Tuesday, December 9, 2014

Amour Amour Blog Tour --Interview + Giveaway

Hello everyone! Today, the Amour Amour blog tour has a stop here at Bookish Musings and I've got an interview with super authors, Krista & Becca Ritchie! It's my first time interviewing anyone and while I was nervous putting these questions together, I was incredibly excited too! If you know me, you should know I'm obsessed with the Addicted Series and at this point, Krista & Becca are one of my favourite authors that I'd read anything by to be honest. So, while I anxiously await the next book in the Addicted series, I'm glad we've got this stand-alone from the sisters to feed our withdrawals. 
Read on for the interview and then enter their amazing give-away at the end of this post!
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About the Book -Amour Amour

Love is a circus

"Every day,” he says lowly, “I hold a person’s life in my hands. The circus is based one-hundred percent off trust. I give it all to someone, and they give it all to me.”

The best aerial technique won’t land 21-year-old Thora James her dream role in Amour—a sexy new acrobatic show on the Vegas strip. Thora knows she’s out of her element the second she meets Amour’s leading performer. Confident, charming and devilishly captivating, 26-year-old Nikolai Kotova lives up to his nickname as the “God of Russia.”
When Thora unknowingly walks into the crosshairs of Nikolai’s after-show, her audition process begins way too soon. Unprofessional. That’s what Nik calls their “non-existent” relationship. It’s not like Thora can avoid him. For one, they may be partners in the future--acrobatic partners, that is. But getting closer to Nik means diving deeper into sin city and into his dizzying world.
Thora wants to perform with him, but when someone like Nikolai attracts the spotlight wherever he goes—Thora fears that she’s destined to be just background to his spellbinding show.

This sexy and exhilarating New Adult Romance can best be described as Cirque du Soleil meets the steamy, athletic romance of Center Stage.
*standalone & no love triangles—recommended for readers 18+ for mature content*
 


ADD TO GOODREADS
Amazon 
Be sure to check out all the Amour Amour tour stops here.
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Interview with Krista & Becca Ritchie

1. Hi guys, thank you for answering my questions! I'm really excited for the release of Amour Amour, your upcoming stand-alone New Adult novel. Can you describe the novel in a few sentences?

Krista: Amour Amour is about a romance between a 26-year-old protective alpha male (a Russian athlete) and a 21-year-old courageous heroine who leaves college to follow her dreams of becoming a circus acrobat in Vegas.

Becca: It’s very Center Stage meets Cirque du Soleil!

2. Now that you've written both series and a stand-alone novel, do you prefer one to the other? Do the planning and writing processes differ?

Krista: Without a doubt, I prefer series. With more books, we’re just able to dive deeper into the world. Plus, it’s just so hard to leave the characters behind! After we finished Amour Amour, I’d look at Becca with big doe eyes, silently pleading for a sequel. Needless to say, she did not bite. Our writing process is about the same. We just have to think on a smaller scale with standalones since we don’t have as many pages to work with.

Becca: A series is much more enjoyable for us because we have problems “letting go” of worlds and characters. I’ve had to pull Krista away from Thora and Nikolia, and it’s been soooo hard to say goodbye. We’ve spent almost a full year developing these characters (we began writing them in February 2014), and so naturally we would love to write more books with them. But we’re trying to restrain ourselves and keep it as is :) So yep, we gravitate towards series, most definitely.

3. What was your biggest challenge in writing Amour Amour and what was your research process like?

Krista: The biggest challenge was probably constructing a plot that we both liked. We went through a few different versions with the same “circus” theme. And lots of them we scraped. There were a lot of ways we could have taken the story, and we definitely fought hard in rewrites for the best one.

Becca: Research was intensive and probably the most we’ve ever done for any book we’ve written. We wanted to stay true to the audition process of Cirque as well as the actual performances. We immersed ourselves in this world as much as we could, watching more than 20+ hrs of behind-the-scenes footage of Cirque du Soleil shows (our inspiration for the series), auditions, and Youtube videos of certain aerial disciplines. We didn't want to just capture the “sport” since it’s more of an art, a family and culture.

4. You guys always nail the dream casts of all your characters! (Side note: Oliver Altman!! Swooon). I imagine this takes days of perusing models.com?

Krista: Oliver Altman will forever be one of our best dream casts! It’s hard to top him. It’s so funny that you mention models.com because that is actually where we search for models. At least I do. I think Becca goes to tumblr or pinterest *looks to Becca for answers*

Becca: I used to look on models.com all the time! But now I do scroll through Tumblr & Pinterest a bit more. Our dream cast for Nikolai is pretty much exactly how I picture him :)

5. Could you imagine any scenario where Nikolai or Thora bump into any of the addicted gang? Do you imagine any of them being friends?

Krista: Since the location of Amour Amour is in Vegas, there’s a definite possibility that they could bump into each other in the future. If Loren and Lily and them ever took a Vegas trip that is. I'm not sure they would be friends. The Addicted gang are very close and aren’t open to interlopers. Though, I could see some of them being cordial.

