I am extremely happy to welcome back to BLI one of my alltime favourite contemporary romance authors, the wonderful Erin Nicholas, who is celebrating the release of her latest novel Everything You’ve Got! As I’ve told you countless times Erin’s books are outstanding not only due to her fantastic characterizations and the sexy love stories, but due to her making her secondary characters, family and friend relationships such a pivotal part of the romance, and of course the extraordinary humour she infuses her stories with! So here is your chance to read about a behind the scenes secret and win yourself a copy of her latest book Everything You’ve Got! Please give Erin the warmest welcome! 🙂

How to Solve a Love Triangle

I hate love triangles in books and movies. Well, that’s not completely true. Two guys being in love with the same girl definitely sets the story up for a lot of angst and what woman doesn’t like the fantasy of two guys fighting over her? 😉

But at some point, the situation has to be resolved, right? When this is another author’s problem or a movie director’s worry, I don’t like it, but it doesn’t keep me up at night. But when I suddenly had a love triangle on my hands (yeah, it wasn’t intentional—that’s a whole other story) I had to figure out what to do about it.

In my mind, here were the options:
1. Kill one of the guys off (yeah, I write romance—and not romantic suspense—so the killing thing wasn’t going to work for me)
2. Turn it into a ménage relationship (I love to read this, but don’t write these so that was off the list too)
3. Have the girl decide to be a lesbian and dump both guys (a fine option, but not really my genre)
4. Have the girl decide to enter the convent and give her life to God (which is also a totally fine option… and a totally different kind of book)
5. Have the girl choose. Which, of course, leads to heart break for the other guy. Which, I hate. But yeah… that was the only one that really fit my genre and writing so… dammit, that’s what I had to do.

However, being completely addicted to happily ever afters and having a tendency to love all my characters—even the guy who wasn’t the guy—I found a way around the heartbreak (for all of us!) I gave the other guy a true love of his own!

You first meet Luke Hamilton in Anything You Want. He’s the driven, has-his-whole-life-mapped-out guy who has assumed for years that he’d end up with Sabrina (the heroine of Anything You Want). But her falling in love with Luke’s best friend put a, ahem, little wrinkle in his plan. Yep, Luke’s the “other guy”.

But never fear! I didn’t have to kill him! He and Marc were not into the ménage thing and Sabrina really isn’t the convent—or lesbian—type but I found a solution.

That solutions name is Kat (short for Katarina). She’s the woman who’s been Luke’s friend for years… and who’s secretly wanted him the whole time.

So, even while Luke’s plans all go to hell in Anything You Want, I was smiling through it all. Because I knew that Everything You’ve Got was coming!

Now, I won’t lie. Even with Kat in the picture it wasn’t a piece of cake. She’s got… a few issues 😉 She’s in love with Luke but it took them a little while to figure things out. Still, it was all worthwhile. No more third wheels or triangles or the need to suddenly drastically alter someone’s lifestyle. Whew!

I hope you’ll check out how Luke gets the girl of his dreams!

And to celebrate the release of Everything You’ve Got I’m giving away a copy of the book to one commenter! Just tell me how you feel about love triangles—love ‘em, hate ‘em, ever been in one yourself :-D?

Everything You’ve Got
Excerpt

“I want you all to myself,” he said huskily, drawing his thumb along her bottom lip and making ribbons of heat swirl through her. Then he grinned. “And I want to be all you have to think about, see and…do for a few days.”

She took a step back from him. A big step. “Whoa. This all sounds… You want to…” Too many thoughts were tumbling through her mind. “I get it. You’re trying to cram months of dating into a few days on a road trip. What are we going to do first when we get back—order the wedding cake or pick out the china pattern we want?” She turned and stomped toward the door. Of course this couldn’t just be sex. Of course he couldn’t just focus on the no-panties thing. This was Luke. He always had a plan and he knew nothing about not getting his way.

He sighed. “Don’t be ridiculous. Marc will make the cake, so obviously we’ll pick china out first.”
She swung back to face him, prepared to tell him what he could do with the cake, but the heat in his eyes stopped her words. He reached up and unknotted his tie as he started forward. “Turn around.”
Something in his tone, or in his eyes, or both made her heart kick against her chest. The air heated as he approached and she felt her breathing quicken.

He slid his tie free from his collar and unbuttoned the top button of his shirt.

Okay, clothing being removed was good.

“Turn around?” she repeated even as she turned. Hey, this was Luke Hamilton and he was taking stuff off.
She was very okay with that.

“Now just hold still.”

No problem. As long as he shut up about Nashville—and well, maybe everything. He needed to use his mouth in other ways.

“Close your eyes,” he said, his lips against her ear.

She did, shivering a little though she was feeling anything but cold.

Then she felt the brush of silk against her cheek and felt him slide what she assumed to be his tie over her eyes. She was sure of it as she felt the gentle tug of him tying the ends behind her head.

“Uh, Luke?”

“Yeah?”

“Did you just blindfold me?”

“Yeah.”

“You’re actually blindfolding me?”

