Celebrating endings

When Serving Sin comes out in one month, it will mark the end of my debut romance series. In the hustle of writing, publishing, promoting and deadlines, it’s so easy to lose sight of accomplishments like these. I’m trying to take a moment to celebrate and be grateful.

I WROTE THREE BOOKS, PEOPLE!!!!

When Serving Sin releases on May 25, I will have three books out in the world with my name on it. I will have successfully completed a three-story arc about the loves and lives of a wine-growing royal family in the mountains of Spain. I will have told a series of stories based on a theme intensely important to me: What does power look like when strong, worthy, alpha heroines wield it, and strong, worthy, alpha heroes support them?

I was a 20-year aspiring author, but I wanted this job for my whole life. As a longtime romance fan, I can’t help but reflect on series that I’ve loved – Cecilia Grant’s Blackshear Family series, Susan Elizabeth Phillips’s Chicago Stars series, J.R. Ward’s Black Dagger Brotherhood – and hope that someday, somehow, some way, my Filthy Rich series joins their ranks.

Hey, I write fantasies for a living!

With the publication of Serving Sin, I say goodbye to:

• Roxanne and Mateo, the billionaire businesswoman and winegrowing prince of Lush Money, who are now the responsible royals and semi-frazzled parents they were always meant to be

• Sofia and Aish, the star-crossed ex-lovers of Hate Crush, who’ve grown out of their childish, tempestuous love affair and into their strong, focused, and happy forever

• Roman, the former Army Ranger and reluctant prince with secret wounds finally healed

• the Monte del Vino Real, the beautiful winegrowing village in the mountains of Northern Spain, and the hardworking people who populated it, who at long last are prosperous and excited about their futures

• incredible side characters who enriched the Filthy Rich universe – bodyguard Henry and his barrel-making wife Gina, friend and grower Carmen Louisa, the best nanny in the world Titi, and the awesome priest and father figure, Father Juan.

Wrapping up all of their stories in the Epilogue of Serving Sin was one of the proudest moments of my life. It was so wonderful seeing them all on the page together, toasting what they’ve (and I’ve) created.

I’ve never cried harder.

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The Alpha Roll: The Perfect Man?

The former military protection specialist from Serving Sin also cooks and makes sure everyone gets enough sleep. He’s the prefect Alpha Role!

I had a blog all planned out for the week.

And then the brilliant romance author Charish Reid had to go and ruin it with this excellent Tweet.

To explain, a “cinnamon roll” is a romance character who is all soft on the inside. This term came into play as a contrast to “alpha,” a lead character who displays a dominant, take-no-prisoners attitude.

More often than not, these terms are applied to male heroes: Mr. Ooey-Gooey-Sensitive vs. Mr. “I will shove you up against a wall and take you.”

Charish plucked a prefect kumquat from the air when everybody else was looking at the apples and oranges. The Alpha Roll. Hard and tough on the outside, soft and sweet on the inside.

In my opinion, the perfect man.

Evolution of the Alpha and the Cinnamon Roll

The romance genre has been flooded with alphas since the dawn of its creation. Kathleen Woodiwiss’ The Flame and the Flower, which catapulted romance into a genre-fiction leader, featured a strapping ship’s captain who raped his soon-to-be-wife (I know; that’s for another blog) because he thought she was a prostitute just playing coy. In the modern era, Fifty Shades of Grey cemented the alpha into the modern consciousness. Alphas were rich, powerful, grunty, closed-off emotionally except for that one special woman who thought that all of his single-word sexual commands were charming, and great in bed.

After a lot of books with single, suggestive objects on the cover (a tie, an apple, a rose, what does it mean?), authors and readers were ready for a change. Thus was birthed the cinnamon role: Sweet guys who didn’t base their egos on being the biggest dick in the room. Or sweet ladies who were fine with being ooey and gooey. Jen DeLuca’s Well Played, Roan Parrish’s The Remaking of Corbin Wale, Alisha Rai’s Girl Gone Viral, and, like, all of Talia Hibbert’s phenomenal books have cinnamon-role characters.

But the alpha roll?

In her tweet, Charish Reid, author of the contemporary romances The Write Escape and Hearts on Hold, realized she was writing one.

Her tweet made me realize I’d written one, too.

Hero in Serving Sin = Alpha Roll

Roman Sheppard, my taciturn prince bodyguard in my upcoming release, Serving Sin, is without a doubt an alpha roll.

On paper, Roman’s totally an alpha. He’s a former Army Ranger who saved his squad, head of an elite security firm that protects the wealthy and the vulnerable, and a reluctant prince. He likes action more than words, and every action is exacting. His words are few, and his smiles are practically non-existent.

