Like, Lust or Love

With: Susan Meier

Congratulations to "Rhonda G.", the winner in Susan's giveaway. Thank you to all who participated!

I love being a storyteller. I love even more that current technology allows me to write several books a year. But I was surprised recently when I heard a thriller writer say that most authors write because they have something to say. A point they want to get across. A lesson they want people to learn.

Hum…I never put a lesson in my books! At least not deliberately. There’s not usually a moral or point. All I do is tell a good story. (Sometimes even a great story. LOL)

It took me a few hours of pondering while I made pizza rolls a few nights ago, but I finally realized romance writers usually aren’t trying overtly to teach a lesson like crime doesn’t pay! LOL But there is a thread of truth that runs through most of our stories…Love is real.

With divorce rates so high and those awful, bad breakups in most of our pasts, we sometimes wonder: Will I make it as long as my parents did? How do couples go the distance? How does love last? Is there such a thing as real love?

My husband and I talk about this once a year. Every year when the subject of our marriage surviving comes up, he says… “We’ll survive because we respect each other.”

I love that answer. Many, many couples in today’s world could stand to hear that advice. Respect isn’t something you see a lot of these days. But when we were first married, I wouldn’t tattle on him to his mom or whine about him to mine. I respected his relationships with both and didn’t talk smack that might hurt his relationship with his mom or mine. He afforded me the same courtesy. No tattling. No whining. Leave your spouse’s reputation intact. LOL

He respected how hard my jobs were. I respected the fact that he stayed at jobs he didn’t like to feed our kids. :)

We never disrespected each other to those very same kids…we presented a united front.

That seems to be a fairly good recipe for making love last. Or a marriage last.

So this year, when we had ‘the talk’ again, I expected the same answer about respect. Instead, he laughed and said, “Yeah, sure. I respect you. But I also like you. Sometimes I think the key to a good relationship isn’t just to love the person you married but to like them too.” Then he smiled and said, “I just like you.”

Awww…Right?

He’s a keeper.

Devon Donovan from HEAD OVERHEELS FOR THE BOSS will be the same way when he and Isabelle have been married ten or fifteen years. He doesn’t fall in love with Isabelle or even in lust until he really, really likes her. He sees how hard she works. He noticed how good she is to her parents. They share a sense of humor.

When he begins to have romantic feelings for her, he thinks it’s lust. But as I typed the disclaimers, comments and rationalizations he muttered to himself, I laughed because he’d fallen in ‘like’ long before he fell in ‘love’ and I knew…as my husband would say…it was all over but the shouting. And I also knew they’d be together for the long haul, if only because Devon genuinely liked Isabelle first. Then came lust. Then came love. And maybe that’s part of the recipe for a strong relationship?

Happy reading! ... Oh, wait! Speaking of Lust, Like and Love…one of my greatest passions is M&M peanuts. (Don’t pretend you don’t agree. LOL) On a recent trip to NYC, I got this great shirt a regular M&M pointing at an M&M Peanut saying, “Completely nuts.”

Giveaway:

That T-shirt and an e-book copy of HEAD OVER HEELS FOR THE BOSS is waiting for the winner. :)

Now…Happy reading!

Susan meier

About the book:
Isabelle Cooper's in big, big trouble. Her flower shop? Well, it was just bought by the man she’s had a crush on forever. Her new boss, Devon Donovan, is a tall glass of melt-in-your-mouth hotness. The problem? Devon is definitely not interested in love. No ifs, ands, or buds about it.


Devon knows Isabelle has been crushing on him since college, but buying her business shouldn’t be a problem. Not only is she his employee, but as the eldest Donovan brother, he’s too busy protecting the family fortune for romance. But tomboy “Izzy” is all grown up now. And he’s finding it impossible to resist her, no matter how hard he tries...

                                                            Amazon | B&N

Author Bio:

Susan Meier is the author of over 60 books for Harlequin and Silhouette, Entangled Indulgence, Red Hot Bliss and Bliss and one of Guideposts' Grace Chapel Inn series books, THE KINDNESS OF STRANGERS. In 2013 she lived one of her career-long dreams. Her book, THE TYCOON’S SECRET DAUGHER was a finalist for RWA’s highest honor, the Rita. The same year NANNY FOR THE MILLIONAIRE’S TWINS was a National Reader’s Choice finalist and won the Book Buyer’s Best Award.

Susan is married with three children and is one of eleven children, which is why love and family are always part of her stories.

Author Website: susanmeier.com

Author Blog: http://susanmeier.blogspot.com

Author Twitter: @susanmeier1

Author Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/susan.meier.54

Giveaway ends 11:59pm EST Sep. 23rd. Please supply your email in the post. You may use spaces or full text for security. (ex. jsmith at gmail dot com) If you do not wish to supply your email, or have trouble posting, please email maureen@JustContemporaryRomance.com with a subject title of JCR GIVEAWAY to be entered in the current giveaway.