ABOUT THE BOOK:
Title: CHANGE OF HEART
Author: Nicole Jacquelyn
Series: Fostering Love, #2
On Sale: September 6, 2016
Publisher: Forever
Trade Paperback: $14.99 USD
eBook: $3.99 USD
They’ve spent their lives pushing each other away, but what will happen when they need each other most?
Anita Martin doesn’t expect much from life. Growing up on the street, bouncing from one foster home to another, she learned to rely only on herself. Even after she finally found a loving family to take her in, she was still an outsider—something Abraham, one of the family’s older sons, never let her forget.
Abraham Evans doesn’t know how Ani always manages to get under his skin, only that’s she’s been doing it since they were teens. She is—and always has been—undeniably gorgeous. But he’s never met anyone as pissed off at the world as Ani.
For fifteen years, Ani and Bram have agreed on exactly one thing: they can’t stand each other—until one night when their anger gives way to passion. Yet even as Ani and Bram begin to secretly seek comfort in one another’s arms, they remain emotionally worlds apart. When Ani’s life takes a dramatic turn and she realizes she needs more than Bram can give, their fragile, no-strings relationship unravels. One way or another, Ani is determined to survive. But when Bram finally admits his true feelings, he may discover Ani has moved on without him.
Author Q&A:
Change of Heart, much like Unbreak My Heart, is a book that deals with some pretty powerful emotions. So what made you lean towards writing such emotionally heavy novels as opposed to lighter, reads?
I’ve always loved to read emotionally heavy novels. My favorites have always been the love stories where the hero messes up. Epically. I want a story to give me what I call the “gut punch,” that moment when I gasp and my eyes start to water. I want to feel it. I want it to break my heart and then put it back together again. I naturally gravitated toward those types of stories when I started writing novels. Not only do I want to give readers that depth of feeling, but I also love the challenge of making relationships seem impossible and then finding a way to make them blossom again.
Which was more difficult to write, Unbreak My Heart or Change of Heart? And in turn, which was the most fun to write?
Change of Heart was definitely the most difficult of the two stories to write and Unbreak My Heart was the most fun. The story for Unbreak My Heart, from beginning to end, was already fully mapped out in my head before I ever started writing it. It came easy. Change of Heart was different. The bones of Change of Heart were already there, but like most of my stories, as I got to know the characters the story shifted and changed.
Family is clearly an important aspect of this series, so would you say that your own family inspired the close family relationships in Unbreak My Heart and Change of Heart?
Absolutely! I’m very close to both my immediate family and all of my cousins. Our family is a lot bigger than the family in the Fostering Love series, but we all grew up together. I love the fact that my sisters and cousins are my very best friends. Even when we went through periods where we didn’t like each other very much, the love was still there. My girls have the same relationship with their cousins, too. No one has your back like your family, and I love writing those types of relationships.
Were any of the characters in this series inspired by people you know personally?
I think every character I write has some characteristics of someone I know or had known at one time. Sometimes they’re a mix of different people and sometimes their personalities resemble a single person. However, the children in Unbreak My Heart have the most obvious similarities to my niece and nephews when they were little. They’re 18, 16 and 14 now, but Sage, Keller and Gavin are very reminiscent of their personalities when they were small. There’s a line in Unbreak My Heart when Gavin says “It was an anccident! Anccidents happen, Keller!” and that’s something my niece used to say when she was little. “Anccidents happen, Aunt Dick.”… she also couldn’t say her N’s very well.
Why Ani and Bram and not Alex and Ani?
Oooh, this is an awesome question! I’ll do my best to answer it. The difference between Alex and Bram’s personalities is huge. The way they interact with others, the way they deal with emotions, and the way they each see the world are vastly different. That means that their personalities mix differently with Ani’s.
It all comes down to that fact.
Alex and Ani would never work, in real life or in a novel. If Alex and Ani became a couple, there wouldn’t be any conflict and without it there wouldn’t be any passion either. They work together as friends because they take each other at face value, there isn’t any push-and-pull because there doesn’t need to be. There also isn’t any attraction for that reason.
Bram and Ani are different. They don’t put up with each other’s shit, to state it bluntly. They drive each other crazy. Bram isn’t willing to let anything go, and Ani needs that. She has such a strong personality that she needs a man who is her match in that regard.
The Fostering Love Series
What do you do when your soul mate marries your best friend?
If you’re Kate Evans, you keep your friend Rachel, bond with her kids, and bury your feelings for her husband. The fact that Shane’s in the military and away for long periods helps-but when tragedy strikes, everything changes.
After Rachel, pregnant with her fourth child, dies in a car accident and the baby miraculously survives, Kate upends her entire life to share parenting duties. Then on the first anniversary of Rachel’s death, Kate and Shane take comfort in each other in a night that they both soon regret.
Shane’s been angry for a year, and now he feels guilty too – for sleeping with his wife’s best friend and liking it . . . liking her. Kate’s ability to read him like a book may have once sent Shane running, but their lives are forever entwined and they are growing closer.
Now with Shane deployed for seven months, Kate is on her own and struggling with being a single parent. Shane is loving and supportive from thousands of miles away, but his homecoming brings a betrayal Kate never saw coming. So Kate’s only choice is to fight for the future she deserves – with or without Shane. . .
About the Author:
When Nicole Jacquelyn was eight and people asked what she wanted to be when she grew up, she told them she wanted to be a mom. When she was twelve, her answer changed to author. Her dreams stayed constant. First, she became a mom, and then during her senior year of college–with one daughter in first grade and the other in preschool–she sat down and wrote a story.
