Taming the Tycoon Blog Tour: review + giveaway

Taming the Tycoon by Amy Andrews

Contemporary romance*e-book, length: 244 pages*Entangled Publishing; Imprint: Indulgence*Release Date: August 2012 

Read an excerpt

An unstoppable force is about to meet his first immovable object…

Real estate tycoon Nathaniel Montgomery is one deal away from making his first billion and fulfilling a promise to his dying father. Nothing will stop himfrom tearing down the decrepit St. Agnes hospital and erecting posh condos in its place. Not even the crystal-wearing, health food store owner whose publicity stunt lands him in the hospital.

After her brush with death five years ago, child prodigy Addie Collins learned what’s truly important—health, happiness, and the two-hundred-year-old rose garden at St. Agnes. To make amends for the accident, she agrees to pose as Nathaniel’s girlfriend at his eccentric grandmother’s birthday party.

But Addie has an ulterior motive. To repay her debt to the universe, she must show him there's more to life than making money. Nathaniel hates to lose, but as she breaks through his defenses, losing himself in Addie's arms might be exactly what this tycoon needs...

by Amy Andrews with an excerpt

Thanks you Laurie for having me her today to talk about my new Entangled Publishing release Taming the Tycoon.

I’d like to talk specifically about Nathaniel, the hero, because, well, who doesn’t love talking about hot men?

Apart from being epically gorgeous (think Richard Armitage), Nathaniel is an extremely successful businessman, working day-in day-out towards a seat on Billionaires row. He’s busy, driven, focused.  He doesn’t have time in his life for frivolities. He has a goal and nothing else matters which, let’s face it, can make Nate a dull boy. So it was important for me to show his other side. Not the hard, demanding businessman. Not the cranky tycoon. But the softer side. And what better way to demonstrate that than showing how he is with the people he loves?

Apart from Addie, the heroine, there are three other women in Nate’s life that both infuriate and exasperate him. His PA Margaret, his mother Delphine and his Grandy, Eunice. But it is also patently obvious that he loves them and through this you can hopefully see not just why Addie falls for him but that Nate’s capacity to love is fully formed and totally ready for Tornado Addie.

I think the following scene demonstrates his softer side perfectly! I hope you enjoy and if you buy the book I hope you enjoy the rest!

Then the front door swung open and he’d never been more pleased to see his grandmother, her arms flung wide. “Darling!”

Her frizzy gray hair bounced as she hefted her sturdy frame across the cobblestone flagging, hobbling slightly with her arthritic hip and no matter how frustrated he was that he was here when he had so much to do, or how exasperated he got over her wild and wacky carryings-on, a part of Nathaniel recognized the warm welcome of his childhood encoded into every cell of his body.

He grinned at her as she neared. “Hello, Grandy. Still not using that cane, I see.”

“Oh fiddlesticks,” Eunice Smithson said in her loud, crackly voice as she gave him a fierce hug. “Strong as an ox, I am. Don’t need the damn thing.”

Nathaniel laughed at her typical brushoff concerning her limitations. A cloud of rosewater and lavender, as familiar to him as his fingerprints, enveloped him and he kissed her frizzy head. He noticed she was even wearing her hearing aids for once.

When she stepped back from him, she was looking pointedly at Addie. “Well come on then, my duck. Introduce us to your lady friend.”

Nathaniel tensed as he saw a very familiar gleam in his grandmother’s eye. He opened his mouth to oblige, but Addie jumped in ahead of him.

“Hi,” she said holding out her hand. “I’m Addie.”

“That’s an unusual kind of name,” Eunice said as she shook the proffered hand.

“It’s short for Adelaide,” Nathaniel supplied.

He watched as his grandmother scrutinized Addie with that wily-old-fox face of hers he didn’t quite trust. “Is it now?” she asked.

That look made him nervous. “After the famous physicist, Adelaide Worthington.”

His grandmother looked at him then flicked her gaze back to Addie. He watched as his grandmother’s gaze zeroed in on Addie’s crystal necklace “You’re not Nate’s usual type,” she said, addressing Addie directly with her characteristic bluntness. 

His grandmother was obviously having a hard time reconciling Addie with the other three women he’d been brave enough to bring here. She didn’t appear remotely convinced.

He leaned heavily on his left crutch as he slid his right arm around Addie’s waist and pulled her in close. She fitted a little too perfectly for his liking and the hitch in her breath along with her slightly stilted laugh annoyed him.

“Guilty as charged, I’m afraid,” Addie said.

His grandmother flicked her shrewd gaze back to him. “Where’d you meet?”

“In Addie’s shop. She works and lives at the docks, too.”

Addie nodded. “On a canal boat.”

“A canal boat?” Eunice quirked a steely gray eyebrow at her grandson. “You don’t say.”

Nathaniel would have preferred to have kept that juicy little tidbit quiet, but the conversation had gotten away from him. He couldn’t think beneath his grandmother’s scrutiny and with Addie’s breast squashed against his ribs.

He was about to grapple control of the conversation again when his mother appeared in the doorway, smiling at him.

“Nate, dear,” she said coming forward, wiping her hands on her apron, flour on her face. He was relieved for the opportunity to move away from Addie, as was she, if her quick sideways step was any gauge. “I’m so sorry,” she apologized to both of them as she kissed his cheek. “I was at a critical stage with the scones.”

