Caught Up in RAINE
A Novel by L.G. O’Connor
Collins-Young Publishing Ÿ April 2016
ISBN: 978-0-990738-12-1
(Trade Paperback) Ÿ $16.95
ISBN: 978-0-990738-15-2
(eBook) Ÿ $3.99
Usually, I am not a contemporary reader but this book changed my mind.
Ms. O'Connor has given her characters such depth and appeal you can never forget them. Both Raine and Jillian come to life from the pages they are strong and damaged. The age difference becomes a brief factor for Jillian but never for Raine.
Raine is matured beyond his 24 years having suffered at the hands of an abusive father. Jillian has lost so many people in her life she has given up on happiness and love.
In reading this book for me the age difference 18 years was never a factor but I interpreted as the strength they both needed. The twists and turns in the story to bring it to a full circle are exquisitely done by this author. I would highly recommend this book and look forward to the two upcoming sequels.
~JOANN MAGGIO~
Publication Date: April 18, 2016
Media Inquiries | Interview and Excerpt Requests
Contact: Kim Miller,
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L.G. O’Connor | Author
Caught Up in
RAINE by
L.G. O’Connor
An
unforgettable debut in romantic women’s fiction, Caught Up in RAINE captures the struggle of a woman who must
reconcile guilt from her past with the promise of a future as her life
intersects with a much younger man who offers her a second chance to get
“caught up” in love on her road to redemption.
“Don’t judge a book by its cover model”
Forty-two
and widowed, romance writer Jillian Grant believes hospitals equal death.
Plagued by loss and convinced more is imminent when her aunt ends up in
critical condition after heart surgery; she has come to equate the absence of
pain with happiness. When she spots a hot, young
landscaper working on the hospital grounds with an eerie resemblance to the
male lead in her next novel, she convinces him to pose as her cover model.
Working multiple jobs to put himself through
college, twenty-four-year-old Raine MacDonald is no stranger to loss. Behind
his handsome face and rockin’ body lies family tragedy and agonizing secrets. When circumstances put him
back in the path of his abusive father, fate delivers Jillian as his unwitting
savior. Thing is, when he thinks of her, his thoughts are far from platonic.
Despite their age difference, Jillian and Raine discover
they’re more alike than they could ever imagine. But torn between facing her own fears and
grasping a chance at happiness, Jillian makes a soul-shattering decision that
threatens to blow their world apart.
Distributed by
Ingram, CAUGHT UP IN RAINE is available in both Trade Paperback and eBook
formats and can be purchased wherever fine books are sold.
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About the Author:
L.G. O’Connor is a member of the Romance Writers of America. A corporate
strategy, branding, and marketing executive for a Fortune 250 company, she
writes adult paranormal and contemporary romance. Caught Up in RAINE is the first romantic women’s fiction novel in
her Caught Up in Love series. She is also
the author of the four-book urban fantasy / paranormal romance series The Angelorum Twelve Chronicles. The
third full length novel in that series, Book
of Four Rings, is set to launch in 2016. L.G. lives a life of adventure,
navigating her way through dog toys and soccer balls. When she’s feeling
particularly brave, she enters the kitchen . . .
Find & Follow L.G. O’Connor
Online:
Book site: www.caughtupinraine.com
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Q&A with LG O’Connor, author of Caught Up in RAINE
1. Why do you write what you
write?
LGO: Great
question! I’ve been an avid reader my entire life, and have read everything
from classics to pulp. Being a fast reader, I’ve never let the size of a book
deter me. If anything, the bigger the better as long as the story is good and
the characters are engaging. I read to escape with characters I can love, and
for that profound ‘something’ the leaves me with a book hangover when I’m
finished. I try to write with the same things in mind, and since I like to
stick with characters for a little while, I’m drawn to series. But when it gets
down to it, I write books that I want to read.
2. Given that you are still
in the middle of writing an epic Urban Fantasy / Paranormal Romance series that
won’t be fully released until mid-2017, what inspired you to switch genres
midstream and write a romantic women’s fiction novel?
