Giveaway + Blog Tour: Sip of Rio by Teodora Kostova

Welcome Teodora Kostova! She's re-releasing Sip of Rio with a fabulous new cover and to celebrate she's brought a deleted scene and a $10 Amazon Gift Card Giveaway AND a copy of the book!

Be sure to enter below. Good luck!

A Sip of Rio

Series (name + # in series): Stand-alone

Publisher: self-published

Release Date (Print & Ebook): September 2016, available as ebook, print and audio book

Length (Print & Ebook): 47000 words, 228 pages in paperback

Subgenre: m/m contemporary romance

All buy links or pre-order links:

Ebookavailable on Amazon and KU

Paperback available on Amazon, Bookdepository and all other major bookstores.

Amazon

Bookdepository

Audio book available on Audible and iTunes.

Audible

iTunes

Book Blurb:

Liam Young has a problem - he's booked a romantic holiday to Rio de Janeiro months ago, but when he breaks up with his boyfriend, all his plans fall apart. Not only is his dream holiday slipping through his fingers, but Liam is sick and tired of getting his heart broken.

Blaine Reed has a solution that can save Liam's plans. Recently divorced, Blaine needs a break, and a couple of stress-free weeks in Rio with a sexy guy like Liam sounds like heaven.

Liam and Blaine hit it off right from the start, becoming good friends even before they've left London. Despite their efforts to ignore the simmering attraction between them, it boils over when they end up sharing a room in one of the most romantic cities in the world.

Being together in Rio is easy, and it's exactly what Liam needs - no feelings, no drama, nobody getting hurt.

Until someone does.

When the holiday bubble bursts, it's up to them to find a way to be together outside of Rio's seductive magic.

What you want the takeaway of the book to be for readers: A Sip of Rio is a happy book about beach holidays, finding love in unexpected places and following your heart. I’d like readers to fall in love with Rio de Janeiro as much as I did, and crave a beach holiday of their own. And maybe, just maybe, gather the courage to do what their heart tells them just this once.

Quotes from Teodora Kostova about the book: I fell in love with Rio de Janeiro when I first went there a couple of years ago and it was inevitable I’d set a book there some day. A Sip of Rio is that book. It’s romantic, sexy, maybe a bit melancholy, and full of hope. It’s a book you can relax by the pool with, a cocktail in hand, and a smile on your face.

Select brief quotes from the book:

Blaine would always protect Liam’s heart, even at the expense of his own.

***

“You’re falling in love right now, aren’t you?” Liam said, his camera clicking relentlessly.

Blaine turned to face him, his eyes sliding past Liam to the view of Copacabana beach

behind him, and then back on Liam’s face.

“Yeah,” he finally said, feeling his cheeks flushing. “I think I am.”

***

But the nagging thought at the back of his mind that this was all a fantasy, a screwed up

version of reality that would come crashing down on them the moment they set foot

in London, remained. What they had here was easy. It was fun and romantic and magical.

But it couldn't last.

Could it?

Excerpt:

“It tastes like Rio,” Liam said, and for some reason that made him a bit sad. Who was going to make him cocktails that tasted like Rio when they were gone in a few days? “It’s sweet and bitter at the same time, but it’s still beautiful and kinda addictive. I haven’t finished this one and I’m already thinking of ordering another one.”

Diego seemed satisfied with his answer, if his wide toothy grin was any indication.

“Well done, amigo, that was exactly what I was going for.” Diego leaned on his elbows on the counter, moving closer to Liam as if to whisper something conspiratorially. Liam met him half way, his head turning a little to the side as he listened to Diego, but his eyes held Blaine’s who was watching them with a frown. “But be careful,” Diego whispered. “A sip of Rio is all it takes. You may never want to leave.”

Deleted scene from Sip of Rio

Blaine fiddled with his phone as he lay on the bed, waiting for Liam to come out of the shower so that they could get dressed and go out to eat. All that sun and sand and swimming was exhausting, and he found he was getting hungry way more often than back in London.

Or maybe it was the insanely hot sex he and Liam had at every opportunity?

In any case, Blaine was starving.

The bathroom door opened, releasing a cloud of steam. Liam came out of it, a towel wrapped loosely around his hips, still dripping all over the floor.

“God, I needed that,” he said, flopping down on the bed, making the sheets wet.

Impulsively, Blaine propped himself on his elbow and snapped a picture of Liam lying next to him.

“What are you doing?” Liam asked, his eyes closed and his arm thrown over them.

