Hi guys! We have Liam Livings popping in today with his new release Kicking Up My Heels …In Heels, we have a great excerpt and a brilliant $10 NineStar GC giveaway so check out the post and enter the giveaway! ❤ ~Pixie~
Kicking Up My Heels …In Heels
(Kev 03)
by
Liam Livings
It’s the year 2000 and Kev’s twenty. He’s a proper grown up now. Maybe. He knows what he’s doing. And what he’s doing isn’t what he wants to be doing. He’s working in TK Maxx and instead he wants to be singing and dancing and bantering and laughing on stage. He. Loves. It. And they pay him too!
Kev’s continued search for his Prince Charming leads him to look in all the wrong places for all the wrong men and, inevitably, gets him in something of a pickle: physically, emotionally, and medically too.
But his mum and friend Tony are there to help pick up the pieces when it all falls apart as it so often does with Kev.
Optimism, a plan, and being really good at performing on stage, drive Kev forward. After all, he’s been performing off stage all his life.
Contains gay pride marches, multiple incidents of alcohol-induced idiocy, friends and family who stick with you no matter what you do, a lot of showtunes and camp humour, and a complete absence of smartphones and social media. He’s Kev, fly him.
Hi guys! We have Liam Livings popping in today with his new release Unlocking the Doctor’s Heart, we have a great excerpt and a brilliant $10 NineStar GC giveaway so check out the post and enter the giveaway! ❤ ~Pixie~
Unlocking the Doctor’s Heart
by
Liam Livings
Headstrong nurse Davie Penrose has moved to London from a small village in Cornwall to start work in the children’s transplant ward. He left to progress his career, but also to escape the painful memories of his ex-boyfriend, a workaholic doctor.
Ambitious Doctor Leo Westbury is in charge of a ward for now, but he has plans to be a medical director soon. Making use of his charm and avoiding commitment due to a painful past, he enjoys temporary relationships with male student nurses.
Clashing over a request to look around the ward before he starts work, Davie thinks Leo pompous, while Leo finds Davie bossy. Becoming friends over a shared passion for helping children on their transplant wards, they get closer through the inevitable ups and downs of caring for sick children. Physical attraction pulls them together; their pasts push them apart.
Both damaged and hurt in different ways, they might just find their happy ever after together.
Hi guys! We have Liam Livings popping in today with his new release Rocky Road of Love …In Heels, we have a great excerpt and a brilliant $10 NineStar GC giveaway so check out the post and enter the giveaway! ❤ ~Pixie~
Rocky Road of Love…in Heels
(Kev 02)
by
Liam Livings
Still single, despite his best efforts, Kev is a gay cross-dressing teenager, searching for love in the late nineties in Wiltshire. He may not know whether to put Yours Sincerely or Yours Faithfully at the end of a letter, but he sure can belt out a show tune in a pair of heels and a frock.
Looking after his worrying mum, who refuses to slow down despite having a funny turn and ending up in hospital, Kev’s working in a shop to support the household now his dad has left. Irreconcilable differences. His dad said Kev needed fixing and Kev and his mum thought he was perfect as he is.
Tony, his best friend and Human League fan agrees, although he thinks Kev’s a chaotic big-hearted, trusting mess. But he’s Tony’s mess and they’re there for each other through useless boyfriends, jobs, and studying. Because that’s what friends are for, right?
Contains an inordinate amount of singing on stage, many costume changes, lashings of heart, family and friendship, an almost complete absence of the internet and a big dollop of optimism.
Hi guys! We have Liam Livings stopping by today with his new release The Journalist and the Dancer, we have a great excerpt and a brilliant $10 NineStar GC giveaway, so guys check out the post and enter the giveaway! ❤ ~Pixie~
The Journalist and the Dancer
by
Liam Livings
Christopher, a quiet, reserved, British journalist, reviews restaurants and night clubs in Ibiza. After a painful breakup and nervous breakdown in the UK, he aims to live a more spiritual possession-free life on the Mediterranean island.
