Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Guest Blog: Photographer and Author Jenn LeBlanc

I'm Such a Tease...


It’s entirely true, I’m a huge tease, and I believe it’s in my job description. :)

So I’ve brought three teases with me today. 

Hold on to your seats:


1. My cover art photography, if you aren’t familiar with it, is known as #StudioSmexy™ (yes I did just trademark it). I shoot cover art among other things, like my entire 6 part serial novel, The Rake And The Recluse : REDUX.

Recently I took #StudioSmexy on the road, from California to Florida. It was INSANE fun. So here’s your first tease:



This is Derek. He is the STAR of my illustrated romance and one of my best friends, we travel and shoot and get crazy and have an all-around good time together. It’s pretty insane.

2. I recently found a new guy, his name is Karl. You might have heard of him if you know Sallie. Maybe. So I shot Karl right before I left for this massive trip, and I haven’t finished editing the images. But this one, this one is done:

3. This is a VERY RAW, never released, scene from my next novel which is lovingly nicknamed #Twitchy. Twitchy is the daughter, and sole child of a duke, so she is charged with finding a place for herself, and her mother, should her father die. He isn’t well, and the pressure is on her to marry and secure their future as the entailments will pass to a distant cousin not interested in extended family encroaching on HIS lands.

Amelia has what is most likely Asperger’s with a side of OCD. Which makes anything in public terrifying and stressful for her. Her mother doesn’t understand her daughter’s differences and only wants her to stop acting out so she can catch a husband and secure their place...


She sighed as he washed her breasts slowly, the gaining circles arousing her as the chill rose her nipples to tight buds.

“We need to make our way back to the Manor.” she whispered.

“Ah yes,” he said, his breath drawing gooseflesh across her belly as he knelt before her and continued his ministrations.

She giggled as he reached her feet, tickling the bottoms before letting them rest on the sheet below her.

He stood and turned toward the teapot. “I imagine this will be overpowerful if we do not drink it soon.”

Her eyes fluttered. “Oh?”

“Yes, the tea.” He turned her toward the little table and set her in the chair, pulling another blanket around her since the sheet was now on the floor.

He served her some fruit and cheese, fixed her the perfect cup of tea, if a bit stout, then sat across from her in his own blanket.

“We will get you back to Pemberley, then I am off to Castleberry Keep to finish preparations. Are you nearly packed for your journey? I would very much like for you to be settled in your new home before the wedding.”

“My new home.” She felt the smile break across her face and knew the truth of it then. All the words, all the thoughts, all the preparations were nothing without knowing in her heart and her soul that this man was her world, and she would be his. “Thank you.”

“For?” he asked between bites of an orange, the juice pouring over his fingers as he demolished the poor fruit over a plate.

“For being so very patient.”

“Well I have proven nothing if not my patience. Beyond that what is there but my undying affection and my will to please. I am your servant.”

As he spoke the tangy, bright scent of the orange washed over her and she breathed deeply, wanting to always remember this moment by that scent. “I suppose peeling an orange was beyond your servantly lessons?”

He held his hands up, dripping with massacred citrus and smiled. “A bit, I suppose. But I love them terribly.”

“Oranges?”

“Yes, oranges, they are delicious.”

“Well, let me see.” She stood and moved to him, leaning over and licking straight up his chin to his mouth, then sucking his lip between hers. He groaned.

“Oh dear me, you have made a bit of a mess.” She kneeled before him and took his hand, sucking the first finger in her mouth, then moving to the next.

“Amelia.” he grumbled.

“Goodness, you should sit still, after all I never once complained when you so very thoughtfully washed me.” she said before moving to the next finger.

“Amelia— we must return.”

She took up the bits of orange and squeezed what was left over his chest, the juice running down to be caught by his navel. She leaned in and sucked the juice from him then ran her tongue up the center of his body to his neck, where she paused, sucking at the little hollow below his throat. He swallowed, her tongue playing across his neck as he attempted to speak again.

“As you please.” she said, rising and moving across the room to the basin where she dropped the blanket and rinsed her hands.

He simply watched.

His mouth was extraordinarily dry considering he had only moments ago finished an orange. A rather large one at that.

He was across the room in two strides, spinning her to face him and capturing her mouth, the tangled flavors of oranges and strawberries between them.

“Anders.” she breathed.

“Yes Amelia?”

“I find I quite like oranges as well.”



These are my three teases. What do you think? Do you neeed more?

You can find me on Twitter, Facebook, and my website. You can follow StudioSmexy updates on twitter with the hashtag #StudioSmexy or on Facebook or the website.

Monday, August 20, 2012

What Do You Look for in a Review?

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Book reviews are everywhere, but they are - frankly - more about the reviewer receiving free books than offering detailed and informative book facts. Reading Romances has asked book bloggers to tell them exactly what they look for in a book review.  So here's that list:

When and where the heck is it?
Historicals aren't all set in 1309 and not all contemporaries are based in Chicago.
Some readers want to read books from certain time periods and locations - so give them that information.
There is a difference between Regency, Georgian and Edwardian era - learn it.

You say it's too short/too long, does this publisher have a word count?
Yes, publishers and their imprints have word count requirements and reviewers would do well to mention it.

Who's the publisher and imprint?
As a reader, if I love everything from imprint Brazen from publisher Entangled - I'm going to read more of that.

Define "refreshing read."
Refreshing why?  Or better yet, remove that word from your reviews all together.

If the Book Blurb is lacking, please create a summary of your own
It's more work, but if the publisher doesn't do it for you please do it yourself.

How's the sex?
We read romance and sex happens in almost every one.  Please explain if their is adultery, menage, strictly missionary scenes, against the wall sex, public sex, penis going where it doesn't fit sex and all things sex.
Readers have different thresholds and we'd do well to advise them.

How's the story lines?
Sometimes the sex is dull and the story is great and vice versa.  Sometimes there's only one plot, or so many plots you can't keep track.

Would you read it again and why?
If the reader values your opinion this may be all they need to know.

Is this a series and where can the others be found for purchase?
Not every author has an excellent website.  Link to Amazon and/or Goodreads if you must.

Can this fourth book in the series be read as a stand-alone?
If you've read the entire series and don't mention it can be, many assume it can't.

Exactly what did you like/not like without spoilers.
This is hard, but can be done.  If you dislike a book because you read the hero sleeping with six women and then was introduced to the heroine, say you weren't fond of witnessing his active sex life even if it is pre-heroine.

RESPECT
Authors spend months and sometimes years working on their novel.  
At most, reviewers spend hours.
Be respectful.  You hate it?  Give exact reasons why.  They're interested.
You love it?  Give reasons why.  They need praise just as much as you do.
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