Spotlight & Giveaway: Sin City Seduction by Margot Radcliffe

Today it is my pleasure to Welcome author Margot Radcliffe to HJ!

Hi Margot and welcome to HJ! We’re so excited to chat with you about your new release, Sin City Seduction!

 
Greetings, I’m so excited to be a part of Harlequin Junkie!
 

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

Sizzling
Inked hero
Naughty

Carb-filled
Improper
Torrid
Yummy

Silly
Entertaining
DARing!
Uplifting
Comedy
Tantalizing
Inconceivable! (Sorry, I had to and there are too many I’s in this title!)
Overheated
Nourishing

Please share the opening lines of this book:

PARKER JONES LOVED her job. Didn’t just tolerate it like some of her friends whose chosen careers made the Sunday scaries look like a slasher film, but really loved it and couldn’t imagine doing anything else. Except possibly swimming-pool-raft model; those people always seemed super happy, and lounging in water with beverages was a skill she’d be happy to cultivate on a professional level.

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

Parker Jones is a self-assured woman of the world who knows who she is and her responsibility to the father who stuck around after her mom ran out on them. But when she’s on the road for her job, she likes to have fun and eat food, not necessarily in that order.

Everyone thinks Hugh should be a wreck without football, but the truth is that he’s fine. They also think he hasn’t recovered from seeing his fiance cheat on his with his teammate, but he’s pretty okay with that too.

His competitive spirit, however, is still very much alive and well. So when he finds out that the girl he shared an amazing night with lied about her job and ragged on his restaurant in her review? Well, yeah, he’s not going to miss the chance to prove her wrong.

Please share a few Fun facts about this book…

• This book IS fun! 🙂 But more specifically, there’s a cooking competition that I laughed out loud while writing so I hope you do too.
• The hero, Hugh Matteson was mentioned in my first DARE, Friends with Benefits, but he kind of got dumped. Things ended up working out for him, though!
• Writing this book always made me extremely hungry!
• I thought that being a food writer would be a dream job, but I once tried to write an entire article describing a salad, and… um, it was a disaster! My hats off to them (and Parker, of course)! 🙂

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

They’re both attracted to each other’s sense of humor and shared need to live life at full-tilt. They’re not afraid of the big emotions.

The First Kiss…

Is electrifying and goes on all night.

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

The barbecue competition scene. They’re having fun and the sparks are hotter than the grill! 🙂

“Are you ready for this?” she asked Hugh, checking her stopwatch to see how much time her ribs had left in the smoker.
“Yeah, I’m more than ready to be done with this, if that’s what you mean. It’s fucking nine hundred degrees and we could be making out in my pool, but instead we’re doing this cooking bullshit.”
After a grueling day in said heat, Parker’s hands flew straight up in the air. “You’re the one who ordered the competition! I was fine without it. But your pride was hurt by my review and here we both are, sweaty and hot, and not in a fun way.”
His shoulders shook with laughter. “I don’t give a fuck about my pride. But you deserved it for lying to me and making me worry.”
“We both know that’s not true. Quit yammering and cook. I have stuff to do,” she ordered, pointing her spoon at the pots on his stove top. “And that gas is too high. You’re probably burning your sauce.”
He rolled his eyes. “Mind your own sauce, lady,” he complained. But then, avoiding her gaze, he turned down the gas on his burner.

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

• Revenge – P!nk ft Eminem
• Welcome to the Jungle – Guns N Roses
• Love The Way You Lie – Eminem ft. Rihanna
• Give Me Everything – Pitbull
• Accidentally in Love – Counting Crows
• Crazy in Love, Beyoncé ft. Jay Z
• Who You Love – John Mayer ft. Katy Perry
• Here I Go Again – Whitesnake
• Make You Feel My Love – Adele

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

You’re going to get hurt, but it’s worth it. 🙂

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

I have a holiday-themed Dare set in New York City coming in November 2020. It’s super hot, but also a heart-breaker about two former foster kids that unexpectedly find each other just in time for Christmas.

For next year, I’m working on a Dare that takes place aboard a luxury yacht in the Caribbean, hijinks will definitely ensue! 😉
 

Thanks for blogging at HJ!

Giveaway: I’ll giveaway 15 digital copies of Sin City Seduction and 15 digital copies of Friends with Benefits.

