Name Before the Masses Tour & Giveaway - Negotiating Skills by Laurel Cremant

Welcome to my stop on Laurel Cremant's Negotiating Skills Name Before the Masses Tour.  Please make sure to leave a comment or question below to let Laurel know you stopped by.  Your comment will also enter you in Laurel's Tour Wide Giveaway where she'll be awarding either one $10 Amazon Gift Card, one 4GB USB drive or an "I Heart Dr. Who" mug to three randomly drawn commenters. (US ONLY)
You can follow all of her tour stops here, the more often you comment, the better your odds of winning. 

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Guest Blog Post - Interracial Romance - "You've Come A Long Way Baby" by Laurel Cremant

When I was in high school and college I could barely find any interracial romance books. That didn’t keep me from reading any of the mainstream romance though. I love romance period, but have to admit that I wanted to read about characters more like myself. Thankfully, nowadays I know that no matter what bookseller I go to (whether online or brick and mortar) I will find my favorite interracial books and authors. I love that! And let me clarify, that by interracial romance I’m referring to all races. It’s no secret that the black/white interracial romances have received a huge boost in readership over the last few years, but I love seeing more and more books with main characters of all racial backgrounds.

However, one of my biggest pet peeves when interracial romances finally became more mainstream was the fact that many writers made race a third character in the romance. Unless it’s an historical romance that really tends to annoy me. There are so many other things that can be used as conflict and frankly using race (I think) is a cop out, especially during a time when interracial couples are no longer a rare thing. All of that being said yes, the genre has indeed come a long way :).

Not too long ago it was more than a little difficult for authors with interracial main characters to even get published, but through strong readership support the genre is finally being recognized. Readers want to be able to connect with the characters and stories in the books they read, so the age of monotone racial characters is slowly fading away. I myself am in an interracial marriage and it makes my heart happy to know that if I have children, they won’t have dig around and search for characters that look like them.

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Negotiating Skills

by Laurel Cremant

Published by Laurel Cremant

Release Date: August 18, 2012

ISBN: 978-0985823-40-5

ASIN: B00905DHEC

Length: 78 Pages

Words : 23,437

Buy Links: 

Amazon   Barnes & Noble   All Romance eBooks     

Kobo   Smashwords   LuLu

Blurb: 

Witnessing a private act leads to some interesting negotiations. Software programmer Veronica James is struggling to make her new business a success. After finally landing a major account, she’s at risk of losing it all when she catches her new client Victor Rossi in a very compromising position. 

In an effort to regain the upper hand, Rossi insists on some sexy and compromising concessions from her that have Veronica reconsidering her hard fast rule of not mixing business with pleasure.

Excerpt: 

When they were all gone she counted to ten, glanced at Rossi’s smirking face, and counted to ten one more time before dropping her hand to her lap grasping his meandering hand in a tight grip.

“I’m not drunk,” she said, wincing only slightly when she heard the slight slurring of her words.

Victor raised a dark eyebrow at her slurred declaration and made no move towards removing his hand from beneath her skirt. 

“In the past few hours I’ve seen you put enough liquor away to put any frat boy to shame,” he said.

“Whether you believe it or not, you’re drunk,” he continued not bothering to hide his smirk.

“Well if that’s the case, wouldn’t you consider this taking advantage of me,” she said glaring at him and then glancing pointedly down at her lap. 

“Hmm, you have a point there,” he said. He leaned forward and placed a finger from his free hand, beneath her chin, drawing her head up to meet his gaze.

“I tell you what,” he said. “I’ll trade you for it.”

“Trade me? There’s no trade or negotiation here,” she said glaring at him.

“Come on Veronica, where’s the fun in that,” he said chuckling softly.

“How about a friendly drinking game at the very least or a game of Truth or Dare instead” he asked.

“Are you on drugs,” asked Veronica scathingly, “What part of your tiny little brain thinks I want to be here right now?”

“Okay Truth or Dare it is. I’ll go first. I choose dare,” he said ignoring Veronica’s cutting remark.

“How about you just move your hand and I decide not rip you a new ass hole,” she seethed.

“Okay,” said Ross, smiling softly at her.

Veronica felt Rossi’s hand flex underneath her skirt. She released her grip on him to allow his hand to withdraw.

“Dare accepted,” he said.

Veronica saw a gleam brighten his eyes and before she had a chance to voice a protest, she felt his unhindered hand plunge forward.

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AUTHOR Bio and Links:



Laurel is a romance author, who like most writers loves to read. Her first love (pun intended) has always been romance. From the sappy YA romance novel to the more risqué erotica novels, Laurel is a sucker for a good love story.

Laurel writes paranormal and contemporary romance and is a self proclaimed, out of the closet nerd. She admits that she can't seem to avoid adding a bit of "nerdology" or "geek-dom" to all of her books. Living in Miami, she also admits that she can't seem to avoid giving her heroines gorgeous shoes, "In Miami, we worship everything strappy, open toed and just plain hot!"

AUTHOR WEBSITE & LINKS: 
www.LaurelCremant.com
https://twitter.com/LaurelCremant 

http://www.facebook.com/LaurelCremant

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 Review

With just the right amount of sexual and emotional heat, Laurel Cremant's Negotiating Skills makes for a hot and very satisfying afternoon delight.  A multicultural romance with well developed characters, Ms. Cremant's story is an interesting twist on the age old problem of what to do when you are both physically and emotionally attracted to the person who's the boss.  Snappy dialogue and just a touch of humor make this an enjoyable and page turning book. 

Smart, beautiful and a talented programmer, Veronica James has moved to Miami to begin her own business.  Determined to succeed, she's interested in snagging a large client to both stabilize her income and be a drawing card for other large businesses.  Finding out Victor Rossi's company needs the kind of help she's willing to offer is a dream come true......finding the man personally attractive and desirable is an unwanted distraction.  

Wealthy and extremely successful, Victor Rossi is used to getting things his way.  When an outside contractor leaves his company with a half done project, he's in need of outside assistance.  Being approached by a new and upcoming company is to be expected......falling in lust with it's owner....not so much....especially when she makes it clear she's not interested in mixing business and pleasure.

What begins as a simple business negotiation between Veronica and Victor soon becomes much more when their emotions and bodies want to get involved.  While this is a fairly short and rapidly paced story, I felt Ms. Cremant did an excellent job letting us get to know her characters and developing their emotions towards each other.  While neither character is looking for a relationship, it soon becomes clear they're the perfect match for each other - both in the boardroom and in the bedroom.

Will Veronica and Victor negotiate more than just business?  Will they get the HEA they both really need?  You'll have to read Negotiating Skills to find out.  I really enjoyed it and I think you will too.

My Rating:  4.5 out of 5 Stars 

FTC Disclosure:  The review site purchased the copy of the book reviewed.  No financial remuneration was exchanged.

Please make sure to leave a comment or question below to let Laurel know you stopped by.  Your comment will also enter you in Laurel's Tour Wide Giveaway where she'll be awarding either one $10 Amazon Gift Card, one 4GB USB drive or an "I Heart Dr. Who" mug to three randomly drawn commenters. (US ONLY)
You can follow all of her tour stops here, the more often you comment, the better your odds of winning.