Y’all, we are doing All The Things with this one entry.
We have a Q&A with Alisha Rai complete with nosy questions and some light mathematics.
We have ARCs of Hate to Want You, the first book in her new Avon series to give away!
AND we have the cover for Wrong to Need You to share with you, which no kidding, made Amanda and I have the following conversation as we prepped this entry:
Sarah: GET READY.
COVER SENT.
Amanda: Oh…
Oh wow.
Sarah: Right.
Like, omg.
Amanda: Those should come with a fainting couch.
All the words and images herein are so much fun. So let’s get this party started – it’s Q&A time! Please enjoy my asking Alisha Rai questions, all sorts of nosy questions.
Sarah: On a scale of 1 – 45,698, how excited are you about these covers? (And elaborate past the number because I’m a terrible person?)
Alisha: Approximately 44,501. I’d say 45,698, but I’m saving something for the third cover.
I love these covers. I adore them. I want to hug them and pet them and maybe I’ve kissed my screen? I mean, I’m not saying I have, but life will be super convenient for kissing purposes once I have the paperbacks in my hands.
S: I JUST LEARNED that the model’s tattoo says something surprisingly very pertinent to the story! How is it related?
A: IT DOES. Feel free to zoom. On his shoulder, not his abs…actually, I won’t police your zooming.
Tattoos are so fascinating to me because they can reveal a lot about a person. Livvy, the heroine of Hate To Want You, bleeds her feelings into her skin. The tattoo on her cover is all prickly flowers because she’s tired of feeling like a vine clinging to her first love.
Jackson, the hero of Wrong to Need You, uses his tattoos to ground him to the roots he’s abandoned but craves so badly. Everything he puts on his skin is a reminder of what he’s lost and where he came from–what makes him the man he is.
S: We’ve talked before about one of the challenges in contemporary romance being the obstacle(s) that provide tension to keep the protagonists apart. What are the obstacles facing the couples in this series? I know there’s a family feud, there’s distance both physical and emotional – how much crying should we expect to be doing, here?
A: I think if you buy them in the store, you get a free little pack of Kleenex.
Seriously, though, I always try to balance laughs and sexiness and angst, so hopefully any choked up feelings you get will be chuckled or heart-warmed away pretty quickly.
In Hate To Want You, the biggest obstacles are the external circumstances and family dynamics that tore the main characters apart as young lovers. In Wrong to Need You, the obstacles are more internal, the hopeless pain of falling in love with someone who seems unattainable.
In all of the books, though, the main obstacle keeping the characters apart is their shared past. I don’t think all broken or impossible relationships can be repaired, but I love writing about ones that can. It gives me hope, in general…the idea that history can be terrible, but it can be overcome.
S: You said in our podcast interview that Hate to Want You is Romeo & Juliet meets “Hotline Bling” without all the sexism and murder/suicide. Do you have an equally enticing description for Wrong to Need You?
A: I can give you a trope mashup for Wrong to Need You! It’s best friends to lovers/best friends brother/forbidden love/brother’s widow (is that a trope? It is now!)/workplace romance + consensual angsty boning.
This book also lacks sexist lyrics and the h/h dying. I feel pretty secure promising the lack of those things in all my books.
You write about siblings very frequently. Do things your own siblings have said or done make an appearance in your stories?
A: Probably subconsciously! I have a soft spot for writing characters with younger siblings because nobody else can make you feel both super cool and super…not.
What do you think are key components to writing convincing stories connected by family, either close or estranged? (I mean, let’s face it, family dramas that aren’t our own painful ones are very fascinating!)
A: Ooooh, I do love writing families, both the ones you have by blood and make by choice. I think even when a family is close, it’s imperfect, yeah? There can be frustration and anger and resentment and even pain mixed in with the love, and that’s okay and normal.
For example, Sadia, the heroine in Wrong to Need You has a complicated relationship with her family where they were super close, then estranged, and now close-ish again, but there’s still some residual strain. I think exploring the nuances in family dynamics is really what makes reading them realistic and satisfying.
With your other books, readers have mentioned specific scenes that either made them ferociously hungry or made them fan their faces (or both). Which scenes do you think will cause reader responses?
A: I feel pretty proud of the outdoors sexytimes in these books, but I’ll let everyone pick their own favorite scenes.
