Indie Flutters: Hitched by Karpov Kinrade, Excerpt, Q&A with Karpov Kinrade
- By Karpov Kinrade
- Editions: ebook, paperback
- Published: November 23rd 2014 by Daring Books (first published January 1st 2014)
- Genre: Adult Contemporary Romance
- Source: review copy
- In a Flutter: The best hitching happens when you’re drunk!
What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas…
Or it changes your life forever.
He called me “wife.”
This man standing naked in front of me. Tall. Dark. Sexy as sin…
He’s my husband?
Disjointed images from the night before, the night I can’t entirely remember, float into my mind.
Meeting him in the bar. Sharing tidbits of our lives. I own a company that plans bachelor parties. He’s a pediatric heart surgeon.
We both live in Las Vegas, but we come from very different worlds.
And then I remember that kiss. The way his lips brushed against mine, gentle at first, then harder, deeper, with more urgency.
Sex in the elevator. Hot, forbidden, delicious.
I remember the way he made me feel. The way our bodies fit perfectly together.
But I don’t remember marrying him.
And now, he won’t let me go. Dr. Sexy who saves children for a living. He wants the summer to prove we are meant to be.
I can give him a summer.
But can I give him a lifetime?
*This is a contemporary romance novel with a happily ever after. It does NOT have a cliff-hanger ending.
WARNING: This book contains a lot of sex and a lot of swearing.
~ Goodreads
Review
What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas…NOT! Well okay technically the hero and heroine stayed in Vegas but you get my drift right?! This story was super fun! Almost like the movie What Happens in Vegas but without all the hate. The characters are loveable and make you root for their happily ever after! The story has that little extra pizazz in the end and I loved it!
Kacie is a go get ‘em type of girl. She started her business from the ground up and nothing is going to stand in her way of making it the hottest party planning business on the block! What she doesn’t know is that something is going to put a chink in her plans. Her marriage! *devious smile* Is she going to go all in with her new found love interest and her beloved business? Or is she going to cash out her chance at love and play it safe with her head and her heart?
Sebastian saves children’s lives all day every day, but who can save his? When he meets career driven Kacie his life is suddenly filled with light and he is given a glimpse at how happy he could be. After getting a taste, he knows once will never be enough. He’s ready to go all in and risk it all, but is what he is offering enough?
Man Sebastian was such a great hero! He was so sweet and so very focused on Kacie. He wanted to do any and everything for her and I loved him!! I liked Kacie’s character as well but sometimes she bugged me a bit. I liked that she was an independent woman and didn’t want to fall into those traditional gender type roles. But at the same time I think that was kind of her downfall for me. She focused some much one not wanting to give up her independence and that she kind of sabotaged herself.
The other characters the story presented, I loved! Kacie’s brother..ohmygawd! He was the bomb.com. Honestly his character was so refreshing for a brother. Most of the time brothers are these he-man “stay away from my sister or I’m going to kill you” types. But Tate was just like “be happy, I love you, go get that hunk of man slice, if I was gay I would totally do him!” He was like a best friend and I thought that was super awesome! I loved Kacie’s best friend Vi, too and her dominatrix ways!!
This story had all the great elements; love, heartache, funny dialogue, great characters, and a little bit of drama. My only two semi complaints were that the story went a little bit fast for my tastes and that Kacie was a little too wishy washy, on the fence about Sebastian. I wished that Kacie was just more definitive and decisive like Sebastian was in regards to their relationship. I do feel like this story started out as sort of an insta love type romance that turned into a journey of Kacie finding herself and coming to terms with the fact that she can have her life’s dream and what makes her feel whole at the same time.
Ultimately this was a great light hearted tale about how even true love can spawn from drunken times! Having that funny dialoged paired with great characters, and that splash of magic thrown in made this story more than enjoyable, it made it pretty damn awesome!! Not to mention the red hot steamy love scenes! If you are looking for a fun romantic comedy come and pick this up!
