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book reviews |
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Award-winning, multi-volume, co-writing team Amanda Nelson and Lisa-Marie Potter introduce us to the first volume of their Plus One series, “Men in Books Aren’t Better”: Pressured by her looming deadline and an unfinished romance manuscript, author Molly Covington applies her immersive research skills and goes all in. She hires a male companion for inspiration during three days of research in Las Vegas. Enter sexy, confident Jared Washington—an extreme sports enthusiast and relationship skeptic who moonlights as a Plus One male companion. Molly’s contract puts him within arm’s reach of buying his own business and making his dreams come true. The chemistry between her and Jared is surprisingly easy. Before their Vegas rendezvous comes to an end, one of them will need to lay all their cards on the table to discover if they’ll be lucky in love.  These authors can WRITE! I loved this story. It is wonderfully written in alternating points of view chapters, and I enjoy that style of writing a lot. It is so intimate, and the characters come across so real. I am committed to not giving away spoilers, but I could gush about this story quite a bit. Read this book, I'm sure you won't be disappointed. 4.9 stars from me.  You can buy this book:
https://www.amazon.com/Men-Books-Arent-Better-Plus-One-ebook https://www.barnesandnoble.com/men-in-books-arent-better-Nelson-Potter https://www.goodreads.com/-men-in-books-aren-t-better and many other fine online platforms I reviewed the second book in the Plus One series: www.wordrefiner.com/book-reviews/just-what-the-doctor-hired You can connect with the authors: https://www.nelsonpotter.com https://x.com/ANelsonLMPotter https://www.instagram.com/anelson.lmpotter https://www.threads.com/@anelson.lmpotter https://www.tiktok.com/@nelsonpotterduo Copyright © 2025 Mark L. Schultz except for the authors’ introduction
68 Comments
8/11/2025 01:56:44 pm
We look forward to our author interview and thank you for the wonderful review!
Mark
8/11/2025 02:13:37 pm
The interview has now started. It was a pleasure to chat behind the scenes, I might add. 8/11/2025 02:25:28 pm
We both read a book series that we adored and had our own theories on how the fourth book would go. Unfortunately, when novel was released, the plot went in an entirely different direction from our predictions. At that point, Lisa-Marie suggested we try our hand at writing a book ourselves since we collaborated so well together and had the same taste in book boyfriends. When we started on this journey, we didn't expect we'd finish a manuscript; the draft was just for fun. However, we loved sharing our creative thoughts, writing back and forth, and the characters we created, so we took our writing to the next level by attending conferences, classes, and online courses, until finally we had a product we could market--Men In Books Aren't Better.
Mark
8/11/2025 03:02:08 pm
I think I have heard similar stories from other authors before. They thought a story could have ended differently and they felt particularly unhappy. Dissatisfaction is a great creative stimulant! I forget which famous philosopher said, "Necessity is the mother of invention" I bet it was the professor on Gilligan's Island. 8/11/2025 03:22:14 pm
Amanda: Ironically, my worst subject in school was English, so needless to say, my teacher would be shocked that I became a writer.
Mark
8/11/2025 04:05:05 pm
Thank you, those are fun facts! Salivating out of your eye is a strange one. I have not heard of that side effect before. 8/11/2025 04:41:44 pm
Lisa-Marie: Yes, I still live in Alaska. Our business, Nelson Potter Books, is based in Arizona because I used to live there for eighteen years before moving here. I plan to return to Arizona once my husband retires because I can't stand being so far away from my children, grandchildren, and my bestie.
Mark
8/11/2025 07:45:06 pm
I thought that was a long commute. We lived in SW Washington state during my high school years and my dad was commuting to New York City every two or three weeks as a pilot for Pan Am. 8/11/2025 08:28:51 pm
Amanda: I'd like to think I read a wide variety of books, however that would be a lie. My favorites are romance, romancy, and fantasy. Every once in a while I'll read something else but it usually has to be written by a friend or recommended.
