Love Bytes says hello and welcome to Ari McKay joining us today here at our blog to talk about new release “Breaking Bonds”.
Welcome Ari 🙂
Who doesn’t love to fall in love? We all do, right, or we wouldn’t be reading and writing romance! We love watching other people fall in love, sharing their joy and discovery of one another. That’s why McKay and I do it, have done it, and will do it for… well, probably as long as we live. Nothing makes us happy like love.
Unfortunately, love doesn’t always come at the right time for the characters in our stories, and that’s certainly the case for Carter Galloway and Liam Walker, the MCs of our new release, Breaking Bonds. Falling in love is the easy part for each of these men, and so their journey is a bit harder than they would have liked, but maybe that’s also what makes it very special.
Liam Walker is a good ole Texan boy with Texas sized dreams of making it big in New York City. With typical Walker determination — the readers of Striking Sparks might recognize it from Liam’s cousin, Beau, in Striking Sparks — Liam starts at the bottom and doggedly works his way up the ladder until he’s poised at the brink of making it. Through a combination of talent and good luck, Liam is the executive chef at the flagship restaurant of his inspiration and mentor, Marco Cabrisi, when another of his Walker traits — his temper! — gets the better of him. Marco order Liam to take a break and find his perspective, but neither Marco nor Liam have any clue that Liam’s life is about the take a huge, unexpected turn.
Enter Carter Galloway. In his own, much quieter way, the younger Carter is pursuing his own dream — owning a resort in the beautiful Smoky Mountains. The Overlook represents everything Carter wants, but he’s paying a heavy price for it. It’s not just money, either; as an only child, Carter was expected to follow in his father’s footsteps and take over his law firm. He loves his parents, and he tries to maintain a relationship with them, but it isn’t easy, especially where his sexuality is concerned. Thus Carter is alone, and having the man of his dreams suddenly turn up, quite literally, on his doorstep isn’t exactly the best thing that could have happened.
But Carter can’t refuse when Liam, looking for a way to redeem himself and find his self-respect again, tosses his plans for a vacation aside and offers to help Carter by helping turn the resort restaurant around. Carter’s chef, Rocky, is young and enthusiastic, with a love of cooking, but he has no experience. Handsome Liam is a godsend, and the attraction between them is incredibly strong. But Carter doesn’t do flings, and Liam can’t offer anything more. There’s a bond between them, but the bonds tying them to other people are even stronger. Or are they?
We really enjoyed writing this story! It’s different than our others, because both our boys know what they want, and yet recognize what they owe other people. True love must win out, right? Of course it does — but still, the journey is worth the time, and we hope you’ll agree and give it a try!
BLURB:
From the frying pan into the fire.
After a critic’s review attacks both Chef Liam Walker’s culinary skills and his personal life, Liam can no longer take the heat of the cutthroat New York City restaurant scene. He needs to get out of the kitchen—at least long enough to cool down and regroup.
At the Overlook Resort in North Carolina, Liam meets owner Carter Galloway. Carter has a passion for the hospitality business to rival Liam’s own, and it’s not hard to see where their shared interests—and attraction—could lead. But Carter has no interest in a fling, and Liam has no intention of walking away from the career he fought so hard for. If they want a taste of happiness together, they’ll have to find the courage to break the bonds threatening to pull them apart.
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Ari McKay is the professional pseudonym for Arionrhod and McKay, who have been writing together for over a decade. Their collaborations encompass a wide variety of romance genres, including contemporary, fantasy, science fiction, gothic, and action/adventure. Their work includes the Blood Bathory series of paranormal novels, the Herc’s Mercs series, as well as two historical Westerns: Heart of Stone and Finding Forgiveness. When not writing, they can often be found scheming over costume designs or binge watching TV shows together.
Arionrhod is a systems engineer by day who is eagerly looking forward to (hopefully) becoming a full time writer in the not-too-distant future. Now that she is an empty-nester, she has turned her attentions to finding the perfect piece of land to build a fortress in preparation for the zombie apocalypse, and baking (and eating) far too many cakes.
McKay is an English teacher who has been writing for one reason or another most of her life. She also enjoys knitting, reading, cooking, and playing video games. She has been known to knit in public. Given she has the survival skills of a gnat, she’s relying on Arionrhod to help her survive the zombie apocalypse.
CONTACTS:
Website: http://arimckay.wordpress.com
Facebook author page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Ari-Mckay/266185570179748
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ari.mckay.7
Twitter: https://twitter.com/AriMcKay1
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6153630.Ari_McKay
This sounds really good! Just enough angst to keep the ‘blood flowing!’