There are two new reviews for my September release, Make it Hot . Both The Real Page Turners and Romance Junkies gave the novel 5 stars!
Chrissy Dionne of Romance Junkies says:
“Gwyneth Bolton certainly doesn’t skimp on the heat level in her newest release Make It Hot . Samantha and Joel have spirited natures and seem to take great delight in antagonizing each other. They’re a fun couple to read about and kept me smiling through each ‘confrontation.’ Samantha’s relationship with her mother really struck a chord with me. So many people choose alcohol to dull their pain of loss never realizing the devastation it causes their loved ones. There’s plenty of action, fun, and emotional context to ensure readers’ become immersed in this storyline and remain enchanted through to the end. The Hightower brothers are honorable, loyal men who make a girl dream of finding her own hero.”
Monique Bruner “The Delta Reviewer” of The Real Page Turners says:
“Bolton combines the sexy allure of the Hightower family with the determination of Samantha Dash. Samantha turns her sad past into a promising future as she learns to forgive and finally embrace the idea of new relationships. Joel learns how to enjoy life while opening his heart to others. The supporting cast of characters adds humor and drama to the storyline. Make It Hot is a fast paced, easy to read romance that will make you talk out loud to the characters (Aunt Sophie especially) and remind you why family gatherings are so enjoyable. Hopefully, Bolton will keep supplying us with loving stories of the Hightower’s for years to come.”
I just finished reading Secret Agent Seduction by Maureen Smith and I had to take a minute to ask this author a few questions about the wonderful tales she crafts. When I say that very few authors so skillfully weave tales that are equally suspenseful, emotional, sensual and romantic better than Maureen Smith, believe it. The girl is good, damn good. And I’m excited to have her here today on Gwyneth’s Blog.
GB: So, Maureen, welcome! Can you tell us a little bit about what prompted you to want to craft tales that hold both suspense elements and romance elements?
MS: I’ve always been an avid reader of romance and suspense novels. Growing up, I used to devour every romance novel I could get my hands on, but I also enjoyed horror novels by Stephen King and John Saul. It seemed a natural progression for me to someday try my hand at writing books that combine two of my favorite genres. I love romantic suspense. There’s nothing like the dynamics between two protagonists who are fiercely attracted to each other, and who suddenly find themselves thrown together against a common enemy. The danger they face heightens the tension between them and adds dimension to their story.
GB: You write for both Kimani Romance and Kensington Dafina. Is there a difference between the kinds of stories you craft for these two publishers?
MS: I write romantic suspense for Kensington Dafina, and contemporary romance for Harlequin Kimani. My novels for Kensington are significantly longer, edgier and darker, with a strong emphasis on balancing the suspense and romance subplots. My novels for Kimani are more traditional romances. Secret Agent Seduction was my first foray into romantic suspense for Kimani, and I had a great time writing it!
GB: You’ve also written some erotic romance, but your romance novels and romantic suspense novels have a pretty high heat factor, in my opinion. You have perfected tying in the proper amount of emotion and passion in your love scenes. As a reader I really feel what you put on the page. So…bet you thought I’d never get to the question…What’s your secret to crafting those excellent love scenes?
MS: A wicked imagination! LOL. Seriously, thank you so much for your generous words, Gwyneth. I believe in “rewarding” my protagonists with incredible lovemaking. If I’ve done a good job of establishing chemistry between them—physically and emotionally—this has to culminate in the bedroom (or wherever else they get it on, LOL). I really believe that love scenes should fulfill the promise of the mating dance that led up to the sex. So whenever I’m writing love scenes, I think about how deeply the hero and heroine have connected, how hungry and desperate they are for each other, how much they have sacrificed or risked to be together. And then I just let them feast on each other.
GB: I have to say, I absolutely loved your current release, Secret Agent Seduction . It had a slight paranormal element with Lia being able to read minds, and a subtle soul mates element as well. Can I just say these are two of my favorite things? Honestly. Throw paranormal and soul mates in a book and ya got me! So I have to know, what was your inspiration behind the writing of this book?
MS: Being a hopeless romantic, I have always loved the idea of fate, kismet—two people being destined for each other. When I came up with the plot for Secret Agent Seduction, I thought of how powerful the connection between Lia and Armand would be if he’d been in love with her for a long time, ever since he’d caught a glimpse of her eight years earlier. Her presence in his country, at that particular time, set the stage for a future meeting between them. They were soul mates whose paths were meant to cross. When I was invited to participate in the Romance on the Run series, I was encouraged to include a paranormal element that wouldn’t overshadow the story. I decided that the ability to read minds would greatly benefit Lia as a Secret Service agent, but the glitch would be that she couldn’t read Armand’s mind. I think this made their relationship more interesting, and helped to promote the idea of Armand being the yang to Lia’s yin.