To enter Giveaway: Please complete the Rafflecopter form and Post a comment to this Q: What’s your favorite type of hero — Alpha, cinnamon roll, funny, dark and angst-ridden, mysterious?

 
a Rafflecopter giveaway

 
 

Excerpt from Sin City Seduction:

PARKER JONES LOVED her job. Didn’t just tolerate it like some of her friends whose chosen careers made the Sunday scaries look like a slasher film, but really loved it and couldn’t imagine doing anything else. Except possibly swimming-pool-raft model; those people always seemed super happy, and lounging in water with beverages was a skill she’d be happy to cultivate on a professional level. In reality, however, she was a food writer for the online magazine Gastronomic, so her days out of the pool were spent traveling and eating delicious food across the country, her current city being Las Vegas.

And as she watched Hugh Matteson, ex-NFL quarterback and owner of the restaurant she was currently reviewing, saunter across the floor of his extremely successful barbecue joint, Blue Smoke, she couldn’t help but add another bullet point to her gratitude list.

Decked out in a deep violet suit with a white shirt, lavender pocket square and no tie, he looked like he had the world on a string, a confident smile curving his firm lips as if he’d never not had a reason to be happy. Medium brown hair, clipped short, was pushed back and sideways away from his forehead and was just basic-bro enough to ground him in the realm of the living. His jaw was square and strong, the likes of which would compel Gaston to take up facial exercises. Sharp hazel eyes (she’d Googled him, obviously, because research) were lit with an enterprising spirit she recognized in her own.

One of his big paws was casually shoved into a pants pocket, sure and easy as if everyone he spoke to was a friend and not a complete stranger. Straight white teeth completed the picture, but she knew that one of his incisors was crooked. A pale white scar, nearly two inches long, was etched across his left cheek and another jagged one separated his right eyebrow into two parts. In some of the photos she’d seen of him he’d worn a steel bar with a screwdriver piercing in the space between the sections, but it was absent today. Apparently, that’s what his former teammates called him, the Screwdriver, because he never stopped driving. She didn’t quite get it, but apparently, football or whatever.

He wasn’t handsome; that was a silly, pale word to describe the sheer mass of man and the obvious contradictions that made up Hugh Matteson, ex-athlete, successful businessman and, lest she forget, tabloid fodder. Even before her research, she’d recognized his name from the constant press coverage his breakup had received. Several years ago, his fiancée dumped him. Not such an extraordinary story, but the timing was unforgettable. The breakup came shortly after his career-ending injury and mere weeks before their wedding day, and then was brutally followed by said fiancée’s elopement to this very town with the guy who replaced Hugh as the New York Comets quarterback. It would have broken lesser men, but no one looking at Hugh now would ever guess that he’d once been the most pitied man in sports.

He exuded sheer magnetism and Parker felt an electric pull in the pit of her stomach that she rarely, if ever, felt. Part of why she loved her job was because it freed her from her responsibilities home in Chicago, also known as her father, who was still recovering from the fact that his wife (and Parker’s mother) walked out on them nearly fifteen years ago. Her life on the road was hers and hers alone. The fact that Hugh wasn’t relationship material wouldn’t stop her from having fun with him. Because he looked like he could be a veritable Disneyland in bed.

As a rule, all her relationships ended the next morning anyway, because she was on the road most weekends and rarely home, but also because attachments weren’t really her thing. When your own mom walks out on you, it tends to shake your faith in the reality of commitment.
Returning her attention to her plate of barbecue, she had to admit that she was tragically underwhelmed by the food. So having fun with the owner, who, considering his lackluster food, was the only smoking-hot thing in this particular barbecue joint, was probably a bad idea. There was an air of the generic everywhere, in fact. The floor-to-ceiling wood paneling and sunbaked longhorn skulls perched high on the walls screamed typical roadhouse decor, but it was something she could forgive because it was Vegas, the city that had invented camp, forgotten it, and then invented it again. It was better than the sports theme she’d expected at any rate, so points for that.

Pulling out her tablet, Parker began typing her initial thoughts for the review she’d write later. She’d ordered nearly everything on the menu, including two sampler platters consisting of sausage, brisket, ribs, pulled pork, salmon and chicken along with corn bread, collards, baked beans, and mac and cheese. The different barbecue sauces themselves were bland, which was downright heresy for a barbecue place. The smoke on the meat was just enough, but it was obvious that they used the same kind of wood to smoke all their varieties of meat, which was such a cop-out.