“Yep.”

Her heart sped up. Okay, now they were moving in the direction she wanted.

“It’s very likely I’ll peek,” she told him.

“I’m sure you’re right.”

Then he leaned in.

Kat felt her breath catch and she felt herself drift closer to him, seeking his heat.

“This will fix that.”

But she didn’t ask what he was talking about because his lips met the back of her neck. Tingles spread quickly. She found herself wanting more, tipping her head forward to be sure he knew she was fine with this. His response was to slide his hands down her arms bringing her hands behind her back. Then his tongue licked a spot behind her ear and she lost track of anything else.

A moment later, she felt the cold metal of the handcuffs click around her wrists.

She couldn’t have really explained to anyone how it happened. It was fast and smooth.

She tugged on her wrists. “What are you doing?”

“Handcuffing you.”

“What is going on?” she demanded, trying to sound annoyed.

She didn’t think she pulled it off. She sounded breathless and turned on. Which made sense since that was exactly what she was.

Suddenly she felt him move in front of her and the next thing she knew her world tipped—literally—and she was being carried over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes.

“Whatever I want,” he said putting a big palm on her right butt cheek.

Yeah, she couldn’t argue with that assessment of the situation.

Oh, sure, she could scream, kick, run, try to get away. But then she might actually get away which, she was honest enough to admit, was the last thing she really wanted.

Twenty minutes later she’d changed her mind.

She was handcuffed to a chair in the kitchen area of Sabrina and Marc’s RV.
Luke sat in the driver’s seat. Driving. Away from Justice.
She’d tried everything to get him to free her. She’d even offered him a blow job.
He’d turned the radio up at that point and hadn’t turned it down since.
She saw the sign for Martinsburg—he’d removed the blindfold as soon as she was secured to the chair—so she knew they were headed east.

Finally she sighed. Whatever he had planned, he was winning so far. The farther they got from Justice the lower her chances were of hitchhiking back or calling for a ride.

“Are you going to tell me where we’re going at least?” she yelled over Green Day’s latest hit.
He leaned forward and lowered the volume. “Nashville.” Apparently he could hear better than he’d let on.
Then she focused on what he’d said. Nashville? Well, of course they were going to Nashville.
Son of a bitch. She tugged on the bindings at her wrists. He was kidnapping her to Nashville.

Everything You’ve Got by Erin Nicholas
A girl, a guy, a set of handcuffs… What more could happily ever after possibly need?

Anything & Everything, Book 2

Luke Hamilton’s requirements for the perfect woman are straightforward: live, work and play in his beloved hometown—and get along with his mother. Dr. Kat Dayton’s got it all. And Luke’s noticed. It’s obvious to him that his long-time friend belongs with him, especially after the world-rocking kiss she lays on him at his birthday party.

While Kat can’t deny she’s imagined a kiss like that—and more—for years, she’s less convinced they’re destined for happily ever after. Still, Luke figures that’s nothing a friendly kidnapping and a three-day road trip won’t fix.

Kat would love to let Luke in, but if he discovers the truth—that committee meetings bore her to tears and she’d rather have a root-canal than go to another potluck—his white-picket-fence dreams will be crushed.

Being stuck in an RV with Luke should be three days of flirtatious fun, but for Kat it’s heavenly hell. The close confines and good old-fashioned lust are making a mockery of her perfect-woman façade, and if he finds out about the mistake that might cost her job—and force her to leave town for good—it’ll take more than a sexy pair of handcuffs to keep him close.

Warning: Contains a man who’s willing to do anything for the perfect woman, an RV and surprise road-trip to help him prove it, and a woman who’s wondering just what the hell she’s gotten into.

Erin Nicholas has been reading and writing romantic fiction since her mother gave her a romance novel in high school and she discovered happily-ever-after suddenly went a little beyond glass slippers and fairy godmothers! She lives in the Midwest with her husband who only wants to read the sex scenes in her books, her kids who will never read the sex scenes in her books, and family and friends who say they’re shocked by the sex scenes in her books (yeah, right!).

Website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~*~*Giveaway*~*~

Erin has generously offered an ebook copy of Everything You’ve Got to one lucky commenter!

All you have to do is leave a meaningful comment about the post and answer Erin’s question: how you feel about love triangles—love ‘em, hate ‘em, ever been in one yourself?
(You can read our full giveaway policy here)

Please be sure to include a valid email address in the comment form (need not be in the actual body of the comment).

This giveaway is opento all!

Giveaway ends on Saturday, April 7th, 2012; we will announce the winner on Sunday.

Good luck!

About Stella

Stella is a proud bookaholic and a self-taught multilinguist in training. Besides reading, her other great passions are travelling and baking. When she is not globetrotting she lives in sunny Budapest, where she loves to spend her free time preparing (and feasting on) delicious cookies or devouring equally yummy books. Her favourite genres are urban fantasy and romance and she couldn't live without her daily dose of sunshine. Besides being the Latin Lover on BLI Stella also blogs about books and a bookish life on Ex Libris.

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