It Stings So Sweet by Stephanie Draven - Interview, Review & Giveaway

They vibrated with incendiary Jazz. They teemed with sexual abandon.

The Twenties were roaring and the women—young, open, rebellious, and willing—set the pace and pushed the limits with every man they met… In the aftermath of a wild, liquor-soaked party, three women from very different social classes are about to live out their forbidden desires.

Society girl, Nora Richardson's passionate nature has always been a challenge to her ever-patient husband. Now he wants out of the marriage and she has just this one night to win him back. The catch? He wants topunish her for her bad behavior. Nora is offended by her husband's increasingly depraved demands, but as the night unfolds, she discovers her own true nature and that the line between pain and pleasure is very thin indeed.

Meanwhile, Clara Cartwright, sultry siren of the silent screen, is introduced to a mysterious WWI Flying Ace. If Clara, darling of the scandal sheets, knows anything, it’s men. And she’s known plenty. But none of them push her boundaries like the aviator, who lures her into a ménage with a stranger in a darkened cinema then steals her jaded heart.

Working class girl Sophie O'Brien has more important things on her mind than pleasures of the flesh. But when her playboy boss, the wealthy heir to the Aster family fortune, confronts her with her diary of secret sex fantasies, she could die of shame. To her surprise, he doesn't fire her; instead, he dares her to re-enact her boldest fantasies and Sophie is utterly seduced.

One party serves as a catalyst of sexual awakening. And in an age when anything goes, three women discover that anything is possible…

Wow, It Stings so Sweet is an apt name for the title.  Talk about sizzling pages, you're in for a treat! An historical erotica with three memorable characters whom's stories all intercept into one great story.  Each of the women are unique in their own way, with their own stories, but they all have one thread in common with the other two.  Draven has created a fun romp with decadent settings in the Roaring Twenties that will knock your socks off.  I read it in three sittings, feeling a bit warm after each woman's story and sexual awakening.  It's very easy to read though and follow along and Draven has definitely done some research because the backgrounds and the dialogue seemed to be spot on.  Highly recommend to anyone looking for a smoking hot read!

1. Can you tell us a little bit about your book, It Stings So Sweet?

It Stings So Sweet is an erotic romance novel in three parts--about three very different women who experience a sexual awakening. Set in the Roaring Twenties, it’s glamorous, glitzy, and reckless good fun.

2. Did you loosely base your characters off of anyone in real life?

Only one of the characters in this novel is directly inspired by a real person. I was really captured by the story of silent screen siren Clara Bow. My Clara is also a Hollywood legend and shares some of the trials and tribulations of coming of age in an era when anything goes. She was tough and brassy and sassy and believed that as long as she wasn’t hurting anyone, she didn’t owe an explanation about how she lived her life. I found that to be remarkably modern in attitude and I wanted to infuse the book with that spirit.

3. If you could see Nora, Sophie and Clara on the big screen, who would you cast to play them?

Ooh, tough question. Nora Richardson would be played by someone coolly distant like Keira Knightley. For a feisty activist like Sophie O’Brien, I’d want someone really quirky and unexpected, like Alyson Hannigan. And for a larger-than-life glam girl like Clara, I’d want Emma Stone.

4. How much research did you have to do for the Roaring Twenties to bring your book to life?

Strangely, I spent more time researching the slang and the etymology of words for this book than actually writing the stories!

5. Is there anything you know about your characters that isn't shared in the book that you can share with us?

What a great question. I think one thing that I knew when I wrote the book is that Robert Aster is going to become a U.S. Senator. There wasn’t room for it, nor was it really appropriate to include in the novel, but I knew what kind of challenges Sophie and Robert would actually face after they found their happy ending. I guess that means there could be a sequel!

6. Are you currently working on a new book? Can you tell us anything about it?

I’d love to write more stories set in the 1920s, but I’m tinkering around with some other ideas right now. The first thing I’m thinking about is another funny contemporary romance like IN BED WITH THE OPPOSITION. But--and my agent may kill me--I’m thinking about the Regency...

Bio

STEPHANIE DRAVEN is a bestselling, award-winning and RITA-nominated author of historical, paranormal, and contemporary romance. Her newest project, IT STINGS SO SWEET is a collection of 1920s historical erotic romances that celebrate sex, women, and the Jazz Age. Her most recent novel with Entangled Publishing, IN BED WITH THE OPPOSITION, is a mix of humor and sex-appeal set against the backdrop of a zany political campaign inspired by the career of Baltimore legend William Donald Schaefer. Both novels are fun departures from her more serious Greek mythology-inspired series for Harlequin's Nocturne line, the debut novel of which was nominated by Romantic Times for Best First Series. The series has earned critical praise for its originality and awareness of social issues and garnered the 2012 SWIRL award for excellence in multi-cultural romance literature as well as the CataRomance's Reviewers Choice Award. Writing historical fiction about Cleopatra’s daughter as Stephanie Dray, she won the Golden Leaf Award for SONG OF THE NILE. Stephanie is currently a denizen of Baltimore, that city of ravens and purple night skies. She lives there with her favorite nocturnal creatures–three scheming cats and a deliciously wicked husband. And when she is not busy with dark domestic rituals, she writes her books. StephanieDraven.com

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