Welcome back to the amazing Amber Lin! I loved her debut, GIVING IT UP, last year, and SELLING OUT's at the top of my TBR. Read on to find out how music inspired this book and also how you can win a gorgeous necklace related to the series!
Hi, Cari, thank you for having
me on your blog!
For those of you who
don’t know me, I’m Amber Lin, author of Giving It Up, which RT Book Reviews
gave 4.5 stars and called “at once, scary and sexy in all the best ways.” I’m
here to share my new release, Selling Out, featuring a high class call girl and
a by-the-book detective with the Chicago Police Department.
Let’s talk about music.
I don’t seek songs to match a book, but they have a way of finding me.
When I’m writing a book, or even thinking
of writing that book, it’s on my mind constantly. To the annoyance of my family
members, even when we’re in the car, listening to the radio, anything at all.
While I’m musing, a particular song will reach out and grab me, already
perfectly in tune with my thoughts. Then I do collect them, picking them like
wildflowers along the path until I’m done writing.
Here are a few that I listened to while writing Selling Out, with the
title, artist, a quite note about why I liked it and an excerpt from the
lyrics.
I Feel Everything by Idina Menzel
When you're furious
When you start to freeze
When you can't be touched
I feel everything
This is such a dark and intense song, but that works so well for
Shelly’s book. She is this way, a naturally sensitive and empathetic person,
but she works as a call girl, where she’s exposed to the worst side of men.
Someone Like You by
Linda Eder
I wander lost in yesterday.
Wanting to fly
but scared to try.
A gorgeous, heartfelt
song about the uplifting effect love can have on a person. And coincidentally,
the character who sings it in the musical Jekyll and Hyde the musical is a
prostitute as well. Of course, that story didn’t end so well. Selling Out is
definitely a romance, with an HEA J
Where I Stood by Missy Higgins
I don't know what I've done
Or if I like what I've begun
But something told me to run
And honey you know me it's all or none
I really just love this song. The gorgeous melody and quiet
desperation. If I wield those aspects and spatter them like ink onto the page,
then it would be Selling Out.
Wanted by Rachel Diggs
And your expectations
Are killing you slow
You're getting what you wanted
But pain is all you know
What I really love about
this song is how soft and sad it is… but ultimately hopeful. A strange and
lovely dichotomy.
Underneath Your Clothes by
Shakira
Because of you
I forgot the smart ways to lie
Because of you
I'm running out of reasons to cry
Okay, this one might be
cheating a little because I have loved this since forever. I just love Shakira,
and this one is my absolute favorite. But I really think it applies to Shelly.
Love and lust are forever connected, but someone who has worked as a
prostitute… they are hopelessly entangled. His body is who he is, and he’s
hers.
Skyfall by Adele
Skyfall is where we start
A thousand miles and poles apart
Where worlds collide and days are dark
Though this song wasn’t actually out while I was writing Selling Out,
it is crazy applicable. I think Adele songs could apply to so many romantic
books… at least, my books. But a call girl and a detective on the police force
are really on opposite sides of the world, even when they stand in the same
room. I think the above excerpt from the lyrics is both poignant and so
applicable to the destruction they face together.
Ordinary World by Katharine McPhee
Close your eyes and feel me hold you
Can you lead me through this ordinary world
God, I love this one. In fact, if you look up just one of these songs, let it be this one. It’s heartrending and
wonderful. Plus, this is exactly the dilemma Shelly faces. She lives in the
most mundane, the very lowest common denominator of people as a prostitute. But
she also doesn’t know what it feels like to be normal—to be ordinary.
And that’s it! Okay, I’m
lying. There are just so many amazing songs, but I had to cut myself off here.
Brevity: I have done it J
I hope you enjoyed pondering
a soundtrack for Selling Out! If you do check out Shelly’s story, I’d
love to hear what you think via my
website or twitter.
Blurb
Shelly Laurent escapes her life as a high-class escort, but
against her better judgment she takes the scared young Ella with her. In
retaliation, her pimp and his dirty cops frame them both for murder. On the
run, Shelly turns to the one man who could be her salvation: Detective Luke
Cameron. She doesn't know if she can trust him or if he's just a mirage, but
she needs his help to free them all.
