NEW RELEASE
Adult Contemporary
Rockstar Romance
Release: January 28,
2015
Synopsis:
“You have the ability to make controversial characters
sympathetic. Maybe I just want to be understood.”
Acclaimed
literary biographer Elizabeth Winston writes about long-dead heroes. So bad boy
rock icon Zander Freedman couldn’t possibly tempt her to write his memoir.
Except the man is a mass of fascinating contradictions - manipulative, honest,
gifted, charismatic, morally ambiguous.
In
short, everything she sought in a biography subject. When in her life will she
get another chance to work with a living legend? But saying yes to one
temptation soon leads to another.
Suddenly
she’s having heated fantasies about her subject, fantasies this blue-eyed-devil
is only too willing to stoke. She’d thought self-control was in her DNA, after
all she grew up a minister’s daughter. She thought wrong.
Outside your comfort zone is the only place worth living...
Outside your comfort zone is the only place worth living...
Zander
Freedman has been an outlier - many would say an outcast – for most of his
life. But there’s no disaster he can’t overcome, from the break-up of his band
to the fall-out on his reputation. His Resurrection Tour is shaping up to be his
greatest triumph - if his golden voice holds out. Contracting a respected
biographer is simply about creating more buzz; Elizabeth's integrity the key to
consolidating his legacy as one of rock’s greats.
All
the damn woman has to do is write down what he tells her. Not make him think.
Or
encourage the good guy struggling to get out. And certainly not to fall in love
for the first time in his life.
Turns
out he is scared of something - being known.
Rise - a redemption story of a rock star going
straight(er) through the love of a good(ish) woman.
Amazon Print | Kindle | Nook | iBooks | Kobo
Guest Post:
Turning a bad boy into a romance
hero
By Karina Bliss
Zander Freedman, the rock star
hero of Rise, has been a minor character in three previous books. I
wrote him as vain, selfish and egotistical, a neglectful son, bad brother and
lousy boyfriend. And yet readers loved this guy and wanted his story,
possibly because of his few attractive qualities - unflinching honesty,
intelligence and a keen sense of irony.
One of my biggest challenges in
finding ‘the hero-within’ was Zander’s reputation for vanity. How is a reader
going to fall in love with a guy rumoured to have had everything from Botox and
tattooed eyeliner to hair implants?
In one scene, I had the heroine’s
family voice every Yuck the reader would have around a guy with a ‘beauty’
regime. And then fall over themselves when they thought Zander was visiting.
Because the guy’s still a rock god, still extraordinary. And it’s too easy to
criticize a stranger. In effect, I'm asking the reader to keep an open mind.
Given that Zander is smart and
ambitious it also made sense that he would deliberately exaggerate his vanity
for the press. Any publicity is good publicity when this showman is promoting
the band’s tour. He also takes a pragmatist’s view of maintaining his looks;
keeping in shape is simply a part of his job as Rage’s frontman. And finally, I made him supremely confident in his
masculinity. At one point he even says, “A real man should be able to seduce a
woman in a tutu and a tiara…Actually that would be fun.”
Most importantly, I gave Zander
the vulnerability attached to being a beautiful person. Women date me because
of the way I look. What will happen if I stop these treatments? Who will love
me as I age? The Beauty, as well as the Beast, is judged on appearances.
Of course that’s just one aspect
of the reinvention of Zander Freedman. Hopefully, I’ve intrigued you enough to
read about his moral make-over.
Do you have a favorite bad-boy
hero? Enter the Release Giveaway and go into the draw for an e-book of Rise.
About the Author:
New
Zealander Karina Bliss’s debut, Mr Imperfect, won a Romantic
Book of the Year award in Australia, the first of eleven books
published through Harlequin SuperRomance. Her most recent release, A
Prior Engagement, was a Desert Island Keeper at likesbooks.com. Her next
release, Rise, is a single title, self-published contemporary which
continues the story of Zander Freedman, who first appeared as a villain
inKarina’s bestselling title, What the Librarian Did – a book
that made DearAuthor’s Best of the Year list in 2010.Two
of Karina’s books have also featured in Sizzling Book Chats at SmartBitchesTrashyBooks.
Find
out more at www.karinabliss.com
Giveaway:
