Laura Florand's Blog, page 9
July 29, 2015
Chocolate Cup Giveaway and Title Brainstorming
Let’s have a chocolate cup contest! (You know, these chocolate cups here. We have only 6 left!!)
We are going to RETITLE and REBRAND (that is, new cover) THE CHOCOLATE ROSE, Gabriel’s book. (Don’t worry, Amazon will not let you buy it over again thinking it’s a new book, plus we’ll put “formerly titled” in the description to help.)
The cover will be in keeping with the Vie en Roses covers. (It will involve a hot guy.)
The title…well, that’s what the giveaway is about! Who wants to help come up with one?
If there’s a definite winner–someone who comes up with an awesome title we decide to use–we’ll send the cup to that person. If we end up going with one of my title ideas, we’ll draw a name at random.
Here are my ideas:
Melt Me
Melt Into Me
Taste Me
Tempt Me
All In
Unguarded
Also, I had a very strong leaning toward naming it simply “Gabriel”, but people within the industry (editors etc) keep objecting to that. (Why? Not sure I’m convinced, so feel free to say why if you want.)
Remember, titles and covers are Pure 100% Marketing. (What would make a stranger to these books pick one up because it looks so tempting?)
Thank you for any thoughts!! Here’s the old cover/title. You see how it doesn’t fit anymore with the brand of the rest of my books.
July 28, 2015
Early reader copies have been sent! A Wish Upon Jasmine
Advance reader copies of A WISH UPON JASMINE have been SENT! If you were signed up for the list, check your email inbox now to see if you were among the names drawn. (And check your spam filters, which often catch these.) If you weren’t, I am very sorry but don’t despair! The book is coming very soon! After all, the jasmine harvest is just starting in France now, and this book is set during the jasmine harvest!
Thank you so much to all of you who were interested in early copies and reviewing. (And if you are thinking, “Wait, what? I could sign up to be in a drawing for early review copies? I didn’t know!”, here is the link for that, if you want to be in the drawing for the next book out.)
We do only send out a *very, very* limited number of these (like, 10!), so it’s a special THANK YOU prize for all your support, but please don’t feel too bad if you didn’t get one this time.
And again, THANK YOU! I hope you all will enjoy Damien’s story! The jasmine harvest was such a delightful season for a setting, I loved working on it.
July 20, 2015
July 17, 2015
A WISH UPON JASMINE (Vie en Roses 2)
Damien’s story is almost here! We are still waiting on the cover, but I wanted to share with you all what it’s about.
Blogger reviewers can sign up for an ARC here.
If you are a “regular reader” who would like to review (that is, you don’t have a blog, but you would love to be in a drawing for an advanced copy and review it on Amazon, Goodreads, Barnes & Noble, etc.), you can sign up here. We have a limited number and a LOT of requests, and names are drawn at random, but we’ll email you if your name is drawn. Thank you for your interest in it!
And without further ado:
A WISH UPON JASMINE
La Vie en Roses Book 2
From Reviewers’ Choice Book of the Year nominee and bestselling author Laura Florand:
Ruthless. That was what they said about Damien Rosier. Handsome. Wealthy. Powerful. Merciless. No one messed with his family, because to do so they would have to get through him. No one thought he had a heart. Not even the woman he gave his to.
Cynical. That was what they said about Jasmin Bianchi. A top perfumer of her generation, Jess had achieved commercial success by growing a protective shell over a tender heart. The one time she cracked it open to let Damien in, he crushed it—after a night of unbelievable passion.
Lovers. That one magical night couldn’t survive the harsh light of dawn. When Jess woke up to discover the man in bed beside her had stolen her company, she fled.
Enemies. Now she’s come to the south of France with a threat to his family heritage. If he wants to reclaim both it and the woman who walked away from him, he’s going to have to fight as dirty as only Damien can.
But Jess knows how to fight dirty, too. And these days, she has nothing left to lose.
Certainly not her heart.
Come explore the south of France, a world of heat and fragrance and tales as old as time, through the stories of the five powerful Rosier cousins and the women who win their hearts. A Wish Upon Jasmine, book two in Florand’s addictive new series, La Vie en Roses. “Explosive, sensual, and utterly sweet” (Eloisa James).
Sign up here to be emailed as soon as it’s released!
