Bayou Book Junkie: Virtual Tour ~ Speakeasy by Suzey Ingold ~ (Review, Interview, Excerpt + Giveaway)

Wednesday, February 24, 2016

Virtual Tour ~ Speakeasy by Suzey Ingold ~ (Review, Interview, Excerpt + Giveaway)

Virtual Tour ~ Speakeasy by Suzey Ingold ~ (Review, Interview, Excerpt + Giveaway)

Author Name: Suzey Ingold

Book Name: Speakeasy

Release Date: February 18, 2016

Blurb:

In the height of the Prohibition era, recent Yale graduate Heath Johnson falls for Art, the proprietor of a unique speakeasy tucked away beneath the streets of Manhattan where men are free to explore their sexuality. When Art’s sanctuary is raided, Heath is forced to choose between love and the structured life his parents planned for him.

Pages or Words: 244 pages

Categories: Gay fiction, Historical, M/M Romance, Romance

Excerpt:

Heath swallows, playing over an idea that had formed shakily in his head after he saw Frankie, since Art walked through that door and possibly longer without him being fully conscious of it. “Maybe it’s time I was honest. Tell them that I don’t want to marry Ginny or work with my father. Let the pieces fall where they may.”

“You would do that?”

“If it meant being with you, I would do anything.” Heath sits up and the sheets fall to pool around his waist. “I know what I want, now. And it’s you and whatever a future with you brings.”

Buy The Book:

Interlude Press ~ Amazon ~ iBooks ~ Barnes and Noble ~ AllRomance ~ Smashwords ~ Indiebound

5 Stars *copy provided to Bayou Book Junkie by the author/publisher via Pride Promotions in exchange for an honest review* Newly graduated from Yale, Heath returns home. He plans to spend the summer hanging with his friends. His parents have other ideas. They feel it's time for Heath to use his degree to join his father as a stockbroker on Wall Street, and pick a nice girl to marry and start a family with. His father agrees to give him the summer to decide his future. When Heath's bestfriend, Frankie takes him to TJ, a Speakeasy, an illegally operated bar during the prohibition era, Heath is surprised to discover it's a special speakeasy. One for men like himself. Gay men. There he meets the owner, Art. They connect and begin meeting in secret. This is a dangerous situation in 1927. Heath not only has to lie to his family about where and with who he is spending his time with, but he and Art have to be careful not to get caught. I absolutely loved this story. I couldn't put this book down. The author drew me in and didn't let go. I enjoyed the sweetness and innocence of Heath and Art's relationship. I'll be honest, I like sex in my books. This book had none, but strangely enough I found myself not missing it all that much. Heath and Art had an amazing connection and chemistry. My co-blogger is the historical nut, I usually stick to between the 1970's to the present, but I really loved the era. I adored the backdrop of NYC. I just returned from my first vacation there a couple of weeks ago. We've all seen NYC on tv, but to know where the author was talking about, and having just walked down some of these streets made this story feel a little more magical. This was an enjoyable, and well written story. A tad slow at times, but my attention never wavered. Highly recommended!!

Author Interview:

Today I’m very lucky to be interviewing Suzey Ingold, author of Speakeasy.

Hi Suzey, thank you for agreeing to this interview. Tell us a little about yourself, your background, and your current book.

Thank you for having me! I’m a writer and linguistics student, currently based in Edinburgh. I’ve been writing for years and had my first short story, The Willow Weeps for Us, published in 2015, in the Summer Love anthology from Duet Books. Speakeasy is about a recent Yale graduate who must discover what he really wants when he meets the owner of a unique Midtown speakeasy in 1920s Manhattan.

Was there a basis for you story? A previous experience or something else?

The basis for my story really just came from a life-long love for the Jazz Age era in New York City. There are parts of Heath’s personal journey and the difficulties he’s facing at the point in his life he’s in that I can certainly relate with, as I will soon be at the same crossroads in my life, but I don’t think I purposefully wrote that from personal experience.

What skills do you think a writer needs?

Perseverance: to keep going even when you hit a roadblock or when your writing isn’t going quite as smoothly or successfully as you hoped. Inspiration: you need to have something that inspires you to write, or inspires ideas that you can develop. A thick skin: this one takes time (I’m still growing mine) but being mentally prepared for criticism and rejection will make it that little bit easier to deal with.

What for you is the perfect book hero?

For me, the perfect book hero cannot be perfect themselves. My perfect hero is someone who’s human: someone who has strengths but also flaws, flaws they might be aware of or might not be. They need to have room to grow as a person.

Is there anything you find particularly challenging in your writing?

I often find starting to be quite difficult. There’s so much preparation that goes into writing anything before you even start putting the words down that it feels quite daunting when you reach the point where you’re ready to do that. Once I get started, it’s a lot smoother sailing from there!

Tell us about your favorite childhood book.

I used to love the Moomin stories by Tove Jansson. I’m half Finnish so we used to have some in English but quite a few more, that weren’t in translation, in Finnish, and my father would read them to me in one or other of the languages! Their adventures out in their row boat or in the forest were the perfect bedtime stories and made me dream of returning to the lakeside in Finland myself come the summer.

Meet the author:

Suzey Ingold is a writer, linguist and coffee addict, currently based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Brought up in a household where children’s books are quoted over the dinner table, literature has always had a strong influence on her life. She enjoys traveling, scented candles and brunch. Her short story, “The Willow Weeps for Us,” was included in “Summer Love: An LGBTQ Collection,” published by Duet, an imprint of Interlude Press (2015).

Where to find the author:

Homepage: www.suzeysays.com

Twitter: https://twitter.com/suzeysays

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/suzeysays/

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/suzeysays

Publisher: Interlude Press

Cover Artist: Cover Art by Colin Moore; Cover design by C.B. Messer