Search And Rescue – Guest Post By Kitti Bernetti

My guest today is Kitti Bernetti, whose novel, Search And Rescue, is part of a Cariad hot romance double bill with my own His Secret Boss. Welcome, Kitti!

Hi Elizabeth

Thank you so much for inviting me to The Naughty Corner. I write erotica with a heart. I hope to bring readers the sort of emotional romance that can bring you to tears but that is hot, hot, hot… And I’d like to share with you how I came up with one of my favourite heroes.

Now, don’t we all love a superhero? Those amazing guys who flash across our screens in Lycra and capes saving towns, cities, even the world with their superhuman powers. But, bringing us back down to earth, I was struck one day when watching the news how we have superhero guys right in our midst, in our own cities, in our own towns. The news I was watching concerned a disaster which had struck a small American community. There on the screen were these great hunks of guys, the search and rescue crews, digging for hours, days even. Covered in mud, they were pulling people from under fallen rocks when all hope had disappeared. In the background were snow capped mountains and awesomely beautiful lakes. It was so gorgeous I decided I wanted to set a story there.

This got me to pondering on those men with their huge boots and massive chests and how it must be to be the strong one, to have everyone rely on you in a crisis. To have families desperate for you to find their loved ones. What’s more, I loved the phrase, ‘Search and Rescue,’ it encompassed strength and nurturing. I wondered what it would be like if one of those oh so capable guys had a hidden flaw, a weakness, a dreadful secret he couldn’t declare to the world. It fired my imagination to produce my own search and rescue hero, Gig Briggs, a man his community look on to save them and nurture them. Gig has his faithful friend, a former police dog, Diesel, and a beautiful girlfriend, Milandra. All should be perfect in his world. But I needed as an author, to give Gig a hard time. I needed to test him and put him through hell to have a good story. So, while he’s strong and invincible on the outside, it is his inner demons he cannot defeat. That’s where Dr Desree Cain comes in. She’s the renowned sex therapist he absolutely does not want to consult. And boy are they opposites. She’s a city woman, he’s a country boy. What’s more, she’s scared. Someone from her own dark past is hunting her down. That’s why she’s come to hide in this small mountain community. The last thing she needs is Gig Briggs getting under her skin and awakening her as a woman. That’s when things get hot, too hot to handle. For the last thing any therapist should do is fall for her client…

I absolutely loved writing this book, so much so that I might even take one of the other characters, Gig’s best friend Clint, and give him his own book one day. But then that’s another story!

Bio:

Kitti Bernetti has been writing erotica for years, well before the Fifty Shades phenomenon. She lives and works in London where the vibrancy of the city keeps her imagination constantly fired with stories. You can often find her, pen in hand, in the coffee bars of Covent Garden. Wired on caffeine, seemingly staring into space and doodling, she is actually dreaming constructively and making notes for her next novella in a small red Moleskin, her favourite notebook.

Follow Kitti on Twitter @KittiBernetti
And on her website at http://www.kittibernetti.moonfruit.com/

The Cariad Double Bill is available from Amazon UK and Amazon US.

Two Hot Cariad Reads – Double The Pleasure

It’s that time of year when everyone is looking for great poolside reading to load on their Kindle before they go on holiday, so may I recommend Cariad’s latest hot romance double bill? The two book-set is comprised of my tale of desire and deception in a sleepy Welsh seaside town, His Secret Boss, and Kitti Bernetti’s  romantic suspense novel, Search and Rescue.

Here’s the blurb for Kitti’s book:

Gig Briggs is the Search and Rescue Officer you can rely on to save anybody from disaster. What he cannot do is save himself – harbouring a secret that has destroyed his ability to have a fulfilling relationship with a woman.

When he reluctantly walks into the consulting room of renowned sex therapist Desree Cain, he doesn’t believe she can help. However, Desree has secrets of her own, ones that are swiftly coming back to haunt her. She hasn’t told Gig why she had to run away from the city to hide in his New England community. Can Desree get through to this hero’s damaged heart, and can he save her from the twisted individual hunting her down?

The Cariad Double Bill Vol Two is available from Amazon UK and Amazon US. Make sure to come back tomorrow, when Kitti Bernetti will be my guest, sharing more of Search and Rescue’s secrets.

Cover Reveal – One Night In Brussels

I have a beautiful cover for One Night In Brussels, my novella in Tirgearr Publishing’s City Nights erotic romance series. The artist has done a great job of bringing to life the two central characters, Dominic and Saskia, and capturing the strange, fairytale character of the buildings in Brussel’s Grand-Place. Here it is:

The story has more than a dash of romantic suspense, as a simple afternoon’s sightseeing turns into the hottest, most dangerous night of Saskia’s life. Here’s the blurb:

Saskia van Gaal works as a translator for the European Commission, dreaming of a life filled with excitement and hot sex. When she bumps into suave, sexy Englishman, Dominic May, and offers to be his tour guide in the beautiful city of Brussels, she doesn’t realise she’s about to embark on the wildest night of her life.

