American and we learn some new things in that area. He’s in building construction and a single dad – again we can feel what that likes from his perspective. Karen has a condition I’d not heard much about before, and now I know so much more. The author does not shy aware from racial issues and prejudice, however I do believe he lets Marie off the hook a little easily (you’ll have to read to know what I’m referring to).

Overall, another very solid offering from Jim Cangany which I enjoyed very much. It was a little lighter on the sports this time, but of course it was still running in the background. I would recommend to anyone who likes romance, especially on the sweet side.

Leap Day Flash Giveaway

29 Monday Feb 2016

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February 29th only comes around every 4 years, so today I’m giving away a Kindle copy of my New Adult romance, Altered, to celebrate.

Easy to enter. Facebook like this post and share on Twitter (both buttons are at the end of this post below), then enter your name and email address in the form below.

This flash giveaway is open until midnight tonight. I’ll announce the winner Tuesday morning at 7:00 am CT.

More about Altered

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A New Adult romance drawing on the author’s own experience studying law, the novel follows Liv, a young woman in her a first semester of law school. When her fiancé abruptly breaks things off, Liv is heart-broken.

Enter Nicholas, a classmate who is so withdrawn that he is an enigma to everyone around him. Nicholas is unusually young and unusually quiet, and keeps his past a tightly guarded secret.

While Liv is still reeling from her break up, Nicholas begins appearing in her life and coming to her rescue. Intrigued and grateful to this quiet young man, Liv becomes determined to unravel the mystery of who Nicholas is.

At first, I saw him as everyone else did.
But then, I saw him for who he really was.
Recognized the beauty beneath the pain.
Loved the quirks disguising the insecurity.
Embraced the man who hid behind the boy.
But there was so much more…
More I didn’t know.

And once I did, I couldn’t let
go…
Of the boy.
The man.
The lover…

…even if his past is threatening
our future.
Nothing will alter what we’ve built.

Official trailer for Altered

 Purchase links

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Enter to win

Why I Write Multicultural Romance

02 Tuesday Feb 2016

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I write what I see. And what I see is a diverse population going about their business, living their diverse lives.

I suppose my life experience is very much similar to many while at the same time being very different from others. I live in a culturally diverse neighborhood. My daughters attended culturally diverse schools. I work in a culturally diverse environment. The relationships I see every day are both culturally homogeneous and multicultural.

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When I set out to write ALTERED, I patterned Liv after my daughter who is Creole, and Nicholas after Robert Sheehan, the actor, just because he was my celebrity crush at the time. It didn’t occur to me that I was doing anything special or outside the norm, but when it was time to market ALTERED, it was deemed a multicultural romance.

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When writing Scale Steps, my heroine, Faith, is biracial (African-American and Irish) and she meets an actor, Andrew, from her favorite television show in Scotland, who is indeed… Scottish. Again, I didn’t set out to write a multicultural relationship, but rather a natural relationship born out of my usual surroundings.

So now I have branded myself a multicultural romance author because apparently that’s what I write. To me, I’m just writing about everyday life.

The Sheehan and Love/Hate

01 Monday Feb 2016

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A few days ago, I wrote about my fascination with all thing Irish (see here). About three years ago, a friend suggested I watch Love/Hate on Netflix where I promptly started fangirling over the show, and especially Robert Sheehan, herein referred to as “The Sheehan.”

During the height of my The Sheehan crush, I started writing Altered. My hero, Nicholas Sheenan, is Irish-American, tall, fair-skinned with dark curly hair, and beautiful green eyes. Sound familiar? If not, have a look at The Sheehan. I’ll wait.

Okay, now that you’re back. Oh wait, just one…

The Sheehan

So anyway… Nicholas was obviously created to satisfy my The Sheehan obsession, at least his physicality. The actual person I based Nicholas on was an 18-year-old student I met in law school who was of average height and blond hair. Again, just one aspect was based on this person – his circumstance of being so young and accomplished (he was also a really sweet guy like Nicholas too). All actions of Nicholas in Altered are completely and totally fiction.

The main character in Altered, Liv, watches a lot of British and Irish television and Love/Hate is referenced more than once. Nicholas rarely watched tv, but he does walk in on Liv watching a particular scene that has her tearing up.

love hate

Writing Love/Hate into Altered was really cool for me because I think it’s such a great show. At least the first three season. I’m not sure how good it is after because once The Sheehan departed, I did too. I hear they’re making an American version which I’ll probably check out because of morbid curiosity. I can only hope it’ll be half as great as the original.

