Book title: Summer Sky by Lisa Swallow
Series: Blue Phoenix #1
Genre: Contemporary romance
Release date: April 2014
Cover designed by: Najla Qamber Designs
Hosted by: Forever Me Romance
SYNOPSIS
Sky changed her life for a man once, and she has no intention of doing it again - even if he is a six foot, tattooed rock god who makes a mean bacon sandwich.
Sky Davis is fed up of boyfriend Grant taking her for granted and when she comes home to find him wearing a girl, Sky suspects the relationship is over. She takes an unscheduled holiday and leaves the life (and guy) she hates behind.
Rock star Dylan Morgan is struggling with fame and infamy, sick of his life being controlled by other people. Dylan cuts his hair and walks away from his role as lead singer of Blue Phoenix, leaving chaos and speculation behind.
Outside the English seaside town of Broadbeach their cars and worlds collide.
Sky decides Dylan is an arrogant guy with too many tattoos, and Dylan is amused by the smart-mouthed girl with no idea who he is. Dylan and Sky soon discover they’ve travelled to Broadbeach for the same reason - to escape from reality back to a place with happy childhood memories.
Losing themselves in a world where they know nothing about each other, Sky and Dylan begin a summer romance that soon heats up their rainy English summer.
Fantasies can’t last forever and when reality crashes the party, Sky isn’t sure she wants to be more than his ‘summer Sky’ but Dylan doesn’t want to let her go.
Returning to the real world and public scrutiny isn’t their only problem. Blue Phoenix bass player, Jem Jones, has a reason for wanting Sky out of Dylan’s life, and is determined to come between them. Some things won’t stay hidden, even when they’re paid to ‘go away’.
Summer Sky is a quirky romance where occasionally more than the bacon sizzles. This is the first in the new ‘Blue Phoenix’ series of contemporary rock star romances.
Please note: this is a romance with a rock star hero, and not an erotic rock star book!
PURCHASE LINKS
TEASERS
EXCERPT (Choose one)
#1
"Sky! Waves!"
I have my back to the ocean and a wave crashes against my legs, destabilising me. I regain my footing and attempt to move before the retreating water sucks my feet into the sand. At that moment a larger wave wipes me completely, dragging my body underwater. I panic at the confusion of being pushed and pulled out of my control, seawater swirling hair into my face and the bubbles rushing into my ears. The shell remains tightly gripped in my hand.
As water draws away, I push my head free. Dylan stands on the edge of the shore, water lapping his ankles, laughing. I spit out sea water and stagger to my feet. The weight of the damp hoodie threatens to pull me down again as I push hair from my eyes.
"That was fucking funny! You should see your face!" He wades towards me, arm outstretched to help.
Attempting to keep my footing, I lunge at him and slap his hard chest with both palms. "It was not! Screw you!” Dylan catches my arms as I make contact, and pulls me towards him.
Scrutinizing my face briefly, Dylan takes my cheeks in his broad palms and crushes his lips against mine. I gasp again, but it's not the sea snatching my breath this time. A new wave sways us, and Dylan holds my face tightly, his own footing steady as his mouth claims mine. A small voice in my head asks what the hell I’m doing but I ignore it - Dylan overwhelms all common sense the moment I have any physical contact with him. Losing myself in his mint-flavoured kiss, in the slide of his cool tongue, I yield to the power he holds over me. Dylan curls his fingers into my wet hair and pulls me closer; I respond with a deep kiss, tracing fingers across his stubbled cheek.
Fierce or gentle, his kisses mould my soul to his as perfectly as his body shapes with mine, as if we’re in a place created by our coming together. Kissing Dylan last night pulled me into his orbit, and when I see stars again, I swear his kisses will always take me to the edge of his galaxy. If Dylan can remove me from reality with just this, god knows what anything else he's skilful at would do to me. The thought of us skin on skin, united through more than a kiss, lights a fire deep inside that would take more than the cold Cornish sea to extinguish.
Dylan loosens his grip on my hair and slides his hands across my damp back. He closes the final gap between us as our bodies meet, and I wish the rain-soaked clothes weren’t in the way. “I have never met anyone so…” He grasps for a word then gives up and rests his forehead on mine. “I feel as if I’ve waited my whole life to meet you and then suddenly you’re here.”
For a moment I consider whether he’s teasing me again, but I guess I’m very different to the people in his real life. "I can honestly say I've never met anyone like you, Dylan Morgan."
