Soft Heart, Hard Candy: Marriage Before Love

Cool, aloof beauty with an icy elegance vs. outwardly cold, secretly wild, devoted puppy-dog obsessive A marriage-first, love-later romance between two levelheaded people, with instant physical attraction and emotional dependence Coming to an end soon. My new novel, *Feeding Flames with Flowers*, is now underway. Please help it find a place in your collections, lovelies! Blurb: Five years ago, on an evening when the sunset over Paris burned pink and purple, Song Zhiyi drew a line before Shen Yi could confess his feelings. “I want to spend the little time I have on things I can hold on to. Can we be friends forever?” Their paths split cleanly, and no one ever brought up the past again. Song Zhiyi stayed in Paris to study philosophy, while Shen Yi managed his family’s hotels back home. Whenever she returned to China, he treated her like someone he had lost and found again. Five years later, the civil affairs office staff stared at the enormous difference in size between the two people before them, hesitating to stamp their paperwork. The man had a sharp, imposing air, and frost seemed to cover the woman’s eyes and brows. No matter how you looked at it, it seemed as if she were being forced into this. Shen Yi held Song Zhiyi’s hand and smiled as he explained, “She’s just a little nervous.” Then he gently tipped her chin up, lowering his voice to a tender murmur. “Isn’t that right, baby?” After his scheme succeeded, the wolf-dog turned back into a gloomy big puppy, swinging every day between being a domineering CEO with sky-high possessiveness and control issues, and being her good dog. Song Zhiyi seemed to give in again and again, but in truth, she kept adjusting the balance of power between them. Shen Yi: She’ll always go soft on me anyway. Song Zhiyi: You really think I can’t handle you? Bonus scenes: 1. Shen Yi gazed at Song Zhiyi greedily, then suddenly bent down, hooked an arm behind her knees, and swept her into his arms. “Hey! You can’t just resort to physical force because you’re losing an argument!” “Which little puppy was just saying his head hurt?” “You’re the dog, the bully!” “Song Zhiyi, be honest. Which of us bullies the other more?” 2. Song Zhiyi grumbled to herself: “Just as I thought, being softhearted only hurts you!” “Are you all right?” Shen Yi asked with concern. “Do I look all right to you?” The expression on Shen Yi’s face froze. He spoke in a meek, apologetic voice: “I’m sorry. I… I got a little carried away yesterday.” “A little?” Song Zhiyi gave a wry laugh. “Fine! I guess my understanding of degree adverbs is still too limited.” Reader’s guide: A philosophical mind vs. a hopeless romantic A contrast in build, height, and skin tone An everyday romance, healing, consensual, happy ending A fictional setting, not based on real life Coming next: *Feeding Flames with Flowers* Bookish heroine vs. rough-hewn hero (not really, he’s a math whiz) Dark suspense novelist vs. personal bodyguard A pure-love warrior at the center of the main plot | An unrequited, faux-taboo romance on the side, a scoundrel with a true heart | Size difference Blurb 1: Wen Yuzhi, 23, is a hugely popular dark suspense novelist, a shining star in everyone’s eyes. But no one knows that the only reason she stays alive is to pay off her debts. Leng Jingshan, 26, is a private bodyguard with no one in his life. He first met Wen Yuzhi on a stormy night, when he caused her to scrape her knee, soak her book, and drop her phone. He saw her again a few hours later, only to wake and find that the dream of warm pear-blossom clouds had been nothing but a fleeting fantasy. The third time was the next morning, when he helped her kick open the heavy wooden door blocking her way. The next time he hoped to see her, he instead stumbled upon the famous entrepreneur Yu Wenjing knocking on her door in the middle of the night, a bouquet of white camellias in his arms. A dream reduced to nothing, he mistakenly thought Yu Wenjing was her sugar daddy. Yu Wenjing, 36, is the very picture of refinement, with the calm grace of pine in the breeze and moonlight on water. He has a Buddha’s smile and a snake’s heart. Wen Yuzhi calls him Uncle. Blurb 2: In Leng Jingshan’s eyes, Wen Yuzhi is a lily beneath the moon, wrapped in a soft glow. In Yu Wenjing’s palm, Wen Yuzhi is a fledgling bird, innocent and easy to cage. But in Wen Yuzhi’s bones and blood, an unstoppable force is putting down roots and sending out shoots… Reader’s guide: Healing, consensual, happy ending A fictional setting, not based on real life Theme: A good relationship does not drain either person. Instead, they nourish one another and grow together.