April 28, 2014
I’ve known Lily Harlem for about a year now, I guess. She wrote a Rock Fiction series, so I’m a total fangirl, of course. But Rock Fiction is only one dimension of what this prolific writer can do. And with cowriter Natalie Dae, she’s got a nice backlist, as well. Their collaborations, as today’s Featured New Book shows, are written under the pen name Harlem Dae.
So let’s get right to it: Lily, what song makes you think of your book?
Why Nightcall? Pain and Pleasure is the second book in a novella series called A Bit of Strange. The premise is strangers meeting, confessing mutual attraction and then coming together in explosive style. It’s about the thrill of passion with a person you don’t know, the lust that ignites and the discoveries that are made about a new body to explore and in turn, explore yours. The first book Beauty and Pain is set on a train bound for London on an early morning commute, but this book, the second, is all about the lure of the night and a very late meeting between strangers who have, on one previous occasion confessed a yearning for more – more pleasure, more pain, more of everything. It’s as if their bodies are calling out for each other, already know what the other wants, and the risks they take to satisfy their urges are daring and potentially devestating but they just can’t help themselves. The final book Pleasure and Danger is available for early download from the publisher right now -  If BDSM with a sprinkle of romance is your thing then A Bit of Strange will hit the spot!
I know which of my friends have already hit various buy buttons… holler if you’re one of them!
Back cover description
Shopping for pleasure can be a risky business, especially when you want a bit of pain thrown into your cage.
Isabella can’t help but throw another fantasy Gabriel’s way. It’s risky, it’s kinky but it’s something she just can’t get out of her head.
But will he go for it, or is it pushing his boundaries too far?
Luckily for Isabella the dominance that runs thick and vital in her stranger’s blood, is heating up to boiling point. Before she knows it the most innocent of places becomes completely thrilling in the middle of the  night.
She’s caged, expertly tortured and brought to a place where only pleasure and pain exist. Her head is dizzy, her heart beating only for him, but will she ever come down from the high? More importantly, does she want to?
Reader Advisory: This book is best read in sequence as part of a serial.
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Since Lily answered the question, most of the links are about her. Here you go:
BlogÂ
May 20, 2013
I first came across Lily Harlem’s name because she’s written a Rock Fiction trilogy (Mattress Music, Mirror Music, Menage a Music). I haven’t read them yet, but hope to.
However, SHE came across ME while looking for some promo for her new book, Breathe You In. And the Featured New Book is here for exactly that: Promo for your new book.
(If this isn’t showing right, yell at Tim at Tech No Riot. He’s supposed to fix this stuff for me.)
So… Lily, tell me what song makes you think of Breathe You In?
Breathe You In is a story that has been lurking in my mind for years. Before I became an author of erotic romance I worked in London as a nurse. As part of a post graduation course I got to spend time observing cardiac surgery which looking back was when this story was born. Because it wasn’t just the surgeries that fascinated me but also caring for these patients after life saving and life changing operations.
Seeing a chest wide open, a heart beating, being repaired or even transplanted held something magical for me, so much more so than a hip replacement or a bowel operation. I remember chatting to a woman in the post-op ward about her operation and she was completely fascinated that I’d observed her surgery and actually seen her heart. In fact she made me come and speak to her husband about it when he visited that evening. He looked at me as though I’d told him I’d seen a fairy at the bottom of the garden. I’ll never forget that look on his face.
Why? Because the heart is the foundation for our lives, not just the chemical, electrical and engineering qualities it possesses, but also the way we refer to it when we love someone. It’s more than that even, we say it breaks when someone leaves us, pines for a lover we are separated or beats more quickly when we’re held, kissed, made love to.
The heart is an organ referred to more than any other in our body in our day-to-day lives. When I started outlining the plot of Breathe You In it was these thoughts that kept playing with the threads of the storyline. I became fascinated by the thought of a girl obsessing over the recipient of her dead husband’s heart. She wanted to see him, to know where the heart that loved her so much was when she went to sleep at night. It’s the one piece of him that she cannot stop thinking about. I guess that’s where that haunting U2 song, With Or Without You comes into play. The words, not being able to live with someone or without them worked for the situation my heroine found herself in. She’s torn up with grief but also fascinated to find the one part of her husband that is still alive, still breathing, beating. I even managed to give the songs references to thorns into her thoughts at the end of the first chapter.
In the UK donor families and recipients can communicate and even meet but it has to be mutually agreed and coordinated through a liaison officer. In my story, Katie, can’t wait, she has to see the donor, but that’s it, just see him from a distance, and she hires a private detective to seek him out. But when Ruben Strong turns out to be not only fit and healthy but gorgeous and charming things start to get complicated, not least because she doesn’t tell him what he has inside of his chest that she’d come looking for.
It was this complex tangle of emotions that for me, as a writer, were so much fun to play with, and satisfying too, because I didn’t want this to be a sad story, I wanted it to be about overcoming tragedy, trauma, getting out of the lowest point of your life and finding love and happiness, passion and laughter once more. It’s an emotional tale that is fun and sexy too, my very favorite sort to read and write, and I even managed to get the song With Or Without You into the novel because U2 (like me) were her husband’s favourite band and that leant itself to a mention.
One other song features in the book, The Police, Every Breath You take. That worked so well for my hero and heroine’s first dance, in fact my beta reader wrote a comment when checking through the manuscript that she was crying with joy at that point and had to walk away and compose herself before she could carry on reading – which I took as a compliment!
Reviews so far are very positive, much to my delight, and out of my 30 novels and short novels that I’ve published, this one is certainly a story that tugged my heartstrings when writing it – pun intended. I hope you’ll check out Breathe You In. Thanks so much for reading about the special songs which inspired several scenes within this story and have a wonderful day.
Yowza! How can you resist after THAT??? I sure can’t.
Need a blurb? Sure, you do!
Soul-aching desire was just the beginning!
If the road to Heaven starts in Hell then I was ready to start climbing my way out and Ruben Strong was the man to accompany me. With his devastating good looks, seductively sexy charm and lust for adrenaline he was sure to make it a sensual and erotic experience as well as one to re-awake the passionate, throw-caution-to-the-wind woman I’d once been.
I’d given Ruben something, though, without him realizing, and that gift had come from the man I’d loved before. But I couldn’t tell Ruben. I had to keep that a tight secret even as our naked bodies wound together, sought out pleasure and hit the dizzy heights of ecstasy as one. Because Ruben had my husband’s heart, literally, and that heart was still in love with me, so it seemed, and now I was in love with Ruben.
Emotions tangled with bliss, and fears were locked away as I surrendered to the touch of Ruben’s hands, the taste of his skin and the sounds of his pleasure. I couldn’t deny that Ruben had brought me back to life the same way I had him and there was no way I was giving up that feeling, not for anyone.
How about some links?
(Not available anywhere other than Amazon)
Lily Harlem Links
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