Would you tell us about your latest release?
I’d love to! Shining Through is the fifth and final book in my Red Hot Russians figure skating romance series. Series fans who’ve read book three, Getting It Back, might recall bad boy Russian skater Daniil Andreev, who was the rival of Getting It Back’s hero, Misha.
In Shining Through, Daniil becomes a sexy distraction for American figure skating star Tabitha Turner, as she enters her biggest season of her career. She wants to make it to the Winter Olympics and reward the sacrifices made by her mom and younger sister that allowed her to train as an elite competitive skater. Meanwhile, younger, hungrier skaters are threatening Tabitha’s place atop the gold-medal podium. The last thing she needs at the moment is a Russian bad boy to ruin her pristine Ice Queen reputation, and break her heart.
What makes the hero of Shining Through hot?
Aside from his edgy good looks—think young Johnny Depp, dressed in vintage clothes and wearing guyliner–Daniil is confident and strong. The son of a Russian billionaire, he grew up in a family that was financially wealthy and emotionally bankrupt. He spent his adolescence and young adulthood behaving badly, but now at 25, he’s turned that fight to what matters most—his skating career. He’s determined to put his mistakes behind him, compete in the Winter Olympics and become a better man in every sense of the word.
He’s created a family of his friends and coaches, and has begun to realize that not only does true love exist, he can have it. When he meets Tabitha, he falls hard. But he lets Tabitha, who has issues of her own, set the pace of the relationship, while at the same time, he continually pushes her to step out of her comfort zone.
He also has a fun sense of humor.
If the main characters in your latest release were invited to a masquerade party, what costumes would they wear?
Daniil loves vintage clothes from the 1940’s through the early 1960’s, so he would wear something from that era. If he were to dress as a person, I’d say James Dean or young Marlon Brando. As for Tabitha, she’d identify with someone regal, and determined, but passionate beneath her controlled exterior. Cleopatra, maybe?
Do you have a favorite character or characters you feel especially close to?
Anton and Carrie from my first book hold a special place in my heart, and they’re in this book too. Anton is Daniil’s coach and something of an older, wiser brother. He is determined to keep Daniil on track to earn a place on the Russian Olympic team, but he also remembers that love doesn’t conform to the figure skating season. Carrie is a coach as well, of a successful pairs team who train at the couple’s center in Lake Shosha, Russia. Fans of that book will be glad to know that after ten years together, Anton and Carrie are still enjoying their happy ending.
There are other familiar faces from the series throughout this book, which made it really fun to write. But as with the previous stories, each is written as a standalone. Readers who discover the Red Hot Russian series with this book, can enjoy it in any order.
Do you have an excerpt you’d like to share?
I do and it’s an exclusive I haven’t shared elsewhere. As a writer, I love slow burn romances and while Daniil and Tabitha move a little faster than some of my other couples, I feel like Daniil’s willingness to move at Tabitha’s pace makes him a swoon-worthy and sensitive hero.
He shoved his hands into the pockets of his trousers and gave her a long penetrating look. “Do you think I am pushing you for something more?”
“Maybe. It’s hard to know for sure.” The heat in her cheeks spread up around her eyes and down the back of her neck. “I don’t have a lot of experience with situations like this.”
“You mean with sex?”
His directness startled her, and she glanced around at the people passing by on the sidewalk. A busy downtown street felt like entirely the wrong place for this conversation. “Yes, sex,” she muttered. “And the rest of it, too.”
At that, an elderly woman turned and glared. Not at Daniil, but at Tabitha. Talk about double standards! She pushed her hair back again.
“It seems you don’t have a high opinion of me,” he said, quietly. “Did I offend you?”
“It’s not just you. Like I said, I don’t have much experience with men. On the other hand, my mom and my sister have plenty of experience. Most of it hasn’t been good.”
His slow nod suggested he was trying to understand, rather than dismiss her feelings. “So because of them, you think the worst of me.”
She nodded.
“Tabitha, I didn’t invite you here so I could have sex with you. Not that I would mind,” he said, offering a tentative smile. “But I understand that you don’t know me, other than what you may have heard. Which probably isn’t very good. But just like you are more than an Ice Queen, there’s more to me than people think. So maybe we get to know each other and then decide what comes next.”
If he could give her the space she needed, could she give him the benefit of the doubt? The scars left by years of disappointment and chaos wouldn’t disappear overnight. Still, maybe for this week, or even just tonight, she could loosen her stranglehold on her fears. She could expect something other than heartbreak, even from the Bad Boy of Figure Skating.
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Shining Through releases October 2 and is available for pre-order now!
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Hi Kate,
Thanks for having me as a guest!