Title: Hollywood on Tap (Sweet Salvation Brewery #2)
Author: Avery Flynn
Date of Publication: November 3rd 2014
For years, Sean O’Dell has hidden his past as a Hollywood heartthrob from everyone at the Sweet Salvation Brewery. However, the arrival of nosey efficiency expert Natalie Sweet threatens the status quo. It doesn’t help that with her glasses, buttoned-up sweaters and always pulled-back hair that she’s uncovered one secret already: His attraction for hot librarian types.
Natalie has had enough of the strong-and-silent Sean submarining her efforts to change the brewery for the better. She’s ready to do whatever it takes to make her vision a reality, even if that means taking down the pig-headed and too-hot-for-his-own-good brewmaster.
Sizzling attraction battles stubborn determination as Natalie and Sean go head to head in a battle that’s anything but business as usual.
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The walk–in cooler stood twenty feet away.
So frickin’ close that Sean O’Dell could practically smell the flowery green hops and feel them crumble in his palms.
The weight on his chest eased with each step. He was going to close out the day without having yet another conversation with Natalie about lean manufacturing or whatever the hell system the people at Toyota invented. She’d been hounding him all day to sit down with her and go over her crazy–ass plans to streamline the brewery process. As if the craft and creativity of making beer could be distilled down to numbers on a spreadsheet. The woman was as annoyingly persistent as she was hot—both were a distraction he didn’t need in his life right now, not with the Southeast Brewers Invitational coming up.
But for the next thirteen hours, he wouldn’t have to hear any of her harebrained recommendations. He reached for the cooler’s door handle and turned it, noticing as he did so that it wasn’t latched.
He yanked open the door before his brain processed the ants dancing up his spine.
The motion triggered the cooler’s sensor activated overhead lights. His gut dipped and he clenched his jaw.
Natalie stood shivering on the other side of the cooler’s threshold, clutching her damn clipboard to her chest.
He stopped cold. “What in the hell are you doing here?”
“Waiting for you in your favorite hiding spot.” Her teeth chattered. “Do you really think I don’t know your secrets?”
God knew exactly how long she’d been lying in wait for him, but it was enough time for her button nose to turn red and her glasses to frost over. His gaze slid to the right. The temperature gage read twenty–six.
A smarter man would have shut the door and walked away, let her deal with the consequences of spending time in the Sweet Salvation Brewery’s cooler without a coat. But no one—from his asshole of a father to his always–hungry–for–more agent to his on–set teachers—had ever accused him of having an overabundance of brains.
Instead, he whipped off his thick hoodie and pulled it over her head. Not bothering to get her arms through the sleeves, he wrapped her up— clipboard and all—inside its fleece warmth. The hood drooped over her head, covering everything down to her nose. Before she could squeak out a noise over the chattering of her teeth, he wrapped an arm around her narrow waist and tossed her over one shoulder like a sack of grain. Her cold seeped into him, pouring over his body and making him shiver.
“P–p–put me down.” She made a halfhearted attempt to wriggle free.
“No.” He spun around and kicked the cooler door shut with his boot heel.
“This is unseemly.”
Her body may be half a degree away from being a snow cone, but holding her like this had him running a few degrees warmer. “Yep.”
“You can’t just carry me around like this,” Natalie huffed against his lower back. “I’m your boss.”
“I can and you are.” But he was bound to forget that last part if she kept squirming against him. Hell, he couldn’t seem to remember that fact while he was alone at night staring at his bedroom ceiling and imagining how those damn little buttons would open under his touch.
Book One in the Sweet Salvation Brewery Series
Enemies on Tap (Sweet Salvation Brewery, #1)
Brewing up trouble one pint at a time.
Enemies ...After years away, Miranda Sweet returns to Salvation, Virginia to save her family's brewery, but her fate is in the hands of her lover-turned-enemy, Logan. What's a girl to do when the only person who can help her is the man who betrayed her?
Lovers ...Logan Martin can't believe his luck when the woman who smashed his heart to smithereens walks into his bank asking for his help. What she doesn't know is that he needs the land her brewery is on--and he'll do whatever it takes to get it.
