The Australian (Crime Royalty Romance #2)
Charlie Sykes takes everything and everyone at face value, and believes life would be a lot easier if everyone else did, too. Jace Knight, international Aussie hotelier and purported playboy, has never met anyone like the absurdly literal and obliviously beautiful American who applies to his personal assistant position. The trouble is, how do you seduce a woman whose definition of flirting comes straight out of the Merriam-Webster Dictionary? That, and he’s not the only one after Charlie.
Seems Mr. Knight may not be a reformed criminal after all. Charlie soon finds herself caught up in a whirlwind of dangerous international espionage that takes her from the hip streets of Sydney to the majestic Great Barrier Reef and the wild, desolate outback.
A terrible trap’s being laid, but how will Charlie protect herself and prevent a devastating betrayal when she can’t even sort out what her heart’s telling her?
GUEST POST
Dirty Girl Heroine Must Have
(and romantic suspense obsessed reader) Lesley Young
big fan, and thought it would be fun to weigh in with the expectations I have
for realistic dirty girl heroines. In other words . . . turning ereader on . .
. .please let this heroine be real enough to take me on an amazing
rock-my-world vicarious journey.
sense of self In order for me to get sucked into a character’s
heart-racing, sexy interludes, she must be self-possessed, self-aware and
generally heartfelt. Now, that doesn’t mean she has to be confident, or sexual
experienced or even a genuinely a good person. But she has to have opinions,
desires and be real enough that the sexual encounter she’s experiences has true
meaning.I guess the hottest dirty girl scenes, for me, have to have significant
meaning for the character’s journey.
Have you ever experienced absolutely script-worthy sexual encounters, in you
know, real life? And if you did, with say a hot Aussie like a Hemsworth (just a
suggestion), would it be that exciting? Okay, probably any kind of sex with a
Hemsworth would be sexy…I digress. My point is that the best sex scenes, for
me, aren’t a simple sharing and exploration of perfect love where each
character says and does just the right thing in the right moment. No way. I
much prefer sex scenes to be a “sensual conversation” full of rocky emotional
torment. The heroine wants the hero, or vice versa, but there are hang ups,
sacrifices, compromises at stake every time they fall into each other. The
bonus here is the sexual encounters are typically much more spontaneous.
Confession: I do like the occasional tryst that involves the hero manipulating
the heroine’s sense of choice (but only when she doesn’t know better and is
totally into him). But generally the most successful dirty girls are those who
know what they want and take it. They may not take it in just the right way at
just the right moment, but they’re willing to take risks in the bedroom to
learn more about themselves and also maybe but not necessarily, to connect
deeper with the hero. If I feel for the second that the author has objectified
the woman needlessly, I’m out.
quirky heroine in my novel The Australian,
and Fleur Smither, the funny heroine in The
Frenchman. Both are available in my stand-alone Crime Royalty Romance
series (crime is light, suspense is not!).
Lesley Young is a genre-defying author of unforgettable heroines who experience thrilling life- and love-altering journeys. Her debut novel was Sky’s End; her most recent stand-alone series, Crime Royalty Romance, includes The Frenchman and The Australian. She loves to hear from readers. Follow her at Facebook.com/LesleyYoungBooks, @LesleyYoungBks and lesleyyoungbooks.com/blog.
Speak Your Mind