Finding Isadora (51 page)

Most of my stories include both the heroine
’s and the hero’s point of view, as is typical in romance fiction.
Finding Isadora
is different. I put the reader firmly inside Isadora’s head. You don’t know Gabriel’s thoughts, or Richard’s, or any other character’s, except through their actions and Isadora’s perceptions. That’s like real life, isn’t it? You can never know what your new lover, or your husband of thirty years, is truly thinking. You can only guess, based on what he says and does. That’s the element of realism I’m going for in
Finding Isadora
.

Over the many years I
’ve been writing, I have discovered that the core theme in all my books is finding yourself. That theme plays out in different ways with my various characters, and I suppose, really, “finding yourself” is what the entire journey of life is all about.

In Isadora
’s case, it’s a matter of finding out how much she’s like and not like her parents, what her core values are, and how she wants to live her life. At twenty-seven, she starts the book pretty complacent, thinking she’s figured out exactly who she is and what she wants. And isn’t that true of many twenty-somethings? But of course, life often intervenes, and that’s the challenge I set for Isadora in this book. Will she stick rigidly to her current beliefs, or does she have the flexibility and strength to re-examine her beliefs and values—particularly when that re-examination leads to hurting someone she loves and creating a future full of uncertainty?

This manuscript was
initially written several years ago, before my first book was published in 2006. I was very proud when it was a finalist in the Romance Writers of America® Golden Heart contest. I have revised it considerably since then, and each time I work on it, I fall in love all over again with Isadora and Gabriel. I hope you will, too.

I
’d like to thank the following people who, over the years, have provided critique feedback on drafts of the manuscript: Nazima Ali, Betty Allan, Lacy Danes, and Michelle Hancock.

Award-winning author Susan Fox, who also writes as Savanna Fox and Susan Lyons, writes “emotionally compelling, sexy contemporary romance” (
Publishers Weekly
).

She is published by Kensington Zebra, Brava, and Aphrodisia
, Berkley Heat, and Harlequin Spice Briefs. Her books have won the HOLT Medallion, the Booksellers Best Award, the Aspen Gold, the Golden Quill, the More Than Magic, the Lories, the Beacon, and the Laurel Wreath, and she was nominated for the RT Reviewers Choice Award.
Publishers Weekly
gave
His, Unexpectedly
a starred review and ranked it as a Top 10 Romance.
Sex Drive
was a
Cosmopolitan
Red-Hot Read.

Susan is a Pacific Northwester with homes in Victoria and Vancouver, British Columbia. She has degrees in law and psychology, and has had a variety of careers, including perennial student, computer consultant, and legal editor. Fiction writer is by far her favorite, giving her an outlet to demonstrate her belief in the power of love, friendship, and a sense of humor.

Website: Visit Susan
’s website at
susanlyons.ca
for excerpts, behind-the-scenes notes, discussion guides, recipes, articles, newsletter sign-up, contests, and give-aways.

Facebook: Find Susan on Facebook at
facebook.com/SusanLyonsFox
.

(writing as Susan Fox, Savanna Fox, and Susan Lyons)

NOVELS

Caribou Crossing Series

Welcome to Caribou Crossing, a western community made for love, adventure, and second chances.

Caribou Cro
ssing
by Susan Fox
(#1); Kensington Zebra, e-novella (novella is also included in print edition of
Home on the Range
)

Home
on the Range
by Susan Fox
(#2); Kensington Zebra

Gentle on my
Mind
by Susan Fox
(#3); Kensington Zebra

Dirty Girls Book Club Series

Don’t you wish your book club read “dirty” books? Each time this club does, one of the members embarks on a sexy romance that in some ways parallels the one in the book.

The Dirty Girl
s Book Club
by Savanna Fox
(#1); Berkley Heat

Dare to b
e Dirty
by Savanna Fox
(#2); Berkley Heat

Bound to be Dirty
by Savanna Fox (#3); Berkley Heat; February 2014

Classic Bodies Series

Because sometimes reality can be even better than your wildest fantasies!

Body H
eat
by Susan Fox
; Kensington Brava

Wild Ride to Love Series

A sexy “planes, trains, automobiles, and a cruise ship” series. Three older sisters travel home for their baby sister’s wedding, and each of their journeys is a wild ride to love!

Sex Dri
ve
by Susan Lyons (
#1; planes); Kensington Aphrodisia

Lov
e, Unexpectedly
by Susan Fox (
#2; trains); Kensington Brava

His, Unex
pectedly
by Susan Fox (
#3; automobiles); Kensington Brava

Yours, U
nexpectedly
by Susan Fox (
#4; a cruise ship); Kensington Brava

Destination Wedding Series

At exotic destination weddings, it’s not only the brides and grooms who find the love of their lives!

Sex on the Beac
h
by Susan Lyons (
#1; Belize); Berkley Heat

Sex on th
e Slopes
by Susan Lyons (
#2; Whistler); Berkley Heat

Heat Waves
by Susan Lyons (#3; Greek islands); Berkley Heat

Awesome Foursome Series

Four girlfriends laugh, cry, bond—and find their own very sexy romances! Think Sex And The City, set in Vancouver, BC.

