Bea's Book Nook: Slow Burn - A Guest Post by Christine Feldman

Today's guest is romance author Christine Feldman. I haven't read her books yet but she's on my list. She's going to talk about the slow-burn in romances and why she's a fan of it. I like a slow-burn also, I'm not really a fan of the insta-love trope. So get comfy, read, and then leave your thoughts in the comments.

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Thanks very much for letting me stop by Bea’s Book Nook today! I’m very happy to have the chance to tell you about my latest contemporary romance, The Bargain.

I’m a big fan of the slow burn, and by slow burn I mean the build-up of romantic tension, not the steadily growing rage you feel when you’re on hold with customer service and that cheery automated voice keeps popping onto the line every 15 seconds to let you know that there are still 37 people ahead of you and you’ve already been on hold for an hour after being disconnected twice—

Sorry. I digress…

In The Bargain, I had a great time nurturing that slow burn between my awkward heroine Shannon and reformed heartbreaker Michael. First they butt heads over Michael’s brother Drew, who just happens to be the guy Shannon has had an unspoken crush on since high school, but then they end up entering into a wary bargain that makes them unconventional allies. Slowly they begin to let their guards down around each other, and in so doing, they find themselves starting to enjoy a little verbal sparring:

“So, ten years…That would take it all the way back to high school, wouldn’t it?”

She nodded, still very deliberately working on getting just the right amount of ketchup on her fry so she wouldn’t have to look at him.

“Wait—were you and Drew in the same graduating class?”

“Yeah.”

“Then that would mean…so you and I were actually in school together?”

“For a year, yes.”

He gave her a very thorough once-over as if trying to place her. “You and I—we never hooked up in high school, did we?”

Shannon’s mouth fell open. “No, we certainly did not!”

“So is that why you were really so mad at me the other day?”

“What?” she sputtered hotly. “You are unbelievable!”

“Oh, so we did hook up.”

“You—“

A slow grin spread across his face, and she realized he was playing with her.

Taking a deep breath, she bit back a name she had been about to call him. “You get a perverse pleasure out of yanking my chain, don’t you?”

“Kind of, yes.”

“Aren’t you afraid I might back out of the deal?”

“No, I think you realize it’s in Drew’s best interest. Besides,” he added with a knowing gleam in his eye, “I think you get a perverse pleasure out of putting me back in my place, so we’re developing a great little symbiotic relationship here. Don’t you agree?”

“What? Oh, I’m sorry. I’m still recovering from the shock of hearing such big words come out of your mouth.”

Michael started to laugh, and Shannon felt a kind of rush go through her…

And the more time that this unlikely pair spends around each other, the more their feelings change. Their grudging truce turns into something else entirely, something that evolves into respect, and then affection, and then into something neither of them expected that starts the sparks a-flyin’…

That’s what I call a slow burn!

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Christine S. Feldman writes both novels and feature-length screenplays, and she has placed in screenwriting competitions on both coasts. She lives in the Pacific Northwest with her ballroom-dancing husband and their beagle (Aaaw, beagles are so cute ~ Bea). Visit her on Facebook or her website and say hello!

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Tomboy Shannon Mahoney has always been a lot more comfortable with things like power tools than she is with high heels or lipstick, and she often wishes she could reinvent herself and finally tell her perfect boss, Drew Kingston, that she has had a crush on him since high school. But she is just as tongue tied and awkward around him now as she ever was, and long-familiar patterns are hard things from which to break free…

Until one day Drew’s estranged older brother Michael comes to town, bringing with him a surprising opportunity for Shannon.

Ladies’ man Michael is a former bad boy looking for redemption. He is desperate to atone for past mistakes that he made with his family, but younger brother Drew has cut him out of his life and refuses to even speak to him. Which means Michael needs help getting to Drew.

And so he approaches Shannon with a proposition: if she will get Drew to agree to hear him out, Michael will mentor Shannon in how to win his brother’s heart. Suspicious of Michael’s motives, Shannon initially enters into the bargain just to make sure Michael isn’t actually in town to cause trouble for Drew, but the two unlikely allies are surprised to discover that despite butting heads at first, they are beginning to enjoy each other’s company far more than either of them expected.

And Shannon starts to realize that maybe love isn’t about reinventing yourself after all. It’s about finding your perfect match.