Hi peeps, today we have the pleasure of Charley Descoteaux visiting us with her newest release Tiny House, Charley has written an excellent guest post, shares an exclusive excerpt and has a fantastic giveaway! We also have Prime’s review so enjoy the post and leave a comment to enter the giveaway! <3 ~Pixie~

Tiny House

Charley Descoteaux

Pride weekend is over, but for Nathan Lucas, the summer is just heating up. He appears to have it all. He’s tall and blond, ripped and handsome, and half owner of Buchanan House, a successful gay retreat on Oregon’s beautiful central coast. But his joie de vivre hides a fear of abandonment. When he was twelve his mother had triplets, and instead of the cherished only child, Nathan became a scapegoat for his exhausted parents, and he has never truly dealt with that pain.

Portland chef Paulie Nesbitt is head over heels in love with Nathan. They’ve been drinking buddies with benefits for years, while Paulie has not-so-secretly yearned for more. Paulie’s extra pounds and self-doubt have kept him from acting on his feelings. Their friends know they would make the perfect couple, but Nathan and Paulie will have to let go of past insecurities if they want a future together.

“Pride Weekend” Book #2 in the Buchanan House series, Free at Dreamspinner Press

Charley Descoteaux

Torturing Nathan

Hello everyone! I’m thrilled to be here at MM Good Book Reviews! Thank you for having me!

Stick around after the exclusive excerpt and leave a comment for a chance to win an ebook copy of the first book in the series, Buchanan House. If you already have your copy (Thank you! <3 ) then you can choose a book from my backlist (any ebook except Tiny House). All you have to do to enter is share a surprising moment. It doesn’t have to be embarrassing, but those are always fun!

One of my favorite things about writing is watching the characters develop. Even if I’ve already met them I don’t know a character until I’ve really gotten into their heads, until I know them as people who are the stars of their own stories. Even if I never write in their point of view I usually know a lot about them, their background, things they enjoy, and what they’re afraid of. Lately, most of my characters start from things I bring consciously to the table, a situation from their past or a physical attribute that catches my attention, but the best parts are the things that surprise me.

Nathan Lucas is one of the most surprising characters I’ve written. In Buchanan House he’s the rock, the bestie who won’t allow Eric to lose himself in a bottle or fail to acknowledge his own worth. I fell in love with Nathan while writing that story—which is pretty obvious by the amount of time he gets on the page. But I didn’t know him as well as I thought, until I wrote his story.

The title of this post might be a little misleading—I didn’t set out to torture him per se, just to ask the What if? questions that would get me to the heart of his story. The first one was something I ask about all my characters: What if his deepest fear happened? How would the perfect Nathan Lucas react if his fear of being abandoned by everyone he loved looked like it was finally happening to him?

He actually did pretty well. So of course I had to raise the stakes.

The reason Nathan’s deepest fear is abandonment is rooted in his birth family. So the next question was What if someone from his birth family returned to his life, someone he couldn’t reject and still live with himself? The answer to this is a little spoilery (at least it will be until you read the excerpt below!), and complicates Nathan’s life in ways that I hope are entertaining. Suffice to say it takes some growing for Nathan to put his past behind him and embrace his long-lost baby brother.

If all this makes it sound like I planned this story out ahead of time, I have to clear that up. I’m incapable of planning to that level—I’m a pantser through and through and live for moments like the one in this excerpt. In this scene, a character introduced in book #1, Alex, gives Nathan the surprising news that he has a brother. News that I hadn’t known until she told him. 🙂

Exclusive Excerpt

from Tiny House

The next morning Nathan forced himself to shower and get dressed, even though Monday was a day off at Buchanan House. He laughed bitterly when he recalled the conversation he and Eric had had a few months earlier, about opening the camp to guests seven days a week, and barely stopped before that laugh morphed into sobs. He had no idea what to do with himself—at least Buchanan House should stay mercifully quiet for the next forty-eight hours. If there was a God.

He opened the door and slipped into the hallway, wondering where everyone was. Maybe he could avoid having to make conversation until after he’d had a run on the beach. Nathan closed the door without so much as a click, turned, and almost screamed out loud.

Alex waited for him, her arms crossed and a slight frown on her face. “Your brother is here.”

