Karen Booth
Welcome to the Indulgent blog hop! The timing of the hop couldn’t be any more perfect as I have a brand new release, For Keeps, which features seduction by Nutella, one of my favorite indulgences. It’s fabulous with pretzels, spread on a graham cracker and although you didn’t hear it from me, the old spoon in the jar trick is simplicity at it’s indulgent best. In For Keeps, Allie and Cooper live in the same apartment building and have formed a friendship that started mostly as flirtation. Cooper invites himself over for dinner one night and although the sparks are flying, Allie wouldn’t dare make a move–Cooper is 28 and she’s 40. She doubts he’s doing much more than making her feel good with his playful quips and flirtatious touches. It’s only when they make dessert, crepes filled with Nutella, that she learns Cooper is interested in a different kind of sweet treat.
Here’s the scene:
After dinner, they cleared the table and Allie got out flour and eggs. “I thought it’d be fun to make crepes. I should’ve made the batter before you got here, but there wasn’t enough time.” She turned as Cooper placed the dinner plates in the dishwasher. “Thanks for cleaning up.”
“No problem.” He shut the stainless door and wiped his hands on a kitchen towel. “What can I do to help?”
“You can get the butter out of the fridge. I need two tablespoons melted.”
“Got it. Now what?” He wagged the stick back and forth.
She eyed him, loving the playful smile across his face that unfortunately highlighted the boyish quality of his charms. “Look at the lines.” She ran her finger along the parchment wrapping. “Cut off two tablespoons, put it in a bowl and pop it in the microwave for thirty seconds.”
“That much I can manage.”
His bangs flopped down onto his forehead as he worked. His profile was strong and something about that particular view of his mouth left her breathless. It didn’t take much to imagine gently tugging on his lower lip with her teeth, sinking into him, their tongues tangling. Staring at him, thinking naughty thoughts may have been an ill-advised plan, but after a glass and a half of merlot, she could no longer keep her brain from the course it longed to take.
“I need you to drizzle in the butter while I beat this,” she murmured.
He pulled the bowl from the microwave and flashed his eyes at her. “Yes ma’am.”
Her eyes clamped shut for an instant. No you don’t. Please don’t call me ma’am. She whisked the batter and he parked a hand on her lower back, streaming the golden-yellow butter into the bowl.
“Like this?” he asked.
Oh yeah, like that. His hand was scorching through her thin cotton t-shirt. “Yes,” she answered. A rough huff of air escaped her lips as he applied more pressure when the final drops spiraled down into the bowl. He’s driving me crazy. “I was thinking Nutella in the crepes. Does that sound okay?” Please say yes. Chocolate might help at this point.
“It all sounds good to me.” His voice was as rich as the butter in the bowl. “Over here, right?” A pang of disappointment hit her when he lightened his touch and stepped away. He was only gone for an instant, but she missed his touch all that time.
“The batter needs to sit.” Allie turned as Cooper unscrewed the lid from the jar. Her breath caught when he dipped his finger into the chocolaty spread and popped it into his mouth.
“Mmm,” he hummed. “So good.” His tongue swept across his lower lip.
“It is,” she mumbled, the most coherent string of words she could assemble. How long before I melt into a puddle on the floor?
Cooper dipped his finger into the jar a second time.
“You’re cheating,” she said. “No double-dips.”
He shook his head and his eyes softened, drawing her in as her pulse quickened. “It’s not for me.” He eased closer and held out his finger. “You know you want some.”
Her mouth gaped, but more from shock than a craving for chocolate. She drew in a long, slow breath. Is he doing what I think he’s doing? He let his finger rest on her lower lip before sliding it into her mouth. Her tongue quivered with anticipation of the sweet reward. She cursed her impatience, but immediately closed her lips around his finger and sucked. Her eyelids felt impossibly heavy, but closing them was an idiotic idea. The smolder in his eyes told her she’d done exactly what he’d been hoping for. Copyright © Karen Booth, 2012 All rights reserved, Ellora’s Cave Publishing, Inc.
Hungry for more??? Read the full excerpt.
For Keeps is available from:
Ellora’s Cave | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | All Romance E-books
Have you ever been seduced by food? Share the details in the comments and I will award one lucky winner their choice of one of my other Ellora’s Cave releases–Long-Distance Lovers (co-authored with Karen Stivali) or Love My Way. NOTE: This contest has ended. Kelsey S. was the winner!
In addition, the Ndulgent Bloggers are giving away a Grand Prize of a $100 gift card from the winner’s choice of Barnes & Noble or Amazon via Rafflecopter. Rafflecopter giveaway
Both giveaways end at 11:59 PM, EST on September 22.