LGO: Funny,
I didn’t choose to be a writer, it chose me. The same thing happened with this
story. The first chapter in CUIR was inspired by something that actually
happened to me, and became the impetus for writing the book.
Late on a
Friday afternoon in August 2013, I made a trip to the hospital to see my
childhood friend’s father who had emergency heart surgery. Just like Vera, he
was eighty-two years old. I’d known him my entire life, and loved him like an uncle.
When I arrived—having just completed a dialysis treatment—he was fast asleep. So
I sat there quietly for about an hour and reflected. It was the last time I saw
him alive.
At the time
of my visit, I was working on final copyedits for my first novel, TRINITY
STONES. One of the series characters is rock star, Brett King, who physically
resembles the model on the cover of CUIR. When I was leaving the hospital
grounds that day, I spotted a landscaping crew planting trees. You guessed
it…one of the landscapers looked just like Brett. Tanned, muscular, long blond
hair… I was so tempted to jam on the brakes and ask to take his picture. Of
course, I didn’t. But that left me with the question: what would’ve happened if
I had? The result is Caught Up in RAINE.
3. Are there any writers in
the contemporary romance / women’s fiction genres who particularly influenced
you?
LGO: First,
let me talk a little bit about new adult, which is a sub-genre of contemporary
romance. Despite the fact this book doesn’t qualify due to Jillian’s age, that
sub-genre is what inspired me. Interesting, if it were reversed, and Jillian
was Raine’s age? It would qualify.
When I wrote
CUIR, new adult was taking off. I adored the immediacy of using dual first
person point-of-view. I decided to go the route of Jasinda Wilder and use first
person, present tense. There are a lot of people who find it akin to nails on a
chalkboard, but I think it lends itself to a fast-moving story with deep
point-of-view. Even though CUIR is classified as romantic women’s fiction, I
used the conventions I loved so much in new adult because it was just plain fun
to write, and added the energy that I was looking for.
As for the
writers who inspired me? The epicenter of it all was Jasinda Wilder’s book, Falling Into You. By then, I’d already
read and fallen in love with Cora Carmack’s Faking
It, Laura Kaye’s Hearts in Darkness,
and Jamie McGuire’s Beautiful Disaster
which left me with a book hangover for about a week. Others I’ve discovered and
enjoyed since then: H.M. Ward’s Damaged:
The Ferro Family, Karina Halle’s The Pact, Vi Keeland’s Worth the Fight, anything by Katy
Regnery, Jennifer Armentrout (writing as J. Lynn), and Maya Banks.
4. I understand this book was
written during National Novel Writing Month in 2013, is that correct?
LGO: Yes!
That question: “What would’ve happened if I’d stopped my car and asked that
landscaper to pose as my cover model?” kept rolling around in my head. I’d just
turned in the final pages of TRINITY STONES to the publisher, and the first
draft of the second novel in the series was staring me in the face. Then in
mid-October 2013, I had this weird schedule where I needed to be in Pennsylvania
for work three days in a row. I live in New Jersey, so that was a three hour commute
each day. On the morning of the first day, the question of the landscaper can
back up and grabbed me with a vengeance. I’m a sworn pantser, but by the end of
the third day, I had voice recorded an entire outline for the novel. That was a
first for me.
My pen hit
the proverbial page, and by the start of NaNo on November 1st, I had
over 25,000 words written. By Black Friday, I’d finished the novel with more
than 50,000 words written during the month of November, for a final word count
of 82,000 words. My critique partner read the story as I wrote it, so revisions
were being made simultaneously to the story being written. My editor, who was
also one of my NaNo buddies, was on standby to copyedit the manuscript as soon
as it was completed. My goal was to make a December contest deadline. Honestly,
I’m not sure how I did it. The book grew organically out of my brain and
through my fingertips. I wish every book was like that…
5. That contest was the RWA
Golden Heart® Contest, wasn’t it? How did you do?