Excerpt { Steamy! For 18 readers! }
As I sink into the luxurious heat, my body breathes a sigh of relief. The tension and stress from the last few days drains out of me, and I close my eyes and lean back, enjoying the music, the sips of wine, the calm.
But it doesn’t take long for my mysterious future ex-husband to creep into my mind, undoing my reverie with memories of our torrid night together.
His hotel room had an extra large bath, one we used to full avail.
He undressed me slowly, his long fingers and strong hands caressing my body with each movement as I stood still, breathing deeply, taking in the moment. I stood naked before him while he was still fully clothed, and the disparity between us sent waves of erotic charge through me.
As I pull this memory up and view it like a movie in my mind, my hand dips under the soapy water and between my legs. I spread my labia and tease my clit, slipping a finger inside of me as I remember him doing the same that night.
His hand over my mound, finger exploring my wet center, my pussy aching for more of him. I could see his cock through his slacks, hard and demanding, and I wanted to free him from that constraint, but I also wanted to continue enjoying this moment as he worshiped me with his eyes and explored me with his body.
I rub at my clit, fingering myself as I use my other hand to tease my nipples. I want this to be him touching me, his fingers, his hands, his tongue and mouth. His cock. But I settle for the memories as I bring myself closer to climax.
He knelt in front of me, his mouth positioned at my pussy as he flicked a tongue out and lightly licked my clit. My body shuddered, knees weak as he pushed his tongue deeper into me, fingers digging into my hips, holding me tightly against his mouth. My hands fell to the top of his head, to his thick dark hair as he pleasured me beyond reason. The bath filled with water as I came hard in his mouth. He finally let me undress him, just before lifting me up and placing me in the steaming bath. He got in beside me, then pulled me onto his lap, impaling me on his hard cock.
My wet pussy took him in greedily, eagerly, and our bodies rocked together in the water, his hands exploring my breasts, waist, hips, his fingers finding my sensitive, swollen clit and sending me over the edge again, quickly this time, as I came on his cock.
I’m nearly there, the memory of him inside me tipping the scale as I come to thoughts of him, alone in my bathtub.
And I realize then that getting him out of my mind is not going to be as easy as signing a few papers.
Q&A
1. If you were to describe your e-book/book in only one word, what would it be?
Sexilicious
2. What would you say inspired you to write it?
We wanted to try something different (for us) in the romance genre and focus on light, sexy, fun and funny. Hitched and Whipped are both romantic comedies with lots of sexy and are meant to be light, fun reads that make you feel good.
3. What was the source of inspiration for your protagonist? What about your antagonist?
For Hitched, Kacie was born from an idea we had about a strong, independent woman who owned an unconventional business (a bachelor party company) and falls into a rookie Vegas trap of getting “Hitched” while drunk! We wanted Sebastian to be someone very different from Kacie in many ways. He’s a doctor who works with very sick children and doesn’t do the crazy Vegas scene much, until the night he meets Kacie.
For Whipped, Vi was Kacie’s best friend in Hitched, but we knew she had her own story to tell as well. We also knew it wouldn’t be totally focused on her Dom business. She was already moving away from that a little in Hitched and by the time her book came around, she’d started her own business selling sex toys. Lachlan was a fun character to create and write. He seems like a player but he’s got such a big heart. And he definitely has all the dance moves! We love how they get together.
4. Have you ever been hit by the infamous “writer’s block”? What did you do to escape it?
Not really, to be honest. We get burnt out if we’ve been writing non-stop for deadlines, but we don’t really get blocked. Usually it’s the opposite. We have so many ideas running through our head, the real danger is getting distracted from one project to pursue another. When that happens we either run with what we’re most passionate about (if we can), or if we’re on deadline, stick it out and get it done.
5. Your all time favorite book?
We each have books we love a lot, but one of our shared favorite is Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss. We are huge epic fantasy fans, and that’s one of our favorite authors and books ever.
6. What made you pick that one above all others?
It’s a book we both love equally. It’s beautifully written with poetic prose that’s not overdone, and it’s an intriguing story with a lot of mystery.