A stolen necklace is only the beginning of the adventure, and when Dominic and Saskia are threatened by a knife-wielding robber, things threaten to spiral out of control.

Has Saskia misjudged Dominic? Should she trust him? And as their sex games grow hotter and ever more inventive, can she ever guess how this night will end?

The novella is released at the end of September, but it’s currently available for pre-order from retailers including Amazon UK, Amazon US and Smashwords. You can read an excerpt from the story at the Tirgearr site, and I’ll be sharing more snippets and the inspiration for the story nearer the official release date.

 

 

 

His Secret Boss Is Now Out In Paperback

Those of you who prefer the joys of a physical book to those new-fangled e-reader thingies will be delighted to know that my Cariad hot romance novel, His Secret Boss, is now available in paperback. (Sorry, I’ll have to break off here – Perry the cat has just brought her toy owl downstairs in a blatant attempt to get attention and treats, and if you’ve never seen her technique then I suggest you go to YouTube at your earliest convenience to check it out.)

Anyway, here’s the blurb for His Secret Boss:

Claudia Anthony, the overachieving owner of a successful hotel chain, is recruited to take part in the reality TV show Secret CEO. Disguised as Jane Ennis, she takes on a job at The Anthony in Aberpentre, a Welsh seaside town that has seen better days. She finds herself working under young, headstrong Rhodri Wynn-Jones, who has no clue of her real identity. Soon, passion flares between them, and although Claudia knows there are lines she can’t cross, she just can’t keep away. Rhodri is falling in love with Jane – but what will happen if he learns he’s actually having an affair with his boss?

And here’s the opening of the book, to give a flavour of Claudia’s dilemma:

‘You have to admit, Claudia, it’ll be wonderful publicity for you …’

Gina paused, and took a sip from her cappuccino, waiting for my reaction. In the chair beside her, Hugo Murray of Wild Card Productions regarded me intently. According to Gina, Hugo had been anxious to speak to me pretty much since the day I’d taken over running the company.

I glanced out of the window. Three floors below us on St Martin’s Lane, the traffic was its usual Friday snarl-up, and the pavement tables outside the café across the road were occupied by shoppers enjoying the first pleasantly warm afternoon of spring. As I contemplated the familiar scene, I gave myself some thinking time. Why, I wondered again, had I agreed to this meeting? With everything I had on my plate since Dad died, I didn’t have time to get involved with some reality show; even if Gina assured me it would be as good as free advertising for us. When I’d asked her to beef up our PR strategy, I’d expected advertorials in the Saturday travel supplements, maybe being asked to put myself up for a sympathetic profile on the business pages. Not this.

Turning the chair back to face them both, I said, ‘So tell me exactly what it would involve. What you’d expect me to do.’

‘OK, Claudia.’ Hugo smiled, a dimple appearing in his left cheek as he did. ‘Well, as I’m sure you know, the viewing public don’t have a very favourable opinion of the people who run our businesses. The conception is that they’re all smug, uncaring fat cats, creaming off the profits and awarding themselves massive bonuses while their employees struggle by on peanuts.’

‘Well, that’s certainly not the case here …’ The man had been in my office five minutes and already I was on the defensive. I couldn’t see anything good coming out of this.

The paperback is available from Amazon UK, Amazon US and Accent Press, among other places.

Okay, plug over. Enjoy yourself watching cute animal videos this lunchtime. I know I will be…

Book Review: All of Him by L.C. Wilkinson

It seems like ages since I’ve posted a book review, but when you get the opportunity to read a thick, juicy slab of hot romance, it’s nice to let people know about it. OK, I have a slightly vested interest here, as I originally picked up the first book in L.C. Wilkinson’s Rapture series, All of Me, for Xcite, and so I was eagerly awaiting the sequel when it landed in my inbox.

In All of Me, we were introduced to actress Flick Burrows, one-time soap opera sweetheart (think one of the Slater sisters minus the leopardskin and fishwife overtones), now about to revive her career in a production of Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest set to tour Italy. She begins what she thinks will be a brief fling with hot young restaurateur Orlando Locatelli. Everything seems stacked against them – the significant age difference, the dark secrets from their teenage years both Flick and Orlando are struggling not to be defined by, the insecurity that Flick can’t help but feel in a profession that sidelines women as they grow older – but against all the odds, they begin to make it work. Then Flick lands a starring role in a detective series set in the 1980s and being filmed in New York City, which is where All of Him begins.

