I must admit, when it comes to Harlequin, my two favourite imprints of theirs have been MIRA and the newly acquired Heartsong Presents (which used to be independent). MIRA gives you such an enriching choice amongst contemporary women’s fiction writers and relationship-based romance writers, you can find something to tickle your curious bone to read on any given month of release!
I am quite fond of MIRA because it’s a line of featuring authors who become my ‘next’ favourite authors to follow as their careers move forward. The realistic narratives combine with strong characters who do not shield their hearts nor their emotions from the page, giving us heart-stirring fiction grounded in a story-line which will not leave you too soon after you finish reading the novel! I love finding new authors who publish under this imprint, because there is a certain level of trust in knowing what I might find within one of the new releases. You could say, I find equal enjoyment from reading MIRA authors as I do ChocLitUK authors, because of the focus on quality over quantity when it comes to the kinds of stories being penned by their authors. It’s quite a heap of joy knowing that on both sides of the Pond, we can find wicked stories for today’s twenty and thirty-somethings who want stories which are character centric and encompassing of realistic lives set around relationships.
The main reason this particular release tipped the scales of curiosity for me, is due to the fact it’s a contemporary war drama rooted in the modern world. We need war dramas set in today’s world inasmuch as we need war dramas of the past; the two walk hand in hand with bridging understanding and empathy for the men and women who sacrifice so very much of their own lives in order to protect our own. Stories which seek to generate an honest portrait of their lives honours them and allows us a glimpse inside their world.
Proposed Topic: Contemporary war dramas hit close to home but also help us re-define where a war drama can take a reading audience due to the closeness to our living age. How did you draw inspiration to not only cultivate a time sensitive narrative but to eclipse it with the breadth of the human condition in a pursuit of justice intermixed with the struggle to hold onto hope? How did you find balance between the suspense and the driving story arc of Abigail’s conscience and heart?
Book Synopsis | “The Ones We Trust”
When former DC journalist Abigail Wolff attempts to rehabilitate her career, she finds herself
at the heart of a US army cover-up involving the death of a soldier in Afghanistan—with unspeakable emotional consequences for one family. As the story of what happened comes to light, Abigail will do anything to write it.
The more evidence she stumbles upon in the case, the fewer people it seems she can trust, including her own father, a retired army general. And she certainly never expected to fall in love with the slain soldier’s brother, Gabe, a bitter man struggling to hold his family together. The investigation eventually leads her to an impossible choice, one of unrelenting sacrifice to protect those she loves.
Beyond the buried truths and betrayals, questions of family loyalty and redemption, Abigail’s search is, most of all, a desperate grasp at carrying on and coping—and seeking hope in the impossible.
Hi Jorie, and thank you for having me!
I’m super excited to be here, and to talk about my new novel, The Ones We Trust.
This was a tough story for me to write, for exactly the reasons you mention above. Any military plot-line is going to hit close to home these days, and I wanted to make sure I gave it the respect it deserved. War doesn’t just take place on a battlefield, and our soldiers aren’t the only heroes. Think about the parents who send off their sons and daughters, the spouses and siblings and children left waiting at home. They are just as heroic and courageous, their sacrifices different, maybe, but just as great as the men and women fighting on the front lines. Above all, I wanted to be respectful to all of them, not just the soldiers but also the people who love them.
But an inherent part of any war is death. Families lose loved ones, and those left behind have to find a way to pick up the pieces. In The Ones We Trust, Gabe is desperate to know who shot his brother, and I think his search for answers, trying to piece together what took place in those last moments, is a very human response to losing someone. He sees it as the way to give closure to his family.
For me, the biggest challenge of writing any story is taking the armature of the suspense plot—in this case, Abigail and Gabe’s search for the truth—and developing characters that feel real, and not simply reacting to the plot points I create for them. Characters have to learn and grow for a story to really resonate, and in Abigail’s case, she had to learn how to let go of her past in order to not make the same mistakes all over again with Gabe.
Ultimately, The Ones We Trust is a tale about how the bonds of family and love can provide strength and hope for the future. That’s what I hope sticks with readers most, that even after great loss, there’s a way to carry on and cope.
