Tuesday, February 24, 2015

Today's Special - - Christi Barth

Christi Barth earned a Masters degree in vocal performance and embarked upon a career on the stage. A love of romance then drew her to wedding planning. Ultimately she succumbed to her lifelong love of books and now writes award-winning contemporary romance. Christi is President of the Maryland Romance Writers and lives in Maryland with her husband.

Please welcome Christi as she chats with PJ about her new book, All for You.



Hi Christi! It’s a pleasure to welcome you back to TRD to celebrate the release of All for You, the second book in your Shore Secrets series. For readers who aren’t yet familiar with this series, will you please give us an overview? 

Book 2
Thanks for the opportunity to share my disclaimer: this whole series is based on real life. The premise is of a mailbox on a lakeshore where everyone in town anonymously writes their questions and problems - and people respond with their advice. As crazypants as it sounds, the idea came to me after hearing a radio story about a town in North Carolina that actually does this. Wild, huh? So yes, each book contains secrets the hero and heroine keep from each other...but the whole rest of the town finds out. 

All for You was released February 9th.  What should readers expect from this book?

Oh, the usual: romance, sex, laughs, bromance. Oh, you want specifics? There's a park ranger who has been hiding - in plain sight - from the nation for over a decade. Casey wants a summer fling with the hot new college professor. Except...he's more than just a professor. Zane's a world famous cult expert who has been searching for the last survivor of the Sunshine Seekers for his entire career. Can she risk revealing her secret for love? Would Zane choose another guaranteed book and film deal if he learns her true identity - or her heart?

Would you like to share an excerpt from All for You

Bwahahaha - of course!

Zane lifted one finger to cut her off. "Stop."
Sorry, I babble when I'm nervous. And I'm really, really nervous. I don't want to embarrass you.
Or accidentally insult someone."
"Casey, I stared because you look exquisite. You take my breath away."

He reached out, hauled her off her feet into a tight hug and kissed her. Kissed those glossy, luscious pink lips until she moaned and opened them beneath his persistent pressure. They didn't have time, and this sure as hell wasn't the place. Still, Zane slid his tongue inside in an already familiar caress.
Her hand clutched the shirt at the back of his neck. Ordinarily, he would've love this display of her passion. But tonight, with a navy tie already noosed around him, Zane could barely breathe. He wrenched out of the lip-lock. 
"Can't breathe," he gasped.
Casey clapped her hands to her mouth and giggled. Then giggled some more. "Well, you said I took your breath away."
"Very funny." Zane smoothed his tie. "As long as my near-strangulation was for a good cause. Are you still nervous?"
"Not really. But now I have to fix my lipstick before we go inside."
"Are you complaining?"
"Not a bit. Your kisses are worth dozens of re-swipes of lipstick." She snapped open a gold purse not much bigger than his smart phone and pulled out a silver tube. To his surprise, Casey swiped it across her lips without a mirror. Women were miraculous that way. Zane couldn't even put sunscreen on his face without leaving white streaks behind.


Some readers like to use their imaginations to visualize characters in a book while others prefer real-life people.  Who do you use as visual inspiration for your heroes and heroines? 

Book 1
Oooh! I love an excuse to send people to my Pinterest page! I've got one for every book, where you can see not only my H/H inspiration, but also setting and wardrobe pictures. In All For You, the hero is based on Nathan Fillion and the heroine on Amy Smart. Trust me, they make an adorable couple! 

Any couple that includes Nathan Fillion is adorable in my opinion!

According to your website, the third book in the series, Back to Us will be released in June. Are you able to share anything about that book with us? (I have to tell you, this is the one I’m most anticipating!)

You'll get two romances for the price of one, since a couple of secondary characters that maybe/sorta/no spoilers get interested in each other in book 2 get a HEA in book 3. It is no secret that Ward and Piper had a bitter breakup after high school, so you can be sure there will not only be groveling, but some imaginative tactics used to win his way back into her heart!

Dancing with glee over here! I was so hoping the maybe/sorta/no spoilers secondary couple would get their HEA!

