Tuesday 20 May 2014
Brook Cottage Books is thrilled to welcome Serena Fairfax to the blog. Lets find out about Serena and her books Loving that Feeling and Alchemy.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Serena
Fairfax spent her childhood in India, qualified as a Lawyer in England and
joined a London law firm.Romance
is hardwired into her DNA so her novels include a strong romantic theme.
However, she broke out of the romance bubble with one (you’ll see which one when you visit the
Books page), which is a quirky departure in style and content.She’s also authored several short stories that feature on her
blog http://www.serenafairfax.com/serena_fairfax_author_blog
Fast
forward to a sabbatical from the day job when she traded in bricks and mortar
for a houseboat which, for a hardened land lubber like her, turned out to be a
big adventure.
Apart
from writing and reading (all kinds of books), a few of her favorite things are
collecting old masks, singing (in the rain) and exploring off the beaten track.
She’s a member of the Romantic Novelists
Association, which is a very supportive organization. She and her golden retriever, Inspector Morse, who can't
wait to unleash his own Facebook page, divide their time between London and
rural Kent. (Charles Dickens said: Kent, sir. Everybody knows Kent. Apples,
cherries, hops and women).
AUTHOR’S
LINKS
Website http://www.serenafairfax.com/
Email:
info@serenafairfax.com
Facebook http://www.facebook.com/serenafairfax
LOVING THAT FEELING by SERENA FAIRFAX
BLURB
Seared
by a bigamous love cheat, London designer Deborah Tremaine backs off sex. But
when charismatic Serbian, Zoran Pavlović, who wants to demolish an art deco
cinema she’s campaigning to save, crosses her path she’s up for a fling.
Zoran
has clawed his way out of Serbia’s turbulent past but believes his background
means he won’t find happiness simply because he can’t trust a woman to cherish
him for who he is — a Serb. But he’s a hot-blooded Slav up for no-strings sex
and Deborah sends him into overdrive.
Deborah’s
finances are in meltdown when a customer goes bust. Zoran dangles a business
deal based in Belgrade, Serbia that she can’t refuse. She’s confident the job
won’t compromise the campaign and decides that Zoran is the guy who can
jump-start her love life.
They embark on a
sizzling affair but tension, erotically sexual and work related, skyrockets.
Incidents trigger the revelation of their personal demons. Can they escape the
black holes?
EXCERPT
Ko je ta zena? “Who
is that woman?” Zoran Pavlović trained his binoculars on the pigeon-haunted
roof of the derelict cinema, his eyes zoning in on the endless blue-jeaned
legs, the wind-blown auburn hair, the high, full breasts jutting against the
thin fabric of her sherbet-lemon T-shirt. She was primetime. A hardening heat
coiled through his groin.
“That’s
Deborah Tremaine, sir, the interior designer who’s spearheading the campaign.”
His aide sweated nervously in the summer sunshine. “I think we ought to…”
“I
think,” Zoran said and dealt him a trenchant glance, “you should leave the
thinking to me. I want you to stay here and monitor this lunatic fringe.”
Nice
view, Zoran muttered as he assessed his options for handling her. She was
brandishing a crimson flag emblazoned with the purple slogan Save Our Heritage Now! having scaled the
ladder hauled into place by her supporters. Singing “We Will Overcome,” they’d
blockaded the bulldozers and charmed the guard dogs into shadows with choice
chunks of meat.
Zoran
sprang from the Land Rover, a powerful body in black— denims, T-shirt,
trainers—and cut a swift path over the rubble. Tipped off that activists
planned to stage a long sit-in, they’d already spiked redevelopment for
months—months that left him seriously out of pocket. It couldn’t go on, it
wouldn’t go on. Action was imperative—action that would be characterized as
friendly persuasion in his native Serbia, although possibly something quite
else in England—but he’d ride out the storm. He’d ridden out worse.
“Quite
the warrior princess, Boadicea,” he murmured as, storming the treads, he scaled
the parapet with spider-like agility. He flicked her a cool, controlled gaze,
his belly knotting as he registered the luminosity of her skin, the scent of
lavender shampoo in the shining cloud of hair, eyes of lapis blue, a soft mouth
that promised so much.
“I’m
Zoran Pavlović. We haven’t met before…”
Their
eyes swerved together and held, and suddenly Deborah’s heart was drumming with
the most primitive sexual charge. She felt like melting ice, lost and floating
in a warm flood. As the sensuous amber-richness of his cologne infused her
senses, a wave of entrapment clutched her and she inched away. “I’m sure I’d
remember if we had.”
