BLOG TOUR STOP~THE STORM INSIDE By Alexis Anne

The_Storm_Inside_ebook_posting_online copy

“The only thing holding me back was my heart. You know, the broken one. It knew if Jake and I got back together we’d make our past relationship look like child’s play. It would be a sweet footnote to this new, torrid love affair. ‘Jake and Eve 2.0’ would be an uncontrolled explosion of sex and adoration. Uncontrolled explosions were dangerous. Everyone knew that. And yet, I couldn’t seem to stop myself from playing with the matches…” ~Eve Loving someone and being in love aren’t always the same thing. That’s what Eve Daniels is trying to come to terms with when Jake Spencer suddenly returns to her life after ten years of silence. Haunted by a past he had no power to control, Jake left everyone and everything behind in hopes of saving Eve from his demons. His one regret was breaking her heart. From the moment they reconnect, it is clear to Eve the passion, brilliance, and determination that first attracted her to Jake are stronger than ever. So strong that fighting their pull seems useless. But falling back in love isn’t as easy as letting the walls down. Eve soon realizes the choices they’ve both made come with consequences. Ones that will test how deep her love runs for a man living with a storm inside. **Recommended for ages 17+ due to explicit language and sexual situations**

“Just in time!” Jake called, slamming the door shut and throwing his towel over a rusty folding chair. “Fuck that was fun!”

His crooked smile did all of those things it always did to me. It twisted my belly in a delicious can’t-feel-the-floor-beneath-me way; it heated my skin, and sent my pulse racing.

Why did he make me excited when no one else did?

“What?” he asked, his voice suddenly hoarse. He was frozen, watching me watch him.

“Why?” I asked.

“Why what?”

“Why do you make me different?” I asked. “Why doesn’t anyone else do that? Why you?” I simply didn’t understand it. I’d tried so hard to find that spark with someone else. Hell, I’d even wondered if there was something wrong with me.

“Why not me.” It was a demand not a question. Jake was making his case. “No one will ever love you like I can. You know it and I know it. Don’t let the past keep ruining everything.” His eyes wandered over my heaving chest and trembling body, growing darker and lustful. His fist clenched and his jaw went slack as his eyes zeroed in on me.

“I won’t survive you a second time,” I choked out.

“You know me better than anyone ever has,” he growled. Jake was mad. At me. “Do you honestly believe I’d hurt you a second time? I did what I had to do. I never meant to break your heart.” His anger softened into a plea, “I love you.”

That was when I understood what I did to Jake. I made him different, too. I wasn’t sure exactly how I made him different, but I knew I did. I could see it in his eyes, in the hungry way he was looking at me. He craved that rush of being different as desperately as I did.

Somehow we made each other more.

I was strong and capable on my own. I’d proven that many times over. But Jake brought things out of me no one else could. He calmed me, gave me a special sense of confidence—he made me even stronger than I already was. It was a special gift. One I gave him in return.

Jake stood where he was, begging me to make the first move. It had to be my choice; we both knew that.

“Eve…” his voice was so deep and rough.

My name did me in. I wanted to hear him say it over and over again, in a thousand different ways. And right then, I wanted to hear him groan it.

I closed the gap between us in a second, throwing myself around him, my legs wrapping around his waist as his arms wrapped around my body. His hands on my skin were electric, shooting a thousand volts of pleasure through my body and taking my breath away.

I loved this man. I hated this man.

He would ruin me, maybe I’d ruin him.

But for that moment, locked away from the world alone in a fishing shack on the water, all I wanted was to feel him.

A rough grunt came out of Jake’s throat as my hands wrapped around his face, kissing him deeper and deeper.

That was when he turned and slammed my back into the wall of the shack.

PLAYLIST

I love Mumford and Sons. They are a huge inspiration to me. Every single time I listen to their music I hear lyrics I've never heard before and have songs resonate with me (and my characters) in ways I never expected.

