The Tenant Blog Hop - Sotia Lazu
A warm welcome to my very good friend, Sotia Lazu who has a brand new release out. Pull up a chair Sotia and tell us about your romantic thoughts.
Hi Diane, and thank you for
having me J
In my RL dealings with
people, I pretend to be a cynic. In truth, I’m a sappy romantic, who believes
love can be found at the most unexpected places.
In 2008, I met a guy on a
fanfiction archive site. I was there because I’d had my heart broken so many
times, I felt like writing about someone getting hers mended. He’d happened
upon it because he had too much free time at work.
We talked a lot. He was fun,
he was cute, and he was from Romania. I told him upfront I didn’t believe in
long distance relationships. Two years later, he moved to Greece and we got
married. And we’re still stupidly happy about it.
My sister met a guy on a day
I was too bored to drive her to the shopping centere and called her a cab instead.
He was hot, he asked for her number and gave her his, and never called. She
whined our ears off about him for two months, before she happened to get in his
taxi again.
He said he hadn’t called,
because he didn’t want her to feel pressured, and that he kept wishing she’d
call him instead.
He and my sis got married
six weeks ago, and you can’t wipe the silly grin off her face since.
My point, in case it’s not
clear yet, is that love can be found when you least expect it. Worse, when it
might actually be inconvenient.
As inconvenient as a tenant
who won’t move out, when all you want is to make the apartment a home for your
husband to be and yourself.
As inconvenient as the
realization maybe you’re not with the one you’re meant to be with.
The Tenant by Sotia Lazu
Blurb
In hopes of getting her fiancé to consummate their relationship before the
wedding, Amanda convinces him they should check out the apartment her father
gave her as a gift for their upcoming nuptials. Darkness and privacy are supposed
to work in her favor, but there is one parameter she doesn’t know about: the
apartment is not empty yet, and the current tenant has no plans of moving.
Derek has had a hell of a few months. His girlfriend turned out to be a
cheater and then stole his restaurant. He's not about to also give up the place
he's called home for three years—even if his hot but infuriating landlady
threatens to move in by the end of the week.
When her own lease is up, Amanda is forced to make good on her threat. As
if life isn't already hard enough, her tenant-turned-roommate is as sexy as he
is annoying, and her fiancé is caught with a half-naked woman.
Now she and Derek need to find a way to survive their forced cohabitation.
They soon discover sleeping with the enemy can be fun.
Excerpt
Hushed
voices. There were people whispering inside his home, and—
Something
crashed.
It might
have been fury at whoever dared vandalize his home that drove his feet from
bathroom to bedroom, naked as the day he was born. It could have been hope he’d
finally get out some of his frustration that curled his fingers around the
baseball bat lying beneath his bed and led him the rest of the distance to his
living room in the pitch black.
Weighing the
bat in one hand, he pressed the fingers of the other to the light switch he
knew to be at his left, and took in the lit room.
A couple was
making out on his floor. By his overturned table and his smashed lamp.
He scowled
so hard his forehead hurt, but it was all he could do not to charge them and
bash their heads in.
“What the
fuck are you doing in my place?” he asked the kneeling hulk. He’d heard about
people making out in parks, playgrounds, even cemeteries, but breaking into
someone’s home to get some was unbelievable.
The small
blonde lying on the floor sat upright, eyes blazing. “Your place? My father
gave me this apartment!”
Her
boyfriend simply blinked at him.
Was it
Derek’s imagination, or was the blonde having a hard time looking him in the
eye? He was tempted to mention his face was an entire torso—and then
some—higher than what she was staring at, but his ego needed some stroking, so
he let her take all of him in, while his mind caught up to what she’d just
said.
“You’re
Kenneth’s daughter?” he finally asked, the bat only slightly lowered. Alice’s
sister. This one was shorter, and Alice dyed her hair dark brown these days,
but Derek could see the resemblance.
She finally
lifted her gaze to meet his, and her eyes were the same bright green as her
sister’s. “You’re the guy who’s supposed to be gone?”
He could
apologize and say he’d forgotten because of the rain of utter shit falling on
him lately.
He could ask
for a bit more time until he’d found a new place.
Or he could
be an ass. Nobody else seemed to think twice about being an ass to him.
“Hardly,” he said with a snort. “I’m supposed to be right where I am. You, on
the other hand, are trespassing. Or is it breaking and entering?”
