Virtual Book Tour ~ Heels Over Head by Elyse Springer (Guest Post + Giveaway)

Hello, and welcome to the blog tour for Heels Over Head, my new sports romance where Olympic diving hopefuls battle it out on the platform... while discovering friendship, family, and love along the way. I hope you enjoy reading Jeremy and Brandon's romance as much as I enjoyed writing it!

I'll be stopping on several blogs throughout the week, so I hope you'll follow along and join in the discussion. Plus, don't forget to leave a comment at the end of the post... you'll be entered to win an Amazon gift card!

About Heels Over Head

Jeremy Reeve is one of the best divers in the world, and he’s worked hard to get where he is. He intends to keep pushing himself with one very clear goal in mind: winning gold at the summer Olympics in two years. That medal might be the only way to earn his father’s respect as an athlete.

Brandon Evans is everything Jeremy isn’t: carefree, outgoing, and openly gay. With his bright-blue eyes and dramatic tattoos, he’s a temptation that Jeremy refuses to acknowledge. But Jeremy can’t ignore how talented Brandon is—or that Brandon has no interest in using his diving skills to compete.

They’re opposites who are forced to work together as teammates, but Jeremy’s fear of his own sexuality and Brandon’s disinterest in anything “not fun” may end their partnership before it begins. Until a single moment changes everything, and they help each other discover that “team” can also mean family and love.

Now available from Riptide Publishing. http://www.riptidepublishing.com/titles/heels-over-head

About Elyse Springer

Elyse is an author and world-traveler, whose unique life experiences have helped to shape the stories that she wants to tell. She writes romances with LGBTQ+ characters and relationships, and believes that every person deserves a Happily Ever After. When she’s not staring futilely at her computer screen, El spends her time adding stamps to her passport, catching up on her terrifying TBR list, and learning to be a better adult.

She’s always happy to chat with other readers, and you can find her online at:

• Website: http://elspringer.com
• Twitter: @ElyseSpringer
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/elysespringerwrites

My Descent into Diving

The summer of 2012 was the first time that I’d heard the name Tom Daley.

I was living overseas, and one of the few TV stations we had was BBC. In the UK, Tom Daley was (and still is) a star athlete… but by-and-large most Americans don’t know anything about the sport of diving. I sure didn’t. Yet, after watching a short news story on young Olympic hopeful Tom Daley and his quest to bring home gold on the 10 meter platform, I found myself intrigued.

Thus began my crash-course in diving. Over the span of a week, I watched the best male and female divers in the world throw themselves off platforms and springboards, flip and twist in mid-air, and land (hopefully) without a splash.

Guys, this sport is nuts. It’s gymnastics while falling 33 feet through the air.

I learned the basics pretty quickly that summer, but didn’t really get a detailed understanding of the sport. I knew what a pike was, and that hitting the water perfectly vertical with no splash was called ripping the entry—so called because the sound you make should sound like a piece of paper being torn. I learned a few big names: Daley, of course, but also Benfeito and Boudia and others.

And then the Olympics ended, and diving… vanished. Buh-bye for four years. No coverage on TV, no one talking about it on social media. This isn’t a sport that ESPN covers (though apparently bowling and poker are?!) and it’s not one that US news talks about, even though the US won a gold medal.

So it wasn’t until the 2016 summer games that I got to feed my love of diving once again.

Tom Daley was back. So was David Boudia and newcomer Steele Johnson (yes, with the most romance novel-worthy name ever). Diving was back.

I fell, and I fell hard.

And somewhere between the incredible feats of athleticism, the uplifting stories of overcoming incredible odds, and the super hot men and women in very, very little clothing, a romance novel was born.

Jeremy and Brandon came alive because I wanted to share my love of diving with the world. I wanted to show people a sport that they probably knew very little about, and that was actually incredibly sexy, difficult, and complex. And diving is also one of the few sports that has several openly gay stars, from icon Greg Louganis, to Tom Daley (who just recently married his longtime boyfriend, congrats!), to university divers who are coming out loud and proud because they know their sport is one that will welcome them.

So as you read Heels Over Head, I hope you’ll fall in love with diving just like I did!

Giveaway

To celebrate the release of Heels Over Head, one lucky winner will receive a $10 Amazon gift card! Leave a comment with your contact info to enter the contest. Entries close at midnight, Eastern time, on June 3, 2017. Contest is NOT restricted to U.S. entries. Thanks for following the tour, and don’t forget to leave your contact info!