BLOG TOUR: All American Girl by Justine Dell

At the age of thirty, with two failed marriages and a tanking writing career, Samantha Moore deals with the world with the only tool she had left: anger. And she’s tired of it. When her grandmother's near-death sends her rushing back home to Vermont, she hopes for the chance to overcome the rage ruling her life.

Once she’s home, Lance Cummings becomes a constant source of indigestion. Lance is a single father who learned first-hand the devastating effects of a damaging relationship. He sees through Samantha’s nasty temper—straight to her cry for help. He wants to help her, but he also wants to know why Samantha ran from him—and their future—twelve years before.

Taking care of her Grams, dealing with an alcoholic brother, and getting Lance to remove his annoyingly attractive nose from her business is draining on Samantha. And she’s only got three weeks to finish her stagnated novel or her publisher will drop her. No pressure. To top it off, pretending to hate the man she actually loves makes each day in Vermont harder than the last. Especially when Lance turns up the heat.

 Greetings blogosphere! Thanks for joining me today for a character study of All American Girl’s MC, Samantha Moore.

First let me tell you that Samantha was by far one of the hardest character’s I've written. Like my publicist so eloquently put it, “she’s not an empty skirt.” Her skirt is full. Like, REALLY FULL.

She’s complex, and let’s face it—hard to like. But she tries, goodness does she try! For you to piece together all that Samantha is, I've put together a Character Analysis Frame. It gets to the guts of the character in just a few short words. This is the cleaned up version for you (trust me, you do NOT want to see the original character analysis version of Samantha. Not only was it unreadable, I didn’t even like her then!)

So as you can see, Samantha has issues. She has a history of being aggressive towards men. Why? Well, her two failed marriages might have something to do with (and maybe the hero, Lance?) She’s in therapy. Why? Perhaps her OCD and anger issues have taken over her life. What does she have to look forward to? Maybe her inner light and need for change comes from the love she has of her stepdaughter and/or her Grandmother. Maybe she needs someone to care, like she has cared for so long.

Samantha is an intricate character, with many layers. She wants things she can’t ask for and needs things she doesn't think she deserves. All-American Girl is a journey for her—and the man she used to love. Won’t you join her?