Champagne Rules
by Susan Lyons (#1); Kensington Aphrodisia

Hot in Here
by Susan Lyons (#2); Kensington Aphrodisia

Touch Me
by Susan Lyons (#3); Kensington Aphrodisia

She
’s on Top
by Susan Lyons (
#4); Kensington Aphrodisia

NOVELLAS

“Hot Down Under” by Susan Lyons in
The Firefighter
(firefighter antho with P.J. Mellor and Alyssa Brooks); Kensington Aphrodisia

“
Unwrap Me” by Susan Lyons in
Unwrap Me
(holiday antho with Melissa MacNeal and Melissa Randall); Kensington Aphrodisia

“
Too Hot to Handle” by Susan Lyons in
Men on Fire
(firefighter antho with Rachelle Chase and Jodi Lynn Copeland); Kensington Aphrodisia

“
Private Eyes” by Susan Lyons in
Some Like It Rough
(antho with Kate Pearce and Anne Rainey); Kensington Aphrodisia

“
Tattoos and Mistletoe” by Susan Fox in
The Naughty List
(holiday antho with Donna Kauffman and Cynthia Eden); Kensington Brava

SHORT STORIES

“A Forever Cowboy” in
Northern Heat: Best Canadian Erotic Romance Stories
(edited by Opal Carew) Quarry Press

Erotique Series: at the classy sex club Erotique, anything goes!

Erotique: Carrie
by Susan Lyons; Harlequin Spice Briefs

Erotique: Jillian
by Susan Lyons; Harlequin Spice Briefs

Erotique: Alex
by Susan Lyons; Harlequin Spice Briefs

If you enjoyed
Finding Isadora
, check out Susan’s “Wild Ride to Love” series.

Planes, trains, automobiles, and a cruise ship—
it’s a Wild Ride to Love for the four Fallon sisters!

There’s one thing baby sister Merilee Fallon has always been able to lord over her three larger-than-life sisters: she’s the one who’s lucky in love. Now she’s engaged, the wedding is two weeks off, and she needs her big sisters to help her pull everything together.

None of them imagine that, as her sisters travel home to Vancouver, BC, by trains (Theresa, the brainy one, from Australia), trains (Kat, Ms. Sociability, from Montreal), and automobiles (Jenna, the free spirit, from Santa Cruz), those journeys are going to be three wild rides to love.

Nor does Merilee imagine that her own honeymoon cruise may not work out exactly the way she anticipates…

For a list of the Wild Ride to Love titles, see
Susan’s book list
.

Turn the page for an excerpt from
the first book,
Sex Drive
.

If someone had asked me a week ago, I
’d have said I wouldn’t be caught dead buying bridal magazines. However, the resident expert—my newly married secretary at the University of Sydney—told me it was impossible to plan a wedding without them.

Of course
I
had managed my own registry wedding without the assistance of any fancy magazines, but then again, look how well that had worked out. A three-month blip of married life to mar my otherwise pristine thirty-two years of singledom.

Ironic that now it was up to me, Theresa Fallon, with a little help from my sisters Kat and Jenna, to plan the perfect wedding. On two weeks
’ notice.

No, not mine. My genius IQ didn
’t prevent me from making mistakes, but I tried my best to never repeat one, so I’d pretty much sworn off men.

It was my baby sister Merilee, back in Vancouver, B.C., who
’d be bridal-marching down the aisle. A march she’d been dreaming of since, at age five, she’d repeatedly propelled Bride Barbie into the arms of tuxedo-clad Ken.

Merilee was marrying Matt, her soul mate since grade two. You
’d have thought fifteen years of love and dreams would have resulted in something more organized than a spur-of-the-moment wedding. However, Merilee’d had a rough time of it health-wise this year, then Matt found a last-minute deal on a Mexican Riviera cruise, and the result was that in thirteen days my kid sister was going to have the wedding she’d always dreamed of.

Except that she, who was frantically catching up the university work she
’d missed due to illness, didn’t have time to make wedding arrangements.

Merilee needed help, and I loved Merilee. So did our middle sisters Kat and Jenna, of course, but as always, I was the organizer. The truth was, I liked being in charge. In fact, I preferred doing things myself, so they
’d get done right. Snotty? Given my awe-inspiring IQ, my parents’ expectations, and the responsibilities that had been foisted upon me at an early age, could I have turned out any other way?

Ergo, I, who
so
didn’t relate to the white-lace-and-promises concept, was now on the hunt for a couple of those frilly magazines to supplement the gigantic bible on wedding planning I’d purchased at the uni bookstore. After clearing Sydney airport security late Sunday afternoon, I made for the Newslink store.

A display of hardcover books near the entrance caught my attention. The under-construction pyramid featured
Wild Fire
, the new release from one of Australia’s popular novelists, Damien Black. A female sales clerk was plastering “Autographed Copy” stickers on covers that were a touch garish—eerie flames in yellow and red blazing on a black background—but definitely eye-catching.

As a sociologist specializing in the study of Indigenous Australians, I knew Black
’s name. He was part Aboriginal and wrote paranormal mystery thrillers featuring a police officer who was an Aboriginal Australian.

Though I rarely read fiction, I
’d picked up one of the novels. It had been surprisingly entertaining, moderately accurate when it came to the facts, and even, here and there, insightful. But only here and there. Mostly, his work was crassly commercial. The man should devote his writing talents to something serious.

I certainly didn
’t plan to read another of his books. “Waste of time. Glib and superficial.”