Taste of Cyn

Leap Year And Character Goals

By Cynthia Sax on August 20, 2021

Please Note: This post will share spoilers about Leap Year. If you’re like me and have been delaying watching this 2010 movie, consider skipping this post until you’ve seen it.

I finally watched Leap Year! I’ve been avoiding watching it because the premise – a woman seeking to propose to her longtime boyfriend and then falling in love with a different guy—had a high likelihood of me feeling sad for one of the men. But it was on the TV and it captured my attention within mere moments of watching it.

Leap Year has its issues yet I found it entertaining and it does some things VERY well.

One of the things it does well is show us the difference between what a character thinks she needs and what she truly needs.

Anna, the heroine, grew up with a father she couldn’t depend upon. She is looking for safety and she interprets this as financial safety.

Her longtime boyfriend gives her financial safety and that’s it. He is a successful surgeon and makes a sh*tload of cash.

But we see from the start he doesn’t give her emotional security. He doesn’t hesitate to leave her alone when they’re surrounded by strangers. He doesn’t offer her the stability of marriage. He isn’t there for her in any way other than financial.

Anna takes matters into her own hands and decides to go to Ireland and propose to him. Everything possible goes wrong and she ends up in a rural area with the snarly, grumpy hero.

At first, Declan, the hero, looks like he’s the absolutely wrong guy for her. His restaurant/hotel/bar is in financial peril. His kitchen is about to be repossessed. And he refuses to help her. In any way.

He eventually relents. They bicker. Anna isn’t at all impressed with him.

That attitude starts to soften when Declan refuses to abandon her, trailing her all over the country. He is THERE for her, even when she destroys his beloved car. He doesn’t yell. He is quietly, grumpily behind her literally every step of the way.

Her view of him significantly shifts when he fights baddies for her. He might not be able to make her feel financially safe but he makes her feel physically and emotionally safe. The man even cooks for her, showing he can care for her in that way also.

This is a romance so Declan does become financially stable also but Anna doesn’t know this when she chooses him. All she knows is she feels safe with him. She can depend on him. He is there for her.

And that is exactly what she needs to secure lasting happiness.

***

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Baring Grudge

No one in the universe is more determined than a cyborg warrior tracking his female.

***

Grudge, a C Model cyborg, has been assigned a mission – safeguard a Humanoid Alliance space station for his kind. Honor was once all he had, and he is determined to fulfill his duty.

That resolve is tested when a tiny human female enters the space station and sets the prettiest little explosives the warrior has ever seen. She is Grudge’s genetic match, the one being manufactured for him. He wants to touch her, kiss her, claim her in all ways, but first he has to stop her from blasting him into the next galaxy.

Taelyn has a self-appointed mission—to destroy every battle robot the Humanoid Alliance has ever manufactured. A huge gray-skinned, blue-eyed cyborg warrior with mismatched arms won’t prevent her from achieving her goal. She’ll escape him, leaving destruction in her wake.

Before she departs, she’ll experience one toe-curling moment of hatred-edged passion with her handsome foe. She’ll show him how skilled with detonations she truly is. He will have his universe rocked.

Then she’ll disappear.

Her cyborg, however, has no intention of ever letting her go.

***

Baring Grudge is a STANDALONE Cyborg SciFi Romance set in a dark, gritty, sometimes-violent universe.

It features a determined, damaged warrior, an equally resolute human female, and an explosive game of predator and prey played across galaxies.

Baring Grudge is the third of five core stories in the Rebel Cyborgs Series.
Book 1: Containing Malice
Book 2: Under Strain
Book 3: Baring Grudge
Book 4: B Free
Book 5: Seizing Power

Buy Now:

Amazon US:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08ZL2D986

Amazon UK:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B08ZL2D986

Amazon AUS:
https://www.amazon.com.au/gp/product/B08ZL2D986

Apple Books:
https://books.apple.com/us/book/baring-grudge/id1559566673

B&N:
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/baring-grudge-cynthia-sax/1139086727

Kobo:
https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/baring-grudge

Smashwords:
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1075600

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Something Borrowed And To Be Continued

By Cynthia Sax on August 7, 2020

I finally watched the 2011 romantic comedy Something Borrowed this week. This movie is based on an Emily Giffin book with the same title.

