"Their eyes met and her heart split open, like a pomegranate being hit with a hammer." 😬

Dear ,

I have an admission—until recently, I turned my nose up at insta-love romance. I just couldn't wrap my head around a story where two people meet and have an attraction that's so strong it leads to a happily ever after in just a hundred pages or so.

I've had to embrace that romance trope though, since I'm contributing to a series of novellas with the theme of "first kiss to true love." I've started writing and had this epiphany that my aversion to the "Hello, my name is Bill, will you marry me?" stories actually has nothing to do with the plausibility of love at first sight, because I know first-hand that it's possible.

My ex-husband taught me that—but not in meeting me.

He met a woman while he was away on business and came home from that trip to declare he'd met his soul mate. They married as soon as our divorce allowed. The fact that they've been together for fifteen years is proof that insta-love is possible.

I wish I could call him or his wife and ask what it feels like to have an immediate knowing that the person you've never had to face a single challenge with is the one you can imagine having kids with, because I just can't relate. When I fall in love, it's a s-l-o-w burn.

So I'm struggling with getting into the heads of my heroine and hero with this story. I would love—maybe in an insta-love kind of way even!—your help.

If you've had an HEA—or even a Happily For Now—relationship that started with 'love at first sight' or 'love at first kiss', please tell me how that felt. How did you know this was the person you had to be with?

And, if you enjoy reading insta-love romance, let me know if you'd like to be a beta reader for my novella. As a beta reader you'd give me your instant, gut reaction to the story then tell me how well you connect to both the heroine and hero, and to the overall story.

I'm not asking for a commitment, since you don't know anything about the story yet and that would be like asking you to marry me after a first date, right? But if you love insta-love stories, I'd love your opinion about mine. I plan to have it ready in June.

Heroes to fall in love with—insta or slow burn

I hope you find a new story to fall in love with from Page One this coming week. I have to admit some of my favorite recent reads have taken a few chapters to really start to feel... but maybe that's just me—cautious about committing in all the areas of my life. That said, once I'm in, I'm all in!

love & instastuff....

(which makes me think of my InstaPot which I did love from day one since Mr. Bloom decided it was going to be his dinner-making tool and I do love having dinner made for me!)

Danika

xo