Jun 20, 20215 min read

Guns & Smoke Blog Tour: Fabulous and Brunette (Guest Post)

Please be sure to check out the original post here!

Hey, lovelies!! It gives me great pleasure today to host Lauren Sevier and A. Smith aka Abbie Smith and their new book, “Guns & Smoke,” here on FAB!! For other stops on their Goddess Fish Promotions Book Tour, please click on the banner above or any of the images in this post.

Be sure to make it to the end of this post to enter to win a $20 Amazon or Barnes and Noble Gift Card!! Also, come back daily to interact with Lauren and Abbie and to increase your chances of winning!!

Thanks for stopping by!! Wishing you all lots of luck in this fabulous giveaway!!

Guns & Smoke

by Lauren Sevier and A. Smith

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GENRE: Dystopian/Western Romance

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BLURB:

In a world where safety is a luxury and honor is found only among outlaws, two people attempt to outrun danger lurking around each corner and the tragedies that define them.

Bonnie is an outlaw on the run. Beautiful but dangerous; her dark past stalks her like the crater beasts that roam the desert. As the notoriously cruel outlaw Jones sends his henchmen to track her down and retrieve the gun she stole from him, Bonnie hopes she can stay one step ahead. Because if he catches her, a fate worse than death awaits.

Jesse always dreamed of leaving the farm to explore the ruins of the big cities. He just never imagined he’d be forced to flee after strange men burned down his rural mountain town and murdered everyone he loved. Responsible for his kid brother and searching for an uncle he’s never met before, he isn’t sure he can navigate the perils of life among con artists and thieves long enough to find him.

Their two paths collide as they find themselves thrown together on the adventure of a lifetime.

Together, they may just discover that life is about more than just surviving.

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EXCERPT ONE:

One small change in position and now each of my soft curves was pressed intimately against the tall, hard length of his unyielding body. His blue eyes blazed in the dim light of the alley, reading something on my face that urged him on. This was supposed to be my trap.

His hands were buried in my hair now, a thumb tracing over my cheek to land on my bottom lip. I knew what he wanted. Parting my mouth, I wrapped my lips around the pad of his thumb, my tongue flicking against it before sucking softly. A deep thunderous sound rumbled through his chest to shake me down to my bones. His hand in my hair slid to the back of my head, pulling my mouth closer to his. He wanted me to kiss him. He wanted this to be more than a transaction. He wanted me to want him back.

I brushed my nose against his, and he stilled. All other motion and sensation forgotten as his eyes landed on my mouth, inching closer to his. I drank in the taste of his breath, a faint echo of the taste of his lips from before. My head tilted to the side, and he brushed the hair away from my face to see me more clearly as I angled toward him. He swallowed down whatever desperate words were on the tip of his tongue, and I took his chin in my hand, mouths open and millimeters apart.

Click.

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TWO GUEST POSTS:

Check out these intriguing guest posts that both authors, A. Smith aka Abbie and Lauren wrote exclusively for FAB to promote their new book, Guns & Smoke!!!

Making It Believable: Writing Romantic and Intimate Scenes

From Abbie:

Writing romantic and intimate scenes can be a very tricky thing to do. Because I am a woman writing a male character, I wanted to spend a lot of time developing Jesse into the type of man I think a majority of women would be able to relate to. When writing Guns & Smoke, one of the biggest things I pushed to have was consent. I have read a lot of romance novels where consent is not always clear and given. I wanted Jesse to be a character that women wanted to be romantically involved with, sure, but I also wanted to be clear that he respected the boundaries of those women. That unless there is an explicit yes given, the answer is always no. Jesse was taught to be respectful by his parents. Given the astronomical number of women who have been victims of abuse and sexual assault, I always want to ensure that consent is freely given between the characters that I write. I also try not to focus on all the minute details of the action between the characters during intimate scenes. I feel that focusing on the emotions, and what the character is feeling, is far more important and impactful than writing detailed love scenes.

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From Lauren:

For Bonnie, a victim of sexual abuse, it was really important for me to portray her correctly in intimate scenes. When we first meet her, she’s confident, sexually promiscuous, and pretty clear that she doesn’t get attached to sexual partners. This, at least for her, is a coping mechanism. Due to trauma from her past that she’s never really gotten over, she’s afraid to get emotionally close to anyone. That if she gets close to them, they have the potential to hurt her. And even though she’s a very strong-willed, independent character, she’s afraid that she won’t know how to handle that kind of hurt. For Bonnie, it was about the little moments. The moments where Jesse shows that she can trust him, the way he listens to her and makes her feel heard, challenging her worldview time and again, how he’s willing to stick his neck out for her even when she feels she doesn’t deserve it. Until she feels safe with him in a way she’d never allowed herself to feel safe with anyone else. So, when they finally do have intimate scenes it was about capturing those moments, not about the graphic nature of sex. But of human connection, the breaking down of barriers, making promises to each other. Things that last much longer than just one night.

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AUTHOR BIOS:

Lauren Sevier & A. Smith are long time friends and co-authors from southern Louisiana. Guns & Smoke, their first joint publication, began as a “short” story after having too much wine on girl’s night. Nine years later it is now the first novel in a Dystopian/Western Romance series. The duo has plans to publish several series together in the future. A. Smith spends her time with her two rescue dogs and rescue cat surrounding herself with books and Labyrinth paraphernalia. Lauren Sevier collects antique tea cups and tries to stay sane, though as the mother of a toddler she fails brilliantly most days. She also has a growing collection of crowns and tiaras and likes to act silly on TikTok. Look for more thrilling novels from The Fools Adventure series in the future!

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