Liberty’s Promise, New Adult Romance from PJ Sharon

Please help us give PJ Sharon to the blog this week. PJ is here to share her new adult romance, Liberty’s Promise. Liberty’s Promise is the fifth book in her Savage Cinderella Series. Welcome PJ! We are all very excited to hear about Liberty’s Promise!

Guest Post from PJ Sharon:

So great to be here with you all today!

I’ve been writing YA/NA (Young Adult 12-18/and New Adult 18-22) romance for about fifteen years and still love the genre. It turns out those first kisses, family dramas, and the exciting twists and turns of new love are much more fun to write about than to have actually lived through, lol. It’s nice to get a do-over of sorts. Romance is at the heart of my stories, but I prefer focusing on the emotional growth of my characters and sharing some hard-won lessons with young readers in a way that isn’t preachy. So many great books have changed my heart and mind by showing me examples of courage and healing. By sharing the stories of my own tumultuous teen life, I thought maybe I could help an impressionable mind sort through their own issues.

When I decided to write toward publication, I wanted to write books I wish I’d had to read when I was a young adult. It seems I went from reading Nancy Drew to Stephen King with not much available in between. I somehow missed the Sweet Valley High and Judy Blume era, but it was Historical Romance and Romantic Suspense novels I devoured in my early twenties that made me consider writing my own stories someday. Despite that it took another twenty years of living life for me to have time to sit down and actually put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard as it were), but once I started, my tortured teenage heart broke open and poured onto the page.

I wrote four full-length novels before I wrote my first release, HEAVEN is for HEROES. That was quickly followed by ON THIN ICE, the story of a seventeen-year-old figure skater whose mother is dying of cancer (aka: my story). Writers—and probably artists of all kinds—often have tragic back stories looming beneath the surface, the telling of which somehow lightens the scars and frees us from the burden of carrying them. So often, the scars become the story.

I wrote SAVAGE CINDERELLA after a difficult divorce and didn’t realize until years after I’d written it, that the story was about my own sense of having been drawn into a bad situation and having felt helpless to escape it. The idea, however, came to me—as most great ideas do—while walking in the woods with my dog and wondering what it would have been like to grow up in the wild. Being an outdoorswoman and nature girl myself, it sounded kind of cool. I imagined being raised by wolves and foraging for berries and mushrooms. But when I imagined a girl running through the woods, her long dark hair flying in a tangle behind her, she wasn’t with a wolf. Instead, a large black bear ambled alongside her. That was the grain of the idea that led me to begin asking the million questions that come along with storytelling. Who is she? Why is she there? What’s the deal with the bear?

When I originally wrote SAVAGE CINDERELLA in 2011, I never imagined it as a series. Brinn’s story of being kidnapped as a child, left for dead in the high country of North Georgia, and her survival in the wild was my first introduction to writing Romantic Suspense—although some thought it was more literary fiction based on the writing style and the fact that it didn’t clearly fit into any one genre. Since I stubbornly held to the notion that the story was about an eighteen-year-old girl coming of age, finding her place in the world, and discovering how to trust and love again, the novel seemed best suited to the relatively new category called New Adult (NA). My story doesn’t have the ultra-steamy scenes characteristic of some NA novels, but it does tackle some gritty subject matter and shows Brinn’s transformation to independent adulthood.

The book had been out for several years, and I kept coming back to the cast of characters in my mind, wondering what happened after that hopefully ever after ending. It felt to me like her story was only beginning. I started to see it in my mind as a TV series. Kidnap victim turned rookie cop, taking on crime and being drawn to social justice issues. It seemed like a great way to share important current events with young people who may not necessarily be engaged in the happenings of the larger world. The idea of writing episodes led me to consider a series of novellas, and Brinn felt like the perfect character to bring that idea to life. Five books in and I’m ready to take a break from storytelling, hit the trail, and take the series out to readers.

In LIBERTY’S PROMISE, Brinn finally makes a hard choice she’s been struggling with since book one in the series, FINDING HOPE. I felt like five episodes was a good place to stop and let the series breathe for a while (and me too, lol). I believe I left the story open-ended enough to come back to it if there is a high demand from readers, but we’ll see. For now, I’m ready to move on and get back to a full-length novel again, perhaps stretching my wings and trying something totally new!

As a thank you to readers, I’m offering the novel that started it all, Holt-Medallion Winner SAVAGE CINDERELLA, for FREE download.

You can find links to the other books in the series, FINDING HOPE, LOST BOYS, SACRED GROUND, BROKEN ANGEL, AND LIBERTY’S PROMISE, on my website.

About Liberty’s Promise:

True freedom means having the courage to pursue justice.

Liberty’s Promise, the fifth novella in the SAVAGE CINDERELLA series continues the journey of kidnap survivor turned rookie cop, Brinn Hathaway. Rebounding from her previous near-death adventure, Brinn travels to New York City where her co-worker and current roomie, Detective Daniella Hernandez, is attending to a family crisis. When Dani’s old flame—a superior officer—threatens to destroy her career and her family’s legacy, Brinn vows to do whatever necessary to protect her friend.

Investigating a sergeant in the NYPD for his personal and criminal misconduct might be overstepping jurisdictional boundaries and not exactly a good career move. But bringing to justice the man who had once tormented her friend—and who continues to pose a threat—is worth the risk for Brinn. When it becomes clear the serial stalker won’t be an easy target, and that he’s willing to go to any lengths to escape his dark deeds, Brinn discovers that taking down one of New York’s finest could cost both women more than just their jobs.

Liberty’s Promise (Savage Cinderella Novella #5)
Print ISBN: 9781710322262
ASIN: B081PK453X

Liberty’s Promise Book Links:

Excerpt from Liberty’s Promise:

“What can I do to help?” I asked.

A weak smile flashed across her face. “I knew I could count on you.” Then her expression dimmed. “There’s nothing anyone can do for my dad but wait and pray,” she said, her brows furrowing. “But I’ve got another problem I’m hoping you can help me with.”

“Anything,” I said.

“You might want to hear me out before you agree.”

Over the next hour, Dani filled me in on a story she’d spent the past three years hiding. A story that made me see her in a new light and explained everything about her that had been a mystery. Like why she rarely dated, and how big a deal it was that she’d hooked up with Cody. It also explained why she had little tolerance for anyone who tried to tell her what to do or how to do it, and why she held herself in a perpetual state of hyper-vigilance, noticing everything at once every time she set foot in a room. She lived on guard and kept her personal life and feelings to herself, a trait we shared and one that made us good roommates. But now I understood why she also spent a lot of time looking over her shoulder and why taking her mother’s last name was about more than respecting her heritage.

“Connor was my sergeant. I should have known better.” Dani tucked a few strays over her ear. Without makeup, she looked younger, softer—more vulnerable than I’d ever seen her. “By the time I figured out what a psycho he was, I was in too deep and couldn’t tell anyone.” Her voice strained with the telling of details of his abuse, his control, his stalking and threatening behavior when she tried to break off the relationship. “He convinced me no one would believe me over him. I was just a rookie cop who would have looked like a ladder-climber.” Seeing me frown, she clarified, “You know, sleeping with the boss to move up the ranks.”

“But what about your brothers…and your parents? Wouldn’t they have believed you? I’m sure they wouldn’t have wanted to see you being hurt by this monster.”

She looked down at her knees. “I was ashamed. I should have seen it sooner. I couldn’t risk him going after my family.”

In truth, I understood. So much of my own life had been spent alone, worrying no one would believe me about what had happened to me and feeling ashamed, guilty, and scared. If anyone could understand her dilemma, it was me.

 

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