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Anybody who knew me in seventh grade knew one thing to be true: I was going to marry Rick Springfield. It was only a matter of the stars aligning. To nudge fate in the right direction, I wrote Rick an eloquent letter that simply stated, “I Love You” one hundred times. Surely, my expression of devotion would bring us together. I’d said, “I Love You” one hundred times. Not ninety-nine. Not one hundred and one. One hundred. (My 13 year-old daughter loves this story and will tell it to anyone who will listen. Just ask my hair stylist.) Well, Rick, I’d say that I’m still waiting, but after reading your memoir, Late, Late at Night, I’m going to have to pass. As to whether Keri Stevens is amenable, you’ll have to ask her yourself.
Keri Stevens
Ozarks, Missouri, Class of ’93, Currently: Romance author
Band and/or song that reminds you the most of high school: “Sister Christian”
Favorite piece of music memorabilia (poster, t-shirt, etc.) in high school: Rick Springfield two-page spread from Sunday’s Parade Magazine
Band that you hated that everyone else at school seemed to love: Twisted Sister. I’ve long-since come to appreciate them more.
Best show or concert you saw in high school: Milli Vanilli and I am not even kidding. They were wonderful. And they SANG, dammit!
Best high school make-out song: “Voyage, Voyage” by Desireless. French song, French singer. I was an exchange student the year it was a hit, and I did most of my making out in Germany.
Keri Stevens creates mayhem and magic in small-town paranormal romance novels like her debut, Stone Kissed, which has won two international awards: The Golden Quill for best first book and the International Digital Award for paranormal romance. You can learn more about Keri at keristevens.com or chat with her on Twitter @KeriStevens.
You’re going to love the hell out of today’s RNRHS with Cara McKenna. I just know it. It’s the perfect blend of rich musical musings and self-deprecating teen angst, two things with which I am well acquainted. And if you don’t love it, I’m afraid to say there’s something wrong with you, but it’s nothing a little good music won’t cure.
Cara McKenna
Coastal Maine, Class of ’98, Currently: Smut Merchant
Band and/or song that reminds you the most of high school: Nine Inch Nails. Make of that what you will, but I would not have survived high school without Trent Reznor’s help. At sixteen I was skulking full-time in combat boots and an army jacket and stripey tights, as what we would later coin a goppy—not a proper goth, not a proper hippy, but a confused and non-committal hybrid of the two. But come my junior year, I landed a job at my local indie record and video store—one part Clerks and one part High Fidelity—as the lone teen amid a mismatched gaggle of slacker twenty- and thirty-somethings. There my ears got opened to a transcendent mix of new-to-me music: Tom Waits, the Specials, Portishead, Elastica, Soul Coughing, Patty Griffin, the Toasters, the Pogues, the English Beat, Kim Lenz… And at some historic moment on some fortuitous night, the song The Other Side of Summer came up on random shuffle and changed my life forever, turning me overnight into a rabid Elvis Costello fangirl, and graduating me out of Trent Reznor’s gloomy—if formative—tutelage.
Favorite piece of music memorabilia (poster, t-shirt, etc.) in high school: Oh gosh. Surely my 12” vinyl single of Nine Inch Nails’ Sin, with its most inspired B-side cover of Queen’s Get Down Make Love. Bought it at cost, kept it in the shrink wrap, sold it a decade later for a tidy profit.
Band that you hated that everyone else at school seemed to love: The Grateful Dead. Circa 1995, every guy in my high school wore the same uniform: cords, Tevas or Birks, and a tie-dyed Grateful Dead skull tee-shirt under one of three distinct plaid L.L. Bean flannels. I never got it. Don’t see the appeal of the Dead at all. My loss, I’m sure.
Best show or concert you saw in high school: Oh, this is so sad, but I didn’t go to a proper concert until I was about twenty! There were a few random ska and punk bands I can’t remember the names of, at various and sundry all-ages shows in Portland, but nothing glamorous. My first real concert was during college, when I saw Elvis Costello in Boston, the first of many times. I should give the Orpheum Theater a shout-out. Their seats may be cramped, but I saw the Kids in the Hall there, and Janeane Garofalo, and Elvis quite a few times, among other excellent offerings that make me sound woefully piney-for-the-nineties.
Best high school make-out song: Hmmm… The only song I specifically remember making out to was Prison Sex by Tool. Romantic, right? If you’re familiar with the show Daria, I was a perfect mix of both Daria and Jane. Daria’s esthetic, with Jane’s snide artist sensibilities. Let’s just say I was not exactly rolling in eager, handsy jocks. But I bet if you’d asked what song I’d have liked to have been making it to, it might have been The 13th by The Cure, which I always thought was a terrifically joyful track. Or if we’re talking a real fraught, hot-and-heavy make-out session, then Natural One by the Folk Implosion. And later, Morphine’s Super Sex, and even later still, Tom Waits’ Jersey Girl or Little Trip to Heaven. But to be honest, I’d have made out to most anything, with most anything, at that age. Even my own hand, if I could be convinced it was actually Trent Reznor’s face. It’s just not a choosy age, is it?
