Lisa Loves Literature: Stacy Kestwick

Showing posts with label Stacy Kestwick. Show all posts

Wednesday, December 26, 2018

Top 10 of 2018: New or New-to-Me Authors with Giveaway

So, guess what, I found another blog hosting a Top 10 of 2018 Event! So, I'm joining in, and on the days I have already done the topic they're doing, I'll do the ones I missed on the days I already did something different, or add one of the original top 10s that might not be listed if I'm not a fan of one of the days. This one is hosted by Kimberly Faye Reads, so click on her blog name to go join in! Here are the days scheduled:

Today's topic is the top 10 new or new-to-me authors I read in 2018. I think all of my books are authors that are new to me, not new. Seven are romance, and three are teen. Here is my list, and in no particular order as usual, other than I've separated the teen first, followed by the romance.

1.

A Prom to Remember was the first book I've read by Sandy Hall, although I do have a copy of her book A Little Something Different still sitting on my TBR shelf to be read.

2.

Star-Crossed was the first book I've read by Pintip Dunn, even though I have been hearing about her awesome books for so long! But now that I've read one, I'm hooked, and can't wait to read more!

3.

The first book I've read by Maria V. Snyder was Navigating the Stars, and I loved it! She is another author I've been hearing about forever it seems like. And I have to say her fans were right!

4.

I have been following Meghan Quinn on social media for awhile, but I first got to read her this year as part of a tour for her book Three Blind Dates. Not only is she hilarious on social media, but her sense of humor totally is included in all of her books. But she can also make you cry, as a couple other series I read by her this summer made me do. Also, I got to meet her at Book Bonanza this summer!

I fell in love with Drumline by Stacy Kestwick, probably in part because the main love interest had a dachshund and so there were some wiener jokes in there that all dachshund owners love to tell. Of course now I love following her on social media as well, and need more books from her!

6.

Again I actually got started reading J. Kenner with a blog tour for her Man of the Month series, starting with the 3rd one, Need You Now. I then got to meet her at Book Bonanza as well, and she asked me if I'd read her Stark series, which I hadn't and so she gave me a copy of the first one in that series to try out. I still need to post my review of it, but I loved it!

So, I totally fell in love with Carmen Jenner after reading her book Cake. Then I read another book by her, Bittersweet, and she is now one of my most MUST meet authors!

8.

So, I knew I might get to meet J.A. Huss at Book Bonanza, so I listened to the audio of one of her books, Taking Turns. At first I wasn't sure how I'd end up feeling overall about her, but I loved the book by the end, and now am a big fan. And yes, I did get to meet her!

Emma Hart is another author I discovered through blog tours, and like Carmen Jenner above, she is now one of my MUST meet authors, and totally auto-buy. I started by reading Four Day Fling, and now I am in love with her writing!

10.

I first discovered Michelle Mankin at the Kinky in Kansas City Romance Author convention last spring. I loved her book that I bought at the time, Rock F*ck Club, and was very excited to get to see her again at Book Bonanza in the summer.

So, those are my top 10 new-to-me authors of 2018.

I've got two more entries from this week, and if you check them out, there are two more giveaways: Top 10 Favorite Books of 2018, and Top 10 Favorite Covers of 2018.

And here is today's giveaway!

Giveaway:
Unfortunately, due to prices on these books, I am only going to be able to do e-books from Amazon if I want to do all the giveaways I have planned for this week. So you can pick any e-book from any of the above authors with a few exceptions: For J. Kenner you need to pick a book from her Man of the Month series, for Maria V. Snyder, you can only choose Navigating the Stars, and unfortunately, due to the prices again, I am not including any books by Sandy Hall or Pintip Dunn in this giveaway. I am doing two winners though, so two people will get to pick their e-books. And, each winner gets to spend up to $5. So if one book you want from one of the authors is $3.99, you could pick a $.99 one as well. If one is $2.99, you could pick a $1.99 as well. Your choice! Just enter the rafflecopter below!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Sunday, February 4, 2018

Audiobook Blog Tour Review with Author Interview and Giveaway: Drumline by Stacy Kestwick

Book info:

Title: Drumline

Author: Stacy Kestwick

Narrators: Stephen Dexter, Tracy Marks

Length: 9 hours 5 minutes

Publisher: Stacy Kestwick

Released: Dec. 4, 2017

Genre: Contemporary Romance

Traditions are important. Especially in the South. College football. Rivalries. Tailgating. Halftime shows. Some things just don’t change.

