A warm welcome to Kimber Vale stopping by at Love Bytes for her Blog Tour !

 

 

Hard Act to Follow Playlist:

Call and Answer by Barenaked Ladies

Guest post by Kimber Vale

 

Hi! It’s me, Kimber Vale. I’m still wandering around discussing the musical inspiration for my latest release, Hard Act to Follow (that is, when I’m not doing the ABCs of romance thing—call me wishy-washy).

Yeah, I know it’s not the longest novel, but I’ve got no shortage of tunes that make me want to crawl into Kyrie and Greg’s world and forget about everything else.

So, why Call and Answer?

Here’s a song that grips me on a basic level. I’ve loved it for years—one of my all-time favorite Barenaked Ladies songs—and I come back to it on a regular basis when I just want a hint of sadness and unrequited love to grab me by the gonads. It’s a song about loving someone without limits, in a way, but also standing up for yourself and your love, if that makes sense. It’s a song about hitting a low in a relationship before finally settling on solid ground again and maybe, hopefully, working back up to something good. Kyrie and Greg have a rocky start to their love. It’s marked by a series of ups and downs that can only begin to be smoothed out when they admit their feelings—first to themselves, and then to each other. This song just works perfectly for Kyrie and Greg’s story in so many ways.

Anyway, there’s a point in Hard Act where Kyrie repeatedly calls Greg, and Greg is desperate to distance himself from his best friend because he doesn’t want to have feelings for him (Sorry, Greg, too freakin’ late, buddy). Greg is screening his calls and ignoring Kyrie’s, but he has to listen to them to delete them on his landline. Well, needless to say, if Kyrie calls, sooner or later Greg is going to answer. He can’t stop himself. He’s a one-man tent in the eye of tropical storm Kyrie.

“Hey, Greg. It’s me. Listen, I need a favor. Please. Call me back.”

Greg pressed seven to delete the message. “Message erased. Next voice message,” said the robot lady who took care of his voicemail. She’d been damn busy lately. Probably deserved a raise.

“Hey! Something wrong with your home phone, too? You’re probably missing important work calls, you know. Call me back! I’m emailing you right now.”

“Message erased. Next voice message.”

Greg scratched at his five o’clock shadow, gritting his teeth as Kyrie’s voice came over the line again.

“Fuck, Greg! You’re killing me here! I really need to talk to you. Did you get my email at least? What, did they work you to death over there?” There was a long pause and then Kyrie sucked in a loud breath. “I have to do this thing tomorrow, and I was hoping you could come with me. Check your schedule. I’ll buy ya dinner, okay? Come on, buddy. Help a brother out, huh?” Kyrie was practically begging. Greg massaged his stiff shoulder with one hand while he drew the phone from his ear and pushed seven again.

No, his boss wasn’t working him to death. He was working himself there. He’d picked up every case request that had come his way, and then volunteered for a few more. At least if he was overbooked with work, he had a valid excuse to avoid Kyrie. He told himself the rings under his eyes were from work fatigue, not the trouble he had falling asleep when he finally managed to drag his ass away from his desk. Guilt over erasing Kyrie’s emails, unread, and deleting his cell messages as they came in was like a sledgehammer to his chest each time.

Stupid landline phone service wouldn’t let him delete voicemail until they’d played through, though.

It wasn’t that he wanted to wash his hands of Kyrie forever. He just wanted to reprogram his brain for a while. Focus on something else. Stop obsessing over his friend in a totally inappropriate way. But the dreams weren’t letting up, and all he needed to do was hear Kyrie’s voice and the need to see him, to rush to his aid, swallowed him alive. Damn landline.

“Message erased. Next voice message.”

“I wouldn’t be calling again if I wasn’t desperate. Please, Greg. Please, meet me outside the Arts and Sciences building at seven-thirty tomorrow. He’s insisting on a late appointment. I know it’s so there aren’t too many people in the building. I just don’t trust him. Please, buddy. I need my heavy. I need you.”

Greg pressed his forehead to the refrigerator door, eyes closed for half a minute. Finally, he pressed the key pad again.

“Message saved. You have no new messages.”

——-

Blurb:

Kyrie is an actor with a physical aversion to telling lies, a one-eyed cat, and horrible taste in men. His ex-brother-in-law and best friend, Greg, harbors a secret crush he can’t shake. After denying his feelings for Kyrie for too long, Greg finally gives in to desire one drunken night. Come the morning, the facts get twisted. Kyrie pretends he doesn’t remember a thing—a lie that eats him alive—and Greg can’t stop thinking about how he screwed up the best thing in his life.

Before they can clear the air, Kyrie follows his dreams to New York City, but could he also be running away?

A mistake from Kyrie’s past detonates their silence, and Greg is forced to confront the man he loves. Is their new truth strong enough to support a relationship, or are they doomed to crumble under old fears? Their friendship could evolve into something a million times stronger, but maybe Kyrie’s act is just too hard for Greg to follow.

Call and Answer by Barenaked Ladies: Here

Bio:

K. Vale writes erotic romance of all stripes, from hot hetero to mouthwatering manlove. Find her MF work published under Kimber Vale. Come for the sex. Stay for the story. Stalk Kimber on Facebook and Twitter @KimberVale, and check her site for updates, new releases, and freebies at http://www.authorkimbervale.com. The blog: http://www.kimbervale.me.

Buy links:

Liquid Silver Books

Amazon

All Romance

Barnes & Noble

Kobo

Read Carissa’s review of “Hard Act to Follow” Here

Kimber Vale is giving away a $25 Amazon gift card to celebrate her new release!

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