Why did you call your series,
Thirsty Hearts?

All the heroines are looking for something, longing for something. They
have lost love, troubled love, problems hanging on to love. Plus, I’m a fan of
cocktails, and each one has a signature drink—except for Shannon in Cherishing You. She’s a recovering
addict.

What’s the first book, Charming
You, about?

Charming You features
Micky and Nick as my heroine and hero. They meet when Nick helps her jumpstart
her car, and sparks fly between them. The problem is that Nick may or may not
have a fiancée—even he’s not sure at the beginning—and Micky’s last boyfriend
was a total pig, so she’s gun-shy. It doesn’t help that Nick has a double
agenda. He’s under pressure from his law firm to dig up information about the
company where Micky works, but he’s also starting to fall for her. Micky has to
get over her trust issues, but that’s hard to do with a guy who’s not being
totally honest. Plus, Nick has the complication of his ex-fiancée. The question
is: how can Nick untangle his personal and professional life and get to a place
where he deserves Micky’s trust?

They have instant chemistry
which makes them exciting, and underneath all the issues they have, they want
the same things. They are both goal-oriented. Once they know what they want,
they go after it. They just have to wind their way around to wanting the right
things — especially Nick. He’s been on one track in his personal and
professional life, and it takes him a while to realize that his plan is
nonsense and trying to hold onto that dream or any version of it is too problematic.
For Micky, she just wants a nice guy. Like a lot of women, she’s wondering why
that’s so much to ask. Nick looks like that guy, and I hope the reader sees how
he could be — but he has to make different choices.

What was your favorite scene
to write?

That’s a hard one. I like when
my characters first start to be aware of their attraction to each other. So
some of the flirty scenes at the beginning of the book are fun. I like creating
the repartee between Micky and Nick — especially the scene where Nick gets
pretty blunt with Micky about how he feels. He says something to Micky that
leaves her speechless. I liked shocking her.

What was the toughest scene
to write?

Any sex scene — seriously, when
I started writing, I didn’t realize how hard it was to write love scenes and
have them be different. No one wants to read the same scene over and over
again. People get enough of that in real life, right? But besides that, the big
reveal scene where Micky and Nick fight. I don’t want to get too specific. I
had to work at choreographing that scene to get it right.

Charming You is the
first book in a series. Where do you pick up in the next book?

The second novel, Choosing
You, picks up Taryn’s story. In Charming You, we first meet
Taryn and her fiancé Jeff as they are planning their wedding. Everything is
going according to plan until Jeff’s first wife shows up and wants to insert
herself back in Olivia’s life. Olivia is Jeff’s daughter. Taryn was going to
adopt her. Jeff has a lot on his plate with the wedding and selling his
business so he just wants to keep Shannon pacified. And he also wants to help
her. He still feels sorry for her since she had a troubled life. Taryn, on the
other hand, is convinced that Shannon is up to no good. That conflict brings up
a lot of issues in their relationship. Plus, Shannon has brought her second
husband with her, and he’s nothing but trouble. Taryn just wants to get down
the aisle, and she and Jeff both start to doubt whether that’s going to happen.

Taryn and Jeff were so in
love in Charming You. Why does the ex-wife cause so much trouble?

Jeff has a real hero complex.
Shannon knows how to plug into that and get him to save her over and over
again. Taryn sees how manipulative that is, and it drives her crazy that, in
her mind, Jeff falls for it. Plus, Taryn gets jealous. Here she was about to
adopt Olivia and have this great family and Shannon pops up. Taryn is kind of a
bulldog, which causes her trouble with Jeff. He doesn’t think he’s falling for
anything, and he’s convinced that he’s got everything under control. He resents
it when Taryn keeps pushing certain issues and thinks she doesn’t trust him.

In the book, you have some
scenes from Shannon’s perspective. Why introduce her point of view?

Shannon’s perspective becomes a
good contrast for how Jeff sees her and how Taryn sees her, which is the
central conflict of the book. I didn’t plan to do that, but as I was writing, I
kept wondering: how bad is she going to be? I thought about making her really
nasty, but then the more I wrote, the more I kind of liked her—even though she
has serious problems. About half way through, I thought of a storyline for her
that would be a book all on its own, so then it was important to me to make
sure you understood her. Otherwise, from the outside, it’s easy to just hate
her and be done with her, which would also make Jeff seem really stupid for
having any faith in her at all.

