Thanks for joining today's Hellion (415 Ink #3) blog tour stop! Author Rhys Ford shares some history of the star of Hellion, Ivo! Learn about him and don't forget to enter in the giveaway where you could win a $20 Amazon gift card!
Take it away, Rhys!
Welcome to the 415 Ink Hellion Tour! My name’s Rhys Ford and thank you for stopping by! First off, thank you to all the blogs who participated in this tour and also, a huge shout out to all of the readers who wanted to hear Ivo’s story. It was great being able to write something about the baby of the 415 Ink crew and well, he probably turned out to be the biggest surprise while writing him. So sit back, grab a bit of Ivo’s past on this tour and I hope you’re ready for his debut on Sept 17th!
Today’s Post
Ivo, 16 • Part One
Ivo recognized the wet splat of pig skin when it hit the dining room table. It was a familiar sound and a very familiar smell, having sat through Gus hammering through his own apprenticeship and working with large strips of the moist rind but Ivo hadn’t expected the roll to literally land on his English homework or Mace’s derisive snort when he looked up.
“Bear told me to grab you some,” his older brother said with a smirk. “Said it was time you worked on paying rent.”
“Fuck you,” Ivo replied but his heart wasn’t in the rejoinder. Even rolled up and wrapped up in paper, the pig skin smelled and Ivo poked at the bundle. “How much did you get? This looks huge. You can’t work on it that long, you know.”
“So cut it into pieces and toss them into the freezer. I’m not the guy teaching you. You’ve got a problem with it, talk to Bear. I was just the messenger boy,” Mace muttered, his head now buried in the fridge as he dug around inside its cavernous interior. “What happened to the Chinese food?”
“Luke ate it. There’s pizza on the bottom shelf.” Ivo poked the package again, puffing his cheeks out. “Or you can always make a sandwich. I think there’s pastrami. And jalapeno bologna.”
“Okay, you’re the only sick asshole in this family that likes jalapeno bologna,” he replied. “Hah. There’s a box of fried rice and some orange chicken. Luke didn’t get it all.”
“Sure that’s from last night?” Ivo resigned himself to the pig skin, knowing he was going to have to learn how to work with it before Bear let him ink a human being. “It was Gus’s turn to clean out the fridge this week. Fuck knows how long that’s been in there.”
“Why do you do this to me?” Mace looked mournfully into the containers he’d opened. “I wanted Chinese food. Shit, orange chicken doesn’t come with green stuff in it. I’m going to kill the Goose.”
His English homework was going to have to wait. The pig skin had to be dealt with and fast. After tucking his papers into his text book, Ivo cleaned off the table, wiping it down carefully before laying out a cutting board and a box of Ziploc bags. Figuring his hand would be good enough to measure out the lengths, he undid the butcher paper and stared down at massive roll of rind Mace brought in.
“Dude, this is like… seven back pieces worth here. What the fuck do you think I’m inking?” Ivo turned the roll over, spotting a few breaks in the skin. “There’s about five whole pig skins in here. You think I’m going to start a football factory?”
“I figured you’re going to want a lot so you can practice,” Mace said with a shrug, tucking a piece of pastrami into his mouth, bulging out his cheek. Chewing the meat with his mouth open, he reached for one of the chef knives from the wooden block on the kitchen counter. “I can’t ink for shit but I can help you at least break that shit down. Besides, you’re going to be the best inker in the family. You can’t get there from here if you don’t have your technique down by the time Bear lets you have a stall. So move over and let’s get this shit done. You’ve got some inking to do, little brother.”
Hellion by Rhys Ford
Or at least that’s the lie he tells himself when he damps down his desire for the social wild child life tosses into his path.
For Ivo Rogers, life revolves around two things—his family and 415 Ink, the tattoo shop he co-owns with his four brothers. His family might be stitched together by their battle scars from growing up in foster care, but their brotherhood is tight—and strong enough to hold Ivo together during the times when he falls apart.
Now Ivo faces a new challenge when he falls for a cop with an old-school mentality on how a man looks and acts. Ruan is the promise of a life Ivo thought he’d never have, but their clashing perspectives threaten any chance of a relationship. Being the family’s hellion makes it easy to be misunderstood, yet Ivo has faith Ruan will not only embrace who he is but love him as well.
Purchase Links
Dreamspinner https://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/books/hellion-by-rhys-ford-10757-b
Amazon https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07RPVN5VR/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1
Kobo https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/hellion-5
Blog Tour
Catch the rest of the tour here. And be sure to enter at each tour stop’s giveaway!
Sept
12 Joyfully Jay
13 Love Bytes
14 (Breathe! It’s almost release day!)
15 The Blogger Girls
16 Boy Meets Boy
17 It’s About the Book
Rhys Ford is an award-winning author with several long-running LGBT+ mystery, thriller, paranormal, and urban fantasy series and is a two-time LAMBDA finalist with her Murder and Mayhem novels. She is also a 2017 Gold and Silver Medal winner in the Florida Authors and Publishers President’s Book Awards for her novels Ink and Shadows and Hanging the Stars. She is published by Dreamspinner Press and DSP Publications.
She’s also quite skeptical about bios without a dash of something personal and really, who doesn’t mention their cats, dog and cars in a bio? She shares the house with Harley, a grey tuxedo with a flower on her face, Badger, a disgruntled alley cat who isn’t sure living inside is a step up the social ladder as well as a ginger cairn terrorist named Gus. Rhys is also enslaved to the upkeep a 1979 Pontiac Firebird and enjoys murdering make-believe people.
Rhys can be found at the following locations:
Blog: www.rhysford.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/rhys.ford.author
Twitter: @Rhys_Ford
On Your Alexa device on the Alexa Skills at: https://www.amazon.com/Witlingo-Rhys-Ford-Casting/dp/B07N7MJ7C8/
Giveaway
Enter to win a $20 USD Amazon gift certificate at each blog post! Five stops on the tour! Five gift certificates to win!
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Giveaway ends September 23rd, 2019 midnight EST ~ please respond within 48 hours of responding winning email or unfortunately a new winner will be chosen.
I'm so excited to get my next taste of these brothers...
ReplyDeleteGreat post it's interesting to see more of Ivo early life and his brothers too.
ReplyDeleteCan't wait to read Ivo's story. Thanks for the giveaway, Rhys.
ReplyDeleteLove seeing them being so supportive, lol.
ReplyDeleteOh, it's good to see Mason from not-Gus's or his own point of view. I think that Ivo has the ability to be more objective.
ReplyDeleteFootball factory lol Ivo is going to be great to read.
ReplyDeleteI love Ivo! Thanks for sharing with us!
ReplyDelete