Today I am so pleased to welcome C.J. Anthony to Joyfully Jay. C.J. has come as part of Opposites Attract Week to talk to us about her favorite tropes. Please join me in giving her a big welcome!

I was SO excited when I heard Joyfully Jay was going to devote an entire WEEK to Opposites Attract stories! You see, opposite attract couples are my jam. They are my favorite trope to read and so naturally I can’t help but write them too.

 Within the broad range that is Opposites Attract, age gap couples are my top favorites, but honestly I’ll read just about anything that falls into the opposites category.  Why do I like them so much? I don’t know. I guess there is just something extra intriguing about two people who are so completely different, meeting and coming together. All good stories need a conflict but sometimes that conflict can be the characters themselves. Or their respective situations. Maybe their occupations will not allow them to be together. Maybe one of them has fears/reservations about their differences, even though there is an attraction. Maybe their personalities clash. There are a million possibilities to explore.

I also think when an opposites attract couple gets their HEA it is just that much sweeter, because of the differences. Because usually, in the end, they make their own HEA by truly making a decision and commitment to be together even though it might be so much easier for them to be apart or be with someone else. They come together for love, and stay together for love.

Now I mentioned I love age gaps, but I also have another favorite category. I don’t know if it is an officially recognized trope, but I call it the Celebrity/Average Joe trope.

Following that, it will probably come as no surprise (especially if you’ve read my bio) that one of my favorite movies is Notting Hill. Hugely successful (and famous) actress Anna Scott (Julia Roberts) and “Average Joe” regular ol’ nobody William Thacker (Hugh Grant).

“Don’t forget, I’m also just a girl. Standing in front of a boy, asking him to love her.”

*sigh* If you’ve never seen the movie, William and Anna run into each other (literally) and begin a tentative romance that is quickly sidelined a couple of times by the obstacles of her fame. In the end it is she who must convince him that deep down she is just a regular, everyday person who falls in love just like everyone else.

And that’s what I like about this specific trope – when we get to see the human/normal/everyday side of the famous character. On the flip side, it can be interesting to see how the “average joe” character in the couple adapts to the lifestyle of the famous character—and all that it may bring, good and bad.

My latest book is about an internationally famous pop-rock star (Lucas Black) and a tour guide he meets at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (Brandon Harris). Brandon wants to work behind the scenes in music as a manager some day, but he’s still your basic “average Joe.” Lucas is super famous and wanting to escape his crazy lifestyle for a while. The book is part of JoyfullyJay’s giveaway, and I’ll post the rest of the blurb below. It was a fun story to write, comparing and contrasting Lucas’s life with Brandon’s and featuring the differences between them.

I’m a big music lover so most of the books I have gravitated toward in this category involve a rock star. I highly recommend these… I’ve read all of them and they are fantastic:

• Gasp! by Z. A. Maxfield
• The Heaven Sent series by Jet Mykles
• Sinners Gin series by Rhys Ford
• Beneath the Stain by Amy Lane

I asked around for some other recs of movie actors or other “celebritiy” types and got a long list. I have not read any of these, but I will definitely be adding them to my TBR list!

• Perfect Imperfections by Cardeno C.
• Illusions by S. A. Ozment
• Take Two by Shira Anthony
• The Leading Light series by Reegan Ellis
• There’s Something About Ari by L.B. Gregg
• Vespertine by Leta Blake and Indira Vaughn
• Center Stage by Sara York

Blurb

Just hours before Brandon Harris is supposed to head home to Cincinnati for a Labor Day family picnic, his boss at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame forces him into giving a private tour to bratty British pop-rock star Lucas Black. Before he knows it, he finds himself swept up in a whirlwind road trip through Ohio with Lucas riding shotgun.

Lucas grabs hold of this wild opportunity to run away—even for a few precious days—from the gilded cage that is his carefully managed life. He’s just looking for a little fun and freedom as a normal person. From  roller coasters to a college football game, Brandon begins to see the real Lucas Black buried under the famous persona. But by the time he and Lucas discover their mutual attraction, they only have one night left before both of them have to go back to their real lives. The fun is over…unless Lucas can run away for real this time and keep their adventure going.

Bio

C. J. Anthony grew up watching soap operas and reading piles of books. She attributes her love of reading and romance to her mother who not only taught her to read but also made countless trips to the library lugging those piles of books home for her to read. It wasn’t a far jump to start writing her own stories, early childhood tales about flower families and travelling to the moon with her best friend.

C. J.’s favorite stories to read and write include “opposites attract” pairings—couples who might appear to be an odd couple to the rest of the world, but to each other fit together perfectly, finding their own happy ever after with a little hard work and a whole lot of love.

Not surprisingly, C. J. is a big lover of rom coms—she’ll gladly take Julia Roberts standing in front of Hugh Grant asking him to love her, over car crashes and shoot-em up movies any day. She also watches way too much TV and every singing reality show there is. She loves music and musicians of all genres and attending live concerts.

She spends most of her time juggling a day job and a commute and freelance design work on the side and falling asleep on her couch, dreaming of a day when she can work all day in her pajamas while living in a house by the beach.

• E-mail: cjanthony70@gmail.com
• Blog: www.cjanthony.wordpress.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cjanthony.writer
• Twitter: @C_J_Anthony

CJ has brought a copy of Runaway Rockstar for our big Opposites Attract Week giveaway! Stop by there for a chance to win that and tons of other prizes.

Also, if you want more rock star books, check out our Favorite Rock Star Stories list!