Shannon’s book is Cherishing
You, right?

Yes. Originally, I had planned
to write book three about Alexa, Taryn’s cousin, but I got obsessed with how
Shannon was going to pull it together. I kept doing terrible things to her, and
I couldn’t just leave her that way although I end up putting her through the
wringer more in book three. She meets Jonah Moran—who showed up at the end of Charming
You. He has some drama with his father that I didn’t explain in the first
book, but we find out what that is in Cherishing You. They come from
completely different backgrounds. Jonah comes from loads of family money, and
Shannon grew up in foster care—with no real family. Forget family money. They
have an intense physical attraction that turns into something deeper, but if
you read the first book and you see how the Morans operate, you know they
aren’t going to love Shannon. Also, as much as Shannon wants to leave her past
behind her, her old life and the people in it still haunt her. Jonah and
Shannon have to figure out how to step out of where they come from and be
together. That’s gets more and more complicated throughout the story.

You say that you liked
Shannon, so why torture her?

I didn’t mean to. Things happen
to her. I think many of us know those people who make terrible decisions and
that causes them problems, but then that seems to also create a cloud of
trouble that follows them. They really have the worst luck where a lot of
things happen and it’s really not their fault. That shitstorm makes it hard for
them to ever think they deserve anything better or that they can do anything to
improve themselves. That’s Shannon’s struggle. I was rooting for her, and she
knows how to survive, which is her greatest asset. Anyway, it’s not all
torture for Shannon. She and Jonah have a lot of fun. A lot. Over and over.

So what about the other
characters? What are their greatest assets or your favorite things about them?

In Charming You, I like
how Micky stands up for herself. Nick is charming and fun. You see that when
he’s with his family. In the second book with Taryn and Jeff, Taryn is fierce
and pretty fearless. Jeff is the most kind-hearted of the bunch, but he’s also
practical. That’s a unique combination to be an idealist and a pragmatist.
Shannon is a survivor, and Jonah—when he wants to be—is a shark. He has an edge
to him, but when he falls hard for Shannon, that’s fun to watch.

What’s next?

I’m circling back to Alexa’s
story in a fourth book called Chasing You. I just finished a prequel to
book four with Alexa, called Her London
Fling. That’s a novella, and then I have the book itself mapped out. We’ll
see what ends up happening. Sometimes you think your characters are going to do
one thing, but then once you start writing, they do something else. Chasing
You will be out before summer. Alexa is going to have two heroes to
wrangle, and she’s going to have to choose the right guy. Also, I like
Vivienne, Nick’s ex and Jonah’s sister. I’d like to give her a love story down
the road. 

Can she trust the charm of an
ambitious man?

 Back Cover Copy from Charming You:

Micky Llewellyn has trusted men
before—with disastrous results. Now, she’s focused on her career, her friends,
and making sure she doesn’t let another charming man lie to her and break her
heart.  

Nick Halden’s life has unfolded
according to plan. He’s on track to a partnership at one of Dallas’ premier law
firms, and he’s marrying a woman who has the beauty, smarts, and connections to
be the perfect wife. Or he thought he was.  

Fate and a dead car battery
throw Micky and Nick together, forcing them to question what they want. Nick’s
charm makes Micky’s heart pound with desire and her gut twist with mistrust.
Micky’s fire awakens a passion in Nick that flips his world upside down. With
his personal and professional lives colliding in chaos, Nick has one way to
make sure he gets what he wants, but it means betraying the woman he craves.
 

In their struggle to balance
love and ambition, Micky and Nick will have to decide what they want and at
what cost before they lose the one thing that matters. 

Review from GOODREADS:

“I loved this! 

While mixed with romance and comedy are my
favorite things, this story offers so much to readers. During the popular times
of ‘50 Shades’ styled novels, Charming
You brings out the classy, heartfelt storyline, while still getting steamy.
This is definitely worth reading.”

Buy Links:

Amazon – http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1944460063/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1944460063&linkCode=as2&tag=keitrefi-20&linkId=KQBNDY3F7TJMUWWB

Kobo – https://store.kobobooks.com/en-us/ebook/charming-you

Smashwords – https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/603950

iBooks – https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/charming-you/id1071477037?mt=11

Excerpt from Charming You

Sweat beaded on her brow. The
September temperatures still hovered above eighty, even as the sun faded. Micky
looked around the emptying parking garage and pulled her cell phone out of her
purse to call the auto club and explain her dilemma.

