I’ve always had a
thing for a man with ink and Kaye gives us a hero marked with art so beautiful
it writhes across the pages and into your heart. Nick is a hero, served his
country and stood up for what he believed in. Becca is a woman on a mission—to save
her brother at all costs. When these two passionate characters meet up on the
page, sparks fly and the results are PHENOMENAL! Chock full of suspense,
military intrigue, and deliciously funny and realistic characters, Kay delivers
a one-two-punch and hits all the notes of an edge of your seat adventure. When
you add in the obvious chemistry and oh-my-lord sexiness (I’ve never read of a
punching bag that turned me on more than this one), I have to say this was a
read I absolutely devoured. I’m sincerely hoping that future installments of
this series trace the storylines of her well-developed secondary characters
because Kaye managed to introduce quite a lot of them while we skated from sexy
to snarky…both Nick’s brothers in arms and his staff at Hard Ink have me completely
intrigued. This story is a romance, so I expected Nick and Becca to fall in
love and the tumble was glorious. Sexual tension snapped almost as tight as the
corded muscles of Nick’s irresistible and tatted up arms. If you’re looking to
steam up your holiday season, you can’t miss by grabbing a copy of Hard as
It Gets. This reader is excited to have
received a copy in exchange for an honest review—and, baby, lemme tell you it’s
going to be a while until my glasses stop being fogged up from the steam of it.
I’ll be picking up book two on preorder
because I can’t WAIT to see what else she has in store in future installments.
Fantastic read, kudos to Kaye for this awesome book.
Q&A WITH LAURA KAYE
HARD AS IT GETS is one steamy read! How did
you first get into writing?
Thanks so much! And thanks for having me here! I’ve been
a writer all my life. I’m a historian by training, so writing non-fiction was a
part of my job for the fifteen years I worked as a college professor. But I
started writing fiction in 2008 in kind of an unusual way. I hit my head on
July 4, 2008. I didn’t think much of it that day, but soon after I realized I’d
really hurt myself, and it turned out I had a minor traumatic brain injury. As
I recovered, I was filled with an amazing urge to be creative, so I started
taking guitar lessons (still not very good at that!) and wrote my first novel
in 12 weeks (fortunately, I’m better at that LOL!). The experience of writing
that first book was truly transformative. It was what I was supposed to be
doing, so I revised that book until it sold and kept writing new ones. And I
haven’t looked back since!
Why did you choose to write romance?
I had been an avid reader of paranormal romance for years
at that point, so I wrote what I loved. But I also picked romance—unconsciously,
I think—because to me it’s an incredibly hopeful genre. Romance stories are
inherently stories about people who can’t find love or think they don’t deserve
it who overcome the odds and find it in the end. In the years leading up to
starting writing, I experienced a number of very hard personal losses, so
writing in this genre was one way I worked through those issues.
What does “Hard Ink” refer to? What
importance do tattoos play in your story?
Hard Ink is the name of the Rixey brothers’ tattoo shop
in the Hard Ink series. Nick and Jeremy Rixey are co-owners, though Nick (the
hero of book one, Hard As It Gets)
prefers to be more of a silent partner, despite Jeremy’s efforts to put Nick’s
artistic talents to work. In this series, tattoos are a way people remember,
pay penance, or highlight what’s important to them. The act of creating
permanent marks on skin has deep meaning to them. And the shop creates a gritty
setting where diverse kinds of people meet and interact in the series. I really
love it!
Describe Becca—what do you love most about
her? And Nick?
I’d love to! Because I really loved writing these
characters!
Becca Merritt is smart and strong and honest and
protective. I really loved the way she was willing to stand up for those she loves,
even against people and forces who might be stronger and even a little scary.
There’s a scene in particular when she dresses down Nick’s Special Forces
teammates after a fist fight where I was particularly cheering for her! LOL
Nick Rixey is, omg, so freaking hot, you guys! He’s
brooding and tortured and honorable and when he falls he falls so hard.
I especially loved Nick’s mix of hard, alpha edges with his artistic side. When
Nick shows Becca what her idea for a tattoo might look like on her skin, it’s
just scorching!
What significance does the military play in
the book?
Military themes are central to the whole Hard Ink series.
