Welcoming back Kate Belle!

Hey Pheonix,

Thanks for having me over again. Last time I visited my post was all about sex toys. Today it’s about forbidden love. Is there a pattern emerging?
It's a fun pattern!! ~Phoenix

Today I’m here to celebrate the release of my debut novel, The Yearning. It’s a dark, sensual tale of forbidden first love and its consequences. It’s more a tragic love story than traditional romance, loaded with eroticism and page turning drama.

Step back into the 1970’s, the time of Sandman panel vans, Pine-Lime Splices, flares, and coconut oil sun lotion (yep, we used to fry ourselves fuchsia, Puberty Blues style). A time when the world’s boundaries were shifting and country Australia was still a place of innocence and predictability. Or
was it? Oh the Sandman panel vans were awesome! And the Splices are still delish. ~Phoenix

It’s 1978 in a country town and a dreamy fifteen year old girl’s world is turned upside down by the arrival of the substitute English teacher. Solomon Andrews is beautiful, inspiring and she wants him like nothing else she’s wanted in her short life.

Charismatic and unconventional, Solomon easily wins the hearts and minds of his third form English class. He notices the attention of one girl, his new neighbour, who has taken to watching him from her upstairs window. He assumes it a harmless teenage crush, until the erotic love notes begin to
arrive.

Solomon knows he must resist, but her sensual words stir him. He has longings of his own, although they have nothing to do with love, or so he believes. One afternoon, as he stands reading her latest offering in his driveway, she turns up unannounced. What they choose to do next will haunt them for the rest of their lives.

Having grown up in a sleepy country town in central Victoria, I know how easily a scenario like this happens. Thirty plus years ago, student teacher relationships were scandalous, but not uncommon. In The Yearning I explore the impact of being young and falling hopelessly and completely in love with the wrong man at the wrong time, and how that experience affects expectations of relationships for the rest of your life.

Teenage youths are powerhouses of budding sexuality. They are just becoming aware of the incredible power their youth and allure holds over the adult world. My protagonist has no idea of the effect her erotic words have on her beloved Solomon, all she knows is that she’s in love and she desperately wants him to love her back. And all Solomon knows is that he’s tempted, tempted, tempted by what he knows is wrong. In the end the question is, who’s seducing who?

The Yearning, published by Simon & Schuster, was released as ebook on 1 April and will be released in print on 1 May. For an extract check out The Ecstasy Files blog here.

Buy links:
Amazon
iTunes
Collins, Dymocks, Eltham Bookshop and other local independent bookshops: True Local

Kate Belle Bio

Kate is a woman of many passions who juggles her pens with the rest of her life. She holds a tertiary qualification in chemistry, half a diploma in naturopathy and a diploma in psychological astrology. Kate
believes in living a passionate life and has ridden a camel through the Australian desert, fraternised with hippies in Nimbin, had a near birth experience and lived on nothing but porridge and a carrot for 3 days.

Kate lives, writes and loves in Melbourne, juggling her strange, secret affairs with her male characters with her much loved partner and daughter, and a menagerie of neurotic pets.

Blog/website: http://www.ecstasyfiles.com

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/katebelle.x

Twitter: https://twitter.com/ecstasyfiles(@ecstasyfiles)