Happy book birthday, A Different Life: Now. Always. Forever.
NAF started as a kind of lark. I got the idea about one of Ruby Barkley’s friends just out of the blue, once I had finished the first A Different Life book. Originally, it was going to be just a wee bit of fluff. Something to lighten up my mood and put up on Kindle Vella, and continue Ruby and Gabe’s story, from the perspective of Linda Coates, Ruby’s best friend in college. And–also about Linda finding the love of her life.
Um. Well. It ended up having quite a bit of commentary about right-wing politics, while still having a romance at the core of it. All the same, it does have a happy-ever-after ending, even though everybody goes through a LOT during the course of the story. And I enjoyed writing about one of Gabe’s lesser-known cousins, his executive assistant Armand Martiniere, one of the Canadian Martinieres. Like most of the Martinieres, Armand is quite polite, mannerly, and charming…except when those he cares about are threatened.
Linda has quite a bit of her own baggage, tied to the death of her grandmother Jenni Coates, an Oregon State Representative. Jenni Coates’s death had a huge impact on everyone in the Coates family, especially since it also drew them into corporate warfare at the lower level. When Ruby offers Linda the job as her executive assistant, Linda sees it as her way out of a no-win scenario involving her creepy brother-in-law Clyde. She didn’t expect to fall in love, much less with a Martiniere….
Available at the usual suspects.
