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You already know how excited we were to get our hands on this book. We ❤ the Cyberlove Series by Megan Erickson and Santino Hassell, so of course we were thrilled to be invited to participate in the tour for Hard Wired. We’ve got an exclusive excerpt for you today, along with our thoughts on the book and a giveaway you’re all going to want on your shelves. {We want to win, too!} In case you missed it on Monday, we’ll start with the 411 on Hard Wired by Megan Erickson and Santino Hassell:
***About the Book***
Hard Wired by Megan Erickson, Santino Hassell Also by this author: Make It Right, Changing His Game, Focus on Me, Dirty Talk, Dirty Deeds, Tied to Trouble, Strong Signal, Out of Frame, Leveling the Field, Fast Connection, Mature Content, Sutphin Boulevard, First and First, Oversight, Illegal Contact, Third Rail
Series: Cyberlove #3
Also in this series: Strong Signal, Fast Connection, Mature Content
Published by Megtino Press on February 13, 2017
Genres: Contemporary Romance, M/M Romance
Character(s): Nerdy/Geeky
Pages: 270
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My FallenCon agenda is simple: sit on a couple of panels and let people meet the real me. Jesse Garvy—mod of a famous Twitch channel and, if I ever come out of my shell, future vlogger. I definitely didn’t plan to sleep with a moody tattooed fan-artist, but he’s gorgeous and can’t keep his hands off me. There's a first time for everything, and my first time with a guy turns out to be the hottest experience of my life.
But the next day, I find out my moody fan-artist is Ian Larsen AKA Cherry—someone I've known online for years. And he'd known exactly who I was while shoving me up against that wall. Before I figure out whether to be pissed or flattered, the con ends.
Now we're back online, and he's acting like nothing happened. But despite the distance between us, and the way he clings to the safety of his online persona, we made a real connection that night. I don't plan to let him forget.
***EXCLUSIVE EXCERPT***
Those big blue eyes were burning through me. He seemed closer than he had been a couple of minutes ago, and that was made more apparent when he touched the side of my face. Just a slide of his fingers at first, but it turned into a full caress, smoothing over my cheek then up into my hair, combing through it.
“Jesse…Please.”
“Please what?”
Keep Reading the Excerpt for Hard Wired
Keep Reading the Excerpt for Hard Wired
The words wouldn’t come out. No matter how hard I tried, I froze. The selfish, greedy part of me wouldn’t let me ruin this. Ruin the way his eyes traced my face, the gentle way he was touching me. More gentle than anyone had before…ever. Touches had always been rough and hard and demanding. Always. Since I was a kid.
His face inched closer. “Can I kiss you again?”
“I…”I swallowed hard, the sound noisy in the quiet room. “Jesse, what if you don’t like me in the morning? What if all this was just a fever dream, or some magical night, and I’m different tomorrow? Because this has never happened to me before, and I’m not sure I deser—”
He silenced me with a kiss as gentle as his caress. The panic welled up inside me again, but the shuddering breath I released parted my lips just enough for him to slide his tongue into my mouth. My body reacted to him like a switch was flipped every time he put his hands on me. Something changed. I changed. I was putty, malleable and soft. Someone who could turn good…for him.
I pulled away with a gasp for air and buried my face in his neck. If we kept kissing, we were going to end up fucking. There was no other direction this could go. And I couldn’t let that happen until he knew the truth.
***About Megan Erickson ***
Megan Erickson grew up in a family that averages 5’5″ on a good day and started writing to create characters who could reach the top kitchen shelf.
She’s got a couple of tattoos, has a thing for gladiators and has been called a crazy cat lady. After working as a journalist for years, she decided she liked creating her own endings better and switched back to fiction.
She lives in Pennsylvania with her husband, two kids and two cats. And no, she still can’t reach the stupid top shelf.
***About Santino Hassell***
Santino Hassell was raised by a conservative family, but he was anything but traditional. He grew up to be a smart-mouthed, school cutting grunge kid, then a transient twenty-something, and eventually transformed into an unlikely romance author.
Santino writes queer romance that is heavily influenced by the gritty, urban landscape of New York City, his belief that human relationships are complex and flawed, and his own life experiences.
***Our Thoughts***
Erin: In the highly anticipated book, HARD WIRED, written by the uber-talented writing duo of Megan Erickson and Santino Hassell, we find that these two just keep getting better and stronger the more they write together which means that they’ll just have to keep going and going. Right? I’m sure that their plethora of fans wouldn’t mind in the least … I sure know I wouldn’t. Not at all. HARD WIRED explores the world of fandom conferences, Twitch channels, and YouTube and does it realistically and intimately, with finesse and stellar, complex characters.
If you’ve read the first two books in the series, you’ll remember Jesse Garvy and Cherrycakes. They’re co-mods for Kai Bannon’s super popular Twitch channel. As such, they’re sent to FallenCon to represent Kai and take part in a panel discussion together. Both guys are apprehensive about going. Jesse because his anxiety is hard to control in that kind of setting and Cherrycakes because, well, he’s not exactly who everyone thinks he is. Because not only is he Cherrycakes (whom everyone on the Twitch channel thinks is a girl) he’s also Ian. And well-known graphic artist Cerise. And he just happens to have one hell of a crush on Garvy. Complicated, yeah?
Ian/Cherrycakes/Cerise is one of the most complex characters I’ve come across in quite some time. Not only does he have three different personas, each one comes with its own set of unique quirks and characteristics. In this age of Twitter and SnapChat and Instagram, having an online persona that’s different from your “real life” one isn’t anything new but in Ian’s case, it’s quite fascinating to watch as me moves from one to the other. There are reasons, of course, for why each personality has been developed, each serves a purpose, and he fiercely guards them all.
As Ian and Jesse become more and more involved, after one hell of a bumpy start, it becomes apparent that both men have a multitude of issues to deal with. Jesse comes across to most people as this laid back surfer guy who’s not all that motivated to do much but game and work in the surf-shop. Of course there’s much more to him than this, just as there’s much more to Ian/Cherrycakes/Cerise than his provocative clothing and come hither smiles and snark.
It was so interesting watching these two guys fumble their way together. They spend most of their time in cyberspace (which, hello, is fitting to the theme of the series) but it’s no less intimate and powerful than if they were spending their days in each other’s presence as they get to really know one another. Hassell and Erickson continue to do such an amazing job in making online relationships, be they friendships or sexual ones, every bit as legitimate as a traditional one.
This series just keeps getting better. HARD WIRED has plenty of hot and steamy sex, great, multi-faceted and well developed characters, spot-on dialog, quick pace, and a tight plot. These two authors know their stuff. If you by some chance have not started the Cyberlove series, I urge you to remedy that ASAP. This world and these characters are some of the best out there and you do not want to miss out. Nor do you want to miss what Megan Erickson and Santino Hassell do next. I know I can’t!
She's a Texan, though she drinks her tea plain and NOT sweet. She loves cheesecake, strawberry limeade's from Sonic and her favorite color is purple. In her books, she loves an HEA, but she never minds if the road is rough to get there, as long as the reward is worth the struggle.
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| Overall: | 4.5 |
***GIVEAWAY***
Good luck and don’t forget to check out the other stops on the blog tour for Hard Wired by Megan Erickson and Santino Hassell!
Thanks for the reviews and excerpt. I have been meaning to read this series for a while. I need to start it soon…it sounds fantastic.
You are going to love it, Jen!
Thanks for the review! This series is getting better and better, it’s so good! I can’t wait to read this book myself.