Lucas flees an abusive ex in Madrid to live his dream of dancing in Ibiza’s large prestigious night clubs.
They meet at a night club and both feel an instant attraction which soon develops into an emotional connection neither of them feels ready for.
Sharing their painful pasts with each other brings them closer together, though neither of them planned on being in a proper relationship. But when a family crisis pulls Lucas back to Madrid and a painful encounter with his abusive ex, Christopher deals with painful experiences of his own.
Hi guys! We have Liam Livings popping in today with his new release Adventures In Dating …In Heels, we have a great excerpt and a brilliant $10 NineStar GC giveaway so check out the post and enter the giveaway! ❤ ~Pixie~
Adventures in Dating…in Heels
(Kev 01)
by
Liam Livings
Kev Harrison is a teenager looking for a boyfriend and friends who will accept his cross-dressing. Only thing is, he lives in a small village near Salisbury, England, and it’s the nineties.
Tony Collins is Kev’s best friend, a Goth with a passion for fashion and anything to do with the Human League. He stands as the voice of reason while Kev muddles his way through coming out, career choices, and dating…in heels.
Hi guys, we have Liam Livings popping in today with his new release A New Life For Christmas, there’s a fantastic giveaway so check out the post and click that giveaway link <3 ~Pixie~
A New Life For Christmas
by
Liam Livings
A house exchange between two single men leads to a romantic new life for both of them.
Oliver and Kyle live thousands of miles apart, but each needs a break from his current life and love. Enter the Cloud B&B website, a wonderful new way to exchange homes for the holiday. They both muster their courage, and decide to visit another continent for Christmas.
In the UK, Oliver has been pining after his neighbour for far too long, living his comfortable but quiet life in a town in the New Forest. When his crush moves on in the worst possible way, Oliver is seduced by the chance to stay in fun-loving, sunny Miami.
In Miami, Kyle is a club owning workaholic, who suddenly discovers the man he lives with has been unfaithful. Yet again. As consolation, Kyle is tempted to see first hand the picture book charm of the New Forest in winter.
Both of them find not just a new setting but a new romance. Oliver makes a big effort to shed his inhibitions and meets a musician, Mark, who plays in the Florida bars, and who may be just as cautious and polite as Oliver in making the first move.
And while Kyle’s trying to come to terms with England’s very different culture—and food!—he’s charmed by Oliver’s best friend Edward, who’s bold and sexy, but secretive.
Will Oliver take the leap of faith and encourage a lover who can and will give the commitment he deserves? And will Kyle find a man who can be loyal and also offer Kyle the family life he needs?
But perhaps more importantly—when Christmas is over, can a new life survive?
Hi peeps, we have Liam Livings popping in today with his release Wrong Room, Right Guy, we have a great excerpt and a brilliant giveaway so check out the post and click that giveaway link <3 ~Pixie~
Wrong Room, Right Guy
by
Liam Livings
Simon’s the wrong man in the wrong place; trying to teach English to kids who couldn’t care less, he’d really rather be a writer – but it’s only when his best friend bullies him into it that he takes the plunge and joins his local creative writing group. Even then things don’t quite work out the way he planned; blundering into the wrong room at the Village Hall he encounters a group of recovering cocaine addicts and he wants to know more … which is the start, for Simon, of a double life and a whole new secret identity, not to mention an intriguing relationship …
Hi Guys we have Liam Livings stopping by today with his release Escaping From Him, we have a short excerpt, we have a fantastic giveaway and we have Lisa’s review for you to check out. So enjoy the post and click that giveaway link. <3 ~Pixie~
Escaping From Him
by
Liam Livings
Darryl’s on the run – from controlling boyfriend Chris, an air-conditioner called Dave (deceased), an intolerable, claustrophobic situation and a person he just can’t be any more. The trouble is, he doesn’t have a plan – or any money – and all he knows is he needs to get away from everything. That’s where a lucky lift to Glasgow comes in, which turns out to be just the beginning of a whole new life …
Hi Guys we have Liam Livings stopping by today with his newest release Escaping From Him, we have Liam answering some great questions, we have a fantastic giveaway and we have Lisa’s review for you to check out. So enjoy the post and to enter the giveaway all you have to do is answer his question in a comment. <3 ~Pixie~
Escaping From Him
by
Liam Livings
Darryl’s on the run – from controlling boyfriend Chris, an air-conditioner called Dave (deceased), an intolerable, claustrophobic situation and a person he just can’t be any more. The trouble is, he doesn’t have a plan – or any money – and all he knows is he needs to get away from everything. That’s where a lucky lift to Glasgow comes in, which turns out to be just the beginning of a whole new life …
Hey peeps, we have Liam Livings visiting today with his newest release And Then That Happened, we get a taste of an excerpt and there’s a great giveaway. So enjoy the post and then click that Rafflecopter link <3 ~Pixie~
And Then That Happened
by
Liam Livings
Should you settle for a nearly perfect happiness or put your heart on the line for more?
