Contemporary Romance / Comedy
Title: Warrant For Love
Author: Sheryl Browne
Date Published: 8/1/12
Warrant for Love
Love, blackmail, lies, adultery, entrapment.
Three couples in a twisting story that resolves perfectly.
Life
for Paul sounds like your typical country song. He comes from a broken
home, his wife is divorcing him, he's got no place to live, he's losing
custody of his son, and his sergeant, who's sleeping with his wife, is a
loud-mouthed braggart who won't let up on him – not even at work.
Leanne's
caught her (now) ex cheating on her again, but before she can give him
the what-for, she's wrongfully arrested for soliciting – by Paul and his
partner. One thing leads to another and things could be looking up for
Paul, except for Leanne's friends – quarrelling mom Nicky and financial
goddess Jade – have it out for her ex.
Leanne
wants closure, Paul wants a home, and Nicky and Jade want revenge.
Blackmail, lies, adultery, entrapment. Will it all work out in the end
or will Paul uphold the law? It soundslike he needs a Warrant for Love.
MY REVIEW: will be forthcoming, due to health related issues.
For additional Perspectives, please follow our tour:
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Sheryl Browne
Author Bio:
Now
residing in Worcestershire, Sheryl Browne grew up in Birmingham, UK,
where she studied Art & Design. She wears many hats: a partner in
her own business, a mother, and a foster parent to disabled dogs.
Creative in spirit, Sheryl has always had a passion for writing. A
member of the Romantic Novelists' Association, she has previously been
published in the US and writes Romantic Comedy because, as she puts it,
"life is just too short to be miserable."
Sheryl's
debut novel, RECIPES FOR DISASTER - combining deliciously different and
fun recipes with sexilicious romantic comedy, is garnering some
fabulous reviews! Sheryl has also been offered a further three-book
contract under the Safkhet Publishing Soul imprint. SOMEBODY TO LOVE, a
romantic comedy centring around a single policeman father’s search for
love, his autistic little boy and the boy’s Autism Assistance Dog,
launched July 1 with an immediate 5* review. WARRANT FOR LOVE, bringing
together three couples in a twisting story that resolves perfectly,
released August 1, and A LITTLE BIT OF MADNESS releases on Valentine’s
Day 2013.
Twitter: @sherylbrowne
Buy Link
Guest Post: Advice for beginning writing on Romantic Comedy
As part of my book blog tour I was invited to
offer practical advice for beginning to write Romantic Comedy.
As mentioned elsewhere, my road to publication
has been a long one and it’s only now I feel qualified to impart such
advice. My first ever romantic comedy
was picked up by an agent, you see, who hailed it as a bestseller and was then
possibly reduced to tears – along with yours truly – when it didn’t sell. Overuse of barbed wit and slapstick I gleaned
from feedback was the reason why. I’ve
been told by the BBC I have a flair for comedic situations vis-à-vis sitcom,
but in regard to novel writing, back then, it was obvious I had some lessons to
learn.
I wrote, embarked on a creative writing
course, took on board every piece of advice and, finally, I think I got
there. I’d like to share some of what of
learned along the way, in the hope it might help make the road a little less bumpy
for anyone else starting out on the romantic comedy writing journey.
So what is romantic comedy? It’s a boy-meets-girl, falling in love
story. And as we know from as far back
as Greek Tragedy, falling in love never goes smoothly. People do strange things when cupid’s arrow
strikes. As much as any sensible woman
knows that true love should be more than skin deep, she will probably decide
her bum is too big and go on a crash diet – and then indulge in copious amounts
of pleasure-inducing chocolate-coated endorphins when the relationship goes
wrong.
Men flounder when love throws their carefully
organised emotions into chaos. Suddenly,
they’re indecisive. They don’t know what
women want. They’re vulnerable. They’re human.
Based on my own experience then, along with
feedback from publishers and agents, we have to stay away
from slapstick and keep our characters real.
When we laugh at characters in a romantic comedy, we’re actually
laughing at ourselves. We’re amused
because it’s familiar, comedic or embarrassing situation we could – maybe have
– found ourselves in. That
heart-freezing is-my-dress-tucked-in-my-knickers moment when exiting the loo at
a posh do?
So, we’re highlighting the situation with
caricature, yes, but in order for the parody to work, our characters need to be
fully formed people our readers can relate to.
Sex And The City pulled it off beautifully but, in reality, most women
have never owned a Jimmy Choo shoe, nor could they aspire to. If a woman is a secretary, home-maker,
mother, care-giver or bank-teller, she’s not likely to have a wardrobe stuffed
full of designer – unless she’s robbed the bank, of course. Hmm?
Could there be a story in there
somewhere? Your heroine might be the
ditzy blonde no man understands. She might be uber-efficient but emotionally
deficient, but she has to have depth.
To illustrate my point – and at the risk of
blowing my own trumpet, I’d like to use a couple of snippets from reviews for
one of my books, Somebody to Love, a
story around a single father and his autistic little boy:
Characters jump of the
page & make you instantly care about them. Captures the essence of love,
life, family & highs and lows of parenting a special needs child.
…Autism spectrum
disorder - the child in question quickly became my favourite character.
Sheryl’s writing is
fabulous. She manages to make you laugh out loud constantly and her stories are
so natural and true to life.
I feel that this story has been written with real warmth and heart, with
a wry humour at the ups and downs that life throws at people.
Time and time again, these lovely reviewers
talk about the ability to portray real people they can relate to. Women, as we know, come with a whole gamut of
emotion, as do men. They are real people
with all the faults and flaws on show.
Someone your reader identifies with and wants to get to know.
Readers want compelling characters, people
they care about. They might seem to be
incompatible, they might think that they are, but we need to believe love will
find a way. The might start out as
emotionally vulnerable, incomplete people with necessary inner and outer
conflict – think Notting Hill. William
and Anna, worlds apart and the odd stacked against them. Plenty of outer conflict there. The inner conflict? Could a lowly bookshop
owner from Notting Hill ever really be good enough for a film star from
Beverley Hills? Could Anna ever hope to make him see she was ‘still just a girl
standing in front of a boy, asking him to love her’? Basically then, we need to see the characters
conflicts. We need to see them
confronted and ideally resolved by the relationship.
And so, to the climax. Again, keep it
real. Unless you can come up with a
fresh take on kissing in the snow in your underwear, chances are it’s already
been done, and done well.
In summary, Romantic Comedy tends to follow a
formula: boy meets girl, boy gets girl, despite all obstacles, eventually. The difficult bit is making your reader laugh
with your character as he/she falls over those obstacles, because the reader is
empathising with the character, because they’ve been there.
Happy writing!
Disclosure
of Material Connection: I am a member of Reading Addiction Blog Tours and a
copy of this book was provided to me by the author. Although payment may have
been received by Reading Addiction Blog Tours, no payment was received by me in
exchange f
or this
review. There was no obligation to write a positive review. All opinions
expressed are entirely my own and may not necessarily agree with those of the
author, publisher, publicist, or readers of this review. This disclosure is in
accordance with the Federal Trade Commision’s 16 CFR, Part 255, Guides
Concerning Use of Endorcements and Testimonials in Advertising*
