One of the things I’ve been trying to be more intentional about when doing the meager amount of planning I do for my books is to think about tropes ahead of time.
If you’re paying attention (and it’s totally fair if you haven’t been), you’ve seen my titles shift from more obscure phrases like Wisdom to Know to The Billionaire’s Backup, or even So You Have My Secret Baby.
Even though it’s not necessarily my personal preference, I’ve definitely noticed that it helps new readers find my books. And enjoy them. And come back for more. And really, that’s what I want (and I think every author wants) — for readers to find, read, and enjoy my stories!
With my current series, all the titles make it clear we’re dealing with billionaires and then give some kind of hint to the other main trope inside. With book four (coming out at the end of May), it’s a little more obscure than others have been.
The Billionaire’s Backup might not immediately scream love pact. But that’s what it is.
Jenna and Noah have been friends forever. They’re birthday buddies and they casually dated in college, but neither one was looking for someone to settle down with right away. So they kept it loose and never really committed to seeing where things went. But they did make an agreement that if they were both still single when they turned thirty-three, they’d marry each other.
Both laughed it off as a joke.
But Noah was just pretending.
With Jenna in the DC area now, the two have picked their friendship up right where it left off. And they’ve both happily served as a backup date for fancy work functions when necessary. But every time they go out together, Noah gets a little more serious about their pact.
He sees Jenna a lot since she’s rehabbing his house, but he can’t quite figure out how to tell her. And their thirty-third birthday is looming on the horizon.
I had a lot of fun writing this story. It definitely trends friends-to-love in addition to being a love pact. And it’s got a couple of “I can because I’m a billionaire” moments that make it a fun fantasy, too. (My billionaires don’t tend to be the living large, spending like there’s no tomorrow guys. They’re very aware of the need to steward their riches responsibly and use them to serve Jesus. But sometimes they splurge on something fun. Or romantic.)
Here’s a little excerpt from Noah’s perspective:
“I have to ask why you bought this place.”
“It was a good deal. Plus the property. Seriously, who has half an acre in Old Town?” I flashed a grin and hoped it would stand as an explanation. The truth was, I didn’t know—not really—why I’d been so set on this townhouse. None of the guys thought it was a smart move. It wasn’t as though the money was an issue, but we were all trying to be good stewards with our new-found billions. Even still, I was rapidly discovering that having money made it a lot easier to make more of it. It was a struggle to give it away fast enough.
“True. But you’re going to need a wife and six kids. Stat.”
I laughed. “I’ll get right on it.”
“See that you do.” Jenna grinned over her shoulder as she headed down the hall toward what would be the dining and kitchen area.
I shook my head and followed slowly. I couldn’t picture my life with a wife and six kids. Or even two kids. When I did try, I ended up seeing Jenna, which was, of course, ridiculous. She didn’t look at me that way. We were friends. Had been for a lot of years. And sure, we’d made a pact that if we both hit thirty-three single, we’d just marry each other.
But it wasn’t serious.
If I needed to remind my subconscious of that now and then, there were worse things to have to remember. Anyway, it wasn’t as if Jenna was expecting us to follow through.
The Billionaire’s Backup will release May 30th and the audiobook goes into production at the end of this month as well, so it should be available mid-summer for those who like to listen.
Since Noah’s in the process of rehabbing a historic home in this book, let’s chat about that. Would you ever want to buy an old house and fix it up? Why or why not?
Elizabeth Maddrey is a semi-reformed computer geek and homeschooling mother of two who lives in the suburbs of Washington D.C. When she isn’t writing, Elizabeth is a voracious consumer of books. She loves to write about Christians who struggle through their lives, dealing with sin and receiving God’s grace on their way to their own romantic happily ever after.
Hi Elizabeth! I usually am not fond of Billionaire romances, but always enjoy your Billionaire series for the reason you stated above. Billionaires, who are aware of the need to steward their riches responsibly and use them to serve Jesus. By reading your stories I have learned much about romance troupes. Enjoy your stories. Looking forward to reading The Billionaire’s Backup.
As a pastor’s wife we lived in church parsonages and never rehabbed houses. After retiring from the ministry we purchased a 1960s ranch and have done some renovations to the kitchen and the second bath, plus maintenance – new flooring, new windows, new driveway with a front patio. My middle son did some rehab on a 1920s home in our area (built by the local dry cleaner in SW Michigan).
Really looking forward to this – I’ve loved the series so far!
I totally understand why your titles have moved towards clearly labelling tropes (it’s not just you, everyone does it and I know it’s because everyone searches online and via ereaders) but I did prefer the more old-fashioned title for romances.
I’ve never done a complete rehab, or owned a historic home, but the first house my husband and I owned was a 1930s property which needed a lot of remodeling, mostly to undo work the previous owner had done himself which turned out to be unsafe! We got professional contractors to do most of the work but we did a lot of decorating and lived in a building site for months. It was really stressful and I wouldn’t plan to do it again, particularly as I now have young children. But we are having our garage converted into a room hopefully starting in a couple of months so I haven’t given up on remodeling completely lol.
Oh the house your son worked on sounds fun! I enjoyed a show on HGTV that was a woman rehabbing a lot of gorgeous homes in Detroit.
I appreciate how willing to try my billionaires you’ve been! Your reviews are always such an encouragement.
Oh man. Redoing work done improperly sounds awful but so necessary!
And thank you! I’m so glad you’re enjoying the series!
I’m soooo looking forward to this book!! I think, if you had the money, it would be fun to rehab a house!! Though, it also depends on how much work is really needed, too!
I think it would be fun to go through the process of rehaabbing a house because you could keep what you love about it and change what doesn’t work for you but it also seems like the process could quickly become overwhelming.
It would definitely be more fun as long as there was enough money to do it right :)
Agree across the board!
When I was younger, if I’d had the money, I would love to have rehabbed a house.
The older I get, the more I agree with “when I was younger” 😉 we are redoing our basement floor and it’s not as fast a project as it would have been years ago.
Hi, your book sounds like a great read, thank you for sharing about it.
Thanks!
I’m looking forward to the book! I haven’t needed to dream about rehabbing an old house, because the past 3 months I’ve been watching my cousins rehab my aunt’s house across the driveway from us. My grandfather started building it in 1935 with one room. Later a kitchen, living room, bedroom, bathroom, laundry room were slowly added. When I was in primary school, my two great-grandmothers on my dad’s side became widows, and my grandfather built on two bedrooms and a bathroom for them to live in. My aunt just moved into assisted living (she’s 97) and my cousins needed to fix up her house to rent out… Well, my cousins learned that my grandfather made do with what he had… in trying to install new kitchen counters, they found nothing was exactly square :-) They persevered and now a family with 4 boys (ages 3-10) are living there! I was glad to just observe and not have to do much except help sort out cupboards before the remodeling started.
You had me at “when doing the meager amount of planning I do for my books…” :)
In 1994, we bought a house built in 1909 with the dream of rehabbing it. After five years, we had to admit defeat. It was so much more than we were able to handle, but it was a wonderful, charming home for our family that we still remember with great fondness.
Ooh. Maybe watching someone else do it is the way to go!
Oh man. I imagine that was heartbreaking to have to give up. But I’m glad you have the experience! And haha, yeah, definitely not a plotter here.
It would be interesting to do so, but I am not handy nor is my husband. We are now both handicapped so it takes it right off the table. Thank you so much for sharing. God bless you.
no, too much trouble
Could be for sure.
It’s definitely not for everyone!
Not historic, but built in 1988. And after I bought the appartment, of course it needs some thorough renovation…