“Yes, Ms. Llewellyn. We
can have a technician there in forty-five minutes to an hour.”

“No chance they’d get here
sooner?” Micky questioned hopefully.

“Possibly, but at rush
hour on a Friday, that’s the best we can do.”

She ran a fatigued hand through
her dark chocolate, shoulder-length waves and then wiped her forehead with the
back of her hand. She hated to be a kink in her brother’s plans.

She called Pete.

“Bad news. My car battery
died, and I’m going to be late.”

“Shit. How dead is
dead?” Micky heard Clarissa Langley, Pete’s girlfriend, inquire in the
background.

“I turn the key and hear
nothing but clicks and the faint laughter of the gods,” Micky quipped.
“AAA is on the way. Is your mother there yet?”

“Not yet.”

She turned her key in vain and
prayed for a mini-miracle. A sharp knock on the driver-side window startled her
into a loud curse.

Micky looked up into crisp
green eyes framed by the longest, darkest eyelashes she’d ever seen. The
chiseled angles of his face mesmerized her until she remembered she was in a
downtown parking garage. Alone. Lord only knows what this guy wanted.

“Who’s that?” Pete
asked.

“I don’t know. Some
man.”

“Do I need to call the
police?”

“Uhhh.” She paused
and surveyed the man leaning over her car. “I doubt it. Do serial killers
wear Hermes ties and look like Cary Grant?”

“You never know.”

“It’s fine,” she told
her brother. “I’ll give you a call when the auto club guy gets here.”

“Sooner if you think
you’re headed for dismemberment and a crawl space. Or later if he buys you
dinner.” Micky laughed at Pete’s suggestion before he reversed himself.
“Scratch that. I need you here.”

“He doesn’t look like the
crawl space type. And I’ll make it at some point.”

They said their goodbyes and
hung up. Without power, she couldn’t roll down the window, so she cautiously
opened the car door.

“Hello.” The
green-eyed man smiled. “Are you having some trouble?”

“Umm…my car won’t start.
I’ve already called the auto club. They’re on their way.”

“Oh, well, I’m right
here,” he turned and pointed to the dark blue Mercedes parked next to her.
“I’ve got jumper cables if you need a start.”

The man tossed his dark blue
suit jacket into the passenger seat of his car, removed his expensive silk tie,
and began rolling up his sleeves. By now, Micky had climbed out of her car and
stood next to him, acutely aware of his height. He had to be at least six foot
three. He looked down at her even though she wore three-inch heels that
heightened her already tall, five-foot-eight frame.

He was hot. There was no
denying that, and it made Micky immediately suspicious. Not that he meant her
harm, but in her experience, good-looking, charming men were often times up to
no good.

Slightly shaggy, dark brown
hair fell in his face when he leaned over, framing startling green eyes. His
smile was warm and gentle. Micky took note of his lean but muscular body with
its broad shoulders and masculine, athletic grace.

Heat washed over her, and not
from the weather. His tan hand extended toward his car, and she wondered what
those strong fingers would feel like on her body.

God, he’s a complete
stranger. Her throat went dry. She pursed her lips and shook her head like
an Etch-a-Sketch to erase the images springing up in her mind.

“So, do you want a jump
start?”

Her body screamed,
“Yes!” But, she managed to pull it together enough to answer about
her car.

“I think I do.” Her
voice was husky from the surprising rise of desire within her as much as from
her previous week’s illness. “No harm in trying. If that’s not the
problem, the AAA guy will figure it out when he gets here.”

He popped his hood, then his trunk,
and pulled out an emergency kit much like the one she kept telling herself she
should get.

“I keep telling myself I
should get one of those,” she confessed, stepping between their cars.

“You should. I bought them
for my mom and my sister.”

“Just the women?”

He laughed and walked back to
the front of his car. “All I have is women.”

“How gallant,” Micky
replied.

“I try. Do you have
brothers and sisters?”

“I have a brother,”
she said. “That’s who I was talking to on the phone.”

“Are you close?” he
asked, shouting as he opened the hood of his car. Micky climbed into her car to
pull the lever by her knee and pop the hood.

