Visit my Website for all the blurbs, excerpts and news!!

Visit my Website for all the blurbs, excerpts and news!!
Visit my Website for all the blurbs, excerpts and news!!

Tuesday 17 December 2019

New Release - Lea Bronsen - Dark Brilliance

  Everything can be bought. Except love. Kace Karrington is a wealthy, self-made investor with no qualms about steamrolling others to achieve his goals. He’s attracted to men, but picks up beautiful women, giving the cold, unfeeling world of Finance the appearance he’s successful...powerful. That is until he meets a smoking hot street punk eager to show him there’s more to life than making money. #Billionaire #Manlove #Gay #MM #Romance  

Available from

Put the book on your to-read shelf on Goodreads
See photos that inspired me to write the book on Pinterest
 

Excerpt

And then happens what happens to me once in a long while: he catches my attention. I mean really makes me stop and stare. I’m attracted to men, after all, and some can be surprisingly handsome. This specimen is a lot more so than one would imagine of a drug addict. Strong, symmetrical features and tanned skin make quite the tableau with full lips, an aquiline nose, and dark green, gold-flecked irises framed by thick eyelashes. Even unkempt blond hair and a three-day stubble look sexy on him. This is the guy who calls himself my sister’s friend? He’s so easy on the eyes, he has to be more than a friend. He scowls. “Do you always do that?” “Do what?” I take in the rest of him. He’s my height, but much skinnier. Probably can’t afford to go to a gym and do weights three times a week like I do. “Refuse to shake someone’s hand,” he replies, tone offended. His voice sounds light but mature. Warm, comfortable to the ear. “While your sister’s in there…fighting for her life.” Tears form in his eyes. So, their redness was due to him crying. “Sorry, it’s the nerves.” I give him my hand. “Yeah.” He accepts to shake it, but his wet glare tells me he’s not convinced. Me? I’m so taken aback by his good looks and intense presence, I almost forget why I came out of the room. Oh yeah. Coffee.  

About the author

Lea Bronsen likes her reads hot, fast, and edgy, and strives to give her own stories the same intensity. After a deep dive on the unforgiving world of gangsters with her debut novel Wild Hearted, she divides her writing time between romantic suspenses, dark erotic romances, and crime thrillers.
Meet Lea Bronsen on
 

Friday 13 December 2019

A look at Muse and Spice - Rainbow Awards Winners


  (actually a post for the Evernight Blog, reproduced here because I can 😏 )

Best Transgender Romance 

and 

Best Transgender Book 2018-2019

A Muse to Live For


A Muse to Live For is the story of a Victorian painter and the crossdressing male prostitute who becomes his muse and lover. As one of the Rainbow Awards Honorable Mentions correctly points out, Gabriel/le is “not so much trans as truly androgynous”. I thought this was truly central to this character, who, at a time when coming out and transitioning were out of question, must be pragmatic about his identity, and straddle the lines between common sense, sexual fetish, artistic performance, and gender dysphoria as best they could.

This is my first serious attempt at historical fiction, and oh boy, was it a steep learning curve! There was so much to research that at times it was all I could do to write a paragraph in one day! I was delighted when one reviewer commented “I googled this”, as they thought it might be genuinely historical. There’s no higher praise for a fiction writer!

Part of the realistic feel comes perhaps from the locale of the story. I was stubbornly set on avoiding the more usual historical romance haunts. No ballrooms, no dukes and debutantes, no grand country houses. We have a saying in Italy, "nothing grows from diamonds; flowers grow from manure". Perhaps I am just more familiar with manure than diamonds, but given my fascination for Pre-Raphaelite painters and their penchant for picking stunning beautiful lower class women as models, muses and wives, it was natural that I would gravitate towards the less glamorous districts and professions, and the often harrowing life of the London poor. 

In a story that is so much about the creation of art, the contrast between the darkness of the setting and the purity of love and beauty found within it has an almost painterly chiaroscuro effect that gives much more depth and brilliance to the characters and their journey.

A Muse to Live For on Amazon 






Best Transgender Romance  2018 - 2019

Spice & Vanilla


Spice &Vanilla was originally conceived as a quick and hot Erotic Romance, but then the story got out of hand entirely and became a true emotional roller-coaster. The core of this novel is Lucie’s struggle for acceptance after her first disastrous coming out. When I first started researching M to F crossdressing and transition I was struck by how many heart-breaking stories of coming out, rejection and purging popped up on forums and message boards. Purging is a word often used to describe the heartrending destruction of all female clothes and accessories from one’s closet (real and metaphorical), in an attempt to repress one’s gender queerness. It goes without saying that the material objects carry more meaning than just “clothes”, “hats”, “lipstick”, "mascara". It’s a whole, real identity that gets denied existence.

It’s a tremendously painful (and alas common, and recurrent) experience for some people, in a world where gender issues are still very little understood by the majority of the population, despite all the howling media coverage we are witnessing every day. It strikes me as odd that so few transgender stories are written for a cisgender public, because this is something sorely needed to bridge the gap in understanding.

It takes I think an almost superhuman courage to collect the pieces after such a rejection, and find the hope and determination to try, again, and again, to find love and acceptance.
I wanted to explore this in detail, and other things. The different nuances of crossdressing as a sexual fetish and crossdressing as an exploration of a different and whole gender identity, for example. Two things that can overlap, but are also distinct. Gender issues are a very intriguing and poignant way for a writer to explore the depth and intricacy of the human psyche.

And I wanted to write about the collateral damage of an awkward coming out. After all it’s pointless to deny that transition affects the lives of spouses and families too, often very painfully. Compassion respect and understanding are things that must go both ways for love to survive.

Spice & Vanilla on Amazon 






Sunday 8 December 2019

Rainbow Awards Winner - Best Transgender Romance 2018-2019


I am more honored and happy than I can possibly express in words that both A Muse to Live For and Spice & Vanilla were voted Best Transgender Romance(s) of 2018-2019 at the Rainbow Awards.

I could never have dreamed of such a wonderful tie! Both these stories mean so much to me, especially Muse, and they happen to be subtly interconnected, so it's lovely to see them making their way in the world together!

Story-telling is a lonely occupation as a rule, but publishing a book is not, and in this occasion I'd like to mention and thank all the people who made this Award possible for me.

First of all, Sandra Bunino and  Lynn Burke, who sponsored my Rainbow Awards entries at a time when I was fantastically broke.

Christine Klocek-Lim, the acquisition editor who decided these crazy, bittersweet, convoluted, obsessive stories were worth publishing.


Evernight Publishing, who gave a home to my books again and again.

Jay Aheer for the lovely cover art on all my recent releases.

My editor, Karyn White, who tirelessly fights with me over every story and somehow manages to make my more introverted characters talk, so that readers can get to know what's going on in their heads, something I tend to neglect!

All the friends and readers who took the time to comment and encourage me, and give me confidence in my writing, especially (in random order) Jessie Pinkham, Christine Potter, Katerina Ross, Sally Bend, Lea Bronsen and K. T. Vaughn.

And all the wonderful men and women who have inspired my stories and helped my characters come to life, in particular Tim Boyle, Paul Boche, Henry Ian Cusick, and my true muse and much missed friend, Danila Kovalev, without whose contribution A Muse to Live For would never have come to life.