A romantic game of chicken—and they’re both too stubborn to flinch.
Lucy Fairchild, lawyer and heiress to the Fairchild fortune, has just had the worst day of her life. Her father has found the perfect man for her to marry. Yes, she’s thirty and single, but that doesn’t give her father the right to run her life. She’ll choose her own husband—someday.
Jake Dalton is struggling to make his fledgling construction company a success. Ever mindful of his father’s derogatory comments that he’d never amount to anything, he’s spent his entire life trying to prove he’s not a failure.
From their first meeting on a construction site, verbal sparks fly. Their argument escalates into a dare for a date—and the game is on. Lucy thinks Jake is the perfect fake boyfriend to parade around in the hopes of getting her father off her back. Jake is amused by the chance to annoy both Lucy and her dad—he doesn’t intend to take the dating thing seriously.
But the heart is a fickle thing, and not above playing dirty. In their quest to prove something—to each other, or maybe to themselves—they find themselves building a case…for love.
And suddenly all the rules have changed.
Do you think it’s true that opposites attract?
I believe it, and I write about it often. Frankly, I tend to find when I create characters who are ‘opposites’, that by the end of the book, they’re not as opposite as they thought they were—or even as I thought they were.
It’s a fun theme to explore in romance—how two people with nothing in common find a common ground in which to launch their forever.
DARE TO LOVE, my book releasing from Samhain Publishing today, is very much an opposites attract kind of story. Lucy Fairchild is a rich heiress living in one of the finest areas in San Francisco. She’s always had a live of privilege, being the only daughter of a wealthy attorney who runs the Fairchild law firm. Since her mother died when she was a child, Lucy has been groomed to follow in her father’s footsteps, and that’s what she did. She’s now a partner in the firm, dutifully carrying on the Fairchild tradition of practicing law. But when her father tries to arrange a marriage for her with a man he finds suitable, Lucy balks. She can certainly choose her own man to marry and doesn’t need her father interfering.
When she runs into heckling construction workers as she’s pondering her father’s latest scheme to interfere in her life, she meets Jake Dalton, a man very much outside the realm of her world. Jake owns a construction company, is a self made man and hasn’t inherited a damn thing in his life. Abandoned by his parents at a young age, Jake has worked for everything he has now using sweat equity. Lucy is designer suits and evening gowns, and Jake is blue jeans and work shirts. Lucy is opera and charity events, and Jake is beer and barbeque. How could these two opposites possibly attract?
Of course, when they first meet there’s an instantaneous physical attraction. But beyond that, a curiosity, a fun antagonism between them, and a dare that neither of them are willing to back down from. It’s the dare that sets things in motion, and brings the two of them together long enough for them to realize that maybe they aren’t as opposite as they thought. And they begin to question everything they thought they knew about themselves and the lives they lead. Fun stuff!
I hope you’ll give DARE TO LOVE a try.
It’s available today from SAMHAIN PUBLISHING.
****Leave a comment for the chance to win a download from Jaci’s backlist at Samhain!
Good Morning!!
Congrats and happy release day Jaci! I’ve been so looking forward to this book and so glad it is Tuesday……..finally!! 🙂 Got my copy and plan to spend some quiet time (where nobody needs or wants me for anything) this afternoon reading!!!
[…] to Add: I’m also guest blogging over at NOVEL THOUGHTS today, and giving away a download of one of my Samhain backlist books. Come see […]
Oooh Happy Release Day!!! This book sounds great… I love conflict and drama, it adds spice to a story!!! 😀
Yes, I believe opposites attract… I have seen a few couples like that and are still together!
Hey Jaci.. congrats on the release day.. hubby and i are examples of opposites attract and weve been married 20 years..
Hi Jaci, this one sounds great. As a California girl, love that it’s set in San Francisco, and the opposites attract plot is one of my favorites.
Hey everyone! Thanks for stopping by today!
Blanche – thanks so much for getting the book! Hope you enjoy it.
Colleen – I know a lot of couples like that too.
Jolene – woo hoo on 20 years! Congrats!
Cathy – I used to live in SF. One of my favorite settings for a book!