Will there be more books for the Seneca Lake folks beyond these three?

Never say never, but at this point in time, I've wrapped everyone up in tulle and engagement rings, so Back To Us is the end. 

Your books always make me smile. To what authors do you turn when you need a feel-good book fix?

I love immersing myself in another world to do that, so I turn to the paranormal: J.R. Ward, Chloe Neill, Nalini Singh, Darynda Jones. Something about impossible-to-resist magical allure always cheers me up.

What else can readers expect from you this year?

Well, please mark your calendars for the summer release of book three, Back To Us!

In the fall I'm releasing The Opposite of Right, the first novella in my Bad Decisions series about hot rockers.

2016 kicks off with the release of Book One in my just-sold Naked Men series (title still to be tweaked, but currently Risking It All). It centers around five men who survived a high school tragedy, how it made them into the men they are today, and of course, the women who complete them.

Thanks for visiting with us today, Christi. Would you like to ask our readers a question?

This book - indeed, the entire series - is about secrets. Big ones. Do you keep any secrets from your significant other? (Don't worry - I guarantee they won't read this blog post!)

One randomly chosen person leaving a comment on today's post will receive a Kindle copy of the first two books in Christi's Shore Secrets trilogy, Up to Me and All for You



  

17 comments:

  1. No, I have never kept a secret from my husband. If someone is going to tell me a secret, then I always tell them that I will tell my husband, but no one else. Of course, he doesn't keep secrets from me either.

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  2. Hi Christie, fascinating discussion with PJ.

    I don't keep secrets from my 'significant other', at least none that I'm going to reveal here!

    I do however like reading mysteries especially those involving romantic secrets, and being incorrigibly nosey I can't resist trying to uncover other's secrets .... It sound as though your new series could have been written especially for me!

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    1. Q, I think you'll like Christi's stories. I've really enjoyed the first two books in this Shore Secrets trilogy as well as other books she's written.

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  3. Would like to try these books; love those secrets.
    patoct

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  4. The series sounds intriguing. As for secrets, I suspect most people have harmless secrets on the level of the candy bar he stole in third grade or the fact that she was the one her junior year who tripped over a cord and created a domino effect that led to a backdrop falling on the homecoming queen. But some secrets are not harmless. We recently had a broken engagement in our family when a brief and disastrous marriage that one party had kept secret was revealed.

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    1. You're right, Janga. Some secrets are not harmless. I'm so sorry about the one that resulted in the broken engagement. I can't help but chuckle over the cord tripping secret though. I'll have that hilarious visual running through my head for a while! lol

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  5. No, I don't keep secrets from Hubby; I doubt he keeps any from me, either. Now, from time to time, we do forget to mention something or another--truly, we're getting old!--but it's not our intention to deliberately deceive. Interesting post. Thanks.

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    1. My late hubby had to keep some job-related secrets from me (military) and I had to keep some from him for the same reason. Personally, we made open communication and honesty a priority. Like you, LSU, I find that I'm keeping secrets these days simply because I can't remember. Ah, the joys of growing older. lol

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  6. lol... right now it's just me and the dog, so no, I don't keep any secrets from him b/c he's an awesome confidante :) But when I was in a human relationship, I tried to stay as honest as I could. Congrats to Christi on the new release! Thanks for the fun interview!

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  7. Nope no secrets that I keep from my hubby - other than the occasional gift. (Though he does accuse me of keeping the type of food we are feeding the dog secret, but that's just because I change it a lot and he doesn't notice the bags.)

    Thanks for a great interview!

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  8. No big secrets. Secrets can cause problems and destroy a relationship. The only secrets I keep are surprises I will reveal later.
    Congratulations on your new book and good luck with the ones due to come out later.

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  9. I don't have any big secrets but I don't always tell him everything our adult children say or do that might annoy him.

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  10. you had me at Nathan Fillion. ;)

    Denise

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  11. Not a secret keeper.... things can go downhill so fast with them!

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