Melt Into You Blog Tour with Roni Loren

Hello to All of My Lovely Tasty Readers,

Today we have a special Guest Blogger, the very talented, Roni Loren.  We are hosting Roni as a part of her blog tour promoting her New Release, Melt Into You, the second book in her Loving on the Edge series.  This series is all about relationships that are All Tied Up, hee hee, in emotions and heartbreak, trust and kinky seduction.  I wanted to know more about what type of research Ms. Loren had to do, or how she came up with the idea of "The Ranch".

So I am going to let Roni take the floor for a bit, but I will be back with my review of Melt Into You at the end of her post.

As a special gift, Roni will award an eBook copy of "Still Into You" to one randomly drawn commenter at every stop and a Book Grab Bag - Autographed copy of CRASH INTO YOU along with these books: Raziel by Kristina Douglas, Blood Stains by Sharon Sala, The Summer Garden by Paullina Simons, and Deadly Valentine by Justine Davis and Cindy Dees to one randomly drawn commenter during the tour (US/Canada only).  So make sure to follow the rest of her tour and comment each day for more chances to win.

The tour dates can be found here:  http://goddessfishpromotions.blogspot.com/2012/05/virtual-book-tour-melt-into-you-by-roni.html

Without further ado, here is Roni:

How I Built “The Ranch”

So happy to be here at A Tasty Read today! Today I’ve been asked to explain how the heck I did research for The Ranch, the BDSM resort that my Loving on the Edge series centers around. First, lets get the obvious out of the way, I didn’t find some fantasy ranch and go take a tour--unfortunately, lol. But I can tell you where I got the inspiration.

I live in Texas so there is a lot of open land around once you get outside the big cities. And a few years ago, my husband and I went to a rock concert out in nowhere, TX on the grounds of a ranch. As I was standing out there and looking around at the endless space and the occasional barn or ranch house, I had the thought--if you wanted to have secrets, this would be a good place to hide them.

So add that thought, mix it in with the fact that Dirty Dancing is my favorite movie of all time (think cabins, lake, romance, etc. from the movie), and The Ranch was born.

As for what to put at the resort, BDSM wise, I did a lot of reading (both fiction and non-fiction) and equipment research. But really, what it comes down to is imagination. That’s the beauty of fiction. It’s MY ranch to build, so I can add what I want. I had a chuckle when one reader reviewed my first book and said something to the effect of “that wouldn’t be allowed at The Ranch.” I was thinking--um, yes it would ‘cause I make the place and the rules. ; ) That’s the fun of it.

Here’s an excerpt from MELT INTO YOU when Evan, the heroine, first goes to The Ranch:

Evan’s palms were damp against the arms of the overstuffed chair as she waited for the owner of The Ranch to meet with her. The limo drive to the place had been long, and as the minutes had slipped away, so had her resolve.

She glanced around the well-appointed sitting room, trying to focus on anything but her reasons for being here. Dark, rustic furniture, wood floors, artwork displaying Texas’s varied landscapes, and a large stone fireplace, which she was sure was more for show than practicality in this climate. If she didn’t know better, she would’ve guessed she was in some high-end ski resort and not a retreat specializing in kink.

She tilted her head back and groaned. This was stupid. Ridiculous. She wasn’t the type of person to go to a sex resort. Was she really that desperate? She’d lived without sex for over a year. Why was it suddenly such a big deal?

There could only be one reason.

Goddamn Jace. He’d always been able to stir up that part of her without trying. Even when she’d first met him and hadn’t totally recognized the feeling as desire, she’d been drawn to him, wanted to be in his sphere of attention as much as possible. He had a way of making her feel like she was the only one in the room, and after years of being invisible to everyone around her that feeling had been heady, addictive. She should’ve been immune to it by now. But after a few seemingly harmless touches on that stage, Jace had flipped the switch and had her engines firing on all cylinders again. Man, she was screwed.

A massive wooden door on the opposite side of the room eased open, and an impossibly tall man with wavy dark hair stepped inside. He gave her a smile that seemed to warm the whole room. “You must be Ms. Kennedy.”

The deep twang in his voice matched the cowboy boots peeking out of the bottom of his faded jeans. The image totally didn’t fit with what Evan had imagined the owner of this type of resort to look like. She hadn’t expected head-to-toe leather or anything, but a handsome cowboy hadn’t been on her radar of possibilities either.

***

So if you had the chance to build your own fantasy resort where would it be and what would it look like?

Melt Into You

Loving on the Edge #2

Roni Loren

Released July 3rd, 2012

368 Pages

Berkley Heat

Source: Goddess Fish

BLURB:

Her first love has returned, and he's brought a friend...

After running away from home and the boy who broke her heart, Evan Kennedy has kick-started the perfect new life with her celebrity fiancé. So what if said fiancé prefers guys? She knew the deal. And with her ticket to The Ranch, an exclusive resort where any fantasy can be satisfied, she knows she can find someone to fulfill her less-than-traditional desires on the side.

She just never expected that man to be Jace Austin, her old heart-breaker—all grown up, hard-bodied, and holding out a collar. She knows it’s probably a world-class bad idea—especially since Jace has brought along his buddy Andre, who’s every bit as irresistible. But if they can stick to the no-strings rules, so can she.

Too bad Jace has never been so good with rules. Evan is convinced “forever” is a word used only in greeting cards, but Jace and Andre have one last fantasy of hers left to fulfill. It’s time to go big or go home. And neither man has ever been a fan of going home.

The concept of Melt Into You was not so much a "new" one to me, but not one that I read too often. 

As a reviewer, we read all sorts of romances, men with women, women with two men, men with men and maybe a woman thrown in the mix, so a story about a Ranch where people go to make their fantasies come true didn't scare me off.  The nice thing about Ms. Loren's romances, they are more than just ropes and chains, they have characters with real flaws and issues with their pasts or present that they are trying to get away from. 

Melt Into You is the second book of the Loving on the Edge series, which I haven't read the first of yet, but I will have to catch up before reading book three.  I enjoyed the dynamic between Evan and Jace, who themselves had a past together before finding themselves together at the ranch, but one thing is different from the past, Andre.

Evan is not only trying to forget her past, but she is trying to prepare herself for the future that she has gotten herself mixed up with, so she decides on a last hurrah before her new "lie" of a life begins.  Jace wasn't a kid that had his head on straight, but as an adult he thought he had things all figured out until Evan walks into his life again knocking him off balance once again. 

Between drama within her life that she is trying to keep hidden, and Jace "the protector" always wanting to do right by Evan, but never getting it right, this romance is doomed from the start, except for in the bedroom, when Jace plays master and brings a friend along to fulfill all of Evan's hidden fantasies, and a few of his own. 

This story wasn't just sexual fluff, it had a great balance between the bedroom and the real world, with a little mix in between.

I will say that I enjoy this read, and I recommend to any of my Tasty Readers looking for a taste of the other side.

Enjoy and Happy Reading, and PLEASE don't forget to leave a comment to be entered to win an e-copy of Still Into You.