Spotlight & Giveaway: The One You Fight For by Roni Loren

Today it is my pleasure to Welcome author Roni Loren to HJ!

Hi Roni Loren and welcome to HJ! We’re so excited to chat with you about your new release, The One You Fight For!

Please summarize the book for the readers here:

How hard would you fight for the one you love?

Taryn Landry was there that awful night fourteen years ago when Long Acre changed from the name of a town to the title of a national tragedy. Everyone knows she lost her younger sister. No one knows it was her fault. Since then, psychology professor Taryn has dedicated her life’s work to preventing something like that from ever happening again. Falling in love was never part of the plan…

Shaw Miller has spent more than a decade dealing with the fallout of his brother’s horrific actions. After losing everything—his chance at Olympic gold, his family, almost his sanity—he’s changed his name, his look, and he’s finally starting a new life. As long as he keeps a low profile and his identity secret, everything will be okay, right?

When the world and everyone you know defines you by one catastrophic tragedy…

How do you find your happy ending?
 

Please share a few Fun facts about this book…

• In the opening scene, Taryn, the heroine, gets on stage at an open mic night and sings “What’s Up?” by 4 Non Blondes. The reason why I chose that song was because my husband had just started to learn to play the guitar and that was the only song he knew on the acoustic. So I heard it over and over and OVER again while I was writing this book. And I realized that the lyrics fit the scene perfectly because it starts off with “Twenty-five years and my life is still trying to get up that great big hill of hope.” Taryn is a little older, but she’s very much stuck and having trouble finding hope. So the song made it into the book and will always be a reminder to me of when the hubs first picked up a guitar.
• The hero moves to Austin to open up a Ninja Warrior type gym with his best friend. Originally, when I pitched the idea, this was going to be a boxing gym (hence the title The One You Fight For) but in the summer of 2017 my son was obsessed with watching American Ninja Warrior and we used to watch it together. I realized a gym that focused on those type of challenges would be way more fun to write and would give me a lot to work with, you know, getting the hero and heroine in compromising positions lol. So it was changed, and for the year afterward, my kiddo kept asking me, “Mom, are you working on the ninja warrior book?”
• The hero was originally a brunette, but when Sourcebooks sent me the options for covers, I fell in love with the female model on the cover because she looked so much like how I pictured Taryn. I decided I would change the hero’s hair color last minute so I could have her on my cover.
• This book was the hardest I’ve ever written. It was due in January of 2018, but I realized at Christmastime last year that I was writing the wrong story. I scrapped 35,000 words, threw out the original concept, and started completely over in January (when it was supposed to be due.) I didn’t turn it in until April. That was very stressful, but I’m so glad I trusted my gut because I found the story I really wanted to tell. This book has already received Starred reviews from Publishers Weekly, Kirkus, and Booklist, so I hope that means I made the right decision! Lol.
• This isn’t necessarily a fun fact, but to prepare to write this book I read Sue Klebold’s memoir A Mother’s Reckoning. If you ever have wondered what the families of the shooters go through, it’s a tough read but worth it. My research reading list for this series was definitely the darkest I’ve ever had, but I’ve learned a lot. I wanted to gain as much knowledge as I could to handle this topic with a gentle and respectful hand. I hope I accomplished that.

Enjoy an excerpt from The One You Fight For:

He moved his hand away, and she took the trapeze bar in her hand. He grabbed his own bar and stepped out in front of her onto the cylinder, walking backward and facing her. Looking entirely too comfortable with being so high up.
He stopped close to the middle of the cylinder bridge and then demonstrated how to lock it in place. He took one hand off the bar to beckon her to him. “Come on, songbird. You’ve got this.”
She took a deep breath. “Is now the time to admit I may have a teeny, tiny fear of heights?”
“Just keep your eyes on me,” he said calmly. “Don’t look down. You’re safe.”
Taryn wasn’t sure she’d be unable to resist looking down, but she took off her shoes and socks and grabbed the horizontal bar above her head again. After one more deep breath, she took the first step onto the cylinder. She immediately pressed the button to lock the tension, testing the feel. The foam was firm beneath her feet but rough enough to give her a sense of grip. She kept her gaze on Lucas and then she released the button, her hands tightly gripping the bar as she managed a few more steps out. The air-conditioning blew over her, chilling her skin even as her heart picked up speed.
“Good,” Lucas said in a soothing voice. “Now I want you to get your footing without locking the bar. Try to find your balance without its help. It’s just there for backup.”
Taryn swallowed hard, the urge to look down tugging at her, but she adjusted her feet and did as she was told. She could feel every leg and stomach muscle working hard as she lifted her arms higher and released more tension in the bar. After a few wobbles, she felt when her body took over and was doing most of the balancing work. She lifted her face to Lucas, who was a few feet farther down the cylinder, and smiled. “Hey, I’m doing it.”
He grinned. “You are. Before you know it, you’ll be ready for it to roll.”
“Roll?”
He pointed down at the cylinder. “Yep. This baby spins.”
“Holy shit,” she said with a laugh. “Yeah, let’s not do that yet. I’m barely keeping steady.”
“No worries. I flipped the switch to secure it in place. Try to take a few steps forward. Keep your abs tight and supporting you. Don’t lock your knees. The goal tonight is for you to reach me.”
Taryn’s confidence was building, and she took a small step. It wouldn’t require too many more to get to Lucas, but before she could take another, a loud crash of thunder rattled the building and the bright overhead lights blinked. Taryn made a startled sound, and she lost her focus, wobbling. She gripped the bar hard and managed not to slip off, but then the telltale whoosh of electricity going off filled her ears. All the lights clicked off. The cavernous space went pitch-black.
“Lucas!”
“Hell,” Lucas said from somewhere in front of her. “Hold on. Just give me a second. I’ll come and get you.”
Lightning flashed, illuminating Lucas and his tense face briefly. Taryn’s blood was rushing in her ears, and she tried to take a step backward toward the platform, but the trapeze was locked in place. “The bar is stuck.”
“I know. They automatically lock when the power’s turned off,” he said, sounding closer. “I’ll help you back. The emergency lights should come on.”
But nothing happened. The only light was the intermittent flash of lightning through the skylights. Taryn glanced back during one of the flashes and realized how far she’d gotten from the platform, but she could feel the vibration in the cylinder. Lucas was moving toward her.
Soon, a hand landed next to hers on her trapeze bar, and the heat of Lucas’s body brushed against her. The shift caused her to wobble, and he quickly wrapped his arm around her waist. “Easy. I’ve got you.”
His chest was pressing against hers, warm, solid, steady. She wet her lips, somehow feeling both calmed and completely freaked out by his presence. “Thanks.”
“Now I need you to listen to me,” he said, his breath tickling her hair. “There’s only one way to get off this thing safely right now, and you’re not going to like it.”
“You need to go ahead of me?” She was picturing some maneuver where he crossed over her and then guided her back or something.
“No,” he said, his arm firm around her. “We can’t risk walking back to the platform. You would have to let go of the bar, and it’s too dark. If either of us stumble and fall too close to the platform, we could hit the equipment and get hurt.”
She heard the words but didn’t quite process what he was getting at. “What do you mean?”
“I mean the only safe way is down.”
“Down?” She wobbled with the force of the word. “Oh, hell no.”
“Listen.” His tone was gentle. “It’s a big pit of soft foam blocks meant to catch us. I’ve fallen in them many times. The only thing we need to make sure of is that we don’t fall on top of each other. We’re going to have to hold hands side by side and fall backward together.”
“You’ve got to be kidding me.”
“’Fraid not.”
She groaned. “I’m going to freaking kill Kincaid. Why couldn’t she drag me to Pilates or Zumba or something? No, no, that’d be too boring. We have to do goddamned acrobatics. In the air.”
She could almost see Lucas’s smile in the dark. “We’ve got this. Just don’t think too hard about it. I’m going to release you, and you need to take one hand off the bar to hold mine. Side by side, okay?”
This was definitely not the stress relief Taryn had been seeking, but she gritted her teeth and forced herself to deal. “Okay.”

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
 

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Giveaway: Print copy of THE ONE YOU FIGHT FOR (The Ones Who Got Away #3) by Roni Loren

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Meet the Author:
Roni wrote her first romance novel at age fifteen when she discovered writing about boys was way easier than actually talking to them. Since then, her flirting skills haven’t improved, but she likes to think her storytelling ability has. She holds a master’s degree in social work and spent years as a mental health counselor, but now she writes full time from her cozy office in Dallas, Texas where she puts her characters on the therapy couch instead. She is a two-time RITA Award winner and a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author.
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