Hi guys, we have Riptide Publishing’s Vanessa North popping in to introduce Double Up, her newest release, to you all. Vanessa chats a bit about where Double Up came from and there’s a great giveaway where you can win an ace prize remember to leave a comment with your email address. Enjoy the post <3 ~Pixie~

 Double Up

by

Vanessa North

Knowing he’s loved can make any man fly.

Fifteen years ago, Ben Warren was a wakeboarding champion: king of big air, ballsy tricks, and boned grabs. Until a career-ending injury left him broken in ways he still has no hope of fixing. Now he takes his thrills where he can get them, and tries not to let life hurt too much.

Then Davis Fox arrives in Ben’s sporting goods store with a plan to get in touch with his estranged brother by competing in the annual wakeboarding double-up contest. The catch? He’s never ridden before. It’s crazy, but Ben’s a sucker for the guy’s sob story—and for his dimples, too—so he agrees to coach Davis.

Davis is everything Ben isn’t: successful, confident, and in love with life. And he wants Ben to love life—and him—too. But before Ben can embrace a future with Davis, he needs to remember how to hope.

Hi everyone! I’m Vanessa North, and I’m touring this week to talk about my new release, Double Up: how it got started, a scene that almost happened, and the sport of wakeboarding–how it influenced me, why I love it so much, and how it shaped the characters in the story.

Vanessa North – The Dark Side of Double Up 

The Dark Side of Double Up

When I first started writing Double Up, I had this idea to write a fluffy, porny short story set around a wakeboarding tournament.

It didn’t go exactly as planned.

Ben, as a character, introduced far more conflict than I could diffuse in twelve thousand words, and for that I’m grateful. But it meant digging deeper into his psyche than I’d ever planned. It meant facing down the kind of injury that could end the career of a young man.

In real life, on my own boat, we saw plenty of injury. I busted an ear drum and strained a muscle in my back, both of which set me back awhile. A good friend tore his ACL and stopped riding altogether. We watched the pros on TV and marveled at how their bodies seemed to defy the odds. I remember reading that one of the biggest names in wakeboarding suffered a fracture to her lumbar spine, but she recovered and continued to ride.

Ben suffered a similar injury—and while it didn’t paralyze his body, it did paralyze his career. Double Up takes place 15 years later, when he’s had time to let regret set in. When he’s had time to make mistakes, to grow older and to fear what might have been as much as he laments what never was.

It’s not always easy going, but he does get his happy ever after, in spite of his injuries and his fears. Love conquering all, after all.

About Vanessa

Author of over a dozen novels, novellas, and short stories, Vanessa North delights in giving happy-ever-afters to characters who don’t think they deserve them. Relentless curiosity led her to take up knitting and run a few marathons “just to see if she could.” She started writing for the same reason. Her very patient husband pretends not to notice when her hobbies take over the house. Living and writing in Northwest Georgia, she finds her attempts to keep a quiet home are frequently thwarted by twin boy-children and a very, very large dog.

Connect with Vanessa:

Website: com

Facebook profile page: com/AuthorVanessaNorth

Twitter: @VanessaNWrites

Goodreads: com/VanessaNorth 

Giveaway!

Join me on the tour and leave a comment on this post to enter the giveaway for a $15 Riptide Gift Card! Be sure to include your email address in the comment so that I can contact you if you win! I’ll be drawing the winner at the end of the blog tour.

Review

Title: Double Up

Author: Vanessa North

Genre: Contemporary

Length: Novella (139pgs)

ISBN: 978-1-62649-159-5

Publisher: Riptide Publishing (25^th August 2014)

Heat Level: Moderate – Explicit

Heart Rating: ♥♥♥♥ 4 Hearts

Reviewer: Pixie

Blurb: Knowing he’s loved can make any man fly.

Fifteen years ago, Ben Warren was a wakeboarding champion: king of big air, ballsy tricks, and boned grabs. Until a career-ending injury left him broken in ways he still has no hope of fixing. Now he takes his thrills where he can get them, and tries not to let life hurt too much.

Then Davis Fox arrives in Ben’s sporting goods store with a plan to get in touch with his estranged brother by competing in the annual wakeboarding double-up contest. The catch? He’s never ridden before. It’s crazy, but Ben’s a sucker for the guy’s sob story—and for his dimples, too—so he agrees to coach Davis.

Davis is everything Ben isn’t: successful, confident, and in love with life. And he wants Ben to love life—and him—too. But before Ben can embrace a future with Davis, he needs to remember how to hope.

Purchase Link: http://riptidepublishing.com/titles/double-up

Review: Ben was a wakeboarding champion until an injury leaves him unable to compete, now he gets his thrills in small doses and runs a wakeboarding store. Davis wants to be close with his estranged little brother and has entered the wakeboarding double-up contest, but now he needs lessons and who best to teach him then a former wakeboarding champion. Davis is everything that Ben isn’t but the attraction between them is immediate, but can Ben grab on to a future with the past still lingering in his mind?

Hmmm now this was a story that surprised me, I’m not a great fan of sports but Vanessa North makes wakeboarding sound like a sport I’d like to watch… what you thought I’d say ‘try’… yeah I don’t think so LOL. Ben suffered from a horrible accident when he didn’t land a trick and now fifteen years later he still suffers, not just physically but mentally as well. Davis needs some way to spend time with his little brother and the only thing he can think of is by wakeboarding, and when he approaches Ben he discovers it might just be the best idea that he has ever had.

I found this story grabbed me early on, it’s all written from Ben’s perspective and we get hints that he is hiding something about his injury and recovery so it keeps our attention as we wait to discover what he is keeping from Davis. Davis is amazing with his idea for spending time with his brother, and the way that he opens his heart to Ben. While I’d love to say that Ben and Davis’ relationship is all smooth sailing I can’t because they enter choppy waters when Davis discovers what Ben hid from him (look at me working sea quotes into the review *g*). Ben has to work through his fears and do it for the right reason, Davis has to realise it isn’t about him and accept Ben’s choices and Eddie (Ben’s best friend and boss) is fantastic as he is there to lend a shoulder to lean on.

This is a wonderfully written story where two men find love, split up and reunite in a short amount of time, we see the personal struggles and demons of the men and we see the friendships that have stood the length of time and troubles. Vanessa North plunges her personal knowledge into this story and makes it come alive, throwing us into the world of wakeboarding and making it interesting. The sexually relations between Ben and Davis gets you panting and the whole story is a pleasure to read.

I recommend this to those who love men who have gone through hell and come out the other side battered but standing tall, men who dare to take a chance on love and the risks involved, men who steam up the sheets (or bear rug) with their passion and a fantastic happy ending.