An Irresistible Combination ...Their wager becomes a battle between their attraction and their determination to win. But it's in each other's arms that they realize there might be more at stake now than their bet. With the town against the Sweet Salvation Brewery's success, Logan has to choose between what's expected of him and what he really wants...
How did you come up with the idea for this story?
Jake Ryan. You know Jake Ryan…Sixteen Candles…the guy every girl in the world has had a crush on—OK, at least I did. Well, the actor who played Jake disappeared off the scene a few movies later and is a carpenter or something in Pennsylvania now and doesn’t give interviews. I read a where-is-he-now article and started thinking about how crazy it would be if there was a movie star in hiding living next door. Boom! I had the secret my strong-and-silent brewmaster, Sean, was hiding.
Where do you find your inspiration?
Everywhere. That is the danger of being a writer, everything you run into gives you an idea for another story, or a character quirk.
Is there anything you find particularly challenging in your writing?
Finding the time to write all the stories in my head—oh yeah, and the internet. Gah, Pinterest is a black hole while Twitter and Facebook can distract me forever.
What are your current projects?
I’m finishing up a fractured fairytale novella for an anthology that will come out early next year as well as putting the final touches on my latest Killer Style book, Make Me Up, which will come out in February. I am in alpha hero heaven.
Tell us about your first book. What would readers find different about the first one and your most recent published work?
Let’s see, alpha hero? Check. Stubborn heroine? Check. Laughs, danger and smexy times? Check. Hmmmm. I’m not sure that there’s a ton of differences as much as they’ve gotten easier and harder to write. Easier because I know I can do it and harder because I want to get better with each book.
Is there a message in your novel that you want readers to grasp?
Life’s too short to hide who you really are so go after what you want and don’t let anyone stand in your way.
Does music play any type of role in your writing?
Sometimes I’ll find a song that I put on repeat while I’m writing the dark moment, but otherwise it’s quiet.
Are experiences based on someone you know, or events in your life?
Oh yeah, there’s a little bit of me in every book and a dash of people I know. Nothing specific, just a physical quirk or a personality tic.
What books have influenced your life most?
Tons. Books are my crack. When it comes to writing, I love authors like Tana French, Lori Foster, Cherry Adair, Dakota Cassidy, Laura Kelly, Gina Maxwell and my girls Robin Covington and Kimberly Kincaid because they pull you into a character so deep and run with such tight pacing, you don’t ever want to the book to end.
Are there any new authors that have grasp your interest?
I love discovering new authors! Like I always, books = crack. I just downloaded Tackled by the Girl Next Door by Susan Scott Shelly & Veronica Forand.
Can you share a little of your current work with us?
Sure! This is the beginning of Make Me Up (out in February). It’s the third book in the Killer Style series and this book centers are Cam (a totally hot ladies man) and Drea (tough as nails make up artist). Cam has been chasing Drea—and she’s been turning him down cold—for two books now while her best friends Sylvie (High-Heeled Wonder) and Ryder (This Year’s Black) found their true loves while fighting off the bad guys. Or at least the reader thinks Drea has been giving Cam the cold shoulder.
***
Drea Sanford didn’t do the ‘burbs. She didn’t do backyard BBQs with screaming kids and romping dogs. And she most assuredly did not do Cam Hardy - at least not in public. In private? That boy was as hot in bed as his swagger promised and as long as no one knew a damn thing about it, she’d keep riding him to happy town.
But here she was across the Harbor City Bridge in Waterburg sitting on an outdoor swing with a paper plate filled with potato salad, chips and a burnt-to-a-crisp hotdog on her lap. She held a red plastic cup full of cheap beer. And the the oh-so-full-of-himself-James-Bond-wanna-be’s lips were locked onto hers in front of God and everyone like their friends-with-benefits agreement was common knowledge instead of one of her most guarded secrets.
There was no way around it. She had to cut him off, but there was no reason she couldn’t enjoy one last kiss. Arrogant Lothario or not, Cam knew what to do with his best assets. His strong, confident lips moved against hers, his tongue teasing her just the way he knew she liked it, making everything below the waist warm, wet and tingly. The sound of laughter broke through the lusty haze surrounding them, bringing her back to reality. She didn’t do second chances.
