FOR YOU I'D BREAK by Hannah Jordan

FOR YOU I'D BREAK

Hannah Jordan

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GENRE: Contemporary Romance

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BLURB:

When Rowan’s two-year marriage ends with a crash, she returns home to Peace Falls, VA, riding shotgun in her sister’s 1990 Cadillac hearse. Everything about her is damaged: her heart, her pride, her bank account, and her spine—thanks to a tourist, a Segway, and finding her husband getting busy with her boss. However, Rowan is determined to reclaim her career and city life as soon as she recuperates and lands a new job.

Caleb “Cal” Cardoso didn’t notice wallflower Rowan in high school, but the former football star, and Peace Falls’s newest physical therapist, can’t take his eyes off the stunning redhead now. Too bad he’s sworn off relationships. After his last hookup purposely tanked his online reputation, Cal stands to lose his job if a single patient leaves his care. This is why he can’t let Rowan switch to another practitioner, despite the friction between them, and why he definitely can’t act on his growing attraction.

Rowan agrees to remain Cal’s patient if he helps her younger brother train for football tryouts. Though Cal hasn’t touched a football since the accident that killed his best friend, he agrees, and as Cal helps heal Rowan’s body, she begins to heal his heart.

For You I’d Break is a small-town romance with a hefty dash of spice, a HEA ending, and a cast of memorable characters, including a goth sculptor who secretly loves to decorate cakes, a fearsome-looking felon with a heart of gold, a hothead with a sweet side, a karma-devoted barista who collects damaged pets and first dates, and a lovable dog with more emotional sense than everyone put together.

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EXCERPT

Being a wallflower makes you thirsty, so parched for attention your heart feels brittle. Then after years—or in my case a lifetime—someone finally sees you. The exquisite feeling seeps deep, the attention saturating your life. So, you jump, headfirst. The red flags go unnoticed. Declarations of love tossed as lightly as petals. Maybe you will marry him like I did. Maybe you bloom in domestic bliss with a house in the suburbs and two adorable kids. Maybe a dog. The bare minimum is a pet turtle.

I wasn’t so lucky.

After two years of marriage, instead of house hunting in the outskirts of DC, I was riding shotgun in my sister’s 1990 Cadillac hearse, headed back to Peace Falls, VA, with everything I owned stuffed where a coffin ought to be.

I’d cried so much in the past three hours, I could barely make out the foothills rising in the distance. My throat was raw. Crumpled tissues littered the floorboard, and lint covered my leggings.

The tears surprised me. Apart from a couple of late-night phone calls to my mother after I left the hospital, I’d held it together pretty well. I was too busy tying up the loose ends of my life in DC to feel anything but stressed. The moment Poppy arrived to drive me home,

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Top 10 Things I’ve Learned as a Debut Indie Author (So Far)
By Hannah Jordan
10). Embrace Failure as a Learning Experience
Since my debut novel, For You I’d Break, launched in July, I’ve made enough mistakes to write a what-not-to-do guide for indie authors. My first big whoops: purchasing formatting software that couldn’t share files between users. I intended to have the book professionally formatted, and then make minor changes on my own. I ended up learning how to format a book (sort of) in a week to meet my launch deadline. Navigating the indie publishing world has been challenging, but I’ve never been afraid to mess up before I make sense of something.
9). Know You’re Limitations
Ok, I know I just said to embrace failure, but there’s a caveat. If the skills you need are beyond your abilities or would take too long to learn, consider hiring a pro. I knew from the start I lacked the artistic skills to design a book cover and budgeted accordingly. I spent one frustrating afternoon trying to design a website before I admitted to myself that though I can update and maintain a site (and have in the past), my lack of visual skills and coding knowledge made building a website from scratch more work than I could handle. Finally, I realized I needed a copy editor. While I’ve edited for others for years, turns out I miss too much when editing a document I’ve written and then reread countless times.
8). Reviews are Rarer than Diamonds
Even after sending “How To” instructions for posting reviews on Amazon to my ARC readers, the reviews trickled in like molasses. The percentage of readers (who don’t know me) willing to leave even a star review is so slim, that I wonder how anyone gets over a hundred without being a best-selling author. Needless to say, I will be leaving reviews for other authors whenever I can.
7). Read the Comments
I’ve written in different genres, including creative nonfiction on sensitive topics. Usually, I’d tell people not to read the comments to spare their mental health. Indie authors can’t afford to do this. If you’re going it alone, reader feedback is essential to honing your craft, especially in genres like romance where reader expectations are high.
6). You’ll Be Marketing All the Time
Seriously, all the time. If you’re not, you won’t be selling books.
5). Look to Communities for Free Advertising
Marketing can be expensive. Joining social media groups and writing communities can be a great way to find free promotional opportunities. Just remember that these are communities, which means you should do your part to lift others while they’re lifting you.
4). Take Advantage of Every Opportunity and Make Your Own
Don’t be afraid to put yourself out there. I’m amazed at some of the yeses I’ve gotten because I asked. People will tell you no, or more likely, ignore you. I read somewhere that a no in the publishing industry rarely means never. It just means not now or not this.
3). It’s Difficult to Judge Success
When is an Amazon ad considered successful? How many books do I need to sell to be a mid-list author? Got me. With no prior sales data, I have no way of comparing the outcomes of marketing efforts. I’ve learned it takes time to get the numbers and even more time to understand them.
2). Prioritize the Writing
With so much else to do, it’s easy to fall out of your writing habits. I find it challenging to switch from marketing to creative writing. For that reason, I now work in chunks, dedicating large amounts of time to writing with minimal marketing and vice versa.
1). Own It

No one cares about your book more than you do. When I started this journey as an indie romance author, I decided to write under a pen name to protect my “literary” reputation. For months, not even my closest friends and relations knew I was publishing a book. BIG mistake. The second I owned it, everything clicked into place. I kept the pen name because it made sense for reader expectations, but I’m proud of my romance novel. I’ve never worked harder, and I truly believe it’s a book readers will enjoy. So now everyone in my life knows I write spicy books, and I couldn’t be happier.

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AUTHOR Bio and Links:

Hannah Jordan grew up in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia but wound up in South Jersey after falling in love with her complete opposite. She's got all the degrees of a "serious" fiction writer but only smiles when she's writing romance.

She lives with her husband and two daughters in a picturesque town outside of Philadelphia where she enjoys reading in all genres, especially the spicy ones, and confusing people with her half-Southern, half-Northern accent.