Blog Tour - Bad Boys Don’t Make Good Boyfriends by Melanie A. Smith + Giveaway!

Bad Boys Don’t Make Good Boyfriends by Melanie A. Smith is book 2 in the Life Lessons Series. It's a Contemporary Romance and it's Available for Pre-Order so what are you waiting for go get your copy today! Keep reading for guest post & giveaway!

Title: Bad Boys Don’t Make Good Boyfriends

Series: Life Lessons #2

Author: Melanie A. Smith

Genre: Contemporary, Romance

Release Date: May 19, 2020

From best-selling author Melanie A. Smith comes the second book in a new series of steamy contemporary medical romance standalone novels about life lessons that break all the rules. Even when you know better, sometimes it’s simply too tempting…

Hospital work isn’t for the faint of heart. Becca Dillon knows that firsthand, having worked as a medical assistant in the cardiac unit at Rutherford Hospital for longer than she cares to think about. What she does care to think about is having fun, gossip, and … guys. Her favorite of the three. And why stick to one, when you can sample them all?

That’s exactly her plan when a workplace crush on a mysterious bad-boy orderly unexpectedly takes a very steamy turn. But Vincent DeMarco turns out to be nothing like she expected, and before she knows it, she’s falling hard and fast. She wants him in ways she’s never wanted anyone before, but there’s something he’s keeping from her. Something that’s holding him back. And Becca is going to find out what.

Even though she knows that bad boys don’t make good boyfriends, he seems like he might be so much more. Will her quest unlock the truth behind who he really is? Or will it end their relationship for good? Either way, ready or not, Becca’s world is about to change.

Book 1

Did you come across any specific challenges in writing Bad Boys Don't Make Good Boyfriends?

Writing Bad Boys Don’t Make Good Boyfriends was challenging for me in a few ways. First and foremost because Becca, the heroine, has such a different personality than mine. I can be sassy, but she’s a whole other level of outspoken and free. Really, she says the things I wish I could say, when I wish I could say them. Though she also lives a lifestyle (read: gets around) that’s so not me.

While it was kind of fun to get in her head, it made me really concerned that I was creating an authentic character who was making choices that were in line with who she was. That’s a really important aspect of my writing, and I struggled with it here. But in the end, I drew from friends who had inspired parts of her and lots of thinking through her banter and interactions with others.

Another challenge was how much to incorporate the medical aspects in this story (or not, as it were). The first book in the series was a little heavier on those topics, but it just didn’t feel organic while I was writing this one. Is it still medical romance? Sure. But it’s a bit more of a backdrop in this book than the first, and I grappled with trying to insert more of that before just deciding to stay true to where the story was taking me.

The last major struggle for me was length. With this series, I purposely set out to write more concise stories than my first series. Call it a personal challenge to hone my craft. So basically, I was trying to keep this about as long as the first book in the series, and I kept feeling the pull toward inserting more arcs and situations that would draw it out and, hopefully, make it more emotionally impactful. So I had to consciously scale things back and try to achieve that same result with fewer words. I’m not sure why, but that felt like more of a challenge with this book than the first. In the end, I feel very happy with how it turned out and so far the response has been great!

Melanie A. Smith is the best-selling author of The Safeguarded Heart Series and other contemporary romance fiction. Originally from upstate New York, she spent most of her childhood in the San Francisco Bay Area before moving to Los Angeles for college. After that, she spent almost fifteen years in the Seattle Area, and now lives in the Dallas-Fort Worth area of Texas with her family.

A voracious reader and lifelong writer, Melanie’s writing began at a young age with short stories and poetry. Having completed a bachelor of science in electrical engineering at the University of California, Los Angeles, and a master’s in business administration at the University of Washington, her writing abilities were mainly utilized for technical documents as a lead engineer for the Boeing Company, where she worked for ten years.

After shifting careers to domestic engineering and property management in 2015, she eventually found a balance where she was able to return to writing fiction.

Melanie is also a Mensan and enjoys spending time with her family, cooking, and driving with the windows down and the stereo cranked up loud.