Life’s a bitch that way—and didn’t she know it from personal experience.
***
And then there’s murder and private investigator Cam is the only one who can help Drea clear her name before the cops pin the death on her. Smexy times on the run, anyone?
Do you have anything specific that you want to say to your readers?
I LOVE YOU! No seriously, every time someone reads my books and they aren’t my mom, I do a little happy dance. Not that my mom’s not great, but…you know what I mean. :)
How can readers discover more about you and your work?
I’m all over the place. I’m kinda loud that way. :) Find out more about me on my website, follow me on Twitter and Pinterest, like me on her Facebook page or friend me on me Facebook profile. I’m on Goodreads and BookLikes, too. I’m lucky enough to have an amazing street team, The Flynnbots, who receive special sneak peeks, prizes and early access to her latest releases!
Also, if you figure out how to send Oreos through the Internet, I’ll be your best friend for life. OH! And e-mail! You can reach me at avery @ averyflynn . com.
Do you have a special time to write? How is your day structured writing-wise?
I usually write in the mid-morning to mid-afternoon. The rest of the day is social media, research and crazy life stuff. I have three kids so once they get home after school, the writing is pretty much nil—unless it’s down to the wire on a deadline. Then I pretty much write constantly.
Why did you choose to write contemporary, suspense and paranormal romance stories?
Because I love to read them. There’s so much fun in getting to write the stories I want to read. I’m totally selfish that way. :)
What is for you the perfect book hero?
He’s strong, a smartass and totally alpha. He’s brainy as well as brawny and he just can’t back away from a challenge—ever. He may not always do the right thing, but when it counts he’s in the heroine’s corner and will move heaven and earth if she needs him to.
When you start a book, do you already have the whole story in your head or is it built progressively?
I am a plotter, so I have to know what’s going on before I sit down. Of course, I’m also a contrarian, so it always changes once I get my butt in the chair and my fingers on the keyboard.
When and why did you begin writing?
I started writing romance novels in 2009 while my husband was deployed just to see if I could actually do it. I did. Talk about a happily ever after ending. :)
When did you first consider yourself a writer?
My whole life. I was a newspaper reporter and magazine editor before I started writing romance so there’s pretty much always been a typewriter or keyboard attached to my fingers.
List three books you have recently read and would recommend.
The Secret Place by Tana French - Not a romance, but an amazing mystery. Warning: I ugly cried through the last 30-40 pages of it.
Stirring Up Troubly by Kimberly Kincaid - Nanny stories aren’t normally my thing, but the way Kimberly writes them, well … yeah… hotness ensues. A big double thumbs u from me.
Temptation by Robin Covington - Hot new adult with a gown-up heart based in Nashville. She’s a country singer who needs to make good or lose his career. He’s a firefighter who is so damn good at being bad. Loved it.
Tell us something that people would be surprised you know how to do.
I can tie a cherry stem into a knot with my tongue. Yes, I do have the most useless talent known to man. :)
Will you write more about the characters in Hollywood on Tap?
Absolutely! There’s a third Sweet triplet who needs her story to be told…and let me tell you that girl is trouble with a capital T. Salvation won’t ever know what’s hit it.
Avery Flynn has three slightly-wild children, loves a hockey-addicted husband and is desperately hoping someone invents the coffee IV drip.
She fell in love with romance while reading Johanna Lindsey’s Mallory books. It wasn’t long before Avery had read through all the romance offerings at her local library. Needing a romance fix, she turned to Harlequin’s four books a month home delivery service to ease the withdrawal symptoms. That worked for a short time, but it wasn’t long before the local book stores’ staffs knew her by name.
Avery was a reader before she was a writer and hopes to always be both. She loves to write about smartass alpha heroes who are as good with a quip as they are with their *ahem* other God-given talents. Her heroines are feisty, fierce and fantastic. Brainy and brave, these ladies know how to stand on their own two feet and knock the bad guys off theirs.
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