Discover Morning Star by Kris Jayne

Morning Star
Kris Jayne
(Lone Star Crossed Saga, #3)
Publication date: June 15th 2023
Genres: Adult, Contemporary, Romance

The marriage is fake, but the passion is real.

Famous for his last name, devilish Anthony Star-Hunter is the black sheep of the Star clan. He’s an expert at using his tall, dark, and handsome charm to get women into bed—the last remnant of his declining hard-party escapades.

But the bucks are about to stop here. His grandfather’s will demands he marry to inherit his fortune. Anthony panics. Even with his bad boy allure, how the hell is he going to find a tolerable bride, like, yesterday?

The minute Sarah Pennington spots the tattooed muscles her new stepsister’s ex hides under his Italian suits, she rolls her eyes. Anthony is not for her. And with her father maybe headed to prison for a financial fiasco, she’s had enough bad male behavior. She’s responsible. She’s hard-working. She…can’t stop having naughty dreams about the sexy “celebutant.”

At a beach-side wedding, a drunken mishap throws Sarah into Anthony’s bed, and he’s intrigued. Can he convince her to give fake marriage a chance? Can she convince herself to keep her heart out of the deal?

Their slow-burn, un-love affair isn’t what either expect, but it might be what both of them need forever.

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Interview with Kris Jayne:

Let's jump right in. When did you begin writing and why?

I’ve written stories since I was in elementary school. My first story about how Refrigerator Perry got so fat. (I hate admitting that because it ages me terribly.) But I published my first grown-up book in 2016.

 

Fire off five words to describe your book.

Steamy

Slow-burn

Witty

Heartfelt

Fun

 

Give us an out of context quote from your book to warm our hearts.

“You are so hot when you’re all worked up.” Kiss. “You have so much passion.” Kiss. “What you want.” Kiss. “What you need.” Kiss. “Of course they matter to me.”

 

Name one song or artist that gets you fired up.

I’m all about Lizzo right now. The song “Special” off the album of the same name is motivational fire.

 

How do you find readers in today's market?

Email swaps and promotions and bloggers. I feel like social media is such a time suck. I prefer more direct communication and ways to connect that aren’t dependent on algorithms.

 

Do you come up with the hook first, or do you create characters first and then dig through until you find a hook?

It depends. For Morning Star, it started with the hook I introduced in book one of the series. I wanted to mirror a historical romance compromise story that pushes two characters into a marriage of convenience, but with a modern twist. All I knew about Anthony from book one was that he had a bad boy past and his grandfather’s will requires him to get married in he wants his multimillion-dollar inheritance. Then, his character develops over books one and two. Originally, his story was supposed to be book four, but I had to move it up in the order after writing some spicy family reveals in book two.

 

How do you create your characters?

I start with the character’s backstory and motivations. Sometimes I’ll align them with certain archetypes using an archetype oracle deck that I have. Are they a fool or an innocent? Are they a trickster or a martyr? A teacher or a seducer? A combination of these things?

 

Most of the time, I’ll just start writing from there, and the characters will tell me who they are. Then, I just kind of know. Anthony or Sarah would never do XYZ. It’s an intuitive process, and I don’t plot my books in advance. I don’t create an outline of the story and character arcs until I’m about halfway through writing.

 

What are you currently reading?

I like to read historical romances, since I don’t write them, but I just downloaded a contemporary romance, Monopolove by Mia Heintzelman. It’s the first in her Love & Games series. I’m a sucker for enemies-to-lovers romance.

 

Any advice for newly sparking writers in three sentences or less.

Discover your unique voice. With the way the market is going, I think authors are going to need to write the books only they can write vs. mirroring the same trends as everyone else—especially if we start getting more AI-generated plots and books. That doesn’t mean an author can’t write to trend and be unique, but uniqueness is going to be more important.

 

If you had to write your memoir in five words, what would you write?

Oh, good God, who knows?

 

Life changes so fast, and I have so many different interests and goals and … who knows where all this is headed? I do know what I would title my memoir, Mouthy Broad.

 

How often does your muse distract you from day-to-day minutiae?

I’m lucky that I don’t have a regular 9-to-5 job anymore. I freelance for a technology organization and have an editing and coaching business. My time is mostly mine to schedule, so my muse distractions hardly ever feel like distractions. It’s more like the day-to-day minutiae distract me from my muse.

 

Can you briefly describe your writing process for us?

I’m a discovery writer who doesn’t plot in advance. I usually have an inciting incident in mind and maybe a plot point or two in the story arc, but I don’t nail anything down until I’ve written about half of the book. I mostly write in order, but I’ll skip ahead if I have an idea and then circle back to fill in the story.

 

I do tons of thinking and subconscious plotting in my head and then it comes out almost fully formed on the page. I’ll write something at the end and realize that I’ve been laying the groundwork for it since chapter two without knowing. My brain is a bit of a black box, but I like it that way. I’ve tried creating a chapter-by-chapter outline, and when I went to write, I was too bored to finish the story. I already knew what happened, and that was no fun.

 

What do readers have to look forward to in the future from you?

I’m working on the next book in my series, Cross Roads. This was the book I planned originally as book three. I have two characters, Jasmine and Gabe, who’ve now been flirting and bickering for two books. It’s time for them to fall in love.

 

The book starts with a camping trip in Big Sur that goes awry, and they’re stuck together with only one tent. It’s another opposites attract story. Jasmine is a doctor, but she’s also into metaphysics and teaches at a wellness retreat in California. Gabe is a hyper-rational geologist who’s attracted to her as much as he’s annoyed by her woo-woo side. I like the friction and contrast of opposites attract and enemies-to-lovers tales.

 

This holiday season, I’ll publish a Lone Star Crossed Saga novella, My Starry-Eyed Secret Santa. My Morning Star hero must marry to fulfill the terms of his grandfather’s will, but one of his cousins can only inherit if she gets divorced. She’s headed that direction, but some holiday magic changes her course. It’s a second-chance, holiday romance.

Author Bio:

Kris Jayne is a devoted writer, reader, and traveler, crafting addictive contemporary romance novels with heat and heart. She spends her days blissfully sweating out the writing process in the Dallas area with her dogs, Otis the Shih Tzu, Rocco the Terrier, and Red the Foxy Mutt.

Her passion for writing is only matched by her passion for the adventures of travel. In 2008, she let a friend talk her into sleeping outside for the first time in her life when she climbed Mount Kilimanjaro.

P.S. If you’re buying her a gift, she has a penchant for single-malt Scotch and scarves.

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