The best (and/or worst!) writing advice I ever got was…
Writing advice is one of those things that is always around. You see memes, hear advice in writing panels, and read countless blog posts. Even years into this career, I still like checking out the newest writing advice, because you never know what will stick.
That said, the one that is constantly making the rounds is the very same writing advice that is the worst I’ve ever had. Write what you know. So many people take this as meaning that they can only write stories like ones they’ve lived through, can only write characters like the people they surround themselves with.
I really struggled with this when I first got started. I was all of twenty-one and, while I’d lived a decent amount in that time, I had no interest in writing about myself and my story.
So I threw that advice right out the window and got started.
Now, I can add a caveat to this advice that I’ve seen circulating over the last few years — Write what you know. If you don’t know it? Go research it until you do!
About Katee Robert: 
New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author Katee Robert learned to tell her stories at her grandpa’s knee. She found romance novels at age twelve and it changed her life. When not writing sexy contemporary and speculative fiction romance novels, she spends her time playing imaginary games with her wee ones, driving her husband batty with what-if questions, and planning for the inevitable zombie apocalypse. Connect with Katee at: Website | Facebook | Twitter | GoodReads | Instagram | Tumblr | Youtube
Title: Foolproof Love
Author: Katee Robert
Series: Foolproof Love #1
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Release Date: June 6, 2016
Publisher: Entangled Brazen
Print Length: 50,000 words
Format: Paperback and Digital
Synopsis:
Bull rider Adam Meyer put Devil’s Falls in his rearview mirror years ago and hasn’t stopped running since. Now he’s back—temporarily, if he has any say about it. Restless, he finds himself kissing the sexiest girl in town…and agreeing to be the fake boyfriend in her little revenge scheme.
Jules Rodrigez isn’t interested in the role of town spinster. Being seen with a hell raiser like Adam is the perfect way to scandalize the residents, make her ex jealous, and prove she’s a sexy, desirable woman. And if their plan includes ridiculously hot sex—in public, of course—all the better.
But this thing between them has an expiration date. Putting down roots isn’t in Adam’s blood, and Jules’s roots in Devil’s Falls are bedrock deep. He’ll leave, even if it rips out his heart. But this time, he’s not sure he’ll survive it…
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Excerpt:
“That’s really sweet, Grant. It was great seeing you, but my boyfriend is waiting for me.”
He frowned. “Boyfriend?”
“Oh, yeah, it’s a new thing. We haven’t exactly gone public with it—you know how Devil’s Falls can be—so you wouldn’t have heard.” She gave him a pat on his arm. “It was nice seeing you. So great. Really, we’ll have to catch up sometime soon.” And then she stepped around him, dragging Aubry behind her.
“What are you doing?” Aubry whispered.
“Winging it.” She stopped by the trio of men, all too aware of Grant watching her. “Hi, Daniel. Quinn. Adam.” They raised their beers.
Daniel looked over her shoulder with a frown. “Is that your piece-of-shit ex-boyfriend I see?”
“The very one.” She disentangled her arm from Aubry’s. “Speaking of, I need a favor.”
“Anything for you, kid.”
She tried not to roll her eyes at him calling her kid. He was a whole seven years older than her. Not exactly ancient. “Actually, it’s not you I need the favor from.” Before she could talk herself out of it, she sidled up to Adam and put her arms around his neck. To his credit, he didn’t shove her on her butt in the dirt, merely raising his eyebrows. Jules kept her voice low so there was no chance of Grant overhearing. “So as you’ve noticed, my ex is watching me really closely right now, and I might have told him a tiny white lie about me dating someone in order to avoid a devastating dose of humiliation. And since I can’t date Daniel and no one would ever believe I’d date Quinn—”
The man in question frowned. “You really know how to hit a man where it hurts, Jules.”
“—that leaves you.”
Adam’s face remained impassive. “I see.”