“Yes, actually,” she
shouted back. “It would have been nice to have a sister.”

“I can see that. I always
wanted a brother,” her handsome savior said, standing in front of her car
and reaching inside for the release hatch to fully raise the hood. He fiddled
for several seconds, but couldn’t get it open. “Hey, do you know how this
thing works?”

Micky walked up beside him. Her
fingers probed under the hood, brushing against his in the small space. He
smelled incredible – tangy, salty spice. She found the latch and quickly
released it.

“You just have to know
where to push,” Micky said, looking up at him.

She inhaled his scent, and the
heat of his strong body next to hers triggered an acute awareness of his
proximity. His brilliant, emerald eyes sparked as he looked down at her. Micky
wasn’t vain, but she knew men often admired her statuesque frame. She avoided
his eyes and gazed down, noticing the top button of her blouse had come undone,
and she was revealing a bit more cleavage than she intended.

He grinned at her. “Well,
isn’t that always how it is.” With that, he quickly hooked the cables to
each car battery and commanded her to try her key again. She turned the
ignition and her car rumbled to life.

“Fabulous,” the sexy
stranger exclaimed, leaning over her open car door.

“Thanks so much…?”
Micky trailed off, not knowing his name.

“Nick.” He presented
his soiled right hand then withdrew it. “Nick Halden. I work at Winston
Stratford.”

Micky recognized the first two
names on the long list of partners in the law firm occupying the top four
floors of the building. Now she understood how he afforded the Hermes tie.

“We’ll shake hands another
time,” she responded after a brief pause. “I’m Micky Llewellyn. I
work in marketing at Azur, the tech firm on the fifth floor.”

Nick raised his eyebrows. What
did he think she did for a living?

“Pleased to meet you,
Micky.”

“I’d better be going. If I
leave now, I can be slightly rather than egregiously late.” She rolled
down the window and closed her car door.

“Big Friday night
plans.”

“Not especially. Just
dinner with family.”

“The brother?”

“Yes. And my stepmother,
who is a real stickler for promptness.”

“Lovely.” He said
with a deep, rich laugh. “Well, I won’t keep you, but I will ask you a
favor.”

“What’s that?” Micky
asked.

“I think you owe me a
drink. How about tomorrow?”

“Owe? That doesn’t sound
like a favor.”

“A favor in return for
services rendered.”

“I can agree to that. But,
I don’t know about tomorrow. Give me a call on Monday.” She lied. As she
dug a business card out of her purse, she knew she should have just agreed, but
she didn’t want to appear too eager or to rush into anything. That had bitten her
in the past.

So what if she’d probably spend
the whole weekend working instead of allowing herself the distraction of drinks
with a handsome, successful man who looked like sin in a suit? He was probably
used to getting whatever woman he wanted, whenever he wanted.

“I’ll definitely call you.
It’s not every day I get to be the white knight for a beautiful woman.”

Nick gave her a charming smile
that quickened her pulse. Suspicion inched up her spine even as the warmth of
his gaze invaded her belly. Micky had horrible luck with charmers. The last one
made her week from hell seem like a hangnail. She smiled at her well-dressed
white knight and backed out of her parking space.

As she drove off, she couldn’t
help but take another peek at him in her rearview mirror. Jesus, he’s hot.

Maybe her luck wasn’t so bad
after all. At least she hoped so.

Author Bio:

Kris Jayne is a devoted
writer, reader, and traveler. She spends her days blissfully sweating out
the writing process in the Dallas area with her dog, Otis the Shih Tzu (DNA
verified after being told he was a Lhasa Apso).

Her debut Thirsty Hearts series
launches in 2016 with three books—Charming You, Choosing You,
and Cherishing You—available on Valentine’s Day. She’s begun work
on the fourth book in the series, Chasing You, which will be
available in the spring. The novella Her London Fling, an extended
prologue to Chasing You, is also available on February 14.

Her passion for writing is only
matched by her passion for the adventures of travel. In 2008, she let a friend
talk her into sleeping outside for the first time in her life when she climbed
Mount Kilimanjaro.

P.S. If you’re buying her a
gift, she has a penchant for single-malt Scotch and scarves.

About Kris Jayne

http://krisjayne.com

http://thirstyheartsbooks.com

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