Promotional Post: Bonnie Dee & Summer Devon~ Guest Post #Giveaway #Review

Authors: Summer Devon and Bonnie Dee

Publisher: Samhain Publishing LLC

Length: 161 Pages

Published: September 29, 2015


Blurb:
When a storm is brewing, taking shelter could be the most dangerous move of all.
One careless, public sign of affection cost Daniel Pierce’s lover his life at the hands of a hate-filled mob. Grief-stricken, Daniel retreated from society to a sheep farm in the wilds of the north. Years later, Gregory Tobin erupts into his solitary life.
Sent to confirm the existence—or the death—of the Pierce family’s lost heir, Tobin isn’t sure he’s found the right man. The gruff, shaggy hermit calling himself Jacob Bennet bears little resemblance to photographs of the younger Pierce. Tobin needs more time to study his quarry.
With lambing season in full swing, Daniel grudgingly admits he could use an extra hand. Through a long, exhausting night, they parry back and forth as Tobin probes closer and closer to the truth. And something beyond casual attraction simmers between them.
They come together in a crash of desire, but ultimately Daniel must overcome the terrors of the past to reconcile the man he was with the man he’s becoming—a man capable of loving again.
Warning: Many sexy encounters on a sheep farm—NO, not like THAT!—between two adult males with temperaments as different as night and day.

Review:

I’m not usually one for historicals but since reading The Tutor by Bonnie Dee I decided to give them a better chance. The Shepherd & The Solicitor is set in 1883 England and from the very beginning I knew I was going to love it.
First off Daniel aka Jacob Bennet the recluse angry man, as I referred to him as, is super intriguing! As you can tell by the 2 names, he’s not in any rush to be pushed back into the real world. But you see Gregory the ginger firecracker man, the solicitor, is quite persuasive.
This slow burn love story is one with lingering lust and deep characters. I love the tangle these two get into and how Gregory and Daniel are together. Their love is emotional. You feel it right to the core.
Sometimes it takes someone very special to wake you up and live a real life.
This was an awesome and beautiful story. Bonnie and Summer are a phenomenal writing duo!  

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Available October 26, 2015 from Bonnie Dee & Summer Devon



Blurb:
A village clergyman
Curate James Fletcher is content shepherding his parishioners through the good and bad times of their lives. If he sometimes dreams of making a deeper connection with a man who truly knows everything about him, it is an impulse he ignores.
A devoted businessman
Declan Shaw solves problems at his family’s many business enterprises. Recently, he’s considered ceasing his travels to pursue a few desires of his own. He’d love to explore his secret love of cooking and perhaps have a relationship with a man that lasts longer than a night.
The event that brings them together
In town for his cousin’s wedding, Declan meets James just as he’s bested the annoying groom. Intrigued by the mild-mannered cleric’s surprising spirit, Declan asks James to help him discover if his aging aunt is being mistreated by her spouse.
As their paths repeatedly cross, the men reach an intersection of attraction they can’t ignore. Will they dare purse forbidden passion and continue to journey together into the future, or will their differences tear them apart?

Review:

I really like this duo. Bonnie and Summer have perfect writing chemistry and it shows in the characters and stories they create.

The Merchant and the Clergyman was a story of crossing paths. It was like having fate intervene in James and Declan’s lives. I always love that sort of thing. Two men figuring life, and themselves out and in the process they keep crashing into each other. Of course the whole time I’m reading it I’m all, “mmmhmm, yup yup, it’s gonna happen.” LOL.

This is a really wonderful story by two extremely talented women. These men are lust hungry for each other and first comes the lust then comes the love and Bonnie and Summer know how to lead their characters to a fabulously entertaining and emotional ending. Great read!

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                                              Guest Post 

The fun of writing “meet cutes”

Hi there. We’re Summer Devon and Bonnie Dee, authors of numerous gay historical novels. Thanks to Mere for hosting us on her blog today.

For those unfamiliar with the term, a meet cute is exactly what it sounds like, the first meeting between protagonists in a romantic story. Usually it’s in the context of a romantic comedy and the meeting is funny, endearing and may tell a little about what drives these two characters or what obstacles to a relationship they will have to overcome. In dramas, perhaps this moment should be called an angst encounter or something. Anyway, Summer and I both adore a couples’ initial meeting when sparks fly and thunder rolls and, hopefully, there can be a belly laugh for the reader too.

In our book Mending Him, two damaged men come together at the home of their mutual relatives. Newcomer Charles arrives drunk as a lord and singing at the top of his lungs, falls off the wagon seat and literally lands on Robbie, his future love interest. In the next scene Robbie helps the wheelchair-bound man into bed and already sexual tension is simmering between them.

Seducing Stephen utilizes the traditional screwball comedy trope of a man wandering into the wrong room at a house party. The jaded roué, Lord Peter Northrop starts the novel off with an exclamation “Gads, there’s a boy in my bed. It’s Christmas come early.” Of course Stephen is no child, but a young man who’s been waiting to begin this voyage of discovery.

The Bohemian and the Banker starts with a similar “wrong place, right time” premise. Staid, self-contained Nigel is in Paris on business and is pranked by work colleagues into going to a drag nightclub. Rather than immediately leaving, he stays for the show and instantly sees stars when the chanteuse, Jay, hits the spotlight. A vacation romance blooms, but can it last beyond one memorable night and day?

