Who Is Sexier: The cover edition

Today we’re playing with one of Lexxie’s favorite blog post themes:  Who Is Sexier?

Technically, this post should read: Which Is Sexier?

Why, you ask?

Because instead of people or characters, we’re focusing on four of the Divas’ Coming Soon book covers.

So, dear readers, it’s all up to you. Tell us which cover is sexier, and you stand to win a book of your choice from any one of the Divas’ backlist:

Choice no 1: Rhian’s December release: 7 Minutes in Heaven

Choice no 2: Lexxie’s October release, Steady Beat

Choice no 3: Sami’s November release, Unforgettable Summer

Choice no 4: Jess’s October release, Rhythm Of My heart

So, waddya think?

Jess

Ahoy, Maties!

It’s International Talk Like a Pirate Day!!!!

Well, this has to be the dumbest day of all days in the calendar year. But nevertheless… Arrrrgh, matey. Let’s get in the spirit o’ things, eh?

As romance readers and writers, we have to love pirates. They’re the outlaws of the open ocean, our rebellious rogues in rags and the lecherous, lusty lovers of many a libidinous lady’s lewd fantasy. And why not?

Warning: gratuitous Johnny Dep picture ahead

You knew I was going to do it :).

I also thought in honour of this special day I’d share a never before shared, sneaky, sexy snippet Sunset Knight. Because I wrote a pirate fantasy in it and it’s apropos for the day. And because I’m out of alliteration for now.

So just for fun, here’s a HOT excerpt, never before seen by anyone who hasn’t read the whole book, of my chef/sailor/bad boy/pretend pirate hero, Brody Nash, seducing his lovely lady love Lana (oh look, there was one more in me after all).

Sunset Knight: Excerpt

“Ah-ah. I told you not to do that, sweetness,” he admonished. When he rose to his knees above her he appeared big, dominating and thrillingly dangerous. He began unbuckling his belt. “Do I have to take more drastic measures?”

Lana’s throat went dry as his meaning began to sink in. Would he go so far as to tie her up? Her pulse accelerated out of control. “Is this where you turn into the big bad pirate and kidnap the innocent general’s daughter to use her as a love slave?”

His dark brows formed surprised curves. “Do you want it to be?” God, did she? Like anyone else, she’d had fantasies. Abduction by a sexy pirate was an old favorite, but Lana had never thought for a minute she might live something like that out.

Brody smiled at her hesitation, running the belt over her stomach, her breasts. The tactile pleasure made her nipples draw tighter. Brody let out a soft groan and reached out to tweak one. “I’d never do anything you didn’t want to do.”

Realizing he wasn’t going to force the issue made her feel safer with him. She said, “That’s not your reputation, Captain.”

His brows hiked again, his lips twitching. “I wasn’t aware I had a reputation.”

“Oh, you do. People warned me about you. They said if ever I got into your clutches I’d be very, very sorry.”

“That’s rude of people, not giving a man a chance to redeem himself. You shouldn’t have listened.” He held her wrists against the bed head and began looping the belt around them. “Now I’ll have to keep you here a while, until you admit they’re all wrong.”

Lana’s heart thundered. It amazed her that she was doing this, and she couldn’t contain the buzz dancing through her. “I’ll never admit that.”

“You will.” He pulled the belt tight, strapping her securely to the wrought iron. His gaze passed over her face and for a moment Lana could swear he really was a rogue with nothing but wicked intentions. “When I’m finished with you. Until your ransom is paid, you’re mine to do with as I wish.”

Locating the zip of her skirt, Brody parted it and slid the garment down her legs. His touch on her bared flesh was confident, peremptory. “You have a very nice pussy. I’m going to enjoy using it, pleasuring it. I’m going to make you scream for me.”

Lana had to bite her lip to stop a moan escaping. “I’ll never let you touch me.” Her voice was not nearly as strident as she’d aimed for.

“Why not? Has a man never touched you here?”

“Of course not.” She strove for indignant affront. “I’m as pure as fresh snow.”

He laughed softly, tracing his finger around her plump, juicy folds. “Not from where I’m sitting. Your legs are spread so wide you’re practically begging me to taste your sweet lips. Beg me, little one. Beg the nasty pirate to touch you and I’ll be gentle.”

“Never.”

He stopped her attempt to clamp her thighs shut, instead pushing them farther open and holding them securely to the bed. “Now, now. You don’t want me to have to tie your legs down too—or do you?”

The very thought made her core heat. Dear Lord, she’d let him do that in a heartbeat. But not this time. Now, she was too impatient to know the sensation of his mouth on her. “No, please don’t. I promise I’ll be good.”

