As seen in the May issue of Uncaged Book Reviews.
Uncaged: Can you tell readers more about your Moto X series? What inspired you to write about these racers? How many books are you planning for this series?
Like all my books, Moto X started off as just an idea. I originally tried to convince my best friend who isn’t an author to write it with me, her doing one perspective and I would do the other. But neither of us ever had the time to sit down together and I continued on dreaming up ideas on my own. Well, after Deadpool came out, Axle’s voice came to me, loud and wild. I sat down and wrote all three books in a six month period.
I’ve always like motocross and thought it would be fun to do racers and a romance through the man’s eyes. I also thought that there are great books out there written where the woman saves a broken man, so why not a man saving a broken woman? Tada! Axle and Paige!
There is three books for Axle and Paige, I am planning three more for down the road but I write where the voices in my head takes me and it isn’t back to that little universe yet.
Uncaged: What are you working on now?
I just finished up the second book in a were
wolf series I have been working through for years. The one I just finished was originally the first book, but I switched it up. There will be six books in this series with the possibility of a novella. Now, I’m getting ready to work on a secret project that I will be releasing next year.
Uncaged: You also have a couple other series running. Can you tell readers more about those series?
I have my debut series, My Cowboy which has three books about three different couples from a small town in Wyoming. Emma and Cade’s book is the first one and it is a pseudo second chance romance where Emma’s childhood crush, Cade comes back after ten years of being gone. Faith in My Cowboy is focused on Tucker, Emma’s brother, and Maddi. Tucker is in the military and ends up injured and lost. Maddi fights to keep hold of their love. The third, but not final book, is Loved by My Cowboy which focuses on Emma’s best friend, Libby, and her man, Justin. I had fun with this story. Libby fought against Justin’s advances for years, but things change when he comes home. Each story has a sort of healing undertone to it.
My other series is the Predator Series, also three books, though one is a novella. This series was a complete change for me. I set it in Boston, a place I’ve never been so I relied on Google Maps to familiarize me with the areas I was writing about. The first two books are a duology centered around K.C. and Chamberlain. The first book you get only K.C. and how she fell in love with the Predator himself. In part two, it is both Chamberlain and K.C. telling the story. Both of them overcome a lot to be together.
The novella of the series is called Wildfire Knockout and is a short story between Chamberlain’s best friend, Scott and K.C.’s best friend, Beth. It was fun and light with some heavy undertones to it.
Uncaged: You are an attending author at Wild Deadwood Reads this year. What are you looking forward to the most from this convention?
Everything! I don’t get to attend the side events because I still have to work up until the day before, but I’m excited to see familiar faces I met last year and new ones this year. I love meeting and talking with fellow authors and sharing a love of books with readers.
Uncaged: Do you read your reviews? What do you take away from them?
Occasionally, I will read them. I write because it is my passion and I want to share it with the world, so I try to view any and all reviews for other readers who might be interested in my books. I feel like I’ve grown a lot since I first published My Cowboy and continue to grow, so I hope the reviews reflect that.
Uncaged: What is one of the nicest things someone has said to you about your books?
Someone told me once I’m very transitional. I can float from cowboys to fighters and then to a foul mouth, bad boy with ease and that I like. I don’t want to be pegged as one type of an author or another. Not that there is anything wrong with it, but I want to write about anything and everything in the world of romance. Being transitional is something I strive for so having a reader tell me I am makes me pretty happy.
Uncaged: What is your favorite parts about being an author? What have you found to be the least favorite?
My favorite parts are the actual writing and formulating a new story. I love losing myself in a different life. I especially like writing in the male perspective.
My least favorite? I’m not sure if I have one. I guess finding and getting reviews? It is so difficult anymore to have readers post reviews and they are helpful to the readers.
Uncaged: What do you like to do when you aren’t writing? Where is one of your favorite places on Earth?
I love being outside in the mountains close to my home. I was born and raised in Wyoming and the mountains have always been my true home. I feel at peace there, especially with no cell service and away from all technology. My family and I hike, fish, and hunt together so I love doing that with them, especially exploring a place I’m familiar with but my family isn’t.
My favorite place is a canyon called Little Horn Canyon. It is pretty, but I remember watching a bear chase three cow elk when I was little and I’ve loved it back there ever since.
Uncaged: What is the hardest part of a book to write? What is the easiest? From start to finish, how long does it take to finish a complete book?
For Moto X, the hardest part for me was writing something that could affect two people in such different ways. Paige and her twin brother Parker have had a hard life and writing something bad happening to children is difficult for me because I think of my own kids.
