Tamara Morgan's IF I STAY (Guest Post/Giveaway)

Please give a warm welcome to Tamara Morgan, joining us with her contemporary romance IF I STAY!

Crafting a Serious(ly) Fun Sex Scene For IF I STAY by Tamara Morgan 

One of main reasons I kicked off my modern-day Downton Abbey series, Montgomery Manor, with a couple from the downstairs potion of the house was because staff members tend to have more fun. Sure, the family has money enough to travel the globe and hobnob with celebrities, but it’s the nursery and the garage where people let loose and laugh.

Ryan and Amy (the Montgomery family chauffeur and nanny, respectively) provided a perfect opportunity to combine the high heat of a forbidden love affair with a more low-key approach to sexytimes. Because they were friends and co-workers first, they get to skip a lot of the getting-to-know you stages and jump right into having…fun together.

Writing humorous sex scenes is one of my favorite things about being a romance author, but it’s not always easy to strike a balance between love and laughter. Here a few of my tried-and-true techniques for making these kinds of scenes work.

• Physical Comedy: Physical comedy is one of the most difficult things to write. Too much, and you’ve got a slapstick comedy that borders on farce. Not enough, and the jokes fall flat. (For the record, I happen to think one of the best physical comedy writers in romance right now is Elyssa Patrick.)
• Inside Jokes: By the time the hero and heroine get together, they’ve usually had some time to forge inside jokes together (and readers have naturally followed along). Bringing these to the forefront is a great way to not only add laughs, but to reinforce the relationship that’s been building between all of us.
• Low Humor: I’m not ashamed to admit it. My sense of humor tends to fall along the same lines as that of your average thirteen year old. Sex scenes are great for bringing a cruder kind of humor out to enjoy, since everyone’s already standing there stark naked with all their parts on display.
• Banter: I love banter. Love. It. I would read a book that contains nothing but verbal foreplay between the hero and heroine, because when it’s done right, it’s all that’s needed to build heat and tension. Even better is when the banter doesn’t stop just because the sex has started. 

Amy and Ryan do their best to incorporate all these features—and they have quite a bit of fun in the process! Here’s a sneak peek at some of the laughs these two have once the ball gets rolling.

“Don’t look so frightened.” She lifted a hand to cup the side of his face. Her fingers were light where they fluttered against his jaw. “I know you’re not planning on staying in Ransom Creek on a permanent basis. I don’t intend to get in the way of that.”

“Amy, there’s something I need to tell you.”

Her hand dropped as if scalded by the touch, by the fire in his veins and the brimstone on his skin. “That sounds an awful lot like you’re going to reject me again. Would it help if we pretended it never happened? We can blame the boobs, if that helps.”

His gaze flew to her chest, startled. “What?”

“In times of trouble, I find they provide an excellent excuse. You were rolling. All of a sudden they were right there under you, and your body took over. It was clearly the boobs’ fault.”

He wanted to protest, to tell her that kissing her fulfilled a longing he suspected had only a small something to do with her body, but this seemed safer. She was giving him an out, a—ahem—soft place to land.

IF I STAY

Author: Tamara Morgan

Release Date: May 12, 2014

Publisher: Carina Press

Genre: Contemporary Romance

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Ryan Lucas would rather be anywhere but Ransom Creek, Connecticut. After losing his high-adrenaline career as a Hollywood stunt driver, he's had to tuck his tail between his legs and take up employment as a chauffeur for the Montgomerys, a wealthy hotelier family.

Amy Sanders has returned home to Ransom Creek to take over her mother's former position as nanny to the Montgomerys—bringing her close to dashing Jake Montgomery once again. She grew up with a major crush on Jake, and it's not easy to leave those feelings behind, even though her friendship with the hard-edged family chauffeur, Ryan, has a sizzling undercurrent of undeniable attraction.

Amy's determined to prove to Ryan that life at Montgomery Manor isn't all bad, but each time they draw closer Jake swoops in. Amy is torn between two men—and two worlds. And Ryan is rapidly coming to learn that if he wants to make Amy his, he'll have to prove to her that life downstairs can be everything they both want.

Author Biography

Tamara Morgan is a contemporary romance author of humorous, heartfelt stories with flawed heroes and heroines designed to get your hackles up and make your heart melt. Her long-lived affinity for romance novels survived a B.A. degree in English Literature, after which time she discovered it was much more fun to create stories than analyze the life out of them.

Whether building Victorian dollhouses, consuming mass quantities of coffee and wine, or crying over cheesy 1950s musicals, Tamara commits to her flaws like every good heroine should. She lives in the Inland Northwest with her husband, daughter, and variety of household pets and only occasionally complains about the weather.

Website - http://www.tamaramorgan.com

Goodreads - https://www.goodreads.com/tamaramorgan

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/AuthorTamaraMorgan

Twitter - https://twitter.com/Tamara_Morgan

GIVEAWAY:
Tamara is giving away an ebook of IF I STAY to three winners today.

a Rafflecopter giveaway