Hi Jaci,
congrats on the release! My marriage too is an example of opposites attract, I talk and plan, he gets things done. It has worked for 30 years…
Love your books and this one sounds great!
*waving* Hi, Jaci!
Opposites attract, but I would say that it’s a willingness to see past the apparent differences and to bend to accommodate each other’s needs/tastes/preferences, that moves it from attraction into like, and from there to love.
Best of luck with the release!
Hi Jaci, sounds like a great book. I don’t usually buy ebooks, don’t have a reader, but since he’s a construction worker/owner. I might just have to. Hubby is a construction worker/home inspector. We aren’t exact opposites.LOL We find the longer we are together the more we are alike. And we seem to work off each other. He’s more work oriented than I am, and he’s more laid back that I am. I’ve become a LOT more laid back since being with him. I think the things that are different in a couple often are the things that make them a whole. Does that make sense?
The book sounds great and so is your post. Thanks for coming by and congrats on the release of the book.
hugs,
WendyK
Hey Jaci –
Just coming buy to say hi – like Fatin requested. I can’t wait until I get home and can get “Dare To Love.”
*Don’t consider me in the contest – I have all of Jaci’s backlist from Samhain.*
Eva – I thought my husband and I were opposites too. But the longer we’re married, the more I realize how those things we are opposites on really mesh well together. We get along quite well and we’re not as opposite as I once thought.
Hi Azteclady! Thanks for popping over! You are so right. You can’t mold someone you love into a caricature of yourself. How dull would that be? Being able to bend…and to accept differences…is essential in any good relationship!
Wendy – Thanks so much! And yeah I so get the laid back thing. My hubby is the same way. I was way more tense about things before I met him. Now I relax a lot more and let things roll off my back that I never used to. I’ve learned a lot from him.
Hi Jaci,
Happy Release Day. I do believe that opposites attract. Two different people somehow complement each other.
Jaci, I love the cover for your new book! Congrats! I definately believe opposites attract 😉 I havent met Mister Right yet but I believe he will be my opposite….thanks for writing about opposites. The blurb about your book sounds great and I would love to read more 🙂
Happy Release Day Jaci! I love that cover! Great storyline. I have always enjoyed that opposites attracting part of a story. So much fun!
Hi Jaci!
Congratulations on the new release! As for opposites attracting – yes I think it happens all the time. For opposites *working* it might be a bit trickier. I think it depends on how the people are opposites. For maybe everything but one, or a few [important] things, yes.
For a story, however, as many of the other comments have said, I love it!
congrats on the newest release. It sounds like a fantastic book. 🙂
Hi Greta! And thank you!
Cyclops – I agree. The complementary nature of opposites fascinates me. Strengths vs weaknesses. It’s like filling in the gaps for each other.
April – thanks so much! I love the cover too! And yeah there’s something very exciting about meeting someone who’s completely opposite who you are. Makes for fun conversations, too *g*
Hi Cherie – thanks for mentioning the cover, too! So glad y’all like it as much as I do. 🙂
Limecello – it’s true that the opposites thing doesn’t always work in real life, and I think because you have to be able to celebrate the things that make you different, not fight against them. But yes, makes for great romance stories doesn’t it? 🙂
Larena – thank you!
Hi Jaci
Congrats on the latest release.
While often opposites attract – there are different types of opposite. I think there are complimentary opposites (in the ‘their strengths fill your weaknesses’ sense) and also the mutual destruction opposites (more like gunpowder and a spark).
Either way makes for interesting reading (and life) though.
Hubby is the type that stresses about things…on the other hand, I think I balance him out because I’m more laid back that he is…at times he finds that annoying but other times it’s all good. *G*
Hey Jaci, Happy Release Day!!
I love opposites attract books. But I agree with John, there are different types of opposites attract, some work and others will tear each other apart. You have to have some kind of common ground to build on (now I am singing Breakfast at Tiffany’s in my head).
Oh, Jaci–this sounds like a great opposites-story! I always enjoy reading those, but in reality, sometimes the conflicts are less dramatic, and less fun 😉
Thanks for writing!
Looks very nice… always like to read about rich heroines, it makes a nice change!