Welcome to Sugarbeat’s Books – The Home of the Romance Novel!
Today we are welcoming Alyssa Lyons to the blog. She’s here to talk about the topic of Romance Can Grow, and several of her books. Sit back and enjoy!
Romance Can Grow
Alyssa Lyons
The Jordan Davis Mysteries is a series of romantic suspense novels with recurring characters. In a “stand alone” romance novel, a writer starts with a cute meet, throws in conflict between the hero and heroine that can doom the romance, then finds a way to have them live happily ever after. Curtain falls.
In book 1, Last Wishes, Jordan and Gray go from a tense standoff to the promise of a long term relationship. But in subsequent books, as a writer I have to further the relationship while solving the crime. While the relationship can be put at risk, readers quickly tire of lovers who bicker and break up just to keep a sense of tension. So, the relationship cannot be static. It must move forward.
In book 2, Clubbed to Death, the challenge to the relationship arises from Gray being drawn into defending Jordan’s half-sister from a murder charge. Family can, and many times does, put a wedge in a relationship more quickly than any other stressor. Worse, Jordan’s confused feelings about 
Danielle and the misfortunes that take place during the investigation strain her feelings about staying with Gray. With the discovery of three abused, runaway orphans in Gray’s basement, Jordan and he realize that love doesn’t die with family troubles or the addition of children, but grows stronger. Because of these three lovable moppets, the definition of family changes for both of them as the story progresses. This time the happily ever after is marriage and the start of a ready-made family.
Book 3, Stabbed and Slabbed, takes place on Jordan and Gray’s delayed honeymoon. There is tension in the marriage because Jordan is burning the candle at both ends and in the middle, trying to be mother, wife, funeral planner and private 
investigator. Gray feels something has to give and wants her to choose one of her outside jobs. Thrown into a murder investigation on a disabled cruise ship where both of them are suspects, they must work together to solve the crime as well as overcome their suspicions about each other.
Sometimes a crisis can drive couples apart other times it can strengthen them. In Jordan and Gray’s case, it pulls them closer, makes them realize just how lucky they are to have one another and their three children. Because they love each other, the reader can surmise that their marriage will continue to strengthen.
As a writer of a series, I must continue to find ways to keep the romantic relationship growing, despite tensions and crises. Jordan and Gray continue to grow as people, so their marriage will change with their own growth. In each book there’s a different murder to solve, but the romance needs to develop realistically as well. I hope readers will like how Jordan and Gray can solve murders around them while growing stronger romantically. If you do, I’ve done my job as a writer.
You can read about Jordan’s adventures in solving crime “Southern Style” in Last Wishes, Clubbed to Death, & Stabbed & Slabbed.
You can reach me at my website and blog: http://www.alyssalyons.com
My books are available at http://www.blackopalbooks.com and all major e-book retailers.
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- Guest Post by Alyssa Lyon (gnbstacks.blogspot.com)