“Oh, I know you will. It’s going to be so good, using you every which way I want, while you can’t do a thing to stop me. I’m going to show you how good it feels to be at a man’s service, little one.”

Shiver me timbers! I wanna be Lana.

The beauty of being digitally published, is that I can now tell you that Sunset Knight, although it was first published in 2009, is still available as a naughty backlist title from Samhain Publishing, Amazon and all your favourite places. No need to PIRATE it at all. He he he.

Aye, I’m off to search for buried treasure now (otherwise known to authors as begging the muse for good words).

Cheers, and AHOY!

Sami

 

The anatomy of a trip

Okay, so my lack of creativity in titles is astonishing, and I had to go and steal Sami’s title for this post. But I’m okay with that. Hey – it’s a good title. And appropriate, since I’m finally blogging about my Alaskan trip.

May I just say it was the trip of a lifetime? An incredible experience that I will treasure forever.

Before I left I said if I saw whales, bald eagles and bears, I’d be happy.

Well, I can tell you, not only am I happy, I am thrilled. And delighted and enthralled and stoked and euphoric. I saw them all. And so much more.

Let’s do this through a series of pics:

1) Bald eagles. Cool images, huh? And very close up. They were taken in Mt Mckinley, our first intro to the eagles. Two were brought to the lodge where we stayed, one an immature eagle that had been injured, rehabilitated – and set free before our eyes. And the other an adult who’d been rescued but could not fly and therefore could not be released. Her carer gave an incredibly detailed talk about bald eagles, teaching me a ton of stuff.

These weren’t the only eagles we saw. We saw hundreds in the wild. Honestly. HUNDREDS. Although lots of them live in Alaska year round, others had come to feast on the millions of salmon that had begun their run upstream to spawn.

(BTW – Even though Mt Mckinley is the biggest mountain in North America, we didn’t get to see a speck of it. It was covered in cloud! I’m still not convinced it even exists. I suspect it’s just an old Athabaskan legend…) 😉

Then there were the whales. I swear I would have been content seeing a humpback or two. (Which we did see. Some while standing on the deck of the cruise ship, looking over the side. And another on a whale watching tour. How cool is the fluke below? Hubby got a series of action shots of the tail coming out the water, sticking up and then disappearing under.)

But it was the pod of killer whales that swam past us that almost stopped my heart beating. That was something I had dreamed of seeing but never imagined I would. I was so awestruck I might have cried a little when I saw that 6-foot fin in the water for the first time.

Then there was the bear. Okay, you need to understand, we’ve never seen bears in the wild. There are no bears in Australia – or South Africa for that matter. And every day trip we did, we were told – “Look out for bears, you never know when you might see one.” By day ten of our eleven day trip through Alaska we hadn’t seen any. NONE!  Then in Ketchikan we did a zip-lining adventure in the 2cnd biggest temperate rain forest in the world. It was stunning. And loads of fun. (Yep, that’s Mr 12 on one of the zip-lines.) As we stood on one of the platforms high in the trees, I was moaning to Mr Dee that we’d never see a bear, and all the warnings were just false advertising… when movement caught my eye. And there it was. A black bear right beneath us. A heartstoppingly exciting moment for sure. (The poor kids are totally peeved. They had already zip-lined through to the next platform a good 200 meters away, and missed it.)

And then there were the glaciers.
Can I just say…”WOW”! Exquisitely beautiful. And blue. How on earth did I not know glaciers were blue???

This pic above is taken on our approach to the Hubbard Glacier. It was frigidly cold – in the middle of summer – and icebergs surrounded the ship for mile upon mile.

This image above is of Marjorie Glacier, in Glacier Bay – possibly one of the most beautiful places on earth.

And this piccie above was taken as we flew over the Mendenhall Glacier in Juneau.

The two photos below were taken while riding the train from Denali down to Whittier, where we boarded the ship. The train ride took 9 hours, and was so unbelievably beautiful I never wanted it to end:

I could bore you for hours more with details about the trip… (Hubby took over 700 photographs) but I won’t subject you to that.

Suffice it to say I had the time of my life!

Jess

Five Reasons Thrillers Aren’t Romance Novels

I’ve been reading a few thrillers lately. They are a great escape from Romancelandia when I need to simply chill out and read without accidently working like I do when I read romance novels, and have ever since I became an author. But I have gotten a bit of a chuckle about the difference between the way sexual relations between men and women are portrayed by thriller-writing men and what I’m used to with reading and writing romance.

