EXCERPT, GUEST POST & GIVEAWAY - The Other Brother by Lucy Felthouse

Please welcome romance and erotica author Lucy Felthouse. She's touring for her new story, "The Other Brother", part of Decadent Publishing's Calendar Men series. Today Lucy is sharing some background, and inspiration for, the main characters, then there's an excerpt and a giveaway. 

Lucy Felthouse is a very busy woman! She writes erotica and erotic romance in a variety of subgenres and pairings, and has over 100 publications to her name, with many more in the pipeline. These include several editions of Best Bondage Erotica, Best Women's Erotica 2013 and Best Erotic Romance 2014. Another string to her bow is editing, and she has edited and co-edited a number of anthologies, and also edits for a small publishing house. She owns Erotica For All, is book editor for Cliterati, and is one eighth of The Brit Babes. Find out more at http://www.lucyfelthouse.co.uk. Join her on Facebook and Twitter, and subscribe to her newsletter at: http://eepurl.com/gMQb9

Character Backgrounds for The Other Brother by Lucy Felthouse (@cw1985)

For some stories more than others, information on the character backgrounds is needed. Sometimes, it just helps for the author to know the background information, even if it’s not actually included in the story. For this book, I fell somewhere in the middle.

Certain parts of America, including Boston, have large Irish populations. This is how I chose the area where my characters would be from, even though their story doesn’t take place there. I don’t quite know why my lead male had to come from Irish descent as it doesn’t have any relevance to the story. Perhaps I just liked the name Patrick! Throw Sean into the mix and you’ve got two very nice names which hint at a background. It just goes to show – the whims of a writer don’t even make sense to the writer, sometimes ;)

Boston’s relative proximity to New York City was handy, though. It meant that my lead female, Melodie, could flee to The Big Apple and it’d be far enough away to leave her past behind, but not so far that she couldn’t visit her family quite easily. She needs distance from what’s happened in her past, understandably, but she also deeply loves her family and friends and needs to know they’re just over an hour’s flight away. When her past catches up to her, though, will it make things easier, or more difficult? You’ll have to read the book and find out ;)\

Happy Reading!

Lucy x

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Excerpt:

Melodie Carr reluctantly clicked delete on the e-mail with a disappointed sigh. She couldn’t contribute to the charity calendar for the Hero Family Fund, a cause very close to her heart, because she didn’t know anyone suitable to photograph. Although her photography work varied—from children to pets, landscapes to portraits, she’d done a bit of everything—she got the impression the call for calendar models sought hunky guys to create a collection to make women swoon. Unfortunately, she didn’t work with professional models and therefore had to give up on the idea. A cute dog, something she had plenty of images of, simply wouldn’t cut it.

She might not be able to contribute, but resolved to find out when the calendar would be available and do her bit to help by buying a few copies. Some eye candy on her wall would definitely not go amiss, and her friends Poppy, Lola and Charis, and her grandmother, Joyce, would no doubt appreciate it. She grinned. Joyce, always good fun, said, there’s no such thing as too much eye candy. The saucy old broad.

Her smile faded. She missed her, having not been back to Boston to see her friends and family for a while. She should ask Joyce to come and visit her in New York—she hadn’t traveled much, and would love the hustle and bustle, the endless opportunities to people watch. Maybe Melodie and the rest of the family could buy her a ticket for her birthday. She’d have to give it some thought. It sure would be nice see a familiar face, other than via Skype.

Someone pressed the buzzer to her apartment and she sighed again. It was probably a delivery driver trying to get into the building. It wouldn’t even be a package for her.

Taking her time getting to the intercom, she hoped whoever it was would go away. No such luck—the buzzer squawked again. She inhaled deeply, trying to rein in her annoyance and avoid being rude or abrupt.

“Hello?”

“Hi,” a male voice said. “Are you Melodie? Melodie Carr?”

“I am.” A caller looking for her? Had she ordered something and forgotten about it? “Who’s calling?”

“It’s Patrick,” the voice replied. “Patrick Brogan.”

“Patrick….” Speechless, she laid a hand on the wall to steady herself as the bottom dropped out of her world. Evidently, running to New York—albeit under the pretense of a good career move—hadn’t been enough. Her past still followed her, still tried to flood her with reminders of what she’d lost.

“Melodie?”

Damn, the man’s persistent. She never should have admitted her identity before asking his. She could have told him he’d gotten the wrong place and sent him away.

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Photographer Melodie Carr moved to New York City to escape and make a fresh start. Her soldier fiancé was killed in a friendly-fire incident in Iraq, and she has been struggling to come to terms with it ever since. She still feels strongly about needless death and those left behind, so when she sees a call for photographs for a calendar of topless men, with profits going to the Hero Family Fund, she’s eager to help out. Unfortunately, she doesn’t know any men that fit the profile, so she gives up on the idea. That is, until Patrick Brogan—her late fiance’s brother—turns up in New York. Seeing him brings up all kinds of memories, but she’s determined to push them aside and be friends with Patrick. She also realizes he’d be perfect for the calendar. But can she persuade him to take part?

Publisher: Decadent Publishing

Format: ebook
Release Date: June 1, 2014

Buy links: Amazon UK | Amazon US* | Decadent Publishing | Barnes & Noble | ARe*   

Add to Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20554243-the-other-brother

Calendar Men blog (with FREE goodies!): http://calendar-men.blogspot.co.uk

  

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