Launch Party for Altered (Photos)

01 Monday Feb 2016

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I am beyond words to express my gratitude for the tremendous support I received for the launch party for my New Adult debut novel, Altered.

Guests traveled from near and far to pick up signed copies of Altered, participate in games for giveaways, and consume tasty hors d’oeuvres – most of all the gorgeous cake.

I have to give my cousin, Joanna (Neice) Cain, a special shout-out for not only coming from Los Angeles for the event, but for coordinating the food & drinks and acting as Mistress of Ceremonies. She also did a reading from Chapter 15-No Boundaries which may or may not be based on a fictionalized version of her. She brought her friend, Foxxy, who helped to pull it all off.

Three people from the Acknowledgements section of Altered were able to come which helped make my night: Dr. Patricia Williams, Anna Taylor (came in from Mississippi), and Jessika Mayes (came in from Virginia).

There were guests I’ve known for years, some I hadn’t seen in many years, as well as guests I’d only met for the first time that night. My daughters were there doing what they always do – supporting me unconditionally. To all I say I can’t thank you enough for sharing this special night with me.

The cake and cupcakes were spectacular, and made by my sorority sister (line sister), Renita Thornton, from Mary Butler’s Grandaughter cakes, cupcakes, and treats. Here’s the cakes and her card:

Cake of Altered
Cupcakes with mini Altered books
Mary Butler’s Grandaughter (front of card)
Mary Butler’s Grandaughter (back of card)

Here are the photos I promised:

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Daughters
Kamryn & Diamond
Daughters, Alex & Anna
Kamryn & Alex

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She did the cake!
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Working hard for those giveaways

A reading from Altered
Winner winner
Cupcakes with mini Altered books
Side view

 

 

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Living the dream

In Defense of Liv

30 Saturday Jan 2016

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When I set out to write Altered, I wanted everyone to read it, and fall madly in love with the story as well as the characters. Of course I understood not everyone would like it, and I’ve come to understand that a lot of it has to do with chemistry. After all, I don’t love everything I read and when I leave a review for those books I may have liked, but not loved, there are always plenty of people reviewing how much they actually did love it.

As it turns out, there seems to be some very consistent comments about my two main characters, Liv and Nicholas. I haven’t read one single review where a disparaging remark has been made about Nicholas, even for those who didn’t love the story. Quite the contrary – Nicholas is universally loved and understood. Even though he certainly has flaws and he isn’t always forthcoming, somehow those shortcomings are forgiven and overlooked.

Liv doesn’t get off so easily though. Most relate she is selfish, annoying, and/or immature. There are even those who love the story, but don’t particularly care for Liv, or just tolerate her. A few “get” her and give her the benefit of the doubt, but not many.

I intentionally made Liv blissfully unaware of self – it was completely intentional. However I didn’t realize this would be such a problem for people. She is flawed (aren’t we all?) and she has been wronged considerably. Some acknowledge she had a terrible breakup and it probably affected her, but most thought she brought it upon herself. Perhaps. How many of us in our early 20s made decisions that we know we should have never made now that those years are firmly behind us? ::raises hand::

This isn’t a spoiler because it’s how the book is marketed, but Liv is engaged in the beginning of the story and her fiance breaks up with her a few months before the wedding. As it is, the timing of getting married probably wasn’t the greatest and the man she’d chosen to marry probably wasn’t the best choice, but again, she made some questionable decisions that she had to live with. She ends up paying for those decisions and because of this failed relationship, she develops some deep trust issues. I’m not sure why this isn’t an acceptable reaction.

She goes on to not trust her feelings where Nicholas is concerned and that seems to really piss some people off, both inside and outside the story. Her long suffering roommate, Julia, berates her on not being self-aware. Even her own mom gets in on the action.  Readers don’t like this either. Perhaps they want an instalove situation which I’ve never been a big fan of. Or maybe they just don’t want her to cause Nicholas any pain.