1. In thrillers women ask strange men who look like scary-looking vagrants to come home with them for a home cooked meal and some conveniently unemotional sex. This arrangement can continue unabated, even while this man–who the woman barely knows–proceeds to brutally kill close to a dozen people without the appearance of a conscience. Why bother changing the locks, right?
2. In thrillers women never bug the hero to talk about his feelings—not even about the five guys he just garroted. A thriller-woman will simply offer him a shower, a hot meal and another tension releasing bonk.
3. In thrillers, the women initiate all sexual contact by undressing and basically throwing themselves in front of the hero’s dick. No need to buy her dinner fellas. This is man fantasy town.
4. In thrillers, four paragraphs is long enough for the hero to satisfy a woman’s every sexual need (as a comparison, the average length of one of my sex scenes is around 4000 words). Yep, after four paragraphs she’ll be squirming with delight and copious praise for his performance, even though she’s the one who got undressed and threw herself in front of his dick. I mean, who did all the work there?
5. In thrillers, women make no demands beyond the sex. They don’t ask for a relationship or exclusivity or even a blood test. They have sex for the sake of it and get out of the guy’s way so he can go shoot some more dudes. Basically, thriller-women are men with extraordinarily welcoming vaginas.

 I love you thrillers. You make me smile and give my brain such a much needed rest!

oxox

 

my bookshelf: now with 30% more thrillers

 

 

Sami

I’m off sailing the seven seas

Okay, maybe that’s an exaggeration. I’m just sailing down one ocean, and even then, just a small way down the ocean.

But it is a part of the ocean I’ve always dreamed of sailing down – the one adjacent to Alaska.

The Sapphire Princess – the boat we’ll be cruising on.

As you read this, I’m on my dream trip – a cruise through the glacial passage of Alaska. But that’s not all we’re doing. We’re taking a three day land tour of Alaska too, exploring Mt McKinley and Denali Park. In fact – today, the 4th of July, we are flying around some of the peaks of Mt McKinley and landing on a glacier!

Honestly, I’ve waited my whole life to take this trip, and when DH finally agreed, it was like all my birthday wishes had come true.

Here’s what I’m most excited about:

The wildlife. Whales, bears and bald eagles? If I see one of each I will be delighted. More than one? In seventh heaven.

It takes a while to get to Alaska from Sydney, so we thought we’d break the trip in Seattle. Never been before, but the Boeing factory is there, and since Mr Dee and Mr 8 are both obsessed with flying and airplanes, we decided it would be an awesome place to stop. (And no, it’s not lost on me that Seattle is also the home of Starbucks coffee. Is it terrible to confess I’m more excited about that than the Boeing factory?)

And the final cherry on the top is the family we’ll be touring with. We’re meeting DH’s parents, sisters, BILs, and some of our nieces and nephews – all of whom live in Canada.

A very special holiday indeed.

Forgive me if you don’t hear from me a while. I’m soaking up every second of this trip!

🙂

Jess

PS – wishing all our America friends a happy 4th of July.

Welcome to the Diva couch – Didi (Guilty Pleasures Reviews)

The Divas have been noticing an interesting phenomenon over the last year or two. On days when we have book releases, we unfailingly wake to find a notification on Facebook that a review has been completed and we can access it over at…Guilty Pleasures.
I’m not sure if you know what a thrill it is to wake up to a review of your new book. Of course, if it’s a bad review, it’s not so thrilling. But when it’s a good review, or a review where the reviewer has taken the time and energy to give a detailed and heartfelt report about the book, well, it’s an awesome feeling.
And on release day, Guilty Pleasures ensures that we get to experience that awesome feeling at least once.
I seriously love this site, and I love their reviewers.
As writers we are cautioned over and over to remain utterly professional when it comes to reviewers, to say a simple thank you for the review and to move on. Well, it’s impossible to do that with Guilty Pleasures – because all of the reviewers we’ve had the pleasure of meeting are just too darn nice to keep our distance. We love reading their reviews of our work, and we love chatting with them on social media.

We Divas rate the Guilty Pleasures Reviewers:

I, for one, am eternally grateful Didi started this amazing blog/review site, and I’m delighted she joins us here today.

