We are happy to have Heather Snow at Smexy today to celebrate her recent release, Sweet Deception.
A Literal Heroine
Lady criminologist, Miss Emma Wallingford, unknowingly finds herself tangled in the dangerous final mission of Lord Derick Aveline, a spy who also happens to be her long lost first love. But when deception, however sweet, is the name of the game, no one can be trusted. And every love—and every life—is at risk.
Hello! Heather Snow here and I am thrilled to be continuing my blog tour for Sweet Deception here at Smexy books. Thank you for having me back again! What I am doing for this tour is pulling back the curtain of Sweet Deception a bit, sharing a few of my favorite passages from the book each day while letting you in on the thoughts behind them. You can keep up with the stops (or go back and read ones you missed) either on my website (www.HeatherSnowBooks.com) or my Facebook page (www.facebook.com/AuthorHeatherSnow).
Here’s a bit from chapter two. Being ever practical, Emma has agreed to share a single horse with Derick to save time in the race to find a missing maid before nightfall, but the effort to ignore his draw on her senses has been a challenge…
Emma pushed the blanket away from her face, preparing to dismount. A refreshing blast of clean air cleared her senses—and opened them to another scent, one of bay and bergamot and man. Derick.
Just like that, she could no longer block her awareness of him. Every rolling undulation of the horse beneath them translated to a corresponding brush of Derick’s hard thighs against her bottom. His nearness, his scent, his low voice murmuring to their mount, the way she sat caged in his embrace—it simply overwhelmed her. The blanket grew stifling, constricting. She had to get clear of it.
Emma wriggled her torso out of the blanket, pushing it down to her waist to free her arms. Behind her, Derick made a strangled grunt, as if her writhing had somehow injured him. She stilled suddenly.
His hands moved down her body, gripping her hips.
Emma gasped at his familiarity, but before she could upbraid him, he scooted her forward on his thighs, away from his, well, his . . . And all of a sudden she understood what that curious hardness against her hip must have been. She flushed hot.
Dear Lord, she had to get off of this horse and away from this man.
“Stop,” she commanded, tugging on the blanket in an effort to pull it from beneath her. If she could kick her legs free, she could vault from the horse.
Derick’s arms moved back up around her waist. “Emma. Cease. Moving.”
“But we’ve arrived.” She pointed to the fallen oak several feet ahead that marked the boundary of her assigned section. “Let me down,” she ordered, grateful she had reason now to put some much-needed distance between herself and Derick. She should be putting all of her energy into finding Molly, not spiraling into a tizzy over her own confused feelings. “I suggest we split up, to cover more ground. I’ll take the right side.”
But he didn’t release her. If anything, his arms tensed, pulling her closer. Why would he do that?
She wrenched around in his lap to look at his face, placing her hands squarely on his chest to support her twisted position.
Derick’s jaw had clenched tight, his eyes showed lines of strain, almost as if her movements . . . pained him?
“We stay together,” he said, implacable.
“That’s ridiculous,” she argued, all concern for him dissipating in the face of his illogical dictate. “How else am I to take advantage of your warm body?”
Derick’s head pulled back, and his eyes scrunched together. “What?”
Had she said something wrong? She did sometimes. It was the literal way her mind worked. She tended to take things differently than most people. “You argued that I should let you come along because ‘a fast steed and another warm body wouldn’t be amiss.’ I agree. Two will search faster than one.”
“Ah.” He drew the word out, eyeing her in a way that made her certain she’d made a fool of herself somehow.
Confession time. In all books, an author puts a part of him/herself into it, consciously or otherwise. In Emma, I’ve created a character who is literal to the extreme and I didn’t have to look hard for inspiration. My husband loves to tease me for the way my mind works. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve made a fool of myself by interpreting something he’s said in a completely different way than he meant it or vice versa. The difference between Emma and I is that I usually catch what I’ve done (sadly just a split second too late to save myself!), where as Emma often doesn’t get the joke at all.
Here’s how a reviewer described her: “Her brain is logical, analytical, literal, and her filter is defective leading to both trouble and hilarity.”
I must admit, I had great fun inflicting my little flaw upon another person, for once!
Please look out for SWEET DECEPTION, available now, wherever books are sold. I’ll be happy to give away a copy of my debut, SWEET ENEMY, the first book in this series. To enter, simply leave me a comment and answer the question: What is a quirk of yours that you think would make for fun in a fictional character?
