Spotlight & Giveaway: Ruined With You by J. Kenner

Today it is my pleasure to Welcome author J. Kenner to HJ!

Hi Julie and welcome to HJ! We’re so excited to chat with you about your new release, Ruined With You!

 
Hi!!! Thanks so much for stopping by to learn about my latest release, RUINED WITH YOU.
 

To start off, can you please tell us a little bit about this book?:

First off, it’s Liam Foster’s story, and I’ve been wanting to write his story since he first appeared in DIRTIEST SECRET. (You do NOT have to read any other book first – this story stands alone, and although it is the 3rd Stark Security book, you can jump in here!). Liam started life as the son of a housekeeper and worked his way up to a seriously badass vigilante turned security specialist. He’s strong, sexy, loyal, and when he thinks that he’s screwed up a job and left the client in danger, he’s determined to right whatever went wrong. But Liam is also a guy with a tragic past, and what he doesn’t realize is that the woman he must protect, Xena Morgan, pushes all of his buttons, making him want things he hasn’t allowed himself to want for a very long time.
 

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

I draw in a breath, my eyes still locked on his. “I don’t even know what you’re talking about.”
“Yes,” he says. “You do. You know exactly what I’m talking about, because you wanted it as much as I did.”
I start to protest, but he continues before I can get out a sound.
“You wanted me to kiss you. Or maybe you wanted to kiss me. I don’t think it matters. All that matters is that we both wanted it. Wanted each other. Wanted to get lost for just a moment in that private corner of the patio, with the stars above us and the lights below. To feel lips on lips and skin on skin. To let ourselves go, even if we never spoke of it again.“
I’m breathing hard when he takes another step toward me, then lifts my chin with his fingertip. That’s when I realize that I’d stopped looking at him and had shifted my focus to the floor. Now, I have no choice but to look at this man. His skin seems to absorb the dim light, making him glow from the inside even as his dark eyes invite me to spiral down with him to someplace warm and wild, and all I can think is that he’s a dark angel come to torment me.
When he speaks, it’s barely a whisper. “So tell me, Xena. Have I jogged your memory?”
“You’ve jogged something,” I admit. “But we can’t. We won’t. It’s not—it’s not what I want.” I silently curse, because after what he just admitted, he deserves the truth. “Okay, yeah, maybe I do want it. But I’m not going to have it.”
“Do you think I don’t understand that?”
“I don’t know.” My head feels like it’s swimming, and I lower my voice, aware of the rising noise as crew and performers enter the venue for the various pre-performance checks. “I thought you understood. But then why are we talking about it? Why are you torturing us both?”
“Everyone has a code.” He shrugs. “Part of mine is that I never look away from reality. And that means that I see you. I see this,” he adds, gesturing between us. “I know that I want it. And I know that I’m walking away.”

What inspired this book?

Mostly, I wanted to write Liam’s story! But as for the suspense plot, it was very much inspired by events in the news today.

How did you ‘get to know’ your main characters? Did they ever surprise you?

They always surprise me! And I get to know them by actually writing them…they come to life once my fingers are on the keyboard!

What was your favorite scene to write?

There’s a scene where they are together in a cabin before they have to run, and it was just delicious!

It occurs to me that I won’t be seeing him again, because after tonight he’ll be gone, and in a few days, I’ll disappear and become someone else. But tonight…
Tonight there’s no risk of exposing myself. Of getting in too deep with someone I can’t have.
He clears his throat. “Right. Well, I still want that whiskey.” He starts to take a step, and before I have time to think about what I’m doing, I reach for his hand.
He stops, turning to look at me, and I pull myself up. He’s right there, my hand in his, his other on my back, holding me steady, though how it got there, I really don’t know.
That hint of a flame I’d seen earlier in his eyes is a blaze now, and I melt under the heat of it. I want this, dammit. This night. This man. Not because I have no choice. Not because I’m trying to survive.
I want it for me. Me.

What was the most difficult scene to write?

Honestly, it was a joy writing this book! The scenes flowed, the characters spoke to me. If forced to pick a scene, I’ll pick “girls’ night” just because I was juggling so many characters in one scene!

Would you say this book showcases your writing style or is it a departure for you?

It’s definitely the type of book that I love writing and that I’m known for. Hot heroes. Tortured characters. And deeply sensual moments.

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

I want them to close the book with that happy “aaaaaah” that comes from a good romance and a satisfying conclusion!