Jess

 

1)    Tell us about DiDi.  Ahh my life is a bit boring…but since you asked I’m TEXAS born and raised.  I successfully raised a daughter all on my own, well with the emotional support of my parents, it really does take a village.  Reading has been my passion since I was young. When I had my daughter I stopped reading to devote my all to raising her.  When the first Twilight move came out, as a bonding event, I went with my daughter, my Momma and my sister-in-law.  I had not read the books and oops! still have not. BUT watching the movie I found myself wanting to read adult vampire romances (can you tell I’m Team Edward) AND combined with the fact my daughter was now in high school, with a busy social life, leaving me at home alone, I had time to read again.   I went to Barnes & Noble and found HOW TO MARRY A MILLIONAIRE VAMPIRE by Kerrelyn Sparks.  I ended up going through all of the book in the series, I read one book a day.  I was hooked into reading paranormal romance, I devoured everything I could get my hands on.  While at B&N some hot as hell book covers caught my eye, they had sexy cowboys on them but were  $15. So I held off.  One day I was on a bus ride with my daughter’s dance team and decided to download the Kindle app and look up the sexy cowboy book, it was under $5 so I bought it.  It was LONG HARD RIDE by Lorelei James and WOW I was instantly addicted. My sheltered little brain was shocked for a bit too, I was like THEY WRITE MENAGE in books?  THEY WRITE ANAL SEX in books?? OMG I want more!!!  So I flew through her Rough Rider’s series and then started looking up books on Samhain, which is how, THANKFULLY, I first found y’all, the wonderful, naughty, amazing DOWN UNDER DIVAS.

      (Jess says: So, anyone noticing Twilight popping up again?)

2)    Tell us about Guilty Pleasures: The history, the blog/review site, the success and how it’s grown in both size and popularity.  AHH Guilty Pleasures started out as a kinda joke.  My friends Becky Condit, Kimber Oliver and I were tired of snarky, mean reviews so we were going to start a review site that “reviewed” mean reviews….it was called “WTF? Book Reviews.”  Early on we realized that our original goal wasn’t a good one because it would just bring attention to the mean reviews so we decided to review for real and changed the name to Book Pimps Reviews.  Our goal was to review with respect, fun and to talk like we talk in real life.  So in our reviews you would find dropped ‘gs and improper use of grammar, but you also would feel like you were talking to friends.  After a couple of months Becky decided she wanted to start a blog to focus on MM romance, so she left us and started Mrs Condit and Friends Review Books: http://mrsconditreadsbooks.com/  I changed the blog name for the last time to Guilty Pleasures Book Reviews and Kimber and I were reading/reviewing books like crazy.  Readers started taking notice and the site grew by leaps and bounds, we were overwhelmed.  At this point I do want to say if it wasn’t for advice from the wonderful Francesca at Under the Covers Book Blog: http://www.underthecoversbookblog.com/ and Julie at Yummy Men and Kick Ass Chicks: http://yummymenandkickasschicks.com/ I wouldn’t have known how to build followers.  Both of these ladies answered a HELP email from a stranger and gave me invaluable information.

3)    You have many awesome reviewers over at Guilty Pleasures. How did you find such True Gems?  THANK YOU!  I love and appreciate each and every one of them. If not for them GP would not have grown. Each reviewer is very passionate about books and love to talk about them.  How did I find them?  Most I met through an online yahoo group for readers, and we became friends, so I roped them in.  It came to a point where we were overwhelmed with review requests so I put out “NOW HIRING” reviewers posts and carefully selected additional reviewers.  I really can’t define how I pick them, it’s just a feeling and I have been blessed enough to go from being a stranger to them to considering them great friends.  We are spread out all over the United States. Many of us have made a point to meet each other in person if we are lucky enough to get the opportunity.  Bottom line I was extremely lucky in finding such a great group of women and I wouldn’t trade the friendships I’ve made for the world.

4)    You’ve just been sent an ARC of that book you’ve ALL been waiting for. How do you decide who gets to review it? THAT is a tough one.  Fortunately each reviewer has a distinct taste and it’s not often more than one wants the same books.  BUT when that happens I either put their name in a hat and draw or have them pick a number and use random.org =)

5)    How did you become involved in the wonderful world of romance books?  Looking back I realize I loved reading as young as 6 yrs old, but of course as I got older I wouldn’t admit it. THEN one day when I was about 14 yrs old and sitting in the bleachers, bored, waiting for my younger brother to finish baseball practice one of his friends mom’s asked if I liked to read, I said I used to and she handed me WAYWARD WIND by Dorothy Garlock. It was a historical romance and I was hooked.

6)    Do you have preferred genres – you know books you gravitate to? Currently, I love Erotic, Paranormal and Contemporary.  Cowboys, Billionaires, Motorcycle Clubs, ALPHA men period do it for me.  I tend to stay away from cliffhangers, serial (the kind where it’s like a chapter is released at a time) and New Adult.