“I don’t have—”

“Yes. You do.” Alex forced the words out as she stepped forward—her jaw, her whole body, tense.

The rest of Nathan’s protest died in his throat.

Nathan couldn’t help himself. He took a step back and ran into the closed door he’d just come through. Alex kept walking until Nathan felt pinned to the door. She didn’t touch him, but he still felt intimidated and, yes, afraid. Luckily, he was able to keep himself from continuing to argue with her, because he wasn’t up to the level of intensity it would take to win. But he didn’t know any brother, only three baby sisters—triplets. Born when he was twelve, they became the spectacle he would never be, simply by virtue of being born.

“Yes, Nate, you have a brother.” After another moment of intense eye contact, in which Nathan was pretty sure Alex dared him to say again that he didn’t have a brother, she relaxed. Which was to say she took one step backward and resumed breathing like a rational person. “You have a brother and his name is Evan. Come downstairs and talk to him. Please.”

That last word, the plea—Alex’s naked hope that he would do it—told him, with a 33 1/3 percent certainty, whom he’d find downstairs.

He nodded, and after a moment, Alex nodded back. She led him down the hallway and then the staircase. Leaning against the check-in desk and gazing toward the backyard was the tall blond Nathan had seen at Pride. The tall blond who looked familiar but whom he couldn’t quite place.

Nathan froze at the bottom of the stairs and could’ve sworn Evan was trying not to look his way. Even with Alex’s prodding, Nathan couldn’t move, and finally his brother turned away from the backyard.

Eyes that familiar triplet shade of blue widened. “Are you sick?”

Nathan frowned and almost felt like tossing back a sassy remark, but just shook his head. I don’t even know which one…. I don’t even know what to call….

Shit.

“Never mind. This was a stupid idea.” Evan grabbed a very large backpack by what looked like a metal pole and started toward the front doors.

When Nathan didn’t move, Alex punched him in the arm and raced across the lobby. “Wait. Evan, wait. Give him a chance.” She gingerly wrapped an arm around his waist and turned them both back around to face Nathan. “Nate’s had a rough week. I’m sure he wants you to stay.”

Nathan nodded. He knew it was rude, but that didn’t stop him from staring, from taking in as many details about his brother as he could.

Evan. A twenty—no, twenty-one-year-old version of himself. A little shorter, so about five ten or eleven, thick blond hair with a little wave and a haircut that must’ve cost at least as much as his own, lithe, twinkish figure, what he could see of it—oh, God, I did not check out my baby brother at Pride last weekend!—and full, insouciant mouth. But still, those triplet eyes.

Nathan couldn’t stifle a shudder as he thought about the triplets—all fraternal, but all with those creepy blue eyes that always seemed to want something he couldn’t give. Luckily, the shudder happened while Evan was putting his backpack down, so he might not have seen it. Nathan cleared his throat and remembered he wasn’t an asshole. “I want you to stay. C-Can we….”

Words failed, so he gestured to the art room, where the three sofas sat empty. Nathan dropped onto the closest one. He might not have made it any farther and didn’t want to find out. Evan took a seat across from Nathan, and they sized each other up for a few minutes.

Alex, who’d remained standing, sighed and shook her head. “You guys must be hungry. I’ll go see what’s happening in the kitchen.” After another long silence, Alex mumbled something incoherent and probably not safe for work under her breath and stomped through the swinging door into the kitchen. The door swung in a gradually smaller arc, letting random sounds and smells into the art room.

Evan’s frown wasn’t lost on Nathan. He was about to say something—not sure what, but something—when Evan broke the silence. “Is Eric in there?”

“Probably.” Nathan sat up straighter and tried to think of something to say. “What—I mean, it’s been—”

“Never mind.” Evan sighed. “This was a ridiculous idea. But I’m hungry, so if it’s okay, I’ll stay for a meal.”

“What? Where are you going?”

“Are you just waking up?”

Nathan leaned forward and rested his flannel-covered elbows on his jeans-clad knees. He opened his mouth to let Evan know how insulting that was, implying he was lazy or unkempt, but closed it without speaking. He realized he wasn’t exactly dressed to go running and probably only would have made it as far as a barstool anyway. After a long pause, he tried again. “No. It’s a day off, so I don’t have to dress to impress.”