7. Would you say becoming an author has changed you? In what way?
We’ve both always been writers, but it’s only been a few years that we’ve been full-time authors living solely on our books. It’s given us the freedom to do what we love without worrying about finding other income sources to feed our kids and pay the bills. It lets us create and write everyday, all day. It’s honestly been the most wonderful thing in the world for us. We have the best job ever and we try to never take that for granted.
8. What does your day-to-day life consist of? What else do you do, aside writing?
We have a pretty boring life! Lol We get up, get our kids to school, usually grab some tea or coffee and spend a little time in the morning going over business stuff. Sales, rankings, book marketing ideas, meetings with our publicist, etc. Then we dive into our creative work. If we’re starting a new book we will spend a few days to a week outlining the whole book scene by scene, then we divide the scenes between the two of us and start writing. We’ll spend the afternoon doing that, possibly with some breaks for a walk, lunch, and maybe a video game or two, then we pick up our kids from school. Evenings are usually kid-focused. Chores, homework, dinner (we alternate who does dinner), family time and bed. After that, we read, watch a movie, play music, do art, talk, play chess, etc until we go to bed. Then it’s wake up and repeat. Some nights we also have karate. Weekends we might hike with the kids in the Redwoods, do game night with friends, go to a movie or out to eat, go biking, etc. That’s basically our life, and we love it!
9. How do you deal with bad reviews or acid criticism? What would you advise other authors to that effect?
Not everyone will love every book we ever write. Sad but true. Lol We try not to read reviews, as we believe they are for other readers, not the author. But if we do see/read a review that’s particularly bad, we don’t let it get to us. We might talk about it between the two of us, but then we let it go. Nothing good can come from hanging on to that kind of thing. We actually see it as a sign of success. Every successful author gets heaps of bad reviews. That helps take the sting of out if for us. It’s just part of the job. Even if the review is personal (directed at us in an attacking way, not just our book), we don’t take it personally. We just keep writing. We’re always working hard to improve our craft, and each book we write we learn something new about the art of writing, ourselves, and what we enjoy writing most. Our advise to other authors? Try not to read them. If you do, let it go immediately. Take it in and release it, whatever it is. Stay focused on your craft and don’t worry about the rest.
10. What do you have stored for us in the future? What are you working on/planning on next, aside this title/series?
We are incredibly excited about a new series we are working on. It’s an urban fantasy series with a superhero feel to it called The Nightfall Chronicles. Book 1, Court of Nightfall, launched in December, and the second book, House of Ravens, launches March 31. This is an ongoing series we’ll be spending the next several years writing in, and we are madly in love. It blends the future and the past in a new kind of fantasy/dystopian world that is growing beyond what we ever imagined when we started writing about Scarlett Night and her alter ego, Nightfall.
11. What made you decide to go the self-pub way?
We started with a publisher for our first few books, but quickly found that it made a lot more sense to create our own imprint and do it ourselves. Within a month of doing that and publishing the first two books under Daring Books, we were able to go full time as authors from the income. Best decision we ever made. We eventually got our rights back for those early books, but we do have publisher contracts for foreign rights. One of our really popular trilogies is currently being translated into Thai, so that’s exciting.
12. Did you hire professionals for editing, cover design, formatting?
We have a professional editor, but we do our own cover art now. Dmytry Karpov is a professional graphic artist and does amazing covers. He also does the ebook formatting, and used to do our print formatting, but we now hire out for that.
13. How did you decide who to hire, if you worked with pros?
The editing has been the hardest. We’re very particular about all elements of our books, from the look to the editing to the marketing. So we have to trust the people we work with and really see value in what they provide. We’re happy with our current team.
14. Where is your work being distributed, Amazon, B&N, Smashwords, AllRomanceEbooks/Omnilit, some other distributor? How did you decide which one(s) to go with?