Okay, now let’s have some fun…

1) You are granted your wish to a night to remember with just one man (or woman).  Who would it be?  Blake Shelton (as long as part of this wish keeps his wife Miranda from killing me, she has that East Texas crazy, I will cut you if you mess with my man thing going on.  I love Miranda but don’t want her to open a can of whip ass on me)

2) Ooooh, wait. Now you have your second wish granted. A night with TWO others. Who would they be?  

(And remember, this is an erotic romance writers’ blog. We’re not talking about a pleasant evening chatting over dinner…) OH MY!  Blake Shelton and Luke Bryan =) 

3) So, you’ve just heard terrible news report on the radio. There’s a cyclone coming and you have ten minutes to get out of your house, get in your car and drive as fast as you can. You just have time to take five items with you.

What are they, and why have you chosen them? My phone, my tablet, my favorite picture of my daughter and my dog.  Why? Because those are the things I can’t live without.

4) Ooh, remember that time you’ve tried so hard to forget? That excruciatingly embarrassing moment, when you wished the floor would open up and swallow you. When you blushed fifteen different shades of scarlet. Go on then. Don’t be shy. Tell us all about it… Oh this happens quite often.  A recent really embarrassing one is..this past December I was working temp at an office where I hoped to become permanent.  I was on the phone with a customer who asked how the weather was.  I said “Oh it’s a bit nipply.” what I meant to say is “Oh it’s a bit nippy.”  My supervisor, an older lady, was right by me, looked up and then busted out laughing, I couldn’t even try to play it off.

5) Ice cream or chocolate? Ben & Jerry’s Chocolate Therapy Ice cream

(Jess says: OMG, why can we not get that flavor here?)

6) George Clooney or Brad Pitt? Brad Pitt as seen in the recent Esquire magazine

7) Angelina Jolie or Jennifer Aniston?  ME!!! lol  Angelina Jolie

8) Eric or Sookie? GASP!  Another I haven’t read or watched…

(Jess: *Shaking head sadly*)

9) Steak or salmon? Steak baby!!!  I’m a TEXAS girl J

10) Heels or sandals? Flip flops, not only am I a TEXAS girl, I’m a BOI (born on Galveston Island)

11) Harry Potter or Twilight? Twilight

12) Dogs or cats? Dogs

13) Snakes or Spiders?  Spiders (as long as they aren’t from Down Under, y’all got some scary spiders down there)

14) You are offered your final meal. You can have anything you want. What would it be?  A can of whip cream served on Blake Shelton.

(Jess says: Awesome answer.)

I want to thank y’all so much for interviewing me.  I am honored to have been asked by some of my FAVORITE authors.  I will be traveling to RomCon on Thursday but I will make sure to stop by and say “Howdy!”

(Jess says: Thank you for coming. You know we love you too. And enjoy Romcom!)

 

Please come stalk Guilty Pleasures and make our Guilty Pleasures yours!!

 

Website

http://www.guiltypleasuresbookreviews.com/

Twitter

@GultPlsureBkRev

 

Facebook

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Guilty-Pleasures-Book-Reviews/305163142832854?ref=hl

Goodreads

http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/4391611-guilty-pleasures

 

 

 

 

Reading Romance – Lisa and Bobbie’s journeys

Today is a special one Down Under. We Divas don’t just have one wonderful guest blogging with us…we have two!

Lisa G and Bobbie B are long time romance readers, Twitterers and Facebookers. We love them dearly, are proud to call them friends and are very excited to have them both here as part of our Reader Special week.

Oh, and guess what? THEY’RE OFFERING TWO SUPER DUPER PRIZES!

Please welcome Bobbie and Lisa to the Down Under Divas.

Jess

———–

Hi everyone!! We are Bobbie B and Lisa G (aka mamaboo7907 and wolphcall on Twitter). 

(An aside from Jess: Follow these ladies on Twitter. They’re super fun to chat with.)

Thank you Down Under Divas for having us today!!

Bobbie: So the question is what do I love about reading romance? Well, let me see: sex, love, a story so emotionally written it rips my heart out and puts it back in again by the happy ending, sex, vampires, sex , wolves *giggles* See a theme there?

Lisa: ROFLMAO, great minds think alike. No wonder we are best friends. My loves about romance include: hot strong Alpha men, strong fierce women, light your sheets on fire sex, and a happy ending. How can you go wrong?

Bobbie: So Lisa, when did you start reading romance? How old were you?

Lisa: I started with Sweet Valley High around 11-12 years old, progressed to Harlequin and the bodice ripper historicals, and when I was 18 I found Lora Leigh and Christine Feehan. Now I am all about the hot smexy stuff with a good story line. I read, mainly, contemporary and paranormal erotic romance now.  Bobbie, when did you start?  What do you read now?

