Spotlight & Giveaway: Hotter on Ice by Rebecca Hunter

Today it is my pleasure to Welcome author Rebecca Hunter to HJ!

Hi Rebecca and welcome to HJ! We’re so excited to chat with you about your new release, Hotter on Ice!

 
Hi everyone! I’m thrilled to be here.
 

Tell us about the book with this fun little challenge using the title of the book:

H is for a HOTEL, made of ice and snow
O is for OVER-the-top protective hero
T is for the TRAUMA in both Henning and Alya’s pasts
T is for the book’s TROPE: Beauty and the Beast
E is for the EROTIC explorations that bring them closer
R is for a RESILIENT heroine

O is for the tentative OPTIMISM they give each other
N is for the NIGHT they spend in the cold

I is for the ISOLATION that has haunted them both
C is for the immediate CONNECTION between Henning and Alya
E is for the happily EVER after these two work hard to find!

Please share the opening lines of this book:

WHY THE HELL is he taking so long?
ALYA PETROVA HAD peeled herself out of bed at six thirty in the morning to be on time for this meeting. Now she found herself sitting at the Blackmore Inc. conference-room table alone, fifteen minutes after the hour, staring out blankly at Sydney Harbour, waiting for Henning Fischer to show up.
In the world of virtual communication, Henning was the most reliable person she knew. Apparently, those skills didn’t translate into real-world punctuality.

Please tell us a little about the characters in your book.

Henning is a scarred, wounded hero, unable to let go of his past. His security job is has meant watching Alya from afar, and he’s let more personal feelings develop because he never thought he’d meet her in person. That’s about to change.
Alya has worked hard to move on from a difficult past with her stalker ex, and Henning’s security support has been vital. She has to decide whether her attraction to Henning is about hanging onto past fears or about what she wants for the future.

Please share a few Fun facts about this book…

• Once, many years ago, Mr. Hunter and I took the overnight train north from Stockholm. We arrived in Kiruna, wandered around a bit, and then took a bus to the tiny town of Jukkasjärvi, home of the Icehotel.
• If you read Hotter on Ice, you’ll find out what it felt like to walk around in a structure made of ice and snow. When I wrote the book, I started with my memories, mixed them with a little fantasy, and put them into Henning’s and Alya’s perspectives. Of course, Mr. Hunter and I weren’t there on a modelling shoot (!!), and Mr. Hunter isn’t my bodyguard, but you will find hints of the real me hiding in this book.

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

These two have known each other from a distance for three years, but they’ve never met. They’ve talked on the phone, and Henning is in charge of a security camera at the entry of apartment, so they’re both very, very curious about each other. Before they meet, Henning admires Alya’s resiliency, and Alya is forever grateful for his support. But from the moment they meet, the spark between them turns their relationship into something else.

The First Kiss…

The first kiss is what Alya jokingly calls a “full service” kiss. You can guess what that means… 😉 It takes place in a parked car, outside the Icehotel. While Henning is generally willing to do whatever Alya wants, he hesitates. It’s been a long, long time since he’s kissed anyone, for reasons you’ll discover.

If your book was optioned for a movie, what scene would you use for the audition of the main characters and why?

Did I mention that Henning is a brooding hero? I’d pick a scene where he has to watch Alya as she’s photographed with another man on a bed in the Icehotel. It pushes all his buttons, and we get to see how Alya deals with that. Here’s a quick peek at Henning and Alya, right before it begins:

“THE LOCATION IS going to make this shoot a little crazy,” said Alya as they headed down the hall of the warm portion of the hotel to the lobby, where they’d meet the rest of the crew. “There’s a lot of running between the warm and cold parts of the hotel to change, and the ice means that the lights can’t be on for too long, so we don’t melt the place down. Each shoot needs to happen quickly…you get the picture.”
“And then there’s keeping you warm,” grumbled Henning. He sized her up. Hot, as usual, but the skintight pants and thin fluffy sweater barely looked warm enough for the heated portion of the hotel, let alone in the fancy igloo where they were headed. “How long are you supposed to lie on that bed without a coat?”
Alya shrugged. “They have saunas to warm us after we’re done.”
“You mean those hot rooms where a bunch of people sit around naked together?” he said, lifting an eyebrow.
She laughed. “Yeah, those. You interested?”
“Sitting in a room watching other people look at you naked?” He shook his head. “I’m pretty sure that would cross my limits.”

If your hero had a sexy-times play list, what song(s) would have to be on it?

Henning’s playlist would probably start with “Love Me Harder” by Ariana Granda/TheWeeknd

If you could have given your characters one piece of advice before the opening pages of the book, what – would it be and why?

Your past does not define you!
Both Alya and Henning struggle with the scars from their pasts in different ways. It’s what brings them together but also ends up pulling them apart. For both of them, happiness involves making peace with their scars.

What are you currently working on? What are your up-coming releases?*

I’m currently finishing the last book in a new Fantasy Island series for Harlequin Dare called Pure Temptation. It’s a hot, funny romcom, and the set-up has an enemies-to-lovers vibe: Co-workers Ruby and Adrian don’t get along, but they find themselves on a Hawaiian vacation together, pretending to be another couple. But you can guess what happens when they’re trapped in the same cabin together…
 

Thanks for blogging at HJ!

Giveaway: Exclusive giveaway: Two, signed paperback copies of a mystery Dare book from my backlist (hint: three possibilities: Best Laid Plans, Playing with Fire or Baring It All). Paperback is exclusive to the US – international winners will receive the e-book version instead.