“Oh. So you’re not sick, then?”

“No. Try not to sound so disappointed.”

“Hey. I’m not the one who left and never visited even once.”

“Yeah, well… sometimes that’s the kindest thing.”

Evan’s mouth dropped open and stayed that way for a long, drawn-out moment. “You’re full of shit. When did you become so full of shit?”

“July 27th, 1995.”

~~~

Thanks for reading!

Don’t forget to leave a comment for a chance to win an ebook copy of the first book in the series, Buchanan House. (If you already have your copy you can choose a book from my backlist [any ebook except Tiny House].) All you have to do to enter is share a surprising moment.

Thank you again to MM Good Book Reviews for having me!

About Charley

Charley Descoteaux misspent a large chunk of her youth on the back of a Harley, meeting people and having adventures that sometimes pop up in her fiction. She grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area during a drought, and found her true home in the soggy Pacific Northwest. Charley has survived earthquakes, tornadoes and floods, but couldn’t make it through one day without stories.

Where to find the author:

Facebook | Facebook Author Page | Twitter | Pinterest | Blog

Giveaway!

Win an ebook copy of the first book in the series, Buchanan House. (If you already have your copy you can choose a book from Charley’s backlist [any ebook except Tiny House]!

All you have to do to enter is share a surprising moment.

Review

Title: Tiny House

Series: Buchanan House 03

Author: Charley Descoteaux

Genre: Contemporary

Length: Novel (200pgs)

ISBN: 978-1-63476-877-1

Publisher: Dreamspinner Press (29 April 2016)

Heat Level: Moderate

Heart Rating: ♥♥♥♥ 4 Hearts

Reviewer: Prime

Blurb: Pride weekend is over, but for Nathan Lucas, the summer is just heating up. He appears to have it all. He’s tall and blond, ripped and handsome, and half owner of Buchanan House, a successful gay retreat on Oregon’s beautiful central coast. But his joie de vivre hides a fear of abandonment. When he was twelve his mother had triplets, and instead of the cherished only child, Nathan became a scapegoat for his exhausted parents, and he has never truly dealt with that pain.

Portland chef Paulie Nesbitt is head over heels in love with Nathan. They’ve been drinking buddies with benefits for years, while Paulie has not-so-secretly yearned for more. Paulie’s extra pounds and self-doubt have kept him from acting on his feelings.

Their friends know they would make the perfect couple, but Nathan and Paulie will have to let go of past insecurities if they want a future together.

Product Link: http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=7494

Review:  Tiny House is the third installment of Charley Descoteaux’s series Buchanan House, a small bed and breakfast set up by friends Nathan and Eric. Eric and his romance with, Tim, the handyman that the friends hired to do odd jobs around the small resort was the subject of the first book, Buchanan House. Book two, Pride Weekend, was a short story about 2 guys that meet online and decide to meet at Buchanan House for a weekend of fun during Pride Weekend.

In Tiny House, it is now Nathan’s turn for romance. Nathan has something of a complicated love life, mostly his own fault, but that is the way life has gone for Nathan. Nathan has always had a thing for Paulie, but both have hesitated for years (about fifteen?).

At this point, though, Nathan is not in the best frame of mind. He has lost his lovers, two cousins who worked at Buchanan House and while he was not in love with them, he definitely felt a friendly kind of love towards the men. Soon after he also finds out that the friend he’s had a crush on years, Paulie, has a boyfriend.

Much of the story isn’t so much about the romance between Nathan and Paulie because it seems pretty damn clear that they are meant for each other and definitely have deep feelings for each other. Instead the story is more about Nathan being able to move on and coping with the various changes in his life – he does have trouble because he has many of his friends worried because of the amount of drinking he has been doing lately.

This is a wonderful and sweet story line. It isn’t really melodramatic or action packed, if definitely could have been more melodramatic. The whole novel is well paced, even if Paulie has a boyfriend other than Nathan for most of the story, and the drama that does take place is elegantly understated. This is thoroughly enjoyable and it is nice to see both Nathan and Paulie get their story. All the characters of Buchanan House are deep and complex characters and it is an absolute joy getting to know everyone.

I am left wondering if there are going to be more stories from Buchanan House… I certainly hope so!