Steamy Romance (borderline Erotica)

Illicit

Coralie Watson, a British thirty-year-old living in San Francisco, has a tormented past with men. Physical and mental abuse, abandonment issues, incompatibility—she feels like she just can’t win, and constantly swears to herself that she’ll remain single so she can focus on her burgeoning singing/songwriting career. After twelve years in the United States, she often regrets leaving London, her friends, her habits, and dreams of what life might have been like had she not moved.
As she slowly settles into a new routine—and has, so far, kept her vow to stay celibate—her past refuses to give her a break. As she reencounters a former boss she’d had a crush on, someone else resurfaces into her life after many years of silence—a boy she met at fifteen, that she’d had deep feelings for. But now he’s all grown-up and irresistibly handsome. She always considered him the “one that got away”, and is shocked when he confesses he feels the same way about her. The problem? He’s a successful business man who can’t afford a scandal, he’s married to a supermodel wife, and has two beautiful daughters. Yet none of that seems to stop him from making Coralie promise that next time she’s in London, they need to meet and catch up…

What’s the harm in that?

Illicit is part of a three-book series, and is currently on Wattpad (for free!!).

Explicit

Coralie Watson, now living in NYC to focus on her singer/songwriter career, has landed herself in quite the predicament. Stuck in a long-distance relationship with heart-throb Michael, she gets swept into an affair with none other than Ryan–the dreamy hunk from her past who is now magically available to her, exclusively.
But the universe isn’t done throwing her past at her and tempting her with explicit desires. As she tries to figure out how to break-up with Michael–with Ryan’s insistent urging–another previous lover resurfaces. And his way with words and otherworldly eyes and taste for thrills steals her breath away, tugging her far from Ryan, and farther still from Michael. This newcomer offers nothing but a drink to catch up–but Coralie is all too familiar with this tune. Yet her gut instinct is to accept, to meet with him for good old time’s sake.
How does the expression go again? Oh, right–what’s the harm in that?

Explicit is book TWO of a three-book series, and is currently being uploaded on Wattpad (for free!!) on Wednesdays.

Oooooh Stephanie.

What have you done?

(if you know, please alert me, because I have no idea)

Look, this crazy year of 2020 has put us all through trials and events beyond our control, and I haven’t been spared from that. I went through a rough break-up end of March/early April, lost my dad in April, had to move end of April (okay so APRIL was the shittiest month, for me) & start anew on my own. And though it was scary at first, I truly embraced my new lifestyle and grew to enjoy my own company.

Also during all this crap I got to know myself again, and after years and years of being afraid of writing certain, ahem, daring scenes, I decided to take the leap and give myself a shot. I decided… to write… a steamy romance.

Understand this, friends—I don’t write Romance. I suck at it. Even in my other novels, whenever I have to describe a kiss or sexual tension or any kind of romantic feelings, I get stuck and my face turns beet red and I put it off for weeks until I have no choice. So this decision was a terrifying challenge that I thought I’d struggle with.

Did I struggle? A little, at first. But after writing the first steamy pieces—end of chapter five, by the way—and showed my friends (who praised me?!? said I did good?!? WHAT??) I slowly gained confidence. I learned how to write about those kisses, how to invoke that sexual tension, how to create those romantic feelings. And when I arrived at chapter sixteen (THE steamy scene) I shocked myself by… succeeding. I wrote it. I wrote it. And then I wrote more scenes, became increasingly comfortable… until I made a very Stephanie Rose-like decision to make this one torrid, turbulent adventure of a novel into a series.

Illicit & Explicit do handle some troubling themes such adultery and rape (though not described in detail) and they are most definitely rated mature for the language and the fairly graphic descriptions/mentions of sex, but… if you wish to see how I’ve grown as an author, how I’ve come out of my shell and experimented with something way out of my comfort zone… please click on the links and follow Coralie’s crazy life!

ALERT: there will be a third book, coming end of 2021/early 2022!