Tag Archives: The Love Hack

Author Michelle Dayton identifies the women of her “Tech-nically Love” series – but who does she identify with the most?

My Tech-nically Love series is getting a fantastic boost this month.  The four books in the series have beautiful new covers, and I’m so excited about them reaching more readers!   

This rebranding got me thinking about a conversation I had with my sister after she read the last book. She said, “Your main female characters in each book are so different from each other. Who do you identify with the most?”  (Being my sister, she definitely had a guess!)

Creating the heroines for each book was both my favorite part of writing the story AND the most difficult.  When I look at my reader reviews, I get a lot of feedback on the women I write. That is so rewarding because it means that the characters came across as individual, real women who resonated with the audience.

So, who are the women in these books?

Tess in The Love Hack

Ok, I admit it.  Tess is probably my favorite.  She is fiercely independent, mouthy, hilarious, and tough on the outside.  On the inside, well, she’s all of those things too, lol.  But more importantly, she’s tender, insecure, loyal, and loving.  At the start of the novel, she’s got some mommy issues, guilt about an ex-fiancé, and doesn’t feel like she deserves a long-term, happy, romantic relationship.   Over the course of the story, however, she fully comes into her own through her romance with Max.  Max sees Tess, almost immediately, inside and out.  And when Tess realizes that Max loves what he sees, there’s no stopping her.


Jo in Cupid Tricks

If Tess was center stage with her bravado and wit and bravery, then Jo is behind the curtain: a puppet-master, pulling the strings.  Jo was tricky to write because she makes a living pretending to be someone else. She’s a con artist, running a highly sophisticated romance scam.  So the challenge was to show the reader the real Jo, even when she was much more comfortable hiding behind her psychology PhD, her computer skills, and her brilliant performances.  It’s possible that Jo is the woman most readers see themselves in, because we all spend so much of our lives observing others and automatically shaping our reactions and behaviors around these observations.


Emily in The Love Clause

Oh, my poor Emily.  At the start of the novel, Emily is not living the life of her dreams. She’s estranged from her husband, and she spends 90 hours a week working at job that she feels “meh” about.  Worst of all, she doesn’t understand how she ended up like this … why did she blow up her marriage? Why is she wasting her brain and her life on a job she doesn’t love?  I adore Emily because (with the help of Tess and Jo!) she battles back and takes control of her life.  She triumphs, gets her happily ever after—and helps a lot of people along the way. 


Jane in Christmas Single Bells 

Just thinking about Jane makes me smirk. In Single Bells, I took on the classic Hallmark movie setup – “beautiful city girl returns to the adorable small town to save Christmas”—and flipped it on its head.  Jane is not that city girl; Jane is the townie chick who always wanted to escape her poor, (not-adorable) small town and never did.   But she is the one who is going to freakin’ save Christmas—and her entire town.  

 

 

 

 

I love hearing from readers more than anything else in the world.  If you tell me who your favorite heroine in the Tech-nically Love series, it will make my entire week!


About the Author.

There are only three things Michelle Dayton loves more than sexy and suspenseful novels: her family, the city of Chicago, and Mr. Darcy. Michelle dreams of a year of world travel — as long as the trip would include weeks and weeks of beach time. As a bourbon lover and unabashed wine snob, Michelle thinks heaven is discussing a good book over an adult beverage.