As far as food, the hero of Hate To Want You, Nicholas, has a ridiculous sweet tooth and Jackson, the hero of Wrong to Need You, woos his heroine with, like, mac-and-cheese, so I can’t promise any healthy hunger pangs. Maybe some day I’ll write a sexy salad scene.
By the way, googling “sexy mac and cheese” leads to all kind of search results.
…
And now onto the absolutely gorgeous cover of Wrong to Need You, which is the second book in the Forbidden Hearts series.
Seriously, make sure you have a fainting couch nearby.
Ready?
Here is the description:
He wasn’t supposed to fall in love with his brother’s widow…
Accused of a crime he didn’t commit, Jackson Kane fled his home, his name, and his family. Ten years later, he’s come back to town: older, wiser, richer, tougher—and still helpless to turn away the one woman he could never stop loving, even after she married his brother.
Sadia Ahmed can’t deal with the feelings her mysterious former brother-in-law stirs, but she also can’t turn down his offer of help with the cafe she’s inherited. While he heats up her kitchen, she slowly discovers that the boy she adored has grown into a man she’s simply unable to resist.
An affair is unthinkable, but their desire is undeniable. As secrets and lies are stripped away, Sadia and Jackson must decide if they’re strong enough to face the past…and step into a future together.
Wrong to Need You is out November 28, 2017. Mark your calendars!
But wait! There is more!
Avon has been gracious enough to provide five (5) print ARCs of Rai’s Hate to Want You to give away! This book doesn’t come out until July! So you can stare with your jaw dangling at the cover for book two (I mean, if you’re like us, anyway) and enter to win an advanced reader copy of book one.
We are doing all the fun things, here.
Standard disclaimers apply: We’re not being compensated for this giveaway. Open to U.S. and Canadian residents where permitted by applicable law. Must be over 18 and feeling free to engage in excess squeeing. Though Hate to Want You has some Romeo & Juliet vibes, please no shouting up to balconies. Also, only happily ever afters here. No poisons or daggers allowed! Comments will close 7 April 2017 around noon EST and winners will be announced shortly after.
To enter, comment below with your favorite star-crossed lovers from books, TV, or film! (And how much do you like the covers, eh?)
Good luck to all, and thank you, Avon!
WINNER UPDATE: Here are our winners! Thanks to everyone who commented below and winners, check your email (and spam folders!) shortly.
Miss Louisa
Lisa M
YesLikeTheColor
The Other JDK
Emily C
Alanna and Marko from Saga!
I’ll go with Buffy & Angel, though Spuffy is only a teeny step behind.
Thank you for the giveaway – the books have been on my to-buy list since they were announced, and the covers are hot as hell!
I’m having a hard time thinking of any. Marc Antony and Cleopatra? Or maybe Rhett and Scarlett? Love the covers and can’t wait to read the new series! Thanks!!!
Fave star-crossed lovers will always be the variations on Beauty and the Beast, but I also was just thinking the other day about watching SCARECROW & MRS KING as a kid – !
Natasha & Daniel from The Sun is Also a Star
I hope I win! 🙂
Gonna go out into the wonderful world of fantasy and say Kvothe and Denna from Pat Rothfuss’ Kingkiller Chronicle. Those two shatter my heart.
Also, I can’t wait to read this series—Alisha Rai is a romance goddess and those covers are delectable.
I think Rick and Ilsa from Casablanca. So many of the movies I used to adore have now grown stale, but I have only to see a moment from Casablanca, and I’m transfixed. But I definitely look forward to seeing what Alisha Rai can do!
Alana & Marko from Saga
Buffy and Spike. No one will ever convince me that they were not perfect for each other.
So many people already chose my #1, which is Anne and Wentworth! But, I’ll also go more obscure and say Pi Ya Nuo and Du Zi Feng from the Chinese drama, Bromance.
Thanks for the contest!
Mal and Inara from Firefly. Dammit, Mal! You should have bought a clue and stopped acting like she was beneath you when you know damn well you wanted to be all up in her kimono having a tea party. Years later and I still keep hoping that she comes back.
Those covers are amazing!! My fave star crossed lovers…it’s hard to narrow down but I’ll go with Janet and Thomas in Pamela Dean’s Tam Lin, a gorgeous book I reread at least once per year.
From real life, Grace Gifford and Joseph Mary Plunkett. From fiction, the one coming to me now is Morgan and Arthur from Joan Wolf’s Road to Avalon.
When I think star crossed, I think Romeo and Juliet.
