Toot's Book Reviews: Excerpt, Promo, Deleted Scene, 10 Things & Giveaway : Rock'n Tapestries by Shari Copell (CR)

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Book Blurb

Title: Rock'n Tapestries
Series: A Rock'n Tpestries Novel, #1
Author: Shari Copell
Genre: Erotic Contemporary Romance
Release Date: September 23, 2013

“Asher Pratt had been a drug for me, and I wasn’t sure I wasn’t still addicted.”

Chelsea Whitaker works as a waitress at Tapestries, a trendy Pittsburgh bar. She’s doing her best to avoid Asher Pratt, the Pittsburgh rock legend who shattered her heart years ago.

When he takes a job at Tapestries just to be near her, Chelsea has some decisions to make.

She soon discovers that some things never change. It’s all she can do to keep a tight hold on her heart as Asher takes her for another wild ride.

As she struggles to gain some perspective on their relationship, she learns that he’s never needed her more. She must put the past aside for the sake of the future.

Book Promo

Purchase Links:

Amazon: http://amzn.com/B00FE6O0HO

Amazon UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00FE6O0HO

GoodReads: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18169763-rock-n-tapestries

Book Excerpt

Asher Pratt stood above me, peering down into my face, looking like the child of an angel and a god. His electric sexuality was as strong as it had ever been. He was Brad Pitt, with equal parts of Rob Lowe thrown in for good measure.

I let my gaze drift over him. Asher was tall, but he was rock-star lean. He was the kind of guy that low-cut jeans are made for. His white shirt was unbuttoned halfway down the front. He leaned over, and it was all I could do not to shove my eyes down that tempting view. I knew what was down there.

Flat abs and pecs with just a hint of definition, always smooth and hairless under my tongue, except for that little line of dark hair that started just below his navel and disappeared down behind the zipper of his jeans…

Book Cut Scenes

*Adult content 18+*

This scene happened after Asher helped Chelsea move into her apartment. I knew, even as I wrote it, that it was too soon for them to be coming together this way. But they kept trying to crash into each other and fight, so I let them go here, knowing I would cut this scene and rewrite it:

I told you—I’m the Queen of Broken Resolve. Before I knew it, I’d thrown caution to the wind yet again. I was on my feet and in his arms. He stumbled back toward the couch, turning me at the same time. We landed with me on the bottom, his body pressed against me.

I pulled his mouth down to mine, more to shut him up than anything else. I kissed him hard. I wanted to hurt him, to brand him as mine now and forever. Some cobwebbed corner of my mind knew no one was ever going to claim this man. But he was here in my apartment, and that meant I had a shot.

“Chelsea.” He breathed it into my mouth, a question. The answer should’ve been no, but I couldn’t say it.

“Damn you, Asher. I want you so bad.” I breathed it back to him. My hands were fumbling with his zipper.

His hands didn’t seem to know what they wanted to do. He was cupping , practically mauling, a breasts with one, the other was rubbing hard against my clit with two fingers. I arched my back into the friction, groaning. Heat spread from my pelvis upward. I was as wet as I’ve ever been.

When Asher touches me, it feels like I’ve grabbed onto a bare electric line. I can’t explain it, but his hands and body complete some kind of circuit for me.

I had his cock in my hand. Big, hard, heavy. HOT. I remembered. My pussy clenched in anticipation.

He yanked the rest of his T-shirt out of the waist of his skinny jeans and pulled it over his head. He attacked the buttons on my blouse as though his life depended on it.

I tore my mouth away from his, gasping. “You have a condom?”

“No.”

I froze, the mood ruined. I put the heel of my hand on his brow, lifted his head, and stared hard into his eyes.

“I’m not having sex with you unless you’re wearing a condom. God only knows where you’ve stuck this thing in the last couple of years.”

He leapt off me, angry. “For fucks sake, Chelsea, are we back to that now?”

“How often in the last four years have you had unprotected sex with some random groupie you picked up in a bar?” The guilty look on his face said it all. “I’m not putting myself at risk like that, Asher. And if you cared about me, you wouldn’t ask me to.”

Scowling, he snatched his shirt from the floor and had it on before I could blink. He tucked it in and zipped his zipper. He was frustrated, still hard, his mouth swollen from our kisses. It was hard to come to such an abrupt stop like that. It was hard for me too. My pussy was running like a waterfall.

“This was a bad idea. I should go,” he mumbled, turning away.

What could I say? I should’ve known better than to touch him. We could be friends (and even that was debatable) but we could never be physical. Not without getting tangled up in each other again. It was too painful, and I wasn’t willing to be just a fuck buddy.

I hastily buttoned my blouse, zipped my jeans, and followed him to the door.

“Asher, that was a big mistake. We shouldn’t...we shouldn’t ever.” I swallowed. “I’m sorry. Thank you for everything you did for me tonight. I sincerely appreciate it.”

He slipped his sneakers on and sighed so hard his shoulders sagged. He lifted his gaze wearily to mine. “If I would’ve had a condom...?”

