Today it is my pleasure to Welcome author Alice Gaines to HJ!
Hi Alice and welcome to HJ! We’re so excited to chat with you about your new release, The Player’s Game!
Thanks for dropping by. Good to see you!
Please summarize the book a la Twitter style for the readers here:
Katy & Grant – Like oil and water, they don’t mix, but they can’t live without each other, either.
Please share the opening lines of this book:
Another damned wedding. They gave Grant Howard the
creeps. The first—a few months ago—hadn’t been too bad.
It had been his baby sister’s, and he’d pound the guy Beth
had married into pudding if he ever hurt her. Because their
dear old dad had run off and left them decades ago, Grant
Please share a few Fun facts about this book…
- Grant and his two friends, the Players, have vowed never to give their hearts, but they haven’t given up on the pleasures of the flesh.
- Grant is a jock – a professional quarterback. Katy is an attorney in a high-powered law firm.
- Their marriage failed because each said the absolute worst thing they could to the other.
- They’ve been in love since they first met in college.
- The sex is better between the two of them than it is with anyone else.
What first attracts your Hero to the Heroine and vice versa?
They’ve been married before. They fell in love in college. She thought he was the sweetest and most handsome man she’d ever met. He couldn’t believe a woman so brilliant could want to be with him.
Using just 5 words, how would you describe Hero and Heroine’s love affair?
Sexy, funny, affectionate, loving, permanent.
The First Kiss…
“Could we get on with this?” she said.
“You in a rush or something?”
She shrugged again. This time, she bit her lip, uncertain. Not too many people got to encounter Katy McCord in any state other than poised. Her vulnerability—when he’d seen it—had always gone right to the primitive protector in him. That connection was still strong.
He lifted her chin and kissed her briefly. “Let’s see if I remember how to do this.”
Without revealing too much, what is your favorite scene in the book?
I love the scene where Katy confronts Grant in his hotel suite and tells him she wants to have sex with him. They’d both been in the elevator with their own “dates” for the evening, when Grant got possessive and told Katy’s “date” to keep his hands off her. He blurts out, “She’s my wife,” even though she is his ex-wife. Needless to say, both “dates” abandon them. With the encouragement of Katy’s friend, Xandra, Katy decides Grant can scratch her itches to make up for what he did in the elevator.
The view on the inside held her attention despite her attempt to ignore it. Grant had changed into faded jeans that hung low on his hips and wore a tattered T-shirt that clung to the muscles of his chest and abdomen. His feet were bare. Ready-for-sex clothes if she’d ever seen them.
He put his hands on his hips. “Do you want to tell me what that was all about?”
“Do you know what day this is?”
He screwed up his face as if he’d never heard such a crazy question. “Saturday?”
Could he get any denser?
“The date, Grant.”
“Let’s see…um…June first. No, the second.” Then his features softened into a hang-dog “I screwed up” expression. “Your birthday.”
“Yeah, my birthday.” She advanced on him. “Stephen, or ‘not good enough for me,’ as you called him, was my present to myself for turning thirty.”
“Ah, crap,” he said softly. “I’m sorry.”
He was sorry, all right. Those were the two words he used for fixing anything. Only they had stopped working a long time ago.
“I’m not like you. I don’t jump into bed casually,” she said.
He didn’t look her in the eye but sat silently on the couch and bent with his fingers interlaced between his knees.
“I had to get up my courage to do it this time because I needed…” She let her voice trail off before she confessed to a weakness she didn’t often admit, even to herself. She needed. God, how she needed.
“I’m sorry,” he repeated. She didn’t answer. He could be clueless sometimes, but he wasn’t a mean man. He didn’t enjoy hurting people. The silence went on for a long time, her stomach churning while Grant still avoided eye contact.
“What can I do to make it up to you?” he said finally.
If your book was optioned for a movie, what scene would be absolutely crucial to include?
Grant is badly injured during a game. Katy rushes to the hospital to be with him, but the staff won’t let her inside because of confidentiality. She sneaks in, anyway, steals a security badge and a clipboard, and ends up going around the emergency department whispering his name, fearing hospital security is hot on her tail. It’s really fun.
Readers should read this book …
It’s fun.. It’s sexy. The main characters are people you can love and root for.
What are you currently working on? What other releases do you have planned?
The Player’s Game is the second book in the Players’ Pact series. The first was The Revenge Game. The third book is already written. It’s about the third player enjoying an one-night stand only to discover the mystery woman who gave him such great sex is now going to work for him. It doesn’t have an official title yet, but I’m calling it The Hook-Up game.
Thanks for blogging at HJ!
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Excerpt from The Player’s Game:
The scent hit Grant first—a perfume he’d never be able to forget, although he hadn’t been near it for long enough that he should have forgotten. He turned to see who was getting on…and shock hit him like a punch to the gut. Katy.