Bobbie: I have always been an avid reader, but I started reading romance at 12 when I found my mom’s Harlequins. Not long afterwards, Silhouette came out with the Shadows line and my love for paranormal romance began. I found erotic romance when I found Bertrice Small in my local library (which was conveniently three blocks from my home).  I read, mainly, m/m and paranormal erotic romance.  I started finding groups of likeminded readers online after picking up a book by Crystal Jordan and finding the Smutketeers Yahoo group. When did you find online groups, Lisa?

Lisa: When I read Three’s Company by Jess Dee, Jayne Rylon, and Lorelei James, I went and found them on Twitter. I paid attention to their conversations, found Day Dreaming Dawn and her blog.  I also found Phoung Phan (aka bookfan747) who introduced me to an ever expanding world of authors. It also lead me to you, Bobbie. You showed me even more than I expected to ever find.

Bobbie: Awww, I heart you too Lisa. Yes, my fellow Divas, reading romance lead me to Lisa as well as an awesome lady in Canada. They are my BFFs, and I couldn’t imagine life without them or romance books. We are always comparing authors, publishers, reviews, discussing scenes, and asking the deep questions like “did they really have sex there”, “is that position even possible”, or “where can I find men like that?”

Lisa: Don’t forget “why would you even want to have sex with that person” or “did you see what that that hussy tried to do to the hero?” One of my personal favorite scene discussions was about Ty the sexy dragon and how he made the beach sand turn into glass. (Thank you, Lexxie!!) *fanning herself* The hotness, the horniness, and where in the hell did the batteries go?!? The essential discussions all readers have eventually.

Bobbie: *giggle snort* I keep stock in batteries no doubt. Romance books have made my life so much better. I found my best friends, some awesome authors, and a huge world of people just like me. Had you asked me three years ago, if I would be posting on blogs or talking to authors now, I would have told you it was impossible, there was no way it would happen.  What about you, Lisa?

Lisa: I got into romance because it gave me an escape from reality. It is my stress relief and sanity keeper. Bobbie and I both have special needs children, and romance frees us from the downhill slide into depression. Three years ago, I never imagined the friends I now have. I am blessed to know so many authors and great people who don’t judge you for what you read. The support in the romance community is priceless.

Bobbie: Ditto.

Bobbie and Lisa: Our favorite authors include: Jess Dee, Jayne Rylon, Lexxie Couper, Mari Carr, Rhian Cahill, Lorelei James, Cari Quinn, Shelly Laurenston/GA Aiken, SE Jakes, RG Alexander, Eden Bradley/Eve Berlin, Robin L Rotham, Crystal Jordan, Shelli Stevens, Jaci Burton, Maya Banks, Shayla Black, Karen Erickson, Kelly Jamieson, LA Witt/Lauren Gallagher, Jambrea Jo Jones, Vivian Arend, Sophie Oak, Melissa Schroeder, Cassandra Carr, Sami Lee, Lila Dubois, Bianca D’Arc, Kellie Kamryn, Beth Williamson, Kate Pearce, Kallypso Masters, Tymber Dalton, Lexi Blake, Lex Valentine, and Carrie Ann Ryan.

Now for the fun part my romance junkies. Lisa and Bobbie are offering up two $10 Amazon or Barnes and Noble Gift Cards to two lucky people (one per winner, two winners). All you have to do to enter is answer this question: Have you found friends through reading romance yourself?

***Contest is open 72 hours (U.S. eastern time). Please leave your email address in your comment, so we can email you if you win. Open to where ever Amazon or Barnes and Noble GCs go, and you have to be 18 or older to win. Winners will be picked by Random.org, announced here in the comments, and emailed by either Lisa or Bobbie within 24 hours of contest closing.***

Another note from Jess:

Good luck to all contestants, and THANK YOU Lisa and Bobbie for visiting.

(Oh, and I hope you don’t mind me saying, but I kinda like your favorite author list.)

🙂

GLBT month going strong at the Down Under Divas

When I wrote my first MMF romance, I had several heated discussions with my friends about about why I chose to write this genre. The discussions always amused me. Not because anyone criticized in anyway, and not because they disapproved of the same sex aspect of the romance. They simply couldn’t understand why I’d choose to write MM love scenes as opposed to FF ones. Male and female friends alike all emphatically believed FF loving was way more appealing than MM.

