Sizzling Slowly

#Wanafriday prompt this week: How did the last book you read change you, or not?

I’ve been ‘researching’ hot romantic stories of late, in preparation for my new novel, which I’m slamming down while taking the NaNoWriMo challenge (that’s National Novel Writing Month when writers put themselves through the rigors of slamming down 50,000 words during the month of November.) Only last week the slamming part stalled until I read this novel.

For weeks now, I’ve been up to my ears in testosterone fueled novels. Best research ever! Anyway, one of the best ones I’ve come across lately is the novel, Jake Undone by Penelope Ward. Jake is my new best book boyfriend (and there have been many in the past month 

(thank you Pamela Clare for Javier in First Strike and Striking Distance).

So why this book? The author keeps the tension ramped up high throughout the novel. The characters are well drawn and we want them to work it out, badly, because we crave Jake and want to see him in action. I’ll leave that to your imagination.

So how did this book change me? Jake is drawn so well by author Ward that it turned on the switch for me as to how to construct my own protagonist that I’ve been struggling to fill out. I know my Jack well from my first novel, Dance the Dream Awake. I go into his past life as a samurai in my second novel (which I am still in the process of finishing up), but I’ve been having trouble with the updated man we haven't fully gotten to know yet in present day. All of a sudden, since Jake Undone, I see my Jack in full light and the spigot is turned on and flowing. Whether I get 50,000 words done for NaNoWriMo is neither here nor there—I found the impetus to move forward on my new novel.

Now go take a peek at what these WANA* authors are coming up with in answer to this week's prompt:

*WANA=We are not alone, put together by Kristen Lamb. 

Ellen Gregory  -Book Review: Slow River

Liv Rancourt - How a Dish of Eyeballs Changed My Life.

Tami Clayton - Eleanor & Park

Janice Heck - A View From the Window

(More WANAs will be added as they post today.)

So what book have your read lately that affected you strongly?

(More Wanas will be added as they post today. Check back later)