Saturday Author Spotlight: Garrett Leigh #Excerpt #Giveaway

With Garrett Leigh's highly anticipated new book Misfits releasing March 16th I was super excited when she agreed to let me spotlight her. I've been a huge fan of hers for awhile and she's always had a way of pulling all the emotions out of me. She's a gritty and brilliant writer and I truly hope you check out ALL her books if you haven't already.

So, let's learn a little about Misfits, shall we?

Restaurant owner Tom Fearnes has loved his partner Cass for as long as he can remember, but their work often keeps them apart. When he meets a striking young man named Jake on the vibrant streets of Camden Town, their heady first encounter takes an unexpected turn.

Jake Thompson can hardly believe his luck when he wakes up in Tom’s bed. Tom is gorgeous, kind, and . . . taken. Tom’s explanation of his open relationship leaves Jake cold, but Tom is too tempting, and when hard times force Jake to accept Tom’s helping hand, he finds himself between two men who’ve lost their way.

Cass Pearson is a troubled soul. He loves Tom with all he has, but some days it feels like he hasn’t much to give. Jake seems like the perfect solution. Cass risks everything to push Jake and Tom together, but Jake resists, wary, until the darkness of Cass’s past comes to call. Then Jake finds himself the last man standing, and it’s time to dig deep and shine a light for the men he’s grown to love.

EXCERPT:

It seemed like an age before Jake reappeared with two pints of lager. He set one in front of Tom, then hovered, his left arm rippling. Tom gestured to the chair beside him. “Sit down, please. I could use the company.”

Jake sat down. He cradled his drink in one hand and glared at his twitching arm until it stilled. “Wankers. Sorry. It’s worse when I meet new people.”

“Don’t apologise,” Tom said. “It doesn’t bother me.” And it didn’t. The young man next to him was a far cry from the vibrating ball of frustration he’d been in the restaurant, and his tics seemed natural. As Jake relaxed, Tom could almost see them slowing down and fading in their intensity. “I’m Tom, by the way. In case you were wondering—”

“Why would you think that?” Jake held out his hand. “I’m Jake.”

“I know.” Tom met his grasp. Felt a spark, like Jake’s excess energy had travelled into him. “It said so on your name tag.”

Jake twitched and a series of clicking noises escaped him so fast Tom wondered if he’d imagined them. “Yeah, sorry your dinner was pants. The food is always crap in there.”

“It’s not your fault. You tried to warn me.”

“Not on purpose. TS makes me brutally honest.”

“TS?” Tom floundered a moment and released Jake’s electric hand. The loss of contact defogged his brain. “Oh, you mean your Tourette’s.”

It wasn’t a question, but Jake shot Tom a glance that had “idiot” written all over it. Tom let him have that one. “I don’t think it’s your Toure . . . sorry, TS, that makes you a terrible waiter.”

Jake leaned forwards. “Oh yeah? What did I do that was so bad?”

Up close, he was even more beautiful than Tom had first imagined. Dark, soulful eyes. Wavy hair that hung a little too long. And he smelled good, like cigarettes and youth.

Tom covered his fascination with a pull on his beer. “It’s not what you do; it’s how you do it. As a guest, I shouldn’t know that standing in front of me is the last place on earth you want to be.”

“Fly him to the moon.”

“Exactly.”

Jake rolled his eyes. “Don’t indulge me. That’s one of my favourite tics. If you play along, I’ll forget I’m doing it and they’ll all come out.”

“Okay . . .” Jake was clearly comfortable talking about his TS. “Is that so bad? The tics, I mean.” Tom gestured around. “No one seems to notice them.”

“That’s because I’ve found my volume switch. I don’t shout anymore, at least not often. A few years ago, I hardly left my bedsit.”

“Volume switch?”

“Yep. I didn’t want to be a weirdo shouting in the corner all the time, so I learned to mute myself. I had to. It was either that, or walk around with my mouth taped shut, though I did do that for a few months.”

The image made Tom smile, but the sadness in Jake’s dark gaze tempered it. “So what do you hate so much about where you work? What put that frown on your face before you even got to me?”

“What do you care?”

Tom shrugged. It was a fair question. “Call it research. I’m in the industry.”

“The . . . wankers . . . restaurant industry?” Tom nodded and Jake considered his question. “I hate being told to be the same as everyone else,” he said eventually.

“A chain restaurant probably isn’t the best place for you, then. They make every high street look the same.”

Jake huffed his agreement. “The company I work for has five pubs in the city, and they’re all identical. The food, the decor. They even have a script to make us all sound like robots. Winds me up.”

This time, Tom didn’t bite back his smile. Jake’s gripe reinforced the puzzle Tom had been pondering all day. “So if you could redevelop the restaurant you worked in, how would you do it?”

“I wouldn’t. I don’t care enough. I’m only working there because it was the only job I could get.”

“Maybe you would care if it was a concept you liked,” Tom countered. “Food you liked, or an ethos you believed in.”

Jake snorted, but it was hard to tell if it was a tic or a reaction to Tom’s words. He waited a moment, but Jake said no more, so Tom drained his drink and went to the bar for another round.

Jake eyed him when he got back. “You know, you look way too young to care about all this business bollocks.”

“I’m thirty.” Tom pondered Jake’s age. His slender frame and smooth skin made him look eighteen, but his eyes gave him away. He’d seen more of the world than he should’ve done. “What about you?”

“Twenty-four,” Jake said. “Too young for you?”

“Depends what I was going to do with you.”

The words slipped out before Tom could stop them, aided by three pints of strong lager. In his head, he heard Cass laugh. Smooth.

Tom waited for Jake to rebuke him. Call him a pervy twat. Perhaps even get up and leave.

But Jake just grinned and put his elbows on the table. “I reckon you should start at the top and work your way down.”

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To say I'm excited about this book would be an understatement. If you're SUPER anxious you can preorder it and on and after the 16th you can buy it:

LINKS:
Riptide Publishing
AMAZON
B&N

About The Author:

Garrett Leigh is a British writer and book designer, currently working for Dreamspinner Press, Loose Id, Riptide Publishing, and Black Jazz Press. Her protagonists will always always be tortured, crippled, broken, and deeply flawed. Throw in a tale of enduring true love, some stubbly facial hair, and a bunch of tattoos, and you’ve got yourself a Garrett special.

When not writing, Garrett can generally be found procrastinating on Twitter, cooking up a storm, or sitting on her behind doing as little as possible. That, and dreaming up new ways to torture her characters. Garrett believes in happy endings; she just likes to make her boys work for it.

Garrett also works as a freelance cover artist for various publishing houses and independent authors under the pseudonym G.D. Leigh. For cover art info, please visit blackjazzpress.com/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Garrett Leigh is being her awesome self and offering one fan a chance to win Misfits! So exciting! I KNOW!

All you have to do is fill out the rafflecopter below. Contest will run until March 20th. Winner will be contacted via email so PLEASE check your spam! 

Also, when you do read this book make sure you review! It's really important!
I want to thank Garrett for all the goodies she's given us today. Thank you! You can check out ALL news pertaining to Garrett Leigh's projects and releases on her website: www.garrettleigh.com/




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