A warm welcome to author J.Leigh Bailey joining us today to talk about new release “The Night Owl and the Insomniac”.
Leigh talks to us about her favorite cuties shares an exclusive excerpt and brought a giveaway!
Welcome Leigh 🙂
My Favorite Meet Cutes!
I’d like to start with a big “Thank you!” to Dani and LoveBytes for having me here today to celebrate the release of The Night Owl and the Insomniac, the third book in my Shifter U paranormal series.
I’m a sucker for a good meet cute. You know, that moment when the love interests meet on page for the first time? It’s a screen writers’ term that dates back to the screwball comedies of the Great Depression and has become the staple of romantic comedies and romance novels. Here are some of my favorite meet cute tropes with examples from movies and books:
- I LOVE LOVE LOVE a case of mistaken identity. Nothing gets the pulse racing like finding out the totally hot person the protagonist just spend the night with is in fact the sibling of an enemy, or their new boss, or royalty in disguise. One of my favorite recent examples of this is A Princess in Theory by Alysssa Cole. The hero knows who the heroine is, but she thinks he’s been hired to work as a server where she works.
- Sometimes the crux of a meet cute—and the plot—begin with a bad mission statement. When the couple meets and everything is so wrong, it’s right. One of my favorite series starts this way. In Sloane Kennedy’s Absolution, a vigilante mercenary is hired to kill an artist who has supposedly done some pretty bad things. Needlyess to say, the artist is innocent, and they (along with the third in their soon-to-be polyamorous relationship) have to find out who set them up and why.
- Nothing is as heart-warming as the Good Samaritan—when stopping to help leads to drama of a new type. It’s great to see the love interest charging in to save a stranger who isn’t expecting to lose his heart along the way. Making the couple the unlikeliest of pairing just adds to the fun. The BEST example of this is, of course, The Wedding Planner, when Mary Fiore (Jennifer Lopez) gets her Gucci heel stuck in a manhole cover at the exact moment a rogue dumpster comes barreling down the hill. Steve Edison (Matthew McConaughey) dives in to her rescue by shoving her out of the way (and saving the shoe!). This is further complicated when it turns out Mary is the wedding planner hired to coordinate Steve’s wedding to someone else!
- One of my all-time favorite meet cute tropes is the unequals don’t attract (or when the come-on goes wrong). Think Pride and Prejudice—by rights these characters should (and do) detest each other—He’s aloof, she’s outgoing; he’s a grumpy snob, she’s a little too poor; he insults her looks, she insults his feelings. They are about as unlikely a pairing as they get—and yet, they’re so perfect for each other.
So, just for fun (and for a chance to win), what’s your favorite meet cute from books, movies or television? I’ll be giving away a digital copy of Stalking Buffalo Bill or Chasing Thunderbird to a random commenter! Giveaway will close on July 15.
A Shifter U Tale
Long nights lead to intrigue… and infatuation.
Chronically ill with a mysterious condition, Yusuf “Joey” Franke escapes his smothering family and doctors by moving halfway across the country to enroll in Cody College. Not long after arriving on campus, some of his symptoms disappear, only to be replaced by debilitating insomnia. Joey spends his nights wandering the halls of his dormitory and hanging out with gregarious and affable Owen, who works the night shift.
When he suddenly shifts from a sick college kid to a massive Asiatic lion, Joey discovers another side to Cody College—it’s a haven for shifters like himself… and like Owen, a part-time great horned owl. And being a shifter is hereditary, which means his parents have some explaining to do.
When Joey and Owen investigate, they discover more than they bargained for—a family deception, a dangerous enemy with international connections, and a love that might be too new to survive the backlash.
It was like someone shone a spotlight on the grass and walkway in front of Matthison Hall. Every blade of grass, every ant inching along the sidewalk came into clear focus. I could see everything. Lines were cleaner, sharper, colors truer than ever before. Shadows didn’t fuzz the focus in the least.
I turned toward Owen, Anxious Girl, and Cocky Boy and immediately wished my vision were not suddenly so acute. Their faces were pale, and Owen looked on with wide-eyed shock. Anxious Girl, a slim blonde with a long ponytail, looked ready to faint from horror or panic. I recognized Cocky Boy from lunch the other day. He’d been sitting next to that Jonah dude. He didn’t look so cocky now. In fact he stumbled back when I swung my head in his direction, and he tripped on the sidewalk much like I had earlier. He landed on his ass, then crab-walked until his back came up against brick façade of the dormitory.
I took a step toward him, or tried to. My legs didn’t seem to know how to follow the directions from my head. Like intent and muscle control no longer worked together. My limbs lost all strength, and I collapsed into a heap on the grass.