A less humorous scenario is the meeting of Sir Alan and Jem in The Gentleman and the Rogue. Alan hires a street lad for a last night of pleasure before ending his own miserable life. Pretty dire. But Jem’s irrepressible personality manages to bring a ray of sunshine even into that first meeting.

Our latest release, The Shepherd and the Solicitor has a very serious premise. Daniel Pierce, a man who’s lost his lover to a hate crime hides away in the far North Country. But when life-loving lawyer, Gregory Tobin tracks him down to try to get him to return to London and take care of some business matters, humor rears its woolly head. Nothing cuter than a flock of sheep, right?

He was so focused on his destination that he didn’t notice the stalking beast coming up behind him until it made him jump nearly out of his skin with a loud baaah. Tobin whirled to face a large sheep with dirty gray wool and a black face. It gazed at him curiously and bleated again.
Tobin clapped his hands at the thing, trying to drive it away. “Go on. Go home.”
But the adorable farm creature didn’t run away like Alfie the horse. Instead, it crunched a mouthful of grass between surprisingly large teeth and moved closer. At the same time, a crowd of its brethren crested the low hill. One sheep might be rather charming and pastoral, but an entire herd of them was entirely too much. Tobin had never spent any time around animals, other than his great aunt’s ill-tempered poodle. He wasn’t comfortable with the way the black-faced sheep all stared at him and headed directly toward him.
He clapped his hands again. “Go on now. Run away.” But the beasts seemed merely intrigued by his clapping. Perhaps they thought he was a dinner bell calling them to food. They swarmed toward him in a great baaing bundle.
Rather than turning and running, Tobin made the mistake of moving backward. His foot caught on a hummock of grass, or perhaps a badger hole, and he lost his balance, falling hard on his arse for the second time that day. The flock stampeded toward him, their combined weight shaking the ground and the noise of their infernal bleating deafening. He would be crushed by at least a hundred great fluffy tubs of wool!
Tobin threw his arms around his head, opened his mouth and screamed at the top of his lungs.
But instead of sharp hooves and heavy woolly bodies stomping him to a pulp, he felt something grab him by the coat collar and drag him upright. Then two strong bands of iron pulled him tight against a slab of warm living granite, away from the rush of bleating sheep.
He opened his tight-squeezed eyes and blinked away grit and dust. Staring back at him was a pair of eyes as green as the grassy meadow set in a face that could have been hewn from the same granite as that body—it was that hard and unyielding. This man was nothing like the slender and rather unformed young man pictured in the Pierce family photographs.
Except that underneath the hard muscles and shapeless jumper, perhaps the grim farmer’s build was the same. And the hair, although longer than that in the photograph, was equally fair. That heavy beard and moustache might hide full lips and a rounded chin. The photos were in black-and-white, but the family had described the missing heir as having “emerald-green” eyes.
These eyes were certainly that bright and luminescent.

Summer and I would like to thank Mere again for hosting us and share one more excerpt. This is from The Merchant and the Clergyman which releases Oct. 26. Arriving in town for his cousin’s wedding, Declan Shaw enters the local minister’s office to find the peaceful man-of-the-cloth, James Fletcher has just kneed Declan’s obnoxious cousin in the balls.

James hadn’t heard the door open. He’d been too focused on escaping Kip’s power over him. It had been so long, and he was dismayed to learn he still desired one of the least amiable men he knew.

A deep voice startled him. “Good God, what happened here?”

“Perhaps Mr. Darnley is having a fit,” James said, too disgusted with Kip and himself to care what this stranger thought.

The large man wore dusty clothes, a driver’s coat, and worn boots. After giving James a scowling frown, he dropped to a crouch by Kip’s side. “What’s going on?”

“He hit me,” Kip gasped.

The man looked at James. “Aren’t you some sort of priest?” His deeply tanned face made his eyes—as blue as Kip’s—brilliant. They regarded James with interest.

“I’m James Fletcher, the curate. And I didn’t hit Kip, I, ah, struck him with my knee.”

The man suddenly showed a gorgeous smile. So familiar—Kip’s smile. “That’s some muscular Christianity you have there, Mr. Fletcher.”

James didn’t smile back and turned his attention to his victim. “Are you able to stand, Mr. Darnley? I’m certain your fiancée is wondering where you are. You said you’d join her.”

The big man, who could only be some sort of relative, clapped a hand on Kip’s shoulder, then rose to his feet. He crossed his arms and studied James. “Why on earth did you knee Darnley in the balls?”

“He can tell you if he wishes.”

Kip had more color in his face but still took deep breaths between words. “Fletcher is a sodomite, and when he tried to pressure me to do horrible things, we got into a fight.”

“Hmm.” The man didn’t seem particularly shocked, which should have relieved James, but he still felt the haze of disinterest. None of this felt real.

 “Whatever happened, no doubt my cousin deserved a sharp kick in the balls,” the man drawled.

Please share with us some memorable meetings you’ve enjoyed in books or movies. Drop a comment and then enter the raflecopter for a chance to win an e-book of either The Shepherd and the Solicitor or The Merchant and the Clergyman—or any of our other backlist e-books.

Thanks for dropping a line.

Summer and Bonnie

 
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