But the big, big heart on this guy. Readers who got to know Roman in Lush Money and Hate Crush will remember him swooping in to help save the kingdom for a half-brother and half-sister he didn’t even know very well. “I don’t want your kingdom, man,” he told his brother in Lush Money. “I’m a soldier, not a king. I had to pick a side and I pick yours.”

In those two books, we got to see Roman’s loyalty, love, and need to protect.

But in Serving Sin, we get to see his inclination to nurture.

Cenobia “Cen” Trujillo, the Mexican-heiress-turned-CEO who Roman is in Mexico to protect in Serving Sin, is so busy launching the first made-in-Mexico-by-Mexicans-for-Mexicans car company that she doesn’t worry too much about food. Or sleep. Roman makes sure she has good meals. He urges her to forgo the late night café de ollas she adores and get a good night’s rest. One of the sexiest scenes without any sex in it is when he feeds her from a ballroom hors d'oeuvres table while she’s distracted.

With his thick, capable fingers, this warrior prince had been feeding her. Right now, he was holding up a small taco and she’d been about to take a bite.

“What are you doing?” she asked, rearing back.

His green eyes looked darker in the shadows here at the edge of the gilded room. “Have you eaten today?”

She realized she’d skipped lunch. “No.”

“Then you need to eat, Cenobia.” His voice was like black silk over sand. “I said I’d take care of you.”

To any curious eyes, they simply looked like two longtime friends juggling a plate and two champagne glasses.

Heart pounding, she slowly tilted her head and opened her mouth. He kept his eyes on hers as she fit her lips around the corn tortilla and bit into it. She’d never been more aware of the simple mechanics of eating. He lifted the rest of the taco to his mouth and finished it in one bite. He’d been sharing food with her as if their mouths had already shared other intimacies.

When the threats against Cenobia and her family ratchet up, and Roman takes her, her little brother Adán, and her brother’s bodyguard to his sister-in-law’s lake-side home in Kansas, Cenobia quickly realizes that he is a great cook, a well-organized event coordinator, and an excellent trail guide. Her taciturn warrior prince has all the makings of an ideal camp counselor.

He worked so hard to convince her, the world, and himself that he was nothing more than a stone-faced soldier. But in the Monte del Vino Real, he had a royal brother who trusted him as second-in-command, a royal sister who’d embraced him as a big brother, and a niece and nephew who feted him with homemade jewelry. With their little family here, he’d become head chef and entertainment director, grocery list maker and boardgame referee.

He wasn’t a taciturn soldier. He was a den mother. He was a devoted son and a beloved brother and a leader of heroes and the savior of lost causes.

In Spain, Roman (who not-so-secretely loves high-end men’s fashion) helps 12-year-old Adán pick out just the right outfit when he’s going to meet the king.

I mean…

Romance aficionados have their favorites — alpha or cinnamon roll — and will fight to the death on their hills. But with the alpha roll, we can all get along.

Because I’ve decided. The alpha roll is the perfect man.

Announcing next book in Filthy Rich series...

In Lush Money, book 1 of my Filthy Rich series — about powerful, wealthy women who get what they want because they’ve earned it — we met self-made Mexican-American billionaire, Roxanne Medina.

In book 2, Hate Crush, coming June 29, you’ll get to read about millionaire winemaking princesa, Sofia de Esperanza y Santos.

Now, I’m thrilled to introduce you to Mexican heiress-turned-CEO, Cenobia “Cen” Trujillo, in book 3, Serving Sin. Serving Sin will be available early 2021.

Serving Sin is about Roman Sheppard, the half-brother of the royal family of the Monte del Vino Real, who we met in Lush Money and Hate Crush. He’s a decorated ex-Army Ranger raised in a Texas trailer park. Thirteen years ago, he became internationally famous for rescuing a kidnapped Mexican teenage heiress. Now, he's the head of a successful security firm and, although he's been named advisor to his kingly brother, he's known in the media as the "reluctant prince," unwilling to fully accept his place in his family and the small wine-growing kingdom in Northern Spain.

The teen heiress, Cenobia Trujillo, is now a 30-year-old CEO of the largest automobile manufacturer in Mexico who needs Roman's help again. There have been serious threats against her, and with a month until the launch of her car that will change the Mexican auto industry for the better, she doesn’t have the time to be distracted. She asks him to come to Mexico to protect her.

Protection isn’t the only reason Cenobia – who asks people to call her “Cen” – wants Roman around. She’s ready to dispel the teenage fantasy notion that he’s her “one” with some womanly real-life pleasure. And there’s a reason Roman has stayed a continent away. He’d been a 26-year-old soldier who knew better than to be fascinated by the girl on the cusp of 18. He’ll go and protect her. But the last thing he’s ever going to call her is “Cen.”

Serving Sin will be available from Carina Press early 2021.

Inspiration for Roman Sheppard and Cenobia Trujillo. To see more inspiration, check out my Pinterest board

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