Thank you for joining me on the Blog Tour for Brake Failure by Alison Brodie. I have a lovely guest post from Alison Brodie for you today, along with a great giveaway to enter!
I previously reviewed Brake Failure and it really is brilliant. If you get chance you can take a look at my review here.
Blurb:
Brake
Failure is a contemporary romance with humour, suspense and a
kick-ass heroine. The story is set in one of the most
fascinating periods of America's history: the months leading up
to Y2K "melt-down."
"Is
it too late to tell him you love him when you're looking down the
barrel of his gun?"
Ruby
Mortimer-Smyth is an English debutante, destined for Ladies Day at
Ascot and taking tea at The Savoy. She knows the etiquette for every
occasion and her soufflés NEVER collapse.
She
is in control of her life, tightly in control. Until fate dumps
her down in … Kansas.
Ruby
believes that life is like a car; common-sense keeps it on the road,
passion sends it into a ditch. What she doesn't know is, she's on a
collision course with Sheriff Hank Gephart.
Sheriff Hank Gephart can judge a person. Miss Mortimer-Smyth might act like the Duchess of England but just under the surface there's something bubbling, ready to explode. She's reckless, and she's heading for brake failure. And he's not thinking about her car.
With the Millennium approaching, Ruby gets caught up in the Y2K hysteria. She joins a group of Survivalists, who give her a gun and advise her to stockpile basic essentials, such as gasoline and water-purifying tablets. So she bulk-buys Perrier, Gentleman's Relish and macaroons.
Sheriff Hank Gephart can judge a person. Miss Mortimer-Smyth might act like the Duchess of England but just under the surface there's something bubbling, ready to explode. She's reckless, and she's heading for brake failure. And he's not thinking about her car.
With the Millennium approaching, Ruby gets caught up in the Y2K hysteria. She joins a group of Survivalists, who give her a gun and advise her to stockpile basic essentials, such as gasoline and water-purifying tablets. So she bulk-buys Perrier, Gentleman's Relish and macaroons.
Ruby,
far from home, is making Unsuitable Friends and "finding
herself" for the first time. She falls in with a gang of
Hells Angels and falls foul of the law. At every turn, she
comes up hard against Sheriff Hank Gephart, whose blue eyes seem to
look deep into her soul. She desperately wants him but knows
she can never have him.
She's
angry at the emotions he arouses in her. Pushed to her limit,
she bursts from her emotional straightjacket.
As the clock strikes midnight of the new Millennium, she's on a freight train with three million dollars, a bottle of Wild Turkey and a smoking gun.
As the clock strikes midnight of the new Millennium, she's on a freight train with three million dollars, a bottle of Wild Turkey and a smoking gun.
What
happened to Miss Prim-and-Proper? And why did she shoot
Mr Right?
Note:
Alison Brodie wrote this story from first-hand experience. She
lived in
Kansas during this time and was stunned by the hysteria, unnerved
that the US government was spending $150 billion preparing for
Armageddon. As Lionel Shriver says in her novel, We Have To
Talk About Kevin: “1999, a year widely mooted beforehand as
the end of the world.”
Buy Links
==========================
Guest Post by Alison Brodie
MY
INSPIRATION FOR BRAKE FAILURE
Brake Failure is
a romance set in Kansas during the months leading up to Y2K
“meltdown.” It was so easy to write because most of everything
that happened in the book happened to me. I guess you could call it
a memoir.
The feisty
heroine came fully formed in my mind, along with her name, Ruby. So
did her nemesis, Sheriff Hank Gephart. I know I shouldn’t admit
this but - the other characters I took from real life.
Like me, Ruby
wanted to live in Paris, but ended up in Kansas City. Like me, she
was devastated. “The City of Lovers versus the City of Leftovers.”
That’s how I initially thought of Kansas. How wrong I was!
It really is one
of the most cultured places I have been to. It has more working
fountains than any other city on the planet. I’m not talking about
a trickle of water coming out of a spout, I am talking about huge,
magnificent cascades crashing down on enormous prancing stone horses.
I live in France
now – “the cuisine capital of the world” – but I have never
had as juicy and tender a steak as I had in Ruth Chris’s Steak
House. And the BBQs! OMG…!
Anyway …
*mopping the saliva off my keyboard* … I assumed Kansas was flat;
instead it rolls and undulates with hidden sandy coves and vast
sparkling lakes. Shawnee Mission Lake was where Sheriff Hank Gephart
caught Ruby in only a pair of silky briefs and a shrivelled bikini
top. (She was wearing them, not Hank).
I didn’t
transform Ruby from Miss Prim-and-Proper to Hell-Hound. She did it
herself. Well, it was Hank. He brought emotions up in her she
couldn’t handle. I guess she was angry at him for the power he had
over her. She wanted to stay in her “safe” marriage; to be in
control; but by the end of the book she totally goes off the rails.
The final – and
major – event in the book actually happened. (I won’t give away
the plot). To prove it, I still have The Kansas City Star newspaper
from 2 Jan, 2001.
I researched the history of Kansas to give some background to Brake
Failure. Fascinating stuff! It was called Queen of the Cow Towns
where Wyatt Earp hung out. It was from here the early settlers
trekked across America to forge new lives. I thought of all those
women who set off on the Santa Fe Trail carrying babies, surrounded
by young children … going into the unknown…
I certainly
didn’t have to suffer deprivation like those early settlers. I had
GADGETS: an icemaker in the fridge (never heard of in England at the
time), a trash compactor (I loved shoving stuff down in to hear the
noises it would make) and Coca Cola coming out of a tap!
So what was the
Good, the Bad and the Ugly about Kansas?
The Good has to
be the handsome cowboy-types with the fabulous Kansas accent. The
Bad was the tornado that hopped over our house and demolished the
Toyota garage. And the Ugly? Well, it has to be Mr Schoettler
waking me up with the cock …
?? You have to
read the book.
==========================
About Alison
Brodie:
Alison Brodie is a Scot, with French Huguenot ancestors on her mother’s
side. Alison was a photographic model for a wide range of products,
such as Ducatti motorbikes and 7Up. She was also the vampire in the
Schweppes commercial.
A disastrous
modelling assignment in the Scottish Highlands gave Alison an idea
for her first romance novel, Face to Face. It was taken up by Dinah
Wiener, the first agent Alison sent it to. Three weeks later, Alison
signed a two-book deal with Hodder & Stoughton. Subsequently,
Face to Face was published in English, German and Dutch. “Vain,
but wildly funny leading lady.” -Scottish Daily Mail. It was also
chosen as Good Housekeeping’s “Pick of the Paperbacks.”
Unfortunately,
Alison then suffered from Second-Book Syndrome. The publisher’s
deadline loomed but Alison couldn’t think of a story! She found
the whole experience a nightmare; and this is why she cautions
first-time authors not to sign a multi-book deal unless they are
prepared!
Alison lived in
Kansas for two years. She loved the people, their friendliness, the
history and the BBQs! Now, she lives in Biarritz, France with her
rescue mutt, Bayley.
“Proof of her
genius in writing fiction…Excellent.” –San Francisco Book
Review.
Twitter:
https://twitter.com/alisonbrodie2
Website:
http://alisonbrodiebooks.com
Facebook Page:
https://www.facebook.com/AlisonBrodieAuthor/
Pinterest: https://fr.pinterest.com/a_brodie/
Giveaway
Thank you, Rae, for this Blog Post and Giveaway for my romcom, Brake Failure. Also a HUGE thank you for your great 5-star review on Amazon and Goodreads.
ReplyDeleteI am pleased you liked the feisty clashes and sizzling chemistry between Ruby and Hank! xx