Opposites Attract - Lauren Dane

We’ve all got tropes we like – assassin heroes, marriage of convenience, small town romance, older man/younger woman (or vice versa), uber alpha heroes, beta heroes, certain historical periods (me? I love me some wallpaper regencies), friends to lovers, whatever your preferences may be – we’ve all got em.
Relentless is a story of opposites. In Abbie, we have a woman without political power. In the world I built for my Federation books, the haves are Ranked. As in they are members of the ruling Families who hold the reins of political and economic power across all the Federation Universes. Everyone else is unranked and therefore able to rise only so high.

So Abbie is unranked. She’s also a barrister, a public defender if you will and she has spent her adult life working to bring a more representative form of governance to her home ‘Verse. She’s small and fiery and full of passion and conviction.

And then there’s Roman. Roman Lyons isn’t just Ranked, he’s the head of the most powerful Ranked Family in all the ‘Verses. He’s charming and intelligent, his passion is there, but it’s beneath the surface and when Abbie storms into his life, he’s knocked off his feet, literally and figuratively.

He’s everything she isn’t and everything she’s trying to destroy. Until they meet and he realizes his preconceptions about her are wrong and she begins to realize the same.

But they can’t be together. Even as they begin a secret and fiery love affair, they both know it has an expiration date. He can’t marry someone who isn’t Ranked. The Federation is rocked by a series of treason trials in the aftermath of what happens in Undercover. He knows he has responsibilities that are larger than his own wants and needs. It is his job, his calling, to take care of his people. But he wants her and she’s his in a way he is certain no other woman can ever be.
For her part, Abbie is in love with Roman and she slowly realizes just how seriously he takes his position. Not all Ranked are the same, but she still has a job to do.

I gotta tell you, writing this book was probably one of the most difficult few months I’ve ever experienced. I sweated to be sure the pacing was just right. That the scenes between Abbie and Roman were tender as well as urgent and sexy. I had to balance that with the world, with the politics and customs I need to create a sense of home for them and for the reader too. In the end, when I turned it in, I was proud. Proud and hoping like heck my editor would like it. Hoping my readers would.

In the end, a futuristic romance is just like any other – Roman and Abbie have an uphill battle. I wanted to relay that sense of star-crossed lovers, but also, it’s a romance, not a tragedy so the reader knows they’ll work out something to be together. The key is to try as hard as you can to draw the reader in, to make them feel what Roman and Abbie do as they’re loving each other and knowing they can’t be together.

I hope my readers enjoy meeting Abbie and Roman and I hope Relentless can bring over some readers who might have been put off by the “futuristic” tag in the past as well!

Lauren