JUST WINGING IT Pre-Release Celebration - Thoughts on Books in a Series

The fourth and final book in the Be-Wished series, Just Winging It comes out on Black Friday, and I’m so excited! It’s been quite a journey writing this series. It all started with a special call for submissions from Ellora’s Cave. They wanted stories for their Naughty Nuptials theme and I rose to the challenge. The result was ALL IN…

When three close friends made margarita-fueled wishes on magical woven bracelets, none of them ever dreamed that their sexy wishes might come true. But then a real-life fairy appears with Universal Wish Federation credentials and a ludicrous claim that Mariah's wish is her command. And before Mariah can say bippidy-bobbidy-boo, old flame Tucker arrives in town…and in Mariah's bed.

Life on the road is a lonely one, but when Tucker bumps into Mariah again, all that changes. Sparks immediately fly and it's all he can do to keep his hands off her. As things deepen between them, he swears he'll be damned before he passes on a chance to reconnect with a woman he never forgot.

But wishes aren't always simple and Happily Ever After is never guaranteed. It will be up to Mariah to go all in and make her wish last a lifetime…or lose Tucker forever.

ALL IN didn’t make it as a Naughty Nuptial, but Mary Altman, an editor I greatly miss, contracted it as a stand alone novella. Good thing, too, because that novella spawned two more related books. I’d wanted to write a shape-shifter book for a while, so the hero in A WOLF AT HER DOOR became a wolf shifter…

A wish bracelet, a hot alpha werewolf and a frisky fairy whose specialty is “happily ever afters”—what does all this have to do with Paige’s love life? A whole lot, when gorgeous and sexy shapeshifter Adam shows up to sizzle her synapses, trigger her sensual meltdown and make her secret wish come true.

Adam is one big bad wolf who makes all her kinkiest fantasies a reality. Until real life intrudes and things take a turn for the serious. When Adam’s sanity is threatened by an agent of the Universal Wish Federation, he needs more than a well-meaning wish fairy and an unquenchable hunger for Paige to help him make the hardest choice of his life.

With the third book, ONCE UPON A KISS, I wanted to go somewhere completely different, so I decided that the third friend should not be so quick to accept the wish fairy was really a wish fairy…

Livvy thought she lost her chance for a Happily Ever After when she dismissed the wish fairy who knocked on her door, so when a prime specimen of masculinity appears on her front lawn one stormy night, she can’t quite believe it. Like a prince in distress, he needs her kiss to bring him out of his enchanted sleep.

After a war injury left him paralyzed, Joe Kimball never expected to walk again, but when he regains the use of his legs thanks to his sexy neighbor, he can’t argue when she insists the credit belongs to a wish fairy. Nor does he want to. Arguing is the last thing on his mind now that he is a whole man again.

Unfortunately, a few days of hot sex do not a fairy-tale ending make, and as the magic becomes increasingly volatile, Joe and Livvy realize there’s much more at stake than just their happiness.

Finally, in JUST WINGING IT, it’s the wish fairy’s turn for true love. Davina was such a fun character to write, I thought she deserved her own book…

Ex-wish fairy Davina Traherne has until midnight to choose a groom at the birthday ball or her draconian grandmother Agatha will pick one for her. Panicking at the prospect of marrying a fussy, well-bred bore with no sense of adventure, she flees.

Laszlo can’t believe it when Davina asks him to help her go off-grid. He’s always had the hots for her but kept his feelings to himself. Eventually, close proximity and Davina’s playful teasing get to be too much, especially when he finds out his lust is reciprocated. But when Agatha zeroes in on their whereabouts, his resolve to keep his emotional distance dissolves and he discovers he’ll do anything to protect Davina.

Even marry her.

To celebrate the completion of the Be-Wished series, I’m giving one lucky winner a complete set of all four books. All you have to do to enter your name in the contest is tell me about your experience with books in a series. Personally, I prefer to wait until all the books in the series are finished before I start. Several times I’ve started a series and had to wait too long for the next book. With Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander series, I never did read A Fiery Cross. I tried, but after only five pages, I realized I was hopelessly lost. With J.D. Robb’s In Death series, I actually just got tired. (There are 31 of them.Yikes!) I took a break and just never returned because I couldn’t remember which book I’d left off on.

But I can’t always read them in order or wait. I recently read Hellhole by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson, not knowing until I was hooked that it was the first of a series. I’m hoping book two comes out before I forget what occurred in book one.

Lastly, sometimes, I just get bored with a series because the books end up being too alike. The characters just have different names and professions.

How do you feel about series? Love ‘em? Hate ‘em? Have a favorite I should try? Answer in the comment section to win! Winner to be announced on December 16.