Review: Stuck-Up Suit

 

From the New York Times Bestselling authors of Cocky Bastard, comes a sexy new standalone novel.

It started out like any other morning on the train.
Until I became mesmerized by the guy sitting across the aisle.
He was barking at someone on his phone like he ruled the world.
Who did the stuck-up suit think he was…God?
Actually, he looked like a God. That was about it.
When his stop came, he got up suddenly and left. So suddenly, he dropped his phone on the way out.
I might have picked it up.
I might have gone through all of his photos and called some of the numbers.
I might have held onto the mystery man’s phone for days―until I finally conjured up the courage to return it.
When I traipsed my ass across town to his fancy company, he refused to see me.
So, I left the phone on the empty desk outside the arrogant jerk’s office.
I might have also left behind a dirty picture on it first though.
I didn’t expect him to text back.
I didn’t expect our exchanges to be hot as hell.
I didn’t expect to fall for him―all before we even met.
The two of us couldn’t have been any more different.
Yet, you know what they say about opposites.
When we finally came face to face, we found out opposites sometimes do more than attract―we consumed each other.
Nothing could have prepared me for the ride he took me on. And I certainly wasn’t prepared for where I’d wind up when the ride was over.
All good things must come to an end, right?
Except our ending was one I didn’t see coming.

 

*****

I was struggling a little with writer’s block last week, so took a break to read instead. This book hit it out of the park. I wanted to read something fun and sexy, and it was exactly that.

Soraya is one of my favourite heroines in a long time. She gets her tongue pierced on a whim, dyes her hair to match her mood, and doesn’t put up with a rude jerk in a suit, even if he’s super hot.

Graham is a rude workaholic, but of course, he has his reasons. He’s fascinated by the spitfire who told him off for being his asshole self, and only becomes more fascinated when their feisty texts take a turn for the smutty.

Together: fireworks!

There is a twist, which I won’t mention because spoilers, but I loved it. It felt so real to me. Not real as in boring, but real as in “I can see this happening and it would hurt like hell”.

Pure perfection, so five stars!

(Psst, want a sneak peek at my books before they hit the shelves? New releases for 99c? Join my mailing list to get the VIP treatment. eepurl.com/bwTdtD)

Cheesy Positivity

There are two equal and opposite sides to my personality – a cheesy hippie who wants only love and light, and a sarcastic cynic, who thinks the hippie is super lame.

But even though the cynic wants the hippie to be quiet, and stop being so uncool, the hippie does have a little something to say.

There’s a lot of negativity right now. Politics the world over. People are upset, many have good reason to be.

It’s one of the reasons I walked away from being a journalist. The overwhelming pressure of writing about negative things, being present for what would be someone’s worst day of their life. Letting the worst days for other people, become every day for me.

It’s easy to let this negativity infect every part of your life. I know people who have.

I’m not saying don’t push for change on the things that matter. And I’m certainly not going to suggest a solution to the political problems around at the moment – those are for other people to suggest these days, and I prefer it like that.

But I hope, amongst all of this, you can take a moment today. Each day. To remember what you’re thankful for. What was a success today. To remind someone close to you that you love them.

Right, my cynic is sufficiently embarrassed. The hippie is back in her cage.

 

(Book status: 3,200 words into first draft)

Hawaiian Homecoming

 

Release day is finally here! You can now find out how things end for Kayla and Jay, when you download the final book right here. It’s already getting some good reviews on Amazon and Goodreads, which is a relief after so long nurturing these books!

For those of you waiting to binge the trilogy in one go, the release of the combined volume is only a few hours away. But you can pre-order your copy right here, and it will be waiting for you on your Kindle soon.

Happy reading everyone!

Hawaiian Homecoming

New love. New beginnings. They’re fragile things, so easy to run from.

Kayla’s never felt as sure about anything as she does about Jay. Leaving everything else behind to be with him feels right. But going back to reality is tougher than she thought it would be. And when everyone you’ve always known and trusted has doubts, it’s even harder to ignore your own.

But how do you convince those who know you best, that sometimes, finding your home isn’t about a place?

The third and final book in the Hawaiian Heartbreak trilogy, a fun and racy contemporary romance. This book is recommended for readers over the age of 18 due to explicit sexual content.

 

Finishing this trilogy makes me feel like a mother sending her child off to college – proud to send it out to the world, but a bit sad to say goodbye.

However, it’s that time! Hawaiian Homecoming is finally available on Amazon for pre-order, when you click right here. It officially drops on Monday the first of February.

There is a wee bit more to come as well. The paperback will be released on the same day, and on the second of February, I’ll put out the edition which combines all three books into one volume.

After that, I’ll have to find a new project to amuse myself! Although, I do already have some ideas about that…

EDIT: The combined trilogy is now also live for pre-order! If you get all three at once, you do get a deal, so check it out here.

 

 

Romance Isn’t Dead

I’m a sappy romantic. I’ll admit it. So unexpected from a romance author, I know! Flowers, chocolates, big gestures, sign me up. But after the flowers have wilted and the chocolates mysteriously disappeared, there’s some really weird things I find romantic.

If I get home after a long day, and the house is all clean and tidy without me ever saying a word about it, then you can bet I’m suddenly in the mood. If dinner’s made as well, then all bets are off.

And I’m not talking in the mood as in, “OK, here’s your reward”. As in I’m suddenly physically very attracted to my husband and not in the mood to wait. A clean house has somehow become a major turn on. What?