The more I mull this over, the more I think I’ve found the crux of the problem – no one wants to see Nicholas unhappy. I can understand that – I love Nicholas just as much as the next person, and I want him to be blissfully happy as well. However I don’t dislike Liv because she doesn’t instantly want that too. And really, she does want his happiness, but she’s unsure if she can be the person who helps him in that area. Luckily for everyone, Nicholas assists Liv with this problem and guides her back to a place of trust. After all, he hasn’t always been in the best trust place either.

In the end, both Liv and Nicholas are flawed characters who face challenges and repercussions for the decisions they make. The fact that readers have a visceral reaction to Liv actually makes me happy because clearly they’ve become invested in the story. What more can I ask for?

My fascination with the Irish

29 Friday Jan 2016

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If you read my debut New Adult novel, Altered, you will notice that the hero, Nicholas Sheenan, is of Irish descent. You will also notice an homage to Love/Hate which is an Irish RTE drama set in Dublin, starring one Robert Sheehan. I’ll write more about that in another post, but would like to explain further my fascination with the Irish people and culture.

Growing up, my mom would always tell me that I was Irish. Clearly I’m African-American so that was somewhat confusing to me. As I grew older, I came to realize that I had an ancestor who immigrated from Ireland, but the details were always vague. When my mom spoke of one of her aunts in particular, she would always say, “that’s the Irish in her.”

It wasn’t until recently, while combing through my family tree doing research for another project I’m working on, that I discovered for sure who this ancestor was. She was my maternal grandmother’s mother, and her name was Laura Harris. There’s not a whole lot of information available about her other than the fact that she was, indeed, from Ireland. I’d be extremely interested to discover how she ended up having African-American offspring during a time when this seems nearly impossible to have happened.

My mother was the baby of her family and she’s been gone two years, so I’ll probably never truly know how my great-grandmother came to be my ancestor. Instead I’ll continue to make up stories to fill in my own blanks. For instance, the manuscript I’m currently revising, has a heroine who is biracial – her Da’s parents immigrated from Ireland, and she spent most summers growing up there. It was great fun researching that part of the world and building the linage from which she came. Possibly from where my own great-grandmother came.

I’m writing a new story. I’m about a fifth of the way in, but it doesn’t have an Irish character… yet.

Places in Altered

28 Thursday Jan 2016

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I’ve written about the restaurants referenced in my debut New Adult novel, Altered, because food is predominant throughout. I thought I might touch on a few of the non-eating establishments featured.

While attending Texas Southern University (TSU) in Houston, and even the year I spent in law school, I lived in a townhouse on Rosedale in 3rd Ward, bordering the museum district. This is where the story opens and the description of Liv driving into the garage, and looking up at the balcony is true to form. I’ve taken some liberties with other parts of the townhouse including the garden tub and the game room (there was actually a smaller third bedroom used as an office), but the closet is very much the same. I loved that closet.

closet

Liv is a law school student. Once upon a time, I was a law school student. Liv attends a law school in downtown Houston. I attended South Texas College of Law in downtown Houston. Do you see where I’m going with this? I only spent a year there, but I really loved the STCL atmosphere. Like Nicholas, most days I would ride my bike to class because it was only a couple of miles from the townhouse. And like Liv and Nicholas, I met some really great people there.

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Liv and Nicholas go to Ragin Cajun a couple of times (see my post here) and then go over to “Edwards.” They’re referring to Edwards Theater on Weslayan near Kirby. There’s nothing particularly remarkable about this movie theater other than it’s rather large in the middle of town.

edwards

Our couple ventures out to the left coast and at some point makes it to Stanford. Originally, I mention them going to Stanford in passing, but my editor thought that since they went all that way, I should probably show them doing something. Because my cousin had started at Stanford when I was a senior in high school, I opted to tell a little about that. Because the events don’t veer too far from the truth, I’ll let you read about it instead of me telling you here. Suffice to say, I really enjoyed his frosh year.

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My daughters and I are members of The Woodlands Church. After Liv and Nicholas go through their escapades in Austin, and Liv finally decides (wait…that’s probs a spoiler). So anywho, at some point Liv takes Nicholas to her church. I don’t write about their time at the church, only the car ride over. I don’t mention the church by name, but I do tell a little about the pastor and the awesomeness that is Fellowship of The Woodlands. If you’re ever in Houston, that’s the place to go on Sunday morning (or Saturday evening). They have a live online campus too!

church