Addie held out her hand again. “I adore scones,” she said.

Nathaniel’s mother, a younger version of his grandmother, beamed. “Call me Delphine. I have some fresh clotted cream to go with them.”

“Addie was named after a physicist,” Eunice said to her daughter as her sharp gaze continued unabated, making Nathaniel uncomfortably hot in the summer sunshine. 

His mother took up the staring gig as she, too, looked Addie over. “She’s not his usual type,” she mused.

His grandmother nodded. “She lives on a canal boat.”

Delphine looked at her son speculatively. “Really?”

Nathaniel looked at both of them, utterly exasperated. “I think it was you who taught me it’s rude to stare, mother?”

She smiled. “Oh, sorry darling, yes.”

Nathaniel didn’t think his mother sounded particularly contrite—his grandmother certainly wasn’t. She was still staring. “You’re reading again?” she asked.

Nathaniel looked down at the book Addie had given him that he’d absently brought out of the car with him. It was clutched in his left hand, braced against the crutch. “Addie bought it for me.”

Women had bought him a lot of things in the past but never a book. Cufflinks, cologne, expensive brandy, cigars. Lingerie.

Now that was a gift he really appreciated. Especially if the woman in question had thought to get into first and let him take his time unwrapping it.

Once he’d even been bought a fish. He wasn’t sure how to feel about a book. All the other gifts had come with strings. Sexual strings. But not this one. It unsettled him to be given a gift with no ulterior motive attached.

“Harry Potter,” his grandmother said and he couldn’t help but note her reverential tone.

“He always had his head stuck in a book as a boy,” his mother said wistfully to Addie. “Now he doesn’t—”

“Have time?” Addie interrupted. She wrinkled her nose. “Such a shame.”

Nathaniel watched as his nearest and dearest looked at Addie as if she had a shiny halo sitting atop her head.

For crying out loud. “Perhaps we could move inside?” he said pointedly. He really did not want to stand here and listen to them compare notes on his perceived short comings.

“Of course, dear,” his mother said. “How very rude. You must want to get off your poor leg. We’ll let you and Addie settle in upstairs and you can join us for scones shortly.”

Nathaniel nodded, relived to be off the hot seat. “You want Addie in the rose bedroom?” he asked.

“Oh no darling,” his grandmother interjected. “She’ll be in with you, of course.”

Nathaniel felt time screech to halt around him. His pulse pounded in his chest and roared through his ears. He looked at Addie who blinked at him uncertainly through her big round sunglasses.

“What about the rules?” he enquired through gritted teeth. “You’ve never let me share my room with a woman before.”

“Yes but...” his grandmother smiled at him the way she always had—like he hung the moon. “We didn’t like any of the others, darling.”

And she took Addie’s hand and led her into the house.

About the author:

Amy Andrews

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Amy is an award-winning author who has written thirty romances for Harlequin Mills and Boon in both the Medical and RIVA/Presents lines. She wrote her first book at the age of twenty-two while unemployed and freezing her butt off in the UK, largely because it involved being able to stay in bed with her electric blanket. One twelve year apprenticeship later she finally got "the call".

To date she's sold over a million books and been translated into thirteen different languages. In 2010 she took out the sexy category in the prestigious Australian Romantic Book of the Year Award affectionately known as The Ruby.

She's recently launched a couple of separate writing ventures with the release of Sister Pact a contemporary women's fiction novel that she wrote with her sister Ros Baxter and was published by Harper Collins Australia as well as the very exciting release of her first category romance, Taming the Tycoon, with Entangled Publishing.

In what she euphemistically likes to call her spare time, Amy works part time as a paediatric intensive care nurse and was on the national executive for Romance Writers Of Australia for six years during which time she organised two national conferences and undertook a two year term as president.

She's been married for twenty-two years and has two teenagers who only admit to her being a writer when they have to explain to their friends why there's no food in the house when their mother is approaching a deadline. She lives on acreage on the outskirts of Brisbane with a gorgeous mountain view but secretly wishes it was the hillsides of Tuscany.

Review:

Entangled Publishing's Indulgence line offers romance readers stories slightly shorter on length but not on plot. Taming the Tycoon is an entertaining, engaging and sweet read featuring some hot romance and a couple to root for. Nathaniel is a wealthy businessman, hoping this next project brings him to the billion dollar mark. Standing in the way of this stellar achievement is a pair of pink handcuffs and their owner, free-spirited Addie. Behind the cuffs stands a determined young woman bent on stopping the real estate mogul from bulldozing a beloved rose garden. Both are determined to get what they want until that old adage about opposites attracting gets in the way.

I was amazed at how easily I feel into reading their story. Addie is refreshingly different, the complete opposite of Nathaniel, and the chemistry between them is immediate and practically flowed off the screen of my e-reader. Author Amy Andrews very smartly does not have them fall instantly in love--they playfully banter and tease each other with looks and words. I find the most effective and convincing romances have a lot of heart and this story does. Watching Nathaniel and Addie fall in love was sweet, sizzling and satisfying. This was my first Amy Andrews novel and I know it will definitely not be my last.

Rating: 4

Cover comment: Very effective, catches the sweetness of their pairing with this captured moment.

Book source: I received a promotional e-book from Entangled Publishing in return for my honest review during an official blog tour.

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