Tell me that’s not doing something for you

Which makes me feel very old fashioned! It’s not as if I’m usually responsible for all the chores or anything, we both pull our weight. The best explanation I can think of is that I’m naturally fairly lazy, and unexpectedly not having to do my share is a relief. Then, what can I say, he gets the benefit of that rush of happy hormones.

I’m still working out how I feel about this one. While I do, help a girl out! I’m not the only weird one am I? Anyone else have something odd that gets them in the mood?

 

Well, Damn. Muscular Men Make Bad Boyfriends?

This just in, apparently muscular men make bad boyfriends. Hot off the press from the University of Westminster, the study’s found the more muscular the man, the more likely he is to be sexist and even hostile to women.

Maybe if we just don’t talk? I could live with that arrangement.

The reasoning for it (researcher’s words here, not mine, don’t shoot the messenger) is apparently men who are sexist also work on being muscly, because it fits their idea of what a “real man” looks like.

Now, they only surveyed 327 British men, so I’m hopeful it’s all a big misunderstanding. And I, for one, am not going to stop daydreaming about muscular men.

Besides, this is what we have book boyfriends for. So they can be the perfect man, reality be damned 😉

Anyone else come across this problem with muscular but sexist men? I’ve never noticed, but maybe I was too busy staring…

 

 

Beware Mixing Writing And Marriage

Writing is a wonderful career choice in many ways, but in other ways it can hurt the ones you love.

Not because you have to choose to be solitary for long stretches. I love taking a break for coffee dates or a movie, and the rest of the time they’re probably relieved I’m out of their hair.

Not because you compare your husband to your book boyfriend, because hey, who do you think helps with inspiration.

It’s because you constantly rabbit on to them about details from the book, such as, I don’t know, the time you spent in Hawaii. You might ask your husband what he remembers the air feeling like, what the people were like, what you did, what you ate.

And then one day your husband wakes up, rolls over, and says sadly: “I think… I think I was just dreaming. And now I have this keen awareness that I’m not in Hawaii.”

Me too, babe. Me too.

All I Do Is WIN WIN WIN

I can be a little competitive. Nothing outrageous, just I will compete over anything and everything, and I will WIN, damn it. Who can get to the car first? Me! Now let’s go back and pick up all the groceries I dropped to lighten the load.

I like to think this makes life entertaining, but there’s definitely a downside to it. Ever tried arguing with a person who doesn’t see losing as an option? I’ve been known to apologise to my husband with the line “I’m sorry you ruined everything”. Say it in a very contrite voice for maximum effect. Hey, in my marriage vows I promised to love him, nothing was said about maturity.

He may have been thinking of that when he sent me this the other day, with just the message “your theme song”. I have no idea what he’s referring to…

So, do you have a theme song? Share with me!

P.S. Sorry I was absent for a while, I was working on the second book with my editor. It definitely needed my full attention! We’re getting closer, though…

Quality time means quality

When my husband and I first got together, it was a bit of a revelation to him that sitting side-by-side, staring at a screen, didn’t count as quality time to me. Absolutely not! Time, yes, quality, no.

I’ve found quality time is so important to a happy relationship. My husband and I both work very busy jobs, outside of the normal office hours – I work two, if you count writing romance books! So having at least a couple of times a week where we really talk to each other is crucial. Otherwise, I’ve been known to find out things about my husband’s life from his workmates, which then leads to a grumpy wife, who likes to know everything firsthand 😉

The biggest help was actually setting aside dinner time as catch up time. If we’re both home for dinner, the TV is off, and phones are put aside. Such a simple thing is heavenly! There’s a time and a place for everything, and a time and a place for cutting it out.

I read an article recently that compared being on the phone too much to being unfaithful. Clearly, they’re going to an extreme to make their point, but I think they have a kernel of truth in there. If you’re depriving your partner of your time and attention, for silly things like a phone game or Twitter, are you really being fair to them?

Even if you’re single at the moment, there’s a still a solid argument for cutting down on the scren time. Think about the last book you read, or TV show you watched. Were the characters watching TV or hanging out on social media? Or were they doing something more meaningful and interesting?

Do you find it a struggle to get quality time? Ever considered cutting down the screen time, or even cutting out the screens altogether?

What makes a great kiss?

Happy International Kissing Day! Yes, you read that right, and no, I’m not making this up. It really is a thing, apparently designed to make us remember the joys of kissing for kissing’s sake. Personally I’m well aware of how awesome that is, but I suppose it never hurts to get the reminder in there.

It got me thinking about what makes a really good make out session. I think partly it’s chemistry: you either want to jump someone’s bones, or you don’t. No matter how technically attractive a person might be, if you don’t have chemistry, it’s just not going to be a great kiss.

I’m not entirely sure what chemistry really boils down to, but part of it has to be a connection with a person. I like to joke that I’m sapiosexual, which means you’re aroused by someone who’s intelligent. But in all seriousness, if we can’t have a good conversation, I’m not interested!

There’s another criteria that I do think needs to be put out there: hygiene. Funky breath is gross at the best of times, but if you want to swap spit with me, you’re going to need at least average maintenance. It’s basic manners.

Beyond that, kissing is pure fun. It’s apparently linked to stress relief, which I can believe, because after a stressful day I love to pull my husband aside and make out with him in the kitchen! It also works out your facial muscles which makes you look younger. Bonuses all round.

What do you think makes a great kiss? Did you realise we had a day dedicated to this?