WARNING For Readers:
If you are a reader and you wandered over here, just know that there are some possible spoilers in this information. If you don’t want to know the tropes in the books or how long the series will be or any other kind of potential surprises, hit that back button!
Series or Standalone?
Series
I am only publishing books in the Books of the Kindling series at this time. I am hoping it will be a nine book series with some novellas and short stories, like Falling Into the Sky and others. Worst case, it might go to ten books. *guilty smile*
Each book is clearly identified as to where it fits in the series, on this website as well as on the books themselves.
With that said, every book is a fully contained romance with an HEA for the relationship of the main couple while the overall conflict arc of the series continues. Of course, as the series continues, it is probably a good idea to have read the prior books in the series.
Genre/Subgenre?
Contemporary romance
Romantic Suspense
Small Town/Rural Romance
Magical Realism
The Books of the Kindling is a contemporary romance series. It is set in current day, with the exception of the prequel, which is set in the recent past. It could be happening right now in the hollows and hills of the Appalachian mountains to people just like you and me.
The series could be labeled romantic suspense as well, since there is a resolution of a threat or danger within each book and a sense of impending catastrophe building throughout the series. However, even though there is darkness, in the midst of it there is love and laughter.
It is certainly a small town romance in a rural setting (even when it wanders off to Italy now and again). As one review said, the setting is a character in itself, especially the mountain.
And there is a hint of something not of this world as well – not supernatural, as one character points out, but preternatural – unexplainable, but part of the real world. Magical realism, but who knows what the source of the “magic” is? I guess we’ll find out. *winks*
Tropes
Catching Stars in a Jar, Book One
- Wounded hero
- STEM heroine
- Fake identity
- Ticking clock
- Healer in hiding
- Forced proximity
- Sacrifice for love
- Environmentalism
- Spunky kid
- Amazing dog
Origami Dreams, Book Two
- Sunshiny/Gloomy – Journalist/Professor
- Beta/nice guy hero
- Sacrifice
- Ticking clock
- Physical opposites
- ITALY!
- Spunky kid (same one!)
- Amazing dog (same one!)
- Environmentalism
- BEES! Lots of bees
Content Warnings/Trigger Warnings
Catching Stars in a Jar, Book One
- A few expletives, some with apologies
- Some violence and threatened violence, character injury
- Characters trapped in a confined space
- Death and implied demise of secondary (“bad guy”) characters, off camera, no gore
- A mild (non-explicit) sex scene, mostly implied and off camera, with laughter and fireflies
Origami Dreams, Book Two
- A few expletives, some with apologies
- Some violence and threatened violence, character injury
- Two mild (non-explicit) sex scenes, mostly implied and off camera, with laughter and fireflies
- Reference to plague/pandemic may be triggering for some
Comparative Titles
That’s a tough one!
It is easier to provide comparative titles for the whole series than for a single book, because the series progresses, just as the story does, from what seems to be one kind of situation to something completely unexpected and from there to something progressively more inconceivable and suspenseful, despite each book being a complete HEA or HFN romance.
For the entire Books of the Kindling series, the best comparison is Practical Magic meets Contact in the Appalachian mountains. And I’ll just leave that there…
Again for the series, The Bones Beneath My Skin comes close, especially the gorgeous natural setting. But, of course, T.J.’s lovely stories revolve around an LGBTQ+ romance and mine do not.
Other comparable titles for the individual books in the series are Sarah Addison Allen’s Garden Spells and First Frost and Glendy Vanderah’s Where the Forest Meets the Stars, but both are more woman’s literature with a romance subplot.
And the underlying, but hopefully not preachy message of the books is similar to that delivered by Wild Dark Shore. But that amazing book is as bleak and dark as its setting. Of course, it is not a romance either.
Why I Wrote The Series
Because I love romance and I love the planet
I wrote the Books of the Kindling series to introduce readers who love to read romance (like me!) to the realities of the slow-motion destruction of our environment. Too often fiction, despite succeeding in spotlighting the slow violence that is degrading our ecosystems, raising sea levels, decimating biodiversity, and ultimately, threatening human existence, goes either too dark or too preachy.
My intention is to be uplifting and entertaining (and making readers swoon is fun) while delivering just a bit of information and education at the same time. If my readers who love romance finish the books with even a slightly increased understanding of our natural world and how we can preserve it while saving ourselves, I’ve done my job. Love will always be at the forefront, but hope will be riding its coattails.
Where Are the Books Available for Review?
Catching Stars in a Jar, Book One
- NetGalley
- Booksirens
Origami Dreams, Book Two
- NetGalley
- Booksirens
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