Now I guess I could have chosen to write FFM romance, but the truth is, it doesn’t hold the same appeal to me. I love exploring the dynamics of the MM relationships – simply because it is so foreign. It’s the one thing that as a woman I will NEVER be able to explore personally. And perhaps it’s the mystery of something that I can never be a part of that makes the genre so appealing.

I’ve written three MMFs now and still haven’t quelled my appetite for this particular combination of lovers. The first book I wrote featured MM action only within the threesome. The second had some hot man on man loving separate from the menage and the third featured a MM happy ending. Each book has gotten more explicit and more focused on the men.

The first one I wrote, the least explicit, holds a special place in my heart simply because it was my first. (And yes, we all love our firsts!) I reread some of it now for this blog post, and realize I may have used a ton of cliches while writing. But still, I love the book, and thought I’d post a excerpt for your enjoyment and in honor of GLBT month in the USA.

GOING ALL IN

The higher the stakes, the harder they fall—in love.

(Three Of A kind, Book 1)

Julia Savage’s weekly poker games are tearing her apart. She’s in love with two of her fellow card players, and much as she’d like to pick and confess her true feelings to one man, she won’t. Not if it means risking the love of the other.

Hunter Miles has wanted Julia for four months, and he’s about to deal a hand she couldn’t see coming. He’s determined to give her a New Year’s Eve celebration she never expected. He’s going to seduce her—in front of his friend and rival for her affections, Jay Baxter. But Jay’s not willing to lay down his cards. He’s going after Julia too, and he’s not above bluffing to get what he wants. Either way, one of them is going to win her over.

Unless they change the rules of the game. If they double up, there’s a chance they can split the pot…

Warning: this book contains two hunky heroes, a heroine worth betting on, sizzling hot three way action (m/f/m and m/m/f), a whole lot of unexpected fireworks, and a New Year’s Eve to remember.

AN EXCERPT:

If possible, Hunter’s cheeks turned even redder. “Don’t push me, Jay. I’ll kick your sorry ass out of the door faster than you can blink.”

Jay raised an eyebrow. “So that’s what you want to do with my ass? Kick it?” He snickered in obvious disbelief. “Mate, after the quality of that blowjob, I think there’s a lot more you want to aim at my ass than your foot.”

Julia’s jaw dropped open.

Hunter’s chair crashed to the floor. He was on his feet and advancing on Jay at killer speed.

“Hunter. No!” She grabbed his arm, trying to yank him to a halt. Her shoulder about jerked out of her socket before Hunter reacted to her anxiety and stopped.

“I’m sorry, Jules,” he said without looking at her. He stared daggers at Jay. “But you need to let me go. Now.”

Damn it, so much testosterone flooded the room there was only one way this argument was going to end. With someone lying on the floor, injured. While Jay might be taller than Hunter, Hunter was broader. It was anyone’s guess who’d be the first man down.

Jay stood a little straighter. “No worries, Jules. You can drop your hold on him.”

Not a chance. The muscles bulged in Hunter’s arm, warning Julia he was preparing to throw the first punch.

“See, he’s not going to hurt me,” Jay explained as he stared straight back at Hunter. “He doesn’t want a fight. He wants…this.”

To Julia’s flabbergasted surprise, Jay flashed Hunter. Even from five odd paces away, she could see the way Jay’s cock stood proud and erect. Good God, he was turned on. With all the craziness going on around them, he was aroused.

Before she had a full second to process her thoughts, Hunter had ripped free of her grasp and leapt at Jay. He landed against him with a sickening thud. The force of his attack sent them both crashing to the floor. Jay landed on his back, spread-eagle. Hunter landed on top of him.

Hunter pulled back, lifted his arm and clenched his hand into a fist. He looked murderous.

If his hand connected with Jay’s nose, he’d break it.

Jay said something in a voice so soft Julia couldn’t hear. But Hunter did and he froze. He relaxed his hand then clenched it into a fist again. Then relaxed it.

Julia dropped to her knees, closer to the men. When Jay spoke again, she heard him.

“It’s what you want, Miles.”

“No, Baxter.” Hunter’s hand formed the fist again. Muscle strained in his back and neck. “What I want is to smash your teeth in.”

Again Jay spoke too softly to hear.

“Never,” Hunter roared and his arm flashed through the air.

Before his fist met its target, Jay flipped them both. This time Hunter landed on his back, with Jay on top of him, pinning his body down with his chest and holding his arms with his hands. They were inches away from Julia.

“You’re lying,” Jay snapped. “You want it as much as I do.”

“I want Jules, you stupid fuck. Not you.” Hunter panted as Jay pressed his weight on his chest.

“Then why do you have a massive hard-on?”

