Lucky Escape (Almost)

They say opposites attract, but nobody warned me it also applies to writers and their manuscripts. I swear my book and I are in a full-blown love-hate relationship. One minute I’m swooning over my curvy girl heroine finding her happily-ever-after, and the next I’m groaning because I just spotted yet another typo.

This is what it’s like writing a romantic suspense novel with instalove at its heart. You edit until your eyes bleed (not literally, don’t worry) and still somehow find things to fix. I’ve read this story so many times that I could recite the spicy bits in my sleep, and honestly, my Kindle is about ready to ghost me.

And yet, every time I pick it up, there’s something else. A word that feels “meh.” A sentence that clunks. A description that suddenly sounds like it was written by a raccoon after too much coffee. It’s maddening.

But here’s the thing: when is enough, enough? At some point, it's time to let your opposites-attract romance fly free. If I don’t stop tweaking, I’ll still be editing this curvy girl instalove story when I’m ninety. And let’s be real, nobody’s got that kind of patience, especially not me.

The truth is, readers aren’t looking for perfection. They want characters that grab their attention (a hero with a six-pack definitely helps), a dash of danger, that romantic suspense tension, and all the steamy instalove feels. It also helps when there's no cliffhanger.

So yeah… I think it's close to being time for Lucky Escape to, well, escape my editing death-spiral. My eyes need a vacation, I'm running low on coffee, and my book is begging to be published. Enough really is enough.

Or is it? All going well, Lucky Escape, book 4 in my Hope Malone Lucky Break Series will be live in the next week, or so... Subscribe to my newsletter to make sure you're among the first to know when it goes live.