With a heart forged in fire and irreverence born of
necessity, Shelly fights Ella's demons--and faces her own. She throws light on
the shadows of Chicago's underworld, challenging everything she knew and the
man she's come to love. Together, a prostitute and a cop fight for truth
stronger than secrets, hope deeper than deception, and a bond more enduring
than betrayal.
“Amber Lin drew me in with Giving It
Up and became an auto-buy author with Selling Out. There is a uniqueness to her
writing and her characters that will always make her stand out for me.”
—Swept Away by Romance
“This story is emotional, dark,
erotic, suspenseful, traumatic and raw. It will have your heart hurting yet you
will laugh plenty too. I can highly recommend this series.”
—TotallyBookedBlog
“Emotional, angsty, and just enough
suspense to keep you hooked to the very end.”
—SmexyBooks
Excerpt
“Shh,” I murmured, stroking his back.
“Shelly, goddammit.”
But his protests fell away as I pressed my breasts to his
arm and my tongue to his ear. His harsh inhalation sounded broken, shattered,
or maybe that was me.
I tasted salt and man, earth and spring. Slow licks
alongside his lobe and upward, more suggestive than sensation, but for a man
like this, anticipation would be everything. Or so I had imagined, all the
times I had dreamed of it.
A small sound escaped him, somewhere between a grunt and
groan. I took it as encouragement and smoothed my hands along the hard planes
of his shoulders, his chest. Not anywhere near the bulge in his jeans, because
this wasn’t about pleasure—it was about wanting.
Anything to get closer, I let my knees slide apart around
his side, the faint heat of his body a shock to my core. His hands clenched and
opened on his knees, and again, the muscles rippled beneath his darkly tanned
skin. Was he restraining himself from touching me or pushing me off?
“Baby, no,” he groaned, letting his head fall back onto my
shoulder.
No, I would never deserve to have him as more than a sex
partner. And he had never fucked me, though I knew he wanted to. Every time he
saw me, his eyes would darken and my stomach would bottom out, but we’d never
touch. But maybe for one brief inconvenient moment, while the door was open and
the young woman beyond it needed help, we could pretend. Maybe it could be
enough.
I shut my eyes tightly and pressed a kiss to his temple. Pretend, just pretend.
I would give him the sex he had craved, and in return, he’d give me memories.
It would be a payment, just the same.
“You want this,” I whispered.
He shuddered in my arms; it was like hugging a wild animal,
one who could just as easily maul me as cuddle.
“Can I touch you?” he whispered. “Please.”
It unraveled me, that plea. As if he understood that a
little bit of my soul slipped away every time someone touched me. As if he
would cherish the part I gave him.
I scrambled away from him as if burned, breathing hard. No.
No one understood, which was exactly the way I liked it. I
ran a shaking hand over my face to smooth away the panic.
Sure, he knew the score better than most people. He had
worked the beat as a patrol cop and then as a detective. Life as a high-priced
escort wasn’t glamorous; it was sweat and blood sprinkled with glitter. But he
didn’t know the full extent, and I prayed he never would. Henri didn’t sell
bodies; he gutted them.
I panted against the headboard, unable to walk away but
unwilling to beg. Luke remained carved in stone where I’d left him sitting on
the edge of the bed. The air pulsed with doubt and longing—with sex.
“I want it to be real between us.” He spoke low and hoarse.
A quiet sound escaped me. Every caress, every pinch. Every
slur ever spoken. “It’s always real. That’s the problem, Luke. It’s always too
damn real.”
He hung his head, and I thought for a moment I heard him say
I know, but the moment slipped away, the sweet intimacy sailed away like clouds
on the horizon—never really mine.
Buy Links
Giveaway
This series is called The Lost Girls because each one of the
heroines has pain in her past that keeps her from finding happiness. She’s
adrift until the hero comes along… Now you can win this exclusive Lost Girls
necklace by leaving a comment below.
What do you like about dark and edgy romances? Do you have a
favorite one?
UNWRAPPED, a M/M/F menage novel, came in second in last year's Scorching Hot Reviews sex scene contest, by the way...and I'm going to share a snippet of a smokin' scene below!