Mark
8/12/2025 11:21:21 am
Great choices, though I don't think I have heard of romancy, but it reminds me of romantasy, combining romance and fantasy. 8/12/2025 01:53:59 pm
That's a great question, writing as totally changed the pleasure of reading for us both. Once you've been trained by an editor to notice certain things, it's hard to miss them when reading other people's books. And even though we don't look for these things, they jump off the page at us. We now tend to read in edit mode whether we like it or not.
Mark
8/12/2025 02:09:45 pm
Many writers have expressed similar thoughts. My experience has been the same for a very long time. The spelling and some punctuation errors jump off the page at me and bump me out of the reading magic. I make a note for the author and am able to return to their magic spell. 8/12/2025 02:47:36 pm
Lisa-Marie: I don't journal, but I do write a letter to each of my children every year and save them in a box for when I'm gone. I want to make sure they always remember how much I loved them.
Mark
8/12/2025 04:00:27 pm
I like that idea of an annual letter. 8/12/2025 04:41:54 pm
While our previous jobs don't have any influence on our writing, but our experiences, relationships, people that we've met, and previous dating experiences (good and bad), have all come into play. However, what's based on real life versus completely fiction is a secret we will take to our graves.
Mark
8/12/2025 04:47:41 pm
I am not the least bit surprised that you ladies are following the old dictum, write what you know. ;-) Honestly, nearly every experience we have can influence a story in one way or another. 8/12/2025 05:32:52 pm
The first question is easy, Stephenie Meyer was our inspiration. Eighteen years ago, Amanda gave Lisa-Marie a copy of Twilight and forced her to read it. Just like Amanda, she immediately fell in love with the characters. From there, we obsessed over the series, and had our own version of where the last book should have gone with the plot. When our theories didn't become reality, Lisa-Marie suggested writing a book of our own. If it wasn't for Stephenie, we wouldn't have become the best friends we are now, we wouldn't have a annual writing retreat to Forks that we look forward to every year, and we wouldn't have attempted starting our writing journey. 8/12/2025 05:39:22 pm
Hello Mark, Amanda & Lisa Marie ♡ What a wonderful journey you ladies have achieved. Congratulations to you both.
Mark
8/12/2025 09:07:49 pm
Catherine, it's so nice to see you again on my website. Thanks for dropping by and leaving a comment. We had a lovely chat when I promoted your book of poetry, Only Beautiful Remains. 8/13/2025 06:05:24 pm
Thank you so much for checking out the interview, Catherine, and for your nice comment. It was your recommendation that helped us find this wonderful opportunity.
Mark
8/12/2025 09:13:12 pm
Twilight! That series is so popular with a lot of people. But I barely understood the movie. I admit, I haven't read the books. But I don't doubt that your alternate ending is better. 8/13/2025 02:43:30 pm
Our first manuscript (currently shelved waiting for edits) is a YA speculative, and that one chose us. When writing that first time, we each would write a page, and share the story back and forth, with no idea where either of us were going with the plot. However, one aspect from that manuscript that we liked was the love story side-plot. So, when writing our second book (& 3, & 4) we decided to focus on the romance genre.
Mark
8/13/2025 02:52:22 pm
Romance chose you and you both were smart enough to see that. I love that. 8/13/2025 02:58:23 pm
To be honest, we don't remember how we started with Lisa-Marie writing for the FMC and Amanda writing for the MMC. But after a few chapters, switching the manuscript back and forth, Lisa-Marie decided Amanda has more game and should therefore always be the guy.
Mark
8/13/2025 03:49:04 pm
Every author has strengths and weaknesses. I think it's wise to play to the strengths and work on the weaknesses as you go along. 8/13/2025 04:17:06 pm
While Arizona is known for UFO activity, neither of us have seen anything suspicious. But we both believe that life on other planets is possible, however we have yet to see the evidence. If Lisa-Marie did see something, though, she wouldn't stick around. She's read too many books to wait around and see what would happen.
