It's time for the Hump Day Hook blog hop for November 13th, where writers tempt readers with a few lines from either a published or in-progress work.
I've been thinking about hooks--they're first impressions, really. In romance novels, first impressions, like in real life, are often false, or misleading. One convention in romance is the hate-at-first-sight-despite-being-wildly-attracted meet. I wanted to do something a little different in Just Desserts, my sweet romance set in Seattle.
In this scene, Jackie meets Sam for the first time since she was twelve, so she has previous experiences to draw on. But she's also grown up hearing the stories about his wild past. His reputation as a ladies' man has her scared, but she's also curious. The contrasts between what she expects--and what she finds--are set up here.
Here's the excerpt:
When Jackie got downstairs she saw a black Dodge SUV idling in front of her building. It was immaculately clean, its chrome trim glinting in the morning sunshine. The driver leaned over and opened the passenger door from the inside, his one concession to helping her aboard. Hesitantly she pulled at the door handle and an empty plastic water bottle fell on her foot and rolled onto the pavement. She picked it up, and then found herself staring into the messiest truck cab she’d ever seen.
It was filled with magazines, newspapers, paper cups, binders, mail, books, food wrappers and more water bottles. She must have wrinkled her nose in distaste because the first words out of Sam’s mouth were, “Don’t worry. It’s not garbage. It’s my office. Come on in.”
Jackie’s anger dissolved as her curiosity grew stronger. He was moving books and papers from the seat to the floor to make room for her. So she climbed in, then looked from the chaos of the office to the man himself. He was—how could she describe him—exceptionally good looking. Of course he was. He couldn’t be the man she’d heard so much about all these years if he hadn’t been attractive to women. His reputation was intimidating enough, and now she was unnerved even more by his appearance. Anxiety and excitement replaced any residual anger she was feeling.
Keeping hopping by clicking here: Hump Day Hook.
View Just Desserts on Amazon.
Visit Serena Janes' Website
Follow Serena on Twitter @serena_janes
I've been thinking about hooks--they're first impressions, really. In romance novels, first impressions, like in real life, are often false, or misleading. One convention in romance is the hate-at-first-sight-despite-being-wildly-attracted meet. I wanted to do something a little different in Just Desserts, my sweet romance set in Seattle.
In this scene, Jackie meets Sam for the first time since she was twelve, so she has previous experiences to draw on. But she's also grown up hearing the stories about his wild past. His reputation as a ladies' man has her scared, but she's also curious. The contrasts between what she expects--and what she finds--are set up here.
Here's the excerpt:
When Jackie got downstairs she saw a black Dodge SUV idling in front of her building. It was immaculately clean, its chrome trim glinting in the morning sunshine. The driver leaned over and opened the passenger door from the inside, his one concession to helping her aboard. Hesitantly she pulled at the door handle and an empty plastic water bottle fell on her foot and rolled onto the pavement. She picked it up, and then found herself staring into the messiest truck cab she’d ever seen.
It was filled with magazines, newspapers, paper cups, binders, mail, books, food wrappers and more water bottles. She must have wrinkled her nose in distaste because the first words out of Sam’s mouth were, “Don’t worry. It’s not garbage. It’s my office. Come on in.”
Jackie’s anger dissolved as her curiosity grew stronger. He was moving books and papers from the seat to the floor to make room for her. So she climbed in, then looked from the chaos of the office to the man himself. He was—how could she describe him—exceptionally good looking. Of course he was. He couldn’t be the man she’d heard so much about all these years if he hadn’t been attractive to women. His reputation was intimidating enough, and now she was unnerved even more by his appearance. Anxiety and excitement replaced any residual anger she was feeling.
Keeping hopping by clicking here: Hump Day Hook.
View Just Desserts on Amazon.
Visit Serena Janes' Website
Follow Serena on Twitter @serena_janes
I love the cover! great descriptions sounds like inside my car LOL
ReplyDeletethe whole point of writing is to be unique. There are only so many stories
ReplyDeleteGreat hook, well done!
ReplyDeleteI'm wondering why his office is in this truck... interesting.
ReplyDelete