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Excerpt from Hotter on Ice:

This book takes place at the Icehotel in Northern Sweden. Here’s Henning and Alya’s first view of it:

They came to a stop in front of the entrance to the Icehotel, and Henning studied it. She was right. The door was covered with what looked like reindeer pelts, and the handles were made of…antlers?
Henning chuckled. “I think this is a sign that the accommodations will be on the rustic side.”
As he reached for the door handle, Alya sighed and closed her eyes. The snow was falling in large fluffy flakes, and they clung to her dark lashes.
“Still okay?” he asked.
Her eyes fluttered open, and she smiled at him.
“We only get one chance to see this place for the first time,” she said. “I just want to make sure I’m paying attention.”
Henning nodded slowly. He knew what she meant. Already today, he had felt it more than once: the wish to stop time, to somehow save that first sensation. But for him, that urge had come when he touched her. Kissed her. This wouldn’t last forever, not the feeling, and not this intimacy, but the memory might last if he was careful with it.
He rested his heavy glove on the antler. “Here we go.”
Henning held the door open for Alya and stepped in behind her. And stopped. The entire interior was ice and snow. Everything. Of course, he had seen it in photos, but to experience it was an entirely different thing. The structure itself was domed, made of snow, with blocks of ice everywhere, clear but with a hint of blue echoing throughout the space. It was nothing like the ice that came out of his freezer. Absolutely incredible. The packed snow of the ceiling and floor reflected the tiny lights set up to make the ice sculptures glow. There was a chandelier hanging in the entrance hall—ice, too, Henning suspected. In the middle of the foyer, there was an enormous ice sculpture of what looked like a Nordic god, bearded and armored, with sword in hand. The bluish cast to the place made him think of the ocean or even the sky.
Alya had come to a stop next to him. There was no one else in the entrance hall, just the two of them, dressed in snowsuits and hats and boots, staring at this miraculous place around them.
“It’s breathtaking,” she whispered.
“You were right,” he said. “Definitely more than just cold.”
And then he was inside one more of those moments, the kind he was trying so hard to hold on to. It wasn’t just the Icehotel itself, but that they were both standing there, together.
Alya walked across the snowy floor to one of the pillars and pressed her gloved hand against it. “Where did they get all this ice? And how do we know it’s not going to crash down on us?”
“I read that the skeleton of the structure is metal, covered with layers of an icier version of snow. The blocks of ice are carved out of the river just outside in the spring, when the ice is the thickest. They’re stored in an enormous freezer building until the next winter comes around.” Henning had done extensive research, off-hours, to answer all his safety questions. To make sure this place was well-engineered. He walked over to another pillar, running his finger along the seam of the ice blocks as he made his way toward her. “Seems pretty sturdy to me.”
Alya looked up at the ceiling, then smiled at him. “Look who did his homework.”
He shrugged. “I was a good student.”
Her laugh echoed in the open room. The sound was magical, and he was the one who had made her laugh. Fuck, that felt good.
“I bet you were,” she said. “You seem very…focused.”
Her eyes flickered hotter for a moment, so he took it as a compliment. Corinne had called him many things, long before the disastrous bust. Too intense. Too closed off. But the way Alya said this felt different. He moved closer to her until he was standing right next to her, looking down into her blue eyes, peeking out from under those dark lashes and fluffy hat. His gaze strayed down to her full red lips.
He wanted to kiss her right now, to make these first moments in this ice palace come alive in new ways. Just a kiss, to make this moment everything it could be. Anything intimate in public was supposed to be off the table, but right now, it was hard to remember why. Slowly, he tipped his head down toward hers, and Alya parted her lips. Just one little taste.

Excerpts. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
 
 

Book Info:

Alya Petrova is ready to move on from her past with a red-hot fling in Sweden…and her sexy bodyguard Henning Fischer knows exactly what she needs!

Model Alya Petrova is finally going to meet the man who has kept her safe from afar for the past three years. She’s been offered the photoshoot of a lifetime at the exclusive Icehotel in Sweden, but thanks to her dangerous ex, she needs a bodyguard when she’s traveling. Who better than sexy surveillance specialist Henning Fischer?

Since the fallout of a tragic case five years ago, former police officer Henning has made it a rule to never, ever meet his clients…but Alya is different. Henning has protected and fantasized about Alya from afar for so long, but even he is shocked by the explosive desire he feels for her in person.

The fiery pair are both running from troubled lives, so the scorching chemistry between them is the perfect distraction in wintry Sweden. Henning and Alya soon give in to temptation and indulge their wildest fantasies for a few days of ecstasy. But will their passion survive the scars of their pasts?

Harlequin DARE publishes sexy romances featuring powerful alpha heroes and bold, fearless heroines exploring their deepest fantasies.
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Meet the Author:

Rebecca Hunter is the award-winning author of sensual, emotional adventures of the heart. She is a reader, traveler, former English teacher, chocolate lover, and keeper of a very messy desk.

Over the years, Rebecca has called many places home, including Michigan, where she grew up, New York City, San Francisco, and Stockholm. After their most recent move from Sweden back to the San Francisco Bay Area, she and her husband assured each other they’ll never move again. Well, probably not.

Rebecca’s debut book, Stockholm Diaries, Caroline, won the 2016 National Excellence in Romance Fiction Award (NERFA), and Best Laid Plans, the first book in her Blackmore Inc. series for the Harlequin Dare line, won the 2019 NERFA and the 2019 HOLT Medallion contests and earned a starred review from Library Journal. She’s currently writing more super-sexy books for Harlequin Dare…along with a secret project or two.

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