Spotlight & Giveaway: Kissing Games by Stefanie London

Today it is my pleasure to Welcome author Stefanie London to HJ!

Hi Stefanie and welcome to HJ! We’re so excited to chat with you about your new release, Kissing Games!

 
Thanks so much for having me.
 

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

A quirky love story between a career-obsessed major league pitcher and a sassy dinosaur-loving librarian who has all of Kissing Creek hot and bothered with her steamy book club.
 

Please share the opening lines of this book:

Ryan Bower had a lot of reasons to wake up in the middle of the night. Being a superstar major league pitcher with a busted knee and a contract about to expire was one reason. Being thirty-five and watching his games get taken over by a twenty-year-old prodigy was another. He’d even had the occasional nightmare about walking onto the diamond in front of thousands, with his pants around his ankles.
All normal reasons to be blinking into the darkness.
Squeaking bedsprings, however, were not a reason to be waking up in the middle of the night. Especially when those bedsprings belonged to his parents.

Please share a few Fun facts about this book…

• This story was inspired by the love I developed for baseball when I moved to Canada from Australia
• The theme of the challenges in making friends as an adult is drawn from my own experience of starting over in a new country.
• The heroine, Sloane, LOVES dinosaurs! She often wears outfits with quirky dinosaur details and even dresses up in a blow-up T-Rex outfit at one stage.
• In fiction, we often use fake sports teams to avoid any legal issues, so the Toronto baseball team is called “The Blizzards” but in reality our local MLB team is the Blue Jays.
• If you read the first book in the series, Kissing Lessons, then you’ll be pleased to know that Lily the Llama makes another appearance!

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

There’s a lot of physical attraction between Sloane and Ryan, but actually in their first meeting they really clash! They’re definitely attracted to one another against their better judgement 😉
 

Using just 5 words, how would you describe Hero and Heroine’s love affair?

Funny, Raw, Real, Swoony, Quirky.
 

The First Kiss…

Takes place while the hero and heroine are watching the worst dinosaur movie of all time.

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

The meet cute! It’s always one of my favourite scenes to write:

He walked out from the aisle and crept toward the front of the library, the llama seeming to grow bigger with each step he took. She was, as his pitching coach would say, “an absolute unit.” He’d put her at three hundred pounds and a hair under six feet tall, making her bigger than any of the hard-hitting sluggers he’d faced at the plate. Heck, he was pretty sure he’d seen smart cars that were more compact.
“Are you okay?” he asked the librarian.
“That remains to be seen.” She turned to him, attempting to smile but looking more than a little frightened of the creature.
Her hair was the shade of homemade toffee, and she wore a novelty dinosaur-printed dress. She had full, glossy lips and eyelashes that were thick and dark, making her eyes seem big and luminous. Starry eyes. The kind that shifted in the light, changing from silver to gray to blue and refusing to be put entirely in one category.
“I think she’s after the muffins,” she added. “I’ve heard stories about how she’s always terrorizing the poor staff in the café, but I thought it was an urban legend.”
The llama bleated again.
“Can we sacrifice the muffins?” he asked.
“If we must,” she replied with a sigh. “But I bought them for the team.”
“If we get out of this alive, I’ll take you out for some replacement muffins.” The words shot out of him before he had time to think about whether it was wise to flirt with a woman while he was in his hometown. Or while they were being stared down by a giant llama.
If muffins are considered flirting, man, you’re way off your game. Maybe you should ask her if she knows about Chapter Twenty-One.
“Did you just proposition me in a life-or-death moment?” The librarian shot him an amused look. “Talk about taking advantage of the situation.”
“If we get out alive.” He glanced at the llama, who was growing impatient. She ambled forward, toward the checkout counter, but there was a railing in front, which usually directed traffic and was decidedly not sized for a beefy llama.
The blood-curdling bleating sound happened again, and Ryan shuddered.
“And right now, I’m putting our odds at fifty-fifty.”

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

Sparks fly when Ryan and Sloane meet and he has a problem with her book club’s spicy reading material.

“So, how do you know my name?” she asked. “I don’t think I’ve seen you around town before.”
He cleared his throat. “I’m aware of your book club.”
“Adults or children’s?” she asked.
“Adults.” His lips tightened. “Seems you’re reading a very…engaging book this month. Silver-something.”
“Silver Pleasures?” Oh boy. Now Sloane was going to have the perfect fantasy man to pop right into that story next time she got back to it. Ryan Bower was everything the hero of a book should be—at least on the outside. Sloane knew better than to make assumptions about what people were like on the inside until she had more information. “If you’re looking to borrow a copy, I’m afraid we’re all out. The book club gets first dibs and it turns out this month has been quite popular.”
“I do not want to borrow it.” He held up a hand. “Look, I don’t know how long you’ve been around here, but this is a family-friendly town.”
Oh no he did not!
How dare he insinuate that she was some fly-by-nighter. Sloane took her role in the Kissing Creek community very seriously. She took having a home very seriously. This place was the most important thing in the world to her, because it was where she’d finally set down roots. And she knew roots were something most people took for granted, but not her. Sloane had craved a place to settle down for years. It was something she’d dreamed about. Something she’d planned for. Something she’d been working toward the second she’d been old enough to make her own decisions.
And choosing Kissing Creek as her town wasn’t a decision she’d made lightly.
“I know that,” she said through gritted teeth. “It’s why I decided to move here…three years ago.”
“Then you should know that getting the book club to read such…provocative materials goes against our community values.”
Ryan Bower’s shine was wearing off faster than the enamel on a cheap pair of earrings. He was attractive, nobody could deny that. Hell, even if muscular giants with jaws strong enough to crack a nut weren’t your thing, you couldn’t deny it. But no one got to tell her what books they could and couldn’t read in the book club.