Becca: I agree with Krista… now that the Addicted gang are famous they have some trust issues, and so it’s hard for any of them to let people in as “friends” – but if this wasn’t the case, I can see Nikolai probably being friends the most with Ryke, and then Thora with Lily.

6. Speaking of the Addicted series gang, I'm so excited for the audio books on audible.com! Can you tell us anything about that.

Krista: We’re so excited for this! The audiobooks are currently in production. And Erin Mallon will be narrating Lily’s parts. She tweeted about it a couple weeks ago and we basically fangirled all over the place.

Becca: What Krista said! It’s so insane! Can you imagine the Addicted characters speaking?? I have a heart attack just thinking about it.

Now I've got some some short answer questions for you guys. 

a. The last movie or book that made you cry:

Krista: We watched Stuck in Love recently and I definitely teared up.

Becca: I ugly cried after watching If I Stay really recently. You’d think that something catastrophically terrible happened to me. But that movie packs a punch!

b. Favourite place you've travelled to:

Krista: Paris :)

Becca: Cancun!

c. Writing during the day or night?

Krista: Evening-ish. I can’t really write before 3pm. Very difficult.

Becca: Night! My best writing is strangely between 2 a.m. to 4 a.m.

d. Your go-to outfit:

Krista: Pants and a cute top. Nothing too fancy. Also, black and black. I like black clothes ;)

Becca: Flannel plaid shirt and loose tank top and jeans. Also a pom-beanie hat because I hate taking the time to straighten my hair.

e. Are any of you as adventurous with hair colours/style as Daisy Calloway?

Krista: We used to have just one colored streak in our hair each. Mine pink and Becca’s blue (and then it turned white-blonde), but that’s about it. Becca does want to die her hair blonde – which will be odd but interesting if that ever comes to fruition.

Becca: All throughout college I had a platinum blonde streak underneath my hair, but I let it grow out and now I’m kinda craving something different since my hair has been so plain recently. But we have really dark brown hair so it’s hard to dye it different colors.

f. Now that you've got a cat named Frodo Baggins, do you think you'll get another cat?

Krista: We always talk about how Frodo needs a Samwise Gamgee. He is only half a hobbit without him. But…our place is probably too small right now for another furry friend.

Becca: Frodo will forever be searching for his Samwise :)
  
Thank you for having us on your blog, Nazeefa! Loved your questions <3 <3
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Giveaway [Kindle Paperwhite + 3 Signed Paperbacks of Amour Amour]

a Rafflecopter giveaway     

Author Bio - Krista & Becca Ritchie
Krista & Becca Ritchie are identical twins—one a science nerd, the other a comic book geek—but with their shared passion for writing, they combined their mental powers as kids and have never stopped telling stories. Now in their early twenties, they write about other twenty-somethings navigating through life, college, and romance. They love superheroes, flawed characters, and soul mate love. 
They are the New Adult authors of the Addicted series and Calloway Sisters spin-off series, and you can find them on almost every social media, frolicking around like wannabe unicorns. 
Find them on the Internet


7 comments:

  1. I'm not going to lie, I'm secretly hoping Amour Amour gets a spin-off with other characters or something. I love the whole acrobatic/circus element of the story. I am happy that Thora and Nikolai's story will be wrapped up in one book though. I started watching youtube videos of acrobatic techniques lol. It's so cool. OMG. Could you imagine Ryke and Nikolai being friends?!?!?!? *faints* I'm so excited for the audiobook!! Actually listening to Lily and her awkwardness will be the death of me. Wonderful interview and great questions! Thanks for sharing, Nazeefa <3

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  2. I can see myself having mini heat attacks after AA because i'll be missing the characters but we'll see. I'm definitely excited about this one and the whole Circus act. Kuddos to Krista and Becca for really immersing themselves in the circus world and reading about it and watching videos and movies and just everything about it. So much dedication! LOL

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  3. "So, while I anxiously await the next book in the Addicted series, I'm glad we've got this stand-alone from the sisters to feed our withdrawals." this is meeeeeeeee love! twinning alert <3 There was a point where I loved reading standalones more, but lately I'm just all about 'em series, howeverrrr I do love that this is a standalone (though I'm going to eat my words after I'm done lol), but I wouldn't mind companion novels. I think :D DECICATION IS THE KEY TO SUCCESS and I love how thorough the girls are with their research! OLIVER *cough* I can't think much else right now. Brb I'm taking a break. I NEED THE ADDICTED GANG AUDIOS SO BAD NO JOKE. If I Stay was a huge ugly cry movie for me too *sobs* LOL! Krista is my spirit animal when it comes to clothes because I'm all about the black dude. Idk. I constantly buy more black and dark things nvm that I do own a lot of them already and love colors, but idk what's up with that tbh. Hahaha! SAMWISE. MUST. HAPPEN. This was such a cute interview, Nazeefa! Thank you <33

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  4. I am so excited for more of Krista and Becca's books. They are amazing writers!

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  5. great interview

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