Interview with Author Christi Snow

My very special guest today is blogger-turned-author Christi Snow. Christi’s blog, Smitten With Reading (aren’t we all) is an absolute favorite of mine, so it was a real treat to see that she’d taken the leap from blogger to author! Her debut romance, Operation: Endgame, combines military action heroes with romantic suspense in that best-of-all-possible themes, a friends into lovers story. And it’s terrific! (See my review for details)

But let’s hear from Christi about her journey from review to writer. Take it away, Christi!

Marlene: Christi, can you please tell us a bit about yourself?

Christi: My first identity is wife and mother. I’ve been married to the same guy for twenty years and we have two great kids: a 17 year-old boy and a 5 year-old girl. I’ve been lucky to be able to stay home to take care of them and that has allowed me to follow my dream of writing too. We recently retired to West Texas after my husband served twenty years in the Air Force. We’re all slowly adjusting to civilian life and the thought of never moving, which just means my closets will never be cleaned out properly again.

Marlene: I know that you are also a book blogger. What was it like making the transition from being a romance book blogger to having written one of the books that other book bloggers are reading and reviewing?

Christi: I’ll admit it’s a bit surreal to see my book on other blogs. This was a dream and to now have it as a reality is amazing. I’ve been very lucky. It definitely gives me a different viewpoint as a blogger too. While I’ve always tried to be completely fair to authors in my reviews, it definitely gives you a different perspective to have your books reviewed. I still say though that absolutely no one reads the same book. Reading books is so subjective and not everyone is going to like my book and that’s okay.

Marlene: Describe a typical day of writing? Are you a planner or pantser?

Christi: I am most definitely a planner when it comes to my writing. My writing group makes fun of me with all my binders full of my character bios, scene outlines, suspense options, etc.

A typical day for me is:
*up at 6:00
*have everyone out of the house by 8:00
*try to have all my blog-hopping and blog-writing/reviewing done by 9:00
*read until 11:00
*write until I pick up my daughter at 2:30
*write again until dinner prep time.
*read again until going to bed at 11:30

Some days I mix it up by throwing some household chores in there, but I try not to have too many of those days. ;o)

Marlene: What inspired you to make your hero, Jake, a member of the Pararescue Jumpers (PJs) and not any other particular branch of military special operations? (It’s an inspired choice, but I’m terribly curious)

Christi: Well, coming from an Air Force background, we love that branch and I’m always amazed at how many people, even within the AF, don’t know about this special operations group and the amazing things they do. When you look at their training, how can you not be impressed? These guys do it all and I really admire them for reaching the level of training that they do. Their training takes two years and they do it all… from paratrooper jumping to free-fall jumping to survival to paramedic training to diving to underwater egress. Their training covers ALL the specialties from the other spec ops groups. These guys ROCK!

Marlene: Cassie is an expert in military strategy and wargame scenarios. What about you? Do you play any videogames?

Christi: I don’t play as much as I used to, but when the original Medal of Honor Frontline came out, all three of us (hubby, son, and me) lived that game until we all beat it. It definitely inspired Cassie’s role in her videogame, Endgame, because it had all the extras with the interviews from historians and the people that originally lived the events in the game. That’s how I pictured her role as a consultant and interviewee on the game.

Marlene: You’ve said in previous interviews (and on your blog, Smitten with Reading) that the friends into lovers story is your favorite trope. You’ve done that with Cassie and Jake, and it’s a beauty. But Cassie has two brothers! Are more friends going to come out of the woodwork?

Christi: I do LOVE a friends to lovers trope and will admit that every book in this series definitely uses it. I’m not gonna say anything else about it though. I don’t want to give away any spoilers because there are a few shockers throughout the series with the relationships and how they evolve.

Marlene: Can you give us any more hints about the rest of the series? And what other projects do you have planned?

Christi: I’m finishing up the final edits on Operation: Endeavor right now (book #2 in the series). It will be out in January. I will tell you who the two main characters are in that book. They are Cassie’s older brother Colton and her friend Penelope. They have a great love story and I’ve really loved watching them evolve. I will admit their story became a little more than I ever expected. They are such opposites that it took some extremes within their relationship for them to find middle ground and when they find it, it is fabulously fun! I love them together.

Operation: Endurance is completely plotted and the first 10,000 words written. It’s a highly emotional story so it’s going to be a challenge. It should be out in April.

Further on down the road, I have a paranormal dystopian series started calling Through the Veil. I hope to release the first book in that series in May or June. If you’re curious about it, the story synopsis and cover is already up on Goodreads.

Then eventually, I plan to revisit some characters who show up in book #2, Operation: Endeavor. That series will feature the Rocking M ranch and the Martin men. It will be another romantic suspense series, but instead of the military aspect this series has, it will feature some super-sexy cowboys.

Marlene: Now can you tell us 3 reasons why people should read your books?

Christi: *Sexy alphas who love to protect their girls
*Girls who honestly don’t need the protection, but can appreciate a strong shoulder to lean on
*Tons of passion, friendship, adventure, and suspense that will keep you guessing (I hope!)

Marlene: What book do you recommend that everyone should read and why that book?

