BLOG TOUR – GUEST POST & GIVEAWAY: “Caught!” by JL Merrow
Boys in our Books is so excited to welcome JL Merrow to day as she discusses her new release, “Caught!”
Hi, I’m JL Merrow, and I’m thrilled to be here today as part of the Caught! blog tour.
Giveaway: I’m offering a free signed paperback copy of my Icelandic-set romantic suspense novel Fall Hard (I’m happy to ship internationally) to a randomly chosen commenter on the tour, plus a $10 Amazon gift certificate!
I’ll be making the draw around teatime on Monday 1st September, GMT. Good luck! :D
Food of Love
Some memories are better off lost in the mist… Fall Hard
“One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well.” ―Virginia Woolf
What is it about food and love? Oysters as an aphrodisiac; chocolates as a seduction method; whipped cream in the bedroom. There’s undeniably a link there.
If you’ve ever seen the 1963 film Tom Jones (about Henry Fielding’s picaresque hero, not the Welsh crooner of the same name!) there’s little chance you’ve forgotten the scene https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tezjznL9NzM where Albert Finney and Joyce Redman munch their way seductively through a variety of hearty dishes at a country inn before dashing up to bed together. (And not just because their table manners leave a little to be desired. I hate to imagine the indigestion!)
Is it the idea of gratifying all your bodily appetites at once? Well, partly.
Certain foods actually contain chemicals which cause a reaction in the body that mimics orgasm—if you’ve ever embarrassed yourself in public by moaning in ecstasy while scoffing a handful of chocs, console yourself with the thought that it was all down to dopamine and beyond your control.
Other foods work by the power of suggestion, and I’m sure we can all think of a few: a banana nestling between a pair of plums; or for the less well-endowed, a baby carrot and a couple of Brussels sprouts. Avocadoes and asparagus are also supposed to have our minds turning to the bedroom.
And last but not least, spicy foods are thought to increase arousal, possibly by boosting circulation. There’s a reason for all those chili spice ratings you get on publishers’ websites.
But there’s also a more innocent combination between food and love. A newborn baby’s first connection to her mother is as a provider of food, and that connection can survive well into adulthood. Many mothers continue to show their love for their children by feeding them when they go back home for a visit—sometimes a little too well!
In Caught! when Hanne tries to teach Robert how to cook, she’s doing it for a twofold reason: she feels maternal towards him, and she’s hoping it’ll improve his love life.
Like the rest of Robert’s life, alas, it doesn’t go too smoothly!
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Question: What foods do you find particularly sexy or unsexy, and why?
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JL Merrow is that rare beast, an English person who refuses to drink tea. She writes across genres, with a preference for contemporary gay romance, and is frequently accused of humour. Her novel Slam! won the 2013 Rainbow Award for Best LGBT Romantic Comedy.
She is a member of the UK GLBTQ Fiction Meet organising team.
Find JL Merrow online at: www.jlmerrow.com, on Twitter as @jlmerrow, and on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/jl.merrow
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You can run from the past…but the past runs faster
Shamwell Tales, Book 1
Behind Robert’s cheerfully eccentric exterior lies a young heart battered and bruised by his past. He’s taken a job teaching in a village primary school to make a fresh start, and love isn’t part of his plans. But he’s knocked for six—literally—by a chance encounter with the uncle of two of his pupils.
Sean works in pest control, rides a motorbike, and lives on a council estate. On the face of it, he shouldn’t have anything in common with Robert’s bow-tie, classic-car style and posh family background. Yet Robert is helpless to resist Sean’s roguish grin, and a rocky, excruciatingly embarrassing start doesn’t keep the sparks between them from flaring.
Despite Robert’s increasingly ludicrous attempts to keep his past where it belongs, his past hasn’t read the memo. And soon his secrets could be the very things that drive Sean away for good…
Warning: contains the alarming misadventures of a pest control technician, a stepsister with a truly unfortunate name, and a young man who may have more bow ties than sense.
This looks really interesting. I’ve been intrigued by pretty much all things Icelandic since I took a course in college that had a lot of really old Icelandic literature, especially regarding the Vikings. :)
K
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Thanks, Kindledrazek! If you’ve read Egil’s saga, you’ll probably find a fair bit you recognise in Fall Hard. ;)
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“Fall Hard” has been on my ever-growing “I want to read list” since last Fall. :) But my college days (the US use of “college” there to refer generically to pretty much any institution of “higher learning”, although it was a university) as a student were many, many years ago, and I can’t remember specific names of characters, so I’m not sure if Egil’s saga was one of the ones we read back then, although it might come back to me when reading references to it. (An example of my tendency to produce run-on sentences there. ;) )
And I meant to mention in my last post, but I got distracted by Iceland, that I think ice cream is sexy, but I too am not in the “put it on body parts and lick it off” camp other than for lips.
And I know some people find oysters sexy in some way, but not me because oysters have had a negative connotation in my mind ever since I ate them and ended up in the hospital the next day. It wasn’t the oysters’ fault since it wasn’t anything related to food poisoning, but somehow the timing of things got oysters linked with severe illness and hospitalization in my head.
Was that TMI? :)
K
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I think it’s actually been scientifically proven that if you’re ill after eating something, you can’t help blaming it even if there was another cause entirely.
I’ve never eaten oysters, but as I’m not a fan of fish in general (can still remember being ill after eating fish when I was around six) I don’t think I’d find them very sexy either! ;)
Egil’s the violent poet with a dysfunctional family who started rampaging early in life. But then his dad and grandad were werewolves…
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Strawberries seem to be high on the list of erotic fruit. Iceland is a wonderful change
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I knew there was a reason I liked strawberries so much! ;P
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Well, I do not find any food particularly sexy or unsexy (though kissing after having eaten garlic is something one should honestly try to avodi :P ) but there is this one thing which I know for sure regarding food and relationships: Chocolate always helps mend a broken heart. At least in my case. It never fails to comfort me!
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*nods* Chocolate is also advisable in case of a missed train, a bad day at work… actually, chocolate is pretty much always advisable! ;)
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Chocolate is a sexy food I especially like that you can get chocolate body paint!! I think maybe any foods that linger on the breathe would be unsexy.
ShirleyAnn(at)speakman40(dot)freeserve(dot)co(dot)uk
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Mmmm…. see previous comment re chocolate! ;P
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Sexy foods…since chocolate and strawberries have already been mentioned I am going to call out champagne, a sparkling glass of champagne on the beach at sunset.
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Oh, yes, champagne is lovely. Something about all those bubbles (and all right, the alcohol) never fails to lift the mood. :D
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I’m about half way through Caught! right now and I’m really enjoying it. Robert’s internal monologue is very funny.
As for sexy foods, I don’t really know any. I remember watching the food scene from 9 1/2 weeks and mostly thinking “gross”. I am also really turned off in a story by smearing any kind of food on someone else and licking it off.
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Food kink is not for everyone, it’s true. After all, what’s sexy about lying there worrying if the chocolate body paint will wash out of the sheets? ;)
Glad you’re enjoying Caught! :D
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Mmmm, sexy food? I’m with previous commenters that food itself isn’t sexy, but a good meal in a nice restaurant with my hubby is very sexy indeed.
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Oh, yes, the choice of dining companion is key! :)
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Sexy food…soft serve ice cream ;) Not sexy foods…meat mainly, there’s too much chewing involved, lol.
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I’m not a big fan of meat myself, so I’d have to agree with you there, Allison! :)
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thanks for the interview and the giveaway. sexy food chocolate and strawberries, not sexy food Haggis and peanut butter
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LOL! I’m actually quite partial to both haggis and peanut butter, but I’d have to agree with you they’re not the obvious choice when it comes to seduction! ;)
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When I was in school, my psychology teacher told us if we wanted to get a date in a romantic mood, to cook some onions in butter (for the scent). And I have to say, I do love that smell, although we have switched to olive oil since butter is evil. :-)
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Onions in butter? I’ve never heard that one before – but yes, yummy smell! And I prefer to think of butter as only a bit naughty. ;)
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Sex food. I love shared fondue…cheese or chocolate.
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Ooh, yes – the act of sharing definitely adds to the intimacy.
And now I want fondue…. ;)
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I do too!
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Your place or mine? ;P
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I find lobsters a sexy food. There’s something about ripping into the lobster & dipping the meat in butter that is very erotic.
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You know, when you put it like that, I’d have to agree. And I don’t even LIKE lobster! ;)
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Never really thought about it, but vanilla ice cream or buttercream frosting are 2 of my favorites, so I’ll say they’re sexy. :-) I finished Caught last week and loved it!
I can’t wait for whatever comes next.
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Heh, I’m sure there are all kinds of puns about vanilla sex just gagging to be made…
Glad you enjoyed Caught! :D
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I heard durian fruit and turtle eggs are good for the libido. I can’t imagine either of them as sexy foods especially the durian fruit.
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Maybe it’s something to do with the way the durian fruit looks? (I was reminded of, well, this: http://www.supersoulsound.com/giant/index.php?PHPSESSID=49bb6b7aa6736b034c836d20220de11b&topic=55.msg133#msg133) >(
I can’t imagine anyone finding the smell much of a turn-on! ;)
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LOL. OMG now I’m always going to associate durian with that picture.I’m going to look crazy at the store,lol XD
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*evil laugh* ;)
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I’m generally a ‘food and sex don’t mix’ kind of person. Especially eating it. Those fast food commercials where it’s just a close up of some hot girl or guy eating a giant burger? Gross. I always get irritated when my husband tries to give me a kiss while I’m chewing. LOL
But I guess something like strawberries and chocolate is way more sexy than, say, a half rack of barbecue ribs! LOL
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What you need is a Liberation Wrapper… http://www.buzzfeed.com/regajha/a-japanese-burger-chain-made-face-masks-so-women-can-eat-bur
I think, for some people, the messiness is part of the attraction – the uninhibited indulgence of bodily appetites, I guess. So perhaps, for the right couple, ribs could be a real turn-on! (But I think I’ll stick to strawberries and chocs, personally *g*)
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OMG that’s brilliant!
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That brings us to quite possibly the most intriguing match-up to that point of the season when Oregon comes to Rice-Eccles.
It is Tennessee’s Rocky Top, Florida’s Old Ball Coach, and
of course the Gator Chomp and the mighty Tim Tebow. Ole Miss and Mississippi State moving
the Egg Bowl away from Jackson, Miss.
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