Please help me welcome author Tawna Fenske to GraveTells today!

At least three times a year, I fall in love with a new man.

My gentleman friend is fine with this, and even encourages my amorous endeavors. He kinda has to, since the other men help keep a roof over our heads.

See, the men I’m talking about are all imaginary. They’re the fictitious heroes of the romantic comedy novels and novellas I write for a living, and I adore of them in a different way.

Take Paul Hammond. He’s the hero of Eat, Play, Lust, my new novella from Entangled Publishing. I spent part of last year swooning over this guy, and when Entangled released it a few weeks ago, I got oodles of lovely messages from readers and reviewers who loved Paul, too.

It’s okay, ladies (and gentlemen, if you happen to swing that way). I’m happy to share Paul. I’m also happy to share five reasons I’m particularly smitten with him.

1. He’s not your stereotypical, strapping hero. Paul is a far cry from Fabio with washboard abs and flowing hair. He’s a big guy who looks a bit like a lumberjack, complete with the beard and the big arms. He had green eyes and a hearty laugh. He admits right off the bat he’s a little squishy around the middle, the result of his job as a gourmet chef. It’s the squish that lands him in a standup paddleboarding yoga class with the instructor he’s been crushing on for months.
2. He’s the opposite of a smooth-talking ladies man. Paul is prone to putting his foot in his mouth, but the effect is utterly charming. He knows he can be a doofus, and he’s got a self-deprecating sense of humor that keeps him from taking himself too seriously. I love a guy who can make me laugh and who’s not afraid to laugh at himself. That’s Paul in a nutshell.
3. He’s a great cook. I love to eat, and so does Paul’s crush, Cami. Well, she won’t admit it, at least not until Paul coaxes her out of her shell in the most delightful way imaginable.
4. He’s the least judgmental guy you’ll ever meet. Cami has some issues, particularly about body image and food. Instead of being turned off, Paul encourages her to embrace both her lust for junk food and her own body.
5. He’s an adventurous guy willing to try something new. Not only does he sign up for Cami’s regular yoga classes, but he decides to take a shot at doing yoga on a standup paddleboard in the middle of the river. Not for the faint of heart, but Paul takes it all in stride even when he goes tumbling into the water (taking Cami with him, of course). He’s also willing to try anything in the kitchen, from a decadent soufflé to…um, well, other decadent activities.

Those are just a few of the things I adore about Paul Hammond. Since Eat, Play, Lust, is just 99-cents, that means you have the chance to fall in love for the price of a Snickers bar.

I’m crossing my fingers you’ll find Paul more tasty.

Eat, Play, Lust

Cami Pressman is a yoga instructor with a lifelong secret love of junk food. Not even an irresistible man can replace the mouthwatering wickedness of her favorite foods.

Until, that is, Paul Hammond signs up for her class. He’s a gourmet chef looking to score some fitness tips, and a date with Cami. Suddenly Cami’s lust for junk food isn’t the only thing making her tingle.

When this sinful chef and hot yoga teacher eat, play, and lust together, they just might bring their obsession to a new level.

Tawna will be donating a portion of the proceeds from the sale of Eat, Play, Lust to the Fisher Center for Alzheimer’s Research Foundation.

Add to… Goodreads

Buy it on Amazon here!

Read an excerpt

“Paul Hammond?” She blinked a few more times to see if the broad-shouldered, desperately hot lumberjack would morph into the tubby, balding, middle-aged man she’d pictured on the phone. “You’re the guy from my Thursday group yoga class.”

She flushed as soon as the words left her mouth. It was the biggest class she taught—at least 30 students—and the fact that she’d noticed him probably revealed too much.

But she had noticed him. A lot. She was just surprised to see him here now for one of her private yoga lessons on a standup paddleboard. Cami cleared her throat and tried again. “So you’re the gourmet chef whose doctor prescribed a fitness program?”

He laughed, a warm, jubilant sound that made her toes curl. His well-trimmed beard and massive biceps completed the lumberjack image, assuming lumberjacks sported orange floral swim trunks and bare feet.

“Technically, my doctor didn’t prescribe a fitness program. It was my brother—who happens to be a doctor—harassing me to change up my exercise routine.” He grinned, and Cami felt her spleen do a somersault. “You thought I’d be wheeled here on a stretcher with a heart monitor on my chest and a leg of lamb dangling from my lips?”

Cami swallowed, pretty sure it was the lamb and not the mention of his chest and lips making her mouth water.

You’ve never eaten lamb, she reminded herself.

Cami tucked a flyaway chestnut curl behind her ear and surreptitiously swiped the back of her hand over her mouth. Good, she wasn’t drooling in front of a client. Always a plus.

“Of course I didn’t expect that,” she lied, trying hard not to fixate on the intense grass-green color of his eyes. “You filled out my online intake form with your height and weight so I’d know which paddleboard to bring for your lesson.”

She just hadn’t made the connection between that online registration form and the student she’d been admiring in the back of her group yoga class for two months.

 

About the author

After earning the ever-useful English Lit degree with a Spanish minor, I traveled a career path that took me from newspaper reporter to English teacher in South America to marketing/PR geek in industries ranging from healthcare to tourism.

A third-generation Oregonian, I’ve been writing from the time I could link two words together to form a sentence. Even though I had been doing that to keep a roof over my head for most of my adult life, it wasn’t until a few years ago that I actually took a stab at writing fiction. After a couple tries at getting published with Harlequin/Silhouette’s Bombshell line of action-adventure novels, I sold my first book to them in May 2005. Just over a year later – after I’d already finished the revisions, reviewed cover art, and spent my advance on a month-long trip around Australia – I got a call from my editor informing me they were canceling the line a month prior to my scheduled debut. My book would not be hitting the shelves after all. Incidentally, this was also my birthday. And the day my cat died. Oh, and the same morning, my employer at the time informed me that they would terminate me the following week if I continued to disobey the company’s hosiery requirement (I did. They didn’t.) Quite a day.

Connect with Tawna at her… Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads