Spotlight & Giveaway: How to Seduce a Bad Boy by Traci Douglass

Posted January 14th, 2019 by in Blog, Spotlight / 65 comments

Today it is my pleasure to Welcome author Traci Douglass to HJ!
Spotlight&Giveaway

Hi Traci and welcome to HJ! We’re so excited to chat with you about your new release, How to Seduce a Bad Boy!

 

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

H is for: Heroine Mel, my feisty, fun librarian.
O is for: Out of time, which is what Mel feels at the beginning of the story.
W is for: Waldo, Mel’s Birman cat, of course.

T is for: The small town of Point Beacon, Indiana, to be exact.
O is for: Other people’s perceptions of Mel—that she’s dowdy and boring.

S is for: Support, which is what Mel receives from her best friend, Lilly.
E is for: Evolving and changing to become the person you were meant to.
D is for: Dive bar, the Tipsy Wench, where Adam takes Mel in Indy.
U is for: Unstoppable passion, which flares between Adam and Mel.
C is for: Courage in the face of other people’s objections and opinions.
E is for: Enduring friendship, between Adam and James, Mel’s brother

A is for: Adam, my brooding, bad-boy hero.

B is for: Believing in yourself when no one else does.
A is for: Always staying true to yourself, even when making a change.
D is for: Deciding to go for what you want.

B is for: Being strong enough to admit you’re wrong
O is for: Older brother’s best friend, which Adam is.
Y is for: Y’all should read this book.
 

Please share the opening lines of this book:

“Thanks for—” Nothing.
Melody Bryant barely had time to avoid getting her toes run over as her latest first date pulled away from the curb in a flurry of exhaust and squealing tires. With a sigh, she trudged up the walkway to her quaint little bungalow on a quiet side street in Point Beacon, Indiana.

 

Please share a few Fun facts about this book…

  • One of my readers helped pick the name of Mel’s cat in the book, Waldo.
  • The small town of Point Beacon is actually a composite of several places near where I live in Indiana.
  • Mel’s penchant for M&Ms may have been inspired by my own love of chocolate. (LOL, okay. It totally was!)
  • The diner where Adam takes Mel after her dating lesson at the bar is based on two real diners here in Indiana, one in Bluffton and one in Warsaw.
  • Chicago is one of my favorite cities in the world, so when I needed a location for Miguel’s wedding, it was a no-brainer. I actually have set several other stories there as well.

 

Was there a scene in this book that was harder to write than others?

I think the fight scene in the bar between Adam and James near the end of the book was hard for me. I know, I know. Writers are supposed to enjoy torturing their characters, but I’m a non-confrontational person by nature and Adam was so low at that point anyway, having him get punched in the face by his best friend was painfully (on many levels, LOL). But it needed to be done, to move the story forward, so I did. Here’s the gruesome excerpt:

They stood nose to nose now, neither one giving an inch. “Mel’s a one-man woman, and you couldn’t stick with
one gal if your privates depended on it.” James raised a finger and poked Adam hard in the chest. “Leave. Her. Alone.”
Maybe it was the fact that every eye in the bar was watching him. Maybe it was the fact that his feelings were coiled tighter than a cobra. Maybe it was the fact that he missed Mel so bad he thought he might die of it. Whatever it was, it pushed Adam over the line. He needed a different kind of pain to distract him from the agony of his broken heart. Teeth gritted, he narrowed his gaze on his former best friend. “And if I don’t?”
James’s nostrils flared with challenge. “If you don’t, then I’ll kick your ass. And you can forget about our partnership in Victory Vets, too. I’ll either buy you out or pull my funds and start my own garage and run yours into the dirt.” The flinty look in his gray eyes said he meant every word. “Got me?”
Adam shoved James back a step. “Oh, I got you, all right. I was never more than a charity case for you anyway, was I? Take in the poor kid and let him see everything he’s missing, all the stuff he could never have. Well, I got news for you, dude. Whatever happened with Mel is none of your business. If she wants me to leave her alone, then I will. Until then, why don’t you f—”
James’s fist collided with the side of Adam’s face with concussive force, knocking him back about two feet. He stumbled, managed to right himself before rushing back toward his best friend and landing a right hook across James’s jaw. The next few seconds passed in a blur. Fighting with James was an idiot move. Aside from being bigger than Adam, his best friend had also trained to be a boxer while they’d been stationed near Kabul. All it took was one left hook, followed by a crushing right cross, and Adam was down on the floor, staring up at the ceiling of the bar, wishing like hell he hadn’t provoked James, yet knowing he deserved every blow.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
 

What do you want people to take away from reading this book?