Lovely covers indeed!
Sam and Alyssa from Suzanne Brockmann’s Troubleshooter series
Romeo and Juliet in their many incarnations are certainly the first star-crossed folks I think of (West Side Story, anyone?) but I can’t resist naming Sam and Alyssa from GONE TOO FAR by Suzanne Brockmann. I just loved their story and Suzanne’s books in general (wonderful in audio, most with two narrators, which is extra fun).
Spike and Buffy!
Buffy & Angel. When Buffy had to send Angel to hell, my sister and I sobbed. Then we laughed at crying so hard for fictional characters but still kept crying.
Hardcore Buffy/Angel
These covers are OMG gorgeous!
This discussion does really raise the interesting question of what exactly counts as star-crossed lovers, and I’m sort of blanking on good ones, but I think at least my younger self would say Rory and Dean from Gilmore Girls, though current me has a lot less patience with that relationship.
I don’t know if this counts as star crossed but I adore Lothaire and Ellie from Lothaire by kresley cole and Jessica and Bobby Ray from Shelly Laurenston’s book the beast in him. And of course, Akira and Jacob from Alisha Ray’s a gentleman in the street. The covers and blurbs for Alisha’s new books are amazing. Thanks for hosting a giveaway.
Buffy and Angel? No Spike, no Angel… Spike… Spike then, while it started iffy, it did develop into a friendship and more. Much more adulting was going on between them in that last season.
Holy horchata, could those cover models be any more beautiful?
Yowza.
oh yeah, star-crossed lovers … the beauty smote me and I forgot … John of Gaunt and Katherine Swynford.
Can’t say I have a favorite. I like my HEAs. And I love Alisha Rai’s books — including the covers! 🙂
I’m loving all the Persuasion love in the comments– that’s probably my fave Austen. As for romance novels from this century, I remember being convinced that Elijah and Jemma from the Desperate Duchesses Series were destined to be unhappy. It took 5 books for them to get their crap together, and it nearly killed me!
These covers are both gorgeous! Why must we wait until November for the second one?! *cries hysterically*
I had others in mind and then Jean Jambas mentioned Mal and Inara from Firefly. I’m totally on board with that!
The covers are beautiful.
Ummm… I’m gonna have to go with William Wallace and his gal from Braveheart… it was just on, so fresh inspiration 🙂 thanks for sharing!
I’m with Mary K & Kaitesi. The Doctor and his star-crossed loves have depleted many a tissue box in this house. And while David Tennant remains my Doctor of choice, that episode last season with River, when he gives her the sonic? EPIC ugly cry.
I don’t know if any remembers the movie Holes (with Sigourney Weaver and Shia LaBoeuf) – but the characters Kate Barlow (who becomes Kissin’ Kate Barlow) and Sam the Onion Man. Omygosh I just picked this because its one of my earliest memories of star crossed. “I can fix that”
My favorite star crossed lovers are Wesley & Fred from Angel. Never got over the how that ended.
Lucy and Daniel from The Ghost and Mrs. Muir. One of my favorite movies! Thanks!
OMG Sam and Alyssa! They are my absolute favorite!
These covers are GAH. I just made a noise that scared my cat.
I agree with Megan M. If they’re star-crossed, they don’t get an HEA, and gah! c’mon, these days a girl needs a little HEA in her life to balance things like: having to complete business taxes, making sure the lawn gets mowed regularly, and taking the dog back to the vet. Uh, sorry, what was the question?
I’mma pick just about any couple from Angel (the series, though Buffy & Angel count.)
Cordelia and Aral of Vorkosigan fame. They work it all out pretty quick, I think I love them because I have no patients for couples who can never work it out.
Ned and Chuck from Pushing Daisies!
OMG those covers, though! **fans self** **continues to stare at covers**
Uh, my brain is too distracted by the drool-worthy covers to properly answer the question.
Veronica and Logan from Veronica Mars!
And I love both of those covers. The tattoos look great and I LOVE the purple highlights in the Hate to Want You cover model’s hair.
from tv i’d have to go with the doctor and rose. from books/movies i’m still obsessed with TFIOS, so augustus and hazel </3
Well I just finished the YA Starcrossed by Barbara Dee so currently its Maddie and Gemma. TV – Mitchell and anyone on Being Human UK. Movie I dunno, Bette Davis andGeorge Brent in Dark Victory?