Friday, August 27, 2010

Breakfast in Bed

Riding the Waves
 Tawny Weber

* Harlequin Blaze
* September 2010
* Miniseries: Forbidden Fantasies
* Category: Passion
 
Back of the Book



All uptight workaholic Drucilla Robichoux wants is to experience incredible sex, at least once in her life. So she heads off to Mexico for some sun, sand and sin. And she finds the perfect playmate in sexy surf instructor Alex. Her temporary boy toy teaches Dru to ride the waves, all right…

…right into the most intense climaxes she's ever had!
But all vacation flings must end. When Dru heads home, she buttons up tight again. Might as well keep this delicious fantasy right where it belongs… in her naughty memories.

So it sure is a shock when she walks into work Monday morning and finds her secret fling is her new boss! And he's definitely still interested in catching the big one with Dru. Read Excerpt
THOUGHTS:

What a fun story, smooth, easy to read, and lots of laugh out loud moments. Oh, and some characters that generate enough heat between them no wonder there’s global warming.

Dru is a brilliant scientist very focused on her career (Tawny has the details on this career nailed) and being a success. She’s not truly a risk taker. In making her career the center of her life she has neglected such things as interpersonal skills (Actually, if you’ve watched Bones, on TV, she reminds me of Temperance).

“Blond, cool and contained, Dru knew she put off a don't-touch-me air. She didn't mean to, but couldn't seem to change it.” Dru is attractive but tends to hide it behind severe hairstyles and the color beige.

Dru’s idea of sex, so far: “Drucilla wanted to love sex. Better yet, she wanted a sex life worth loving. She was a firm believer in maintaining a healthy balance between mind and body. Her mind was top-notch and she worked to keep her body the same. Good food, regular exercise. And sex, dammit. She'd read plenty of studies that claimed that regular, satisfying sex was important to good health…Maybe self-gratification would be enough if she increased her beta-carotene intake?”

She has a best friend, Nikki, who is determined to expand her narrow world. I love Nikki’s one liners and deadpan ways of making her point. Nikki deftly maneuvers Dru (enlisting the aid of the boss) in taking a vacation with the instructions to find a hottie.

Enter said hottie, Alex, whom Dru thinks of as nothing more than a bit above average in smarts, surf-boy and perfect for a hot, no strings, fling. Sparks fly and even more when she comes home to find that her wild sexy lover, the man who gave her the most blowing sex on every available surface, is the Rock Star of the science world and her partner on a major project.

I love to read Tawny’s stories. She has a way of creating realistic conflicts and setting an excellent set of characters in place to solve them. Tawny’s characters are fun and characters you truly enjoy reading about. I love the way she fashions her Happily-ever-after.

If you like a fast paced story, and entertaining plot, with a dose of hot sex you’re going to love reading this one.  


Please welcome back one of my favorite people, romance writer Tawny Weber. Tawny  was willing to share an indulgence with us--recipe for French Toast. I will be trying it out this weekend. Sounds heavenly.
 

Woot! I’m excited to be hanging out here with Sia. And I figured, with a title like Over Coffee, what better topic than breakfast, right?

I am a firm believer in indulgences and breaks. Those little rewards that make it so much easier for us to get through the hard work of whatever task we’re focusing on. But like any reward, it’s only special if it’s, well, you know, special. As in not indulged in very often.

In my latest Blaze, RIDING THE WAVES, my heroine is on vacation and, in the spirit of vacation indulgences, has a decadent breakfast she’d never have at home. Her choice? Stuffed French toast, chorizo and spicy fried potatoes. Oooooh, baby, doesn’t that sound like the perfect yummy caloric indulgence? Add a mimosa or three, and you have one heckuva delish breakfast. Drucilla, my heroine, didn’t have hers in bed –she had other bedtime treats instead ;-) But for me, if I were to indulge in something like this I’d definitely want it served on a tray while I lounged on silk sheets with a huge cloud of feather pillows behind my back and a view of the ocean out the door. Or… Well, to be honest, I’d take this indulgence in my own bed, with my own flannel sheets and the view of a maple tree out the window. For something this yummy, why be picky?

So – here’s a recipe for Drucilla’s French toast.

Cinnamon-Apple Stuffed French Toast


· 1/4 c. butter
· 2 Granny Smith apples, peeled and cubed
· 2 T. brown sugar
· 2 t. cinnamon
· 4 oz. cream cheese, room temperature
· 6 slices extra thick brioche bread
· 6 eggs
· 1/2 c. milk
· 1 T. vanilla
· 1/4 t. cinnamon
· 1/4 c. toasted pecans, chopped (optional)
· Extra butter for the skillet


1. Melt 1/4 c. butter in a small skillet. Add apples, brown sugar and cinnamon. Cook for 5-8 minutes until apples start getting tender.
2. In a bowl mix cream cheese with apple mixture. Stir until well combined.
3. On the bottom edge of each piece of bread, slice a pocket, leaving a 1/2 inch border on 3 sides. Fill the pockets with about 2 T. filling. Repeat with the rest of the bread slices.
4. Whisk together eggs, milk, vanilla and cinnamon. Soak filled bread in egg mixture for one minute. Cook in a hot, greased skillet, 3-4 minutes per side.


Serve with powdered sugar, syrup or warm caramel topping. Sprinkle with toasted pecans.


And how about you? Are you a fan of indulgences? How about breakfast – in or out of bed? What’s your favorite breakfast treat? Care to share a recipe?
~*~*~*~
Tawny's usually found dreaming up stories in her northern California home, surrounded by dogs, cats and kids. When she’s not writing hot, spicy stories, she’s testing her latest margarita recipe, shopping for the perfect pair of boots or drooling over pictures of Johnny Depp (when her husband isn’t looking, of course). Her alter ego, Mom, also spends a lot of time scrap booking and playing in the garden.

Please visit Tawny at her home on the Web at www.TawnyWeber.com. She loves to hear from readers.