Covers & Cocktails Giveaway: Now You See Me

It’s cocktail time! And boy, do I need it. I will give you a small warning that this drink includes Fireball Whiskey, which can be a pretty divisive component. However, I promise that it works and the cinnamon isn’t too overpowering.

The drink inspiration this month comes from Club Deception by Sarah Skilton. I picked this book, at first, based on the cover alone. It’s so striking, isn’t it?

When I read the description and realized it was about the women running the show behind their male counterparts in the world of magicians, I made vicious grabby hands until someone gave in and allowed me to have an ARC.

Club Deception
A | BN | K | AB
What I loved about this book is that it’s about two women, Jessica and Claire, who have two different experiences with the magician community, and I wanted this drink – Now You See Me – to be a marriage between the two heroines’ personalities.

So let’s talk about the two of them. Jessica is recently married to a magician. She’s new to the WAGS (widows and girlfriends) of the magician scene. When she first meets Claire, Jessica smells like peaches, her nails are painted in a peachy hue, and she’s wearing a peach-colored dress. Of course, that meant I had to include peaches in some way.

Meanwhile, Claire is amazing. She’s the HBIC (head bitch in charge). She’s a little bitter and jaded, having created her philandering husband’s routines. Claire has stage fright, which has kept her from becoming a magician in her own right. She knows some pretty cool lighter tricks using a flame (cue Fireball) and she tries to hide the fact she’s from North Carolina (my iced tea component) and not California. The drink is sweet with a kick of cinnamon and spice at the very end.

It’s also way stronger than I thought. It left me feeling a bit buzzed, even after scarfing down a Lunchable beforehand.

The book has plenty of mystery, some romance, a badass feminist magician, and SCANDAL!

To make things even better, we have three (3) copies to give away courtesy of the amazing team at Grand Central Publishing.

Ingredients for a Now You See Me drink

 

 

Shopping list:
Fireball Whiskey
Peach liqueur
Peach iced tea

Proportions:
2 oz peach iced tea
1 oz Fireball Whiskey
1 oz peach liqueur

Simply put all the ingredients into a shaker full of ice. Shake! Then pour into a chilled glass.

Modifications and notes:

  • I personally felt that 1 oz of Fireball was just enough. You can taste it mostly at the end of each sip, but it’s not overpowering. If, however, you’re super sensitive to the taste, use a little bit less. I was worried the peach flavored ingredients would make the drink too sweet, but the cinnamon really cuts that.
  • In terms of peach liqueur, I just grabbed the first thing I found. If you have a favorite brand, feel free to use it.
  • Same goes with tea! I, unfortunately, no longer live in the South and don’t have access to the amazingly tasty array of Publix brand iced teas.
  • If you’d rather serve it over ice, go ahead. Regardless, I definitely recommend having the drink nice and cold.

A honey-hued drink in a martini class next to a copy of Club Deception

Now it’s giveaway time! To enter, list what awesome or unconventional profession you want to see a future heroine have.

Standard disclaimers apply: We are not being compensated for this giveaway. Void where prohibited. Open to US residents where permitted by applicable law. Must be over 18 and willing to pick a card, any card. No sawing anyone in half, unless you have prior consent. Please drop off your rabbits in hats at the coat check. Comments will close Sunday July 30, 2017 around noon ET, and winners will be announced shortly thereafter.

WINNER UPDATE: And our winners are:

Cat C.

Denise

Pchop

Thanks to everyone who entered!

Comments are Closed

  1. Cat C says:

    Great question, I might have to stalk this thread. I’ve been a music scholar, a church musician, and piano accompanist, none of which get much representation in books. Though I guess there are musician characters not infrequently…I remember being really indignant when in Let It Be Me by Kate Noble the concert pianist heroine was traveling without access to a piano right before the concert which annoyed me because the piece she was playing was so physically demanding that she would have lost some endurance (I had to do push-ups as part of my preparation for a recital, in addition to frequent practice). So maybe not music, because I’m much more likely to nitpick about it, especially flowery descriptions. (Though having an accompanist-soloist romance would be a great twist on forced proximity.)

    But actually more than music, I want to see things that echo my day job in finance. (The closest thing I can recall is in Trade Me by Courtney Milan the hero jokes about having $1 salary so he can pay capital gains tax instead of income tax.) I just saw The Accountant movie with Ben Affleck and now I’m dying for more narratives involving forensic accounting.

  2. QOTU says:

    I”d love to see a pilot! (Preferably one who doesn’t give it up for love/children. ). Sigh, anything other than a teacher, baker, or journalist, really.
    And I agree with Cat C, I nitpick the heck out of characters who work in my field.

  3. hng23 says:

    Mr23’s favourite winter drink is a shot of Fireball in a glass of chocolate milk, over ice. He’s weird but he’s mine.

  4. LauraL says:

    How about a furniture restorer? I nitpick anything in my own profession, too.

    I’ve been all over iced tea drinks this Summer. Firefly iced tea vodka and lightly sweet tea has been my go to porch swing cocktail.

  5. Janine says:

    I would love more “performing arts” romances, especially with characters who are more “behind the scenes” (set designers, stage managers, etc). Love Lucy Parker’s theater books and want MORE!

  6. Yota says:

    Can we get some park rangers up in here? Or more women working in traditionally male fields, but without woman on woman shaming?

    I’m making all the grabby hands for this book. This totally sounds like my jam.

  7. DonnaMarie says:

    Reminds me after yummy cocktail I had in North Carolina (funny how things fall in line) last summer. Iced tea, peach moonshine and a couple other somethings, possibly club soda. So good and so sad they weren’t making them this year. Should have gotten the recipe last year, sigh. My experiments don’t turn out nearly as tasty.

