Blog Tour Stop including Excerpt, Review, Author Q&A and Giveaway – The Luckiest by Mila McWarren

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Author Name: Mila McWarren

Book Name: The Luckiest

Release Date: July 7, 2015

Blurb:

When New York-based memoirist Aaron Wilkinson gathers with his high school friends to marry off two of their own, he is forced to spend a week with Nik, the boy who broke his heart.

As they settle into the Texas beach house where the nuptials will be performed, Nik quickly makes his intentions clear: he wants Aaron back. “He’s coming hard, baby,” a friend warns, setting the tone for a week of transition where Aaron and Nik must decide if they are playing for keeps.

Pages or Words: 256 pages

 Categories:  Contemporary, Gay fiction, M/M Romance, New Adult, Romance

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Excerpt:

Aaron finishes the song and Stephanie snatches the mic out of his hand, crooks her finger at Nik and launches them into a reprise of their performance of “Dancing on My Own” from the homecoming weekend they all spent here at the house back in senior year. Stephanie still has questionable rhythm and tragic pitch—she loves to sing, which is why they have a karaoke machine in this house, but it’s one thing she will admit she doesn’t have much of a gift for—but there’s a reason Nik majored in music at The University of Texas, and his voice has come a long way.

Somehow, this deliberate throwback to a memory that was never anything but happy seems different than what Aaron has just done. He sits on the sofa, flanked by Alex and Jasmine, hating them both a little for participating in it even while he smiles. Nik dances—how can you not, with this song—but he still watches Aaron, gives him a little head-tilt during the chorus, and it’s charming and devastating and infuriating.

Jasmine leans to murmur, “Oh, I see how it is.”

“Oh, shut up.”

You might not be desperate, but I’m not sure about him. He’s coming hard, baby.”

 

Sales Links:

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store.interludepress.com

 http://amzn.to/1JKIeWR

 

BFD_review
The LuckiestThe Luckiest by Mila McWarren

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

i really liked the story a lot. it read very much like a memoir/personal account of aaron’s life and it took me a few pages to get the hang of things but once i did, i liked the writing style very much. it also took a few minutes to get traction on the complete cast of characters, although the two most important are nik and aaron. and they are absolutely beautiful together.

nik seems like a typical musician – he was a bit more sentimental and emotionally open. you never have any guess how he feels and his feelings for aaron are so raw and real, you just absolutely feel them down to your soul. i’m betting he plays the guitar the same way…with total emotional investment and devotion. aaron is how i would picture a writer – a bit more reserved, hesitant to express his emotions verbally. he feels as deeply as nik but doesn’t wear those emotions on his sleeve like nik does. he was still carrying a bit of a chip on his shoulder and never quite got over the breakup that happened before college. there is a bit of pain to get through with these two but it’s definitely worth it for the love story you get from the pain.

i liked most of the other characters…with a couple of exceptions but i thought it was a great mix of personalities and an overall great story.

View all my reviews

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About the author:

Mila McWarren grew up in Texas, but has happily made her home on the East Coast for the last decade. In her day job she works as a social scientist and has spent the last 10 years developing her fiction writing online. She lives with her husband and their two kids. When she isn’t using working, writing, or hanging out with her family, she likes knitting and watching television, because they go together like peanut butter and chocolate, two of her other great loves.

qa-585x275We are excited to have Mila join us for a few questions today!

 

Q:  Where did you get the idea for ‘the luckiest’?  I’m guessing the Texas/East Coast part is personal 🙂

A:  That’s a very good guess. 🙂

The general conceit of the book, the ‘meeting up years later at a house, sparks fly’, is my own personal take on The Big Chill, which is a movie I must have seen 15 times before I was 20 years old. I was in London for a theatre trip, staying in a pair of flats with a large group of friends, and the feeling in those kitchens was so comfortable and warm. I just wanted to capture some of that, some of that easiness and intimacy, and that’s where this book came from.

Q:  On your twitter page, I see you mention creating more than 160 characters.  Who is your favorite?  Who was the most challenging? 

