Once and Forever will be a series of at least seven standalone contemporary romances. Each story uses a theme or symbol from a fairytale, but only as a starting point. Because while fairytales aren't real, love is.
*** Darker Water is a stand-alone contemporary romance that does not end in a cliffhanger.
After another painful breakup, Laney Temple finally understands that love is a fairytale and sex rarely comes with a happy ending. She's too busy for it right now anyway--she has a business to run, art to create, and candy to crush. Eventually she'll be ready to switch from her plastic-or-silicon lover to a flesh-and-blood one. But before that happens, she needs to be sure she won't feel any of those annoying emotions that make her heart do things it wasn't meant to do...
Like break
Carson Bennett is completely upfront about what he wants, and it has nothing to do with Laney's heart. Her lips? Hell yeah. Other parts of her body? You better f*cking believe it. But her heart? Nope, not even a little. Until it does...a lot. But having feelings for someone isn't allowed. It's the kind of thing you're supposed to push down deep and cover up with one-night stands, sarcasm, and booze...
Like secrets
Two people want the same thing--a commitment to nothing more than great sex in a bunch of different positions. Simple. Enjoyable. A win-win. Problem is, those two people have families and fears and pain that spill into every moment of their lives, control what they do and who they are. And if either Carson or Laney can't free themselves from the past, they'll both be pulled under by it.
Lauren is offering the following prizes for the blog tour. Giveaway ends Dec 8th at 11:59 PM CST.
· (1) Swag Pack (US only)
· (2) eBook copies of Hyde and Darker Water (INTL)
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Avevo già conosciuto questa scrittrice per una sua precedente serie incentrata in una rivisitazione in chiave contemporanea della storia di Dr Jakill and Mr Hyde, quindi non l'avevo ancora testata in uno scenario più romance contemporaneo. Non mi ha deluso, non ne avevo il minimo dubbio, direi che mi ha sorpreso con effetti speciali, tipo fuochi d'artificio in una sera di fine estate!!
Laney, è stufa di incontrare rospi e nessun principe. Dopo l'ennesima delusione d'amore dice basta agli uomini e decide di concentrarsi solo su se stessa. E' un artista anticonvenzionale, lavora con il legno creando oggetti d'arredo particolari e di gusto, roba da esposizone per gallerie d'arte, anche se fino a questo momento non è ancora riuscita a sfondare.
Mesi dopo il suo giuramento contro gli uomini, incontra Carson, un ragazzo senza peli sulla lingua, diretto, sa quello che vuole e non lo nasconde. Il loro primo scambio di battute è indimenticabile, un dialogo talmente surreale e esilarante da non poter trattenere le risate, nemmeno se ci si trova in un luogo pubblico.
Nessuno dei due è interessato ad una relazione amorosa, solo puro e semplice sesso, appagamento reciproco, nessuna promessa, nessuna aspettativa, solo piacere e orgasmi, nulla di più.
Laney, dopo un momento di valutazione, acconsente a fare sesso per la prima volta nella sua vita con un completo estraneo, accettando il fatto di avere un rapporto sessuale senza provare nessun sentimento d'amore per il partner. Secondo lei e secondo Carson, è questo quello che ha sempre rovinato ogni sua precedente relazione. Convincersi di essere innamorati quando ci si annulla per l'altro, non tenere più conto delle proprie esigenze e volontà, ma vivere solo in funziona dell'altro, fino a non rinconoscersi più.
