Interview and Giveaway with Bella Andre!

What up, Maidens! Today we are thrilled to have Bestselling author, Bella Andre with us today. Bella's books have appeared on Top 50 bestsellers lists and have been translated into several other languages. Not to mention that WILD HEAT won the Award of Excellence in 2011! For more information about Bella and her books, please check out her website here.

Hi Bella! Welcome to UTC and thank you for chatting with us today. Let's get started, shall we? What is it about the contemporary romance genre that has captured your attention and made you want to write for this genre?

I love to read contemporary romance ;) actually, I devour it at a pace of about one book a day when I can!), so that's probably where it comes from. I'd had characters talking in my head for a while, but after my college roommate, Jami Alden, who also writes romance, encouraged me to attend a Romance Writer's of America meeting nine years ago, I knew I had to sit down and write a romance!

The Look of Love is Chase and Chloe's book! For readers who haven't read this yet, can you tell us about this book and about the series in general?

THE LOOK OF LOVE launches my contemporary romance series - THE SULLIVANS - about a family of six hot, sexy brothers and two sassy, cool sisters. In the first book, Chase Sullivan is a successful photographer who rescues Chloe off the side of a road after her car crashes on a rainy night. He instantly falls for her and wants to protect her, but she won't let him. Because Chloe is on the run from a bad relationship and has vowed never to trust a man again. Of course their sexual chemistry sizzles and just as she's beginning to think he might be the one exception to too-good-to-be-true, he's wondering if letting her go might be the best way to show he loves her.

Your newest release is the second book in the Sullivan series, From This Moment On. This is Marcus and Nicola's book. Can you tell us a bit about what readers can expect from this upcoming release?

Chase's brother, Marcus, is the responsible, family patriarch. Nicola is a rising pop star with a bad reputation that she doesn't actually deserve. Both of them have their reasons for wanting one reckless night together, but even though they both know they're all wrong for each other, growing emotions - and sizzling attraction - keep drawing them closer together. Close enough for them to wonder if stealing one more secret moment together can ever be enough? My wonderful readers really seem to be loving my Sullivan boys and I'm so excited about everyone reading Marcus and Nicola's book!

In Ecstasy, two erotica writers get together to do some "research". I loved this idea! What was the inspiration behind this?

Thank you! I was actually fairly new to the erotic genre at the time I wrote ECSTASY and I couldn't help but wonder what would happen if a new erotic writer asked an established erotic writer for "lessons". I had a fantastic time writing this book - especially the story within the story.

What are you currently working on and can you tell us a bit about it?

I've recently finished Marcus' book and am already working on the story for Gabe called CAN'T HELP FALLING IN LOVE. Gabe is daring firefighter and let me assure you it's already as hot as it promises!

Who is your favourite author and what is it about their work that resonates with you?

I have several favorite authors, of course, but two of my absolute favorites are Jennifer Crusie and Lora Leigh. I love the humor and wit and emotion (and surprisingly hot sex) in Crusie's books. And Lora's books just sweep me up in emotion from the first sentence.

Would you consider yourself a plotter or pantster?

A little bit of both. With THE SULLIVANS, I know the Sullivan family. I know the brothers and sisters, I know their family dynamic, and I have a pretty good idea who they're going to fall in love with (well, for most of them, anyway). I do like to be surprised by how it all works out, though! And I love laughing and crying along with my characters as I write each of their love stories.

Fun questions! If you weren't a writer, would you rather be....

a) A top image consultant like Julie Spencer from Game for Anything
b)A first grade teacher like Anna Davis from Game for Love
or
c)An outspoken fashion designer like Janica Ellis from Love Me

I like to gab and I like clothes so I'd have to go with C. Plus having a surgeon like Luke hot for me wouldn't be so bad. :)

If you could collaborate with another contemporary romance author, who would like to work with and why?

I'm extremely lucky to have many fantastic contemporary writers as good friends. Tina Folsom (who also writes vampires), Barbara Freethy, Jami Alden, Carol Grace / Culver, Cecilia Gray, Jasmine Haynes, Shannon Hollis, Karin Tabke....the list could go on and on! I get together with these amazing women on a regular basis and we often brainstorm stories and ideas with each other.

Thank you so much for the amazing interview! 

Bella has graciously offered to give away a digital copy of CANDY STORE, her sexy contemporary romance!!! Open to everyone!

To enter, please:
1. Be a follower
2. Fill out the form below

HOTTIE OF THE WEEK: MATT BOMER!

First off, I'd like to dedicate this week's HOTTIE OF THE WEEK to Nissie from Riverina Romantics! It is because of you that I am obsessed with Matt Bomer now. Love you, Mwah!

It's no secret! I love men but there is an occasional moment when I was to drop to my knees and yell, "WHY?" Because Matt Bomer is gay. *sobs*

I know, I know. Despite my initial disappointment, I kind of like it. Is that weird? It just makes him that much hotter!

Anyway, last night I watched the pilot of White Collar as per Nissie's request. LOVED IT! Unfortunately, Canada doesn't air it which sucks. But that doesn't stop me for ogling Matt for the entire duration of the show. That man wear suits and fedoras like no other!

Okay, I'll stop blabbering now. ENJOY THESE PICS! I KNOW I HAVE!

