Spotlight & Giveaway: Axe and Grind by Taylor Hutton

Today it is my pleasure to Welcome author Taylor Hutton to HJ!

Hi Taylor Hutton and welcome to HJ! We’re so excited to chat with you about your new release, Axe and Grind!

 
Hi! We’re so excited to be here.
 

Please summarize the book for the readers here:

When Josie Hart signs on to test billionaire Axe Mackenzie “perfect match” algorithm, their unexpected chemistry plunges them deep into an addictive tangle of obsession, desire, and deceit that threatens to drag their darkest secrets into the light.
 

Please share your favorite line(s) or quote from this book:

We love AXE AND GRIND’s opening line:
“It’s a truth universally acknowledged that on your first Saturday night after breaking up with a lying scumbag, you probably shouldn’t spend it wandering through the crumbling halls of the Ravenswood Mental Asylum for the Disturbed.”

Please share a few Fun facts about this book…

• We originally wanted to call the book AXE AND BONE, but our publisher wasn’t a fan of that title.
• An unimaginable amount of cake was consumed during the writing of this book.
• Julie’s husband took our author photo in Adele’s back yard.
• There are few random lines buried in this book that we kept in only because they make both of us crack up
• At one point, we had to act out one of the positions in the book (fully clothed of course) to see if it was anatomically possible

What first attracts your Hero to the Heroine and vice versa?

At first, AXE AND GRIND is definitely more enemies to lovers. Here’s how Josie describes our hero, “Two things about Axe MacKenzie: he’s hot and he sucks.” Over time, she learns there is way more to him than meets the eye, but at first at least, she’s attracted to the fact that he is gorgeous and has a pantymelting Scottish accent.

Did any scene have you blushing, crying or laughing while writing it? And Why?

Oh my God, so much blushing, crying and laughing. We wrote a super sexy and very strange scene that involves virtual reality and a haptic suit.

Here’s a snippet:
“I lean in and grab Josie’s avatar, and she meets my mouth in virtual reality. Somehow, though our actual lips are not touching, the kiss feels true and honest. Her arms wrap around my neck, and the kiss gets hotter, desperate. She pushes me back onto a simulated bed—this bed is plush and vast and not a pirate accessory in sight—and I feel the weight of Josie’s body on mine. The suit is mirroring her movements—giving me the sensation of her against me—and it’s so delicious, I can’t even imagine what it would feel like if it were her tangible skin.”

Readers should read this book….

Oh my God, so much blushing, crying and laughing. We wrote a super sexy and very strange scene that involves virtual reality and a haptic suit. Here’s a snippet:

“I lean in and grab Josie’s avatar, and she meets my mouth in virtual reality. Somehow, though our actual lips are not touching, the kiss feels true and honest. Her arms wrap around my neck, and the kiss gets hotter, desperate. She pushes me back onto a simulated bed—this bed is plush and vast and not a pirate accessory in sight—and I feel the weight of Josie’s body on mine. The suit is mirroring her movements—giving me the sensation of her against me—and it’s so delicious, I can’t even imagine what it would feel like if it were her tangible skin.”

What are you currently working on? What other releases do you have in the works?

We are working on another romance, but one that is very totally different from STRIKE AND BURN and AXE AND GRIND. Instead of a dark romance, our next book will be a cozy apocalyptic rom-com.
 

Thanks for blogging at HJ!

Giveaway: A signed ARC ofAXE AND GRIND by Taylor Hutton, USA only please.

To enter Giveaway: Please complete the Rafflecopter form and Post a comment to this Q: We are living through a loneliness epidemic. In AXE AND GRIND, our main character tries to help people through technological innovation. Do you believe technology can help solve this problem and that people can find true connection, authenticity, and intimacy in digital spaces?

Excerpt from Axe and Grind:

“Yes, he’s gorgeous: tall, broad shouldered, with shaggy chestnut-brown hair and piercing denim-blue eyes. And yes, he has that delicious Scottish brogue that makes women melt. But he’s also an asshole, and I’m done with assholes. Life is too short to let some guy ruin my heard-earned happiness just because he sounds sexy calling me a dear lass.

The first time I met Axe, he laughed in my face because I happen to be a believer in astrology and the occult. I’ve got no problem with nonbelievers. I get that it can seem a little kooky to think the stars and planets are out here plotting our lives or that the tarot can tell our future—though in my opinion, it’s no kookier than any traditional religion.

But what I can’t abide, what made me want to clock him in the face—much like he’s pretending to do with that poor actor strapped to a pole—was the disrespect he showed my beliefs.

Don’t agree? Totally fine.

Try to make me feel small? We’ve got a problem.

Also, and yeah, I know how this sounds, but there’s something about his aura that puts me on edge. Like he just rolled into town from some Highland Games where he won Most Likely to Hunt You for Sport and you can’t shake the feeling you might be next. Maybe it’s his unpredictability and contradictions that set me off-kilter—he’s all raw masculinity and untamed spirit, but every so often, a sliver of vulnerability cuts through, just enough to mess with my head.”

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
 
 

Book Info:

In this decadently dark romance, a virtual dating experiment spins into a deadly web of obsession, greed, love, and passion.

Josie Greene has always been a glass half-full kind of girl. But after a messy breakup, she’s broke, betrayed, and barely getting by. Even her trusted tarot cards point to chaos in her future. And they’re right: Axe MacKenzie needs her help.

As part of the tech CEO’s latest covert mission, Axe has been developing a simulator to create any user’s “Perfect Match,” and bubbly Josie is the ideal woman to test his product. When the gorgeous, reclusive billionaire makes her an offer—fake date him so he can launch his groundbreaking AI dating app—Josie’s in no position to refuse.

But Axe’s two worlds collide as the criminal underworld corrupts their experimental fling. What started as steamy role-play quickly spirals into a very real threat, leaving both Josie and Axe no choice but to uncover their well-buried pasts. With her life on the line, Josie will have to trust the man who has created the ultimate virtual illusion—and who might be hiding the most sinister truths of all…
Book Links:  Amazon | B&N | iTunes | kobo | Google |
 
 

Meet the Author:

Taylor Hutton is the pseudonym of a pair of writer friends, one of whom has twice been a finalist for the National Book Award and the other who is a New York Times bestselling author and Edgar Award finalist. Between the two of them, they have written over forty books. When they are not passing their latest sexy thriller back and forth on Google Doc, they are browsing bookstores, sending each other ridiculous memes, walking their dogs Trudy and Potato around their Los Angeles neighborhood, and making their children cringe with their TikTok videos.
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