Please welcome Risky Business author Amy Andrews who stops by to chat about Sports Heroes. Amy writes books about sports heroes, yet doesn’t enjoy sports. I can totally relate to this conundrum because I like reading sports romance but otherwise don’t follow sports at all! Let’s see if she can figure out this puzzle for us:
Sports Heroes
By Amy Andrews
Anyone who knows me will be able to tell you that I loathe all forms of sports. I mean, maybe if someone put a gun to my head and made me pick one then I’d choose cricket. But that’s only because I grew up playing it in the backyard with my brothers and it was constantly on the box in my house over the summer back in the days with only one channel and no TV remotes.
But I can take or leave it. Usually leave.
So, I’m not sure what it says about me that the last two big books I’ve written have had sportsmen heroes. In fact, I have an idea for a third as well (cricket this time – surprise!) I mean, why doesn’t my muse throw me a nice cowboy to write about? I freaking love cowboys…
The only thing I can put my finger on is the delicious contrast between the hero and the heroine. My heroines, like me, loathe sport, so that gives them an immediate bone of contention with the hero. It makes them opposites. It’s also a mindset I feel very comfortable writing which gives my heroines and their loathing complete authenticity.
Of course I always make my sporting men just a little bit broken. Jake, from Holding Out For A Hero is a retired (disgraced) footballer. And Nick, from Risky Business is an injured extreme sports star. I do like to see a big, strong man brought down from his pedestal because I think that tests his mettle more than anything else. I also like to see him totally flummoxed by a woman. I like to see how he has iron-clad control over the rest of his life, how he can throw himself out of a plane or plunge into the dark unknown of a deep cavern but has absolutely no idea how to handle a feisty female powerhouse that’s knocked him on his butt.
It takes more than a sturdy carabineer and good ball skills for that!
Q: Sports heroes – love them or loathe them?
Thanks, Amy! The opposites attract theme makes a lot of sense, and I do think you should write that cowboy romance someday.
About Risky Business
• Publisher: Escape Publishing
From bestselling author Amy Andrews comes a new single-title romance about putting pleasure before business, and the risks we all need to take when we find someone worth risking everything for.
Samantha Evans’s life is going to hell. Not only has she rage-quit her beloved, high-powered job, but she is suddenly afflicted by hormones, free time, and an unavoidable, unignorable, undeniably gorgeous irritant in the form of Nick Hawke, her extreme sports star neighbour, who has come home to take over the reins of his grandmother’s second-hand bookshop. Sam needs something to keep her from begging for her old job back until she’s good and sure her boss understands how wrong he was, and taking a low-risk, low-stress job helping Nick at the bookstore might be just the thing.
After all, it’s not like Nick is the right guy to help her with her hormones. He’ll just be fun to look at while she searches for the one.
Nick has six months to get over an injury before Everest and a big, fat contract beckon. That means no sports, no danger and, above all else, no risks. It means playing it safe. And Nick Hawke doesn’t do safe. So he’s going to need something to stave off the boredom while selling books he doesn’t read to people who wouldn’t know a carabineer from a crochet hook. What could be safer than hiring a cranky, unemployed accountant to help run the bookstore? Sam is efficient and methodical and messing up her neat, post-it note world could be a fun way to pass the time….
Risky Business mixes the classic romance of Philadelphia Story, the humour and wit of When Harry Met Sally, and a strong, contemporary Australian setting to create a delightful, irresistible, utterly satisfying treat of a novel.
Find Risky Business: Goodreads |Amazon US | Amazon AU | Amazon UK | iBooks | Google Play | Kobo Books
Say hi to Amy Andrews on her: website and Facebook page
Congrats to Christine who won a Risky Business e-book!
Thanks for having me, Lucy! One cowboy coming up 🙂
Sounds good, Amy! I like how you explained the appeal of sports heroes for non-sporty types. That’s probably why they are fascinating to me.
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Thanks for featuring Amy for the tour!