Robin Kaye on wrting heroes and heroines who don’t like each other.

The third funny, sexy, contemporary romance from a fresh new voice in romance fiction

Rich, the epitome of “anti-domestic,” can’t cook to save his life, and his idea of cleaning his apartment is to invite his mother over. But he’s ready to settle down, and he can’t stop thinking about the ex-girlfriend who got away. When he notices that his soon-to-be-married friends cooked and cleaned their way into their women’s hearts, he asks his friend Becca to help transform him into a nurturing man to win back his ex.

Rich is the only guy who’s taken the time to know Becca for herself. She decides she’ll give him the makeover he’s asking for, though she’ll be damned if she’s going to turn him into a domestic god for another woman. She wants Rich for herself, but how can she convince him that her kitchen and her bedroom are the only domestic locales he desires?

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People are like onions­—they have lots of layers. I enjoy removing one layer at a time as I write my characters, discovering their true natures. This process is so much fun for me and hopefully you, the reader, when the characters dislike each other right from the get-go.

Writing heroes and heroines who clash gives me great conflict to work with right from the first page, and enough sexual tension to propel the plot forward. It’s one of my favorite plot devices and allows me to peel away those layers.

In Breakfast in Bed my hero and heroine don’t like each other when they first meet. Okay, Rich Ronaldi has nothing against Rebecca Larsen. But for Becca, it’s definitely dislike at first sight. When she finds out that, through no fault of her own, she’s stuck sharing the same apartment with Rich, all she can think of is how to get rid of him. Her apartment is her sanctuary, her escape from the social demands of family life and Brooklyn. Only now her sanctuary is occupied by a cocky guy who is too handsome for his (or her) own good.

Likewise, Rich isn’t happy that Becca has moved in. But when his girlfriend breaks up with him because he’s not relationship material, and his boss hints that it might be a good time for him to grow up, Rich takes a page from his Brothers-in-law’s books and decides to become a domestic god. He talks Becca into becoming his coach in return for a temporary home. He’s aware Becca doesn’t like him and decides to enjoy himself. Rich takes great pleasure in ruffling Miss prim-and-proper-ice-princess’ feathers and the fun begins.

I’ve always thought that love and hate are two sides of the same coin. You know if there’s enough emotion for people to really dislike the other, there’s enough emotion for the opposite to happen.

When Becca finds herself coaching Rich in the Domestic Arts in order for him to win back his ex, a whole set of new complications arise. She discovers the hero lurking under all those layers of cockiness.

Rich is so busy going after his ex, he is slow to realize that the woman he wants is right in front of him.

Rich and Becca, who seem destined to despise each other, are really a romance ready to happen. The fun is in getting them to realize it. Here is an excerpt:

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