Heather Snow is a historical romance author with a degree in Chemistry who discovered she much preferred creating chemistry on the page, rather than in the lab. She lives in the Midwest with her husband, two rambunctious boys and one very put upon cat. Find out more or connect with Heather at:
Facebook www.facebook.com/AuthorHeatherSnow
Twitter www.twitter.com/HeatherSnowRW
SWEET DECEPTION Available NOW:
Rainy Day Books (my local indie)
Amazon (Kindle Edition)
I so do not have quirks..I am pretty normal, ok except for that habit of dipping chips in milk but I think that would make people feel grossed out ;)
If open to all then I am in
Chips in milk? Hmmm…not certain they had chips in the Regency period, so I could probably never use that one! :)
Thanks for stopping by.
I have a remarkably untidy desk but have a knack of locating things whether on my desk or something lost in the home by a family member. Near as I can tell, I have always been the go-to person to look for lost things even as a child. It was never mentioned, but now that I am married with my own children, I am still the person asked to locate almost anything in my home whether it was likely to pass through my hands or not. Had never thought of it until reading the question in your post.
Enjoyed reading the excerpt and bet the book is a hoot with that particular character quirk for the heroine.
I did have fun writing those parts, for certain :) And being the finder of lost things? I like that…hmmm…
Thanks for commenting
I have to admit, I’m intrigued by the description of the book and the little quote from the reviewer. ;)
Hmmm.. a quirk eh? For the life of me, I cannot go to sleep with my feet covered. I cannot wear socks to bed (? people do this too, I’ve seen it!) and I make my feet poke out of the covers when I fall asleep. Same goes for sleeping bags and where ever else I happen to be napping.
I have to have one foot sticking out. But just one. As for wearing socks to bed??? (Shudders) :)
Congrats on the new release, Heather. I wish I had an adorable quirk, but can’t think of any.
Thanks for the congrats, Jane :) I’m sure you have many…we just don’t always see them about ourselves.
I love Emma’s quirk. It makes me think of the TV show Bones. As for a quirk of my own, my friends and my hubs tell me I’m a bit obsessive about my food. After it’s cooked and on my plate, it often takes me 5+ minutes of playing with it before I’m ready to eat it. For example, I used to eat at a salad bar for lunch, and one time, a friend that was with me was flabbergasted that I wiped off the lettuce with a napkin to dry it before I would eat it. I still don’t understand why she thought that was so strange.
Hi JenM :) Bones is one of my favorite characters…I sort of saw Emma as a cross between her and Charlie Epps from NUMB3RS, if you’ve ever seen that show.
I must admit, I have a perfect bite quirk…inevitably, I end up with one bite of everything left of everything on my plate to finish my meal :)
Nice excerpt. I don’t think I have any.
Nothing wrong with not having quirks ;) Nice to see you again
I’m like a living trivia encyclopedia. I read a lot so I have all these small tidbits of information in my mind that I like to blurt out and share with people, which usually shocks them that I know that polar bears are all lefties, and how they discovered it, etc. :-D LOL
The marks of a well-read woman :) Great to see you, Stella!
I have entered at other sites and revealed this quirk. I like to rap. My family is so embarrassed!
Ha! How fun! Thanks for coming by.
Can’t wait to read it, Heather! I love how your character is “literal to the extreme”. I’m sure she’ll be a much more memorable character with that kind of quirk:) Thanks for the giveaway!
yadkny@hotmail.com
Thanks, Yadira. She was certainly one of the funner heroines to write!
I’m a little OCD (a lot OCD) and I think that would be interesting to read about in a romance heroine. Of course I wouldn’t wish that on anyone in real life, but you know, I’d like to see how the author/heroine/hero delt with it :-)
That would be terribly interesting. I can’t really think of any heroines that have dealt with that particular challege…a couple of heroes come to mind. It seems like a tougher sell to give our heroines such issues…maybe because publishers think the reader will accept it more in a man (because we want to help him), but no so much in the woman character? I don’t know.
Congrats on the new book. I really don’t like shaking people’s hands. I’ll do it, but I always wonder if they washed their hands. LOL
Hi Kim :) I have a friend who worked for a laboratory. She is the biggest germophobe! It’s quite funny…she should have bought stock in hand sanitizer :)
Well – I probably have a couple quirks – I’m a bit of a procrastinator, but I’m also a bit compulsive about getting things that are exactly right (ie can’t make up my mind about what to choose sometimes).
Ha, Diane! I totally understand…the perfectionist procrastinator. We stress ourselves out with those dueling needs, don’t we? :)
Lovely guestpost and excerpt, thank you! The more of those I read, the more I want to read the books.
A quirk? Never leaving the house without at least one book in my purse :)
That’s not a quirk, that’s a way of life ;) Lovely to see you again