Title: Caught Inside
Series: A Boys on the Brink Novel
Author: Jamie Deacon
Publisher: Beaten Track Publishing
Cover Artist: Natasha Snow
Release Date: September 29, 2016
Romance Genre(s): Contemporary, Young Adult, LGBT
Words: 83,000
About the Book
Blurb
Luke believes he has his life figured out…and then he meets Theo.
It should have been simple—a summer spent with his girlfriend Zara at her family’s holiday cottage in Cornwall. Seventeen-year-old Luke Savage jumps at the chance, envisioning endless hours of sunbathing on the private beach and riding the waves on his beloved surfboard. He isn’t interested in love. Though his rugged good looks and lazy charm mean he can have his pick of girls, he has no intention of falling for anyone.
Nothing prepares Luke for his reaction to Theo, the sensitive Oxford undergraduate who is Zara’s cousin and closest friend. All at once, he is plunged along a path of desire and discovery that has him questioning everything he thought he knew about himself. No one, especially Zara, must find out; what he and Theo have is too new, too fragile. But as the deceit spirals beyond their control, people are bound to get hurt, Luke most of all.
Caught Inside was named a finalist in the 29th Annual Lambda Literary Awards for Best Gay Romance, the 5th Annual Bisexual Book Awards for Best Young Adult Novel, and the 2017 Next Generation Indie Book Awards for Best LGBT Fiction.
Buy Links
Excerpt
After breakfast, we head down
to the beach armed with towels and books, Theo lugging a coolbox packed with a
hastily prepared lunch. Even hampered by the awkward weight of my board, I
stride ahead through the woods, shorty wetsuit hugging my skin, impatient to be
out on the water.
“For heaven’s sake, Luke, the
sea isn’t going anywhere.” Zara pants from the effort of keeping up with me.
I take no notice, and a
moment later step from the shade of the trees. Late morning sunlight sparkles
off the surface of the water, turning it a dazzling blue-gray. The breeze,
stronger here on the seafront, messes with my hair and whips sand into my face.
Zara and Theo join me and we walk along the beach until the ground to our left
begins to slope upwards, the trees thinning and giving way to rocky boulders.
Theo points to the distant
cliff top, etched dark and rugged against the sky. “There’s a path that takes
you all the way up. We’ll show you some time. It’s a bit of a trek, but the
view’s incredible.”
We set up camp in the shelter
of the cliff wall. While Zara and Theo spread out their towels, I deposit my
board bag and unzip it. As I slide my prize possession onto the sand, a low
whistle makes me look up.
"Wow.” Theo runs an
admiring gaze over my board. “Decent bit of kit you have there."
The grin I flash him is one
of pride, as if the compliment were directed at me. I stroke a hand over the
board's newly-waxed surface. With its diamond tail and step-down tail rail, The
Firewire Spitfire has the thrust of a much thinner board, but without
compromising on speed or flotation. In short, it's six feet of utter perfection.
“Luke, would you do my back
for me?” Zara, stripped down to her bikini, holds out a bottle of suncream.
Theo reads my hesitation and
takes it from her. “Here, I’ll do it. Go on, Luke, I can see you’re dying to be
off.”
“You sure?” I cast Zara a
doubtful look. “Do you mind?”
She waves me off. “Go on. I’m
sure I’ll get over it eventually.”
I don’t wait for her to
change her mind. After securing the leash that connects my ankle to my board, I
hoist the Spitfire over my head and race for the shore. The first slap of surf
against my shins sends goosebumps prickling up my legs and sets my pulse
buzzing like nothing else can. I wade out until the water is waist high, then
stretch out on my board to paddle. The sea is like a living creature underneath
me, its back rising and falling as it moves. I duck through an oncoming wave,
and for an instant my vision becomes shimmering and opaque. Salt stings my
eyes, filling my senses with the smell of the ocean.
Once I feel the swell rolling
in from behind me, I stop and guide my board around. Already the beach is a
long way off. I can just make out Theo, who has walked to the water’s edge to
watch me. In that case, I’d better give him something worth watching.
"The hardest lesson to
master as a surfer,” Dean's dad told me all those summers ago, “is learning to
catch the wave. Stand too early and you lose your footing. Move too late and
you risk missing it altogether."
In fact, once I found my
balance, I picked it up quicker than he expected. I was a natural, or so he was
fond of claiming. Certainly, from those earliest days on a board, I felt in
tune with the sea, able to read the pull of the current, the eddy and flow of
water beneath me.
"It's like learning a
new language,” I once tried to explain to Dean, “completely indecipherable at
first, but once you understand it, everything makes sense."
And now, seven years after
losing my surfing virginity, here I am with the best surfboard I've ever
ridden, the only one I've actually owned, and with what may as well be the
entire Atlantic to myself. I crouch, every muscle tensed, awaiting the perfect
moment. My timing is spot on. Just as the wave begins to break beneath me, I
explode to my feet. And then I’m flying, moving with the Spitfire as though
it’s an extension of my body, spray lashing my face, the wind whipping the hair
back from my forehead.
Nothing else comes close to
this feeling. Nothing. Only out on a board do I experience such a rush of pure
exhilaration or feel so at peace. For those few seconds, it's as though the
world stands still. The present wipes my mind clean of everything, every
thought, every emotion. Nothing matters save for the wave and the sensation of
being wholly at one with nature.
About Jamie Deacon
Author Bio
Jamie lives in a tranquil spot close to the River Thames in Berkshire, England, and has always been just a little out of place—the only redhead in a family of brunettes; an introvert far more at ease with dogs than with people; a connoisseur of simple pleasures in a society intent on the quest for wealth and fame. Despite an outward cynicism, Jamie is a romantic at heart, and, when not immersed in a book, can mostly be found writing emotional stories where young men from all walks of life are thrust headlong into the breathless, euphoric, often painful whirlwind called love.
Connect with Jamie
Giveaway
To celebrate the first anniversary of the release of Caught Inside, Jamie is giving away a $20 Amazon gift card to one lucky winner. For your chance to win, simply enter via the Rafflecopter below. The contest closes at midnight EST on October 13, 2017, and is open to entrants worldwide. Good luck! Enter here.Tour Stops
September 25Guest Post at Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words
September 26
Author Interview with A.M. Leibowitz
September 27
Exclusive Excerpt at Shh, I Am Reading
September 28
Exclusive Excerpt at Outrageous Heroes of Romance
September 29
Author Interview with Drops of Ink
September 30
Guest Post at Stories that Make You Smile
October 1
Exclusive Excerpt at Abibliophobia Anonymous
October 2
Character Interview with Liz's Reading Life
October 3
Exclusive Excerpt at Loves Great Reads
October 4
Character Interview with My Fiction Nook
October 5
Exclusive Excerpt at The Bookworm Lodge
October 6
Exclusive Excerpt at Books, Dreams, Life
October 7
Author Interview with Love Bytes Reviews
October 8
Guest Post at Boys on the Brink
Great post! This book sounds like such a fun, exciting, and interesting read! Looking forward to checking it out!
ReplyDeleteFelt like I was transported at the moment I was reading this when I read Luke's dad's advice about balance. I can still remember the elation Luke felt every time he surfs. He totally loves it, that much is obvious. ;)
ReplyDelete