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

I’m working on a few television things I can’t talk about yet, and also on my next Stark Security book — Wrecked With You — and a brand new erotic romance trilogy in the vein of my bestselling Stark Saga with all new characters, all the feels, and lots and lots of heat!

Thanks for blogging at HJ!

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Excerpt from RUINED WITH YOU:

Despite admiring her talent and work ethic, Ellie wasn’t the woman who kept drawing his focus. That dubious honor went to the woman directly across the stage from him. The tall, skinny white woman with the cornflower blue eyes. The sharp-tongued blonde who’d spent most of the previous week standing like a damn guard dog between him and Ellie.
As the star’s personal assistant, being a wall between Ellie and the world was part of Xena’s job description. Considering she was at her boss’s side more than Rye, Liam knew she took her job pretty damn seriously. Seriously enough to question everything he did and every command he issued to his team and Love’s staff.
On one level, she’d irritated the shit out of him. But she’d also gotten under his skin in ways he hadn’t expected, and he’d been relieved to escape when the case finally wrapped. Because despite being a badass security professional who’d traveled all over the globe, spent years in military intelligence, and endured far too many heart-pounding seconds staring down the barrel of some nasty motherfucker’s gun, he didn’t need extra complications in his life. And though he’d never seen it coming, he learned quickly enough that Xena had the potential to be one hell of a complication, and not just because he was so inexplicably attracted to her, even though she wasn’t his type at all.
Assuming that a man who rarely dated and avoided relationships could even say that he had a type. He’d started building that fence years ago, brick by solitary brick, until it was a fortress. And though he’d occasionally breach the wall when temptation or lust or whatever the hell you called it grabbed him by the balls, when he did, he went for women with curves, not Xena’s straight lines and hard angles. Plus, she was blond, and blondes had never done a damn thing for him. He’d spent too many nights making inane conversation with overly bleached socialites at the endless stream of parties in the Hamptons that Dallas had dragged him to back when they were both still in their twenties and early thirties.
Hell, if he was going to have inappropriate fantasies about an off-limits woman, it should be Ellie. But no, he’d gone and fixated on a reedy blond girl with a sharp tongue and eyes that seemed to look right through him.
He told himself he didn’t know why, but that wasn’t entirely true. She was sharp and determined. She spoke little, but when she did it mattered. And her loyalty to Ellie shone like a beacon.
All admirable qualities, but there was more to Xena Morgan, he was sure of it. And it was that mystery that intrigued him. Something raw. Edgy. He didn’t know exactly what was buried deep inside her, but he’d seen enough damaged people to know that her soul was at least as scarred as his.
But that didn’t make them compatible. On the contrary, that made them combustible.
And that meant that Xena Morgan was a complication he simply didn’t need. And the sooner he exorcised her from his thoughts, the better.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
 
 

Book Info:

When her high maintenance boss is assaulted, manager Xena Morgan contacts the only person who can help—the sexy, arrogant, incredibly capable Stark Security agent Liam Foster. The former vigilante takes every case personally, and he’s determined to find answers—particularly since he thought he’d cleared this threat already.

Xena had been thrilled when Liam completed his assignment, because he affected her in ways she didn’t want to contemplate, awakening yearnings that threatened her deepest secrets.

But now she needs him, and her body won’t let her forget it.

As their attraction heats to a feverish degree, the web of lies, danger, and passion they find themselves in tangles further. Liam will stop at nothing to protect his client, even if it means sacrificing everything he holds dear…. and exposing the secrets that may destroy him—and Xena—forever.

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Meet the Author:

J. Kenner (aka Julie Kenner) is the New York Times, USA Today, Publishers Weekly, Wall Street Journal and #1 International bestselling author of over one hundred novels, novellas and short stories in a variety of genres.
JK has been praised by Publishers Weekly as an author with a “flair for dialogue and eccentric characterizations” and by RT Bookclub for having “cornered the market on sinfully attractive, dominant antiheroes and the women who swoon for them.” A six-time finalist for Romance Writers of America’s prestigious RITA award, JK took home the first RITA trophy awarded in the category of erotic romance in 2014 for her novel, Claim Me (book 2 of her Stark Saga) and another RITA trophy for Wicked Dirty in the same category in 2017.
In her previous career as an attorney, JK worked as a lawyer in Southern California and Texas. She currently lives in Central Texas, with her husband, two daughters, and two rather spastic cats.
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