Spotlight & Giveaway: A Sucker for You by Marlene Perez

Today it is my pleasure to Welcome author Marlene Perez to HJ!

Hi Marlene and welcome to HJ! We’re so excited to chat with you about your new release, A Sucker for You!

Hi, all!

Please summarize the book a la Twitter style for the readers here:

A Sucker for You follows Tansy, Vaughn and their friends as they take a trip to Vegas to stop a wedding and not just any wedding, but the wedding between Tansy’s mom (aka The Executioner) and Vaughn’s dad. Tansy has bigger problems, though. Granny’s tonic is no longer staving off the worst of the vampire symptoms and things might get bloody.
 

Please share the opening lines of this book:

Blood dripped from an open wound on Lucas’s hand.

The good news was the sight of blood no longer made me lightheaded.

The bad news was that it made me hungry.

The reason my stomach was currently growling was because as we loaded up Beckett’s monstrosity of a van, Lucas had cut his hand on a piece of rusty metal on the bumper.

“Good thing you’re a werewolf,” Connor said to Lucas. “Or you’d probably need a tetanus shot.”

Please share a few Fun facts about this book…

• Part of the inspiration for this book came from my trip to the Las Vegas Book Festival a few years ago.
• The name Tansy means immortal and you might snicker a little if you look up the meaning of some of the other names.
• I often create a “soundtrack” for a novel and for the trilogy, the songs fit The Drainer’s current look and sound. I listened to emo, country, and boy band songs for this series.
• In A Sucker for You, Tansy finds out something major about Rose and Thorn, the mysterious vampire hunter twins who have completely different abilities and styles. I’m the mother of identical twins and in my opinion, parents CAN always tell their kids apart (I’m looking at you, Parent Trap). Although I do love a good mistaken identity plot.
• Stories of real bands behaving badly also inspired The Drainers, my vampire band. Or whatever they’re calling themselves these days.

What first attracts your main characters to each other?

Tansy and Vaughn were friends first and I think they both admired loyalty and honor in each other. Over the course of the three books, Tansy and Vaughn dealt with a lot, but their love for each other only grew stronger. Vaughn loves Tansy’s smart mouth and Tansy loves Vaughn’s steadiness.
 

Using just 5 words, how would you describe your main characters”love affair?

slow burn, swoony, sweet, exciting, intense.
 

The First Kiss…

Tansy and Vaughn’s first kiss happened in The Afterlife of the Party (Afterlife #1) and here’s a little taste:

“I think we should kiss,” Vaughn said. “If we’re pretending to be a couple, we won’t want our fi rst kiss to be in front of a bunch of vampires.”
“Okay,” I said.
Neither of us moved at fi rst, but then Vaughn’s arms encircled my waist loosely. His lips were gentle against mine, both of us tentative, our eyes open, like we were both surprised we were actually kissing. I know I was.
When he deepened the kiss, my eyelids fl uttered shut.
I ran my fi ngers through his dark hair.
Someone honked their horn, and I pulled away.
“Th-That should be enough for now,” I said. My voice sounded breathless, shaky.
“We should remember to do that every day,” he said,
taking my hand like we were really a couple. I wasn’t sure if he was talking about taking photos or making out.
I knew we were doing faking a relationship to fi nd Sky, but a big part of me wanted it to be true. Did Vaughn want the same thing?

Without revealing too much, what is your favorite scene in the book?

The next morning, I woke snuggled up to Vaughn in the bed. He was still asleep, the sheet draped over his hips.
I watched him like a creeper, marveling how his dark lashes fanned out over his cheeks when his eyes were closed.
Then his eyes opened. “Morning,” he said, his voice husky. The muscles in his arm bunched, and I admired his broad shoulders.
“Morning,” I said before realizing I’d breathed on him before I’d brushed my teeth. I put my hand over my mouth.
“What are you doing way over there?” he asked.
“Morning breath,” I said.
“I don’t care,” he replied and reached for me. At first, I felt self-conscious, but when he kissed me, my lips parted and my hands wandered over his bare shoulders.

If your book was optioned for a movie, what scene would be absolutely crucial to include?

His face twisted in horror, and I felt a twinge of satisfaction. I was a bad-ass vampire queen. Then I realized the vamp was staring at something behind me.

Vaughn had figured out where I was.

And somehow, we’d both forgotten that it was the full moon. My boyfriend had transformed into his werewolf form, huge and terrifying.

The vampire tried to get up and crawl away, but every time he did, Vaughn’s wolf wouldn’t let him go. He bit into the vampire’s leg and clamped down before flinging the vamp away.

