Blog Tour: One Life to Lose by Kris Ripper #Review #Excerpt #Giveaway

Author: Kris Ripper
Book: One Life to Lose
Series: Queers of La Vista book 4
Publisher: Riptide Publishing
Publication date: December 10, 2016
Length: 274 pages



Reviewed by Morningstar



Synopsis

About One Life to Lose

Cameron Rheingold is the kind of guy who takes a book to a bar. He’s a loner by nature, but he has to engage with the community to keep his movie theater business afloat. When two young men stay after a Cary Grant film showing to chat, Cameron thinks he might have made some new friends—but their interest is more than friendly.

Josh is charismatic, and every smile is a little bit seductive. Keith is sweet and kind, with a core of steel Cameron can sense even when Keith’s on his knees. Cameron is willing to be the couple’s kinky third, but that’s it. He refuses to risk complicating things with his growing devotion, even if being with Josh and Keith feels more right than anything else ever has.

When the three of them are attacked by the killer roaming La Vista, Cameron must decide what’s more important: pretending the assault never happened and he’s the same loner he used to be, or coming clean to Josh and Keith about how much he loves them, even if they can never return his feelings.

Buy Links:

Riptide Publishing

Amazon

Hi, I'm Kris and welcome to the blog tour for One Life to Lose, book four in my awesome queer soap opera! Enjoy the blog tour!

 

Excerpt

Three minutes until go time.
I relaxed the death grip I had on my index cards and took another look at the computer screen currently showing four of the theater’s security cameras. The lobby was almost cleared out and the theater was almost full. I felt dizzy.
I don’t experience anxiety as a jumpy heartbeat or damp palms. When I am most nervous, the color leeches out of the world, leaving me walking through a grainy black-and-white film. As a coping mechanism, it works well; I’m comfortable in that state, navigating the gray areas, finding a home between shadows and light.
One final breath. I double-checked that the booth was locked, accepted nods of support from my ticket taker and concessions staff, and made my way to the stage.
My earliest memory is standing on the stage between my parents on the night we opened the expanded concessions store, serving sandwiches and soups. I was four years old, holding my father’s hand, staring out at all the people. All I really remember is how high the stage felt and how loud the people were, but they told me later that I smiled and waved at the crowd. I can never be certain if my parents misremembered (projecting their general love of chaos on their young son), or if there was a time when my world did not drop into grayscale at the first moment of overwhelm.
I knew An Affair to Remember backward and forward. It was the obvious choice to start the Cary Grant Film Festival. I probably knew my speech even without the index cards. And it was short, so there shouldn’t have been a problem.
Then I tripped.
I tripped walking from the stairs to the microphone. Four steps. I’d carefully put the podium off to the side where I wouldn’t have to move it and it wouldn’t be in the way. Four steps from the point where I reached the stage to the point where I turned toward the crowd.
On the second step I tripped and my index cards flew everywhere.
People gasped, giggled, made other sounds of commiseration and nerves and gentle mockery, a distant, muted soundtrack to the white noise buzz of my brain registering that even if I could pick up all the index cards, I hadn’t numbered them.
It would be impossible to piece my speech back together.
I closed my eyes for a split second, wishing my dad were there to hold my hand. He’d squeeze it and say, What would Cary do, Cameron?
Cary would get off his knees and pick up the microphone. So I did.
A great many people. The first night of the film series hadn’t sold out, but it had come closer than any event I’d done in years. I tried to blur my vision so I wouldn’t recognize anyone.
“Hello. I seem to have had . . . technical difficulties with my teleprompter.”
Laughter. No one turns to Cam Rheingold when they need a joke, but I can do dry. At least a little.
“Welcome to the Cary Grant Film Festival. Each Saturday from now until mid-December we’ll show a film starring Cary Grant.” A few claps. I smiled, carefully not-looking at any of the faces. “Mr. Grant has been my absolute favorite actor since I was a child, and I’m so pleased to present to you Leo McCarey’s An Affair to Remember for our first film in the series.”
I’d had a whole mini lecture planned—about how the film was a remake of McCarey’s earlier Love Affair, and how most people agreed the latter was the better movie—but if I launched into it without my notes, I’d fumble. The sequence would be wrong, and I might potentially misstate my facts. I couldn’t take the risk.
“This is widely considered one of the greatest love stories of all time,” I said instead. “A story about how terrible timing is sometimes perfect timing, about the radical notion that two wealthy individuals might love one another so much they’d decide to work for a living, and of course, about the power and intensity and endurance of romantic love.”
More clapping this time. Perfect.
“Please enjoy An Affair to Remember. And do join me in the lobby after for refreshments. If I don’t see you then, I hope to see you next week, when we’ll be watching North by Northwest.” I bowed to the lights, caught a disturbingly distinct view of eyes and smiles and hairstyles, and quickly walked down the steps and out the long hallway to the doors while the intro started to play.
I pressed myself against the wall in the dark until the credits had finished and the picture really began. Then I escaped to my booth and watched it on the monitor instead of the big screen.
I’d promised myself I wouldn’t hide, but I had failed to factor in dropping my index cards. I needed the security of the booth, at least until the next particularly gruesome act of this event would begin.
Refreshments. Small talk. Perhaps I could redirect every conversation back to Mr. Grant. I’d certainly try.