Al primo tentativo accade un imprevisto che impedisce ai ragazzi di consumare il loro accordo. Ma questo non demoralizza Carson di provarci di nuovo. Ci saranno molte situazione che permetterà loro di conoscersi meglio, dando a Laney il tempo di trovare il coraggio e la forza di differenziare il sesso dall'amore, e nel frattempo le da l'opportunità di conoscere un pò di più il nuovo compagno di "giochi". Tra una chiacchierata e l'altra, un flirt e l'altro, gli equilibri verranno scombussolati e chi sarà il primo a cedere alle emozioni: Laney? la giovane donna che ha perso quasi ogni speranza di trovare il suo principe azzurro? O forse Carson ? L'uomo che riuscirà ad insegnare a Laney che si può stare insieme anche senza coinvolgimento amoroso, nonostante sia lui il primo ad averne più bisogno? E quando e se comincerà a provare qualcosa per l'unica donna che abbia mai ammirato e rispettato, sarà pronto ad abbracciare il cambiamento, o un passato fatto di abusi e violenza gli impediranno di andare avanti con la sua vita...insieme a Laney?
Divertente, passionale, senza cedere in un erotica banale e scontata, si tratta di un romanzo di singolare bellezza. I dialoghi sono stupefacenti, di una genialità e umorismo che da molto tempo non mi capitava di leggere. Ci sono momenti anche d' intensa serietà e argomentazioni da pugno nello stomaco, ma tutto viene fuso in un modo a dir poco perfetto. Non sarebbe giusto, lasciare senza nemmeno un commento i personaggi che fanno da cornice a questa storia: Anna, la sorellastra di Carson, metterà l'unghia smaltata in mezzo al nuovo e fresco rapporto dei protagonsti, Renee, la madre di Carson, le sue scelte hanno condizionato il carattere del figlio, la coinquilina di Laney, Hillary, che aiuterà la nostra protagonista ad aprire gli occhi sui suoi veri sentimenti per Carson.
E' vero che abbiamo a che fare ancora una volta con una serie, di ben 7 libri, ma considerati tutti degli stand alone, augurandoci che siano tutti senza cliffhanger come questo libro, ma trovo che, visto l'alto livello di questo romanzo, possiamo perdonare la scrittrice di essere caduta anche lei nella firma seriale di pubblicazione.
Un'altra caratteristica particolare, è la base da fiaba che la scrittrice ci presenta all'inizio di ogni libro. Prendendo l'esempio di Darker Water, il prologo è un'interessante rivisitazione della fiaba della principessa e il ranocchio. Troveremo una fiaba diversa per ogni libro....per scoprire quale sarà la prossima non ci resta che aspettare il 2015, per chi legge in inglese ovviamente.
Per l'Italia...chi può dirlo.
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“Let me guess,” I said. “You’re different from every other guy, searching for the one woman who will complete you. You’re considerate, caring, and really want a chance to know who I truly am.”
“Not at all,” he said, ticking the points off with his fingers and grimacing. “Definitely not. Dear god no. That’s not even close to what I want from you. And…was that all of them? I got distracted by your breasts for a little while there, so I may have missed one.”
I coughed, covering my mouth before I spit my coffee out. “Seriously?” In the last few months I’d had a lot of similar conversations with moderately similar guys. But not a single one had an answer even remotely like that.
“Seriously. I’m a complete asshole who only cares about what he can get from someone. Take you, for example. I saw you sitting here alone, no ring, great body. And thought, ‘I want to fuck her.’ And yeah, those were the exact words that went through my head. On the way over here I tried to figure out the fastest and most efficient way to get you into my bed—which isn’t far from here, by the way—hoping you weren’t the type who needed a couple dinners out first. So, Lane”—he popped an eyebrow—“are you?”
Darker Water, is the first book in Once and Forever series. I really loved this book, I loved the characters, I loved the fairytales background you chose for this novel, your style is flawless. It’s amazing, I can’t find anything to complain about it. Do you like to talk about where did you find the right inspiration for it?
Aww, thanks so much. This series started after a friend dared me to write a standalone book with a happy ending. I’m one of those people who likes a love story to be drawn out over multiple books. But I can’t refuse a dare, so I started writing about an idea I’d had a long time ago—a woman who thinks she has the metaphorical power to turn princes (great men) into frogs (a**holes) because every time she thinks she’s in love, things go terribly wrong. Bizarrely, the fairytale-like intro was the first thing I wrote. That gave me the theme and feel of the rest of the story, even though the language is old school and the story is very modern.