Where the first book is more of a straightforward contemporary romance, brought to life by the authenticity of its theatre background and the growing heat between Flick and Orlando, All of Him kicks the action on a level. The storyline has a strong element of mystery – someone is sending Flick poison pen letters and seems determined to wreck her relationship with Orlando. There is no shortage of possible culprits, and a good number of red herrings are thrown in to keep the perpetrator’s identity a secret as long as possible. The sex action is also more intense – it was quickly established in the first book that Orlando likes to watch, and Flick enjoys exploring her exhibitionistic side (probably only natural for someone whose professional career is acted out before an audience), but a trip to a live sex show and a very special burlesque performance form two of the erotic set-pieces here and are beautifully described.

Add to this the fact that while Flick may be older than Orlando, she’s no stereotypical cougar, having none of the brash over-confidence and a need to hunt for young prey that term so often implies, and All of Him has a depth and thoughtfulness that can sometimes be lacking in erotic romance. Plus anything set in New York is guaranteed to entertain me – even if it makes me think a visit to the city (as opposed to the Stadium) is long overdue…

All of Him is available now from Xcite and Amazon. You can find out more about L.C. Wilkinson on her website.

Get Your Skates On!

I know it was only a few days ago that we were enjoying what the papers like to call an Indian summer (but is really the last couple of days when you can go out without your thick cardie and tights). But now there are fewer than 100 shopping days to Christmas, and it’s the time of year when thoughts turn to seasonal fiction where a hot man waits to be unwrapped along with the Christmas present.

All of which is a way of saying that I have the cover for my Xcite Romance novella, Christmas Rendezvous, and here it is:

The story is set in Bruges, one of my favourite cities, and home to a famous Christmas market, which you may remember from the climax of In Bruges (and if you’ve never seen that film, why not?). Here’s the blurb:

When Juliette Milner is invited to spend Christmas in Bruges with her ex-boyfriend, Dale, she thinks an old flame is about to be rekindled. But Dale’s invitation isn’t all it seems, and Juliette finds herself stranded alone in this beautiful city. A chance conversation with a friendly barman leads her to the bed and breakfast run by his brother, Laurens, who has a room free thanks to a last-minute cancellation. And as she finds herself growing closer to Laurens on a sightseeing tour, Juliette realises she might enjoy a special Christmas rendezvous after all …

In this extract, Juliette is on the train from Brussels, thinking about Dale’s invitation, and wondering what his motives might be for inviting her to his new home for Christmas:

Turning to look out of the window, I stared through snow-spattered glass at the flat, unremarkable fields beyond. Already, snow was softening the outlines of trees and fields, and beginning to lie on the roofs of barns and outbuildings. Here and there, the odd cluster of buildings with a squat stone church at their centre passed for a village, breaking up the monotony of the landscape. The roads were all but deserted, and I wondered whether the bad weather was keeping people at home, or whether this particular part of the country, dominated by farmland, was always this quiet.

Still, at least Bruges should be livelier, if what Dale had told me about the city coming into its own at Christmas was anything to go by. Again, I found my mind drifting back to the shock I’d had when his email had popped into my inbox, asking me to spend the festive season with him.

In truth, he’d never been too far from my thoughts since we’d split up, almost 18 months ago. It was hardly surprising: the two of us had unfinished business, after all. Our time together had never properly run its course: Dale had been offered a promotion which was too good for him to turn down, but it meant moving to the company’s satellite office in Bruges. We’d decided to make a clean break, having both known friends who’d tried to sustain a long-distance relationship and failed miserably.

Sometimes, I wondered if I should have gone with him to Belgium so we could have made a life there, but I was happy with my work and my little flat and my small but loyal group of friends. Much as I loved him, I hadn’t wanted to give all that up and move to a country where I had no solid job prospects and didn’t speak the local language. At first, I missed him like mad, but over time that had faded to nothing more than moments when I wondered what it would be like to be in his arms right then, and whether he still missed me too, just a little bit.

But maybe the problem was I hadn’t loved Dale enough. If I’d been really, truly, can’t-live-without-you in love with him, I’d have said goodbye to my old life in England and done whatever it took to make things work out between us in Bruges. No, that would have just been too risky, I told myself: the kind of crazy, over-the-top gesture characters make at the end of a romantic comedy. You never get to see what happens after the credits roll, and whether their happy ever after eventually turns to disaster.

What will happen when Juliette finally reunites with Dale? How does a handsome B and B owner rescue her from potential disaster? And, most importantly, where do the ice skates fit in? The book is available to pre-order from Amazon, so slide on over there to find out more…