Deception & Consequences follows a woman vacationing in St. Lucia who finds herself the target of a human trafficking ring. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?

I wanted Aria to be a regular woman doing regular everyday things like vacationing. And in doing those everyday things, she is threatened by some of the most harrowing danger anyone could ever experience. Aria’s conflict was important because I wanted to show her personal growth and how all the adversity she goes through only makes her stronger. The Aria Donaldson we have at the end of the novel is a much stronger, more independent woman than the one we met in St. Lucia at the beginning.

The human trafficking element was something I came up with because it was the worst case scenario— the most dangerous and unimaginably horrible experience any woman or any person could go through. I needed a devious reason for Simon to target Aria. It just seemed natural that as a conman, he could pretend to be in love with her and actually be another thing all together, which plays exactly into the deception element of Deception & Consequences. However, even the sinister playboy is charmed by the Midwestern beauty, making his life quite difficult. Aria needed to be portrayed as the kind of woman any man could fall in love with, but at least in my story, the good guy wins and the bad boy suffers the consequences of his actions.

I enjoyed the romantic relationship between Aria and Mac. How did their relationship develop while you were writing it? Did you have an idea of where you wanted to take it or was it organic?

Mac Brunner is a direct contrast from Simon Longoria. In order for the reader to see how Simon was not her soulmate, a true soulmate had to be created. Mac Brunner is absolutely one of my favorite characters ever. Initially, he’s Aria’s guardian angel, and he feels compelled to help her, but as the story goes on, he realizes she doesn’t need his help anymore. What I love about Mac is that the more independent Aria becomes, the more he loves her. I coined the phrase “you’ll wanna love like Aria and Mac“ because I honestly believe I could never, ever, ever write a storyline with a couple so perfect for each other again.

How did you balance the action scenes with the story elements and still keep a fast pace in the story?

Often, I worried that there was too much going on in the novel. As a suspense element, I wanted to keep Aria and Mac in constant danger. If one problem got solved or seemed to get better, something else had to happen that would keep them on their toes. And once again, there had to be constant danger because I wanted to show that personal growth in Aria’s character; and I’ll be honest, some of those events that were happening one right after the other, I was making them up as I went along. I didn’t have an outline for the entire novel when I started. The book was initially a novella and ended after Mac and Aria got together in the hospital. Everything from that point on was written ‘on the fly.’ And since I am disclosing some of my dirty little secrets here, it wasn’t even going to be a series until I got to the last chapter and thought of that brilliant way to lead into the next book. I’m amazed how it all came together.

Will there be a follow-up novel to this story? If so, what aspects of the story will the next book cover?

Seduction and Revenge is book II in the 4-book series. In it, the third and final Halprin brother and Aria’s Aunt Caltsya join forces to avenge Deuce’s death. The family drama and secrets continue to unfold, and Mac and Aria’s relationship gets spicy, but is tested to the brink.

Preview: Book III explores a second generation, and Book IV is a prequel that goes back and explains how the two families became so entangled beginning with CiCi and Franklin’s forbidden love affair.

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