Readers should read this book …

If you want to laugh, swoon and get all the warm and fuzzy feelings.
 

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

I’m currently working on the third book in my Paws in the City romantic comedy series which surrounds a pet social media agency! It’s super funny and heartfelt, and features lots of furry characters who will totally steal your heart.

I’m also working on the next book in my Aussie small town series, Holidays in the Bluff, which also features animals! If you want a little armchair travel to a beautiful Australian seaside town where the weather is hot and the guys are hotter, then definitely check out my Patterson’s Bluff books.

Thanks for blogging at HJ!

Giveaway: A signed advanced reader copy of my upcoming romantic copy The Dachshund Wears Prada.

To enter Giveaway: Please complete the Rafflecopter form and Post a comment to this Q: Are you part of a book club?

 
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Excerpt from Kissing Games:

“Why do you want to be here? You seem a little too uptight to be spreading joy and happiness.” The words might sound as though they were meant as an insult, but Sloane looked genuinely confused.
“I think I’m going to need some medical attention for that third-degree burn,” he quipped.
She snorted. “Okay, so you have a sense of humor. Noted.”
“I’m not an asshole, much as that might surprise you.” Although he was aware in having to make such a statement, that probably weakened his position rather than strengthening it.
“A prude with a heart of gold, then?” She shot him an unrepentant smile.
“Just because I don’t want to hear my parents banging doesn’t mean I’m a prude.” He knew he shouldn’t bite back, because that was clearly what she wanted. But he couldn’t help himself.
“Well, you did originally come to the library for some reading materials, right?” She tilted her head, appraising him through the lenses of her glasses. Her long brown hair was styled differently today, half up and half down. The loose strands were lightly curled and they bounced around her shoulders. “Why not read Silver Pleasures?”
Was this sassy little librarian seriously calling his bluff?
Ryan knew the adult thing to do would be to say no, I’m not interested in reading the same smutty book my mother is reading, because brain bleach has not yet been invented. But there was a deeply-rooted sense of pride being dented here. Part of him had some caveman-like urge to prove that he wasn’t the boring, stick-up-his-ass pearl-clutcher she was painting him as.
Was it childish? Probably. Pointless? Abso-freaking-lutely.
Was he going to do the mature thing? Uh, nope. Hard pass on that.
“Sure,” he replied with a nonchalant lift of one shoulder. “I’ll read it when you have it back in the library.”
Sloane looked at him like she was trying to figure out whether he was full of shit or not. “You can have my copy.”
Okay, so she was definitely calling his bluff.
He stopped short of puffing his chest out like an actual primate, but he didn’t dare break eye-contact with her. Little Missy Button Presser was about to get a lesson in stubbornness from a pro. One did not make it all the way to the Major Leagues without knowing how to hold his ground. Hell, Ryan was a gold medalist in digging his heels in.
Call it a Bower family trait.
“Hand it over,” he said coolly.
Sloane reached into her bag and pulled the book out. The flashy red spine wasn’t the least bit inconspicuous and she seemed to take great pleasure in handing it over as slowly as possible, so everyone could see. “Don’t you dare doggy-ear the pages.”
“I’m not a monster.” He turned the book over in his hands, aware that some of the other people in the room were watching. But he wasn’t going to back down, no siree. “And I’ll make sure I return it on time. Don’t want any charges on my library card.”
Sloane’s full lips quirked up into something halfway between a smirk and…well, something teasing, anyway. “Study up, Ryan. There’s going to be a pop quiz.”
“Don’t worry,” he said, taking a step closer and scoring himself a point when her nostrils flared and her pupils widened behind the lenses of her glasses. “I’m an excellent student.”
“We’ll see if that’s true.”

Excerpts. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
 
 

Book Info:

The effervescent, quirky romantic comedy from USA Today bestselling author Stefanie London…

Injured pro baseball player Ryan Bower has plenty of reasons for not sleeping. But thanks to a steamy romance novel that’s ignited the imaginations—and libidos—of pretty much everyone in Kissing Creek, Ryan’s kept awake by the sound of his parents. Having sex. Unforgivably gross. And Ryan is almost certain that the town’s adorably quirky and troublemaking librarian is responsible.

Sloane Rickman adores everything about her little town—with the exception of its very tall and infuriatingly sexy Golden Boy. Ryan Bower may be a ball-playing hottie, but where exactly does he get off telling her what books to recommend to her oddball little book club? Good thing he’s only in town for the fall.

Now Sloane and Ryan are stuck planning the main float for the town’s parade. But somewhere between arguments over paint colors and papier mâché flowers, their fights keep turning into red-hot kisses. And between Ryan’s demanding ball career and Sloane’s life in Kissing Creek, they face the biggest game of their lives…if they’re ready to play for keeps.
Book Links: Amazon | B&N | iTunes |  
 

Meet the Author:

Stefanie London is a multi-award-winning, USA Today bestselling author of contemporary romances and romantic comedies.

Stefanie’s books have been called “genuinely entertaining and memorable” by Booklist, and “elegant, descriptive and delectable” by RT magazine. Her stories have won multiple industry awards, including the HOLT Medallion and OKRWA National Reader’s Choice Award, and she has been nominated for the Romance Writers of America RITA award.

Originally from Australia, Stefanie lives in Toronto with her very own hero and is doing her best to travel the world. She frequently indulges in her passions for good coffee, lipstick, romance novels and anything zombie-related.
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