Today I am so pleased to welcome Kat Cassidy to Joyfully Jay. Kat has come to talk to us about her latest release, Backstreets (Hot Wire Series Book #2). She has also brought along a great giveaway. Please join me in giving her a big welcome!

 

Thanks for having me!  I’m so excited to get to share some insight into the Hot Wire series in general and Backstreets specifically.  Backstreets (Hot Wire #2) is a continuation of Peter Bauer and Nikos Petrakis’ story—a romance sparked between a career car thief and an honorable mechanic.

I truly believe the mark of any author is that we are all voracious readers and consumers of media long before we ever set pen to page (or fingers to keyboard, in this case.) The Hot Wire Series was birthed from my love of dark comedies, neo-noir thrillers, and HEA romances. I think the common thread throughout at least the latter two of those genres is strong characterizations.

So, that’s going to be the focus of this blog tour.  Let’s spill some tea about my characters, lovelies. One of the most important secondary characters in the Hot Wire series is Peter’s twin sister, Olivia Bauer.

After their father, Erik, goes to jail in Night Moves, Liv steps in to take over the family business.  She and Peter have been partners in crime, both literally and figuratively, since their mom passed away. Like most siblings, they are alternately good friends and antagonistic towards each other.  Just like Peter, Liv has been shaped by an unhealthy upbringing under their father’s thumb.

For Liv, the way to cope with this is to be constantly in control.  She definitely feels uneasy about Peter’s new life with Nik in Backstreets, if only because if her brother’s not close to her, Liv doesn’t know how to keep him safe.  Worse, she feels like she’s failed in the past, especially when it comes to Peter’s brushes with addiction.



Excerpt

“Your child assistant. Jordan, was it?” Nina looked over at her from the passenger seat, her eyebrow arched. “You hire him from some afterschool program for teens born without spines?”

“He’s a good kid.” Liv was the first to admit that Jordan wasn’t quite as hard as he needed to be for this job, but she felt like she had to defend him. He reminded her a lot of Peter, and Olivia wanted to make sure he didn’t end up going down some of the darker paths her brother had gone down over the years. Once Peter didn’t need her like he used to, Jordan had seemed like a suitable back-up project.

It was odd, this newfound freedom. Olivia had spent the better part of two decades being defined by everyone else in her life, and now she could finally be her own woman. Not Liv, Peter’s keeper. Not Liv, Erik’s compliant little foot soldier. Just Liv.

Whoever the fuck that was supposed to be.

Olivia felt the impotent rage well up inside her. At eleven years old, she had been forced to step in and fill the place that Cynthia Bauer had left. It had been a lot to ask, and Olivia had been expected to be absolutely perfect at it. Mom’s death had hung like a sword above Liv’s head, reminding her of what would happen to her if she didn’t.

It wasn’t fair to Peter at all, but part of Liv hated him for being allowed to be screwed-up because of it. Peter had never had to grow up. To this day, she was still bailing him out and cleaning up his messes. And she couldn’t even be bitter about it, because Peter had had it ten times worse from Dad.

The other part of Olivia felt utterly, desperately helpless that Peter was out of her hands now. Maybe her methods hadn’t always been the best. She had always craved control, but it seemed these days that the more Olivia tightened her fist, the faster everything slipped away.

Olivia and Peter had both been the product of a fucked up household. His scars were just a lot more visible than hers. The complication of it all roiled inside her and, like most of her feelings, Olivia pushed it aside, deciding that she would rather not examine it.


Blurb

“Where there’s nothing to gain and everything to lose.”

It’s modest, but after a lifetime spent barely holding on, former car thief Peter Bauer is proud of what he’s managed to achieve. He’s got a legal, legitimate job as a mechanic, a firm grasp on his addictions, and a steady relationship with Nikos Petrakis—stable, handsome, and recently widowed. Nothing is going to upset that, not the ever-present memory of Nik’s wife, not the claustrophobia Peter is starting to feel trapped in domestic bliss, not even the sudden reappearance of Peter’s ex—the sexy and dangerous Stavros Giannopoulos.

But when Nik’s daughter goes missing, Peter will be forced back into the seedy underbelly of the LA crime world, where anything goes. Can his and Nik’s relationship survive? Can Peter?

Backstreets is the second book in Kat Cassidy’s Hot Wire series which contains themes of crime, suspense, family drama, hurt/comfort, dark humor, addiction, and abuse. It should not be read as a standalone.


Bio

Kat Cassidy is a romance novelist. She’s a dreamer, a schemer and, above all else, a believer in true love. She lives in Canada with her husband and her lovable mutt, and she likes loud guitars and strong IPAs.

Her debut novel, Night Moves, has been nominated for the Goodreads M/M Romance Members’ Choice Awards Best of 2018 for both Best Debut Book and Best Main Character.


Giveaway

Kat has brought a great giveaway for one lucky reader on her tour. Just follow the Rafflecopter below to enter. 

a Rafflecopter giveaway


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