Join author Layla Reyne & A Novel Take PR in celebrating the recent release of foodie romance Dine With Me. Find out more through the author Q&A and the exclusive excerpt and don't forget to enter the giveaway for a limited edition signed paperback + swag! Good luck!
Miller and Clancy's delicious courtship will make foodie romance fans swoon. Readers will be rooting for that HEA from the first page.
– Adriana Herrera, author of the Dreamers series
Breathtakingly emotional and deeply resonant, this foodie trip romance will have you reaching for the
tissues and cheering at the well-earned happily ever after for one of my favorite couples. This one
lingered with me and made me hungry!
– Annabeth Albert, author of the Frozen Hearts series
Layla Reyne’s DINE WITH ME is a contemporary m/m romance following a dying chef on a last tour of his favorite meals, and the travel companion who must convince him he’s more than his taste buds and that the cost of love is worth living for.
Title: Dine With Me
Release Date (e-book and audio): September 16, 2019
Blurb:
Life never tasted so good.
Miller Sykes’s meteoric rise to award-winning chef is the stuff of culinary dreams, but it’s all crashing down around him. He’s been given a diagnosis that could cost him something even more precious than his life: his sense of taste. Rather than risk the very thing that defines him, Miller embarks on a last tour of his favorite meals while he still can.
But there’s a catch: he needs a financial backer to make it happen, and he doesn't want anyone to know he's sick.
Dr. Clancy Rhodes has two weeks to come to terms with putting aside oncology to work at his father’s thriving plastic surgery practice. When the opportunity to travel with a Michelin-starred chef presents itself, the foodie in him can’t believe it. It doesn’t hurt that Miller’s rugged good looks are exactly Clancy’s cuppa joe.
As Clancy and Miller travel from coast to coast and indulge in everything from dive bars to the most decadent of culinary experiences, they’re suddenly sharing a lot more than delicious meals. Sparks fly as they bond over their love of flavors and the pressures of great expectations. But when Miller’s health takes a turn for the worse, Clancy must convince him he’s more—so much more—than just his taste buds. And that together, they can win a battle that once seemed hopeless.
One-click with confidence. This title is part of the Carina Press Romance Promise: all the romance you’re looking for with an HEA/HFN. It’s a promise!
Links:
Universal: https://books2read.com/DineWithMe
About Layla Reyne:
RITA Finalist Layla Reyne is the author of the Agents Irish and Whiskey, Fog City, and Changing Lanes series. A Carolina Tar Heel who now calls the San Francisco Bay Area home, Layla enjoys weaving her bi-coastal experiences into her stories, along with adrenaline-fueled suspense and heart-pounding romance. She is a member of Romance Writers of America and its Kiss of Death and Rainbow Romance Writers chapters. Layla is a 2019 RWA® RITA® Finalist in Contemporary Romance (Mid-Length) and 2016 RWA® Golden Heart® Finalist in Romantic Suspense.
Connect with Layla:
Newsletter: https://www.laylareyne.com/signup
Exclusive Q&A with Layla Reyne, Blog Tour:
- Can you share with us something about the book that isn’t in the blurb?
LR: It’s not just Miller and Clancy in this story. There’s a supporting cast of characters—family, of the blood and found sort—that I absolutely adored writing. And they support, first and foremost. No one here is trying to foil or divert our main characters, and I love that about this story. They are there to support Miller and Clancy, as best and as full-of-heart as they can.
- Are there any secrets from the book (that aren’t in the blurb), you can share with your readers?
LR: Every place Miller and Clancy visited is a place I’ve dined or based on a place I dined. (Sadly, a few of my favorites had closed!) Each place in this book is as special to me, for my own reasons, as it is for Miller and Clancy. For instance, one of the stops is The French Laundry, which is where my husband and I got married, so it holds a special place in my heart too.
- Does one of the main characters hold a special place in your heart? If so, why?
LR: Ohmigod, they both do. This story has been rattling around in my head since 2015. It was on the initial list of project ideas I gave my agent. There’s a lot of me in both Clancy and Miller (more so Clancy, my husband more so Miller), but it’s really a love letter to all the amazing dining experiences I’ve been so lucky to have in my life.
- What is the significance of the title?
LR: It starts as the opening line of the advertisement Miller posts for the tour. It also ends the book in a way that still makes me happy sigh.
- What is the future for the characters? Will there be a sequel?
LR: This is a standalone, so there won’t be a sequel. Though keep your eyes peeled for a special project involving one of the secondary characters.
- If you had to describe character Miller Sykes in three words, what would those three words be?
LR: Loyal, Self-Sacrificing, Stubborn
- If you had to describe character Miller Sykes in three words, what would those three words be?
LR: Earnest, Honest, Risk-taker
- If your book was to be made into a movie, who are the celebrities that would star in it?
LR: Oh, this is easy (since the book has been in my head for YEARS). I’ve always had Clive Standen as my fancast for Miller and Grant Gustin as my fancast for Clancy.
- Was the writing process different and what challenges did you face writing contemporary romance versus romantic suspense?
LR: I couldn’t just throw a car chase or explosion in when I needed to pick up the pace! But seriously, I really did have to dig deep to center this one more on emotions, more on the journey of these two men, individually and potentially together in the future. That’s what’s driving the story, versus my usual twisty plot.
DINE WITH ME – Carina Press
Release Date: September 16, 2019
Excerpt (500-600 words)
“Gorgeous, isn’t he?” Sloan whispered beside him. “If I didn’t have Tyler waiting at home…”
“Is he even old enough to drive?” Miller tore his gaze from the bespectacled stranger and tossed back the rest of his drink.
“Thirty.”
Only Sloan’s hand over his mouth at the last possible second saved her white silk blouse from a shower of gin, vermouth, and Campari. Once he swallowed, Miller gasped out a “Bullshit” behind her hand.
“I didn’t believe it either.” She lowered her hand and wiped it off on a napkin. “So I had one of the firm’s PIs check. Thirty, swear it.”
Glancing over his shoulder again, Miller tried to find thirty years in the younger man and managed twenty-two, twenty-three at best. As the man’s eyes roved toward their corner, Miller turned back to Sloan. “Better go do your job, dear.” His voice dripped with saccharine sarcasm.
As did her reply. “Hold down the dark corner, honey.” She polished off another wing, tossed the bone on the plate, smacked his cheek with a sticky kiss, and moved to climb off her stool.
Before her second heel hit the floor, a slender hand appeared across their table and Miller looked up to find the stranger standing there.
“Ms. Thatcher, it’s a pleasure to meet you,” he said.
Sloan shook his hand. “Clancy Rhodes, I presume?”
“That’s me. I’m sorry I’m late. I had a last-minute meeting with some benefit organizers and got held up.” He cut off his ramble and shifted his big green eyes and outstretched hand to Miller. “Chef, it’s an honor.”
“You know Miller?” Sloan asked.
Miller checked his grip, afraid he’d crush Clancy’s long, slim fingers in his bear claw, but the other man’s handshake was confident and firm. His eyes lingered on Miller’s tattooed forearm, bared beneath his rolled-up dress sleeves, before he withdrew his hand and cleared his throat. His gazed darted back up and he adjusted his glasses.
“Miller Sykes,” he said. “Self-taught wonder-kid of the cooking world. James Beard Rising Star Chef. Staged at the top restaurants in New York, then relocated to the Bay Area. You earned two Michelin stars for the restaurant where you were chef de cuisine before leaving to open your own place three years ago.” He interrupted his Wiki-page recitation—with all the correct pronunciations, Miller noted—to take a deep breath and return his attention to Sloan. “When my parents showed me the ad, then said I was meeting the chef in Napa, I did the calculations. Chefs, stars, and the timing. I’d wheedled it down to a handful. Miller was on the list.”
Possibly also a stalker. Or an apron-chaser. Neither good.
And yet Sloan seemed more intrigued than ever. “Your mom said you’re a huge foodie.”
“Isn’t anyone who wants to go on a trip like this?” An eager, guileless smile stretched across his pale, lightly freckled face.
Miller discounted his stalker theory—this kid was pure fanboy—but there was something in his innocence, in his youth, that called to more than Miller’s ego.
Giveaway: Signed limited edition paperback + swag (equivalent value for international)
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Link: http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/88d45f03103/
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