Review

The first time I ever read a Kris Ripper story I was blown away by Kris’s writing style and the way in which every aspect of the story is created and paced and woven together to create a unique experience that had never experienced before. This story lived up to that experience. The voice of the character Cameron came through so clearly in every written word. I felt his personality through every action and thought so much so that I knew the pacing of the story the development of the relationship was all due to his perspective of things. He was measured and thoughtful, kind and naive, but brave as each day passed that he grew more and more out of his shell.

Cameron had suffered a great loss when his parents died. He also wasn’t typical. He grew up in a movie theatre where he loved to be and still to this day it’s a safe place for him. He meets the QYP boys, Josh and Keith, one day at the theatre and is immediately taken by them. How they touch, how they are so connected and in sync with each other. He is in awe of them. They development of the relationship is slow because Cameron doesn’t think they want him for more than something casual, but he is willing to take what he can get from them. Just to be there in their presence is a gift.

The dominant and submissive nature of Josh and Keith’s relationship was different and so them. It was intense and love and pain all wrapped up in who they were together and apart. Even though the story is all told from Cameron’s POV I was able to clearly hear the “voice” of each character, each personality come through in the writing. It is a slow paced story and it should be. There was a lot developing between these three guys as well as the serial killer storyline. Each needing its time to come to its end (or beginning) at a what felt like a natural pace for them.

Kris made me cry and sit on the edge of my seat or sit back in contentment as many different points of the story. The world this author created was of a small town with many personalities shining through. I haven’t read the books before this one, and although I am sure doing so would’ve just added to the overall story, it was not a must read to understand and enjoy this one.

If you’ve never read a Kris Ripper story you are missing out. Pick this one up, it was fantastic!

About Kris Ripper

Kris Ripper lives in the great state of California and hails from the San Francisco Bay Area. Kris shares a converted garage with a toddler, can do two pull-ups in a row, and can write backwards. (No, really.) Kris is genderqueer and prefers the z-based pronouns because they’re freaking sweet. Ze has been writing fiction since ze learned how to write, and boring zir stuffed animals with stories long before that.

Connect with Kris:

• Webiste: krisripper.com
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/kris.ripper
• Twitter: twitter.com/SmutTasticKris

Giveaway

To celebrate the release of One Life to Lose, one lucky winner will receive an ebook from Kris’s backlist! Leave a comment with your contact info to enter the contest. Entries close at midnight, Eastern time, on December 17, 2016. Contest is NOT restricted to U.S. entries. Thanks for following the tour, and don’t forget to leave your contact info!