Love Bytes says welcome to the release blitz for Jocelynn Drake & Rinda Elliott their new release Blaze, book 5 in the very succesfull Unbreakable Bond series.
We have a wonderful guestpost for you from Jocelynn who talks about Lucas and Andrei!
There is also an excerpt and a giveaway 🙂
Title: Blaze
Series: Unbreakable Bonds #5
Author: Jocelynn Drake & Rinda Elliott
Publisher: Drake and Elliott Publishing LLC
Release Date: June 22, 2018
Length: 75,000
Genre: Romance, Thriller/Suspense
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Synopsis
The rings have been selected.
The champagne placed on ice.
The cake decorated.
And the pre-wedding sex is off the charts…
Lucas Vallois and Andrei Hadeon are finally ready to walk down the aisle. There’s just one small problem.
A ghost from Lucas’s past shows up days before the wedding, desperate for help. Against his better judgement, Lucas and his best friend, Ashton Frost, plan a fast trip back to the one place they swore they’d never go: their hometown in Oklahoma. But the danger is worse than they expected.
Now, they’re in a race to track down a killer, keep a young girl safe, and get Lucas back in time to say, “I do.”
Lucas and Andrei: A Long Love Affair
The story of Lucas and Andrei’s relationship is told a bit differently than you might run across in most romantic suspense series. In most series that focus on a single couple each book, you get generally the entirety of the relationship evolution in one book. But when Rinda and I talked about their relationship, we knew we couldn’t move it along that fast. It wasn’t natural and it wasn’t fair to the characters.
So, we tried something else.
When you meet Lucas and Andrei in Shiver, Lucas is still figuring out if he wants to even try to be in a relationship with a man and Andrei is still figuring out that he’s bisexual. Both men are attracted to each other and care deeply for each other, but they are still taking those early baby steps (while at the same time trying not to be killed by a mad man).
With the Unbreakable Stories: Lucas collection, you get to see their early attempts at dating as well as starting to show exactly how much they are starting to care for one another.
In Shatter, book 2 of the Unbreakable Bonds series, we are focused on the relationship of Snow and Jude, but Lucas and Andrei still make a few appearances where you get to see the steady progression of their relationship. You get hints at where they are succeeding, but also where they are still struggling (just like every other couple in the world).
In Torch, readers finally get to hear those three most important words while following Rowe’s newly budding relationship with Noah. But then someone makes a massive mistake that threatens the relationship.
In Devour, we get Ian’s story and his love affair with a certain snarky cop. And we finally get Lucas and Andrei talking again following issues in Torch. More than talking…we get the big commitment conversation.
So…we’ve reached Blaze, book 5 of the Unbreakable Bonds series. We are just a couple of weeks away from their wedding. The special day that has been roughly two years in the making. They’ve survived car chases, fires, shootings, fights, and some very ugly truths. But the road to their wedding isn’t going to be an easy one for Lucas and Andrei. They’ve still got a very few things they need to learn about each other and a few things to confess before they get to say “I do.”
I think Lucas and Andrei are one of my favorite couples because we get to see the slow and steady evolution of their relationship over a two-year period. We get to see them screw up, apologize, forgive, and learn. We get to see the countless ways they fall in love with each other more and more.
Rinda and I hope that you will enjoy their adventure and their upcoming wedding. It was a lot of fun to write.
He reached the bathroom as Andrei was drying off with a large, navy blue towel. His head jerked up in surprise, those beautiful dark eyes skimming over Lucas’s face, instantly reading his mood. He dropped the towel and came forward, closing the distance between them. Large hands cupped both of Lucas’s cheeks. The anger he’d been holding on to was immediately stripped away to reveal the underlying pain that he’d buried deep. He didn’t question how Andrei knew or what he saw. The man just knew him, and he would be forever grateful that Andrei was in his life.
“What did Snow say? What can I do?” Andrei murmured. He leaned in and brushed his lips gently across Lucas’s.
Tension eased from Lucas’s shoulders. He deepened the kiss for a moment, tasting Andrei, letting himself get lost in his fiancé’s unconditional love. He broke off the kiss before it could stretch. Snow didn’t give hollow threats. He would come upstairs and drag Lucas out of the shower if he took too long.
“My sister is here.”
Andrei lurched back from Lucas, releasing his face. “Your actual sister? Like a blood relative?”
“Yeah.” Lucas stepped around him and turned the knob for the shower. Since Andrei had just exited the shower, the water was already hot. He stepped inside under the spray and grabbed the soap. Cool air brushed against his backside. Lucas looked over his shoulder to find Andrei holding the door partially open, so he could talk to him without needing to shout.
“I wasn’t sure if any of your family was living. You…you never talk about them.”
“My younger brother died a few years ago, but the rest are all alive and still in Oklahoma as far as I know. I don’t talk to them, and until now, they’ve never tried to talk to me.”
“Do you want me to leave?”
“No, definitely not.” Lucas turned, rinsing off the soap. He grabbed the shampoo and paused as he watched Andrei. “Do you want to meet her?”
A small smile played on his lips, and Lucas had the feeling Andrei was weighing his answer before he finally spoke. “You’ve met my family.”
“I love your parents.”
Andrei rolled his eyes. “My parents are insane.”
Lucas chuckled. Sonja and Milos Hadeon were definitely unique, but he wouldn’t change a damn thing about them. He was proud to have them as his in-laws, even if they both liked to flirt with Snow. “True, but they love me.”
“You don’t think your sister is going to love me?”
“I don’t give a shit if my sister doesn’t love you. She doesn’t deserve to know you. My family doesn’t deserve to know someone as amazing as you.” He squeezed a dollop of shampoo into his palm and roughly scrubbed his hair into a lather.
To his surprise, Andrei stepped back into the shower. Raising his hands, he threaded his fingers through Lucas’s soapy ones, capturing his hands so that they were now slowly massaging his scalp. “Meeting your family isn’t going to change us. I’m here. You’re mine. We’re getting married in less than two weeks.” He punctuated each sentence with a sweet kiss, teasing away the anger that had risen once again.
“Thank you.”
“Finish up. I’ll be waiting for you.”
Purchase at Amazon
Unbreakable Bonds Series
Shiver (Unbreakable Bonds Series Book 1)
Shatter (Unbreakable Bonds Series Book 2)
Torch (Unbreakable Bonds Series Book 3)
Devour (Unbreakable Bonds Series Book 4)
Blaze (Unbreakable Bonds Series Book 5)
Jocelynn Drake and Rinda Elliott have teamed up to combine their evil genius to create intense gay romantic suspense stories that have car chases, shoot outs, explosions, scorching hot love scenes, and tender, tear-jerking moments. Their first joint books are in the Unbreakable Bonds series.
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