    Unusual occupation? I’d like to see more characters who work at NPOs. Something like Truckers Against Trafficking or Shelter Inc. And not a case worker or celebrity volunteer. Maybe a grant proposal writer.

  8. denise says:

    Captain of a boat for vacation excursions.

  9. YesLikeTheColor says:

    It’s silly but wood working, architect, house flipper (HGTV nerd here). Something again typically male, CEO even.

  10. Lori says:

    Hmm…I don’t really have an unusual job but I’ve never heard of a romance with a trainer/instructional designer in it (essentially I design & teach classes for employees). It used to be a field where trainers would travel all of the time to do on-site classes but now it’s mostly online and the trainers can work from home. So I can see a few ways that could be worked into a plot. 🙂

  11. Pchop says:

    How about marine biology? Not dolphin trainer marine biology, but legit out on the ocean studying marine life.

  12. Nancy C says:

    I have a vague note somewhere for a future romance novel to write that features a heroine who is a process server. I had a high school friend who used to do this, and she had some great stories to tell. It requires a lot of confidence, some ingenuity (or sneakiness), and a sense of humor helps. I like what that says about a woman who chooses this work.

  13. ReneeG says:

    How about a lady house-painter or handy-woman?

    The book sounds great!

  14. Ashley M. says:

    I’m a research study nerd, so how about an IRB coordinator? (IRB coordinators are the group monitoring ethics and consent for research studies).

  15. Emily A says:

    I’m reading Tessa Dare’s Say Yes to the Marquess, (loving it) and the heroine is opening her own brewery. Brewery owner seems like an unusual choice and I love the details of her tasting the various ales. More brewery owners.

    I like some of the ideas, especially the pilot. I would also pick astrophysicist.

  16. Kristi says:

    Lady Bosses as in CEOs.

  17. Emily says:

    I want more like Vicky Bliss. Academia isn’t that uncommon, but I always like her approach to it.

    Outside contractor to fix all the information flow problems in an organization? Performance artist? Professional researchers?

  18. ClaireC says:

    Agree that I am very picky about books that feature my field of work (boy can I rant about The Sweethearts’ Knitting Club!!!), so the closest I’d want to come to knitting/yarn would be a book about a shepherd. Maybe a boss lady shepherd with her own farm, and the resident vet or traveling shearer??

    If you also like yarn and/or knitting, I can give thumbs up to How to Knit a Love Song by Rachael Heron. There’s a book that gets knitting and knitters right. (I don’t love the sequels as much, fair warning).

    Otherwise, I am always in for more natural-sciences heroines. Park rangers, marine biologists, paleontologists (please please please!), safari guides, zookeepers – ooh, what about a wildlife photographer heroine?!

  19. kitkat9000 says:

    Damn, ClaireC beat me to posting. Therefore seconding her rec for natural sciences heroines. Also adding wildlife biologist, astronomer, fighter pilot, fire investigator, demolitions expert & astronaut. Possibly also an IVF specialist.

  20. Gabrielle says:

    @pchop: Oceans of Fire by Christine Feehan has marine biologist heroine. Contemporary paranormal, if that’s of interest.

  21. Lisa says:

    I would love to see a heroine in the medical field who was not a nurse, there are a few out there with female doctors, but the overwhelming majority is nurse. There’s pharmacy or respiratory therapy, diagnostic imaging, physiotherapy, we need/want some love too!

    Also can we see a few more variations when it comes to specialization in the romantic medical world? Our heroes and heroines always seems to be cardiologists or surgeons with the occasional oncologist, GP or obstetrician tossed in. Where’s our allergist or proctologist in a leading role? 😉

  22. Vicki says:

    People I know – my clinic manager who started as an MA and worked up – now in charge of scheduling, ordering, orienting, etc. A dozen balls in the air and does it well.

    My mother used to clean houses for dead people, get them ready for the families to sell – she lives in an area full of people who retired from else where. Dump runs, estate sales, dealing with grieving and/or greedy families, finding secrets. She stopped doing that when she hit 86 years old.

    Agree with Lisa – pharmacy would be great. I can’t tell you how many times pharmacy has saved my ass. And the longest newborn code I ever ran, pharmacy came in from home at midnight and sat in the nursery with me for six hours until the transport team was able to get there, double checking doses, telling me which lines I could run which meds in.

    Another friend harvests and sells seaweed – great thing to do though physically demanding. You live by the tides and the weather. Yet another grows and sells herbs and teaches herbology classes.

    Also have a friend who was a special ed teacher, now does foster care for medically fragile children.

    Any of these would be a good start for a heroine in any sort of story.

  23. Turophile says:

    I’d like to see a lobbyist.

  24. Emmy says:

    I’d like to see a computer scientist. Not a programmer, but someone who builds algorithms. Preferably a heroine who is a real character and not the female version of all stereotypes that ever existed about computer scientists.There’s so much interesting stuff happening in the field of machine learning, and there’d be so many interesting stories to be told of algorithms doing either really awesome or really horrible things (and sometimes both).

    Of course, being an astrophysicist myself, I’d love to see a heroine who studies the universe, but again, I’ve been burned one too many times by heroines who weren’t characters, just stereotypes about what people think scientists are (or aren’t). That makes me wary these days about scientist heroines.

  25. Ellie says:

    This question would make a great rec league topic. I personally would like to see a romance in which either the heroin or the hero has a job involving wilderness/the great outdoors and they get it right. I.e., no heroes going out to trek through the snow in denim jackets.

  26. Amanda says:

    @Ellie: Great idea! I’d be happy to add it to the Rec League calendar.

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