In My Mailbox

In My Mailbox is a feature that was started over at The Story Siren. Each week we share what arrived in our mailboxes, bought or found in swaps or at the library.

WON:

We got a little less this week! What did you get???

Review: Pawn of Prophecy by David Eddings

Pawn of Prophecy (The Belgariad #1)

by David Eddings

Fantasy



You may be wondering where you are, we don't often read books that don't have a heavy romance element or a huge smut factor, 'cos it is time to face the facts us girls at UTC are huge pervs, anything male and naked and we are there panting with our gush buckets! BUT I do love a good fantasy book and I have lost track of the amount of times I have read this fantasy series in particular! So much so that I have worn out two copies and so decided to buy a kindle version that way I can't ruin it! I didn't like the kindle cover though so I am sticking with the cover that I had on my original copy.

Garion is just a simple Sendarian farm boy, happy under the watchful gaze of Aunt Pol he has no idea the events of both the past and present will soon come and sweep him out of his cozy life and have him travelling with a diverse range of characters to lands he has only heard of of and meeting people from old legends, some who are a lot closer then he expected.

I love these books, they seem to have the pretty standard fantasy plot of magic, swords and an epic quest, but after reading through a lot of fantasy that is out I can say that this is one of the best. I think what makes it stand out from the crowd of sword wielding, magic flinging fantasies is the characters and how realized the world is. The characters in this are well drawn and have always stuck with me and reading this book (yet again) is liking walking into the pub and greeting old friends, even secondary characters are memorable. My favourite is Prince Kheldar or Silk, he is a liar, thief and a spy and one of my favourite characters ever. As for the world everything is well planned out and you can see the history in it culimnating in to present day events.

This series is also a little bit of a coming of age story for out hero Garion, only 14 at the beginning of this series he is flung from his comfortable world where no one is quite what they seem. I really like Garion, as with most main characters he isn't always the most interesting character, but in a book of diverse and interesting characters he is a good character to see this new world though as it is told from his POV (but it isn't first person)

So if you are new to fantasy I recommend this one to start as it eases you in slowly and if you like fantasy then I recommend you read this!

David Eddings actually died in 2009 at the early age of 77 which is a really sad for the book world as he has produced some really good series, the Belgariad being my favourite.



Follow Friday - 9/2/11

Follow Friday is hosted by Parajunkee and Alison Can Read

The question of the week is:

If you could change the ending of any book (or series), which book would you choose? Why and to what?

 MOCKINGJAY BY SUZANNE COLLINS

*sigh* Where do I begin? This last book in this amazing series really pissed me off. I mean, like I-don't-want-to-talk-about-it-ever-again kind of angry. With the end of a trilogy, I was hoping for some redemption, something kickass where I could do a fist pump and yell "Go Katniss!".  It wasn't the case. 

 

The ending wasn't satisfying for me at all. It infuriated me. All these unnecessary deaths killed me to read. But what really annoyed me was how things were left off with Gale. Throughout the series and in Mockingjay, Gale is Katniss's best friend who is always by her side. Always.

To have things end the way they did with him just leaving the district seemed so out of character I couldn't believe it. It wasn't the Gale we knew.

The funny thing is, my girl Suzanne LOVES the ending! Between us, we've had some heated discussions over it. To some, the ending was perfect. But for me, it just left a bad taste in my mouth. Opinions differ and although we both loved this series, there were parts that I wished never happened at all.

OK, rant over. What ending of a book or series would you change? PLEASE MARK SPOILERS!!!

Author of the Month: Julie James

Happy September, Maidens! For this month, we are honored to have the talented and hilarious JULIE JAMES as our Author of the Month! As many of you know, I am a huge fan of Julie's and just adore her books. So I am thrilled to make this announcement as a fan. 

For those of you who aren't familiar with James's work, she is a contemporary romance writer whose titles include Just the Sexiest Man Alive, Practice Makes Perfect, Something About You and A Lot Like Love! Before she was a full-time writer, she was a lawyer and a screenplay writer. Her next book, About that Night will be available in April 2012. Stay tuned for more Julie James here on UTC!

UTC Insider: September 2011

Hello maidens!!!!  We had to go with a bit of romantic suspense theme for our cover this month.  Isn't he cute?  And by cute I mean extremely hot!  We really want to thank all our loyal readers and followers, so we got another great month lined up for you!  Here's a quick peak at what is to come!

Author of the Month
The wonderful Julie James will be joining us as our author of the month!!  Stay tuned later this month for our chat with her.

Author appearances:
Jess Haines
Bella Andre
Eve Berlin
Moira Rogers
Vonda Sinclair
Stephanie Tyler

Battle of the Covers
UK and USA will be battling it out again this month.  In honor of the September 6 release of Envy, we will be featuring the covers of the Fallen Angels series by J.R. Ward.

Reading on the Dark Side
You might've heard of this sexy series that is a lot like X-Men, but has a lot more steam?  You will get to meet ACRO this month!

Mind Spill
A lot of us now read ebooks and have some sort of a digital reader, and you may have a special relationship with your ereader.  Check out My Bookish Boyfriend this month.

We have some great authors coming this month, some really good interviews and giveaways!  So make sure you keep coming back to check them out!