Gwen Hayes

When sheltered teenager Theia Alderson meets Haden, the strikingly handsome new boy at her school who is the same compelling figure that has visited her in her dreams, she has no way of knowing the extent to which her life will ultimately be changed.

Falling under

Having returned to Serendipity Falls, Theia finds herself struggling with the same deadly hungers that have tortured Haden, and when students at their high school fall prey to a mysterious illness, she wonders whether Haden's control is slipping--and how much longer she'll have a grip on her own.

Dreaming Awake

What makes a romance novel a romance? How do you write a kissing book? Writing a well-structured romance isn't the same as writing any other genre-something the popular novel and screenwriting guides don't address. The romance arc is made up of its own story beats, and the external plot and theme need to be braided to the romance arc-not the other way around. Told in conversational (and often irreverent) prose, Romancing the Beat can be read like you are sitting down to coffee with romance editor and author Gwen Hayes while she explains story structure. The way she does with her clients. Some of whom are regular inhabitants of the New York Times and USA Today bestseller lists. Romancing the Beat is a recipe, not a rigid system. The beats don't care if you plot or outline before you write, or if you pants your way through the drafts and do a "beat check" when you're revising. Pantsers and plotters are both welcome. So sit down, grab a cuppa, and let's talk about kissing books.

Story Structure for Romance Novels

Romancing the Beat

Layney Logan, girl reporter. That's all she's ever wanted to be. This year, her senior year, not only does she have to share the coveted Senior Editor position with her arch nemesis, Jimmy Foster, she also has to figure out how to keep the school paper alive. With the local paper closing and the school cutting Journalism from the budget, it's a long shot. Working side-by-side with Foster, the guy she likes to call Lucifer,makes it even worse. The only thing Layney dislikes more than swimming in the high school dating pool is Jimmy Foster think he got the best of her, so she takes his ridiculous newspaper assignment--to go on twelve blind dates--to prove his powers of darkness won't work on her. The trouble is, the more she learns about herself on her journey of bad blind dates, the more she wonders if maybe Foster has known her better than she knows herself all this time. And maybe she should have trusted him with the secret she's kept for four years—the secret that broke them up to begin with.

So Over You

Butterface

Scene from Haden's POV

Winning Back His Wife

Candace Havens

Rosemary Clement-Moore

Jill Monroe

Shannon Leigh

You never know what you’ll get when … Mr. Virile and the Girl Next Door by Gwen Hayes Seduction is the name of the game when two rival dating advice darlings agree to be romantically linked to boost publicity. But all bets are off when they take the battle of the sexes from the web to the bed! Tycoon Reunion by Candace Havens and Shannon Leigh Sparks fly when a project brings a heartbreaker back to town and into the path of the woman he left behind. He’s determined to win her over in the boardroom … and the bedroom! Passionate Persuasion by Rosemary Clement-Moore A hot playboy who has left a string of hearts in his wake can’t forget the cellist who haunted his fantasies. Now it is his turn to usehis power of persuasion to prove he’s the only man to keep her satisfied. Date on the Run by Jill Monroe When a reporter mistakes a hard-bodied military man for a crime source, she soon finds it’s just as much fun undressing her new bodyguard as it is uncovering her latest case… Four stories, four dates. How can these dates by mistake turn into love ever after?

Date by Mistake

The Duke of Fenwick is a reprobate. Which is why it has always been up to Teddy Middleton, the second son, to run the estate and both their lives. But the Duke is full of surprises--the latest one a wedding. For Teddy. To the Duke's best friend's sister, Juliette. Finding herself in church for her own surprise wedding was unnerving, to be sure. But to avoiding scandal seemed to be the most prudent thing to do, so Juliette said, "I do." She'd make the best of it and hope Teddy wouldn't be harder to take care of than her previous household had been. She simply had no idea how she could manage two estates on her own. After a disastrous wedding night, Teddy and Juliette don't have very high hopes for a life of wedded bliss. As they forge ahead with resolute chagrin, it begins to dawn on them both that they are allies in the same war for sanity among their crazy relations. Mutual admiration turns to friendship which turns to...something neither one ever expected. But the Duke has one more surprise for them both--one that will change everything.

Second Son of a Duke

When sixteen-year-old Carrington Morris attends an 80s themed dance at her high school, she inadvertently travels back in time to 1986 and quickly latches on to the only person she "knows"--her 16-year-old mother, Heather. Forced to navigate a world with New Coke, an MTV that plays actual music videos, and a mother who takes her to keggers and tries to set her up with the future mayor, Carri worries that she will screw up her future like she's seen in the movies, so she befriends three nerds (who else would understand the time-space continuum?) One of those nerds, Nate, might have the key to her time travel...and her heart When her mother's tragic past catches up to Carri's present, she'll need to walk a mile in Heather's jelly shoes if she's going to save both of their futures. Totally Tubular is a time travel young adult and teen romance novel set in Serendipity Falls, made popular in the Falling Under Series by Gwen Hayes. It is written for teens--but anyone who loves or grew up in the 1980s will love it. Slip on your sunglasses at night and enjoy a trip back in time without the need for a hot tub time machine.

An 80s Time Travel Novel

Totally Tubular

Romancing the Beat: Story Structure for Romance Novels (How to Write Kissing Books, #1)

Oh Goddess

Violet Merriweather first sets eyes on Colonel Winston when he purchases her at auction from Witherspoon Academy, the orphanage where she'd been raised. Dutifully, as she was taught, Violet pushes away her fear of the monstrous, forbidding Thornfield Abbey, and throws herself into her work as governess to the colonel's youngest son. It's his elder sons, one a cordial scientist and one a midnight rogue, that tempt her as they battle for her affections. Affections she can ill afford for either of them if she wants to keep her employment. But something is preying on the women of New Geneva, something that threatens to unleash the ghosts of Thornfield and drag them all into hell. And that something wants Violet most of all. Ours is Just a Little Sorrow is a retro-futuristic Victorian Gothic Romance. A love letter to Mary Shelley's The Modern Prometheus and Victoria Holt's entire career. Plus steampunk, just because.

Ours is Just a Little Sorrow

A retiring soldier with no family of his own, Sergeant Joe Carter reluctantly agrees to spend the holidays in picturesque Silver Pines to transition to life after the Army. He's a drifter now and has no business getting involved with his buddy's family-especially with the sweet little sister who pretends she's frumpy to ward off attention from men. He should let her be, but something about her loneliness reaches out to his. The only introvert in a large family of extroverts, Lisa Rhodes finds her peace by fading into the background as much as possible. She lives a quiet life, wearing her shapeless clothes and boring hair like armor to atone for a past she's not proud of. But there's one problem this Christmas-her brother's guest keeps seeing her. She's never had trouble escaping a man's notice -especially one who could have any woman he wants. But the harder she tries to hide, the more determined he is to seek. When It's Love is the third book in the Silver Pine Series, but may be read out of order.

A Silver Pines Christmas

When It's Love

Let Me Call You Sweetheart

The Ogre from the Hill Simon Powell, the town recluse, only comes to town to deliver firewood and get supplies. Two days before Christmas, he sees the new librarian's car in a ditch and knows he can't leave him on the road, but it's too late to take him back to town. He'll have something he's never had in his cabin in the ten years that's he's lived there…company. The Book Nerd from the City Adam Parker moved to the small community to make big changes in his life, but being snowbound with the bearded lumberjack in his rustic cabin was something he'd thought only existed in his fantasies. Simon pushes away anyone who wants to get close to him, but Adam sees what he's hiding in his heart and he wants it. Badly. A Christmas to Remember Adam smells like cinnamon and redemption and Simon aches to reignite feelings he's denied himself for too long. But he learned long ago that everything he touches gets tainted, and he'll do anything to keep his darkness away from Adam's light. But Adam has something else on his side—he's been a very good boy this year and all he wants for Christmas is Simon.

The Librarian Checks out the Lumberjack

Don't Stop Believing

The Chosen

Mr. Virile and the Girl Next Door by Gwen Hayes Online virile.com dating columnist Dane Martin has no plans to give up his reign as bachelor extraordinaire. He has a reputation to uphold, especially with the upcoming release of his book Coming on Strong. Holly Winters, everyone's favorite girl next door, thanks to her blog of the same name, gives advice, but she doesn't always take it. When she meets Dane Martin, every fiber of her being warns her to turn tail and run. Instead, she risks her future as an authority on relationships, jeopardizing her upcoming self-help book for women struggling to find commitment among the Virile sycophants. Has the Girl Next Door tamed the most Virile man alive, or is she just another notch on the bedpost?

Gwen Hayes

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