GB: So far, I haven’t met a Maureen Smith book that I haven’t enjoyed immensely. I loved Whisper My Name and Weapon of Seduction . And I absolutely adored the Affair Series! What a cool idea. And Caleb Thorne from A Legal Affair …girl…I think I love him. Anyway, you have a new novel coming out in December, No One But You . Can you tell us a little bit about that one?
MS: With pleasure! No One But You is the sequel to my romantic suspense novel With Every Breath , which was published in 2004. In No One But You , FBI agent Althea Pritchard—the kidnapped student from the prequel—has returned home after a long absence to face the ghosts of her past. But when a teenage girl is abducted, Althea feels like history is repeating itself. She’s paired on the case with Damien Wade, a sexy, gorgeous man who was only supposed to be a one-night stand. Together Althea and Damien race against the clock to find the missing girl, knowing that the key to her disappearance lies in what happened to Althea eight years ago. Althea quickly learns that when it comes to the past, she can run, but she can’t hide….
I’m really excited about the release of No One But You . I hope that Damien Wade will capture as many hearts as his big brother Garrison did!
If I had to pick my favorite music, it would more often than not be hip-hop followed very closely by R&B. But I have to say I also love some country music, a little jazz, blues, pop, old school, new school… And inside of me there is a rocker chick waiting to burst out with either an indie-rock acoustic guitar or full-fledged electric. She wants to scream out riffs and belt out lyrics… but alas I’m a better rapper than rocker. That doesn’t stop me from enjoying the music though. For example, the fact that I know all the words to the Indigo Girls, “Least Complicated” might surprise some people. But it is a really great song!
I have pretty eclectic music tastes. In fact I think some people might be surprised by the fact that every now and then I have a favorite song that isn’t being played on the hip-hop and R&B radio station. Okay, close your mouths and stop looking shocked and amazed. LOL. These are some of my favorite songs from the 90s that people are always kind of shocked by when I start singing along and I know all the words. Do you all have songs that we’d be shocked you like?
Your dating philosophy?
“Date to fall in love”
You prefer your dates to lead you down a romantic path
If there’s no soulmate connection, you’re just wasting your time
Guys to look for:
Guys serious about love, who say they’re ready for marriage
Search for guys looking to “settle down” or “meet my match”
Because if a guy’s just playing the field, he won’t give yout the romance you crave
Do you remember back in the day when a song you really liked came on and you’d get up, holla out ‘that’s my song’ and start jamming? Well, I’ve decided to feature the songs of my heroes and heroines every now and then if they are old school jams and qualify as throwbacks.
Anyone who reads this blog knows that I’m a music junkie and music often inspires me to write. I can’t write with music playing or anything like that, because I love it too much and I’d start singing or rapping instead of writing. But, sometimes, after I write a book I try to think about the hero or heroine’s theme song. You know, the song that just captures their personality in a nutshell. If I’m lucky a song will come to me before or during the writing process. Like when I wrote my first novel, I’m Gonna Make You Love Me , and I realized that the hero and the heroine shared a theme song, The Temptations and The Supremes’ “I’m Gonna Make You Love Me.” I figured that out about a third of the way through the novel and boy did the writing just take off from there. Whenever I got stuck I would play the song a few times, sing along and bam, I was back on track. Then there are other times when the music just doesn’t factor in at all. Or so I think…
This happened to me with my second novel, If Only You Knew . There was no magical theme song during the writing. And it wasn’t until a few days ago when I was listening to some Betty Wright classics that I realized my heroine has a theme song. Now… this is one of my all-time favorite Betty Wright songs. So, it doesn’t surprise me that I wrote a book that mirrored it so well: “No Pain, No Gain.” The heroine in If Only You Knew , Latonya Stevens-Harrington, goes through a bunch of stuff to finally get to that happily-ever-after. So much so that this book is one that readers either love or hate. The words of Betty Wright’s “No Pain, No Gain” fit Latonya and Carlton’s story perfectly.
Writers, do you ever give your characters a theme song or later realize that a song fits him or her perfectly? Readers, have you ever read a book and then automatically thought of a song that would go with it? Please share and please enjoy the dynamic and soulful voice of Ms. Betty Wright.
Before you ask… yes, it is my goal to take every blog quiz that has anything to do with love and romance… LOL.
Your Love is Based on Commitment
You believe that love is something that develops and grows.
You don’t believe in love at first site, and you never mistake lust for love.
For you, love is about mutual devotion, respect, and understanding.
You don’t feel comfortable in a relationship, unless you’re both in it for the long run.
