Tuesday, 20 May 2014

Author in the Spotlight Serena Fairfax


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

Kobo:                            http://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/ebook/loving-that-feeling



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

 In 5 weeks time ALCHEMY will be available from Amazon US, Amazon UK, Apple iBooks, Kobo and Barnes & Noble.




 Serena  welcomes hearing from you.

2 comments:

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