It’s 1999 and 28-year-old Dominic’s carefully planned suburban life with his boyfriend Luke is perfect. His job as a nurse, his best friend Matt, his relationship with his parents, everything is just right. He and Luke have been together ten years, seen each other through friends’ deaths and their parents’ ups and downs, and even had a commitment ceremony.
Gabe isn’t happy with his boyfriend, but he stays with him, because, well it’s complicated.
Fate throws Gabe into Dominic’s life. And then that happened. Gabe’s open relationship, impulsive nature, enthusiasm for life and straight talking advice are fascinating to Dominic. They’re friends, they click over a shared love of Goldie Hawn and Gabe shows Dominic there can be more to life than planned and safe. So why can’t he take his own advice?
And Then That Happened is about finding a new kind of happiness, even when what you have is already perfect. And how sometimes perfect isn’t quite what it seems.
Hey guys, yes I have nicked the site again to bring a new author to you! Today I bring you Liam Livings who has today released Christmas Serendipity with JMS Books. So with out further ado my interview with Liam Livings and the review for Christmas Serendipity! ~Pixie~
Pixie: Christmas Serendipity is your first published work, how happy are you at the moment seeing your baby released to the masses?
Liam: I really can’t quite believe it’s actually happening! I started writing a few years ago, with a view to getting published. I didn’t expect Christmas Serendipity to be my first published work. I wrote Best Friends Perfect http://www.liamlivings.com/best-friends-perfect-series.html a few years ago, but due to publisher deadlines, it’s worked out that Christmas Serendipity is published first, which I’m thrilled about.
Pixie: Tell us a little about Christmas Serendipity and how it came about.
Liam: I wanted to write something shorter than a novel. I love Christmas, so that was always going to be an obvious choice for a topic. While on holiday over summer 2013, the BF and I were sat outside a pub, and we watched the opening scene from the story unfold in front of our eyes. In real life it was two women with one of them working in the pub. As they left, I wondered what they would get up to afterwards. I used that as the start of Christmas Serendipity – with two gay male friends.
Pixie: When writing CS did you draw from personal experience for either David’s or Christian’s issues?
Liam: I have known people who’ve had a hard time coming out to their family. I’ve also had a few nasty break ups, and supported friends through them too. I used elements of those when writing about David’s and Christian’s issues. The actual story and characters were from my imagination.
Pixie: Most people now throw Delia Smith, Nigella Lawson, Jamie Oliver or Gordon Ramsey’s names about when talking about cooking idols and Mary Berry is a rare one to find, do you yourself admire Mary Berry?
Liam: I love Mary Berry. She is the queen of baking cakes – much better than the others for cakes, in my opinion. I discovered baking after I started cooking properly with the aid of Delia & Nigella. I wanted to find ‘the mother-ship’ of baking, and I believe in Mary Berry I found it.
Pixie: David’s and Christian’s friends Tony and Cathy are great characters both supporting their friends and offering them a safe haven for Christmas, do you have friends that you can turn to like that? And are they like Cathy and Tony?