LGO: Yes, it
was! That year was the last time I would qualify as an unpublished writer,
since, technically, the only contract I’d signed at the time was a distribution
agreement with She Writes Press.
It wasn’t
until a month after the Golden Heart® finalists were announced that
I’d received the results. I’d only missed the cut by 1 point. I found that
extremely encouraging given the number of contest applicants.
6. You used a local setting close
to where you live. Any particular reason why you chose suburban towns rather
than the big city locales of your fantasy series?
LGO: Well,
for one, I’ve lived in all these places J I’m a
former resident of both Chatham and Summit, and currently live about ten
minutes from downtown Morristown. I chose a local setting and venues for a
couple of specific reasons. Since this was a NaNoWriMo project, I needed to
spend my time writing, not researching. Choosing a local setting gave me the
advantage of knowing the locations well enough to write from my own experience.
Another advantage in “staying local” is that it gives me a logistical advantage
to go deep in my local market without traveling, and yet bring all those
relationships and resources to bear. Plus, I get a warm feeling driving through
downtown Morristown, and seeing the real-life buildings that I patterned my
CUIR locations after… I sometimes wonder if I’ll spot someone who looks like Raine
walking across the Green.
7. One of the big questions I
think many will have is the age of your heroine, and the choice to do a reverse
May-December romance. Are you afraid this may impact your chances to capture a
romance audience? Also, this book focuses a lot on the romance and is written
in dual first person point-of-view, which gives the male lead equal footing in
the narrative – how do you think this will impact your women’s fiction readers?
LGO: In a
lot of ways, this is just as much Raine’s story as it is Jillian’s, which
distinguishes CUIR from hardcore women’s fiction.
As for
Jillian, I think the market needs more books like this for the demographic of
readers out there. I think Jillian’s voice resonates with women of a certain
age, I being one of them. Jillian is an attractive woman in her 40s, but she’s
far from dead. Yet there’s this negative connotation out there about women over
forty in the romance market, signaling to me an underserved segment of readers.
Jillian
struggles in a very real way over the age difference between herself and Raine.
She’s not a cougar looking for young men. Yet that’s how the market is showcasing
stories about older women in this scenario. In CUIR, my intent is to
realistically show how an almost impossible pairing can be near perfect based
on who these individuals are, and what has shaped them.
I think this
book will resonate broadly across markets. However, traditional women’s fiction
tends to have a higher level of angst and complexity than I write. As much as I
enjoy a good Jodi Picoult book, you won’t find that level of intensity here. I
try to use enough angst without making it the entire focus of the story. As a
result, this book is more of a hybrid between contemporary romance and woman’s
fiction, hence the “romantic women’s fiction” moniker. In it you’ll have spicy
love scenes, and a “happily ever after” that is well deserved.
8. Is it true that this book
may be part of a trilogy?
LGO: Hmm. I
can answer that two ways. Caught Up in
RAINE will have two companion novelettes that follow it, so I guess you
could say it is a trilogy. Kind of. However, I’ve just finished the first draft
of a second full length novel with the working title, Shelter My Heart, about Jillian’s niece Jenny and a young
CEO-in-training. In it, many of the CUIR characters reprise their roles. I’m
also planning on writing a third book that involves… Well, I’ll keep that one a
secret for now. That said, I’m not going to declare it a series yet J
9. Are there themes that tie this
potential trilogy together beside the family connection between the main female
characters?
LGO: There
are two driving themes, really. Each of the female protagonists harbors a
shameful secret, and in their own way, they’re all seeking redemption. It’s about
finding second chances, and surrendering yourself over to living your best
life.
About Collins-Young Publishing:
Collins-Young Publishing LLC is an
independent publishing company founded with the mission to bring quality books
to market with the same traditional publishing distribution and advantages as
larger more established imprints. Every editorial and marketing team member has
been vetted as an expert and has social presence in the marketplace. The goal
of CYP is to produce top quality books indistinguishable from its competitors.
Author acceptance is by invitation only. Not open to submissions.
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