Until Reese Holland shows up with her long legs and no-bullshit attitude to audition for the prestigious all-male Rodner University snare line.

It doesn’t matter how much hazing she has to endure from Laird Bronson, with his narrowed green eyes and arrogant smirk. She wants that damn spot, and she’s more than good enough to earn it.

She expects there to be tension. Even friction.

But not sparks hot enough to burn the entire campus down.

USA Today bestseller Stacy Kestwick is a Southern girl who firmly believes mornings should be outlawed. Her perfect day would include puppies, carbohydrates, and lounging on a hammock with a good book. No adulting, cleaning, or bacon allowed.

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Tracy Marks has been acting onstage and onscreen since she was 12, and has been narrating audiobooks for 4 years. She lives in Chicago with her boyfriend and adorable dog, and considers herself very lucky to have an excuse to stay indoors in her toasty little booth during the cold winter months. Bringing heart, heat, vulnerability, and humor to her work, she has a passion for bringing love stories to life.

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Stephen always wanted to be an audiobook narrator. As someone who never liked the whole "reading silently" thing, and has had a lifelong penchant for performing and flair for the dramatic, it was inevitable that he would be doing this for a living. With dozens of titles to his credit, a majority of them steamy romance novels, he has had the pleasure of voicing characters from the Great Plains of Texas, the bayous of Louisiana, the streets of South Boston, the dungeons of a vampire's castle, the deserts of Mars, and everything in between. It has been an honor to bring such amazing stories by Penny Reid (Marriage Of Inconvenience), Krista and Becca Ritchie (Hothouse Flower), Lex Martin (Shameless), Mia Sheridan (Kyland), and so many more incredibly talented authors, to life. Be sure to check him out on social media, Audible.com, ACX.com, and at www.stephendexter.com. SAG-AFTRA/AEA. Happy listening!

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I received this audiobook as part of my participation in a blog tour with Audiobookworm Promotions. The tour is being sponsored by Stacy Kestwick. The gifting of this audiobook did not affect my opinion of it.

My Rating: 5 stars

So, I've been following the author on Facebook for awhile. And I have to say that this was the perfect book for me to read first. Why? Because there is a dachshund in it! If you know me, you know how much I love dachshunds, I mean look at my header here on the blog! And the dachshund is a piebald, like my Dora is. His name is Oscar, which was the name of the first dachshund my family had when I was a kid. Not only does the book have a dachshund, but the characters make wiener jokes like all dachshund owners make. I mean my favorite line of the book just has to be that "You know there's nothing worse than a sad wiener."

Anyway, let's talk about the actual story. Oscar is not the only wiener in the story, there is his owner, Laird. I fell in love with Laird, not just for his wiener dog, but also because he was all about pleasing his lady. And then he was such an all around renaissance man. He was a drummer, and he designed video games, had in fact already sold apps and made money off of them. He volunteered at the hospital with kids in the cancer ward.

Then we have Reese. She's a freshman, trying out for a position on the traditionally all male drumline. And she's good, better than most of the other guys trying out, and maybe even better than some of the guys already on the team. She has to endure all the hazing, but it's not just the normal ordeals, she also has to put up with a hateful misogynistic co-leader of the drumline, Marcos. She definitely feels the attraction to Laird, but she doesn't want to get her spot on the team by dating the captain. Even if she earns the position, she knows any hint of them dating could lead to having to deal with people inferring that's why she made it, and not treating her with respect. When she runs into him at the hospital where she has also stopped by to volunteer, it almost seems as if they really are made for each other.

There's so much more to the story that I loved, but I don't want to give a lot away. I had a lot of jaw dropped moments listening to this, and I love when a story can keep me on my toes. Along with the wiener jokes, there was Reese's new bestfriend and sidekick, Smith. I loved Smith to death, even if he did have kind of bad taste in guys for a bit. Towards the end when he comes to Reese's rescue, and then refuses to keep her secret quiet when it needs to come out, I just loved him even more.

The sexy scenes were as steamy as I liked, and Laird was totally a sweet Southern gentleman. He did irritate me a bit in how he wanted to constantly baby Reese in some ways, and so I felt with her about that. But then there were times it irritated me that she would let someone egg her into doing something that she really knew wasn't fair and she shouldn't have to do, just to prove the point that she could do it, or to prove that they couldn't get to her. There were moments, in fact between probably two chapters when I was saying how much I loved Laird, and then the next one I was so mad at him! I love when characters get you to feel so much, or should I say when an author can write characters that you fall in love with.

I liked the narrators on the audiobook, although the female narrator did this thing where she got all breathless at the end of each sentence. It was kind of annoying and distracting. Other than that, I liked both of the narrators and enjoyed listening to this.

Q and A with Author Stacy Kestwick

Tell us about the process of turning your book into an audiobook.
- I have to admit, I was a complete newbie to the audiobook process. I knew nothing. I learned some of the basics from my author buddies who were seasoned pros, and then trusted my narrators to steer me along the right path. They were both beyond patient as they guided me through the steps. I think Tracy even went so far as to send me screen shots with step by step instructions at times.
Was a possible audiobook recording something you were conscious of while writing?
- While creating an audiobook for Drumline was one of my goals with this project, it wasn’t something I really thought about as I wrote. The characters were telling their story and I was simply making sure I did it justice. I was more concerned with word choice, pacing, sexual tension, side plots, vivid descriptions, and all the various ingredients that go into the recipe for a great New Adult romance.
How did you select your narrator?
- Tracy had actually reached out to me after reading my debut novel, Wet, but at the time, I was in graduate school and the thought of exploring audiobooks was too overwhelming. But once I finished Drumline, and started exploring the various narrators out there, I stumbled upon her again by chance and loved a sample of hers I found, then remembered we’d already talked once and it was clearly meant to be a match. To find my male narrator, I searched my author friends books on audible and listened to their samples to see who jumped out at me. I heard Stephen Dexter on a sample of one of Krista and Becca Ritchie’s books, then realized my critique partner Lex Martin had used him too. She gave him a glowing recommendation, and that sealed the deal for wanting to use him.
Were there any real life inspirations behind your writing?
- Well, for Drumline, I was in the marching band both in high school and for two years at the college level. I played cymbals my first year, then switched over to colorguard the rest of the time. Hazing did play a role in my college experiences, although nothing so bad as to make the nightly news, and it seemed like a relevant topic to explore -- without going too dark with it.
How do you manage to avoid burn-out? What do you do to maintain your enthusiasm for writing?
- I go to book signings. Nothing is more uplifting than the enthusiasm of readers getting to meet their favorite authors. And getting some face-to-face time with your author colleagues in what is often a lonely job is priceless, solidifying those relationships that had only existed on a screen in the past.
Is there a particular part of this story that you feel is more resonating in the audiobook performance than in the book format?
- Oh, the sexy scenes for sure. Especially the first time Laird and Reese have sex. I blushed so hard listening to that chapter, and had my eyes half covered. It’s so much more deliciously dirty in audio than it will ever be in black-and-white.
If this title were being made into a TV series or movie, who would you cast to play the primary roles?
- I’d love to see Blake Lively as Reese and Colton Haynes as Laird. :-)
What gets you out of a writing slump? What about a reading slump?
- Talking to other authors and readers gets me out of a writing slump. Authors understand the feeling and the pressure of the looming deadline, and I’m lucky enough to have a really fantastic network of author friends to lean on when I need it, who are great at peptalks and ass-kicking, depending which I need more. And my readers group - Stacy Kestwick’s The Wreck on Facebook - is my safe place. It’s a super active bunch of the readers who buoy me up every day. I always want to make them proud and they help keep me going.Honestly, I haven’t been in a reading slump in ages. There are so many good books out there in every conceivable trope just waiting to be devoured. But certainly, a reread of a perennial favorite is a good way to beat a slump. I reread Jay Crownover’s Rule and Sierra Simone’s historical Ivy Leavold series this year.
What’s next for you?
- I’m starting a cowriting project with the amazing Hazel James that we’ll release under the pen name Rory Hale. And I’m starting a new trilogy that I’m still in the midst of the background research for, but I’m so freaking excited about it. It’s going to be hotter than my previous stuff, with some voyeurism and exhibitionism coming into play.

Stacy Kestwick's Top 10 Perks of Being An Author

Being utterly in control of the product you put out there.
You can work on your own schedule at your own pace wherever you want.
No need for pants or a bra.
Author friends are the best friends to have.
Getting to explore new worlds and take readers on an adventure of your choosing.
It’s totally appropriate to use the word fuck as a noun, verb, and adjective.
Reading books is basically a required part of the job.
Hot guy pics are definitely a required part of the job.
Naming characters after people you love… or hate.
Seeing your name on the cover of a book you wrote and hearing people talk about how much they loved it.