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In NY, fueled by coffee, covered in Bernese Mtn Dog drool and inspired by music, I write contemporary, "grown up romance" with a "real story" - or so I've been told.
I have always known myself as a writer at heart. After marriage and establishing a young family, I began writing Balance when characters set up camp in my head, refusing to leave until I expanded their stories on my laptop. Admittedly, I was inspired by popular romance of the day as well as any and every romance book I'd ever read. I love an HEA! However, a unique, stand alone story about a sassy NY lawyer named Alexis Greene quickly turned into a complete trilogy that surprised me at every turn. While always knowing a happily ever after was in sight, I was unsure what trope could ever pin these characters down while they took me on a crazy ride to the finish.
The floodgates now open, I have a number of books outlined and yet to come. I've found authorship rewarding, crippling, exciting, and humbling - a passion I hope to never give up.
Reviewed by Romuald Dzemo for Readers' Favorite
Balance is book one in The Amped Series and I can say that it’s a great promise of what readers should expect in the entire series. The opening takes readers on a rollicking ride into the hearts of two powerful and genuinely flawed characters. Aidan Pierce is a handsome, intelligent, and wealthy man with a dark past. He is haunted by nightmares of the death of his brother and an accident that happened many years ago. Going back to his birthplace, he intends to make things right, but then he meets Alexis Greene, a lawyer in a small New York town; she is intelligent and beautiful. She has also suffered a great loss in her life — the death of her husband — and has focused her energies in building her career. The chemistry between the two wounded souls is so strong, but can they forget their pasts and risk everything for an uncertain future? Balance by M.J. Woods is a compelling romance that explores what happens when people fall in love; it is balanced and deftly written.
I love the narrative style: it is in the first person narrative, with points of view alternating between Aiden and Alexis. The story is told in the present tense and in a voice that is arresting. I also enjoyed the character development and the lead characters are flawed, which makes them real. This isn’t a shallow kind of romance, but one with strong psychological underpinnings. It is a story about people who have known tragedy, people who strive to stay healthy, psychologically and emotionally. I didn’t find it hard connecting with the characters and the plot is crafted to allow readers to navigate the thoughts and hidden corners of the hearts of the characters, to experience their fears and sense of uncertainty. M.J. Woods writes with grace and there is a simplicity in her prose that is intoxicating, utterly charming.