That people can change and still remain true to themselves and that sometimes the persona we show the world isn’t necessary reflective of who we really are inside.
 

Thanks for blogging at HJ!

 

Giveaway: $10 Amazon Gift Card.

 

To enter Giveaway: Please complete the Rafflecopter form and Post a comment to this Q: This book is full of romance tropes: Older brother’s best friend, Friends to lovers, Ugly duckling, Opposites attract, Forbidden love. What are some of your favorite romance tropes?

 
a Rafflecopter giveaway

 
 

Book Info:

Melody Bryant has heard it all before. Sure, she’s the epitome of the stereotype for a librarian. Loves order. Loves rules and deadlines. Loves books. But what she doesn’t love is still being a virgin at twenty-four. Unfortunately, the only guy she’s ever been interested in turned her down flat. And then left town. Eight. Years. Ago. Ugh.

Now her birthday is fast approaching and she just can’t take it any longer. She’s finding a guy before her birthday in five weeks or she’s adopting two more cats and fully embracing becoming “the crazy cat lady.”

But when her latest date ends in epic failure–everyone thinks of her as the “proper librarian,” she realizes what she needs is to ruin her reputation. And she knows the perfect guy to help her: the baddest bad boy in town. This Army vet won’t know what hit him…

Buy: https://www.books2read.com/HowToSeduceABadBoy
 
 

Meet the Author:

Traci is a USA Today Bestselling Romance Author with Harlequin/Mills & Boon, Entangled Publishing, and Tule Publishing. Her stories feature sizzling heroes with humor, quick wits, and troubled pasts and heroines who are smart, tenacious, and always give as good as they get. She holds an MFA in Writing Popular Fiction from Seton Hill University. She loves cute animals, chocolate, coffee, hot British actors, and sarcasm—not necessarily in that order.
Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | GoodReads |
 
 
 

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65 Responses to “Spotlight & Giveaway: How to Seduce a Bad Boy by Traci Douglass”

  1. Jeanna Massman

    I love the Cinderella trope, rich man falls for poor but spunky woman.

  3. Diana Tidlund

    Friends to lovers ( it happened to me and together 27 years!)
    Older brothers bestie
    Younger sisters bestie

  4. Didi

    I’m an all-tropes kind of gal, really. And all the above mentioned I could get behind of, plus second chance and redemption tropes.

  5. Mary Preston

    You have named some of my favorites. I have always liked marriage of convenience stories too.

  6. laurieg72

    My favorite tropes are marriage of convenience, fake engagements, stranded, plain jane in hiding, best friend or relative’s friend to lover…

  7. John Smith

    “This book is full of romance tropes: Older brother’s best friend, Friends to lovers, Ugly duckling, Opposites attract, Forbidden love. What are some of your favorite romance tropes?” Sassy career girl and duke.

  14. Jennifer Shiflett

    Enemies to lovers, second chance, single parent, siblings best friend. I love all of these.

  17. Heidi

    Enemies-to-lovers, may-december, reverse harem, forbidden romance. Just about anything, really.

  27. Colleen C.

    Marriage of convenience, mistaken identity, amnesia, secret baby, etc.

  31. Amy R

    What are some of your favorite romance tropes? It happened in Vegas and rock star/athlete and commoner

  40. Marcy Meyer

    My favorites are second chance romance and friends to lovers. I enjoy them all though.

  48. Laurajj

    OH I love them all! But…I have to say my favorite is Friends to lovers or second chances!

  51. Nicole (Nicky) Ortiz

    Friends to lovers
    Best Friend brother
    Brother’s Best Friend
    Single Parent
    MC
    Military
    Thanks for the chance!

  54. Anita H.

    Older brother’s best friend, best friend’s older brother, friend to lovers are my favorites

  64. Patricia B.

    Beauty and the Beast, Cinderella, wounded hero, ugly duckling, and shy, misunderstood heroine.