Bowerbirds by Ada Maria Soto Blog Tour, Interview, Excerpt, Review & Giveaway!

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Hi guys, we have Ada Maria Soto stopping by today with her newest release Bowerbirds, we have a short interview with Ada, there’s a great excerpt, a fantastic giveaway and Aerin’s review, so enjoy the post and click that rafflecopter link <3 ~Pixie~

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Bowerbirds

(Nested Hearts 02)
by

Ada Maria Soto

Two very different men have a chance at happiness, but only if they can let go of their painful pasts and allow love to take precedence.

After spending his teens and twenties raising his son, James Maron is now dating Gabriel Juarez, the wealthy and sophisticated CFO of the TechPrim technology empire. But after a life of proudly holding his head above the poverty line with the ethos of work, priorities, responsibility, and thrift, he is not looking for a Sugar Daddy, he does not need to be rescued, and Gabe’s wealth is as terrifying as feeling love for the first time.

Gabe has never been good at balancing his high pressure job with his relationships. Money usually clears most of the bumps, and when a boyfriend walks away, Gabe figures it’s for a good reason. But James isn’t like other boyfriends. He doesn’t want Gabe’s money for one, and if Gabe wants to keep his relationship together he will have to finally face the ghosts of his own past and reconsider his priorities.

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Interview

Today I’m very lucky to be interviewing Ada Maria Soto author of Bowerbirds.  Hi Ada, thank you for agreeing to this interview. Tell us a little about yourself, your background, and your current book.

Hi, it’s nice to be here.  I’m Ada.  I’m a born and raised Californian who has been living in New Zealand for the last decade.  I studied theater, film, and television and worked a little in each.  Currently I’m an almost full time mom to a two year old and I write when I can.  In my tiny scraps of free time I do things like knit and make jam.  I’m also a sports fan but I’m not great at picking winning teams to support.

Bowerbirds picks up pretty much right where Empty Nests left off.  James and Gabe are properly together now but they still come from very different worlds each of which brings its own baggage.  Gabe is very much a fixer and wants to ‘fix’ James’s life to make up for how busy he is with work.  James is very proud and does not want or need a sugar daddy to fix anything.  He’s also terrified at the very idea of being in love since it’s something he’s never done before.

List five of your favorite TV shows (past or present) and tell us what you loved about them.

M*A*S*H – I was an insomniac as a child.  My father swears that as a baby I’d never fall asleep before the Jonny Carson Monologue.  As I got older my parents gave up trying to get me to sleep.  The rule just became that I couldn’t wake them up and I wasn’t allowed to be grumpy in the morning.  I mostly read but if I didn’t want to do that I’d sneak out and watch MASH reruns, 11:30pm, Monday to Friday on FOX channel 2.  I think it had a lot of effect on my sense of humor and my overall world view.  I’m pretty sure I’ve seen every episode at least once.  Some are better than others.  Some are forgettable and some stick forever but I don’t think they ever once phoned it in.

Life on Mars – I’m talking about the original UK version.  Did you see this?  Did you see the glory that is this show?  The ultimate ‘from two different worlds’ buddy cop show, the different worlds being 2006 and 1973.  Just weird enough to grab attention, not so weird as to tune viewers out, and every single piece of casting was brilliant.  Every second of film was beautiful.

Numb3rs – I was a sucker for the procedural cop show until recently.  I know they are supposed to be reasonably formulaic, that’s sort of the point, but the characters have lately become formulaic in a not good way.  It seems there always has to be one male character on the team who’s an asshole.  A tough female character with a horrible tragic past.  If there is a really smart character there has to be something “wrong” with them that keeps them separated from the rest of the team and they are ignored until all other options have been tried.  And the boss character never cracks a smile.  Numb3rs didn’t do this.  The women were all tough without being broken.  The guys were friendly and respectful.  The ‘nerds’ were listened to, respected, and not played as characterchures. And out of 118 episodes they only once didn’t have a search warrant before going into a situation and the writers made a point of stating that and stating that there would probably be fallout from it.