Blaine stared at the photo and admired the tan lines showing over the loosened towel. Liam’s skin was soft and perfect even when he was pale as a ghost, but Blaine had a thing for tan lines, and Liam’s in particular drove him crazy. A flash of memory burst behind his eyes from last night when he’d fucked Liam from behind over the sofa in their suite, his pale ass in the air, his skin reddening every time Blaine slapped it.

“I’m taking a photo for your Instagram fans,” Blaine said, the reply taking him out of the sexy memory.

“Do not post that photo on Instagram!” Liam said, suddenly sounding awake and ready to tackle Blaine for the phone.

Predicting his move, Blaine held the phone away, laughing as Liam climbed on top of him trying to get it. The towel slipped away and Blaine had a very naked – and very delicious – Liam struggling to reach the phone in Blaine’s hand.

“A-ha!” Exclaimed Liam as he snatched the phone from Blaine and jumped off the bed, frantically tapping the screen.

Blaine sat up in the bed. “Please don’t delete it!”

Liam paused, raising an eyebrow at Blaine.

“I’m not having such intimate pictures published on Instagram.”

“I was kidding!”

“How do I know you’re not going to publish it the moment I give you the phone back? You’re obsessed with getting likes.”

“Because I don’t want such intimate pictures of you on Instagram.”

If the crease between Liam’s brows was anything to go by, he wasn’t convinced.

“I want to keep the photo for personal use,” Blaine said, smirking.

“Whatever,” Liam said and threw him the phone back, turning around to grab clothes from the dresser, but not before Blaine saw the smile appearing on his lips.

Author Bio:

Hi, my name is Teodora and I live in London with my husband and my son. I've been writing ever since I can remember, but it became my full time job in 2010 when I decided that everything else I've tried bores me to death and I have to do what I've always wanted to do, but never had to guts to fully embrace. I've been a journalist, an editor, a personal assistant and an interior designer among other things, but as soon as the novelty of the new, exciting job wears off, I always go back to writing. Being twitchy, impatient, loud and hasty are not qualities that help a writer, because I have to sit alone, preferably still, and write for most of the day, but I absolutely love it. It's the only time that I'm truly at peace and the only thing I can do for more than ten minutes at a time - my son has a bigger attention span than me.
When I'm procrastinating, I like to go to the gym, cook Italian meals (and eat them), read, listen to rock music, watch indie movies and True Blood re-runs. Or, in the worst case scenario, get beaten at every Nintendo Wii game by a very inventive kid. 

Connect with Teodora: Website | Facebook | Facebook Group | Instagram | Twitter | Newsletter | Pinterest | Goodreads

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Review: Dance (West End #1) by Teodora Kostova

Jared Hartley is happy. He has a starring role in a popular West End musical, great friends, adoring fans and his own flat in Central London. A relationship is not something he has ever really wanted. Making big plans for the future is not in his nature – Jared is content with his single status and enjoying all the benefits of that lifestyle. He doesn’t even realise something is missing in his life.
Until he meets Fenix.

Fenix Bergman has a dream – to perform on Broadway. When he gets offered the lead role in Poison – a new musical based in London, he accepts, immediately recognising the huge potential of the show.

Fenix thinks he has his life completely figured out – he will move to London, help Poison become the new West End hit and bide his time until Broadway comes knocking on his door. He has never wished for anything else but proving to himself and the world that he is a performer worthy of the biggest theatre stage.
Until he meets Jared.

Jared and Fenix’s lives collide and they fill each other’s missing pieces. Neither of them expects to feel so much, so fast for the other.

Neither of them expects to need someone so badly when love hasn’t even been in their plans.

But when Fenix’s star becomes too bright for London, will the dream he’s chased all his life ruin the dream he’s holding in his hands?

Will he survive getting everything he’s ever wanted?

Will Jared?

Hot cover, right? Paired with a promising (albeit long) blurb. The cover is my favorite thing about this book. I can stare at it all day.

This is MF author Teodora Kostova's debut MM Romance story based on an insta-love moment between theater performers, Fenix and Jared. They have a lot of sex in short period. They go through volatile ups and downs and whirlwind love throughout the novel from the moment they are together and they are together for all but 15% of the book, so that is saying a lot. set in the West End in London, the two are given a story fitting to how they were written.

I will be totally honest, this type of writing style does not work for me.

