Spotlight, Review & Author Interview: ★Downtown Devil★ by @caramckenna

DGR interview & spotlight with Cara McKennaDOWNTOWN DEVIL
Series: Sins In The City #2
Genre: Erotic Romance
Author: Cara McKenna
Release Date: June 21, 2016add-to-goodreads-button-2

2016-01-21-1453386051-6686005-Downtown_Devil_revised-2

From the author of Crosstown Crush comes the second sexy novel in the trilogy that explores the illicit pleasures of ménage à trois.

At the edge of thirty, Clare is feeling restless. Even though she’s gainfully employed and pursuing her passion for photography, she can’t shake the feeling that something’s missing. Then she meets Mica. A perfect subject for her portrait exhibit, Mica is sexy, exciting, and everything Clare desires.

One night with the charismatic stranger is all it takes to leave her craving more. But the intensity Mica brings isn’t confined to the bedroom, and Clare wonders if this summer fling might turn more adventurous than she anticipated—especially as a curious energy starts to simmer between the two of them and Mica’s handsome roommate, Vaughn.

As the three-way tension mounts, Mica makes a sinful proposal. It’s an invitation Clare can’t pass up, and an erotic encounter she’ll never be able to forget. Caught up between two irresistible men, Clare is about to get all the excitement she’s been looking for—and then some….

Buy LinksAMAZON | iBOOKS | B&NReview-DGR4 starsDowntown Devil-DGR

Fuck, he was a maestro. The dirtiest, nastiest, most gifted conductor.

Sweet.
Baby.
Jesus.
This book needs to come with a warning label.

Warning. Content is extremely hot and may cause severe uncontrollable arousal. Read at your ovaries risk. Author is not responsible for spontaneous ovary CUMbustion, sudden need to hump everything in sight, and consistent molestation of significant others. May also cause hot flashes, squirming, and a mild case of side eye if reading in public.

The one thing I’ve come to rely on from this author is her ability to write characters that are so real, it feels like they’re someone you’d easily meet in your daily life. There’s no artifice, nothing over the top, no crazy drama, no extras that you may find in most other books…and the best thing is it’s not needed. McKenna’s writing is very erotically charged, and yet it’s so much more than pure smut.

…she had no doubt he’d fuck the same way he seemed to move through the world- with perfect, fluid instinct. No hesitation and no shame.

Downtown Devil is not exactly what I’d call a conventional romance, yet it certainly has the romance. It’s a sinful indulgence that’s perfectly crafted with a combination of depth and steam.

Clare is a heroine that’s impossible not to like. She owns what she wants and makes no appologies for it. It’s so rare to read about a woman that truly owns her sexuality and enjoys it without making excuses or shaming. When Clare meets the enigmatic Mica, his sexual lure proves to be too much to resist. But when Mica introduces her to a darker side of her desires, it opens up a whole new door that Clare only envisioned in her fantasies.

Mica’s sexuality was a brushfire; Vaughn’s was a smoldering hearth.

The character development is what takes this from an erotic indulgence to something much more. The characters just feel real. You feel like you truly know them and not only that but you get them.

What Mica wanted, he made you want right back. Made his kinks yours. Made your body, your bed, your desires his territory.

I may have squirmed uncomfortably the entire time reading this, but I enjoyed every page. And while it may not have had crazy drama or angst that I’ve come to expect from most romance I read, it still took a turn I never saw coming and enjoyed thoroughly. It’s anything but predictable.

The sexual chemistry practically crackles off the pages, and the sex? Holy…DAMN.

He rode that sharp edge bordering consent, but every time, she liked what she found on the other side.

I haven’t read the first in this series but I had no problems jumping straight into this one and I’m definitely looking forward to future installments. And while it had the typical Cara McKenna HFN ending, it was immensely satisfying. If you’re looking for something a little bit different and a lot hot, you may just have found your next read.


Author Interview

DGR: Hi Cara! I’m so excited to have you here today and pick your brain on Downtown Devil and all things Sins in The City series.

Can we start with a quick introduction for those that maybe haven’t read your books yet? (which I suggest they rectify right meow!)