Why your love can last: You don’t take commitment lightly – or leave relationships easily
Why your love can fail: You’re so committed, you often can’t see the most obvious problems in your relationship
So, I’m roaming around the blogesphere on my birthday minding my own business and I come across a cool book tag over on APOOO. And I think, “Wow what a cool idea! Let me follow and see how the book list changes from blog to blog. I’m sure glad Yasmin didn’t tag me!” And then I go check out the folks she tagged and darn if two of them didn’t tag me. LOL. Thanks Darnetta and Shelia! Anyway, I took the list from Darnetta’s blog since I noticed that she tagged me first.
Here’s the idea (you can copy this paragraph to use in your post):
I am going to list three categories of books. 5 MUST Read Books, 5 Books on Your Nightstand, and 5 Look For These Soon. Keeping with the theme, I am going to tag at least 5 bloggers. They should put these same lists on their blog but SUBTRACT one book from each list and ADD one of their own. Then they should tag at least 5 more bloggers. It will be fun to see how the lists change as it goes around the blogosphere. Please come back to this post and leave a comment so I can see how the lists are changing as they go around the blogosphere. Since this is Book Buzz…please keep your lists to titles released in 2007-2009.
5 MUST Read Books:
Orange Mint and Honey by Carliss Brice
Yellow Moon by Jewell Parker Rhodes
Conception by Kalisha Buckhanon
The Coldest Winter Ever by Sister Soulja Better Than, Leslie Esdaile
5 Books on the Nightstand:
Pig Candy: Taking My Father South, Taking my Father Home Lise Funderburg
From Harvey River by Lorna Goodison
Trading Dreams at Midnight by Dianne McKinney Whetstone
Still Dirty by Vickie Stringer Murder Mayhem & a Fine Man, Claudia Mair Burney
5 Look For These Soon:
The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family
Midnight: A Gangster Love Story by Sister Souljah
The Hood Life: A Bentley Manor Tale by Meesha Mink and De’nesha Diamond
Red Light Special by Risque Rainbow’s End, GiGi Gunn
The bloggers I’m asking to post the lists (and make one book-for-book change to each list if they wish):
Today is my birthday! Yay! I’m going to chill and have birthday cake… maybe go out for dinner, a movie and drinks after. Who knows? All I know is it’s my birthday, it’s my birthday, I’m gonna party like it’s my birthday! Have a great weekend everyone…
Instead of Throwback Thursday, we’ll be chatting with award-winning author, A. C. Arthur, today on Gwyneth’s Blog. A. C. Arthur is an amazing writer who crafts steamy, hot, action-packed novels that readers such as myself love to devour. I’m excited to have her here with us today to chat about her first mainstream novel, Indecent Proposal .
GB: So, AC, Indecent Proposal marks your entry into mainstream fiction and you have entered with a bang! I loved the book and I’m really excited to chat with you about it. So, I’ll start with the first question, where did you come up with this hot concept of four sex loving sistahs and a gun?
ACA: I wanted to write something along the lines of Sex In The City with a bang! I love the idea of females sharing close sister-like relationships and I also wanted to touch on some of the familial issues we often go through.
GB: You explore a lot of sexual fantasies in this novel, some that a lot of sistahs might even consider taboo. Which one did you feel was most important to explode and stand on its head (no pun intended) LOL.
ACA: The ménage, because I think it takes a lot to bring another person into your intimate space. I know that the anal sex scene might also be considered taboo, but these are fantasies that real people are exploring on a daily basis, so for three sexually liberated women, it would seem a little inconsistent if they didn’t do something above and beyond.
GB: Which one did you have the most fun writing?
ACA: Wow…I think I had fun writing all the sex scenes! LOL It was like creativity at its best.
GB: Creativity at its best, indeed, indeed. LOL. So, I’ve heard from a little birdie that there may be a sequel in the works for Indecent Proposal . Can you give us a little information about that… please?
ACA: Yes. I’m currently working on Indecent Exposure which will pick up where Indecent Proposal left off. As a result of her time in jail Nola Brentwood has found a new calling and with her new business she’s wreaking all sorts of havoc on the streets of Baltimore. Expect even more erotic loves scenes, drama that will have you cursing some of the characters and twists that will certainly keep you turning pages!
GB: That Nola was a trip and a half. I can’t wait to see what she is up to next! How does it feel to be branching out from romance-land and happily-ever-after with this wonderful mainstream erotic thriller?
ACA: It’s energizing. I mean, really, I was allowed to go way beyond the boundaries created by the romance genre, to explore emotions and scenarios that would never be allowed in a traditional romance book. I loved it! Romance is still my heart, but damn, a not so happy ending felt great!
Thanks for taking the time to chat with us her at Gwyneth’s Blog, AC. For more information about the author or her books, readers can visit her website: http://www.acarthur.net