July 15, 2015
Goodreads Giveaway: Once Upon a Rose
Giveaway! Last month I promised to do another Goodreads giveaway of a signed copy of ONCE UPON A ROSE and make this one international (because the first time it wasn’t open internationally and people were disappointed). So that is up and running! Please share with your friends and good luck!
Goodreads Book Giveaway
Once Upon a Rose
by Laura Florand
Giveaway ends July 31, 2015.
See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.
July 6, 2015
Happy World Kiss Day! A snippet from All For You
Happy World Kiss Day! Hope you are doing your duty. Now all of you who were carefully restraining yourselves during UK’s Kiss Day can have at it!
A little snippet from ALL FOR YOU. Because there are all kinds of kisses.
“I’m never going to let you down,” Joss said, low and fierce. “I swear it, Célie.”
“No,” she agreed firmly, making a fist of encouragement, cheering him on. “You won’t. I know you won’t.” You’re such a good guy. My only good guy. And behave, you stupid wiggles. “You can do anything.”
“Right,” he agreed, that monosyllabic intensity of Joss’s that turned one short word into a vow. He shifted his hand to her chin, still holding her eyes.
She held very still. She kept her lips faintly parted. Just in case that was all the encouragement he needed to bend his head and …
Kiss her on the cheek.
Damn it!
The other cheek.
Her heart sank in disappointment.
But he didn’t let go of her chin, after the good-bye bises were finished. “Célie. I’ve got to go.” That deep voice of his made her want to curl up with it so badly. Most nights, she pretended Joss and his deep voice were in her bedroom with her, just to comfort her enough so that she could fall asleep.
Something about the intensity in his eyes made her want to step forward and curl up in him now—press herself against his chest, get him to fold his arms around her, as if he was going to be wrenched from her if she didn’t. But other than the time when she’d started crying after her brother was arrested, he never did hold her. She was the kid sister.
“I know,” she said wistfully. Of course he had to go. He probably had a date or something. She was such an idiot.
His other hand shifted in his pocket. As if he was clenching it and unclenching it.
“You’ll be all right?” he said.
Up went her chin. “Of course I will!” This place could not get to her.
He bent again. And—
Damn it.
A third kiss on her cheek. A fourth.
The full four bises, as if they came from some extra-affectionate part of France, the kind of regions where arriving at a party and greeting all the guests exhausted your cheeks. Not so common here, unless for a greeting after a long absence or a long good-bye. Or maybe, to give each other courage.
Or maybe because … he was noticing her? Maybe liking her? Not quite ready to move straight to a kiss on the mouth, but getting interested? Wanting an excuse to touch her more?
She tried to hold very still, so as not to shake any possibility of a birth of interest away.
“Célie.” He closed his eyes a moment. “The way you look at me.”
What was wrong with the way she looked at him? Heat climbed into her cheeks. Damn it, if he knew about those wiggles …
He opened his eyes, holding hers with that beautiful, beautiful hazel green. “Célie. You know I’m just a man, right?”
“No!” she said indignantly. She did not know that at all.
“Made of clay,” Joss said, his mouth turning down. “I’m not good enough for the way you look at me.”
Okay, now he was talking crazy. She put both hands on his chest. “You’re Joss. You can do anything!” She shouldn’t have to keep repeating that last part. It was so inherently true to who he was that she wanted to kick the world, kick her own brother, for vandalizing Joss’s belief in himself. People around here got their graffiti on everything else, but they could damn well keep their grimy, destructive hands off Joss Castel.
He stared down at her a long moment. Then strength seemed to infuse him, even more strength than he always held, as if he grew three centimeters in every direction just from her belief in him.
Well, good. She willed more of it into him, trying to pour it through her eyes into his heart. You are the biggest, best, most wonderful guy in the world. Don’t let this get you down. You can do anything!
“Right,” Joss said. He took a deep breath that seemed to expand his chest to superhero size. He squeezed her chin one last time. “I can be good enough,” he said like a vow. “Way the hell better than this.”
Exactly. You can do it! Don’t let this place get you down! She pushed the thoughts into him until her forehead hurt from the effort.
His hand left her chin—but then it was as if he couldn’t stop touching her, because he stroked a wisp of hair back off her face, tucking it behind her ear. His fingers lingered over the curve of her ear and then, far too soon, fell away.