Liam: I’m lucky to have friends I can turn to for help in that way. None of my friends are, what I’d describe as ‘like’ Cathy and Tony.
Pixie: What encouraged you to write MM rather than mainstream (whatever that is)?
Liam: When I wrote my first novel, Best Friends Perfect, I didn’t even consider whether it was MM. I simply wrote a story with characters, experiences and love which I could relate to, and had in part, experienced myself. It was only when Clare London invited me to UK Meet 2012 in Brighton, that I realised I’d written a MM novel.
Pixie: Can you tell us what you have coming next in your career as an author, any more books being published?
Liam: The Best Friends Perfect series will start to be published from spring 2014. I have a fairy tale called Frangipani Kisses http://www.liamlivings.com/frangipani-kisses-short-story.html in an anthology which is due out in 2014. I will begin submitting my next novel, And Then That Happened in 2014, http://www.liamlivings.com/and-then-that-happened.html so that could be published in 2014 too. And also I have just planned my next story, called The Wrong Room, which I’ll write in 2014, and who knows when that will be ready for a publisher to see it.
Pixie: Tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you do when you aren’t writing, and where they can contact you and buy your book.
Liam: I love to bake cakes and other sweet things. I love to spend time with friends and family. I enjoy tucking up with a good box set or film. I have furry friends, our cats. And I am also, to mix it up a bit, and go against some stereotypes, a massive car geek too.
Pixie: Thanks for joining us Liam and we all hope you do great with Christmas Serendipity and we look forward to your next release Best Friends Perfect.
About Liam Livings
Three things about him – there are five more on the website, one is a lie.
1) He lives, with his partner and cats, where east London ends and becomes nine-carat-gold- highlights-and-fake-tan-west-Essex.
2) He was born in Hampshire with two club feet (look it up, it’s not nice) and problem ears, needing grommets: this meant he was in plaster from toe to groin until he was two, and had to swim with a cap and olive oil soaked lamb’s wool over his ears – olive oil bought from a health food shop, before it was sold by supermarkets.
3) He started writing when he was 14: sat in French lessons during a French exchange trip, for want of anything better to do, he wrote pen portraits about his French exchange’s teachers. He wrote for his school’s creative writing magazine and still writes a diary every day.
Just before the Christmas holiday, in a snowy small town in England, refugees of Christmas bad luck, handyman, plumber Christian and office worker David find themselves thrown together at miss Organiser, Cathy’s non-family Christmas.
Christian thinks the world has ended as his parents get used to him being gay, and disinvite him to their Christmas. David has just been fired from his waiting job, and is still getting used to the fact that he has dumped him. Although David’s ex was a useless cheating, money grabbing waste of space, he was at least, David’s useless, cheating, money grabbing waste of space. And now David doesn’t even have that. He’s not in the mood for a night out with his best friend, camp Tony, just before Christmas. Instead they retire to Cathy and Tony’s place, to find a quiet Christian.
With Cathy’s organizational skills and enthusiasm, these four spend a non-family Christmas together, making the best of it. Together they drink, eat and play their way through Christmas, surprising each other at how it turns out, and how well they all get to know one another during the short break.
Refugees of serendipity and luck, David and Christian realize that spending the holiday season together may be just what they both needed, when they both needed it. They find that apart from both just escaping from awful relationships, they also have much more in common.
Excerpt
We talked late into the night, moving onto Cathy’s special Christmas spirits. “Only to be drunk at this time of year,” she explained. She appeared with a tray of snowballs—yellow advocaat and lemonade, foaming with a little red cherry perched on top of each one. “This’ll send us to sleep,” she advised.
We took it in turns to throw more wood onto the fire, until we ran out. Cathy announced she was going to bed. She’d made up the spare room for Christian, and she pointed to the sofa in the corner for me.