She’d
tracked him as he sharked across. The strong sunlight highlighted the glossy,
cropped, raven-black hair, restless energy exuding from the long-limbed body,
the T-shirt taut against wide shoulders. The polished skin with its hint of
olive. She knew he owned the site and was once mauled by the media for his
predatory style but now played them like a Stradivarius violin with his promise
to deliver jobs and homes.
“Welcome
aboard,” she added caustically. “So what’s on offer?” She tilted her head
speculatively and lifted her chin. The dangling, animist-style earrings from
central Africa clinked softly, the antique beaten silver contrasting with the
sudden, bright color in her creamy skin as his glance stripped her naked. God, this wasn’t supposed to happen. She
was a foolish, reckless nineteen-year-old again, easily aroused and prone to coup de foudre.
He
was well armed for the fight. “We’ll talk when you’re down.”
BUY LINKS
Siren BookStrand: http://www.bookstrand.com/loving-that-feeling
Barnes & Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/loving-that-feeling-serena-fairfax/1118197748?ean=9781627409261
ALCHEMY
by SERENA FAIRFAX
BLURB
Set in sun-drenched Lake Garda where
church-mouse Tamsin Heriot, an English rose, pairs off with sexy, privileged
Luca Leopoldo who’s half Italian half Somali. But Luca isn’t what he seems…
Orphaned, aged seven, when his childhood in
Mogadishu is brutally destroyed, Luca is left emotionally broken. Ragged and starving he seeks refuge in Italy
where kindly aristocrats adopt him.
Ever since she was fifteen, Tamsin has had a
crush on Luca and the summer before she goes to university, she’s determined to
lose her virginity to him.
It’s eight years before their trajectories
re-converge. Tamsin, still lusting after Luca, receives devastating news that
triggers her return to the dilapidated family casa when an unexpected bond develops
between her and Luca’s widowed, adoptive mother.
A will alters what starts as a dalliance and
there’s no shortcut to love, everything to lose, as the relationship between
two wounded people, Luca and Tamsin, is pushed to breaking point.
ALCHEMY STORY EXCERPT
I
am eighteen, going on nineteen and have never been f*****.
Tamsin morosely hummed her thoughts to the tune of Liesl and Rolf’s duet in “The
Sound of Music” as she gazed at her reflection in the lopsided, oval bedroom
mirror that scorching August day. The interior walls of La Casa della Fontana
sloped, the floors listed, so straightening the mirror, in the crooked little
house of the nursery rhyme, was routine. This grandly named, spectacularly
moldering house in a picturesque village on Lake Garda had been snapped up by
her bohemian parents, Patrick and Eve Heriot, on the back of a legacy from a
crusty uncle, and it was from here that, for the past twenty-five years, they
ran year-round painting and creative writing courses.
Tamsin’s first year at
university beckoned in six weeks’ time. Below bold brows, large, gold-flecked
hazel eyes set in a plump, milk-fresh face stared back at her and she sucked in
her cheeks. She peeled off her nightie, courtesy of a thrift shop, her wardrobe
mainstay, and sighed. Her luscious boobs owed nothing to silicon implants but
her tummy was majestically rounded and there was no avoiding it, she was a
dumpling who couldn’t afford liposuction.
Her spirits boosted as she
brushed her hair. Licorice-dark, thick and glossy, it tumbled to her shoulders
in loose curls. He would surely throw her
down and lose himself in it. And those deep dimples when she smiled, which
she’d almost forgotten how to.
The three graces – her trio
of close girlfriends, all lissome and nubile with antelope legs, all clones of
the hottest models - had been f****d, or so they bragged. F****d by their
brothers’ buddies, f****d by their fathers’ buddies, f****d by studs in
one-night stands. F****d against library shelves groaning with texts on particle
physics, f****d in the swimming pool, f****d knee-deep in mud at Glastonbury,
f****d on the hallowed green grass of Glyndebourne to the shrill vocals of
Brünhilde wrapping up the immolation scene. There was no doubt they’d f****d
and she claimed likewise, although disbelief was palpable and vociferously
voiced when, with narrowed eyes, they compared notes. Well, this summer she’d
get f****d, by hook or by crook. Her summer of love. The summer Cinderella
would go to the ball. She refused to go down in history as the only virgin
fresher.
She had A PLAN.
BUY
LINKS for ALCHEMY
Siren BookStrand: http://www.bookstrand.com/alchemy
In 5
weeks time ALCHEMY will be available from Amazon US, Amazon UK, Apple iBooks, Kobo
and Barnes & Noble.
Serena
welcomes hearing from you.
Thanks, I’m chuffed!
Congrats on the new novels, Serena!