Katy recoiled at the sight of him, too. She was obviously as surprised…and horrified…as he was. Oh, no. This was not happening. Worse, she wasn’t alone. She was holding hands with some guy…as if she was on her way to do exactly what he and Sandy were planning. To hell with that.
He stared at the elevator controls in front of him. And he did his best to keep breathing. This was Katy—his first love and the woman he’d never truly gotten over. They’d been so together for so long…and then he’d gone and ruined everything with his big mouth. She deserved to enjoy herself as much as he did. Seeing her with this dude might be torture, but it wouldn’t last long. He could do it…for her.
But then, the guy put his hand at the small of her back and let it roam lower to her butt. Grab-ass with Katy in a public elevator? Who did the bastard think he was?
“Take your hands off her,” Grant said.
The guy looked at Grant. “What’s it to you?”
“She’s my wife.”
“Wife?” Sandy said. She and the guy with Katy exchanged horrified glances. Katy was his ex-wife, actually. But she still shouldn’t have some asshole pawing her in an elevator.
Katy took a step forward and got in his face, though she had to rise up on her toes to do it. “We’re divorced Grant. Have you forgotten?”
Yeah, they were divorced, but that didn’t mean he didn’t have feelings for her—didn’t miss waking up in their bedroom with her. Even after not seeing Katy for months, he found himself staring into the glow of her deep, dark eyes. He could remember what they looked like when she laughed and when she cried. Feelings, for heaven’s sake. Exactly what he was supposed to avoid. He and Sandy would only share the kind of feelings that turned off the higher centers of their brains and would make them cry out the Lord’s name. Or they would…if his little outburst hadn’t ruined things.
Both Sandy and Katy’s date were avoiding eye contact right now. Katy hadn’t backed off an inch.
“How could you?” she said. “I’m only doing what you do all the time.”
“Yeah, but…” He gestured. “Him?”
Her date glared at him for a second and then gave Sandy a glance. Obviously, he thought Grant had lost it. And maybe he had, but no one wrote how-to books about what you did when you caught your ex on her way to having a quickie.
Sandy put her hand on his arm. “This isn’t the right time.”
“It’s fine.” He held his hands up in a placating gesture. “We’ll all calm down.”
The words were out of his mouth before he could pull them back. No man in his right mind ever told an angry woman to calm down. It was like throwing gasoline on a fire.
Katy got even closer, if that was possible. “I swear to God, if you say one more word…”
“Well, hey,” her “date” said as he blindly pushed a button for the next floor. “I think I have…that is…I left…”
“Stephen, don’t,” Katy said.
Too late. The elevator doors opened, and both Stephen and Sandy got out. For a second, Stephen held the doors open and stared at Grant. “Say, aren’t you…?”
Great, the creep had recognized him. Grant didn’t have to recognize him back. Instead, he gave the guy what Katy used to call “the Hazel-Eyed Stare of Death” until the guy released the door.
Sandy waved at Grant. “Catch you later.”
But she wouldn’t. The doors closed on that opportunity for a really good night. Even if he did find her again, she probably thought he was a raving lunatic. Oh hell, maybe he was.
“I hope you’re satisfied,” Katy said.
“He wasn’t good enough for you.” Lame, lame, lame, but no doubt true. Not many men were good enough for Katy, including him.
“And she, no doubt, was good enough for you?” Katy said. “Maybe a centerfold model getting her PhD in particle physics while running a daycare for underprivileged children on the side?”
“You don’t have to get sarcastic about it.”
“For once, you’re right. I don’t have to do anything other than get off this elevator and away from you.”
“Listen, Katy—”
“Don’t,” she said. “You’ve ‘Listen Katy-ed’ me for the last time.”
The doors opened. She spun around and walked off, leaving him alone. Completely alone…on what had promised to be an evening of beautiful, mindless sex. Damn it all.
Excerpts. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Book Info:
I’ve got to admit, life is sweet these days. As a starting NFL quarterback, I do okay, and I haven’t been lacking for female companionship. But I’d give it all up in a heartbeat if I could get back the woman I loved and lost—my ex-wife, Katy.
Now I’m at a wedding, watching one of my best friends tie the knot. I’m happy for him—really. I just wish things had turned out better when I’d taken that walk down the aisle. Still, those days are over.
I’m on my way up to my room when I run into my ex in the elevator. It’s like karma. Has to be. Only she’s with some random guy, who’s getting a little too handsy for my liking. I can’t help myself—I have to say something. Something that ruins her night…and mine, too.
Now, I’m sitting alone in my hotel room, when suddenly, Katy’s at my door, complaining that I ruined her 30th birthday. Her solution—that I give her the night of sexual adventure I’d derailed in the elevator.
