Blog Tour + #Giveaway: The Third Kiss by Kat Colmer @KatColmer @chapterxchapter @EntangledTeen

The Third Kiss (Love's Mortal Coil #1)

by Kat Colmer
Publication Date:  August 7, 2017
Publisher:  Entangled Teen

Love curses don’t exist. At least that’s what Jonas, master of the meaningless hookup, tells himself when a letter warns him he’s an Eros Guardian cursed to endure a test of true love or forever be alone. His levelheaded longtime friend Cora figures it’s a revenge prank by an ex. The way Jonas stamps each girlfriend with a weeklong use-by date, it serves him right.

But when an impulsive kiss between the two friends reveals potential for more, Cora becomes the target of the Groth Maar: demons sent to wipe out the Eros Guardian line. And suddenly the curse becomes dangerously real.

Breaking the curse means Jonas’s biggest challenge yet. Failure guarantees Cora’s death. But success may cost him his own life…and the loss of his carefully guarded heart to the one girl far too sensible to fall for him.

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Excerpt:

Jonas snorted. “The guy has a backyard designed to charm girls out of their underwear.”

Did he seriously just say that? When he himself went off with— Unbelievable! I grabbed the rough wood of the gazebo railing so I didn’t lash out with more than my words.

“And you’d know all about that, now, wouldn’t you?”

His jaw clenched even as a wince tightened the line of his lips. “I don’t like him.”

“You don’t know him.”

“Neither do you.” He widened his stance and crossed his arms. “A few online chats don’t exactly mean much when it comes to getting to know someone.”

My fingernails dug into the railing, the wood biting into my skin. “Nice. So all our conversations while I was in Manhattan were meaningless, too, were they?”

“That’s different.” Jonas scowled under his balaclava of shadows. “We have history, a friendship. You hardly knew him before you left and haven’t seen the guy in over a year.”

He took a half step closer. “Ever heard of taking things slower?”

Breathe. Deep and steady, in and out. “Do you hear yourself? You telling me to take things slower?”

His hand twitched, like a gunfighter about to draw. “We’re talking about you, not me.”

“No, let’s talk about you. And how you need to butt out of my life.” Letting go of the safety of the railing, I took a step toward him. “I don’t go around judging how you change girlfriends more often than your social media updates so where do you get off telling me how fast or slow I should go?”

Jonas stilled. “I’m just trying to stop you from making a mistake.”

My jaw dropped. “What, with your track record? You’re the master of the meaningless hookup. You do not get to lecture me on making mistakes.”

Eyes locked on mine, his pulse punched out a frantic rhythm against the side of his throat. “A mistake for some isn’t necessarily one for others.”

Of all the patronizing— “Are you listening to the garbage coming out of your mouth or has all the bullshit clogged up your ears?” I pressed my clenched hands against my sides, fighting the urge to grab his headphones and show him exactly what I thought of his double standard.

“The guy is a player, Cora.”

I scoffed. “Not every guy operates the way you do.”

Jonas flinched but didn’t say anything.

“And even if he is, maybe that’s all I’m after.” I wasn’t, but it felt good to bait him.

His eyes narrowed, two glistening slits. “That’s not you.”

I edged closer still, my frame vibrating with anger. “How do you know? Maybe that night a year ago gave me a taste for short and uncomplicated.”

I felt more than saw something in him shift. Then a flash of lightning ripped the shadows from his face, leaving his expression exposed.

Shit.

The light disappeared. And with it the space between us.

Interview with Kat Colmer

What inspired you to write The Third Kiss?

The inspiration for The Third Kiss came from an unusual place, namely the Old Testament, in particular a tragic story in which King David’s beautiful daughter Tamar is shamed and cast out of her father’s palace, all because her half brother Amnon felt she was his for the taking. The disgraced Tamar goes mad thanks to the ordeal. This got me to thinking… What if she didn’t go mad? What if she got mad instead? Suddenly, a very different ending to Tamar’s story took shape in my mind, one where she sought out the help of a sorcerer to curse Amnon’s descendants so they would suffer the same fate as her. And so Love’s Mortal Coil was born: a curse to endure a test of true love or forever be alone. A curse passed down to Jonas, the relationship phobic hero of The Third Kiss.


Can you tell us a little bit about the next books in the Love’s Mortal Coil series or what you have planned for the future?

The next instalment in the Love’s Mortal Coil series features Jonas’s friend Leo and twin sister Beth as the main characters. In this story, Leo finds himself on the hit list of some very ticked off Groth Maar demons because of something he’s done in The Third Kiss (I’m not telling. You’ll have to read it to find out). Think more action, more mystery, more martial arts. Maybe even a gun shot or two. And kissing. We can’t forget the kissing!

Can you tell us a little bit about the characters in The Third Kiss?

Jonas’s character formed in my mind first. The guy has inadvertently earned himself a bit of a reputation as a ladies’ man, but don’t judge him just yet; he’s got his reasons. Having lost both his parents at age twelve, Jonas is fiercely loyal to his twin sister, Beth, and his aunt Helena. He comes across as one of those life-of-the-party kind of people. Sociable, likable, the type of guy everyone knows or wants to know. But underneath the easy going façade he’s petrified to allow anyone close.

Cora is Jonas’s levelheaded scientifically minded friend and neighbor who has returned home after a year in Manhattan with her mother. She’s determined to focus on the medical science degree she’s about to start, and has no time for distractions, especially ones that come in the form of the cute guy next door, the very guy she shared an unplanned kiss with before she left Sydney the previous year. She values Jonas’s friendship and loves his company, but witnessing the pain of her parents’ recent divorce has made her super wary of anyone who doesn’t know the meaning of the word “commitment”. And yet, the two of them are perfect for one another!

You know I think we all have a favorite author. Who is your favorite author and why?

One? Just one? That’s too hard! But if you held my packet of double choc coated Tim Tams hostage until I gave you an answer, I’d probably choose… Nope. Can’t do it. It’ll have to be a few, for different genres: Melina Marchetta and Cath Crowley for contemporary YA, Paula Weston and Rachael Craw for speculative YA, Lauren Layne for sassy New Adult (I LOVE everything Lauren Layne!), and Oscar Wilde’s ‘Picture of Dorian Grey’ as well as Ray Bradbury’s ‘Fahrenheit 451’ as my classics influences.
 

If you could time-travel would you travel to the future or the past? Where would you like to go and why would you like to visit this particular time period?

The future, definitely! History already offers us a nice window into the past, but we can only speculate about the future. So, as scary as it might be, I think I’d time-travel about a hundred years into the future. At the rate technology is advancing, my mind boggles with the innovations I might find in a hundred years from now and how all that might affect our lives. Also, the movie Back to the Future has turned me off time travel into the past. Too much risk of messing up one of your ancestors’ past lives and accidentally wiping out your own existence!


Do you have any little fuzzy friends? Like a dog or a cat? Or any pets?

I did, but not anymore. Unfortunately, we had to put down our little Jack Russell Fox Terrier cross, Ralph, last December. He was with us for eighteen years, so had a long and happy life, but we miss him nonetheless.

Thanks for taking time out of your busy schedule to visit with us today.

Thank you for having me!

AUTHOR INFO:

Kat Colmer is a Sydney-based Young and New Adult author who writes coming-of-age stories with humor and heart. The recipient of several writing awards, she has won the Romance Writers of Australia First Kiss contest, as well as the Romance Writers of America On the Far Side contest for her debut Young Adult Paranormal Romance.

Kat has a Master of Education in Teacher Librarianship and loves working with teens and young adults. When not writing, teaching, or reading the latest in YA fiction, Kat spends time with her husband and two children.

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