Red Dwarf – I’ve written a lengthy post on my own blog about my relationship with this show.  The humor is crude, the effects were bad, and it only made US television because the schedulers at KTEH PBS were giant nerds in the 90’s.  Something about it just made me happy though.  If it had been a drama about the last human alive it would have been a bleak, existential mess.  Instead you get moments like this.

Lister: You said yourself. I can’t stop it. Let’s get this over with. [grabs a pipe]

Rimmer: Lister, what’s that for?

Lister: I’m going out as I came in, screaming and kicking.

Rimmer: You can’t just whack Death on the head!

Lister: If he comes near me, I’m gonna rip his nipples off!

Babylon 5 – I grew up on Star Trek and I loved it and I always will but for as nice and shiny a future as Star Trek presented, especially in The Next Generation, it was always a bit hard to recognize the humans as human.  For as glorious a vision as it was for a grumpy teenager it was hard to believe it would ever come about.  Babylon 5 was different, humans were still human on every level.  There was still war, religion, pizza, alcoholics, the post office, paperwork, bisexual Jewish Russians, and porn.  It wasn’t a clean or pretty future but an exceedingly well written and believable one.

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Excerpt

FOR THE millionth time, a load of baseball gear left by the apartment door nearly sent James tumbling. It was one of the very few things he would not miss when Dylan left for college. He checked his watch and saw it was pushing five in the afternoon. He could technically still make it to the laundromat and get a couple of loads through, but the place filled up quick after five and it became difficult to get the good machines. Ada Maria Soto

Dylan came out of his room, his hair sticking up at odd angles from his postpractice shower. “Hey, Dad. I was starting to worry. How did the concert go last night?”

As a last-second surprise, Gabe had gotten them tickets to the California Honeydrops at the Fillmore. After a couple glasses of wine, Gabe had even talked him into dancing. “It was good. Stop leaving your gear by the door.”

“Good?” Dylan tried for a scolding look, but there was too much humor in his eyes. “No, just good does not end with you coming home… um… twenty-one hours later than expected.”

Dylan had been nagging him about getting a social life and a boyfriend for years, but James hadn’t realized he would become so nosy about it once it happened.

You’d think he was the parent here. “The concert ran a bit late, and we got a room in the city.” Then they decided not to leave that room until a few hours after the normal checkout time, followed by a late lunch.

“Which hotel?”

“Does it matter?” James asked as he picked up Dylan’s baseball gear.

“It might.”

“The Saint Francis,” James muttered, deciding to risk a Monday wash.

“Again? Well, here’s to scoring a sugar daddy.”

“What?” James froze for a second as he tucked a baseball bat under his arm.

Dylan headed for the kitchen and rummaged around the fridge. “I mean, a guy with a steady job is a good thing these days, but one who can score you concert tickets and hotel suites on a whim is a pretty sweet deal.” He pulled an apple from the veggie bin.

“He’s not—”

James felt his phone buzz in his pocket. He juggled around the gear until he could pull it out and saw he had missed a call ten minutes earlier.

“He’s not what?

“Hi. It’s me. Stuck in traffic. Seriously, traffic on a Sunday. I think the Niners are playing or something. Don’t worry, I’m on the hands-free setup. Just wanted to say I had a really nice time this weekend. The concert was a lot of fun. The other activities were fun too. Don’t know how busy I’m going to be this week, but I’d love to be able to come up there for lunch or dinner. Catch a movie or something. Oh, Tamyra left me nine messages, the last one informing me that I’m getting ‘Genie in a Bottle’ for my new ringtone. I’m hoping I can pass it off as a postmodern ironic statement or something. Oh look. Traffic is moving. Well, I’ll talk to you later. Drive carefully. Bye.” Bowerbirds

James kept the phone to his ear even after the message ended. Dylan stared at him, one eyebrow raised. He had a funny feeling Dylan practiced that look in the mirror. James hung up the phone. “You know what? My love life is none of your business.”