Converse via: #TheOnesWeTrust
About Kimberly Belle
Kimberly Belle grew up in Eastern Tennessee, in a small town nestled in the foothills of the Appalachians. A graduate of Agnes Scott College in Decatur, Georgia, Kimberly lived for over a decade in the Netherlands and has worked in marketing and fundraising for various nonprofits. She’s the author of two novels, THE LAST BREATH and THE ONES WE TRUST (August 2015). She divides her time between Atlanta and Amsterdam.
I am truly thankful I could participate in two blog tours recently via TLC where I could feature their authors with guest essays, as I find the way in which an author responds to a reader’s enquiry by essay shows a different side of how they approach the writer’s craft than an interview. I enjoy hosting both styles of guest features, to be honest, but they each provide something different and unique to showcase! This time around I wanted to dig into the heart of why war dramas in today’s contemporary world as just as important as highlighting the dramatic events of the World War eras of the past.
I knew immediately from penning the topic for this book, I would one day be reading The Ones We Trust because war dramas are some of my most beloved reads. I love finding myself caught up on the homefront, seeing how families and communities rallied together whilst their loved ones were off to war whilst seeing the scenes shift to the battlefield at the same time. When you can find a duality of focus it helps ground us in a specific time of what is inherently important to the characters, however, even if the war dramas only stay within one locality of focus, I am just as curious about the plot than if I were to pick up a novel which shifts from one to the other. War dramas are humanistically compelling; they open up the emotional doors where our empathy for what we do not know expands exponentially by what is being portrayed by honest composite characters of the living heroes who lived those lives.
The fact that Ms Belle focuses on the emotional angst and anguish of loss intermixed with the underscored thread of intrigue to reach an apex where hope and love find a way to wing themselves out of darkness, is an accomplishment I’d love to read! I like seeing characters struggle and find an inner will to champion their circumstances and afflictions; I think most of us can agree on that level. We liked seeing flawed characters and characters who might struggle with their faith and their courage to walk into a future that is not on solid ground. We want to take their journey with them, see how they sort everything out and how resolution alights in their lives; perhaps in ways that are organic and unexpected, but true to the nature of the story at hand.
I definitely like the ‘extra attention’ Ms Belle is mentioning for placing on curating the relationship between Gabe and Abigail – where each character has their own issues to resolve, their own baggage to overcome, and a past they both have to find a way to let go of in order to proceed forward. What a wicked lovely story this will be to read for me! Champion, I discovered it whilst on this blog tour!
This blog tour is courtesy of: TLC Book Tours
I do apologise this post was delayed being featured by a day due to unexpected tech issues stemming out of the fact my equipment and computer was hit hard last month in July by lightning. So much so, it has after effects even now in August. I brought this lovely guest feature to you, my dear readers as quickly as I could.
{ click-through the badge to find book reviews & more guest author features! }
Recently, I hosted another TLC tour where I featured Judith Ryan Hendricks
wherein she shared such an honest and heart-warming essay about the joy of baking bread!
Due drop by and see what she shared!
Reader Interactive Question:
What do you appreciate about contemporary war dramas vs historicals?
Like me, have you found a lot of lovely authors via MIRA whose stories stay with you?
Similar to blog tours where I feature book reviews, as I choose to highlight an author via a Guest Post, Q&A, Interview, etc., I do not receive compensation for featuring supplemental content on my blog. I provide the questions for interviews and topics for the guest posts; wherein I receive the responses back from publicists and authors directly. I am naturally curious about the ‘behind-the-scenes’ of stories and the writers who pen them; I have a heap of joy bringing this content to my readers.
{SOURCES: Book Cover Art for “The Ones We Trust”, author photo, author biography, book synopsis, blog tour badge and the badge for TLC Book Tours were provided by TLC Book Tours and used with permission. Post dividers & My Thoughts badge by Fun Stuff for Your Blog via Pure Imagination. Comment Box & Writerly Topics Banners made by Jorie in Canva. Tweets were embedded due to codes provided by Twitter.}
Copyright © Jorie Loves A Story, 2015.
Thanks for featuring Kimberly for the tour!