The vampire lay there for a second, then moved toward me again. The wolf jumped on his chest, throwing the vampire back to the ground. Vaughn had been on four legs, but then he stood.

I watched in amazement as he put out his paws and they slowly transformed into hands with long sharp claws. Then the rest of Vaughn came back, but his claws remained. The vampire tried to bite him again, and Vaughn plunged a claw into the vamp’s chest. This vampire evaporated in a cloud of powdery white dust.

When the dust settled, Vaughn was back. I spotted his jeans on the ground and handed them to him.

“Are you okay?” he said. “He didn’t hurt you?”

Readers should read this book …

If you like strong female friendships, book clubs slash covens, vampires you want to stab, vampire bands slash vampires in a band, road trips, hot werewolves, and a snarky main character, the Afterlife trilogy is for you. A Sucker for You reveals secrets and even though I cried a little, I think it’s the perfect ending for Tansy, Vaughn, and their friends.

What are you currently working on? What other releases do you have planned?

I’m working on my first adult Rom-Com, which was inspired by one of my (many) fandoms. And a teen mystery.

Thanks for blogging at HJ!

Giveaway: All three ebooks in the Afterlife trilogy—The Afterlife of the Party, I’m with the Banned, and A Sucker for You and a $10 Amazon digital gift card. Open to US residents only.

To enter Giveaway: Please complete the Rafflecopter form and Post a comment to this Q: Tansy is a striga vie, a vampire-witch hybrid. Which would you rather be? Witch or vampire? Or a hyrrid?

 
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Excerpt from A Sucker for You:

Skyler was walking several yards in front of us. She turned around to say something and tripped on the uneven concrete, but she managed to catch herself. Her tote bag went flying, and her needles fell out of the bag and rolled away from the parking lot’s light and into a shadowy corner.
“I’ll get it,” I said, but Skyler was already on the move.
“It’s in the bushes,” she said. She got down on her hands and knees and crawled behind some bushes. “Hang on.”
“Skyler, wait for me,” I said.
“Do you want me to help look for her needles?” Becky offered.
“Nah, you’ve had a long day,” I said, waving goodbye. “Skyler?”
Silence.
“Skyler?” I dropped my bag of craft goodies and ran.
The bushes were thick with branches and leaves, but I pushed through to the other side.
Skyler was gone.
I heard a muffled scream and then a grunt, and my heart started pounding. No. Not again. “Skyler, where are you?”
“Right here,” she huffed as she came out from a shrub.
Her brown hair was in tangles around her face and she had a leaf on her top, but she was unharmed. Thank you, sweet baby Elvis.
“What happened?” I asked.
“I think I met a feral,” she said. “He won’t bother me again.” She held out her knitting needle, which was coated in a black sticky substance.
“He didn’t bite you, did he?”
“No, I’m fine,” she said. “But we need to get out of here.”

Excerpts. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
 
 

Book Info:

Vampire-witch hybrid Tansy Mariotti has exactly one goal: to stop her mother’s Vegas wedding.

It’s not because she hates weddings. It’s not because the groom is her boyfriend’s dad (although yuck). It’s not even because Vegas weddings are cliché as hell. It’s because her mom is an evil incarnate vamp known as The Executioner. Nothing good can come of someone marrying a person named The Executioner. Nothing.

With the help of her werewolf boyfriend, her bestie, her granny’s no-crave-blood tonic, and her favorite stake—a drumstick—Tansy is Vegas-bound and ready to raise hell, all while hoping her witch side can keep her fangs at bay. Only suddenly, her witch side is fading…fast.

Tansy’s running out of time to stop her mom and save herself—before what happens in Vegas stakes in Vegas.

The Afterlife series is best enjoyed in order.
Reading Order:
Book #1 The Afterlife of the Party
Book #2 I’m with the Banned
Book #3 A Sucker for You
Book Links: Amazon | B&N | iTunes | Goodreads |
 
 

Meet the Author:

Marlene Perez is the author of paranormal and urban fantasy books, including the bestselling teen vampire novel THE AFTERLIFE OF THE PARTY and the sequel I’M WITH THE BANNED. A SUCKER FOR YOU, the third book in the Afterlife trilogy, will be out October 24th, 2022.
She’s also the author of best-selling DEAD IS series for teens. The first book in the series, DEAD IS THE NEW BLACK, was named an ALA Quick Pick for Reluctant Young Adult Readers as well as an ALA Popular Paperback. DEAD IS JUST A RUMOR was on VOYA’s Best Science Fiction, Horror, & Fantasy List.
She grew up in Story City, Iowa and is the youngest of twelve children. She lives in Orange County, California with her husband and children.
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