My recent release of Public Enemy, Undercover Lover is a monumental feat for me. Not because it’s my first release or a milestone number (though 12 is pretty cool). It was the first time I had two distinct story ideas, neither of which I thought could flush out a full novel, and I decided to mash them together into a single narrative.
Let me tell you—it was not easy!
The plot elements in this case were 1) enemies-to-lovers where the MCs are constantly having semi-public sexual encounters that eventually evolve into a real relationship (very PWP), and 2) long-lost son is discovered and tries to matchmake his father with his friend from collage who happen to be at odds.
Now, enemies-to-lovers is still the center of both stories, but when working these ideas into a single plotline, I needed a unique and compelling hook. I’d already had the idea in the son plot to have a thief at the center of things, and the MCs would have to work together to catch them. Since I’ve done romances between heroes and villains before, I wanted this to be different, and decided on competing security consultants—a former criminal and the former detective who put him in prison, setting up an interesting backstory between the two.
The trick was to make sure there were breadcrumbs leading to the thief’s true identity without it being too obvious, and to fit in the sexual escapades between the MCs in believable and progressive ways so that the romance continued to flourish.
I spent all my holiday break last year on perfecting this monstrosity, and I could not be happier with how it turned out or with the reviews that have come in so far.
“This book is packed with steaming hot lovin’ with tantalizing D/S themes that don’t disappoint, wrapped nicely in a gorgeous love story that leaves you rooting for these two fellas to figure their sexy crap out and get their happily ever after.” – K.L. Hiers READ MORE
“Isaac and Andrew's chemistry was so amazingly written that I could actually feel the air crackle with sexual tension every time they were in the same room.” – Anabela.M. READ MORE
Some advice for anyone who attempts what I did—TAKE NOTES. Keep a constant flow of notes as you map out the plot, the important elements to include, and how the side characters fit in, and have patience with yourself. I was right to mix these two stories together rather than to try and fabricate separate plots for each, but it was definitely a challenge.