They are freaking geniuses. They are poets. Every song represents a very real emotion or experience relating to life and love. The thing I love about good songs is that they can take a single moment or experience and expand it in a way that novel writers sometimes can’t. They write about the feeling of falling in love (or losing love) in a single chorus, where we might take five chapters. Song writers and singers can take that emotion and blow it up so that you feel it with every sense in your body. So when I’m trying to capture that same emotion for a character, I will listen to a song over and over until I feel like I can properly explain the way the character feels.

The one song that really encapsulates The Storm Inside is Mumford and Sons I Will Wait. If there is a theme song of the book—that is it. Eve waited for Jake to find his way out of the darkness and back to her. Jake waited until he could be the man Eve needed before he came back for her. Their love wasn’t the kind that diminished simply because they were apart for ten years. They loved each other and that was both the beginning and the end of everything. It is the kind of love that was pure and all-encompassing. They would have loved each other forever even if they never saw each other again. They were best friends and lovers. They loved each other through and through.

With the next two books in the series about to launch I’ve realized that while I Will Wait is the theme song of The Storm Inside, Ghosts That We Knew is the theme song of Jake and Eve. It is true in all three books, and especially in the third.

This song speaks to me on so many levels, but the final lines (which are in the US/Live versions of the song) knock me on my ass every time I hear them:

"But the ghosts that we knew made us black and all blue

But we'll live a long life

And the ghosts that we knew will flicker from view

And we'll live a long life"

They sing about how things in our lives will beat us almost to death, but as long as we have each other, we can hang on… and eventually all this horribleness will be in the past (and only the past). We still have a lot of life and love to live. I really don’t think there is a more real or beautiful love song ever written. I cry every time I listen to it!

Before I write each book I sit down with my husband and scroll through YouTube and our iTunes collection putting together a list of songs that represent the kind of story I’m trying to tell. I play the list the whole time I’m writing the book and when I go back through for revisions I almost always catch lines or paragraphs that were directly influenced by a specific set of lyrics.

Jake’s song is definitely Imagine Dragon’s Demons. If you know the song, there is no other explanation needed. If I want to write about a flawed character, I listen to Demons.

Eve never specifically had a song while I was writing, but I did fall back on Little Lion Man by Mumford and Sons (again… I know… I just love them!) I could picture her screaming this song at Jake (you lying man who only saw the world from your side!) Ok, I may have screamed this song a few times… probably where I got the inspiration!

Last but certainly not least, there is an ongoing theme in The Storm Inside that I used Justin Timberlake’s Mirrors for inspiration. “I’m looking at the other half of me. Show me how to fight for now.” Jake and Eve, like any good partnership, are reflections of each other, but more importantly, they don’t shy away from what they see.

“It was easy coming back to you once I figured it out

You were right here all along

It’s like you’re my mirror staring back at me

I couldn’t get any bigger with anyone else beside me.”

Please stop by and chat with me about music (or books) any time! I love hearing about how music influences and inspires everyone!

REVIEW

Jake had a horrid childhood and life and needed to leave everyone including

his girlfriend Eve. Eve survives 10 years without hearing from Jake until one day

he turns up at her house.

Ten years ago he wasn't ready to be the man Eve deserved now he is and he wants

her back and he is willing to do anything to make it happen.

Eve is a very strong woman and she is determined that Jake will not hurt her again,

he broke her heart once she will not allow him to do it again.

The characters in the book are very well developed and all likeable. I loved Jake from

the start. I loved,loved, loved this book! It grapped me from page 1 and I read the whole

book in one evening. I love erotic romance and the sex scenes in this book are HOT.

Will I read more by this author defo will I read the next book oh yes!!!!

5 scorching stars xxxxx

From Sarah

BARNES & NOBLES | SMASHWORDS

Alexis Anne lives in Central Florida with her very own real-life tall, dark, and handsome husband and their two adorable superheroes. Their crazy lives have taken them from archaeology digs to breaking news as they traversed the worlds of anthropology and television news. When she's not reading or writing, Alexis can be found at the beach or on the water with her family. Her first series FILTERS is a Contemporary Romance with a splash of science fiction. The Storm Inside is her first full-length novel.