I resisted watching this movie and reading this book based on the premise – A woman falls in love with her best friend’s fiancé. Yes, ouch. There are only two outcomes I can predict with that premise – either the woman ends up broken hearted or a close friendship ends. I like happy endings and neither of those outcomes are happy.

I won’t talk about that in this post. What I wanted to talk about is the ending. Don’t worry. This will be fairly spoiler-free.

The ending is a Romance Novel sexy brother ending amplified.

In what I call a sexy brother series (other writers have other names for this type of series), every story has a couple (or more) with their own romantic happy ever after BUT another intriguing character or couple (or more) is also introduced in their story.

Seasoned Romance Novel readers such as myself (and I suspect you) know that character or couple (or more) will have their own story told next or soon after. This is often implied rather than outright stated.

Why isn’t it outright stated?

Because a gazillion things could prevent that next story from being published. And if the next story isn’t ever published, making a too obvious link between the two stories will hurt our enjoyment of the first story. I can’t recommend to buddies a book 1 that needs a book 2 if the book 2 will never be published.

The odds of a next movie being produced are even lower than the odds of a next book being published. Yet Something Borrowed ends with a very strong link to the next movie, a movie that 9 years later hasn’t happened and likely will never happen.

The link might have been forgivable if it hadn’t been for the message they placed at the end of the movie – To Be Continued…

These three words took away my ability to think of Something Borrowed as a completed story or film. There was no doubt left in my mind. I had watched only a portion of the story.

It was frustrating and completely unnecessary and is a great lesson for writers everywhere. Unless we are certain there will be a next story, we should think carefully before strongly linking stories.

Note: I now self-publish all my stories which means, barring any huge disasters, I’m in complete control over my next stories. I can talk about Power’s story because, if there is any life left in my 40-something currently-relatively-healthy form at all a year from now, Power’s story WILL be written and, soon after that, released.

I still prefer that my stories stand on their own as I know not all heroes or heroines or premises appeal to all reading buddies. And hey, things happen.

***

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Testing Truth

A fun-loving cyborg gets serious about love.

***

Truth lives each moment as though it were his last. The cyborg warrior rushes into danger, teases beings he shouldn’t provoke, accepts every call of adventure he encounters.

When a prissy little human princess floats into the Rebel structure Truth is occupying, seeking a mercenary to assist her and her unusual entourage, he volunteers to be her warrior. She claims their assignment is dangerous, warns him he might not survive the task.

That is exactly the type of fun he has been seeking.

Princess Nanette of the planet Royaume must rescue her estranged brother from an enemy prison ship. That is her duty, and she has been trained to always place the needs of her planet and her subjects before her own. Nancy doesn’t have the freedom to indulge her passions for a certain dark-haired, gray-skinned cyborg. Not permanently and not publicly.

But she is unable to resist the warrior. Truth, with his laughing eyes, smiling lips, and rough hands, tempts her as no one else ever has. He could be her one fleeting act of rebellion before she’s matched with the powerful ruler her planet requires.

If they survive their current mission.

Their love is doomed. Their lifespans are at risk. This cyborg and his princess will need the help of every ally they have if they wish to see another sunrise.

Pre-order Now:

Amazon US:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08BTYN7TT

Amazon UK:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B08BTYN7TT

Amazon AUS:

https://www.amazon.com.au/gp/product/B08BTYN7TT

Apple Books:

https://books.apple.com/us/book/testing-truth/id1520415369

B&N:

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/testing-truth-cynthia-sax/1137237855

Kobo: