The monthly Author’s Challenge on Instagram gave the prompt today of “Your WIP in a sentence”. I find this to be the perfect opportunity to officially announce our next novel! It’s been mentioned a few times now in previous posts, but never to any great detail. Let me begin by sharing the one sentence that describes this work in progress.
A dating app promising to set people up on a blind date with their ‘perfect match’ ends up pairing two people who hated each other back in high school.
This is a Valentine’s Day romance that’s intended to be more funny and lighthearted than Redemption. The leads are completely different from Dove and Burley, and instead of starting out as strangers, they have an unpleasant history together that they’ll have to overcome.
The app we’ve created in this story is called Cupid’s Arrow. (A Valentine’s Day themed title, of course!) We wanted to use a dating app to get our characters together, yet we wanted to give it a unique spin. So this app pairs people through blind dates. Instead of looking through a sea of applicants to find the hottest faces, it has people fill out an extensive questionnaire. It promises to find people their perfect match.
We plan for this app to be the basis of a series of holiday themed romances. We already know what plot the sequel book will have. It was actually our original idea, but it’s more complex and is going to need more time than we have to give it right now. So we’ll bring it back out later, to prepare for V Day 2021. For this year, we came up with a different story revolved around this Cupid’s Arrow app.
So who are the main characters this time around? They’re in their 30s and both feel as if their lives are in a rut. One with career problems, the other with broken heart problems, neither of them want to spend another Valentine’s Day alone. They both went through a similar ugly duckling kind of transformation; childhood nerds who blossomed into attractive adults.
Meet Emily. Once a shy and quiet teenager, now an outgoing and confident adult. She’s pessimistic and sarcastic. Never had much luck finding a man to settle down with, but then again, never tried all that hard. She devoted more of her time to her work as a criminal defense attorney. After losing a big case, she could really use something brighter to focus on.
Meet Nolan. Once an obnoxious teenager, now a charismatic adult. He’s bold, fun-loving, and never too afraid of the judgment of others. He had who he thought was the woman of his dreams, only to have that dream shattered when she refused his proposal. Now he’s hung up on his ex and bitter about how quickly she’s moving on. He decides he’s tired of being alone and commits to finding someone new.
They’re both shocked to realize the app set them up with the person they couldn’t stand in high school. Learn what happened in school to fuel such a fire between them, and see if they’ll be able to have any sort of future together. Will they both be too bitter over what happened in the past? Can either one see how much they’ve both changed into better people?
We plan on sharing excerpts and quotes as we work on this story. It’s currently untitled, so it’s just our Valentine’s Day romance for now. Stay updated here or on our social media accounts!
-A
Amber is half of the co-author duo that is Danica Avery. She lives in Maryland with her three furbabies. When she’s not being a crazy cat lady, or working on books, she enjoys playing video games, baking sweets, crocheting, and other artsy hobbies.