She managed to type out a few notes, but kept getting distracted. Hugh was working his way around the perimeter of tables that ran along the outside wall and eventually she abandoned even the pretense of working to watch him. Smiling at a blue-haired woman in an I Heart Las Vegas sweatshirt who had reached out and taken his hand, the corners of his eyes crinkled and lit up his whole face, which without the smile tended toward menacing. Her breath stopped at the sight, not quite a catch because she was a grown woman, but edging in that direction. His free hand abandoned his pocket and covered the woman’s hand in his, a warm two-handed grip, before he crouched to get down to her level so he could hear her better. Parker had no idea what the woman was saying, and her expression was serious, but by the end of the conversation they were both laughing.

Then as if in slow motion, Hugh rose from his crouch, turned and caught Parker right in the act of blatantly staring at him. Turning back to her food would have been the best thing to do, but instead she held his gaze, because, hell, she wanted to. After a moment she looked away because staring was rude, but that look had communicated what she’d wanted. That, yes, she agreed with America that he was aesthetically advantaged, and also yes, she’d like to explore that advantage in a behind-closed-doors type of situation. Because that was what her work life was about. When she was on the road, she could be herself instead of her father’s caretaker or the girl her friends still coddled because her mom ran out on them for a flashier life.

Then he was coming her way, making a beeline through other hopeful diners whose yearning eyes followed him as he passed them by. Her throat tight, she inconspicuously slid her tablet off the table and back into her bag so he wouldn’t have another reason to be suspicious. Except upon further thought she should have acted like she was reading a book. No one ate alone without a buffer of some kind and here she was with half the food in the restaurant in front of her. Nervous and hating it, she took a drink of beer, one thing she couldn’t complain about. From a local brewery in town, the light hoppy effervescence was the perfect fit to wash down rich, smoky barbecue.

Wiping the foam away from her mouth, she looked up to see him standing there and her entire body froze, with the exception of her wet hand sliding over the paper napkin spread across her lap.

“Enjoying your meal, ma’am?” he asked, an amused eyebrow raised, the one with the scar. His voice was grumbly and rough as he eyed the pile of food eclipsing the surface of the scarred oak table.

“Indeed,” she got out, having second thoughts about engaging with him. Either he’d clock her as a reviewer right off the bat or he’d assume that she was the lone competitor in a food-eating contest. Either way, she’d feel guilty for the unflattering review she’d ultimately be writing.

He held out his hand, but then thought better of it when he saw that her fingers were caked in barbecue sauce. “I’m Hugh Matteson, the owner. Just wanted to make sure we were taking care of you tonight.”

Looking up into his eyes was an epically bad idea, because she’d love to be taken care of by this guy. He was even better up close, dark scruff shadowing that movie-star jaw; hazy green eyes ringed with brown were clear and amused, hands so large she bet he could hold a toddler in his palm. He was also imposing, well over six foot five, and smelled like a man who took care of himself—musky cologne hung on the air like a summer’s breeze over a marsh, intriguing and mysterious. She fantasized about forgetting the article altogether and taking him back to her hotel room for the night.

“I’m Parker Jones,” she finally said, starting and stopping again around the bubbly catch in her throat from the beer.

Excerpts. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
 
 

Book Info:

“We both know that night was hot as hell…”

But can she handle the heat…knowing that it can’t last?

Chicago-based food critic Parker Jones is in serious trouble. She’s reviewing one of Las Vegas’s hottest barbeque joints—and the hottest thing in the place is the restaurant’s mouthwatering sex-on-a-stick owner. Her only choice? To hide why she’s really there. Not exactly her finest moment. But NFL-quarterback-turned-restaurateur Hugh Matteson might prove too delicious to resist…

Only, Parker certainly didn’t anticipate the explosive sexual chemistry between them. It’s intense. Sizzling. And satisfying the way that food can never be. So naturally, Parker does what any rational, commitment-phobic grown woman does. She bails.

Parker should have known better. Hugh’s entire professional career has been about not giving up—even after his last serious relationship imploded publicly. And he’s definitely not about to let Parker disappear if he has anything to say about it.

Because this thing between them is hotter than a Carolina Reaper. His quick grin, that lightning bolt of lust whenever he touches her—oh, Parker could fall for this guy, and hard. But when you’re cooking with a fire this hot, it’s only a matter of time before someone gets burned…
Book Links: Amazon | B& N | iTunes | Google |
 
 

Meet the Author:

Margot Radcliffe was born in the wilds of West Virginia, but now calls Columbus, Ohio home. On any given day she can be found binging awful television and making random desserts out of the last quarter of several different bags of chocolate chips.
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