Carson and Laney’s witty comment about relationships, love, sex and all the subjects they talked about are hilarious. What made me laugh out loud was Carson’s first try to hook up with Laney, I haven’t read anything like it !!! But the more I was reading the more I was realizing that there were also heavy stuff the characters have to live with. I guess, this book was not just fun and entertainment to write. Am I right?
Completely. There are a lot of parts in the book that make me laugh. I know it’s weird, seeing how I actually wrote them, but very often an author knows a character so well that they take over and we just follow along. The same thing goes for the more serious parts of this novel. It’s kind of how an actor works—we feel whatever the character is feeling, act it out as if it was a movie in our mind. Which meant I made a lot of weird faces at my computer screen and went through a lot of tissues in this one. Ha
I believe laughter helps us get through the darker times of our lives. So my books always have a lot of humor in them, but they also have some emotional moments. Darker Water deals with a very sad, very real issue. It was important that I take it seriously and deal with it sensitively. I hope the balance between humor and seriousness was where it needed to be.
I really loved Carson and Laney. Can you talk about them for readers they still haven’t read your book yet ?
In the beginning, Laney is wounded by her expectations of what love should be—the fairytale ending with a prince, a big wedding, honesty, and true love. She doesn’t trust herself not to confuse love and sex, so is very hesitant about getting into any kind of relationship.
Carson is completely upfront with what he wants—sex—and what he can’t offer—anything emotional. He’s also very persistent and goes after what he wants which, in this case, is Laney. He courts her for a long time but in a very a-typical, bad-boy way.
The fun of these two is the way they relate to each other with one-hundred percent honesty and with clear expectations which makes for a lot of innuendo and teasing.
This is my chance to actually thank a writer for choosing both POV. As a woman, reading about how a man’s mind works is something I could define surreal. Is it hard to step in a male’s mind than a woman’s mind?
I loooove writing from a man’s POV, probably more than I like writing women. It’s so much fun, especially the kind of men I seem to write, the kind who really don’t hold anything back. LOL But since men have a very different mentality than women, it’s hard for me to switch back and forth quickly. I have to be in the right mindset for each, so their voices match their gender and their personality.
On Goodreads site, I found this introduction on your brand new series: “Once and Forever will be a series of at least seven standalone contemporary romances. Each story uses a theme or symbol from a fairytale, but only as a starting point. Because while fairytales aren't real, love is.” Would you like to explain more this concept?
Sure! Each book takes a small piece of a different fairytale. But don’t expect these to be retellings. I use the fairytales only as a starting point, common ground we all grow up believing was true. Then I completely twist them around to make modern stories about people with real issues. The characters will all find their happy endings, but never as simply as we grew up believing.
Darker Water uses the premise of The Frog Prince. The next book, Virtually Impossible, will take the glass casket from Snow White. Other books in the series will be based on The Emperor’s New Clothes, Rumpelstiltskin, Cinderella, and more.
Thank you very much for your time.
Such a pleasure, Fidi! Thanks so much. :) |
Lauren Stewart lives in Northern California with two of the most amazing children that the world has ever seen. She reads almost every genre so, naturally, her writing reflects that. With every book, every story, you'll find elements of other genres--fantasy, mystery, romance, paranormal, suspense, YA, women's literature, all with a touch of humor because what doesn't kill us should make us laugh.
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Mi sembra carino...mettiamo nella lista (infinita) desideri .
RispondiEliminaLo è, molto anche!!! consigliatissimo :-)
EliminaHi, Fidi! Thanks so much for having me, and good luck, everyone. I'm going to go get all of that translated now. ;)
RispondiElimina<3 Lauren
I thought an Italian review would catch up more attention in my country. Do you want me to rewrite it in English?
EliminaNo way! I'm really proud that my books get reviews in other languages. It's cool. And while I'm sure a translation program won't exactly capture the beauty of Italian or your review, they'll give me a gist. :)
Elimina