Book Spotlight/GIVEAWAY: Trusting a Warrior

 

Discover the new book by Melanie Hansen, Trusting a Warrior and don't forget to enter the tour wide giveaway as Melanie Hansen will be awarding a $50 Amazon/BN GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.. The tour is sponsored by Goddess Fish Promotions and you can find the tour stops HERE.

Now an interview with the author, Melanie Hansen

Thanks for stopping by to talk a little about your writing! Let's jump right in.

When did you begin writing and why? I began writing in 2013, and I started with fanfic of a popular m/m romance series. When certain things happened off-page that I really wanted to see, I decided to write them myself! They were fairly well-received by other fans of the series, so I just kept going. Eventually I started dabbling in my own original stuff, and in 2015 my first novel was published! TRUSTING A WARRIOR is my ninth book.

Do you have a favorite genre? Is it the same genre you prefer to write? I love all genres of romance, but I tend to write more m/m romance. Some of my all-time favorite romances are m/f historical, but my favorite contemporary romance is m/m (ROUGH CANVAS by Joey W. Hill), so that’s what I gravitate toward writing. In TRUSTING, my hero, Geo, is bisexual. 

Do certain themes and ideas tend to capture your writer’s imagination and fascinate you? My favorite theme is seemingly mismatched couples who find common ground and then fall in love. In TRUSTING, Lani is a pregnant single mom who’s just broken up with her childhood sweetheart, and Geo is a career Navy SEAL who has no interest in a ready-made family. There’s no reason for them to look twice at each other, yet both are suicide survivors at different points in their grief journey. This brings them together, and as they get to know each other, they fall in love.

How do you balance long-term thinking vs. being nimble in today's market? To be honest, I don’t really think long term, or about the market. Writing isn’t my career, it’s my favorite hobby. If I want to write a story, I write it, and hope that people want to read it. I can’t force myself to write to market trends. Sometimes they line up, though, and that’s amazing! K9 stories, which TRUSTING is, luckily are super hot right now. But I didn’t plan it that way when I got the idea. I just wanted to write a book with a military working dog in it. 

How do you find readers in today's market? I try to write the best book I can! And then hope it resonates with someone. I’ve written about people living with a mental illness, a parent who has lost a child, military sexual trauma, and now suicide survivors. I write with as much sensitivity and respect as I possibly can, and if it resonates with at least one reader, I’ve done my job. 

Do you come up with the hook first, or do you create characters first and then dig through until you find a hook? Most of the time, the hook! Even though Lani in TRUSTING played a secondary role in the first two Warrior books, her backstory wouldn’t leave me alone until I wrote it! So I guess the true answer to this question is both.

How do you create your characters? My characters are almost always a composite of people I know in real life and people I read about in the news or listen to in podcasts. I want to make them as relatable as possible, so they are usually based on real people. After that, I love to find models who are the best facecast for what I have in mind, and then I usually find a song that encapsulates what I’m trying to do with the character. For Geo, it’s “Boulevard of Broken Dreams” by Green Day that first spoke to me about him.

What's on the top of your TBR pile right now? I’m currently working my way through reading the Outlander series, so ECHO IN THE BONE is up next. I don’t usually read fantasy but I’m loving this series for the world-building! It’s absolutely brilliant. 

Tell me a little about the characters in TRUSTING A WARRIOR. As I mentioned above, George Monteverdi is a career Navy SEAL who’s recently experienced the death of his mentor and teammate. He’s unraveling in plain sight due to guilt, and his concerned command finally intervenes. Lani Abuel is the ex-girlfriend of Rhys from KEEPING A WARRIOR, and she’s just found herself pregnant after an ill-advised one-night stand with a stranger. Since she wants to be a good mom, she knows it’s time to deal with the trauma in her own past—the suicide of her older brother when she was fourteen. She and Geo find common ground in their mutual healing and learn how to mesh their very different lives. As a bonus, there’s a badass military working dog named Bosch! He was so much fun to write. 

Where’s the story set? How much influence did the setting have on the atmosphere/characters/development of the story? It’s set in San Diego, and I’d say the setting had a lot of influence. San Diego is a Navy town and the home of the West Coast Navy SEALs. The ocean played a big role in making Geo into the operator he is today, and Lani finds peace in its power as well. Even though she’s experienced heartbreak, it’s the city where she’s been the happiest. I lived in San Diego/Coronado for three years, so it’s also a special place to me personally. 

