Today I am so pleased to welcome CJane Elliott to Joyfully Jay. CJane has come to talk to us about her latest release, The Kinsey Scale. She has also brought along a great tour-wide giveaway. Please join me in giving her a big welcome!

 

Hello, all! Thank you to Joyfully Jay for hosting me for my new release, The Kinsey Scale. I come bearing gifts – an exclusive excerpt and a giveaway.

Forced roommates, fake boyfriends, fierce attraction, and a secret or two… are they fooling themselves or falling in love?

The Kinsey Scale is a fun college contemporary in which two college guys, Eric and Will, are forced to be roommates and their growing attraction is a problem for both of them. To protect himself, Eric has prevailed upon his ex Jerry to pretend to be boyfriends.

For those of you who’ve been following The Kinsey Scale blog tour, this scene takes place right before Christmas break. Will and Eric are good friends by now, waiting in a sports bar for Jerry and a close friend Tyrone to join them for brunch. Jerry’s becoming sick of the fake-boyfriend routine and they all learn something surprising about seemingly straight Will.


Excerpt

“Only you, Will.”

“Only me what?”

“Only you could get three flaming queens like me, Jerry, and Tyrone to have brunch in a sports bar.”

Will chuckled. “I wouldn’t say you’re flaming. Jerry and Tyrone, though….”

“Exactly. Aha, and here they are. Finally.”

Jerry’s expression was priceless as he and Tyrone walked to their booth. He appeared dumbfounded at the sheer number of people in Redskins apparel. When they reached the booth, he took another look around.

“My God. The testosterone alone in this place is just beyond. Good morning, dolls.”

“Good afternoon, you mean,” Eric said. “Took you long enough. Hi, Tyrone. Welcome to Will’s world.”

Tyrone flashed a smile. “Hey, boo. Will, how’s it hangin’?”

Jerry groaned. “Oh, no, don’t try to be macho. You’ll never get there.”

“Hey.” Will raised his coffee cup a fraction. He had on his Falcons T-shirt and was the picture of macho if macho meant delicious biceps and a mouth that featured in Eric’s fantasies.

Tyrone gave a graceful shrug. He was black, gorgeous, a dancer, a fellow theater major, and one of the most mellow people Eric had ever met. He and Will got along great.

Jerry huffed in impatience. “Well, shove over.” He took a seat next to Eric while Tyrone settled next to Will.

Eric gave Jerry, who was frowning, a peck on the cheek. “Hi, dearest.” He knew Jerry was irritable about having to play pretend boyfriend before he’d had his coffee.

Jerry scowled and then glanced at Will and managed a faint smile. “Hello. Darling.”

Eric signaled for their waiter. “We ate already.”

“I noticed.” Jerry stole the last piece of bacon off Eric’s plate.

“Hey! Get your own.”

“I will as soon as we can get some food.” Jerry took a bite and handed the rest of the strip to Eric. “If we ever do. Is it always this crowded?”

Tyrone smirked at them. “You lovebirds, always bickering. Will, you’re the reason I’m seeing Eric and Jerry in a sports bar for the first time ever. Congrats on pulling off the impossible.”

Jerry harrumphed. “You should talk.”

“Hey, I was raised in a family of Redskins fanatics. Too bad the Redskins suck.” Tyrone glanced at the TV. “What’s the score?”

“Who knows?” Eric finished the bacon and wished Jerry would lighten up.

“Fourteen-nothing, Redskins,” Will said. “Maybe they won’t suck this game.”

The waiter approached with a coffee pot and took Jerry and Tyrone’s orders.

“Ah, coffee at last.” Jerry drank. “Now I can be human. What’s everyone doing for Christmas break? Anything fun?”

Will shook his head. “Gotta go back to Georgia. Not fun.”

“Tell me about it,” Jerry said. “It’s Texas for me. Not exactly the place for this gay boy. But what can you do? Family, am I right?”

Tyrone asked Eric, “You still coming to our place for Christmas dinner?”

“Of course.” At Will’s questioning look, Eric explained, “You know I’m Jewish, right? So it’s always been Chinese and a movie on Christmas. Then I met this guy freshman year, and he got me to come to Richmond for Christmas. What a scene.”

Tyrone beamed. His large African-American family was as warm as Tyrone. Eric loved being fussed over by Ty’s mama and aunties, and the food was to die for.

“That sounds nice.” Will seemed wistful.

“You should come too,” Tyrone said. “There’s always room for more, according to Mama. We could all go out dancing.”

Eric laughed. “You and your dancing. That place in Richmond we went to last year was wild.”

“I don’t know about dancing,” Will said.

“Oh baby, we gotta do something about that. Dancing is life.” Tyrone sighed. “Besides, I need all my friends this year, now that Calvin and I are over.”

“Calvin is a fool,” Eric declared.

The game had started again, and Will focused on the TV.

“I told you it wasn’t going to work,” Jerry said to Tyrone. “You’re both bottoms, and when has that ever worked?”

“Jerry.” Eric glared at him and glanced at Will.

Eyes still on the game, Will said calmly, “I know what a bottom is.”

Do you? Eric sat back in surprise.

“Oh, yes?” Jerry raised his eyebrow. “Has Eric been instructing you in our ways?”

A flush crept up Will’s neck. “Not really.”

“Shut up, Jerry. Dearest.”

Eric and Jerry traded glares.

That Will is full of surprises. But Eric is absolutely positive that Will is straight. He had him pegged from Day One. And then there’s the matter of the mysterious Jessie who Will spends weekends with.

BLOG TOUR AND GIVEAWAY

Leave a comment at each stop for a chance to win one of my backlist ebooks!

For the next stop on the Kinsey Scale blog tour, check out Love Bytes Reviews tomorrow on 11/13. I’ll be interviewing Eric and Will about their favorite childhood memories.

Comment below and tell us what your favorite dish is for brunch (beverages included).


Blurb

Life is good for Eric Brown. He’s a senior theater major, an RA for a freshman dorm, and has a great circle of friends. Single since sophomore year, Eric isn’t looking for love. But then Will Butler—fellow senior, co-RA, and the cutest guy Eric’s ever seen—walks into his dorm. Will has a girlfriend he sees off campus—a minor disappointment that becomes a major problem when a housing shortage causes Will and Eric to become roommates, and Eric is forced to witness Will’s hotness day in and day out. For protection, Eric asks Jerry, his ex-boyfriend, to pretend they’re still together. Jerry warns him it’s a stupid idea, but he reluctantly agrees.

Too bad it won’t save Eric from losing his heart.

Will Butler has never believed in himself. His dysfunctional family saw to that. Although Will has loved music since childhood, he’s never seriously considered pursuing it, and the person he’s dating doesn’t encourage him. Then he and Eric Brown become roommates, and everything changes. Eric believes in Will and his talent. He’s also gorgeous and playful and fast becoming Will’s best friend. And that’s not good, because Will is hiding some big things, not only from Eric, but from himself.


Bio

After years of hearing characters chatting away in her head, CJane Elliott finally decided to put them on paper and hasn’t looked back since. A psychotherapist by training, CJane enjoys writing sexy, passionate stories that also explore the human psyche. CJane has traveled all over North America for work and her characters are travelers, too, traveling down into their own depths to find what they need to get to the happy ending.

CJane is an ardent supporter of LGBTQ equality and is particularly fond of coming-out stories. In her spare time, CJane can be found dancing, listening to music, or watching old movies. Her family supports her writing habit by staying out of the way when they see her hunched over, staring intensely at her laptop.

CJane is the author of the award-winning Serpentine Series, New Adult contemporary novels set at the University of Virginia. Serpentine Walls was a 2014 Rainbow Awards finalist, Aidan’s Journey was a 2015 EPIC Awards finalist, and Sex, Love, and Videogames won first place in the New Adult category in the 2016 Swirl Awards and first place in Contemporary Fiction in the 2017 EPIC eBook Awards.

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Giveaway

CJane has brought a backlist book to give away to one lucky reader on her tour. Just follow the Rafflecopter below to enter. 

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