J.R., or Jen, as friends call her, has always been an avid reader, oftentimes finishing five to six books a week. When she was a kid, she found a huge box of old paperbacks for sale at a neighbor's garage sale. She offered the woman a quarter for the entire haul, and then went home and locked herself in her bedroom so her younger brother couldn't interrupt her while she read. This fueled her love for romantic fiction and inspired her to try her hand at writing. In 2013 Jen started writing fan-fiction, and then began creating her own original stories in 2014. Currently, her favorite genre to read and write is contemporary gay romance. J.R. Barten was born and raised in Iowa and now resides in the Twin Cities of Minnesota with her partner of eighteen years and a spoiled rotten rescue dog.