He wipes water from my cheek with cool, damp fingers. "No-one’s met Dylan Morgan apart from you. Not for a lot of years, anyway.”
I stare at the truth reflected in his pale blue eyes, unable to believe any of this is reality. His grip on my back loosens, and I step back. Rain drips down his face, soaking through his T-shirt and clinging to his body in a way that does nothing to help my mounting desire to get my hands on him.
A subject change is needed rapidly, before I begin drooling.
#2
"A couple of
days ago, I got up and thought 'fuck this'. So I cut my hair and left."
Forgetting myself,
I reach a hand and touch the short hair above his ear. "You had long
hair?"
My hand slides
across Dylan's face as he turns to look at me, his cheek smooth above his
stubbled jaw. "For the last eight years, yeah. I'll show you a picture
sometime. You might recognise me then."
"That's a long
time. It must be weird looking in the mirror and not recognising
yourself."
"I didn't
recognise myself for a long time even before I cut my hair." He picks at
his food and looks back to the sea.
Despite avoiding
talking about each other’s lives, things slip in. Like this
explanation for the tightly wound Dylan I met a few days ago.
"Maybe I
should cut mine, I can recreate myself too. This is the longest my hair's been
for a few years."
Dylan strokes my
fringe from my face, fingers trailing across my forehead. The touch ignites
nerve-endings across my face. "I'm sure you'll look great whatever you
decide to do with your hair."
"Grant said
girls with short hair don't look right."
"Who's
Grant?"
I clamp a hand over
my mouth. Real life things. Secrets. "Just some dickhead who used to be my
boyfriend."
"I wouldn't
think you were the kind of girl to date dickheads."
I huff. "Yeah,
some of them slip through the net and I don't realise until it's too
late."
"How can it be
too late? You weren't married, were you?"
I splutter Fanta
over my cooling chips. "Hell, no."
"Then
what?"
"Once you fall
in love, it's harder to let go; even with dickheads."
"But you let
go? Is that why you're here?"
This isn't fair.
He's poking at what I came to escape from - letting things into our bubble
world. I set the meal onto the sand next to me. "I don't want to talk
about this."
Dylan’s scrutiny traces a
pattern over my face, leaving a trail of heat. How does he do that?
"Such a shame
I'm a dickhead," he says in a low voice.
"I'm sure you
can't help it. Part of the Y chromosome disability, unfortunately," I say
lightly.
Reaching out, he
brushes salt from my lips. An embarrassing sound escapes my throat as he rubs
the rough fingertip along my lips.
"Remember what
I said about your sarcastic mouth?" he asks.
Of course, I
remember, how am I going to forget? But all I can do is stare back like some
wide-eyed idiot and nod.
He removes his
finger and licks the salt off the tip; the move is impossibly sexy and fires
arousal through me.
"I know
kissing you is the wrong thing to do to you, but I'm starting to get
obsessed."
My brain struggles
to keep up. "Wrong?" I ask.
"When you look
at me the way you do, I love and hate it at the same time. When you don't
look at me the way I want you to, that's even worse. Every funny thing you say,
every time you blush, even just being in the same room fills me with an urge to
kiss you. I don't understand, because this isn’t what I
want."
"That makes no
sense."
"It doesn't,
does it? But nothing in my life makes sense to me.” He moves the fish
and chips from his lap onto the sand.
Excruciatingly
slowly, Dylan leans towards me. My heart somersaults and cheerleads in my chest
as his mouth approaches mine.
"So about
kissing your sarcastic mouth...?"
The words are
spoken millimetres from my lips and as his mouth moves, his lips touch mine.
He's good at this.
"Yes."
"Yes, you
remember, or yes, you've changed your mind and want me to kiss you?" Dylan
rubs his cool nose along my cheek towards my ear.
AUTHOR BIO
Lisa is an author of new adult romance and writes both paranormal and contemporary, often with a side of snark. In between running a business, looking after her family and writing, Lisa sometimes finds spare time to do other things. This often involves swapping her book worlds for gaming worlds. She even leaves the house occasionally. Lisa loves all things from the Whedonverse and preferred vampires before they sparkled.
Lisa has four books published: the ‘Butterfly Days’ series, and two in her urban fantasy series Soul Ties. She is currently working on a new contemporary romance series Blue Phoenix and the first book, Summer Sky is due for release in April. Lisa is originally from the UK but moved to Australia in 2001 and now lives in Perth in Western Australia with her husband, three children and dog.
AUTHOR LINKS
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