We have all of our books on Amazon, and several books on B&N, Kobo, iBooks, Scribd, Page Foundry (all through Draft2Digital.) We’d love to have all of our titles available everywhere, but some series (Like The Seduced Saga, The Forbidden Trilogy and The Nightfall Chronicles) we have exclusive to Amazon because the borrows are significant and we ultimately get more readers and exposure then when we had those books everywhere.
15. If you could turn back in time and do things differently, would you? What would you change?
We’d probably have started our own imprint much sooner. We are still open to working with publishers for certain books in certain ways, but we love owning our own business and being in control of pricing, launch days, marketing, content, all of it.
16. What’s one characteristic of an author who self-publishes, one word that would describe them? Entrepreneurial.
Fun facts:
1. If you could wish for any one thing, and it would immediately come true, what would you wish for?
More wishes! lol
2. If you were stranded on an isolated island, what’s the one book you’d absolutely wish to have with you?
A really large journal or notebook (assuming we could also have something to write with!)
3. Name your favorite fruit.
Kimberly: Mango and blackberries,
Dmytry: Blackberries
4. Coffee or tea?
Kimberly: Tea (Chai tea latte, to be exact),
Dmytry: Coffee
5. Favorite season?
Kimberly: Fall,
Dmytry: Summer
6. How about fav time of 24 hours?
Both: the time of day we get to cuddle naked
8. Favorite food for breakfast?
Kimberly: oatmeal or fruit,
Dmytry: Starbucks mozzarella Panini
9. Favorite color, you know you want to tell us!
Kimberly: Red, purple and blue (Depending on mood),
Dmytry: Red and black
10. Drama or comedy?
Both, depending on the mood and what kind of cathartic experience we most need.
11. Cats or dogs?
Both: Cats.
12. Dinner by candlelight or a night out clubbing?
Dinner by candlelight, definitely. We are not ‘clubbing’ kind of people, generally. Lol
13. What song have you listened to most recently?
The instrumental song from Skyrim with piano and strings.
Full Disclosure:
1. Your top secret, uber guilty pleasure is…
Both: Sex and Crème Brulee (not at the same time… )
2. If you could choose to be someone else for just one day, it would be…
Both: Nightfall from the Nightfall Chronicles. (We can be fictional, yes?)
3. Your oldest memory is…
Kimberly: I remember being very little and whispering in my younger brother’s ear that he should throw all of his stuffed animals out the window. When my mom asked what I told him, I said, “I told him I love him.” We both got in trouble. Lol
Dmytry: A dream I had as a child (maybe 6?) where a black and white shell I had turned into a black and white fish.
4. If everyone would receive a prize for being best at something, you’d be no. 1 at…
Kimberly: Being EPIC!
Dmytry: At being awesome!
5. Your favorite part of a date is…
Kimberly: my husband
Dmytry: A happy ending
6. If a character from any book could become real and you could spend a day with them, it would be… from the book…
Both: Nightfall, from The Nightfall Chronicles (can you tell we’re in love? Lol)
7. You were/are a hardcore fan of…
Both: epic fantasy & Harry Potter
8. The one thing you could never get over is…
Both: losing a child or each other.
9. If you could have any one superpower, it would be…
Both: Flight (we would also settle for air bending, which would give us essentially the same powers.)
10. The one thing that always brightens your day is…
Kimberly: My husband
Dmytry: My wife (especially when she’s naked)
11. The awesomest thing in your life is…
Kimberly: My husband and children
Dmytry: My wife and children
About the Author & Links:
Karpov Kinrade is the pen name for the husband and wife writing duo of bestselling, award-winning authors Kimberly Kinrade and Dmytry Karpov.
Together, they write fantasy, paranormal, mystery, contemporary and romance and hook readers into new and exciting worlds that will leave you laughing your ass off, crying your heart out and falling in love.
Look for more from Karpov Kinrade in the Kiss Me series, Seduced Saga, the Forbidden Trilogy and more coming soon.
They live with three little girls who think they’re ninja princesses with super powers and who are also showing a propensity for telling tall tales and using the written word to weave stories of wonder and magic.
Website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads
