Hi everyone–
Welcome to the Once Upon a Blog Hop! I’m Tara Lain and i write the Beautiful Boys of Romance. I love all my characters but especially my handsome heroes!. This is kicking off the Blog Hop season for me and also leading up to my new release on December 7th– Snow Balls! But more about that later.
First, let me tell you the prizes you can win in this HOP which runs from now through December 7th!
- Someone in the hop will receive a $100 Amazon Gift Card compliments of Natalie-Nicole Bates so be sure you comment on every stop
Here on my blog, you can win:
- A $5 Amazon GC (international)
- A signed paperback of Sinders and Ash, my fairy tale romance from Amber Allure (US only — international winners receive the ebook version; US winners can also have the ebook if they prefer)
- A pdf copy of Be Bad, for Goodness Sake, my MF holiday novella
Here’s how you win:
- Leave a comment talking about your favorite fairy tale.
- Leave your EMAIL (or i won’t be able to find you)
- Follow this blog
- Like my Amazon Page
- If you feel like it, please Like my Facebook Page
- If you DON’T want to be on my mail list, please say NO in your comment
Fairy tales had a huge influence on my life. As a kid, i knew practically every Grimm’s fairy tale by heart, but no Anderson’s! Even then, i didn’t like the dark and unhappy. We think of the fairy tale romance as one that has a happily ever after of the first order. BUT, if we go back to the source of the fairy tale, we very quickly discover that happily ever after was a matter of opinion.
For example, take Cinderella. My book, Sinders and Ash, is based on the “trope” of Cinderella, a downtrodden hero who overcomes an adversary and prevails as a result of his own effort, wit and charm. The Cinderella story has predecessors that stretch back to China, Rome, and Egypt. In an early version of the tale, Cinderella kills her first stepmother in order to get her father to marry whom she wishes. Yikes! That’s Sinisterella. An original version of Sleeping Beauty has our heroine violated and impregnated by a king while she sleeps. And she has twins. Wonder what Disney would have done with them? Snow White’s wicked queen gets her comeuppance in a very fatal way in the old versions of Snow White and the original Little Mermaid throws herself into the sea and dissolves as sea foam when her prince marries another woman. It’s a wonder we had any ‘happily ever afters’ at all.
But today, the fairy tale romance assumes that the story will be a bit larger than life and that the ending will be in many ways ideal, promising happiness not just for now but forever. And really, there’s a bit of the fairy tale in all romances, right? My new book releasing on December 7th, Snow Balls, is a contemporary romance taking place in a real beach town in California. It is a bit gritty, a little funny, and a lot romantic. In the scene i posted below, we can all wish that we had friends as wise as David:
Excerpt: SNOW BALLS by Tara Lain; MM “Opposites Attract” Romance
Big, handsome and hunky, JJ LaRousse looks like an alpha male but acts like an interior decorator. And he’s trying to be happy about it — until a robbery at the famous Laguna Winter Fantasy brings JJ face-to-face with tough cop, Ryan Star. JJ hears Ryan likes guys who are manly men, so he drops his voice an octave, colors over his pink hair, and tries to pass as a football fan. Ryan Star may be tough but he hides in the closet at work since he learned in New York that being a gay cop can cost you your life. His attraction to that big, handsome kid threatens his anonymity, but he can’t seem to resist. JJ is just his type. But then JJ goes skiing and comes face to face with his greatest nemesis– and all the secrets come out of the closet. Can Ryan love JJ for who he really is? More important, can JJ?
“David. David. Oh my God, oh my God.” JJ grabbed the smoothly muscled arm of his friend and boss.
David trapped JJ’s other waving hand between his. “OK, calm down. What is it? Did one of the exhibitors wear pink and orange together again?” David grinned. Nobody knew better how overreactive JJ was. Thank God, David loved him anyway.
He needed air. He took a deep breath. “The cop. The one I told you about. Oh my God of CSI, he wants me to come to the police station and look at mug shots.” JJ retrieved his hand. He needed it for fanning.
David looked up at JJ. It wasn’t far up since the handsome gallery owner stood a slim six foot one to JJ’s six four. “OK. That’s not hard. The police station is only a ten-minute walk away and I’m here to finish setting up the booth. Perfect timing.”
“Oh God.” JJ collapsed onto a packing crate.
“That’s the hand blown glass you’re sitting on, darling.”
JJ jumped up. “He’s just so…”
“Intimidating, overbearing?”
“Delicious.”
David laughed. “That’s a different kind of problem.”
“I’ve got to go to the men’s room.”
“Oh, OK.”
JJ took off at a run to the men’s room at the center of the festival grounds. Inside, he stuck his carefully spiked head under the faucet, pulled out his comb, and flattened the do. Of course, the pink streaks still stood out like candy canes in his light brown hair. Nothing to be done about it now. He washed his hands and headed back to the booth.
David glanced up from the last packing box. “What happened to your hair?”
“Rod says the cop likes guy’s guys.” David tucked in his T-shirt with the What Would Anna Do? logo, his homage to Anna Wintour, the editor of Vogue. He pulled on his Windbreaker and zipped it up. He did a twirl. “With a cap, can I pass as Daniel Craig?”
David put his hands on his hips. “First off, how does Rod know who or what the cop likes? And even if he’s right, it’s never a good idea to try to be something you’re not. You know that. Pretend at the beginning and you have to keep living your lies. That’s a drag.”
JJ stuck out his lip. “It’s not exactly a lie. Hell, look at me.”
David frowned. “JJ, you’re gorgeous. And you’re a catch just the way you are.”
“But I’m such a…” he waved his hands “…fruit!”
“Strawberries and cream. Any man would be lucky to get you.”
JJ sighed. “Thanks. But I need to be more, you know, masculine.”
David smoothed the crease between his own brows with two fingers. “Who said that?”
JJ frowned. “You mean besides my father?”
“Ancient history. You have a life now with people who love you as you are. Don’t go looking for appreciation from those without the discrimination to give it.”
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Thank you again for coming! Be sure to leave your EMAIL in your comment so i can find you if you win. I will be participating in Blog Hops all through December so be sure to come back for other prizes. And the Snow Balls release has a lot of blog stops , so visit Beautiful Boys Books on December 7th to see all the goodies and what you can win. Now, hop over to all of the other Blogs and you may win a $100 GC!