Zoe Oliver never wanted to be on another reality TV show… until Chip Cormack made an offer too good to refuse. He’s guaranteed her a payday this time and a chance to redeem herself in America’s eyes. But Zoe worries she won’t be able to focus as her desire for Chip grows and her strength to resist him weakens.
When she learns she’ll be roughing it in the woods with Chip and without luxuries like indoor plumbing and electricity, she’s instantly on edge, feeling naked and terrified that her scars will be exposed and her secrets revealed. When Zoe’s past turns up on the show, she fears she’ll lose not only the life she’s sacrificed everything else to have, but also the affections of the only man she’s ever trusted with her heart.
When
the Bad Girl Goes Good
What
do you do when you’ve created a character that everyone loves to hate and
suddenly you need your readers to simply love them?
In
my case, this character is Zoe Oliver. We originally met Zoe in Falling for You. She was the blonde
bombshell who seemed to have it all, the looks, the confidence, the men… the
ability to make us hate her to the deepest depths of our souls. In Stuck on You, she took on a bigger role
as the teammate to Paige. Suddenly, we started seeing little bits of Zoe that
weren’t as grouchy as we expected them to be. A vulnerable glance here, a
quivering breath there, a hint that there was something more to her than we
thought. We still wanted to hate her, but she was making it more difficult. It’s
hard to hate someone who has a soft side for the guy with the leg amputation.
But
it wasn’t until now, in Lost Without You,
that we really get to learn who Zoe is. Sure, she’s still a b*tch, but now
she’s one with a reason. We just don’t know what it is right away. All we know
is that as much as we want to hate her, it’s becoming more and more challenging
to do so. Now instead of rooting for her to fail, we’re yearning for her to
succeed.
Honestly,
when I wrote Falling for You, Zoe’s entire purpose was to be the girl you hate.
I wanted her to be that girl you recognize on reality TV shows as the one who
will instigate the drama. She’s the pot stirrer. When I started thinking of the
idea for the second book, I thought it would be so fun to have Paige and Cassidy
be teammates on the show. But I quickly realized it would be hard to make
conflict between best friends. So I became the pot stirrer and decided the
worst thing that could happen to Paige in that moment was to get stuck with Zoe
as her partner last minute. Now that I had Zoe as a bigger role in the book, I
knew I had to figure out why she acted the way she did. I couldn’t let her go
through another book so one-dimensionally. I had to make her real. So I started
dropping hints and clues about who she was and what her history had done to
shape her into the person she was now. Luckily, at the time of this discovery
about Zoe, I was also in the middle of edits on Falling. I was able to sprinkle
little hints and nuances about Zoe into that book so the reader would start
picking up on the fact that Zoe wasn’t all she seemed to be.
By
the time I wrote the third book, Lost
Without You, I was itching to tell Zoe’s story. I’d figured out why she
purposefully made us hate her and I couldn’t wait to tell her story. It was so
much harder than I expected! Right from the beginning, her pain was evident. I
actually had to pull back on her inner turmoil a bit so that it didn’t
overshadow the actual point of the book, which is falling in love. As
challenging as it was to try and find that balance of pain and happiness
throughout the book, I felt emotionally satisfied by The End. After being with
Zoe for three books, I hope readers are satisfied too!
Have
you ever read a series where you’ve hated one of the characters only to find
out that in the newest release you were suddenly supposed to like them? Did the
author succeed? Did you go from hating a character to rooting for her in the
end? I hope if you’ve read the entire reality TV romance series that your
answer is yes!
Thank
you so much for having me today!
~Heather
Thurmeier
"Heather Thurmeier's hunky heroes and feisty
heroines will have you laughing out loud, falling in love ... and coming back
for more!" ~ Carly Phillips, NY Times Bestselling Author
"Heather Thurmeier writes sweet, funny
romances that capture your heart!" --NYT and USA Today bestselling author
Jennifer Probst
Website: http://heatherthurmeier.com
Facebook: HeatherThurmeierAuthor
Twitter: https://twitter.com/hthurmeier
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5211580.Heather_Thurmeier
Heather Thurmeier is a lover of
strawberry margaritas, a hater of spiders and a reality TV junkie. She was born
and raised in the Canadian prairies, but now lives in New York with her husband
and kids where she’s become some kind of odd Canuck-Yankee hybrid. When she's
not busy taking care of the kids and pets, Heather’s writing her next romance,
which will probably be filled with sassy heroines, sexy heroes that make your
heart pound, laugh out loud moments and always a happily ever after. You can
find out more about Heather and her books by checking out her website at:
http://heatherthurmeier.com.
Thank you so much for having me!
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