You know how you meet some people and feel an almost instant connection? Even if it’s only over Twitter? Well, I can’t speak for her, but that’s how I felt about Lia Riley. She was side-splitting in 140 characters, so I figured she’d slay me in a full length novel. And I was right! I’ve just started her Australian-set debut, UPSIDE DOWN, and she’s causing me problems. I have a deadline, gosh darn it! I need to set this book aside, but I can’t! She will split your sides laughing, but she’ll also pulverize your heart with the vulnerability of her characters. The vividity of her language balanced with a real-voice snarkiness keeps the pages on auto-turn. We aren’t our books, but the same authenticity I always sense in Lia is there in her characters, laid to bare in every page. And it connects us. It engages us. We want them not just to find a happily ever after, but to GROW. To THRIVE. To LEARN. When I call her a remarkable, unique voice in New Adult romance, it is not hyperbole. It’s the truth.
I’ve included an excerpt from her debut so you can see for yourself! And an Australian-themed GIVEAWAY! Good googly moogly, I’ve got treats for you!
UPSIDE DOWN by Lia Riley
A half hour later we are suited up, dorked out in snorkels and fins.
I take her hand. “You ready?”
“How cold is the water again?”
“Warmer than the Arctic.”
“That’s not a glowing recommendation.” She squeezes my hand. “Okay, let’s do this, before I change my mind.”
“One, two, three.” She leaps with me and we plunge off the pier. The water is frigid, creating the perfect habitat for the hundreds of marine species surrounding us. The pier’s not deep, only five or six meters, ideal conditions to get up close and personal with the trevally, blue devils, zebra fish, rays, and there—I tap Talia on the shoulder and point.
A weedy sea dragon swims toward us, flitting through the kelp to keep camouflaged. The long orange-red body resembles a seahorse except for the leaflike appendages and short spikes lining its back.
We tread together, paddling only when necessary to maintain our position against the current. Here, in this strange world, time slows, life is diluted to the rhythm of tide and waves. I reach out and take Talia’s hand, wishing for an irrational second to sprout gills and swim with her down to the ocean’s deep, indigo places. Find a mermaid kingdom and hide from the world forever. The sea dragon studies us for a long moment before darting into the shadows.
Talia flicks the snorkel from her mouth. “Oh my God.” Her eyes are almost as wide as her smile. “That was incredible. Mystical almost.”
“Magic.” I stroke closer to her, closing our distance, unable to resist her happy glow. Talia’s hair plasters to her cheeks; she’s enchanting, a sea witch who’s cast a spell on me. Her back hits one of the pilings, and we’re beneath the pier, shielded from the tourists promenading overhead, with dragons lurking beneath our fins. I kiss her hard, openmouthed, and don’t hold back the groan when her tongue flicks over mine, still a little shy.
I drop my hands below her arms to brace her, keep her well above the low sets gently rolling by to crash onshore. She wiggles closer and I silently curse our wet suits keeping us from true skin-to-skin contact. Talia’s bikini is skimpy and black, exactly how I like a girl’s suit. I’d love to pull the string in the back, watch as the top slowly slides off. Since the three-inch neoprene renders that fantasy impossible, I use my mouth to cover every inch of her exposed neck, her high cheekbones, her brow, each of the six freckles dappling the tip of her nose.
“Am I your girlfriend?” Talia sounds offhand, but her eyes tell me she’s dead serious.
“Girlfriend?” The word sends a jolt down my spine. “Well…you’re a girl and a friend.”
“So, no, then?” Her smile vanishes. “I mean, are we seeing each other, seeing other people?”
“Do you want to see other people?”
And if so, who? Tell me so I can beat the shit out of them if they look at you sideways.
“Do you?” Her downturned lips twitch in the corner. She struggles to smile, and to watch that effort makes me feel helpless. I don’t want to expose myself, but fuck if I’ll hurt her.
“Since I’ve seen you, Talia”—I pause, clearing my throat—“it’s been pretty fucking impossible to see anyone else.”
Australian-Themed Giveaway!!!
