A warm welcome to author Anyta Sunday joining us today to talk about her newest release “Scorpio Hates Virgo”, book 2 in the Signs of Love series.
Anyta talks about Slow Burn, shares an excerpt and brought with her not one but TWO giveaway to enter!
Welcome Anyta 🙂
Ever wanted to reach into a book and shove two characters into a kiss? Chances are you were reading one of my favorite tropes ever – Slow Burn Romance.
But what makes slow burn romance just so damn delicious?
Slow burn is full of UST (Unresolved Sexual Tension) — the tension that keeps you flipping pages; the absolute frustration (that I love!) in needing the romance to finally play out. The little glances that lead to touches that tortuously keep me on the edge. The teasing is like awesome foreplay – the more the better!
Then there’s the suspense—when will it happen? We root for our main couple to finally, FINALLY give in to the tension. We are anxious and invested that it finally does happen.
Every interaction has you carefully dissecting the dialog and searching for clues of what might be being admitted in the subtext. We need to see the characters happy. We burn for it, like an itch we desperately need to scratch.
There’s also a realism to slow burn that makes it so relatable. Romance takes time to develop, and there are many hurdles to overcome – external and internal – that keep the characters from realizing or acting out their feelings. Slow burn takes the time to show the connection between the love interests, to really show the reasons why they fall for each other. Small gestures add up to something bigger that makes the love so much more powerful.
The characters in a slow burn don’t get away with a glance across the room that forever seals their fates – no, they need to communicate. They need to talk. A lot. They have to learn about the other. Not just secrets and sad moments, but the everyday stuff – like what their favorite snack is.
Of course, in every slow burn romance, we wait for The Moment . It’s been hinted at all along, we’ve seen the little looks and heard the unspoken admissions of feelings. We know that they are in love. That they have a special connection. And now we need them to SAY IT, to SPELL IT OUT. That admission of what us readers already know is immensely satisfying. Happiness is fought for and hard won. It’s deserved.
Last not least, I love the support cast of slow burn romances. They add a lot to the story with their support for the main characters’ journey of romantic discovery, they are guides or matchmakers. Their presence also benefits the setting and makes the story happen in a place that could be real – not a vacuum where only two characters exist.
For me as a reader, slow burn romances are the ones that are easy to pick up and read over and over again. Each time offers something different to relish. It’s usually on the second read, knowing what will eventually happen, that we can see more, all the hints and subtext. Clues that we might have missed in our eagerness to see them together. And realizing layers to each interaction can be so much fun!
And as a writer, I’m just having the best time with a slow burn! I think you should write what you feel and what you love. My favorite books basically torture me with their will-they-or-won’t-they (or rather, when-will-they) trope. The same torture is delicious to write – sometimes the burn is even too much for me, and I have to write a kiss moment that I then take out again…
So no surprise that I have a few slow burn romances in store, both sweet & light-hearted and raw & emotional ones. “Scorpio Hates Virgo” (and “Leo Loves Aries”, the other book in the “Signs of Love” series) is a light-hearted slow burn that plays with banter, subtext and geeky guys.
Raw, emotional and more dramatic slow burns I’ve written are “rock”, “nest” ad the “True Love” series that also include “forbidden love” and “enemies to lovers” themes.
Title: Scorpio Hates Virgo
Series : Signs of Love #2
Publisher: Anyta Sunday (self published)
Release Date (Print & Ebook): September 1st, 2017
Length: 245 pages
Subgenre: Contemporary M/M gay romance, friends-to-lovers
The title includes: sarcasm, sexual content, and a slightly sappy HEA
Book blurb:
This year is all about healing the heart, Scorpio. It’s time to leave negative attitudes and stoic facades at the door and let others see the real, more vulnerable you.
Percy Freedman is not grieving. Absolutely not, take that back at once. No, he’s entirely sure that selling his dead aunt’s home and leaving the neighbors he’s known for years is the sane thing to do. Who in their right mind would keep the house that smells like all the hugs he’ll never have again?
Nobody, that’s who.
Well, except his cul-de-sac neighbors. They all seem to think some paint and new furniture will clean the emotional slate. They all want him to stay.
Even his old nemesis, Callaghan Glover.
Especially his old nemesis, Callaghan Glover.
Lured into a game of Sherlock Gnomes, Percy finds himself hanging out with his neighbors more than might be considered healthy. Along with juggling new and surprising verbal grenades from Cal, and his burgeoning friendship with Gnomber9, Percy is starting to wonder if selling might have been the grief talking after all . . .
That’s right, Scorpio. With a little patience, heartbreak might be a thing of the past . . .
“Scorpio Hates Virgo” contains sarcasm, sexual content, a slightly sappy HEA, and an unhealthy obsession with dinosaurs.
It can be read as a standalone.
Themes: Light-hearted, friends-to-lovers, slow burn
Genre: New Adult, light-hearted contemporary gay romance
All buy links:
Cal rocked up to his Jeep all business-casual, in form-fitting jeans, polished leather shoes and matching brown satchel, and a dark jacket that covered a beige T-shirt.
“You got a meeting or something?” Percy asked, slipping his sunglasses on.
Cal opened the passenger door and looked at him over the roof. “No.”
Sunlight did very striking things to Cal’s hair. Made it look positively copper. Not as red as his cheeks were getting, though.
A cheerful cry startled Percy and he ripped his gaze away from Cal. Crystal was waving at them from her opened kitchen window.
“Good morning,” she called.
After another restless night, he could hardly call it good, but . . . “Morning.”
She leaned further out the window, her dressing gown gaping a little too much down the front. “Are you out for the day?”
“A couple of hours. Taking Callaghan here to work, then nipping past the Home Depot.” To get the home ready to market, he needed to spruce up the place. Paint the living room and bathroom, put in a new vanity, replace the door handles of the kitchen cupboards, change the faucets and showerhead and put in a new toilet seat.
“You at the Home Depot?” Cal murmured. “Sure you’d even know what to buy?”
Percy gestured for him to get in the car. “High time I get you to work.”
As he slipped into the driver’s seat, Crystal called out after them. “Good to see water and earth spending time together!”
Over his sunglasses that had slipped down his nose, Percy looked at Cal. “See, this is why we’ll always be nemeses.”
Cal hitched his brow, and Percy turned the ignition and peeled out from the curb.
“Together we’re mud.”
Slow burn romance that quickens the heart. Anyta is a big, BIG fan of slow-burn romances. She loves to read and write stories with characters who slowly fall in love. Some of her favorite tropes to read and write are: Enemies to Lovers, Friends to Lovers, Clueless Guys, Bisexual, Pansexual, Demisexual, Oblivious MCs, Everyone (Else) Can See It, Slow Burn, Love Has No Boundaries. Anyta writes a variety of stories, Contemporary MM Romances with a good dollop of angst, Contemporary lighthearted MM Romances, and even a splash of fantasy. Her books have been translated into German, Italian and French. Member of Romance Writers of America. Connect with Anyta: Website | Twitter | Facebook
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To win one of three e-copies of Scorpio Hates Virgo:
To win 2 grand prizes – 1 set of ecopy of 5 of Anyta Sunday’s favorite NA romances and 1 set of signed paperbacks of Leo Loves Aries and Scorpio Hates Virgo (open internationally):