CM: Sure! I write steamy romance on through to straight-up erotica, often featuring working-class heroes and kink and the occasional taboo. Sometimes gritty and grimy, sometimes hot and sweet. Boinking, though—always with the boinking.

DGR: Can you tell us a little bit about your Sins In The City series?

CM: It’s a series, but all of the books are standalones. They’re linked by place and theme, but that’s all, so there’s no reading order. Each book follows a different set of protagonists as they embark on three-ways—all with two men and one woman—but the trios are otherwise unique. Crosstown Crush is about a married couple who bring in a second man to satisfy the husband’s unusual kink, Downtown Devil is about a young woman who falls for the world’s hottest barista and winds up going to bed with both him and his roommate, and Midtown Masters (out this winter) is about a pair of lovers-to-friends who do web-camming and decide to invite one of their clients to do more than just watch.

DGR: I love how real all your characters are. It’s like reading about someone you could easily know or meet in your everyday life. There’s no artifice or craziness needed. They are who they are. Is that an intent or something you enjoy writing?

CM: Oh, thank you! I don’t write “real” people intentionally. I mean, I’m glad that I do, but I don’t really think about it. They just show up that way! I like to say I write about ordinary people having extraordinary sex.

DGR: It’s not often I read a good romance with characters of mixed ethnicity. Personally, I wish there were more. What inspired you to write these characters?

CM: It’s a boring answer—I set the books in Pittsburgh, and Pittsburgh’s a pretty diverse city, so it felt both realistic and important to reflect that.

I’ve written a handful of characters of color over the years, but not a ton. I think before I was worried about “getting it wrong.” (I’m blindingly white.) But fear’s never a good reason not to do something, plus there’s room in every race and ethnicity for all types of personalities and experiences, so it’s a baseless worry to begin with. You can only get race wrong by not representing it, I think.

DGR: Personally, I had a very nice visual of a smaller version of Jason Momoa and Idris Elba as I was reading about Mica and Vaughn, the heroes in the book. Did you have a visual of these guys as you were writing them?

CM: Jesus, far be it from me to drive those two muses from your mind! Holy hell, sign me up.

I have a clear visual of Mica in my head, but not based on anyone in particular. Vaughn looks like Aml Ameen in my imagination, but I’m sure readers will picture whoever they like, and that’s awesome.

DGR: If I could describe this book in one word, it’ll be INCENDIARY. If you had to describe it in 5, what would they be?

CM: Oooh, let’s see… Hot, flirty, filthy, modern, fun.

DGR: Did you have a favorite scene to write in Downtown Devil?

CM: I think the most fun scene to write was the one where Mica gets Clare to have phone sex with him at ten a.m. in the middle of H&M.

DGR: You’re not afraid to cross certain boundaries in your writing, which I respect greatly. You always seem to push the envelope with each book. They’re erotic, but there’s so much depth to them…much like Mica. What can you tell us about his character?

CM: Not much more than made it onto the page! Mica was probably the least forthcoming character I’ve ever written. I knew exactly how he felt about everything that was happening, precisely how he’d react, the most basic details of his baggage, but that’s about it. I don’t even know his last name!

DGR: Mica and Vaughn are polar opposites, and yet together they’re the perfect balance. What would you say your favorite thing about each of these guys is?

CM: I like the fantasy that each of them offers. Mica’s that guy that you see in real life who’s simply too sexy to be real—you’d sell your mom’s kidney to somehow get taken home by him. And Vaughn is the other side of the coin. There’s no mystery with him, but sometimes a girl needs that. When the games get exhausting, you want someone you can just collapse against, and that’s its own kind of sexy.

DGR: Let’s not forget Clare. I love a heroine that isn’t ashamed of her sexuality and owns her decisions. If you had to describe Clare in a few words, what would they be?

CM: She’d floundering, but also driven. A little unsure, but mostly confident. A romantic and a realist. In short, she’s full of contradictions. Exactly how I remember feeling when I hit thirty—like you ought to feel like a grown-ass woman by now, yet there’s still so much you need to figure out.