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About Ada Maria

Ada Maria Soto is a born and raised Californian, Mexican-American/WASP, currently living as an expat in New Zealand. She got her Bachelor’s degree in Theater Directing at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, which she attended in a fit of stubbornness. She got a Master’s degree in Film and TV Producing from the University of Auckland in New Zealand which she applied to on a manic whim. Nine years later she’s still in Auckland with a partner, kid, and mortgage.

She has dysgraphia and phonological dyslexia which can lead to some interesting typos.

She is a sports fan dedicated to the Oakland A’s, San Jose Sharks, Auckland Blues, USA Eagles, New Zealand All Blacks, New Zealand Black Caps, and the Chennai Super Kings.

Where to find the author:

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Giveaway!

Win an e-copy of ‘Bowerbirds’!

(Just click the link below)

Ada Maria Soto Rafflecopter giveaway!

(Ends 21st October 2015)
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Review

BowerbirdsLGTitle: Bowerbirds

Series: Nested Hearts, #2

Author: Ada Maria Soto

Genre: Contemporary

Length: Novel (184 pages)

ISBN: 978-1-63476-187-1

Publisher: Dreamspinner Press (August 26th 2015)

Heat Level: Low/Moderate

Heart Rating: ♥♥♥ 3 Hearts

Reviewer: Aerin

Blurb: Two very different men have a chance at happiness, but only if they can let go of their painful pasts and allow love to take precedence.

After spending his teens and twenties raising his son, James Maron is now dating Gabriel Juarez, the wealthy and sophisticated CFO of the TechPrim technology empire. But after a life of proudly holding his head above the poverty line with the ethos of work, priorities, responsibility, and thrift, he is not looking for a Sugar Daddy, he does not need to be rescued, and Gabe’s wealth is as terrifying as feeling love for the first time.

Gabe has never been good at balancing his high-pressure job with his relationships. Money usually clears most of the bumps, and when a boyfriend walks away, Gabe figures it’s for a good reason. But James isn’t like other boyfriends. He doesn’t want Gabe’s money for one, and if Gabe wants to keep his relationship together, he will have to finally face the ghosts of his own past and reconsider his priorities.

Product Link: Dreamspinner Press | Amazon UK | Amazon US

Review: This is the second book in the Nested Hearts series and the books need to be read in order, as trying to read this one as a standalone will make no sense.

I liked this a bit less than book one, so I’ll say this is a good solid 3 stars. If you’re looking for a book with sex steamy enough to set your kindle on fire, keep moving; this isn’t one of those books.

Bowerbirds picks up exactly where Empty Nests left off, and while I was hoping more progress will be made in the sex department, that part of Gabe’s and James’s relationship was slow going. I did enjoy seeing their relationship progress and become more serious. Although James’s insecurities and penny-pinching tendencies were just as annoying in this book as they were in the previous one.

As much as I hoped he was going to get over his virginal mind-set and become a sexy creature, it didn’t happen. In fact, I’d go as far as to say James is why I can’t say I loved this book. He was so stubborn when it came to allowing Gabe to buy presents for him, and his constant pride getting in the way of things pissed me off.

Gabe is still as sexy as he was in the first book, and I liked him just as much this time around. I loved how serious he was about his relationship with James and how focused he was on improving his relationship with Dylan for James’s sake.

I went crazy for the whole time Gabe and Dylan spent time mini golfing and bonding. I think that was my favorite part of the whole book, because these two are my favorite characters.

Dylan is an amazing son and I loved him to pieces. I can’t wait for the next book, because I have a feeling his ankle injury is going to affect his scholarship, and Gabe will step in to help. I really hope James stops being an idiot and gets over his pride, because it’s about time.

And please, may I ask for some steamy sex? It’s not too much to ask for, is it?

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