Christi: Only one?!? Geez, talk about pressure and honestly, I think that’s an impossibility, but I’m going to give it a shot. I’m choosing this book because I think it’s my all-time favorite romantic suspense: Wild Card by Lora Leigh. Warning: this book is not for everyone. It’s erotic and completely overflowing with emotional angst, but any book that has me sobbing within the first chapter is a winner in my book. ;o) I truly do love this book and re-read it a couple of times a year.

Marlene: What is your favorite thing about the writing experience and why?

Christi: The research…hehe! I may or may not have files on my computers full of hot, half-dressed men, but I promise you, those files are PURELY for the purpose of research for my writing. No really. Honest. They are. Research. ;o)

Marlene: Morning person or night owl?

Christi: Night owl…all the way, but it would never happen without my copious amounts of coffee that I drink throughout the day. Without it, I am sound asleep on the couch before 9:00.

I’m going to offer up the cover of Operation: Endurance as further testimonial to just how much Christi loves her research. Absotively, posolutely adores it. And clearly has no shame about sharing the fruits of her research with the rest of us!

Thanks so much, Christi, for being my guest today. I enjoyed Operation:Endgame (a lot) and I’m really looking forward to the rest of the series!

Review: Operation Endgame by Christi Snow

Format read: ebook provided by the author
Formats available: ebook
Genre: military romance, romantic suspense
Series: When the Mission Ends #1
Length: 302 pages
Publisher: CreateSpace
Date Released: June 20, 2012
Purchasing Info: Author’s Website, Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Book Depository

It’s been six months.

Six months since Jake Madsen let Chris Robertson die.

Six months since the passion between Jake and Cassie, Chris’ sister, stepped over the line.

But now Cassie’s being stalked and it’s time for Jake to swallow his guilt, grief, and lust so he can save her life, even if it’s a life without him. He owes it to his dead friend and he owes it to Cassie. He’s fallen in love with her, but she doesn’t have to know that for him to keep her safe.

Operation: Endgame is a marvelous friends-into-lovers romance which manages to have both an alpha male military hero and a kick-butt heroine who not only rescues herself in the end, but also rescues the hero of one of the later books in this When the Mission Ends series. Not a bad day’s work, all things considered.

There’s a reason that the friends-into-lovers trope is a tried and true one. When it’s done right, it gives the love story a whole lot more depth than the insta-love connection that’s much too common in romance these days.  Operation: Endgame does a terrific job at filling in the long story of Jake and Cassie’s childhood bonding. Along with Cassie’s twin brother Chris, they were the neighborhood’s Three Musketeers. Those ties still run deep, even though adult responses have put a little distance between Cass and Jake, they are still best friends. They’re both too afraid to let their attraction to each other ruin the most important relationship in their lives.

But Chris’ death behind enemy lines changes all that. Chris and Jake are both in Air Force Special Operations, but Chris’ job was to infiltrate, and Jake’s duties are in the Pararescue Jumpers. Jake gets soldiers out after everything goes pear-shaped. But because bad weather moved in, he wasn’t able to rescue Chris. The Air Force declares Chris dead based on his dog tags, his uniform, and not much else.

One thing this reader has learned after many too many of the right (or wrong) kind of books–if the body is burned beyond all recognition, it’s never the right body. So when Cass starts having “twin dreams” that Chris is being tortured, it was obvious foreshadowing that he was alive and being tortured.

Two things happen in the wake of Chris’ death. Jake and Cass finally spend one glorious night together. Which Jake, being an idiot, believes is the result of him taking advantage of Cass in her grief. He leaves in the middle of the night.

And someone starts stalking Cass, naming himself after the main villain in the military strategy video game that Cass consulted on (Cass is an expert on military strategy). As the stalking escalates, Jake realizes that he has to come back home to protect Cass, no matter how he feels. He thinks she deserves better than the man who wasn’t able to save her brother.

Of course, he never asks her what she wants, or what she thinks she deserves. And that stalker has some pretty fixed ideas of his own on that score. Potentially deadly ideas.

Escape Rating B+: I loved the friends-into-lovers part of the story. Jake and Cass’ relationship, and the twists and turns in how they got from childhood friendship to adult partnership, were very well done. While I referred to Jake as an idiot, his idiocy was completely understandable within the context of the story.

On the other hand, while the suspense was fun, I found it fairly predictable. As soon as it was revealed how Chris’ body was identified, I knew he was still alive. That plot device has been used many too many times, including last week’s NCIS episode.

Likewise, it was blindingly obvious who Cass’ stalker was from the first moment the character was introduced. I will admit that his reason for stalking her turned out to be a surprise. Also a bit “over-the-top”. Someone that completely unbalanced would have had a hard time maintaining the kind of extensive criminal enterprise this guy was running.

But the mix made for a terrifically fun story. I had a fantastic time reading it and I can’t wait for book two in the series, Operation: Endeavor.

 

***FTC Disclaimer: Most books reviewed on this site have been provided free of charge by the publisher, author or publicist. Some books we have purchased with our own money and will be noted as such. Any links to places to purchase books are provided as a convenience, and do not serve as an endorsement by this blog. All reviews are the true and honest opinion of the blogger reviewing the book. The method of acquiring the book does not have a bearing on the content of the review.