GUEST POST with EXCLUSIVE EXCERPT and REVIEW: K.A. Mitchell of 'Bad Boyfriend'
It Gets Better
What a difference a few years makes!
No, I’m not talking about the age gap between Quinn and Eli, though that does lead to a bit of Daddy-kink that I never saw *cough* coming when I started to write the book. I’m talking about the difference between 2011 when the book was written and the first edition was released and now.
I expected to make some content changes, a few tweaks to fit house style or because I hope I’m a better writer now and I can make a sentence less awkward. It was important to me to not make big changes, such as new material; I didn’t want readers who had already paid for the book once to feel like they needed to buy it again. What surprised me was that I had to make changes because gay rights improved drastically in the years in between.
When I wrote Bad Boyfriend, DADT (Don't Ask, Don't Tell) was still in force. I might have been able to legally marry in Massachusetts, but it was up in the air everywhere else. We wondered if we were going to get saddled with the lovely second class “civil unions” as bigots tried to tell us what marriage was. In the first edition, Eli thinks how he wished he’d joined some of the DADT protests for Quinn’s sake and baits the ex’s family that Quinn is still tangled up in by suggesting that he and Quinn might run off to Hawaii, but says, “Everything’s so up in the air with civil unions and gay marriage.”
Not anymore.
Like we’ve been promising queer teens for years, it does get better, and Eli is able to make a next level dig in the same scene. I hope you enjoy this little peek at Bad Boyfriend.
Title: Bad Boyfriend
Series: Bad in Baltimore #2
Author: K.A. Mitchell
Published: February 20, 2018 - 2nd Edition
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Cover Artist: Kanaxa/Kanaxa Designs
Genre: Contemporary Romance; Erotic Romance
Length: 272 Pages
Tags: Gay; M/M; Standalone; Family Drama; HEA; May/December; Opposites Attract; Kink: Daddy Kink, Spanking
About Bad Boyfriend
Causing trouble has never been more fun.
Eli Wright doesn’t follow anyone’s rules. When he was seventeen, his parents threw him out of the house for being gay. He’s been making his own way for the past five years and he’s not about to change himself for anyone’s expectations. For now, romance can wait. There are plenty of hot guys to keep him entertained until he finds someone special.
Quinn Maloney kept the peace and his closeted boyfriend’s secrets for ten years. One morning he got a hell of a wake-up along with his coffee. Not only did the boyfriend cheat on him, but he’s marrying the girl he knocked up. Inviting Quinn to the baby’s baptism is the last straw. Quinn’s had enough of gritting his teeth to play nice. His former boyfriend is in for a rude awakening, because Quinn’s not going to sit quietly on the sidelines. In fact, he has the perfect scheme, and he just needs to convince the much younger, eyeliner-wearing guy who winks at him in a bar to help him out.
Eli’s deception is a little too good, and soon he has everyone believing they’re madly in love. In fact, he’s almost got Quinn believing it himself….
First Edition published by Samhain Publishers Inc., December 2011.
In this excerpt, Quinn has dragged Eli along to the Christening party for his ex-boyfriend’s child. With no family of his own, Quinn has remained a part of the Laurent family, mother Claire, daughter Alyssa, sons Dennis and Peter—Quinn’s ex—and Peter’s wife Chrissy. The family is in the banquet room of a bar and restaurant following the baptism.
“Cool.” Eli added some carrots to his plate. “Maybe I could get the paper to do a feature. I’ll talk to Nate.”
“Your vegetarian friend is your boss?” Alyssa asked. The word vegetarian made Faith glare at her mother and poke at the mountain of vegetables she’d been given.
“Among other things.” Eli winked at her. “But that was in the past.” He patted Quinn’s arm, and Quinn began counting down the seconds to the next explosion.
He didn’t have to wait long. Eli wasn’t giving up the stage now.
“Quinn is so lucky to have you all. Do you remember the thing last year with Kellan Brooks? He was on Get a Job with Kimmie Stafford?”
