23 September 2011

Blog Tour: Up A Dry Creek


Welcome to another tour from Coffee Beans and Love Scenes! This one is for Up A Dry Creek, by Avery Flynn. I'll be posting a review below, and an interview from the author. Enjoy!

Up A Dry Creek:

Claire Layton expects the usual busy Saturday night at Harvest Bistro to be killer on her stilletto shod feet. She never imagines there’d be an actual murderer on the loose at her restaurant in rural Dry Creek, Nebraska. But when she discovers a customer dead in a dumpster, the killer demands she find the victim’s phone and flash drive or face fatal consequences.


Jake Warrick, a cocky and mind-numbingly hot private investigator, becomes Claire's unlikely ally in the search. Jake just wants to solve the case and get out of this hick town, but the diminuitive and curvaceous Claire turns his plan upside down as they uncover a more complex crime than they ever imagined. The two bicker and banter like Tracy and Hepburn caught in a whirlwind of intense sexual attraction as they try to find the killer before it's too late.




Review:


From the first line, this book had me hooked. Flynn wastes no time in getting straight to the story, opening with a scene in Claire’s restaurant followed directly by the discovery of a dead girl in her dumpster out back.

When Jake was first introduced, I didn’t like him. Because Claire came in so strong and fierce, I immediately identified with her, and when they had their initial exchange I seethed. But as we get to know him, Jake isn’t such a bad guy after all.

Flynn executes this story with grace and ease, and the plot flows nicely. The only beef I had is how frustrated I became waiting for Claire and Jake to consummate their relationship. But, in the end the wait was worth it.

I often read romance novels written in a sappy sweet voice with a happy ever after that no one can really expect to have. But this novel was played out with humor and enough tension to keep you turning the pages, and the ending is plausible. I thoroughly enjoyed this story, and will definitely be reading Flynn’s work again.

Interview:


Please tell the readers a little about yourself: Well there’s two of me. I’m author Avery Flynn, which is the real me - she with the three kids, one husband, two arthritic dogs and an addiction-worthy love of strong, black coffee. Then there’s blue hair Avery Flynn, my alter ego who is part astrophysicist and part femme fatal. She dances the tango, stays at the Ice Hotel in Iceland and bar hops with the wild and crazy. Tim Gunn is her best friend. Why the two? The simple truth is that Avery Flynn is my pen name. The real reason? Who wouldn’t want to invent a badass alter ego?

How about your latest release? Up a Dry Creek is a fun and steamy romantic suspense about two hard-headed alphas and the murder of a spoiled rich girl at a private liberal arts college in small town Dry Creek, Nebraska. I hope readers will fall in love with Claire (a spitfire if there ever was one) and Jake (yummy is all I can say about him) as much as I did while writing Up a Dry Creek. But a word of warning: This is not the book for you if you like slow, plodding books that lack a sense of humor and sexual chemistry. If that is the type of book you enjoy, perhaps I could recommend my old organic chemistry textbook? :)

What was your primary inspiration for this book? Every romantic suspense novel I’ve ever read. I love reading fun, fast-paced novels that make my stomach fizz with the hero and heroine fall in love and get my heart pounding whenever the bad guy approaches. So that’s the kind of book I wanted to write and voila Up a Dry Creek was born.

Do you have any muses? Nope, no muses. Just me and my weirdly-wired brain making up stories.

Do you control your characters or do they flog you into shape?  Flog, what a great word. :) I don’t control my characters they have stubborn little minds of their own. Their kind of like children that way. I can coax and threaten, but in the end if they want to throw a temper tantrum like a three year old until they get their way, they will.

When you write, is there a special routine you follow? There must be coffee. That’s rule No. 1. Also, I’m a plotter, so I need to know where the story is going, even if it’s only a vague idea. Next, comes quiet. The only time I listen to music is when I’m writing sex scenes.

If you could be one animal, person, or at a place for a day what/who/where would it be? Don’t let the two Averys fool you, I really like being me so I’d have to make it a place. When I was in college I studied for a semester in Ireland and we traveled to the Aran Islands. That place is breathtakingly beautiful with sheer cliffs and the ocean pounding below. We stayed at a B&B and sang American Pie in the pub with the locals. What a lovely time that was, I’d love to go back.

Five random facts about you: I love hot yoga. Bridget Jones Diary is my favorite romantic movie, with a close second going to Down With Love. I cannot pass a bookstore without going in. I despise talking on the telephone. If you walk into a room and someone is laughing really loudly, it’s probably me.

Are you working on any new releases later this year? Yes! A Dry Creek Bed, the second in my Dry Creek series, will be going to the publisher by the end of September. Fingers crossed, they’ll love it as much as I do.

Anything else you’d like to say? Just my favorite quote from the great movie, Auntie Mame starring Rosalind Russell: Life is a banquet and most poor suckers are starving to death.

Contact info:
Twitter: @averyflynn

Thanks for being here, Avery!
 



1 comment:

Avery Flynn said...

Thanks so much for having me. And jeesh, I obviously hadn't had enough coffee when I answered your questions. Hello typos. Sigh. OK, off to get some more coffee. :)