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GUEST LAUNCH PARTY + Giveaway: Throughly Kissed by Kristine Grayson


Let’s give a warm welcome to fellow Sourcebooks Casablanca author Kristine Grayson whose book Thoroughly Kissed is in stores this month!


"My First Beach Read"

"Charming and engaging, the story moves quickly and fluidly. Emma is the right balance of strong and vulnerable, and Michael complements her with his skepticism and compassion. A sweet love story makes this a perfect beach read for hopeless romantics."
Publishers Weekly review of Thoroughly Kissed

My writing career has spanned decades—literally—and I have waited decades for a review like that. I’ve always wanted to write a “beach read,” and now, it seems, I have.

I didn’t set out to write a beach read. I needed to write Emma’s story. Emma, for those of you who haven’t read Utterly Charming, is Sleeping Beauty. This fairy tale isn’t a modern retelling. She actually is the Sleeping Beauty, awakened after 1,000 years into our world, and boy, is she confused.

Or she was when she woke up. Then she gathered herself, made some crucial decisions, and ended up using her brains to survive. Thoroughly Kissed starts ten years after Utterly Charming, and in those ten years, Emma has become a thoroughly modern woman. Kinda. She did assign herself a last name—“Lost”—because that was how she felt when she woke up. But really, she’s lost no longer. She found her way.

Of all the heroines I’ve ever written, I admire Emma the most. I don’t think I could survive what she’s lived through. Or rather, I don’t think I could have survived as well as she has. And I certainly don’t think I would have risked falling in love again. The first time she did, she ended up losing 1,000 years of history. To even contemplate a second time takes a lot of courage.

That’s what I think of when I think of Emma Lost. Courage. She doesn’t fight dragons or vampires or evil lords. She fights herself. She fights all of history. And she wins.

And then she falls in love.

Emma deserves a happily-ever-after more than anyone I’ve ever written about. Thoroughly Kissed, which comes out this week, shows how she gets it.

I hope you end up liking Emma as much as I do, and I hope you enjoy the book. I also hope you’re reading it on a beach, because that means you’re relaxing and having fun.

Here’s to summer and beaches and Thoroughly Kissed.

Thanks very much to Kristine for joining us today, and congrats on her latest release! To enter to win 1 of 2 PRINT copies of Thoroughly Kissed, please share in the comments your favorite book to read on the beach (or during the summer). Be sure to leave an email address so we can contact you if you’re chosen—US and Canada mailing addresses only, please! Winners will be announced in the comments on Friday, June 8.

THOROUGHLY KISSED BY KRISTINE GRAYSON – IN STORES JUNE 2012

Sleeping Beauty has sworn off kissing...
Emma awakens to an entirely different world than the one she lived in a thousand years ago, and although she's the real Sleeping Beauty, her life is no fairy tale. After parting ways with her supposed Prince Charming, she's determined to be a normal girl—she hides her magic and swears off kissing strange men.

But her gorgeous boss Michael knows there 's something unusual about Emma, and he thinks she's as infuriating as she is beautiful. Now Emma needs to teach Michael a lesson, which means mastering her magic. She knows she's flirting with danger, but after one look at Michael's perfect lips, all she can think is, "What's another thousand years ... ?"

Welcome to the fractious fairy tale world of Kristine Grayson, where the bumpy road to happily ever after is paved with surprises ...

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Before turning to romance writing, award-winning author Kristine Grayson edited the Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction and ran Pulphouse Publishing (which won her a World Fantasy Award). She has won the Romantic Times Reviewer’s Choice Award and, under her real name, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, the prestigious Hugo award. She lives with her own Prince Charming, writer Dean Wesley Smith, in Portland, Oregon. For more information, please visit http://www.kristinegrayson.com/ or follow her on Twitter, @KristineRusch.





Comments

  1. Honestly, it can be any book, but I personally love a good romance book. Something thats going to relax you. After all you are at the beach, you really don't want a stressful book with you when you are trying to relax.

    countessofmar(at)yahoo(dot)com

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  2. What a marvelous premise, and congratulations on the launch! When I think of the distance between me and my mother, who has plenty of memories of the Great Depression, and me and my daughter, who thinks I'm nuts when I tell her in Grandpa's life time, women could not vote, then this idea of a woman being hit upside the head with extreme change resonates in more than a fictional sense.
    I predict you've written more than beach read, too. The fairy tales are timeless because the themes are timeless, and this one sounds terrific.

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  3. Congratulations on the launch, Kristine! What a fabulous review from PW and after reading the blog can't wait to find out what happens, next.

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  4. Hi Kristine. Congrats on your new book. Sounds great. I love to read books set in tropical settings in the summer. :)
    Crystal816[at]hotmail[dot]com

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  5. Congrats on the release. it sounds fabulous. Really interesting premise.

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  6. Congratulations! I really don't change my reading which means I will read any book at any time. I guess the theory is when you are on vacation you want something that you don't have to really think about but I rarely put any book in that category lol.

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  7. oops I forgot to leave my catslady5(at)aol.com just in case lol.

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  8. Congrats on your release!! Any historical romance as I am addicted to them!! However, Defiant by Pamela Clare is due for release July 3, just in time to be a nice beach read!

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  9. Congratulations on the review and the publication of your beach read! Sounds like you are on your way to success! Great cover, too!
    Amelia

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  10. Congrats on the new release and the great review! I like to read any type of contemporary romance for beach reads, typically of the small town variety since they're relaxing. Love your cover and can't wait to read about Sleeping Beauty!

    kliu107 (at) gmail (dot) com

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  11. I love your twists to fairytales. My favorite beach reads? Same as what I always read...whatever strikes my fancy.

    little lamb lst at yahoo dot com

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  12. Congratulations on the book! I'd like to read Tangle of Need by Nalini Singh.

    bn100candg(at)hotmail(dot)com

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  13. Congrats on the latest release, Kristine! Sounds like a good read and it has a great cover as well :)

    As for favourite beach reads, I would mostly choose a contemporary romance like the Lucky Harbor series.

    chibipooh(at)gmail(dot)com

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  14. These books sound so interesting... Would make a great beach read.. I think one of my favourite "beach reads" was Beach Girls by LuAnne Rice...

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  15. Congrats on the release!

    As for my favorite beach book, I'm not picky!

    refhater2 at yahoo.com

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  16. My favorite book to read on the beach or in the summer is basically any book I happen to be reading at the time. If I were choosing a book in particular, I'd probably choose a funny contemporary romance or a light hearted historical romance to read on the beach. Congrats on the release of Throughly Kissed, it sounds like a fantastic book.

    Barbed1951 at aol dot com

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  17. A beach book? For a hot swealtering summer day? I guess I would want to pick a steamy romance =) How bout one I just finished and would so read again, Wicked as They Come by Delilah S. Dawson. But I would whip through it so fast I better have a few others on hand to keep me going...I am going for bronzed beach babe right?

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  18. ok ok, got carried away dreaming of my golden tan surrounded by books

    eyesofblueice (at) gmail

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  19. Thanks to everyone who commented! Our winners are Meloday May and Kristy. I'll be emailing you both shortly.

    Danielle

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