Blog Tour Stop including Excerpt, Author Guest Post & Giveaway – Eyes Wide Open by Lucy Felthouse

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Blurb for Eyes Wide Open:

An ordinary girl catapulted into an extraordinary world meets two even more extraordinary men—but what will she do when she discovers their sexy secret?

Fiona Gillespie moved to London shortly after graduating to take advantage of the opportunities the capital could offer. However, months later, she’s still living in a horrid flat and working in a grimy East End pub. The problem is, she doesn’t really know what she wants to do, career-wise. So when she happens upon an advertisement for a job at a plush Mayfair hotel, she jumps at the chance. A great deal of determination and a spot of luck land Fiona her dream role.

But working at the Totally Five Star London is just the beginning. She adores the role and flourishes, impressing her bosses and making her increasingly determined to climb the career ladder.

While her career is flying, though, her love life is non-existent. She hasn’t even thought about men, never mind met or dated one for months, so when she bumps into two gorgeous businessmen in the hotel, she’s surprised to find her head has been well and truly turned. Even more surprisingly, they flirt with her—both of them! She’s drawn to James and Logan, despite feeling that they’re way out of her league.

When a misunderstanding leads Fiona to James and Logan’s sumptuous top-floor suite, she has no idea what she’s about to uncover. Scenes of people-trafficking, drug-pushing and wild sex parties all appear in her active imagination. Yet what she actually sees is something she’d never even considered before, something that piques her interest.

After discovering their sexy secret, what will she do with this new-found knowledge?

Reader Advisory: This book contains scenes of anal play, spanking, sex toys and bondage.

 

images (15)My Research for Eyes Wide Open by Lucy Felthouse (@cw1985) #erotica #romance #menage

I’m very fortunate in as much as I get to visit London, England, quite a lot. Mostly, I’m a country girl, but I can tolerate cities in fairly small doses… especially now I’ve got the hang of the “elbows out while getting on Tube/Metro carriages” thing. I’ve actually become incredibly fond of London—the more I explore it, the more fascinating I find it. It’s a huge place, with many different areas and facets. But I’d still say I know it fairly well, perhaps better than some who live there.

Therefore, when I decided to set my Totally Five Star novel in London, I knew I wouldn’t need to do a great deal of research. The sorts of places my characters would frequent are places I’ve visited, and a refresh of my memory on Google Maps/Google Street View would be more than enough… mostly. When it came to the hotel itself, things were different.

For starters, the hotel is in the Mayfair area, which wasn’t an area I’d explored that much. I’m not a fan of shopping, so visits to the Street/Regent Street/Piccadilly area are a necessity more than anything. But there’s so much more to Mayfair than shopping, as I discovered one sunny Saturday. It’s quiet once you head off the beaten track, has beautiful buildings, exclusive shops and restaurants, lovely green spaces and much more. A few hours in the area and I had a much better feel for the location, and even found a building I based my hotel’s exterior on. I didn’t go in, of course—maybe when I write that runaway success bestseller!—but the rest of it was up to my imagination, and some further research, but online this time…

Overall, my afternoon in Mayfair was a lovely way to spend the time and gave me a great basis for the book, and everything else was a nice mixture of imagination and the wisdom of Google. What would writers do without it?

 

Excerpt from Eyes Wide Open:

eyeswideopen_800Emerging from Bond Street Station, she stood out of the way of the throngs as she retrieved the map she’d printed out to get her from here into the heart of Mayfair. It wasn’t an area she knew, aside from having done some shopping—mostly window shopping, but also a smidge of the real kind on Oxford Street, Bond Street and Piccadilly—and admired the luxury hotels on Park Lane. It was barely a ten minute walk to the hotel, nestled in a spot between Grosvenor and Berkeley Squares, and she still had fifty minutes until her interview—ample time to get there, have a little look at the adjacent buildings and get a feel for the area, then head inside and announce herself.

Tracing the route with her finger as she memorized it, Fiona nodded, then put the piece of paper back into her handbag.

Right. Time to get this show on the road.

She looked up and around, as well as ahead, as she walked, admiring the beautiful, regal-looking buildings, exclusive boutiques and restaurants and garages selling high-end luxury and sports cars. It was like a complete other world, particularly when compared to the grimy, run-down area of the city she’d just come from.

God, what would the interviewers—she assumed there’d be more than one— make of her, a recent graduate with a broad Brummy accent? Yes, she’d made a serious effort with her appearance. She wore a beautiful outfit she’d splashed out on when arriving in London, seeing it as an investment in her career, in her future, but she couldn’t hide who she was—just a regular girl from the Midlands. How was she supposed to fit in with the other staff, never mind the clientele, who would all be filthy rich and speak in posh upper class British accents?

Pausing on the opposite side of the square from the hotel, she chastised herself for being so ridiculous. For one, they knew perfectly well where she was from. It was there on her CV in black and white. Secondly, the very idea that all the hotel staff and clientele would sound the same was ludicrous. Both the employees and the patrons would come from all over the world. It was bound to be a veritable melting pot of appearances, backgrounds, voices and accents. One slim, blonde Brummy was not going to stand out, not even a little bit.

Her silly ideas knocked on the head, Fiona moved across the square, drinking in the lavish sights before her. Damn, she hadn’t even crossed the threshold yet and already she was impressed. The square was quiet—especially by London standards—since it was well off the beaten tourist trail, and it was full of beautiful red-bricked buildings with white stone window frames, balconies and porticos.

The hotel itself was the epitome of style from pavement to rooftop, in the same red and white as the surrounding buildings, with elegant railings at the very top, suggesting a roof garden. Maybe even a pool, though she felt that was unlikely, given that they were in England, not Ecuador.

 

 

 

Buy link for Eyes Wide Open:
https://www.pride-publishing.com/book/eyes-wide-open

 

Author Bio:

Lucy_Felthouse (2)Lucy Felthouse is a very busy woman! She writes erotica and erotic romance in a variety of subgenres and pairings, and has over 100 publications to her name, with many more in the pipeline. These include several editions of Best Bondage Erotica, Best Women’s Erotica 2013 and Best Erotic Romance 2014. Another string to her bow is editing, and she has edited and co-edited a number of anthologies, and also edits for a small publishing house. She owns Erotica For All, is book editor for Cliterati, and is one eighth of The Brit Babes. Find out more at http://www.lucyfelthouse.co.uk. Join her on Facebook and Twitter, and subscribe to her newsletter at: http://eepurl.com/gMQb9

 

 

Enter Pride Publishing’s September blog tour competition for this chance to win an eBook of your choice, not including boxsets or anthologies.

 

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