The easiest part is the chemistry to bring to people together, even though I run out of date ideas. I have a dry sense of humor so humor to me is funny in my books but I don’t know if others laugh at it.
It depends on the book. Last month, I wrote a short story about a cupid that only took me a couple of weeks. Moto X took me six months to write all three books and my secret project will probably take me a month and a half.
Uncaged: What would you like to say to fans, and where can they follow you?
That I love and cherish you. I could easily publish for myself and not have a single person read my work, but having readers and fans to share in the adventure and fall in love with my words makes it that much better.
I have a lot of social media pages so whatever you prefer, I’m sure you can find me there.
[symple_box color=”black” fade_in=”false” float=”center” text_align=”left” width=””]Romance author Brooke May spends her days writing whatever her overactive imagination has brewed up and her evenings reading while she works alongside her mom. Telling stories is second natural to her, from a young age she has told anyone who would listen what she had thought up.
Now, a mom of two, she splits her time writing, playing with her kids, and of course, hiking, hunting, fishing, and four-wheeling in her beloved Bighorn Mountains. While on maternity leave with her youngest, Brooke was putting laundry away when she looked at a poem she had written in high school that was framed in her son’s bedroom. That poem triggered the idea of My Cowboy and soon she was sitting in front of her computer with her infant next to her writing her first love story that wasn’t a fanfiction.[/symple_box]
brookemayauthor.weebly.com
Roosted
Brooke May
Contemporary Romance
Living day to day in a never ending hell he created himself, Axle Ryan’s life is an abyss of torture. Constantly questioning what happened to his life and how he lost himself after two epic blunders until she stormed into his life. Paige Bartin thundered into Axle’s life in the form of a dark, tattooed goddess who would soon rock his world in more ways than he ever thought possible. With her, Axle feels he is finally getting something wonderful. This woman may be shrouded in mystery but she brings much needed sunshine to his soul. But the enigma of her is only enticing for so long. She has no plans on sharing her past or opening up to Axle. He should stir clear of her, but he won’t. Everything in Axle is telling him she is meant to be his, even if she doesn’t want to be.
Excerpt
Prologue
Don’t f*ck the boss. This should be rule number one; the very first f**ing thing anyone tells you when you reach adulthood. Work hard, stay focused, do your best each day, and—the best f**king one—strive for greatness. Yeah, it’s all a bunch of bullshit. All of that is shit your teacher and professors tell you as you graduate from secondary school or whatever university you found yourself at. They should just be real and tell you the truth. Kiss their arses, but don’t f**k them. Keep your mouth shut, and be a yes man kind of person. Oh, and the second most important thing; your education—the degree you put blood, sweat, and tears into—doesn’t amount to anything and doesn’t guarantee you the f**king job you deserve. But the most important is to never, ever f**k your boss, or your boss’s wife, daughter, son, husband—you get it; the list can go on and on. No matter what you think certain p***y will taste like, control your f**king dick. Keep it in your pants. Don’t beat off to thoughts of them in your head; don’t even look at them when you are at work. Keep your nose down and stay focused on the real reason you are there. To bloody work! This shouldn’t just go for us guys. No, it should go both ways. Ladies, you get a job and you think your boss has a fine arse and can give you everything your heart desires just because they’re rich, leave it the f**k alone. I don’t care what those novels you read tell you. F**king the boss never ends well.
It sure didn’t improve my life six years ago after I moved to the States. At the time, I was unstoppable—bullet proof, if you will—and I f**ked myself over. Not only did I put a damper on my professionalism and career, but my ego took a massive hit as well. That’s what leads me to where I am at today. I’ve been with Havre and Bell Accounting Firm since I landed on this side of earth. Since I’ve been here for six years, you would think my seniority would mean a better job, but it doesn’t. Stuck in an entry-level position is just the start of my woes. Expendable, useful at times, but overall, I’m a f**king grunt worker. My education goes to being the aid to my boss, Candy—the very one I f**ked by the way—bringing in new clients to keep our firm going. And let me be clear; Candy Havre is the only daughter of one of the firm’s owners. I’m a legend around here now and not a good one. Think Clinton-Lewinsky kind of fame. The new people quickly learn about me and advance while I stay where I’m at. In a tiny arse cubical forgotten in a corner.
I overlook work functions unless they are mandatory. Every company picnic, Christmas party, or any other function my attendance isn’t required is one I stay the f**k away from. I don’t care to be around people who judge me by my appearance. They see the typical bad boy with my arms, back, and chest inked. My nipples and d**k are pierced, too, but no one aside from Candy knows that. Hell, they even judge me based on my haircut. F**kers. It doesn’t matter that I work hard; researching, providing estimates, and so on to draw new clients in. I help sweet talk them, and then get cast away. No one sees my other side; the good guy who wants to do a good job and has dreams.
