Guest Post and Giveaway: Embers by Kate Sherwood

Please help us welcome author Kate Sherwood today, on the tour for her new novel, Embers. Enjoy Kate’s guest post, and then be sure to check out the giveaway details below.

Welcome, Kate!

Family Ties

I love the idea of “found families” versus birth families, and I explore it a lot in my books. The Common Law series is no exception to this trend.

Jericho and Wade (and Kayla, to some degree) first got together as teenagers, and I think a big reason why their relationship was so intense was that it was all they had. Jericho had no real family, not in terms of providing love and warmth, and Wade’s mother, while possibly not as aggressively negative as Jericho’s father, was definitely dealing with her own issues. As an adult looking back on it all, Jericho seems to recognize some of this:

Mentally healthy people probably didn’t have relationships like that, because you had to be pretty damaged to let someone else that far under your skin. He and Wade had both been raw and exposed, and it had only made sense for them to press themselves together, offering less tender flesh to the outside world.

Kayla had a more supportive home environment, but no mom and her dad was so wrapped up in his work that she didn’t get as much attention as she needed, either. So the three of them turned to each other, and found the love they needed.

When Jericho ran away from Mosely, he left all that behind. Maybe he was too young to appreciate the true value of what he had, or maybe the negatives of staying simply outweighed the positives. Either way, he cut bonds not only with his biological family, but also with his found family. And after he left he tried to find a new found family in the Marines and then the LAPD, but he never finds anything to compare.

Still, he stays away until his family—his birth family—calls him back. And I’m not really sure whether he would have come if it had just been them. (I don’t have to be sure of this, because I don’t think Jericho would have been sure of it either!) I think our birth families always stay with us to some extent, and maybe Jericho would have wanted to come back just to get some closure and maybe even to gloat a little at having become a successful human being despite his poor upbringing—but maybe not. I think in the book he’s coming back for his birth family but he’s also, whether he chooses to admit it or not, coming back for his found family. When the FBI asks him if he plans to see Wade, his internal response is something like Hell, no. But also, hell, yeah.

So, two families for Jericho, and he ran away from both of them when he was younger. As an adult, he comes back when one of them calls on him; but I think he’s probably using that as an excuse. If he’d left Mosely without seeing Wade again, I think it would have chewed at him until he had to return. Once the door got opened a little bit, he couldn’t push it shut again.

Family conflict is always interesting in stories—what are some of your favourite books with families that don’t work quite the way they should? Or, alternatively, families (born or found) that work perfectly?

About the Book

Small town—big problems. Jericho Crewe is back in Mosely, Montana, trying to deal with police corruption, interfering feds, his newly discovered family members, and, of course, Wade Granger.

He doesn’t really need a biker war on top of it all, but as the bodies start to pile up, it becomes pretty clear that’s what he’s got. Not only that, but Wade’s involved somehow, and as soon as Wade is a part of something, things that seemed clear become cloudy.

With the feds breathing down his neck, Jericho has to find his way through Wade’s maze of half truths and manipulations. It would all be so much easier if Jericho could think straight in the other man’s presence. So much easier if their passionate past could be forgotten, and if he could be sure he’s strong enough to resist the temptation of a passionate present.

Now available from Riptide Publishing

About the Author

Kate Sherwood started writing about the same time she got back on a horse after almost twenty years away from riding. She’d like to think she was too young for it to be a midlife crisis, but apparently she was ready for some changes!

Kate grew up near Toronto, Ontario (Canada) and went to school in Montreal, then Vancouver. But for the last decade or so she’s been a country girl. Sure, she misses some of the conveniences of the city, but living close to nature makes up for those lacks. She’s living in Ontario’s “cottage country”–other people save up their time and come to spend their vacations in her neighborhood, but she gets to live there all year round!

Since her first book was published in 2010, she’s kept herself busy with novels, novellas, and short stories in almost all the sub-genres of m/m romance. Contemporary, suspense, scifi or fantasy–the settings are just the backdrop for her characters to answer the important questions. How much can they share, and what do they need to keep? Can they bring themselves to trust someone, after being disappointed so many times? Are they brave enough to take a chance on love?

Kate’s books balance drama with humor, angst with optimism. They feature strong, damaged men who fight themselves harder than they fight anyone else. And, wherever possible, there are animals: horses, dogs, cats ferrets, squirrels… sometimes it’s easier to bond with a non-human, and most of Kate’s men need all the help they can get.

After five years of writing, Kate is still learning, still stretching herself, and still enjoying what she does. She’s looking forward to sharing a lot more stories in the future.

Twitter: @kate_sherwood

The Giveaway

To celebrate the release of all four books in the Common Law series, we’re giving away one four-tour-wide GRAND PRIZE of $100 in Riptide credit! Enter at each stop on each tour (once they go live) to maximize your chances to win! Leave a comment with your contact info to enter the contest. Entries close at midnight, Eastern time, on April 8, 2017. Contest is NOT restricted to U.S. entries. Thanks for following the Embers tour, and don’t forget to leave your contact info!