Spotlight & Giveaway: Risky Business by Annabelle Slator

Today it is my pleasure to Welcome author Annabelle Slator to HJ!

Hi Annabelle and welcome to HJ! We’re so excited to chat with you about your new release, Risky Business!

 
Hello!
 

Please summarize the book for the readers here:

Risky Business follows Jess Cole, a struggling founder trying to keep her company afloat. She’s been trying to secure funding for some time now and is nearing her breaking point. As a last ditch effort, she changes the prefix on an application form from Miss Cole to Mr Cole. To her surprise, she is invited to an illustrious and ruthless competition for tech start ups. Well, Mr Cole is invited. Jess convinces her twin brother, Spencer, an out of order Shakespearian actor, to pretend to be the CEO of her company, while she pretends to be his assistant, ‘Violet’, to keep tabs on him. While at the competition, Jess meets a ‘fellow’ assistant, Oliver, who shows her how to let her hair down for the first time in years. Except, falling with Oliver may be a worse mistake than anything Spencer could promise on stage.
 

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

I love the back-and-forth banter between the main character, Jess, and her twin brother, Spencer. But some of my favourite lines are from Jess and Oliver’s push and pull:

“He blushes ever so slightly, giving me a confused look. ‘Were you blowing me off because I asked you out?’

I place my drink on the bar and shake my head. ‘No. Well, yes. Maybe. Not really.’

He huffs a laugh. ‘Well, I’m glad that’s cleared up. I just thought you weren’t interested in me.’

My chin tilts to meet him. ‘I haven’t fully committed to the plan of not being interested. It’s just . . . complicated.’

‘Then this is me generously giving you the opportunity to explain yourself.’ He lifts a brow and crosses his arms. His thick hair flops to the side as he leans against the bar. There’s a cheekiness to his demeanour, but I can feel the undercurrent of nerves passing through him.

I guffaw. ‘I have nothing to explain. I think I’ve made myself very clear already.’ Heat crawls up my spine.

He scoffs a laugh, running a hand over his light stubble. ‘Are you serious?’

I know for a fact that I haven’t made myself even slightly clear. I’m confusing myself with my own actions. My focus should purely be on this competition, but my attention continues to be dragged in the opposite direction, towards the big red arrow saying ‘hot, charming American’.”

Please share a few Fun facts about this book…

• Risky Business is inspired by my time working in the tech and start up industry and pulls from experiences working exclusively for female-founded and run companies.
• Risky Business is loosely inspired by Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, with Violet playing Viola, Oliver playing Olivia, Spencer playing Sebastian, and Dominic Odericco playing Duke Orsino, Malcolm playing Malvolio. Risky Business also starts on the 6th of January, the actual Twelfth Night.
• I wrote Risky Business in 2023, the company Jess creates in the book is a women’s therapy app to pitch at a TechCrunch style start up competition. After I had written the book, a women’s therapy app came second the next year at TechCrunch.

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

Because they spend most of their time in a very unromantic setting (a tech competition) I wanted to give Jess and Oliver a very romcom-y meet-cute. Oliver is attracted to Jess because of her tenacity and Jess is physically attracted to Oliver because she is looking for a way to take her mind off the stressful situation she’s found herself in. But they very quickly find comfort in their differences and find each other to be the most interesting part of the competition.

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

Chapter 9 definitely had me blushing, but one of my favourite scenes is on the flight back from the competition between Jess and Spencer:

“‘Why is your face so red?’ I hear Spencer’s voice permeate the radio silence in my brain.

I turn to face my brother. ‘It’s not.’

‘You’re beetroot red,’ he says so loud a woman across the aisle looks over to inspect me too, turning my face even hotter.

Spencer finally spots the source of my discomfort. ‘Oh, look, it’s Dominic. We should go say hi.’ He stands up,
trying to squeeze past me.

I pull him back down into his seat with a thud. ‘If you make us known to them, I will throw you out of this plane at peak altitude.’

‘Them?’ He looks at me with a sly smile. ‘Oh.’ The occasional twin telepathy thing kicks in when I need it least. ‘What did you do?’

‘I didn’t do anything.’ I crack open my complimentary bottle of water to try and bring my internal mortification-ometer down. ‘OK, fine, I may have ended up in that guy’s room last night.’ I take a nonchalant sip.

Spencer gives me the look, the same look Dad gave both of us after we’d smoked cigarettes for the first time at a party and came home stinking of it.

‘Are you serious?’ He smacks me with a rolled-up sky magazine. ‘Who?’

I subtly point at Oliver, who is setting up his laptop for the flight. ‘That guy.’ Oliver turns to talk to Dominic, accentuating his dark tousled hair and soft lips. The butterflies in my stomach take flight as I remember that mouth on me.

‘Ohhhhh, the hot assistant? Nice,’ he says loudly, causing several more people to turn around in their seats. ‘When did you have time to shag him?’

I widen my eyes at Spencer, creeping further down in my seat and smiling politely at the elderly woman opposite me. ‘Screaming baboons have more tact than you. We didn’t actually have sex, but it doesn’t matter because it’s never happening again.’

Spencer arches a brow. ‘Why? Was it bad?’

I swallow the dryness in my throat from either a light hangover or pure humiliation. ‘It definitely wasn’t bad . . .’ My thoughts briefly drift back to my hands gripping his hair in the shower, and my legs turn to jelly. ‘But it can’t happen again because I’m a professional and even just a casual situation would be way too complicated to take on right now.’ I throw my hands out and away from each other to emphasize my point.

He shifts in his seat to face me. ‘Yeah, but if he fancies you, and you fancy him. How is that complicated?’

‘He’s Dominic’s assistant. He’s a conflict of interest.’

‘Forbidden fruit, some might say.’ He wiggles his eyebrows at me as he slides on his headphones. ‘Hard to resist a ripe, juicy plum.’ He pops his lips on the p.

‘Ew.’ I roll my eyes and put my headphones on. “

Readers should read this book….

Readers should read this book if they like reading about sibling rivalry, spicy banter and feminine rage.

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

I’m currently working on two different projects, one which will feel familiar to readers but also something a little spookier…
 

Thanks for blogging at HJ!

Giveaway: (1) A copy of RISKY BUSINESS by Annabelle Slator

To enter Giveaway: Please complete the Rafflecopter form and Post a comment to this Q: If you were given an opportunity to change your entire life for the better but at the risk of having everything crash and burn, would you take it?

Book Info:

Don’t miss the new forced proximity, forbidden workplace romance, perfect for fans of The Hating Game and Ali Hazelwood – available to preorder now!
Jess Cole’s rules for keeping it professional:

Do apply to a major investment competition to get funding for your game-changing women’s therapy app
Do stay laser focused on winning
Don’t apply under your brother’s name, however fed-up you are with the male dominated industry
Don’t hook up with a ridiculously hot man, Oliver, only to find out he works for the top investor running the competition
Do try your best to resist Oliver’s charm while hiding your real identity
Don’t fall for Oliver anyway…

Mixing business and pleasure has always been a dangerous strategy for Jess, but this time will the risk be worth the reward?
Book Links:  Amazon | B&N |
 
 

Meet the Author:

Annabelle grew up writing stories in the depths of the British countryside. After achieving a degree in creative writing, she spent most of her twenties working with brands and start-ups in London and New York.

Nowadays, if she isn’t spending time writing, you can almost always find her obsessing over niche internet drama, practicing her fencing parry or mooching around vintage fairs and flea markets with her husband and two dachshunds.
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