The young
woman scrunched her nose, which was adorable in a snooty, bratty way. “No
breaking. I’ve got a key.” She narrowed her eyes. “When Mason and I were first
engaged, Dad said he asked you to move. That was three months ago.”
Mason. That
was the silent brute’s name. “I remember no such thing, and” —he looked
pointedly at the remains of his favorite lamp— “there has definitely been some
breaking.”
Blondie
bounced up and glared. Funny, but she was intimidating despite her small
stature. Maybe that was why Mason stood back and let her handle things. “Dad
bought the place for me, to begin with,” she said. “You knew when you first
moved in that I was eventually going to be needing it.”
That was
true. Derek had heard all about how this was one day going to be a wedding
present for Kenneth’s oldest daughter—and what was her name, again?—though said
daughter hadn’t even been dating back then. Kenneth said his daughter was picky
and needed a man with serious backbone before she settled down.
Things had
apparently changed.
Derek
considered waving the bat to see if the big guy would flinch, but decided to be
the bigger man—and wasn’t that ironic, when Mason had at least four inches on
him? “Kenneth mentioned something, but he didn’t give me the sixty days notice
he was supposed to.” Blondie opened her mouth, probably to repeat her father
let him know three months ago. Now was time for the coup de grace, and Derek
somehow knew he’d love watching her squirm. “As you know, the notice is
supposed to be in writing or it doesn’t count,” he said.
And smirked.
And winked.
Mason
grabbed Blondie’s shoulder, flexing his arm in the process. The look on his
face indicated that Derek’s nudity might have offended him more than Derek’s
intention to not vacate the premises for at least two more months. “Let’s go,
Mandi.” Ah, that was her name. “We’ll talk to your father. He’ll know what to
do.”
Her gaze
said she knew what to do too, and it involved the painful insertion of the
baseball bat in Derek’s most private orifice.
Derek’s
smirk widened into a grin. “And now get out of here, before I have to call the
police and report you for harassment on top of everything else.”
Mandi stared
him down for a split second, but when Derek swung his bat in the air, her
overly inflated toy boy all but dragged her out the door.
Derek
propped his weapon on his shoulder, grabbed a bottle of scotch, and went to
bed. He sensed his swagger had returned. Maybe that was because he’d actually
felt he had balls, for the first time in days.
Odd way for
his day to improve, but it had. He would give anything for another opportunity
to bait Mandi Murphy. If he couldn’t torture the woman who’d hurt him, he’d
torture the one who wanted to evict him. He had to be subtle about it, though.
He didn’t want to make Kenneth mad at him.
About the Author
She loves romances with a twist and urban fantasy novels, always with vivid
erotic elements. Her favorite characters to write are not conventional
hero-material at first glance, and she enjoys making them fight for their happiness.
Sotia shares her life and living quarters with her husband, their son, and
two rescue dogs, one of which may be part-pony. Sappy movies make her bawl like
a baby, and she wishes she could take in all the stray dogs in the world.
Also, she hates mornings!
GIVEAWAY
What
do you think about love? Do you believe in only exists in romance stories? Tell me in a comment (don’t forget your
e-mail address), and make sure to enter the Rafflecopter Giveaway for a chance to win an e-copy
of The Tenant or some Author Swag!
NOTE: The giveaway is for Adults Only. Please do not enter if you’re below your country’s legal age.
WordPress
won’t let me embed the Rafflecopter, so click on the link to open it in a new
page.
AND THAT’S NOT ALL!
Until the 11th of
the month, you have the chance for several more entries. Just stop by the
following blogs, and leave me a comment:
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August 8th
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Gina Henning Blog
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August 8th
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Barbara Elsborg - Barbara's Blog
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August 9th
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The Naughty and Nice of
Romance
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August 9th
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Ana Blaze
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August 9th
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Apathy's Hero
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August 10th
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Megan O'Russell
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August 10th
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Blame It On The Muse
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August 10th
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History in the Hot Lane
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August 10th
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A Pen Named Brock
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August 10th
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Diane Saxon Blog Spot
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August 11th
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Tara Quan
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August 11th
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Writery
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August 11th
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Vincent Morrone
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August 11th
|
Daisy Banks Blog
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Loved the excerpt. Fabulous.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much! :)
DeleteThank you once more for having me, Diane! :*
ReplyDelete