New before/after: "Love Is the Drug"

Boy, long time no blog! The holidays and editing my most recent book kept me from saying much here, business slowed with the holidays, and a lot of the blurbs I've written lately are for unpublished works. I try to save the blurb before/after for when the writer has the book out.

Today's before/after is a little different; K.E. Saxon hired me to cut her existing blurb down to a really, really short synopsis for an ad--50 to 55 words, fewer if possible! Challenging, but fun.  Here's what K.E. says about working with me:

"I swear, I sat there yesterday cutting and pasting and moving words around, and could NOT figure out how to put such a short blurb together. You were a godsend and I'll definitely recommend you!"
Thanks, K.E.! Here's what we came up with together:

Before:
What's a guy to do when he meets the woman of his dreams, but she turns out to be the sister of his most despised enemy?

Fall in love, of course!

* * *

This is the story of Jason Jörgensen, an excitement-loving bad boy and Julie Del Mar, the quiet, romantic dreamer who breaches his devil-may-care façade and helps heal the frightened boy inside.

Conceived during a violent rape, Jason knows deep down that he’s no good. So, as far as he’s concerned, his plan never to have children is not only sound, but also the right thing to do.

Julie, orphaned at twelve, has now lost her surrogate parent—her older sister—to suicide. Returning to the only real home she ever had and someday making her own family is her most profound wish.

A drugged-drink Vegas wedding brings them together, but a pregnancy test tears them apart.

After:
Jason Jörgensen discovers he’s the seed of a violent rapist and vows never to be a father. Julie Del Mar has lost the last member of her family to suicide and now she wants to create her own family. Uncontrollable desire brings them together, but a pregnancy test may tear them apart.

Want me to help with your blurb? I can do that.