Review, Interview and Giveaway: Definitely, Maybe, Yours by Lissa Reed

Blurb:
Seattle-based baker Craig Oliver leads a life that is happily routine: baking cupcakes for an enormous family reunion, managing Sucre Coeur for its frequently absent owner, and closing out his day with a pint at the local pub. He has a kind heart, a knack for pastry, and a weakness for damaged people.

Habitual playboy Alex Scheff is looking to drown his sorrows, but instead discovers that he may have a weakness for Englishmen who carry cookies in their pockets. Can a seemingly incompatible pair find the recipe for love in a relationship they claim is casual?

Review:
This is such a sweet story. Alex has trouble believing he’s worth loving. And Craig loves him deeply but won’t tell for feat of Alex bolting. But together they love each other so deeply it’s as if no one else exists. Alex’s ex shows up to blow everything apart because the two guys haven’t worked it all out yet and they’re still trying to build a solid foundation. But oh my gosh they love each other so hard! My favorite line in the book is while they’re at the club with friends. “We pissed off two twinks, a bear and his cub and a drag queen fixing her falsies searching for you. I wish I had a Gay Bar Bingo Card right now.” I was laughing so hard at the line. The book ran the gamut of emotions and I enjoyed it right from the beginning. Alex’s friend Connor is hysterical and a total force to be reckoned with. He fights in the dirtiest of ways to get these two to stay together. While these two still have some hurdles to overcome, you can tell their love is strong and can get them through many of the challenges ahead. They have an amazing group of friends that support them and you can’t help but cheer for them as well. I can’t wait to read more by Ms. Reed in the future.
Stars:
Four

Interview:
Today I’m very lucky to be interviewing Lissa Reed, author of Definitely, Maybe, Yours.
Hi Lissa, thank you for agreeing to this interview. Tell us a little about yourself, your background, and your current book.
Hello, I very much appreciate you having me!
I’m a thirty-something single gal living and writing in Texas. I’ve been writing stories for as long as I can remember, and reading romance novels for just about as long. I used to think I wanted to be a journalist, but it turned out I preferred making up stories to reporting on them!
Definitely, Maybe, Yours is a bit of a love letter to baking, to Seattle, to random acts of kindness, and to learning to believe you deserve to be loved.
1) What is the most satisfying thing about being a writer?
Bringing ideas to life, really! Not just letting them knock around inside my head going nowhere, but making them into people with lives and families and romances and jobs—it’s a lot of fun to see what tiny kernels can grow into.
2) Do your characters ever take over your writing and make the story go somewhere you hadn’t originally planned?
All the time, oh, just all the time. Sometimes it’s a tiny detour and sometimes I’m left staring at the page going, well, I had not at all planned for that. But I go with whatever monkey wrenches they throw at me!
3) How did you celebrate the release of your book?
I went out for dinner! There will be a party later, too, August tends to be a busy month for my friends and I in the front half, so we have to work first and party later.
4) How did you come up with the idea for this book?
I love baking, romantic stories and movies that involve bakeries make me happy—like the movie Waitress, which I absolutely love, even if it isn’t a romance, strictly speaking. I wanted to do my own bakery love story. I happened to see a character in a TV show baking one day, a character I really liked, and I thought, well, what if someone like them had a bakery, and they met someone… it just sort of took off from there.
5) Have you ever written naked?
Most of the time I’m writing in my pajamas, but they do have to go into the laundry sometime!

Excerpt:
With a wink, Craig pulls a ten-dollar bill out of his left coat pocket and a carefully bagged almond and raspberry-lemon croissant, Katie’s all-time favorite baked good, out of the right. He passes them across the bar as if he’s James Bond—a very cheeky and cheery sort of 007. “You know I’ll always look out for you. Keep the change.”

Katie squeals and flops across the bar to squeeze him breathless, and her ponytail slaps him in the nose. She bounces off with her treat in hand and Craig shakes his head and pulls long black and red hairs from his face, as he does every time this happens. Katie really is his favorite bartender at The Order of the Garter, hell, his favorite bartender in Seattle and maybe even the world. Much too good to be working at a grotty little pub, fending off unsavory advances and spilled drinks four nights a week; that’s why Craig will bring her any bakery treat she wants, anytime she wants it, until she finally wises up and gets the hell out of this place.

Time for another sip of this excellent, excellent stout: Craig reaches forward. It’s a good Thursday.

Of course, that’s when it takes quite the sharp turn, leaving every Seattle-pub-Thursday Craig’s ever known in the dust.

“Well, aren’t you a hit with the ladies,” comes a surly drawl from his left, startling Craig just as he’s got his fingers around his glass. “Was that a croissant in your pocket, or were you actually happy to see her?”

“Both,” Craig replies, shifting around to lean on his elbow and survey the formerly silent pile of misery hunched over two stools down, the limp guy at the end of the bar Craig had spotted on his way in. He is not unconscious after all, much to Craig’s surprise; judging by the row of empty shot glasses upside down in front of him and the distinct aroma of tequila emanating a good four-foot radius from his person, he should be. Craig winces and turns away as the fumes burn his nose.

“Baked goods. That’s a new one. Never saw anyone use baking to hit on the ladies before.” Mr. Misery sways his head upright, pushes a wild flop of brown hair out of his eyes and swings around until he locates Craig. He blinks. “Does it work?”

Surprised by the color of the eyes meeting his—an unusual shade, gray, not blue-gray or blue, but the gray of a sky covered in early storm clouds—Craig answers without thinking. “I wouldn’t know. I don’t hit on girls. Katie’s my friend, not my type.”

About Lissa:
Lissa Reed is a writer of fiction, blogs and bawdy Renaissance song parodies. She traces her first interest in becoming a writer to the fourth grade, when her teacher gave her the gift of her first composition book. A former newspaper editor, Reed shifted her focus to romance and literary fiction early in her writing career. She lives in the Dallas-Fort Worth area and is currently working on her new novel, Certainly, Possibly, You—the sequel to Definitely, Maybe, Yours.

Author Contact:
Connect with Lissa Reed at lissareed.com; on Tumblr at http://lissareedbooks.tumblr.com/; on Twitter @LissaReedBooks; on Goodreads at http://goodreads.com/LissaReedBooks and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/authorlissareed

Where To Buy:
Interlude Press: http://store.interludepress.com/collections/frontpage/products/definitely-maybe-yours-by-lissa-reed
Amazon: http://amzn.to/1Nw89ne

Tour Stops:
11-Aug: Happily Ever Chapter, Jessie G. Books, Scattered Thoughts & Rogue Words
12-Aug: Prism Book Alliance, MM Good Book Reviews, Mikky’s World of Books
13-Aug: Nephylim, Bayou Book Junkie
14-Aug: Amanda C. Stone, Wicked Faerie’s Tales and Reviews, Love Bytes
17-Aug: Divine Magazine, Hearts on Fire
18-Aug: Two Chicks Obsessed With Books and Eye Candy
19-Aug: Because Two Men Are Better Than One
20-Aug: Vampires, Werewolves, and Fairies, Oh My, BFD Book Blog
21-Aug: Molly Lolly, Inked Rainbow Reads
24-Aug: My Fiction Nook, Dawn’s Reading Nook, Rainbow Gold Reviews

Giveaway:
a Rafflecopter giveaway

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