I was instantly angry. The thrill of the chase, the satisfaction of conquest. Same old, same old.

“It’s early yet. I’m sure you can find some whore to fuck tonight who doesn’t care about a condom.” I choked on angry words I knew I shouldn’t say. “I think you should leave now.”

“I agree.” And with that, Asher walked out the door, taking with him any illusions I might’ve had that this time would be different.

Sneak Peek at Book #2

Wild Angel (A Rock'n Tapestries novel, #2) - Coming 2014

A young guitar prodigy trying to discover who she really is. A husband fighting to hold his family together. A wife struggling with the feelings she has for a musician who’s been dead for nearly nineteen years.

And a man who will battle from beyond the grave to protect his only child.

Nicks Sorenson, guitarist extraordinaire for the band Wild Angel, has a lot going on during her last year of high school. In fact, she sometimes wonders if someone has painted a bull’s eye on her forehead.

Stone Jensen, lead guitarist for the band Heavy Remedy, shows up everywhere she plays despite the bad blood between them. The high school principal is targeting her with endless detentions for some reason. And she’s starting to think maybe her mother is losing her mind.

A dream seems to set inexplicable events in motion. Things get even weirder when she learns the name of the man who willed her the four guitars she now owns.

Nicks Sorenson is about to find out what you don’t know can hurt you.

Guest Post

What are 5 things fans don't know about you and 5 they don't know about the book?

Five things you don’t know about Shari Copell:

1. I play drums!

2. I tanned a deer hide several years ago, just to see if I could do it. (Two words for you: Messy. Ticks.)

3. I once punched out a groupie who was after my husband. (Not one of my prouder moments, but she couldn’t say she didn’t have it coming.)

4. I build my own computers.

5. Men in uniform scare the fuck out of me.

Five things you don’t know about the book:

1. I mentally worked out a lot of the plot for Rock’n Tapestries while sitting on my back porch drinking blackberry wine and playing Bubble Witch Saga on my Kindle.

2. Just about everyone in this book is based on someone I knew when my husband played full-time in a rock band.

3. One of my twin daughters designed the cover.

4. Asher was originally supposed to play bass.

5. Asher’s secretive nature is based a bit on my husband, who gave me the stage name of “Steven Pearl” the night I met him. Thankfully, he gave me the right phone number. :-D

Author Info

Though I write contemporary romance under the name Shari Copell, my real name is Sherry Jesberger. I write a historical fantasy/paranormal romance series under the name S.L. Jesberger.

I am an eleventh generation native of Pennsylvania. My husband Gordon and I raised three lovely daughters, one of whom designs my book covers. Another daughter drew the map in the front cover of my historical fantasy series.

I’ve always had stories swirling through my head. Crazy stuff, totally whack situations. I was a voracious reader as a child, choosing to escape into the world of books. I wrote stories when I was a teen, but quit as I grew up. (Keep in mind, there were no computers then. Writing a book or story consisted of a brand-new notebook and a ballpoint pen.) I found some of these early stories as I cleaned out my grandmother’s house after she passed. Unfortunately, I threw them away.

I started writing again in 2012 after my husband lost his job. Aislin of Arianrhod was published in October of that year. I immediately began to work on the second book in the series, Winter’s Child.

Sometime in the middle of writing Winter’s Child, I had the inexplicable urge to swear like sailor, use modern vernacular, and write steamy sex scenes. I was amused and tried to push it aside. The language in a historical fantasy is obviously much different from a contemporary romance, so I had to behave myself.

I finally just thought, fuck it. I’ll do it. It was during that time that I started to write “Micah’s Island.” I simply needed to purge the wild story that had taken over my brain by then. It was so much fun to write. What would happen if you met a man who had never seen a grown woman before?

I chose the pen name Shari Copell because Micah’s Island was so very different from the Àlainnshire series. Copella was my grandmother’s maiden name—I just dropped the A.

For the most part, people seemed to like Micah, though he was a man of few words. I got some nice (and not so nice) emails about it, mostly from people wanting a better ending. I promptly wrote them one.

I wasn’t sure I would ever write another contemporary romance until Rock’n Tapestries dropped into my head, nearly complete from beginning to end (though I did run some things past Tara Chevrestt, who edits for me. Her suggestions were invaluable.) You just have to indulge your muse when that happens, as it doesn’t happen often.

Though the names and situations have been changed to protect the not-so-innocent, some of the things in Rock’n Tapestries were things that actually happened to me. My husband was wearing a bass guitar the first time I ever laid eyes on him. As Chelsea says of Tage, “ I think I might’ve had to scoop my jaw off the floor.” He’s the skinny dude in the gray tank top and orange guitar on the far right in this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1lXGyaHNWRI

I hope you’ve enjoyed Rock’n Tapestries. I’m currently having a blast working on a book about Nicks Sorenson, Asher’s daughter. I love this girl! It should be out sometime in 2014.

In the meantime, rock on!

Author Contact Info:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sharicopellauthor
GoodReads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6921905.Shari_Copell
E-Mail: sharicopell@gmail.com

~Giveaway~