I looked at her, feeling slightly light-headed from the alcohol, and started to ask if she’d show me how to make it up. Before I could say anything more, somehow she’d managed with just one hand, to turn it into a bed and cover it with perfect duvet and pillows.
“Thanks, Cathy. Night.” I stood up, a little unsteadily.
She kissed my cheek. “Night boys.” And she made her way up the stairs.
Tony followed, waving goodnight to us both.
And then there were two. I’ll admit I did consider, for a brief moment, just following Christian to his room. But I decided he wasn’t that sort of boy, and really, neither was I. So instead, I opted for an awkward goodnight hug/kiss, standing over the remains of the Indian takeaway in the middle of the floor. The gentle glow from the fire and a few candles around the room gave the only light. He kissed my cheek and I his, before lingering for a moment too long on his neck, holding the hug as long as I could manage without seeming creepy. I felt his breath on my neck and I felt myself responding in my boxer shorts. We both pulled back and stared into each other’s eyes, his warm breath mixing with mine as I breathed in and out. He smiled. I stared into his deep blue eyes and kissed him again, this time with our tongues exploring each other’s mouths. He gently bit my bottom lip and a jolt went to my groin. I felt his hand on my bum, trying to pull me towards him, despite our legs being a few feet apart, separated by the takeaway. We fell onto the sofa, his small frame landing gently on my muscly chest. He sat astride me, leaning down and continuing to kiss me. His hands caressed my pectoral muscles under my T-shirt, tweaking my nipples, harder and harder.
Maybe he was that sort of boy, and maybe I was too.
***
Christmas Serendipity will be published by JMS on 8 December.
Buy links from 8 December – other distributor links will be available a week or so after this date.
Blurb: In a snowy small town in England just before Christmas, handyman Christian thinks the world has ended — his parents are still getting used to his being gay and have disinvited him to their Christmas. Former waiter David has just been fired and is still getting used to the fact that his useless, cheating, money-grabbing, waste-of-space boyfriend has just dumped him. Their mutual friend Cathy steps in and invites the two strangers to a non-family Christmas at the flat she shares with Tony.
With Cathy’s organizational skills and enthusiasm, these four spend Christmas together, making the best of it and getting to know each other. A spark of attraction clearly brings David and Christian closer, and spending the festive season together may be just what these two refugees need to calm their troubled souls.
But the past still haunts them both and threatens to be their undoing. Is love enough to overcome the burdens they bear? Can they find a happy Christmas together after all?
Review: David leans on his mate Tony as he mulls over the ending of his disastrous relationship, when he gets fired from his job just days before Christmas Tony drags him home with him. Christian finds himself with nowhere to go for Christmas when his parents rescind their invite after he confesses he is gay, his workmate Cathy takes pity on him and invites him home for Christmas. As David and Christian share Christmas with the two flatmates, a spark of attraction flares between them and it just might bring them both happiness in the New Year if they can both resolve their past hurts.
I quite enjoyed this simple story of friends becoming a family for Christmas. David has had a terrible relationship where he was used as a doormat by his boyfriend, but with the boyfriend tossing him to the side David can’t just put his feelings behind him. When David meets Christian a spark is lit and although he doesn’t want to rush into anything he knows he has to give them a chance. Christian is still reeling from his parent’s actions and although there is a spark of hope that his parents will come around he is still miserable, meeting David sparks his interest and taking it slow is a great idea even if he would at first prefer passionate sex to ease his woes.
This is a very Christmas with friends story, where friends pull together to have an enjoyable Christmas and put their problems behind them for a couple of days. Cathy and Tony are incredible friends who make this Christmas for both men enjoyable, but while Cathy is overjoyed that David and Christian are becoming close, Tony is more cautious and encourages David to slow down and not jump in feet first. Both David and Christian seem to be wonderful men working their way through their personal issues but neither man is willing to turn their back on the attraction between them, it is a slow moving relationship that is still tentative and new but with much hope on both sides.
I recommend this to those who love saving Christmas stories, friends pulling together, support and friendship, a spark of new love and new hope and a very Merry Christmas.