There wasn’t a whole lot to work with in those words, but he also had let his free hand drift down to settle on her hip, so she just kept talking. “If you could just play along and maybe kiss me like you want to do filthy things to me in the bed of your truck, I’d really appreciate it.”
If anything, his eyebrows rose higher. “That guy really got under your skin, didn’t he?”
“You have no idea.” Next to them, Daniel made a sound suspiciously like a growl, but neither of them looked over. Adam’s hand pulsed on her hip, the heat of it shocking despite the warmth of the night. His calluses dragged over the sensitive skin bared by her T-shirt, and she shivered. Maybe this was a terrible idea. She didn’t have time to really reconsider, though, because he set down his beer, cupped the back of her neck, and dealt her the single most devastating kiss of her life.
No, not a kiss.
He took possession of her mouth, his tongue tracing the seam of her lips and then delving inside. He tasted of beer and something darker, something that hinted at exactly what she’d asked for—like he wanted to do filthy things to her in the bed of his truck. She closed her eyes, giving his tongue a tentative stroke, and had to fight down a moan at the way the move made her entire body go tight. More.
He lifted his head, breaking the kiss and slamming her back into the real world. She blinked up at him, all too aware of her body pressed against the entirety of his, of how he was hard in all the places she was soft, of how goddamn good he smelled. “Wow.”
There went that eyebrow again. “You think it was believable?”
Review:
Honestly, from start to finish I didn’t want to put it down–a fake relationship story at its best! The hero and heroine have great chemistry, smoking sex scenes, and fantastic dialogue–whether Adam’s trying to teach Jules dirty talk (or despairing of what she’s learned–or hasn’t learned–so far, LOL) or she’s let her mouth get away with her again and is babbling nonsense, I loved every minute these two were on the page together.
The secondary characters were a whole lot of fun, too–Adam’s best friend Quinn and Jules’s best friend Aubrey did their best to steal the show every time they were on the page. Without exception, all of the passages I highlighted are from conversations between Jules and her BFF, Aubrey, which bodes really well for book #2 ( Fool Me Once ), since Aubrey’s its heroine. (Not that the Adam/Jules passages weren’t great–they were. But the Aubrey/Jules ones made me snort-laugh, and that can’t be discounted.)
And then there’s the cats. Best. Names. Ever. (Khan, Cujo, Loki, Rick, Dog, Ninja Kitteh, and Mr. Winkles) Now I want my own cat cafe. How genius is this idea?
Adam’s late-in-the-book scene with his mom had me intears (not at all awkward while reading your Kindle in a Barnes and Noble store) and so did the epilogue…so good!
I cannot wait for more from this series–book #2’s H/h were great in this one, and I totally called book #3’s ( A Fool For You ) as soon as the heroine was mentioned in book #1! 🙂
Rating: 4 1/2 stars / A
I received a complimentary copy in exchange for an honest review.
The Foolproof Love series continues…
Fool Me Once
August 1, 2016
Aubry Kaiser doesn’t like people—actually, that’s not right. She loathes people. Combine that with her crippling anxiety around crowds and she’s in a mess when she gets an exclusive invitation to play a demo of her favorite video game, Deathmatch…which will be held at a convention with five thousand other people. The only solution? Bring someone else with her to the con to act as a shield—and unfortunately the only person available is the one man she can’t stand. Quinn.
Quinn Baldwyn is in a mess of his own. He’s been dodging his family’s matchmaking attempts for years, but with his sister’s wedding on the horizon, he’s in need of a shield of his own. Who better to drive off any potential marriage-seeking women than the fire-breathing dragon known as Aubry?
Things start to go sideways almost immediately when Quinn’s truck breaks down, forcing them to spend a seriously hot night in a B&B. They might barely be able to hold down a civil conversation, but in bed those fireworks are only the good kind. The closer they get to Napa Valley and Quinn’s sister’s wedding, the more he realizes that he might actually…like Aubry. But can two polar opposite people from completely different worlds ever really connect outside of mind-blowing orgasms?
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