DGR: Your books have some of the hottest sex scenes I’ve ever read. How on earth do you keep finding the inspiration to just keep writing them even hotter?

CM: Oh, thank you! And I have no idea. I was hugely pregnant for the first half of this book and fumbling my way through newborn-ownership with the second. I have no clue how I even finished it, looking back, let alone made it hot! But thank you all the same.

I always try to make sure there’s something edgy and uncomfortable and a little awkward built into a book’s sexual dynamic. I think that conflict is key to sex scenes that light up the page and push the characters to develop and grow. If a sex scene doesn’t change the characters involved in it, it doesn’t belong on the page!

DGR: Anything you’d like to leave the readers with?

CM: I guess just to say that this book’s for everyone who’s ever had a crush on the proverbial hot-barista. Maybe he’s a courier who comes by your office every day, or the bartender who leaves you woozy before your drink’s even mixed, or that blessedly shirtless jogger you always pass on your morning walk. Clare gets to do what most of us never will, and actually go home with that gorgeous stranger—and she winds up getting more than she ever bargained for!

Review: ☆Willing Victim☆ by Cara McKenna

For the past couple years Laurel’s been coasting, hiding in the backseat while her life drifts off course. Then one summer afternoon a tall, built bruiser named Flynn strides in and steers her straight into an infatuation she never saw coming.Flynn introduces Laurel to things she’s never imagined—to the violent but exciting realm of the underground boxing circuit, to rough sex and even rougher role-playing, and to an attraction she craves even as it intimidates her. As Flynn invites her deeper into his world and his life, Laurel has to make a choice—let fear keep her holed up where it’s safe, or take a chance and fight for the man who makes her feel more alive than she’d dreamed possible.

Reader Advisory: Although all sex acts are 100-percent consensual, Willing Victim contains role-playing scenarios that may upset some readers who are sensitive about rape, even in a simulated capacity.

Review-DGR
3.5 stars
I like fighting, and I like fucking. I don’t care much for thinking.

Oh sweet mother of orgasms! I had a very close and passionate relationship with my Kindle while reading this book

9371687If you’ve already met Flynn, you’ll know EXACTLY what I’m talking about.

8247676And if you have yet to meet him? You already know what I’m talking about.

The man is lethal to your ovaries. I’m not even slightly exaggerating here. The description of Flynn alone got me all hot and bothered


He looked both lean and heavy, raw and bruised and tattooed and feral. Muscles sicced and jumped in this arms as he stripped cotton bandaging off his wrists and tossed it in the trash basket behind him.

9371688But then he opens his mouth…

God,Flynn”
“That’s right. Say my name. Tell me who’s fucking that tight cunt.”

9371689I recommend having either your significant other on hand, or plenty of batteries. This book may be short, but holy SHIT is it potent?

You have a hot, dirty talking, underground fighter that’s into some verra interesting things. You have a great heroine that’s not afraid to go after what she wants. You have mind blowing, incendiary sex scenes that will have you running towards the nearest cold shower. And you have dirty talk to beat all dirty talk. My only complaint? I wish this was a full length novel. I would have loved to get to know Flynn and Laurel better. It’s tough to form a true connection with characters in just 130 pages. I can’t say that I never did, but I was left wanting just a little bit more.

You get your trademark Cara McKenna HFN ending. But truthfully, considering the short span of time that this book takes place in, I couldn’t imagine it ending any other way.

ARC Review: ☆Hard Time☆ by Cara McKenna

In this all-new novel from the author of Unbound, a woman with a rocky past finds romance in the last place she’d ever expect…

Annie Goodhouse doesn’t need to be warned about bad boys; good sense and an abusive ex have given her plenty of reasons to play it safe. But when she steps into her new role as outreach librarian for Cousins Correctional Facility, no amount of good sense can keep her mind—or eyes—off inmate Eric Collier. 

Eric doesn’t claim to be innocent of the crime that landed him in prison. In fact, he’d do it again if that’s what it took to keep his family safe. Loyalty and force are what he knows. But meeting Annie makes him want to know more. 