Owen lunged forward as if to help me out, then jerked back, apparently thinking better of it.
I shook my head to try to clear it. Which is when I caught a glimpse of a reflection in the glass of the main entrance.
Holy shit. There really was a lion—or something that looked a bit lionish—on campus. It sprawled in the grass like an awkward house cat that had just slipped on polished marble floors.
I tried to push myself up so I could run, get away. Even as I did it, the lion-thing stood from its sprawl.
I hollered.
It yowled.
I sidled to the left.
It matched me, stumbling step for stumbling step.
And that’s when I finally understood. I had passed out and was stuck in some kind of demented dreamscape. Either the stress of independence or the trauma of the pain I’d experienced had landed me in this nightmare. I went to pinch myself awake, but the claws at the end of my paw—holy crap, I had paws! And claws!
“Yusuf?” Owen took a cautious step forward, holding his hand out.
“Are you crazy?” Cocky Boy whisper shouted.
The tone grated, but more than that, I didn’t like the accusation against Owen. I snarled. I seriously snarled at someone. The sound ripped through the tension, ratcheting up the alarm in the air.
Owen moved back, placing himself in front of Anxious Girl. He gestured behind him, indicating Cocky Boy should back up. “Hey, Gene?” He barely moved his mouth and clearly tried to keep his voice soothing, but the apprehension dulled the effect a bit. “I need you to go to the front desk. There’s an emergency locker beneath the counter. The code is 5-5-6-3-2.”
“Code?” Cocky Boy asked weakly.
“5-5-6-3-2,” Owen repeated. “There’s a tranquilizer rifle for emergencies. Bring it and the packet of shifter tranquilizer darts.”
“On it.”
“You’re going to shoot him?” Anxious Girl asked.
Oh hell. He’s going to shoot me?
“I’m going to knock him out so he doesn’t hurt himself or anyone else.”
My fight-or-flight instincts were at war. I wanted to run, to get away from this psychotic situation. Even if it was a hallucination or some kind of coma-induced dream, I knew I didn’t want to be here, not like this. But I was too scared to run, and a soul-deep protective instinct had me ready to defend myself against… whatever the hell this was. I paced in a looping figure-eight pattern, wanting to run, unable to leave.
“What’s wrong with him?”
Owen shook his head. “I’m not sure. I don’t think he knows what’s going on.”
He had that right. I had no idea what was going on. I had a tail. A fucking tail!
Movement in the reflection caught my attention. Cocky Boy—er, Gene—rushed out carrying some kind of rifle-shaped gun.
That was all it took for the flight combatants to defeat the fighter soldiers in my inner battle. I spun, crouched, and sprang away. It didn’t matter that I thought this was some messed-up dream. It didn’t matter that I had no idea where I was going. It didn’t matter that I didn’t know how to survive as some kind of animallike creature. I had to flee, to escape. So I ran.
For about three seconds.
A muffled pop sounded, quickly followed by a stinging pinch at my haunch. Then, three strides later, my knees—were they still called knees on a lionlike creature?—buckled. Two seconds later, I was out.
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J. Leigh Bailey is an office drone by day and the author of Young Adult and New Adult LGBT Romance by night. She can usually be found with her nose in a book or pressed up against her computer monitor. A book-a-day reading habit sometimes gets in the way of… well, everything…but some habits aren’t worth breaking. She’s been reading romance novels since she was ten years old. The last twenty years or so have not changed her voracious appetite for stories of romance, relationships and achieving that vitally important Happy Ever After. She’s a firm believer that everyone, no matter their gender, age, sexual orientation or paranormal affiliation deserves a happy ending. For upcoming releases and appearances information, sign up for her newsletter at https://t.co/FfL9gFVJLQ.
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Meet cute…it’s a toss up between ‘When Harry Met Sally’ and ‘Pretty Woman!’ Everyone is gorgeous, there’s humor and I get my HEA! Just perfect!
Meet Cute? I think I would go with When Harry Met Sally
THE GIRL ON THE BRIDGE is great for the Good Samaritan scenario, and I always found Theseus and Pirithous’s meeting in Arthur Griffin’s LUSTY ADVENTURES OF THESEUS to be amusingly (over-the-top) sexy!
Meet cute? I think Pretty Woman, Serendipity and Sleepless in Seattle scenarios are ones I won’t ever get tired of.
Meet cute? Love Actually would be my choice
Notting Hill will be my favorite — because, you know, that famous actress versus bumbling book store owner. SO CUTE!