Célie flushed all through her, this rosy, starstruck hope.
“Bonne nuit, Célie.” He started to turn away, then stopped, and looked back, gazing down at her as if he had to memorize her for a test. “You really are the best part of my day.”
So Célie was radiant when she curled up in her bed that night. She glowed so much she could have been her own night-light. Tomorrow—tomorrow she was going to wear her sexiest shirt, the one with the deep V-neck, and the jeans that really hugged her butt, and, and … she lost herself in dreams of what he would do, of how she might just trip a little when he kissed her cheeks, see if she might get their lips to meet for real tomorrow, because maybe he would like it. She dreamed it until those dreams blurred into sleep.
So it was a complete shock to her when his mother showed up at the bakery the next day in a hysterical rage, blaming Célie because the evening before, her son had caught a train south and joined the Foreign Legion.
June 22, 2015
What are you reading?
What have you all been reading? Our Friday Book Club has gotten off track with all the traveling this summer.
I read Ashley’s War in Maine, and thought the stories of those women were so impressive and moving. Although I think if they are being sent out on special ops with SEALs and Rangers, then they should get far more than 6 weeks of training. (It blows my mind that anyone should be expected to handle what SEALs and Rangers handle with only 6 weeks training.)
The other book I just finished this weekend is PURE MAGIC by Rachel Neumeier. This is a YA fantasy series with an edge to it, and I love it. (I have a major crush on Ezekiel, and also a bit of a crush on Grayson.)
What are you reading? Anything you recommend? Anything you’re looking forward to?
June 20, 2015
Inside Out
Who is going to see INSIDE OUT? We *loved* this movie, just wonderful. The kids loved it, but I think it had even greater depth for parents, with its themes of happy childhood and growing up and dealing with changing emotions. Joy is the main character’s joyful emotions but she’s also in many ways like a maternal figure who just wants to keep “her girl” happy and safe. (The kids didn’t have tears in their eyes, they were too busy laughing, but the parents did sometimes.) Utterly charming but very moving, too, and so creative and clever–highly recommend.
June 19, 2015
Snippet of A Wish Upon Jasmine for National Kiss Day (UK)!
Aww. It’s National Kissing Day in the U.K. (I guess you all celebrate it early! People not in the U.K., NO KISSING today because your day is July 6, World Kiss Day.) So, in insatiable curiosity, I had to find out why in the world we needed an international awareness day for kissing, and I came across something that said it was started “because there was a fear people had forgotten the pleasures of kissing for kissing’s sake”.
And all I could think was, “Some people read the *wrong books*.” I bet none of you have forgotten that kissing is a pleasure, have you? 
(Seriously, what? Am I living in a bubble? They just made that up, right? How could that even be possible?)
Here’s a kiss scene snippet from A WISH UPON JASMINE for you, if you’re in the U.K. (And remember, if you’re NOT, NO KISSING until July 6. Stop that right now.)
***
Kisses and kisses and kisses, in the dark against her door, with the scent of jasmine sneaking in among those kisses as if the flowers, too, wanted to touch. The night brushing cool silk around them after the heat of the day. Her hair under his fingers, her skin against his lips.
They were both tired. Ready to shower and sleep. But Damien kept kissing her because he couldn’t stand to stop and walk away. Trailing kisses over her throat in under the fall of her hair, so he could take a deep breath of her scent. Brushing them across her collarbone like wishes. Finding his way to her mouth again.
I don’t want to go.
Ask me to stay.
***
Happy Kissing Day, U.K.! No cheating, everyone else!
Honk if you already knew kissing “for kissing’s sake” was a pleasure without the need for an awareness day.
May 29, 2015
Friday Book Club!
What are you all reading this weekend? I’ve just started ASHLEY’S WAR, about female soldiers recruited for Special Ops with JSOC in Afghanistan and Iraq, the first female Special Ops. It’s quite fascinating. I was drawn in by a CNN article about the book and Ashley which briefly mentioned that she could do 30 pull-ups from a dead hang. I’m only a couple of chapters in, but it’s definitely compelling so far. And I’m super excited that Nalini Singh’s SHARDS OF HOPE is coming out next Tuesday, because I read this early, and it is wonderful. I hope you all will enjoy it, too! What about you? What are you reading? Anything you’re looking forward to? Anything you recommend?