When Eric begins courting Annie through letters, they embark on a reckless, secret romance—a forbidden fantasy that neither imagines could ever be real…until early parole for Eric changes everything, and forces them both to face a past they can’t forget, and a desire they can’t deny.

Review-DGR5 stars

And he told me about the things he wanted to do to me, the places he wanted to take me, if he could. The things about me that took his mind off his daily life, and roused his body in idle moments. And I wondered if he wasn’t a bank robber after all, the way he kept making off with my heart.

I fell in love with this book. I fell in love with the writing. I fell completely, head over heels in love with the hero. This book; no review I can write will ever do it justice. Cara McKenna is a genius, her stories will grab you by the heart and never let go. She doesn’t blow sunshine and rainbows up your ass. She gives you real characters, real emotion that is so well written, it’s almost palpable. Did I like this book? No. I fucking LOVED this book. I wish I could give it 6 stars. This is a story that will stay with me for a while with characters that I will never forget.

Annie Goodhouse is a good southern girl that hasn’t had the best of luck with men. She doesn’t have to be warned away from the bad boys, she experienced first hand what the feel of abuse at the hands of a man feels like, and she’s shut herself off. Annie is a librarian, and her new role takes her to work as an outreach librarian in the town’s medium security prison. And then everything changes when she meets him in a place where the worst of the bad boys are…

Eric, or inmate number 802267 as she first knows him, catches her eye right way. But it’s not his attitude, leering, or catcalling that snags her, because he doesn’t do any of those things.

That stare. That unreadable expression, an impossible mix of apathy and fascination, coldness and seduction.

Eric was not at all what I expected from reading the book’s blurb. He’s not some ultimate bad boy, an asshole, or a hard-ass. He’s simply a man that committed a crime, a crime that he would commit all over again if given the chance. But beneath that tough and muscled exterior there exists a soul of a gentle and romantic man. What first begins as a simple lesson in literacy begins to turn into something much deeper when he gives Annie the first letter.

His attention had become some strange, dark, private treat to brighten the toughest day of my week, and I’d come to crave it.

This book has some of the most amazingly written sexual tension I have ever read. The way that Miss McKenna portrays the angst, lust, and emotion that these 2 people share through simple letters was incredible. It almost felt like Eric was talking directly to me. His letters to Annie made me swoon at the same time it made me lust after him uncontrollably.

Annie was such an amazing heroine. She was strong, yet a little bit broken at the same time. She wasn’t mousy, or shy, or some wallflower. I think that’s what ultimately made this book so good for me, the fact that both characters had such an amazing balance of realness to them. You can feel how much Annie struggles with her feelings for Eric. She doesn’t know the full story of why he was put away and that scares her, but at the same time she finds herself falling for him more and more with each letter.

Were bad, violent crimes only done by bad, violent men? Could a man who was fundamentally bad make a woman feel the way Eric Collier had made me feel, all these weeks?

Eric stole my heart. He was so vulnerable and sweet, but without coming off as weak.

I want to be someone who deserves to be with somebody like you.

Cara McKenna give you two incredibly real characters that each struggle with their own incarceration. While Eric has been shut away in a prison cell for 5 years, Annie has shut herself off from feeling anything sexual after the abuse she suffered at the hands of her own ex. As the book progresses, you see them slowly grow closer together and their bond fully form. They’re both scared, they both have their weaknesses, but the connection between them is simply undeniable.

This book gives you everything; incredible characters, erotic love scenes, and an emotional gripping love story between 2 people who couldn’t be more different but yet fit together more.

The author doesn’t give you an ending that’s wrapped up in a perfect little bow, and I think I really loved that in this story. It was fitting. Anything else wouldn’t have been true to the characters or the plot. Is there a HEA? Yes, though it’s more of a HFN. It was extremely satisfying, and I have 0 complaints.

If you’re looking for an beautiful and erotic love story, that’s gorgeously written with characters that will stay in your heart for a long time to come, this book is simply a must read. Do not judge it by the cover or the blurb, it doesn’t do it nearly enough justice. I simply couldn’t recommend this book enough. Read it for yourself and see what all my gushing is about.

 

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