{GUEST POST} JEANETTE GREY, AUTHOR OF TAKE WHAT YOU WANT

 Today I would like to welcome author Jeanette Grey to the blog! Jeanette is the author of the upcoming book, Take What You Want.  I will be posting my review on March 2nd. I asked Jeanette for the story behind Take What You Want, but first, take a look at the book.

Series: Stand alone

Genre: Erotic Romance

Publisher: Samhain Publishing

Publication Date: 3/12/13

She needs an escape…and he’s exactly what she had in mind.

College senior Ellen Price spends every spare minute studying to get into medical school. Until spring break yawns before her, as empty as her wallet.

With no money to hit the beach, she fills her empty to-do list with a plan: for just one week, she will become the kind of take-no-prisoners woman she secretly wishes to be, starting with the hot guy at the bar. It's a no-risk situation: at the end of break, he’ll head back to his campus, and she’ll go back to hers. No muss, no fuss.

At first, Josh Markley isn’t sure what to think when the quiet, intense beauty from his pre-med classes approaches him for a night of casual sex. Even more mystifying, she doesn’t seem to return his recognition. But if she wants to play “strangers in a bar”, he’s game.

Their passionate night is a welcome respite from life’s stress, but afterward, Josh realizes he wants more—from himself, from life, from Ellen. Except she still thinks he’s a one-off she’ll never see again. Confessing the truth now—before she figures it out on her own—could shatter the fragile beginnings of just what the doctor ordered. A forever love.

Warning: Contains mistaken identities, a sometimes-glasses-wearing hottie, deep questions about figuring out what you want from life, and a red-hot college romance.

 

The Story behind Take What You Want

-       Take What You Want started based on a random writing prompt, which suggested writing a story about a 'spring fling'. The prompt evoked ideas of sunny getaways in tropical climes. The problem? I've never been able to afford that kind of getaway. In the end, it was lamenting my lack of cool vacations that led me to the concept for this book: what if two people who felt like they were the only people in the world who couldn't go on a trip for spring break ran into each other and decided to make the best of the not-so-great situation, together?

-       While the exact setting of the story is never specified, it's set in a town that's loosely modeled after Binghamton, New York. People who know the area may be able to recognize parts of the SUNY Binghamton campus, as well as several bars, restaurants and diners from in and around downtown Binghamton and Vestal.

-       I tend to make a playlist for each character to help me get into the characters' heads. Ellen's playlist is mostly contemporary indie music with lots of female lead singers and lots of themes about wistfulness and not having things you don't quite know how to ask for—The Weepies, Ingrid Michaelson, Dar Williams, Ellery. Josh's is more 90s alt rock; while there are things he wants but doesn't have, his style is more to sublimate it or get angry about it. Think Nirvana and R.E.M. with a little bit of newer acts like The National and Mumford and Sons mixed in.

-       One of the major arcs in the book has to do with Josh wanting to pursue a different career path from the one his father has picked out for him. This is near and dear to my heart. In my senior year of college, my father and I sat down to have a heart-to-heart about my own change in plans, away from a graduate study in science and toward more creative endeavors. Like Josh, I was scared out of mind. Also like Josh, the conversation did not go anything like I had imagined it would.

-       This is probably the steamiest book I've released to date, but on the first draft it was a little bit less so. It was one of my invaluable critique partners who suggested, to bring the story full circle, it needed one more love scene at the end. And boy, she was right!

-       The original working title for the book was A Week And A Day, because that's how much time Ellen and Josh think they have together at the outset of the story. As the book evolved, it became about something deeper than I'd expected, though. It was all about deciding what you want from love, from life, and from your career, and then putting aside all of the doubt and the external pressure to just go for it. Thus, Take What You Want.

Thanks to Jeanette for sharing the story of Take What You Want.

**Okay. I was already excited about reading Take What You Want, but now I am positively dying to get started!**



Preorder Take What You Want at:
Amazon  |  Barnes & Noble  |  Samhain


About the author:

Jeanette Grey started out with degrees in physics and painting, which she dutifully applied to stunted careers in teaching, technical support, and advertising. When none of that panned out, she started writing. Her stories include futuristic romances and erotic contemporaries, and almost all of them include hints of either science or art.

When she isn't writing, Jeanette enjoys making pottery, playing board games, and spending time with her husband and her pet frog. She lives, loves, and writes in upstate New York.

Connect with Jeanette at:
Website  |  Twitter  |   FaceBook