I pondered that question as I finished up EXPOSED TO YOU, the next novel in the One Night of Passion series (writing as Bethany Kane) coming out in November of this year.
My hero, Everett Hughes, is one of the most brilliant of the superstars in Hollywood. He can have any woman he wants, but despite this, he feels he’s been cursed in the ‘love’ department. Family and friends mean everything to him. Because of an extremely stable, loving upbringing, he’s escaped the pitfalls that can come with the double-edge sword of fame. But part of him thinks he’s been too blessed. Perhaps fate plans to rob him of the one thing that’s even more important to him than his career–a woman and a family to call his own.
When he sees Joy Hightower, he falls almost immediately for her. He also worries that things won’t work out–because how can it be possible to win some kind of colossal cosmic lottery as far as his career and wealth, and ALSO be blessed with the perfect woman? And Joy has her own demons she needs to fight before he can convince her that’s he’s the real deal, not just the one-dimensional figure on a movie screen.
As I was writing the book, I sort of struggled with the issue of how fast Everett fell. However, I do think that’s just how it happens sometimes. Whether I believe in love at first sight, I don’t know precisely. I can tell you I fell pretty darn fast–and hard–for my husband. Seventeen years later, I can safely say that instinct was absolutely correct.
Does it ever bother you when you read a romance novel when someone professes their love after knowing the person say…a couple weeks? Aside from romance novels, do you think it happens in real life that people fall that hard and fast, and it turns out not to be an infatuation, but the sweet real deal?