Why don’t I leave my shithole job? I like the United States. Don’t get me wrong, I love my homeland of Australia, as well, but I feel freer here. I’m away from my family and allowed to be myself. I love my parents and little sister, but they don’t let me breathe when I’m there. Not after what I went through. My parents are blue-collar workers, and great. My sister, Priscilla, and I never went without. As kids, we knew we couldn’t ask for a whole lot, but we never felt deprived. My dad is a full-time mechanic at an auto dealership in Sydney. He’s been working on vehicles since before I was born. I was lucky enough to spend an exuberant amount of time during my childhood under the hood with him. It was his dream I would do something great with the knowledge he passed down to me, or at least follow my own dreams of becoming a professional motocross racer, but I didn’t.
Instead, I chose a profession no one would have guessed—accounting. What can I say? I like numbers. It’s steady, and I don’t have to make regular trips to the doctor’s office to set a broken bone or get any scans. My mum is a sweet little soul. By day, she cleans the homes of wealthier people, and at night, she cleans a couple of small businesses. She made sure Priscilla and I was able to attend college and neither she or my dad would accept a single cent from my sister or me as payment for our educations. They were heartbroken when I left for the States, but they understood why. At twenty-two years old and fresh out of college, my life was racing with my best mate, Jax, who happened to be an American.
Until my last race.
We ended up in a pileup, which stole Jax’s ability to walk, and I couldn’t live with the guilt. I still can’t handle it most days, and I refuse to get back on a bike. Part of my mind knows it wasn’t my fault, but it still feels that way. Well into the race, I was following the rider in front of me too closely, and Jax was right on my arse. It happens with races; everyone is gunning to get to the front and take the win. But I should have been paying closer attention to the rider in front of me. He was unfocused by the corner, and I was far too close to react when he slammed on his brakes. I tried to turn, but I had nowhere to go. My front tire slammed into the side of him as Jax’s bike hit me from behind. It continued until we were in a massive pile. Most of us walked away with a few scrapes and bruises, but not Jax. I could still hear his screams as we pulled him from under the mountain of mangled machines. That day changed everything. No matter how much Jax tried to get me to realize it wasn’t on me, I couldn’t look at another bike, another race track, or anything related to the sport again and feel the same joy I had before. I tried to push the pain away, but I still carry it with me.
I sold my bike, forced the money into my parents’ account, and settled on where in the world I would go. Sandy, Utah, the southern part of Salt Lake City, is where I decided. Jax’s hometown became where I would hang my hat if I wore one. I helped him through rehab, physical therapy, and when he healed he tried to encourage me to get out on my own, but I still live with him. I want to make sure my friend is always okay. Jax is still part of the motocross world with his own work. He, along with our other American friend, Levi, tell me daily to go for it again; to get back on a bike, and to fall back in love with the one thing that always made me happy. I was too good to hang up my gear. I brush it off, but I’ve come to realize how much I hate my bloody life.
Uncaged Review
This is a different type of book than I normally read, and one thing that was cool about the book is that it’s all told in Axle’s point of view instead of the woman. Even though I prefer third person narration, the author does a fantastic job with this and I never felt like I was missing any kind of information like sometimes happens in first person narratives.
Don’t go into this book thinking it’s your mother or grandmother’s romance book, this is a hard hitting book and there is a lot of swearing. But if you don’t mind that part, which I don’t, then you find a well written romance about two people trying to put their lives back together after some rough pasts. The author doles out information on the backgrounds slowly, but knows when the reader needs to know more. This is the first book in the series, and there is still quite a bit to learn about our couple of Axle and Paige, both together and separate. It did end on a mild cliffhanger, but it’s nice to know book two is already available. Reviewed by Cyrene
4 1/2 Stars
[symple_box color=”black” fade_in=”false” float=”center” text_align=”left” width=””]Writing has been a desire my whole life. Once I found the courage to write, life changed for me in the most profound way. Bringing stories to readers that I’d enjoy reading and creating characters that are flawed, but lovable is such a joy.
[symple_box color=”black” fade_in=”false” float=”center” text_align=”left” width=””]After being a bank vice president and a hospital public relations director, Beth Carter shed her suits and heels and reinvented herself. She doesn’t miss the eight o’clock meetings whatsoever and now happily writes from home in her pj’s. While drinking copious amounts of coffee, she pens award-winning novels and children’s picture books.
Chaos at Coconuts