This is all telling, no showing with characters that relate to pop culture fairly well and leaves no legwork for the brain. It 's a very popular style of writing. I'm not knocking it, sometimes you just want a book to escape from reality where nothing needs to make sense as long as you get a beginning, a middle and HEA, who cares about the details? Who cares if the characters read like a early 2000's soap opera? Who cares if there are adult men acting like teenagers? This works better if you don't want substance in your fiction (and substance equates to depth and dimension - not the oodles of sex or MANtrums (Fenix needs a nap with all his hissy fitting)

And you know what the kiss of death in a story is for me? When the main characters are considered perfect.  You open the door to prove how imperfect the characters really are, no matter much it's stuffed down a reader's throat (and there is tons of repetition so it's said A LOT) Jared was "beautiful" and "perfect". Fenix was "beautiful" and "striking" and "perfect". Everyone wanted in their pants, paparazzi were all over them, all their childish antics were excused because their love is a love I guess this mere mortal can't understand.

This is Fenix:

Striking ice blue eyes, everyone wants him and he is as deep as a Ken doll. Ladies and gents, are you interested?

This is Jared:

His hair is darker and his eyes are navy blue but the scowl is spot on because he's super jealous and possessive of Fenix. You can't stare at Fenix too long or he'll mess you up. And then have massive amounts of hawt sex to make up for his lack of characteristics. And lack of depth, he's just as hollow as Fenix.

Aren't they dreamy?

The main characters start off basically the same person. They know what each other are thinking from the moment they meet. Both had tragedies seven years ago, they are only children, they perform for the theater.  They can tell what the other characters' are feeling and thinking too with mere glances. Hell in the beginning, their best friends had the same reactions and emotional range, they were basically the same person too. No real distinction with those two until later in the story but it was faint.

I have a simple way of seeing if a story has substance because there's too much sex to cover the main characters not having enough charisma to carry on this too long novel (the last 22% was unnecessary) take out the sex...do the main characters have a leg to stand on? No? Then you have a weak story. These two fell into instalove insta-dick. They had nothing going for them but sex/lust in the beginning. And another popular writing technique along with the major telling is having the characters narrate the story through unnatural dialogue. It didn't happen all the time but it was a major chunk. It's a pet peeve of mine. But this is Kostova's "West End", so it works over there. *shrugs*

I noticed my status updates developed a pattern, a formula if you will, so I'll share.

There were 3 sex scenes in the first 10%, 5 in the first 20% and their erections kept going for 48 hours; no rest periods necessary. Then, we have the co-dependent fluff, possessive, I love you - let's make rash life decisions for the next 30%. Then at 50% the imminent break up where they had miscommunication tantrums.

The sweet spot was the next 15% where the protagonists were separated, I got to see a hint of character but it got slammed by more telling, everybody is hating on them because Fenix chose to be promiscuous in his off period and Jared turned into an emotionless Ken doll, suffering for two years. They stopped being in each other's pocket and basically the same character and finally there were two separate main characters.

Then 65% happened, which was the reunion! The two are super attracted to one another because they are perfect, striking, ice blue eyes and Scandinavian cheekbones (the author liked to point this out a bit) so what do Jared and Fenix fall back on? That's right, sex.

The sex was hot but repetitive with a variation of "fuck me hard", pre-lubricated condoms, anal stretching and lube use, like a gay sex equation. I started to yawn in the latter sex parts (me? can you believe it?) and was happy for the fade to black bits.

Hmm...am I forgetting something? Oh yes, the last 22% or what I like to call it, everything but the kitchen sink was added to make a wow factor. That last fifth was so unnecessary, there is a sex tape, death, fist fight, screaming, MANtrums on octane and then a police investigation that gets partially solved by a childish bitchout on the phone. The story was over earlier than 78% but for reunion and drama sake's it should have ended there.  It's thrown in for entertainment value but I'm in that outlier reader population that didn't find it amusing. I don't need repeat scene rehashing to be beaten over the head while reading, I get the point.

To me, the story was weak, the cover was the best part. I did not like either main character but it's not their faults, it's how they were written.This is a popular book, the author has a het following that I'm sure will breach over to this series. For a first time MM novel, it's not the worst I've read, the style is not to my taste, sadly. Maybe if I read this ten years ago, I'd have rated this higher. Thankfully, it did not read like disguised MF romance...mostly (there were a few shaky parts but I won't bring them up), props to that.

So in closing:

 

I doubt I'll be reading book #2 that is being released in the upcoming weeks but you never know maybe I'll need a book where I can turn off my brain. My rating varies, I might come back and stick with the lower end, but it's in the 2-2.5 Hearts range.

Find more info on Goodreads and BookLikes!