Hunter bared his teeth. “It’s adrenaline, asshole. I’m about to beat the shit out of you, and I’m excited by the thought.”

Jay shook his head. “You want to fuck the hell out of me, dickhead.”

“It’s Jules I want to fuck. You I’m gonna beat to a bloody pulp.”

“You want to fuck both of us.”

To Julia’s astonishment, Jay twisted his hips, as though dry-humping Hunter.

“Fuck you,” Hunter bellowed.

“As you wish,” Jay shot back and dropped his head fast.

For the second time in minutes Julia stared slack-jawed. Jay crushed his mouth over Hunter’s in what could only be a bruising kiss.

Hunter froze for a second before roaring back to life. Sheer brute force must have motivated him. Jay lay like a dead weight on top of him, yet in a blur of motion the men rolled a second time, and once again Hunter was on top. “Goddamn you, Jay,” he snarled.

And then his lips were on Jay’s, his tongue pushing for entrance into the other man’s mouth. The kiss looked like a violent scuffle, or a nasty battle of wills, and Julia feared one of them might do permanent damage to the other.

But Hunter gave a small moan, and the fight seemed to ebb out of him. His arms relaxed and the tension in his back visibly slackened. Any violent undertones dissipated in the air around the two men.

Julia watched, gobsmacked, as Hunter’s mouth began to seduce rather than attack, as Jay’s arms wrapped around Hunter’s back and his hands traced the outline of his spine and shoulders. She watched as the kiss transformed into a seductive sharing of passion rather than a lethal end to a friendship.

Jay was right. Hunter did want him.

Had he wanted Jay all along?

—————–

Going All In is available at all your fave ebookstores, including Samhain, Amazon and Barnes & Noble

🙂

Jess

It’s been a long time coming

Nope, I’m not talking about this blog post. Altho, if you consider how slack I’ve been about blogging here lately, you wouldn’t be wrong in jumping to that conclusion.

I’m talking about my next book release.

It feels like forever since I’ve had a new release. And I guess in e-book terms, it has been forever. Seven months. That’s a loooooong time.

But the wait is almost over. Because in just five days, the first book in my brand new “More Than” series, releases from Samhain.

WAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHOOOOOOO

Um. Er….Ooops. Sorry, that just kind of slipped out.

😀

So, wanna know more about More Than Friends? Just read on for the blurb.

MORE THAN FRIENDS:

He was her best friend…until he became her fantasy.

A More Than Story

Lucy Lawson’s got it bad. Bad as in stunned speechless by the situation she’s in, by the feelings sitting on her chest, ready to explode. She’s in love…with her best friend.

Problem is, telling Sebastian Blackford could destroy the best thing in her life, but the longer she keeps her feelings under wraps, the stronger the need to spill her secret.

The last thing Seb suspects is that his best mate is madly, wildly in love with him, or that he’s the star of her seriously dirty fantasies. Worse, he’s just started seeing someone he’d like to see again—and Lucy knows it.

So why does her confession hit him like a runaway train? And why can’t he get her explicit description of her fantasies out of his mind? They’ve never been more than friends, but now that he knows how Lucy feels, everything is out of whack.

Seb figures it’s up to him to get their relationship back on track. He’ll do it too, just as soon as he establishes which track is the right one.

Warning: After reading this, you may just be tempted to jump your best friend. It’s recommended you keep your partner on speed dial or a toy with fresh batteries on standby.

More Than Friends releases on Tues, 28 of May.

You can pre-order your copy at Samhain, Amazon or Barnes & Noble.

(Go on! pre-order your copy. You know you want to…

Okay, you know I want you to.)

😉

Jess

If You’re Wondering Why…

The blog has been super quiet…

…maybe it’s because almost everyone I know is off at the Romantic Times Convention. Yes EVERYONE I tell you, except me.  My bright idea was to have all the other divas email me with anecdotes of their time in Kansas City so I could post them on here, but have a guess how many emails I have in my inbox? That’s right. A big fat zero. I guess the world travellers have forgotten all about me, stuck back here in suburban Australia. Sniff sniff. From the twitter feed it seems they are all too busy drinking and doing lunch to have time for much else. Bitches.

Oops, I was meant to whisper that.

On the good news front, I’ve been writing up a storm this week. I decided I would try for 10,000 words in the time I would ordinarily have been away at RT getting no words down so I feel a little better about not being there. I am after all a writer and writing is what I must do, I tellsya! So far I’m at just over 4,000 since Monday, with another five days to go. I think I’m going to make it, and I might even go over my admittedly conservative goal.

SO SUCK THAT OTHER DIVAS.

Sami