A:  Oh, this is a great question, in part because it makes me want to change my twitter bio. It’s a joke that is obviously a complete failure, a play on the fact that twitter bios can only be 160 characters long. Now I’m embarrassed.  (Whoops, we missed that! <sheepish grin>)

But let me pivot: this book has a pretty big cast itself, so let me talk about these guys. Nik and Aaron are wonderful characters, but I think my favorite has to be Alex. There is so much of me in that girl, and I think she’s really been intensely lucky – good friends, good partner. I have big plans and hopes for her, and I’m not quite resigned to her fictional status, I love her that much.

Q:  Do you have plans for your next book yet?  If so, anything you want to share with us yet?

A:  Not a single, solitary one. I’m not even stressing over it. I should probably feel worse about that, but the fact is that I have long believed in the value of just letting a part of my work life go fallow for a while. I have found that if I push too much in one direction for a while, I just get sort of dull and uninspired; I require long periods of rest. Like a field – if I grow one thing for too long, the soil has nothing left to give. For now, I’m rotating out into my work life, which is scientific and research-oriented, and it’s great to have so much energy to pour into it! I’m sure I’ll be back to fiction again, when those particular rows are overplowed and uninspired, so for now I’m just letting it ride.

Q: If you could travel anywhere in the world for research for a story, where would you go?

A:  I’ve gotten so lazy; I’d go back to London. I’ve been there so many times, but it’s a city I dearly love, and it’s got such a rich literary history of its own.

I feel ashamed of this, just so you know; I feel like I should want to travel farther, push out of my own little comfortable box a bit more. But London really is a wonderful city, and I always find something new every time I go back. Surely it has a story that only I am in a position to shake loose!

Q:   I see your kid is excited about ‘The Land of Stories’ release.  What was one of your favorite books/stories as a kid?

A:  I was a big reader as a kid – I started reading on my own when I was three, and my only sibling didn’t come along until I was five and even then she was pretty boring for a few years.

For some reason that I still don’t understand, I read a lot of really old children’s books, and they’re the ones that stick in my head the most now. I really loved Hitty, which was published in 1929 and was the story of a doll and her travels. I also loved The Five Little Peppers and How They Grew, which was from 1881 and told the story of a poor family. When I got a little bit older I fell in love with Trixie Belden, who started her publishing run in the 1940s.

I have no idea why this dirty little kid in Texas in the 1970s (I’m pretty sure we were all a little filthy in the 1970s, much more so than today’s kids) was so taken by more classic pieces of children’s literature, but I really was. And my kids won’t read any of them, even the newer Trixie Belden books. Ah, well; I’ll keep them for my own.

 

Where to find the author:

Twitter: @milamcwarren

Tumblr: milamcwarren.tumblr.com

Website:  www.milamcwarren.com

 

Goodreads Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25446714-the-luckiest

Publisher: Interlude Press

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Cover Artist: C.B. Messer

 

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Tour Dates & Stops: July 7 – July 20, 2015

7-Jul

Prism Book Alliance

Because Two Men Are Better Than One

Foxylutely Book Reviews

 

8-Jul

Book Reviews, Rants, and Raves

Nic Starr

Hearts on Fire

 

9-Jul

MM Good Book Reviews

Mikky’s World of Books

Scattered Thoughts & Rogue Words

 

10-Jul

Sinfully Addicted to All Male Romance

Inked Rainbow Reads

 

13-Jul

Wicked Faerie’s Tales and Reviews

Bike Book Reviews

 

14-Jul

Happily Ever Chapter

Amanda C. Stone

 

15-Jul

Bayou Book Junkie

BFD Book Blog

 

16-Jul

Velvet Panic

Chris McHart

Love Bytes

 

17-Jul

Vampires, Werewolves, and Fairies, Oh My

My Fiction Nook

Full Moon Dreaming

 

20-Jul

Molly Lolly

Multitasking Mommas

Divine Magazine

Rainbow Gold Reviews

 

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Rafflecopter Prize: One $25 Interlude Press gift card. Five e-book copies of ‘The Luckiest’

a Rafflecopter giveaway

 

 

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One Response to Blog Tour Stop including Excerpt, Review, Author Q&A and Giveaway – The Luckiest by Mila McWarren

  1. Mila McWarren says:

    Thanks for having me here! I still haven’t changed my twitter bio, but I’m still thinking about it. 😀

    This was a fun stop. If any readers have any questions about the book, I hope they’ll stop by to ask, and thanks again!