Mark
8/13/2025 05:53:56 pm
Life on other planets is theoretically possible if we are to believe the statements of various scientists. As you said, we haven't seen any concrete evidence. Some of the UFOs seem to be very unfriendly based on decades of reports of abductions and animal mutilations. I wouldn't stick around either. For my money, Lisa-Marie is pretty smart. You might be interested in a book called "Crash Go the Chariots" by Dr. Clifford Wilson. I read the book a long time ago and remember that his arguments were very convincing. 8/13/2025 06:02:52 pm
No, neither of us have seen a cryptid, but Lisa-Marie is scared enough of the normal documented wildlife for the both of us. She does, however, believe in the Loch Ness Monster, and she looks for her every time she's in Scotland. We also keep an eye out for Big Foot when we're hiking in the Pacific Northwest, but we've had no sightings as of yet.
Mark
8/13/2025 06:48:41 pm
Like I said, Lisa-Marie is pretty smart. There are a lot of animals that can hurt or kill you in Alaska! Our oldest daughter and her husband lived in Alaska for a couple of years, and she told us about seeing moose wandering on the roads and streets. She said they always have the right of way. 8/13/2025 07:13:42 pm
Before we got our agent, we can't even remember how many times we revised the manuscript, especially the first chapter. But after signing our contract and working with an editor for the first time, we went through eight rounds of corrections. Thankfully, we learned a lot and the second book was ready in less than half the time.
Mark
8/13/2025 08:04:27 pm
I knew there had to be something interesting about the co-authoring writing technique. I would think dialogue adds an extra factor of difficulty. The book flowed well for me as a reader. 8/13/2025 08:41:26 pm
Basically, during the editing phase, we talk out a scene and exactly what we would say to each other is what goes on the page. That way, everything flows like a normal conversation. Of course, being best friends, the banter is easy, plus (we've been friends for 19 years), we usually know what the other person would say anyway.
Mark
8/14/2025 09:30:23 am
That sounds like a good process. It works well for you both. Dialogue is a critical part of any story. 8/14/2025 01:30:10 pm
The Wild Rose Press commissioned the cover art for Men in Books Aren't Better, but no individuals name is mentioned.
Mark
8/14/2025 02:17:36 pm
I like the cover. Since much of it is set in Vegas, the iconic landmarks are appropriate. 8/14/2025 05:21:35 pm
With the Plus One series, each title is a play on words of familiar phrases used in association with book boyfriends or dating in general.
Mark
8/14/2025 05:48:45 pm
Cute titles! I would guess they weren't too hard to think of for the genre. In a short title world, a long title really stands out! 8/14/2025 05:55:06 pm
Coming up with names isn't too hard. We look at baby name books and check out what names are popular currently that we both like. Sometimes the names are based someone we know or an actor we love.
Mark
8/14/2025 09:28:04 pm
Names are pretty important for authors. The right name can make a character and the wrong name can break a character. Names become more important when writing historical fiction or in a different country. Beside the popularity of baby name books for near contemporary characters, there are websites devoted to cataloging names in specific geographical areas going back hundreds of years, in some cases. At that point the lists are compiled mostly from church records of births and deaths as well as taxation records. 8/14/2025 11:18:20 pm
Neither one of us have written any form of fan fiction, even the Twilight plot was just in our heads. Twilight just prompted us to start writing. Everything we've written has come from our own imaginations.
Mark
8/15/2025 08:36:36 am
Very good. I haven't written any fan fiction either. 8/15/2025 02:09:50 pm
The Plus One series that we are working on at the moment consists of three book. Two have been released and the third is expected to release in 2026.
Mark
8/15/2025 02:55:54 pm
That sounds like a good plan. The more you write the more books you will sell. 8/15/2025 05:41:26 pm
The magic of storytelling is an art, and personally we feel AI eliminates the creative process and does the work for you. We have no criticism of anyone that chooses to use AI in their writing journey, it's just not for us.
Mark
8/15/2025 06:05:29 pm
I agree. Stories written by humans are going to be better than whatever AI cobbles together. AI can imitate style and join pieces of many different stories together, but I don't think we will see something original from AI for a long time. 8/15/2025 06:22:01 pm
We haven't had a troll at this point, thank goodness, so we've not had to give any thought to how we would handle that situation. However, we are part of a well rounded writers group that have had various experiences, and we would likely ask them and our fabulous agent what course of action we should take.