I never was very good at saying no to her…
Book Links: Amazon | B&N | iTunes | Goodreads |
Meet the Author:
USA Today bestselling author, Alice Gaines, writes about nice people having outrageous sex. Her trio of books, The Players’ Pact novels from Entangled Indulgence, deliver exactly that. When Alice isn’t writing steamy romance, you’ll find her in her yard or in the kitchen cooking something yummy from her garden. She lives with her pet corn snake, Casper, and one affectionate feral cat. She’s passionate about funky soul band, Tower of Power, and her church–not necessarily in that order. She loves to hear from readers at [email protected].
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EC
When they just ‘click’ with me.
Mary Preston
I want to have a vested interest in the characters. They need to be interesting, complex is good.
Didi
Nothing comprehensive really, just when they (and their story) click with me I guess. In some book I grew to like a character I initially despised and vice versa. Just because.
Sonia
Something that makes me fall in love with the characters is their personality and the random quirks they have:)
Amy Donahue
Relatability and believability.
Debra Guyette
There is something that resonates for me. Sometimes it is vulnerability, sometimes bravery, sometimes caring.
lori byrd
Believable and all work together somehow to make the story readable.
janinecatmom
I like when I can relate to a character or they are going through something that makes me want care for them more.
Jennifer Shiflett
They have to have interesting banter with each other.
Diana Hardt
The details in the story have to all relate to each together and be believable.
lorih824
Their humor, loyalty, genuineness, and overall ability to jive well together.
Texas Book Lover
Great chemistry and a good storyline hooks me every time.
Pamela Conway
I’d say their personalities, they have to be likable, relatable. All of us have flaws, we’re human but you still have the choice of being a good person or not.
dbranigan
I think the dialogue or thoughts help me see who a character is and I used those elements a lot to decide to like or fall in love with a character.
Rita Wray
I love loyalty and a good sense of humor.
Pammie R.
Strong characters. Women who can rescue themselves. Men that know when to let them and when to step in.
Lynne Brigman
I love the loyalty, strength, chemistry and even the bad
Joy Avery
How easily they draw me in, their “realness” or something familiar about them.
Shannon Capelle
If their is chemistry between the characters and are relatable
Debbie P
A several things make me fall in love with characters in a book. Mainly their relationship to the other characters and is that character believable.
Lori R
Their actions and words and how I can relate to them.
Glenda M
Their personalities and actions – which are obviously intertwined.
bn100
good writing, no cheating
Joye
If they are believable characters and they have a sense of humor.
Kim
It’s hard to explain. Me falling in love with a character is just a feeling. It just happens, sort of like love in real life.
laurieg72
I need to connect and relate to the character’s and their emotions all through the author’s vision and words!
Charlotte Litton
Usually their character is what draws me .
Kathleen Bylsma
Their vulnerability and fear to admit it….
Marisela Zuniga
I love strong characters and that they are outgoing
Audrey Stewart (@AudreyS23511436)
I can’t explain it. It is the author that makes up my mind.
Nancy Payette
How relatable they are on a logical level.
Karina Angeles
A sense of humor and witty banter between hero and heroine.
diannekc
I fall in love with characters if they are relatable and and a likeable character.
mathlady68
Intelligence, humor, heart.
[email protected]
Loyaltie,kindness,and sense of humor.
Nicole (Nicky) Ortiz
Their personality and the way they are portrayed. Plus if there is banter between characters.
Thanks for the chance!
Anna Nguyen
how much they fight for each other and know when to give space
Mari Ann
Their personality & banter.
Jana Leah
I need to care about them/care what happens to them.
BookLady
Their personality
Patricia B.
Deep down in their hearts they have to be good people. They may have made mistakes and be clueless at times, but they are not mean.
Ellen C.
Personality and I love characters with a sense of humor.
Chelsea B.
The banter and connection!
Jeanna Massman
Usually their sense of humor is the first thing that appeals to me.
Anita H.
For sure their personality and whether or not I feel like I can root for them
Mary C.
Personality and sense of humor.
Gabrielly
Their personalities and actions.
Teresa Warner
Lots of different things. They have to be funny, trustworthy and have a good head on their shoulders!
Colleen C.
if they touch my emotions…
Daniel M
humor and personality
Nina Lewis
Their personalities mostly. I like funny banter & an alpha or two every now and then.
Amy R
strong and loyal but I need to connect to them and the story
Cheryl Hastings
I’m honestly not sure. Although that might be the answer…they’re honest. Funny helps, too
Janie McGaugh
The story, along with the personalities of the characters and their interactions.
Cassandra D
The storyline.
Tina R
The chemistry between the main characters and the storyline.
Terrill R.
1.) Authentic and natural dialogue and great banter. 2.) Characters with self-worth and emotional strength when it counts, but also able to show vulnerabilities.