The military isn’t just sexy window dressing nor is it just there to provide an
intriguing backstory. The prior SF guys are this series are entirely defined by
their military experience good and bad. It informs their identity, their sense
of honor and duty, their view of the world, and of course gives them the skill
set required to fight the battles they face in the series. The overall series
mystery the characters are working to solve revolves around a military
conspiracy in Afghanistan, so even though they’re out of the Army, the military
themes are central.
If you could describe your book in a 140
character tweet, what would it be?
In #HardAsItGets, an
ex-soldier joins forces w/his dead commander's daughter to regain his tarnished
honor & save her brother from a gang
Is there a particular author or book that has
influenced your writing?
There are a number of authors that have influenced me,
but if I had to pick one it would be J.R. Ward. A lot of what I know about how
to write sexy, authentic male point of view comes from reading her books. And I
definitely learned the importance of a good bromance to a romance novel from
her Black Dagger Brotherhood series, too. Given my ginormous fangirling, you
can only imagine how flipping excited I was when this happened:
“Edgy, sexy, and
full of suspense! A great read from a great new author!”
~J.R. Ward on Hard As It Gets
You guys, I bawled
like a baby in the middle of a huge workshop put on by my publisher. For
real. LOL
What advice would you give aspiring writers
looking to get into the publishing industry?
Here’s my advice:
1) Write, write, write. You can’t revise what you haven’t
written and you can’t sell what you haven’t written. And the psychological and
emotional boost you’ll get from writing “The End” for the first time cannot be
overestimated.
2) Revise, revise, revise. That first time you type “The
End”? Yeah, you’re nowhere near done. Your book will need to be edited, by you,
several times before you ever put it in front of an agent or editor. You get one shot with them, so don’t waste it by
not showing them your very best and most polished work.
3) Find critique partners. And your mom, siblings, and
best friend do not count (unless you’re really lucky, like me, and your best
friend happens t also be a professional author). You need other aspiring
writers in your genre who will give you honest but constructive feedback about
how to improve your manuscript. Let them catch all the embarrassing goofs and
plot holes you thought you caught before it gets to an agent or editor.
4) Want to be a professional, then act it. And by that I
mean join the professional organization(s) of the genre in which you write.
Through them you will find classes to help hone your craft, critique partner
match-ups, networking opportunities, calls for submission, and other
opportunities invaluable to breaking into publishing.
5) Don’t give up. You will hear way more no’s than yeses,
particularly early in your writing career. Stick with it. Believe in yourself.
Give yourself one day to wallow in the rejection and eat a bunch of chocolate and
then get right back on the horse. If your first book doesn’t sell, chalk that
up to learning and write a second.
What can fans of HARD AS IT GETS look
forward to next?
I’m currently writing four series: two contemporary (Hard
Ink, Heroes) and two paranormal (Hearts of the Anemoi, Vampire Warrior Kings).
I’ll have books from all four of those releasing in 2014. My next release is Hard As You Can (Hard Ink #2) coming
2/25/14!
About Hard As It Gets:
Five dishonored soldiers.
Former Special Forces.
One last mission.
These are the men of Hard Ink.
Tall, dark,
and lethal...
Trouble just walked into Nicholas Rixey's tattoo
parlor. Becca Merritt is warm, sexy, wholesome--pure temptation to a very jaded
Nick. He's left his military life behind to become co-owner of Hard Ink Tattoo,
but Becca is his ex-commander's daughter. Loyalty won't let him turn her away.
Lust has plenty to do with it too.
With her brother presumed kidnapped, Becca needs
Nick. She just wasn't expecting to want him so much. As their investigation
turns into all-out war with an organized crime ring, only Nick can protect her.
And only Becca can heal the scars no one else sees.
Desire is the easy part. Love is as hard as it
gets. Good thing Nick is always up for a challenge...
About Laura Kaye:
Laura is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling
author of over a dozen books in contemporary and paranormal romance. Growing
up, Laura’s large extended family believed in the supernatural, and family lore
involving angels, ghosts, and evil-eye curses cemented in Laura a life-long
fascination with storytelling and all things paranormal. She lives in Maryland with her
husband, two daughters, and cute-but-bad dog, and appreciates her view of the
Chesapeake Bay every day.
UNDER THE LIGHTS 
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