Bad Boys Don’t Make Good Boyfriends
Melanie A. Smith
(Life Lessons, #2)
Publication date: May 19th 2020
Genres: Adult, Contemporary, Romance
From best-selling author Melanie A. Smith comes the second book in a new series of steamy contemporary medical romance standalone novels about life lessons that break all the rules.
Even when you know better, sometimes it’s simply too tempting…
Hospital work isn’t for the faint of heart. Becca Dillon knows that firsthand, having worked as a medical assistant in the cardiac unit at Rutherford Hospital for longer than she cares to think about. What she does care to think about is having fun, gossip, and … guys. Her favorite of the three. And why stick to one, when you can sample them all?
That’s exactly her plan when a workplace crush on a mysterious bad-boy orderly unexpectedly takes a very steamy turn. But Vincent DeMarco turns out to be nothing like she expected, and before she knows it, she’s falling hard and fast. She wants him in ways she’s never wanted anyone before, but there’s something he’s keeping from her. Something that’s holding him back. And Becca is going to find out what.
Even though she knows that bad boys don’t make good boyfriends, he seems like he might be so much more. Will her quest unlock the truth behind who he really is? Or will it end their relationship for good? Either way, ready or not, Becca’s world is about to change.
A Look Behind the Scenes …
Bad Boys Don’t Make Good Boyfriends is the second book in this steamy contemporary medical romance series. As such, the stage was already somewhat set. It takes place in present day San Diego, in fictional Rutherford Hospital. The characters were introduced in book one, though this is also a standalone. But that means I, as the author, already had a good grasp of their personalities.
With every book I write, though, I always want to make sure my places and timeline are grounded in reality. That the restaurants they go to, the events they attend, the neighborhoods, the vibe, is all as close to real as possible. It’s why I only write stories set in places I’ve been or know well enough to have a feel for.
This book was also a little different from the first in the series in that it wasn’t as heavy on the medical aspect. I thought about inserting that a bit more, but it didn’t feel organic, so I didn’t force it. Still, what there is of that in the book was researched so that I was (as accurately as possible) representing what people in their jobs really do, how a hospital really runs, and so on.
The hardest part, though, was writing characters that were so different from me, especially Becca. I spent even more time than usual thinking about her back story, her motivations, and how she’d speak and act in each situation. It’s super important to me that my characters feel real, and this story took a little extra thinking on that to make sure I was creating something that felt real.
Accordingly, this book took me a lot longer to write than the first, and I pushed right up on the deadline I set for myself. I wouldn’t change a thing, though, and I think the extra time was worth it. Especially since, in this series, I was going for a more concise story, with less “extra” stuff. It’s definitely difficult to create the same kind of connection, depth, and emotion with fewer words. In the end, though, I feel like the story is definitely better for it.
Author Bio:
Melanie A. Smith is the best-selling author of The Safeguarded Heart Series and other contemporary romance fiction. Originally from upstate New York, she spent most of her childhood in the San Francisco Bay Area before moving to Los Angeles for college. After that, she spent almost fifteen years in the Seattle Area, and now lives in the Dallas-Fort Worth area of Texas with her family.
A voracious reader and lifelong writer, Melanie’s writing began at a young age with short stories and poetry. Having completed a bachelor of science in electrical engineering at the University of California, Los Angeles, and a master’s in business administration at the University of Washington, her writing abilities were mainly utilized for technical documents as a lead engineer for the Boeing Company, where she worked for ten years.
After shifting careers to domestic engineering and property management in 2015, she eventually found a balance where she was able to return to writing fiction.
Melanie is also a Mensan and enjoys spending time with her family, cooking, and driving with the windows down and the stereo cranked up loud.
Website / Goodreads / Facebook / Twitter / Instagram / Bookbub
GIVEAWAY!
Thank you so much for the feature!
Thanks for being on the tour! 🙂