Cara’s latest release is Coercion, the first of the Curio Vignettes, short follow-up novellas to Curio (aka the Parisian man-whore book). You can visit her at caramckenna.com or chat with her on Twitter @caramckenna.
This week is an important milestone in my writing life, but it has very little to do with me. This week is all about my critique partner, Karen Stivali, and her stunning novel, Meant To Be, which finally gets to have its book birthday!
Karen was polishing her first draft of Meant To Be when she and I met on former literary agent Nathan Bransford’s message boards. I remember it vividly…the story was fully written, but she couldn’t decide on a first chapter. My novel, Bring Me Back, was in a similar stage and I was relieved that there was someone else out there who was as driven to finish their first novel as I was.
When Karen and I went about getting to know and trust each other, we exchanged blocks of chapters from our books. I couldn’t read Meant To Be fast enough. Daniel and Marienne had me so firmly in their clutches (and please, Daniel, put me in your very capable clutches) that I couldn’t keep from thinking about them, wondering what would happen, marveling at the way Karen had assembled the story. I specifically remember sending her an email calling her a slut when she left me off on a very suspenseful chapter. She replied that she was only a tease for leaving me hanging and promptly sent me the rest of the book.
I can’t speak highly enough of Meant To Be. I absolutely adore Karen’s characters, especially Marienne and Daniel. Their complex and unconventional relationship rings true at every turn, allowing them to leap off the page and worm their way into your psyche. Karen left it all there on the page and the reader is richly rewarded with a compelling, funny and sweet tale that will break your heart and put it all back together. So, please, do yourself a humungous favor and buy and devour this book. You’ll be so happy you did.
Meant To Be
Sometimes you’re already committed to the wrong person when fate finally brings you the right one.
When NYU professor Daniel Gardner’s career-obsessed wife convinces him to move to the suburbs, he hopes it’s a first step toward starting the family he longs to have. Instead of domestic bliss he finds his neighbor, Marienne Valeti. She loves her freelance design job, but must contend with a growing sense of isolation created by her husband’s indifference. A penchant for good books, bad movies, and Marienne’s to-die-for brownies sparks a powerful bond between them. Passion simmers, but they resist its lure, surrendering only in the seclusion of their minds. Their friendship helps them weather every hardship, from divorce to widowhood, leaving them both secretly wondering if it can survive a first kiss.
Meant to Be is available from:
Turquoise Morning Press | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Smashwords | All Romance e-Books
Karen Stivali is a multi-published author of steamy women’s fiction and erotic romance. You can learn more about Karen and her awesomeness at karenstivali.com.
Karen Stivali is here today to tells us about her story for the Foreign Affairs anthology, a collection of romantic tales about men from faraway lands and the women who can’t resist them. Foreign Affairs is available from:
Amazon | Turquoise Morning Press | Smashwords | All Romance
Karen’s contribution, All I Need, is a fabulous story starring the to-die-for Daniel, a Brit for whom any woman could easily fall head over heels.
Tell us about your hero. What makes him irresistible? What attracts your heroine to him?
Daniel is irresistible because he’s charming, sweet, funny, smart and gorgeous but isn’t the least bit egotistical. Justine is a beautiful woman and has never had any trouble attracting men, but she’s drawn to Daniel because he’s different. Unlike all the other handsome men she’s dated, he’s not just interested in her for her looks. He listens when she talks. He takes her seriously. And it doesn’t hurt that he’s sexy as hell and great in bed.
How did you choose your hero’s nationality?
I’ve had a lifelong weakness for men with British accents and for this particular character, from his subtle charm to his dry wit, there was never any doubt in my mind that he was a Brit.
Do you have anything new coming out in 2012? Any recent releases you want to tell us about?
My most recent release is the short novel, Marry Me, published by Ellora’s Cave in June 2012. It’s a sweet, erotic romance about a widowed British drummer who learns to love again when he meets the right American girl. Did I mention my weakness for British accents?
Any plans to write anything more about your characters from the Foreign Affairs Anthology? What about more multicultural romance?
The characters in All I Need are the main characters in my full length novels MEANT TO BE and HOLDING ON, due out August 26, 2012 and November 26, 2012 respectively, so if you’re looking for more Daniel, there’s plenty to come!
I don’t have multicultural romances planned in any of the stories I’m immediately working on, but I’m quite sure they’ll factor into a story at some point in the not-too-distant future.
Meant To Be will be available from Turquoise Morning Press as an e-book August 26 and trade paperback soon after. To find out more about Karen Stivali and her work check the following links:
