Today I am so pleased to welcome Leta Blake to Joyfully Jay. Leta has come to talk to us about her latest release, Mr. Naughty List (which I reviewed here and totally adored!). Please join me in giving her a big welcome!

Thank you so much to Jay for having me here on the blog today to discuss my latest Christmas release!

Mr. Naughty List, my Christmas ebook release this year, is about a teacher and his former student, so there is a hint of the taboo there. However, at the heart, it’s a sweet, heartwarming, and adorable story about two men who truly bring the love the other has long needed in their lives. With some kink. And some spanking. And an inappropriate use of a ruler. 😉

I was inspired for the student-spanking-the-teacher aspect of Mr. Naughty List by a book by Rough Draft Hero called Rorschach Blots. It’s available on Smashwords and, fair warning, it doesn’t have the insertion of any years in between the taboo teacher/student relationship. At the time of the book, one main character is a student and the other his teacher. I read Rorschach Blots a few years ago and hadn’t been able to stop thinking about the character of a student who wanted to spank his teacher ever since. I knew I wanted to explore that, but with a FORMER student instead.

I chose to insert years and distance between their years of being student/teacher and becoming lovers because I wanted to write a sustainable, real romance. I didn’t want to write something so taboo that one of the heroes would be difficult to like or understand. But I admit I wanted to keep a few key things in place to allow for that feeling of naughty teacher/student play—like having the former student main character address his former teacher as Mr. Danvers during their more playful scenes.

Having one main character call the other Mr. So-&-So thing is something I typically enjoy in a romance. I think it comes from growing up reading historical romances, where propriety required that a wife should refer to her husband as Mr when speaking of him to others. But I knew it was a real, ahem, thing for me when I read Merry Christmas, Mr. Miggles by Eli Easton and was actually disappointed when the younger main character stopped calling the older librarian character Mr. Miggles and started using his first name. I thought to myself, “Oh, my, that’s a kink that needs to be explored stat.”

So I did! With the characters in Mr. Naughty List!

However, despite the spanking and the kinky use of the term Mr, the book is very much about family and home, and finding love despite not feeling worthy or even believing in it. It’s one of my favorite books I’ve ever written and I know you’ll love it too! And who doesn’t love a little kink in their Christmas!

Blurb

A cute teacher gets a spanking this Christmas. How hot can it get being on his former student’s Naughty List?

Is Aaron allowed to want a hot holiday fling with his young former student? Even more forbidden, is he allowed to want this student to spank him?

It’s another Christmas, and Aaron is still in the closet as a gay man and a natural submissive. With one youthful indiscretion blacking his ethics record, he can’t afford to indulge his desires no matter how pent up and needy that leaves him.

Until his former student comes home for the holidays.

Dominant and charming, RJ knows what Aaron needs—intense, steamy encounters and a firm hand. As Christmas nears, RJ helps Aaron unlock his true self. But family and fallout await, and all good things must end.

Or can their hot holiday affair turn them into lasting lovers?

Mr. Naughty List is a steamy Christmas MM romance set in the Home for the Holidays series that began with Mr. Frosty Pants, but can be read as a standalone. Featuring light D/s, spanking, an older sub with a younger Dom, former student/teacher dynamics, and, of course, warm, sweet holiday feels complete with a strong happy ending.

Bio

Author of the bestselling book Smoky Mountain Dreams and the fan favorite Training Season, Leta Blake’s educational and professional background is in psychology and finance, respectively. However, her passion has always been for writing. She enjoys crafting romance stories and exploring the psyches of made up people. At home in the Southern U.S., Leta works hard at achieving balance between her day job, her writing, and her family.