If you had to write your memoir in five words, what would you write? “I did my very best.” 

How often does your muse distract you from day to day minutiae? Constantly! That’s why I jot notes, snippets of dialogue, or internet links to myself in a draft email, so that it’s available to me across all devices, no matter if I’m sitting in a car waiting to pick up my kids, or at work. I get so many of my ideas from the news, or podcasts that I listen to, that I have to be ready when those plot bunnies strike!

What do readers have to look forward to in the future from you? I just re-edited and self-published my first novel, EVERYTHING CHANGES, after I received my rights back from Dreamspinner. My immediate plans are to re-work all three books in the Resilient Love series, but I also have a new original m/m romance idea in the works. Stay tuned!

Thanks so much for hosting me today!

GENRE: Contemporary Romance

Trusting a Warrior Buy Link:

https://www.amazon.com/Trusting-Warrior-Loving-Book-ebook/dp/B07SJ72DS7/

George Monteverdi always had one goal, to become a navy SEAL. Now that he's both a SEAL and a K-9 handler, saving lives is his priority. When tragedy touches his own life, he handles it—with the help of his crew and his dog, Bosch. Having those guys by his side means he’ll never be alone…though any sort of romance feels like a faraway dream.

 

Heartbroken after her fiancé falls in love with another woman, Lani Abuel seeks comfort in the arms of a stranger, only to find herself pregnant and alone. She’ll do whatever it takes to be a good mother, which means finally facing the trauma in her past. The last thing she expected was a warrior with wounds all too similar to hers finding his way into her heart and loving her child as his own.

 

As their worlds entwine, Lani and Geo find the joy and redemption they’ve been seeking. But despite the sanctuary they’ve created, a forever love seems impossible. A K-9 handler who spends most of his time deployed with his SEAL team, staring danger in the eye, is far from what Lani—or her baby—needs, and Geo can’t imagine a future doing anything else.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Excerpt One:

 

Holding Lani’s eyes with his, Geo tilted the tip of the bottle toward her. “To new friends.”

 

Smiling, she clinked her glass with his. “And badass dogs.”

 

Geo couldn’t remember the last time a meal tasted so delicious. He stuffed himself to the gills, finally leaning back in his chair to hide a satisfied belch behind his hand.

 

Forking up the last bite of her spinach salad, Lani groaned. “I’m so full. I need to get out and move.”

 

He couldn’t resist. “I thought you didn’t like to exercise. Ow!”

 

She glared at him as she kicked his shin again. “You’re not supposed to make fun of me.” She surged to her feet in mock outrage and started clearing the table. As she bent over him to pick up his plate, he found himself reaching up to brush the backs of his fingers down her smooth cheek.

 

“You had some flour there,” he said huskily. “Got it.”

 

Their eyes met, the spark of desire in hers kicking his heartbeat into a sudden gallop.

 

“Mmm, well…” As he sat breathless, she picked up his napkin and dabbed it gently along the corners of his mouth. “Had some butter there. Got it.”

 

They stared at each other, and she leaned in closer. Helplessly, he lifted his face, lips parting…

 

Crash!

 

The fork sliding from his plate to the table broke the spell, and with a self-conscious chuckle, she straightened and turned to carry the dishes to the sink.

 

Geo raked a hand through his hair, once again willing his body to calm down.

 

She’s having a baby and you’re leaving, asshole.

 

Shit. If he repeated that enough times to himself, maybe he’d eventually be able to remember it.

 GIVEAWAY: Enter to win a $50 Amzon/BN gift card

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Melanie Hansen doesn’t get nearly enough sleep. She loves all things coffee-related, including collecting mugs from every place she’s visited. After spending eighteen years as a military spouse, Melanie definitely considers herself a moving expert. She has lived and worked all over the country, and hopes to bring these rich and varied life experiences to the love stories she gets up in the wee hours to write. On her off-time, you can find Melanie watching baseball, reading or spending time with her husband and two teenage sons.

 Website:

https://melaniehansenbooks.com

 

Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100009084006829

 

Twitter:

https://twitter.com/MelJoyAZ

 

Goodreads:

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/13505006.Melanie_Hansen