Mark
8/15/2025 06:40:04 pm
That is a good course of action. Succinctly, no answer is the best answer. Trolls seem to delight in causing trouble. Silence puts them off. I have told many authors that a bad review validates the good reviews. Most readers are smart enough to discern when a review is meaningless or simply mean. 8/15/2025 08:02:51 pm
Lisa-Marie: worked in a fish packing factory at the age of fifteen. She can still remember being told to put "six in a bag and seal it" over and over again.
Mark
8/16/2025 09:09:28 am
Interesting jobs, both. I worked for a long-gone retail drugstore chain, Thrifty Drugs, they sold ice cream cones also. Fish packing probably paid better than scooping ice cream. 8/16/2025 01:29:04 pm
Neither of us have spoken publicly, but we would both be willing if the need arose.
Mark
8/16/2025 02:18:33 pm
Good, so many authors are scared spitless of public speaking. I used to be also, now I look forward to every opportunity to speak in public as long as it is a topic I know a good deal about. Of course, I will be nervous but that is the secret to good public speaking. Leveraging the nervous energy to increase your passion about your topic. 8/16/2025 02:55:42 pm
We have entered several competitions for Men in Books Aren't better, and have recently submitted Just What the Doctor Hired into a couple of competitions.
Mark
8/16/2025 03:46:20 pm
I am not the only one with good taste. Congratulations on those accolades; they are well deserved. That kind of validation feels quite good. Remember those awards and recite them to the person who thinks your writing is silly or awful. 8/16/2025 04:02:36 pm
Lisa-Marie: While she has no authors or writers in her direct family, her father-in-law was a self published author when he was alive.
Mark
8/16/2025 05:48:29 pm
Okay, that makes three of us. There are no writers in my family either, to my knowledge. 8/16/2025 06:54:08 pm
While neither of us feel like we’ve been an inspiration to others, but as we’ve shared our writing journey on our social media, we hope some of the things we’ve shared will help others as they navigate their life as a writer.
Mark
8/16/2025 08:41:23 pm
Social media does have good uses; it's not all bad by any stretch of the imagination. You are on more platforms than I am so good for you. 8/16/2025 09:38:13 pm
Our books aren’t in Kindle Unlimited because our publisher doesn’t pay for the books to be in there, and we aren’t published through Kindle Unlimited Publishing.
Mark
8/17/2025 08:28:38 am
That makes sense. 8/17/2025 12:42:46 pm
Amanda: Least favorite food is tuna salad. I had bad dinner experiences with that one that even the smell makes me gag to this day. As for drink, probably tea. I agree with Ted Lasso on that one, it’s warm dirt water.
Mark
8/17/2025 02:03:48 pm
I understand the revulsion toward tuna salad. Though, for me, it transfers to cottage cheese. I can barely tolerate it in Jello or lasagna. It would not stay in my stomach for long if I took a bite. 8/17/2025 04:28:04 pm
We were on submission a while to get our amazing agent, Nicole Payne of Copps Literary. She then put us on submission for the next six months and got us a three book deal with The Wild Rose Press.
Mark
8/17/2025 06:22:07 pm
That is wonderful! I am not surprised that you got a multi-book deal with the quality of the writing! Congratulations! 8/17/2025 09:01:33 pm
We did our research online, checked the websites of those we wanted to query, and asked our writers group to read our query over to make sure everything looked good.
Mark
8/18/2025 09:06:07 am
I have heard good reports about querytracker. Being organized helps a great deal in a situation like this. 8/18/2025 03:26:47 pm
Unfortunately marketing falls completely on our shoulders since we are with a small press. However, they do give us a marketing packet to help us navigate the things that have proven successful for other writers.
Mark
8/18/2025 04:09:38 pm
That is a hard reality, no matter the size of the publisher. Unless your name is Rowling or Patterson or someone equally celebrated, marketing is the responsibility of the author. If a publisher goes to a convention, they might include your books in a display otherwise, it's usually limited to a listing on their website. 8/18/2025 06:02:10 pm
Thank you so much for this wonderful opportunity, for your fabulous questions and all your hard work. We appreciate everything you’ve done. Best wishes ❤️ Leave a Reply. |
Who am I?An avid reader, typobuster, and the Hyper-Speller. I am a husband, father, and grandfather. Archives
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