It is my pleasure to welcome Charley Descoteaux, author of Torque, to Book Reviews & More by Kathy!
Hi Charley, thank you for stopping by and chatting with us today. Could you please tell us a little about yourself and your current book.
Describe your book to us.
Torque is a Romance featuring a bisexual man, a man on the ace spectrum, and a trans woman with no plans for surgeries. Most of it takes place in a working wrecking yard, so no glitz or glamor but a lot of angst.
Have you ever read something that made you think differently about your genre? Can you tell us what it was?
I’d love to! I consider my genre LGBTQ+ Romance, not M/M or Gay Romance. Not because I don’t like books that fit into those categories, but because I don’t like only those books. I want to read and write about everyone under the rainbow, glimpse as many different experiences as I can.
A Boy Called Cin let me do that. I loved this book—sweet and sexy with great characters, lovely writing, and no triggery surprises. I would definitely recommend it to anyone on the lookout for something different that will make them smile.
Tell us about your character’s family life.
Mick didn’t have the greatest childhood by most standards: his folks were at the low end of working-class and his mom left him with his step-dad when he was twelve. But he had his older brother and Keith always looked out for him.
Compare yourself to your main character.
We are a lot alike, to be honest. We’re both bisexual and both have bad track records where relationships are concerned. Mick’s much quieter by nature, though. I’m an introvert, but my mouth gets me in trouble a lot.
Describe your past week as a type of landscape or a weather forecast.
Haha, great question for a Portlander! We’re kind of obsessed with the weather here. Hardly a day passes without a conversation about micro-climates, how much it’s supposed to rain, or which direction the wind is coming from. As I’m writing this my most recent week started with showers, progressed to thunder storms and cold temperatures, and ended up with sunshine on the cherry blossoms!
Title: Torque by Charley Descoteaux
Publisher: Samhain Publishing, Ltd
Genre: Contemporary, Bisexual, Ménage/Poly, Romance, *Trans, Asexual, LGBTQ+ Fiction
Word Count: 47,337
Summary:
Sometimes letting things get complicated is the best way to figure it all out.
Mick Randall is on the run, from the biker culture he grew up in and his impossible vision of love. Alaska should be far enough to escape his old life—until he rolls into a wrecking yard and gets lost in a pair of pale, bottle-green eyes.
Scotty Bell has spent years learning to channel his fiery temper into the heat of a welding torch. His sexual heat has always been slower to ignite, but one look at Mick rouses confusion alongside desire. In all his life, he’s only been attracted to one other person—his best friend, Mercy Taylor.
Mick lands a temporary job at the yard, and finds an uneasy crash pad at Scotty’s place…where the ragged ends of his emotions get tangled up in Scotty and Mercy’s relationship.
But when Mick hears a Harley engine from his past bearing down on him, his first instinct is to go back to the half-life he’d been living. Lest his secrets destroy the only two people who’ve ever made him feel whole.
Product Warnings: Contains references to abuse, subversive ideas about sexual identity and gender expression, and a free-range bisexual on a mission.
Add to Goodreads.
Purchase Links: Samhain Publishing * Amazon * ARe
Excerpt
Copyright © 2016 Charley Descoteaux
All rights reserved — a Samhain Publishing, Ltd. publication
Mick slept on the couch for two weeks before Scott let him get dinner. Mick brought a pizza, hot wings and a six-pack. When he offered Scott a beer, Mick thought for a second he was about to get decked.
“No thanks, I don’t drink. But you go ahead.”
Mick put five bottles in the fridge and popped the top on the sixth. The long pull of rich beer felt like cool water after he’d been walking for weeks in the desert.
“Never?”
“Nope. I got enough of that before I was even born, I don’t need any more.”
It only took half a beer for Mick to get past the uncomfortable feeling he should’ve asked Scott to tell him more, or that he should’ve switched to Mountain Dew. Scott rented an On Demand movie, something forgettable with vampires, and they sat in their places on the couch and divided their attention between the movie and the pizza for the next two hours. Tom camped out in his usual spot between their thighs, graciously accepting all the chicken and pepperoni tributes offered to him.
After the movie was over they watched another one on HBO, but didn’t pay much attention to it. Mick had a nice buzz going and was happy to sit back and listen to Scott talk about his project—the VW Microbus he was converting into a flatbed. A warm, fuzzy feeling Mick almost didn’t recognize as happiness set up camp in his gut, and life was good.
He thought, more than once or twice, that Scott leaned toward him in a way that was a little more than friendly, but it had to be the beer.
Too bad.
Author Bio
Charley Descoteaux misspent a large chunk of her youth on the back of a Harley, meeting people and having adventures that sometimes pop up in her fiction. She grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area during a drought, and found her true home in the soggy Pacific Northwest. Charley has survived earthquakes, tornadoes and floods, but couldn’t make it through one day without stories.
Author Links: Website * Facebook * Twitter * Pinterest * Goodreads
Giveaway
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Congratulations Charley. This sounds like an interesting mix of characters.
Thank you, regencyfan93! <3
Congrats on your new release!
Thanks, Timitra! 🙂
Good job. I like subversive, adding this to my wishlist.
Thanks, Nancy! <3
I love that you said, “my mouth gets me in trouble a lot.” That is so my problem too! Congrats on your new book! I can’t wait to read it! Thanks for the chance 🙂
I’m glad i’m not alone in that! Thanks for your comment, Suzanne! 🙂
Congratulations on the release!