Contemporary

Character Sketch: Jamie from Love Me Not @ReeseRyanWrites #RLFblog #contemporary

Love Me Not 
Title: Love Me Not
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Author Name: Reese Ryan
Book heat level (based on movie ratings): R
Abandoned by a mother who chose drugs over her, Jamie Charles
barely got out of her own addiction alive. Now, she pours her pain into her art
while pouring drinks at a local bar. To Jamie, love is a four-letter word—until
she meets Miles, a charming ad exec with piercing blue eyes who makes no secret
about his desire for her.
Miles Copeland has family demons of his own, but his unhappy
upbringing drove him toward hard work and success. He’s determined to win Jamie
over, and when he finally does, it’s worth every moment he spent waiting. But when
he confesses that he’s falling for her, she panics. Sex is one thing, but love requires
more than she can give.
Jamie can’t deny her feelings, but she’s haunted by her past.
Miles knows his heart, but Jamie’s lingering doubts have him questioning their future.
It might take the threat of losing him forever for her to realize that refusing
to let love in is the worst mistake of all.

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Publisher: Carina Press http://ebooks.carinapress.com/99B261EE-BCC1-48B5-8E87-74CCBE5402E2/10/134/en/ContentDetails.htm?ID=52764E5C-73A5-4BB0-BC35-4E1CC32E98F8
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About the Character

Name: Jamie Charles
Age: 31
Gender: Female
Birthplace: Cleveland,
Ohio
Profession: Artist/Bartender
Ethnicity: Caucasian
Describe her body build, skin tone, height and weight. Include
any unique features such as dimples, freckles, or scars: Jamie is average height
with a curvy, well-toned body. Jamie has a nose piercing, tattoos and fair skin.
At the beginning of the story her hair is long and black and she favors dramatic
eyes shadow and lipstick. Later in the book she changes her style a bit.
Who is the significant
other in your character’s life?
Miles Copeland. He’s dreamy, handsome, speaks his mind and it
quite persistent. He isn’t afraid of Jamie’s tough, scarred exterior and he’s determined
to win her heart. Thankfully, he succeeds.
How does your heroine
dress?
In the beginning of the book, Jamie favors a darker, edgier look.
I’d describe it as Goth Girl Meets Motorcycle Chick. It fits her mood and the image
she wants to project to the world. She relishes the fact that people find her unapproachable.
How educated is this character?
Is she book smart, self-taught, widely-experienced?
Jamie is a smart girl but she is self-taught and street smart.
She is capable of much more, but deep down she holds the belief that she doesn’t
deserve more.
Does she scrape by, live comfortably, live extravagantly?
Jamie is your typical starving artist,
in many ways, but she’s comfortable with her life as it is. However, when she starts
dating Miles she becomes more aware of what she doesn’t have. The difference in
their income levels does add to her insecurities.
What does she have a knack
for doing?
Jamie is a talented artist. She’s especially skilled at drawing
and painting. When she was ten-years-old, the man who Jamie considers to be her
father bought her art supplies after she got in trouble for drawing on a desk at
school.
What is your character’s
family like?
Jamie comes from a broken home and had a very difficult childhood.
Her father left home when she was about ten. Her mother was an alcoholic and drug
addict. Jamie had planned to run away from home at thirteen, but her best friend’s
family took her in and became her legal guardians. She loves them and is fiercely
loyal to them. Yet, she trusts few other people.
Is she close to family?
Jamie is very close to her adopted
family. However, she hasn’t seen her biological father since she was ten and hasn’t
seen her biological mother in more than fifteen years.
If someone from your character’s
past showed up, who would she NOT want it to be, and why?
The last person in the world that Jamie
would want to see is her biological mother, Josephine Charles. Yet, near the outset
of the story, that is exactly what happens. Josephine is trying to get her life
together and wants to make amends with Jamie. This sets off a series of events in
which Jamie is forced to deal with extremely painful secrets from her past that
neither she nor Josephine are truly prepared to face.
Can your heroine keep
a secret?
Yes. Jamie has kept lots of secrets for the two women she considers
her sisters. However, the biggest secret she’s been keeping is about what happened
to her as a young girl. It’s slowly been eating away at her, like a poison, and
making it difficult for her to form a true connection with or trust people outside
of her small circle.
What inner doubt causes
your character the most difficulty?
Being abandoned by her father without so much as a word and watching
her mother choose the man who hurt her over her has left Jamie with the belief that
she is unlovable. She behaves accordingly and avoids relationships at all costs.
Until she met Miles, she was content to live her life this way. Being loved by him
slowly changes her perspective on the matter and her self-perception.

About Your Writer: Questions for your character to answer about you.

Why do you think your
writer chose to write about you?
I was a minor character in her debut novel, Making the First
Move, but we really hit it off. To be honest, she was sort of fascinated with me.
She needed to understand what made me tick and to see it all play out. I think she
was also a little taken with Miles and wanted to go back and write our love story
as her way of secretly getting to spend some alone time with him.
What do you wish your
writer had not told others about you?
There are lots of things in my past that are painful and that
I’m not especially proud of. Reese put it all out there. Honestly, I didn’t appreciate
it initially. Yet, if she hadn’t I’d never have been able to truly love Miles. So
I thank her for that. I also hope my story gives hope to other women who might be
suffering from insecurity, self-loathing and self-doubt in the wake of a sexual
assault.
Was there anything your
writer discovered about you that was a surprise to one or both of you?
Learning the truth regarding my deeply-held beliefs about myself
came as a surprise to me. I go on quite a journey of self-discovery and self-acceptance
in this story. However, I think Reese was just as surprised by the reasons behind
some of my bad choices. This book was a collaboration between the two of us. I’m
pretty sure my name should be listed as fictional co-author.
What other character from
your book do you think your writer should write a book about? Care to tell us why?
There are three other characters in my story who also deserve
their own happy endings: my friend, Lisa who works with me; Miles’s little sister,
Kari; and my other childhood friend, Xavier Hunt. There are some very emotional
scenes between Ex and me in this story. Ex deserves to find a woman who will love
him the way he deserves. Several readers have requested his story, so I hope Reese
is sitting in her chair, plotting his story out right now.

Author Bio

Reese Ryan writes sexy, contemporary fiction filled with colorful
characters and sinfully-sweet romance. She secretly enjoys torturing her heroines
with family and career drama, reformed bad boys, revealed secrets, and the occasional
identity crisis, but always rewards them with a happily ever after.

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