“The one whose dad is head of Brooks Blast? The energy drinks?” If it was pop culture, Alyssa knew it. “Right. He came out. It was all over the internet. I showed you that, Mom.”
It wasn’t all over Quinn’s part of the internet, because he had no idea what they were talking about.
“His dad cut him off after he came out. He walked away from all that money to be with Nate.” There was nothing affected about Eli’s voice now. Strong and warm with awe, it sounded like hero worship. “I know for a fact Kellan turned down half a million. Just to be honest about who he is.”
The sound of silverware on the restaurant plates echoed in the aftermath of that conversational bomb. Quinn didn’t know whether everyone not looking at Peter was any better than if they’d all stared. Eli had neatly set that up and detonated it from a safe distance. It might have been aimed at Peter, but the shrapnel raining down on Quinn cut deep.
Maybe Eli had a broader target in mind. Quinn knew he deserved it. He hadn’t been honest with Eli.
And the thought of meeting Chrissy’s kind gaze made his head ache.
Gabe came to his father’s rescue with a brief whimper and then a gut-deep wail. Peter was up before Chrissy could blink. “I’ll get him.”
“So. What are your plans for the holidays?” Claire said.
Eli stretched his arm along the back of Quinn’s chair. “Quinn’s talking about taking me to Hawaii.”
Quinn choked on his ice water. He should have gotten a beer. “That’s—”
“You mean you wouldn’t be here for Christmas?” Claire was horrified.
“Well, it’s still up in the air,” Eli said.
Quinn turned a steady, threatening glare on him. It worked on surly fifteen-year-olds. But Eli was made of sterner stuff. He grinned back and continued. “After all, I am a little young to be getting married.”
Under a stream of excitement from Alyssa and Paula, Quinn heard Dennis choke out, “Married?”
Quinn began to weigh the advantages of murder over suicide.
Somehow Quinn managed to endure through dessert without having to decide on either option. He gulped a little coffee, took two bites of the overly sweet cake, and looked with longing at the pastries that had been a source of further contention as Faith decided she was a sugartarian instead. Eli had sucked down a napoleon and an éclair while Quinn stuck to black coffee, cursing his thirty-five-year-old metabolism and trying not to think of how obscene the chocolate and cream looked on Eli’s wide mouth.
As Quinn pinned his two fifties to the christening gown displayed on the gift table, the women clustered around Gabe, who was apparently doing something precious. Dennis and Peter had followed their father into the bar, and Eli was about to disappear into the men’s room. Quinn caught up to him in the narrow hall.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?”
“What do you think? I swear your ex-father-in-law is trying to get me drunk. That’s the third Canadian whiskey he’s bought me.”
“Don’t say—”
“Whiskey?” Eli blinked slowly. “Or father-in-law? If you’re going to follow me in, give me a minute, because I really gotta pee.”
Quinn was a patient man. He taught teenagers, for Christ’s sake. But leaning his head back against the Budweiser sign on the dark paneling didn’t do anything to control his need to shake Eli and demand to know what the fuck made it so funny to screw with Quinn’s life. Knowing he wanted to follow the tirade by shoving his dick so far up Eli’s ass he’d taste him for a month didn’t help either.
Where she says: "Have I said I absolutely loved reading Bad Boyfriend? Thanks, Dreamspinner, for re-releasing this gem!"
Meet the Author
K.A. Mitchell discovered the magic of writing at an early age when she learned that a carefully crayoned note of apology sent to the kitchen in a toy truck would earn her a reprieve from banishment to her room. Her career as a spin-control artist was cut short when her family moved to a two-story house, and her trucks would not roll safely down the stairs. Around the same time, she decided that Chip and Ken made a much cuter couple than Ken and Barbie and was perplexed when invitations to play Barbie dropped off. She never stopped making stuff up, though, and was surprised to find out that people would pay her to do it. Although the men in her stories usually carry more emotional baggage than even LAX can lose in a year, she guarantees they always find their sexy way to a happy ending.
For more from K.A. be sure and visit her website!
