Happy release day to Karina Halle! Her latest novel,
Smut, hits e-retailers today and you (and I) need to buy it immediately. I've been reading Halle's books for awhile now, both new releases and some of her backlist, and I've loved all of the ones I've read. As you probably can guess, I'd rather read a contemporary story (rather than a dark, scary one) and it's a bonus when it's got some heat and humour. Needless to say, I was pretty pumped when I learned Halle's next book was going to be a romantic comedy.
Smut is out now and you can bet I'm going to be buying it as soon as it goes live!
Here's the synopsis:
What happens when the kink between the pages leads to heat between the
sheets?
All Blake Crawford wants is to pass his creative writing course, get
his university degree and take over his dad’s ailing family business. What
Amanda Newland wants is to graduate at the top of her class, as well as finally
finish her novel and prove to her family that writing is a respectful career.
What Blake and Amanda don’t want is to be paired up with each other for
their final project but that’s exactly what they both get when they’re forced
to collaborate on a writing piece. Since Amanda thinks Blake is a pushy asshole
(with a panty-melting smirk and British accent) and Blake thinks Amanda has a stick
up her ass (though it’s brilliant ass), they fight tooth and nail until they
discover they write well together. They also might find each other really
attractive, but that’s neither here nor there.
When their writing project turns out to be a success, the two of them
decide to start up a secret partnership together using a pen name, infiltrating
the self-publishing market in the lucrative genre of erotica. Naturally, with
so much heat and passion between the pages, it’s not long before their dirty words
become a dirty reality. Sure, they still fight a lot but at least there’s
make-up sex now.
But even as they start to fall hard for each other, will their
burgeoning relationship survive if their scandalous secret is exposed or are
happily-ever- afters just a work of fiction?
I'm so intrigued by this storyline and hope you are too!
Now hold onto your hats because I have an excerpt for you too. Enjoy!
She holds my gaze for a moment and
something passes over her. Regret, maybe. Then she nods. “Sit down. Let’s
work.”
And so we do. And for the first time in a
long time, it’s strained. I’m about to suggest maybe we need the Estonian vodka
anyway when she lets out an exasperated sigh over something she’s reading.
It happens to be something I wrote.
“What?” I ask, wondering what I did wrong.
She gives me the are you kidding me? look.
“Okay, I was ignoring it earlier but I think you need to get a grip on some of
this shit. This simply does not happen.”
“Explain, please.”
“I just think it’s unrealistic for there to
be so much talking, let alone the fact that the first time they do it it’s in a
public place.”
“Too much talking?”
“Yeah.” she scans over the document. “You
know, give me your cock, oh you feel so good, harder, harder, you’re so big,
fuck me harder big boy.”
“Have you even had good sex?” I ask
incredulously.
She flinches. “Of course I have. And it’s
none of your business.”
“We’re writing about sex. It’s completely
my business. I’m not letting you interject your edits based on your personal
experiences about sex because believe me, if the sex is good, you’re moaning my
name.”
She raises her chin. “Maybe all those girls
were faking it.”
Oh, brilliant.
“Excuse me?” I say, hands pressed against
the table, nearly getting out of my chair. “You have no idea. I pride myself in
giving a girl as many bloody orgasms as she can handle.”
“Bloody orgasms don’t sound like fun,” she
jokes softly.
“They can be if you’re into knife play,” I
tell her, even though that’s not exactly what I meant. Still, she scrunches up
her nose. “Don’t knock it until you try it, but that’s neither here nor there.
When you were with Alan, he must have made you come at least a few times.”
If he didn’t, I feel like finding the guy
and showing him a thing or two for wasting four years of her life.
“Yeah,” she says flatly.
“And in the middle of that orgasm, didn’t
you want to yell a few things?”
“Sometimes.”
“And why didn’t you?”
She looks at her nails as if they’re
suddenly fascinating. “It didn’t seem right. It was…too intimate. I would have
felt dumb. He didn’t like any of that stuff.”
The plot thickens. “Any of what stuff?”
“Sex that didn’t involve the missionary
position or the bed.”
My mouth drops open. My brain and penis
can’t compute this. “I feel so sorry for you.”
We must remedy this.
She glares at me. “It’s not like I didn’t
want to do it. I did. And he did try it. Most of it. But it always went back to
the same old.”
I knew it. She’s a nerd on the streets and
a freak in the sheets.
“I don’t mean to brag,” I tell her in all
seriousness. “But you do realize that I could give you an orgasm in thirty
seconds.”
Her eyes widen. I can’t tell if she’s
horrified or intrigued. “I don’t believe you and I don’t want you to try.”
She’s not getting it. I frown, trying to
explain. “If you’re having good sex and it’s with someone you’re comfortable
with, you won’t worry about holding back. You’ll cry out all the nonsense you
want, you’ll make noises like a pig and scream like you’re on fire because you
truly can’t have a good orgasm unless you’re letting go on all accounts.” I
lean back in my chair and study her, running my fingers along my jaw. “I would
venture that every time you came with your ex, you were only experiencing half
of what you should have been. How is it with your vibrators?”
I expect her to tell me to fuck off, that
I’m getting too personal but to my surprise she gives me a small smile. “It’s
better. But I do have a roommate with exceptionally good hearing.” She clears
her throat. “Anyway, so I guess I’m wrong. The heroine can make all the noise
she wants.”
“And have first time sex in public.”
“I don’t know…”
“Believe me, when you finally get a chance
to fuck, you don’t care where it is. That’s why I always have a condom in my
pocket. And the more public the sex, the sneakier you have to be, the hotter it
is.”
“But in the book you would never get
caught.”
“You don’t always get caught in real life
too.”
I can see she wants to ask me where I’ve
done it but she loses her nerve. “Okay.” She looks back to the document. “I
accept defeat.”
But I don’t want her to. I want to prove to
her I’m right and not have her take my word.
Is there a non-creepy way to show her just
how amazing good sex can feel? I’m thinking not.
Or…maybe there is.
About Karina:
Karina Halle is a former travel writer and
music journalist and The New York Times, Wall Street Journal and USA Today
Bestselling author of The Pact, Racing the Sun, Sins & Needles and over 25
other wild and romantic reads. She lives on an island off the coast of British
Columbia with her husband and her rescue pup, where she drinks a lot of wine,
hikes a lot of trails and devours a lot of books.
Halle is represented by the Waxman Leavell
Agency and is both self-published and published by Simon & Schuster and
Hachette in North America and in the UK.
Hit her up on Instagram at @authorHalle, on
Twitter at @MetalBlonde and on Facebook. You can also visit
www.authorkarinahalle.com and sign up for the newsletter for news, excerpts,
previews, private book signing sales and more.
Facebook
Twitter
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