An Introduction to Akash Robinson.


(My visual inspiration for Akash is Raza Jaffrey)

In book four of The Sin Bin, The Royal Marine, which comes out in October, Akash Robinson gets his chance at love. He finds himself in the midst of an awkward love triangle. The baker has shown up a few times in the series thus far, but only as brief mentions.  This is the first real chance readers get to meet him.

I thought I’d give a brief introduction to him with a few random facts.

  1. He’s biracial (or mixed race, depending on what term you prefer). His mother is Indian, and his father is Caucasian.
  2. Akash is completely obsessed with cooking reality TV shows. His personal favourite is The Great British Bake Off.
  3. He always wanted to be a baker.
  4. Until recently, Akash lived at home with his parents.
  5. His hands and arms are covered by tiny scars from getting burned while baking.
  6. Ganesh is the cat that his sisters gave him. Akash has a love/hate relationship with his cat.
  7. Akash played cricket at school–badly. He doesn’t like talking about it. His dad loves to tease him about it.
  8. As a youngster, Akash learned self-defense and has picked up several martial arts.
  9. One of his greatest joys in life is creating spice combination that represents both of his heritages.
  10. Of the three Robinson siblings, Akash has the worst memory.
  11. He and his two sisters were all given Sanskrit names.
  12. Akash’s name means sky or open space. His mother wanted him to feel free to grow into a great man.

Anyway, so there’s a bit about Akash Robinson. The strong-willed, sassy baker who tries to run away with the heart of a certain retired Royal Marine.

It’s Alive! The Caretaker out now!

 

Title: The Caretaker
Series: The Sin Bin, Book 2

Genre: Gay Romance
Release Date: July 8, 2017
Cover Designer: Claire Smith
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 On sale for $2.99 
 

Nurse Freddie Whittle devotes every fibre of his being to his work with cancer patients. Their pain weighs heavily on his shoulders. Between losing clients, the expectations of his fathers, and bigot neighbours, he’s slowly reaching his breaking point.

Taine Afoa retires from a storied career as an international rugby star. He’s moved away from London for a change of pace, never expecting to meet a man who’s far too young for him. No matter how hard he tries, it’s impossible to get Freddie out of his mind.

Will Taine’s resistance dissolve in time for him to give love the chance to flourish?

 On sale for $2.99 
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The Sin Bin, Book 1
On sale for half price!
The Wanderer

 books2read.com/wanderer

Dahlia Donovan wrote her first romance series after a crazy dream about shifters and damsels in distress. She prefers irreverent humour and unconventional characters. An autistic and occasional hermit, her life wouldn’t be complete without her husband and her massive collection of books and video games.

 

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It’s ALIVE! The Wanderer

 

Title: The Wanderer
Series: The Sin Bin, Book 1
Genre: Gay Romance
Release Date: April 8, 2017
Cover Designer: Claire Smith
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Graham Hodson lives for adventure. His entire life has revolved around his obsessive wanderlust. His inner fear of staying in one place or being with one person for too long has kept him on the go. The last thing he expects is a sudden diagnosis to ground his travel—permanently.

Boyce “BC” Brooks has screwed up his lifelong dream of being the captain of the English national rugby team. He’s lost everything. When his uncle leaves him an inn and a dog in Cornwall, he has little choice but to try his hand at innkeeper.

Can two jokesters kicked around by life and their own decisions find stability when their world shakes beneath their feet?

Dahlia Donovan wrote her first romance series after a crazy dream about shifters and damsels in distress. She prefers irreverent humour and unconventional characters. An autistic and occasional hermit, her life wouldn’t be complete without her husband and her massive collection of books and video games.

 

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Tears & Laughter

Or, the hardest part of writing The Wanderer.

Graham and BC are such fun loving souls, at first blush, one might imagine writing their story would be easy peasy lemon squeezy. It wasn’t. Oh, how it wasn’t.

Their romance begins with loads of laughs. Their senses of humour truly shine through—or at least, I hope they do. They have a lot of fun together.

Real life creeps in on them in a way that surprises them (and surprised me, as well.)

You might call it—a plot twist.

This was the part I found the hardest to write.

Graham faces what feels to him like an insurmountable mountain.  BC struggles to support him along with the rest of their friends and family. And thus begins the part of the story that required a deft hand to get the delicate balance of emotion to humour right.

To avoid spoilers, I’ll only say that I drew from my own personal experiences (and those of friends) along with a lot of research to depict and at times painfully honest view of things.  Some chapters in The Wanderer were honestly quite painful to write. The ‘happily ever after’ might’ve been the only thing to keep me going.

To quote one of the early reviewers of the book:

Do I think this book is for everyone? Hell No! I mean did you miss the part where my bestie backed out of reading before even hitting half way? The Wanderer hits some hard truths of how cruel life can really be, but on the flip side of that, it shows that love is such a beautiful and patient thing that seriously will come out of nowhere, knock you flat on your arse and make you a better person than you ever thought you could be.”

~ Saucy Reviews on Kinky Korner

There’s a bit of magic in a story that makes you feel.

And I can only hope The Wanderer fills readers with joy and laughter in the midst of sorrow.

A bit like life really, isn’t it?

Start at the Beginning.

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I love the first paragraphs of The Wanderer.

From the prologue:

Weddings were a pain more excruciating than a broken nose, or tooth, or both—an event to be avoided when at all possible. Only the blissfully ignorant would voluntarily submit themselves to the farce of “marital bliss,” never mind the noise, whimpering women, and a priest who would undoubtedly drone on and on unless someone whacked him upside the head.

Why did I agree to this shit? If this bint sobs into my sleeve one more sodding time, I’ll shove her into the aisle, manners be damned. I should’ve claimed a sudden bout of dengue fever in Macau and been done with it.

It still makes me giggle months after I first wrote it.

The first few sentences manage to bring Graham’s sarcasm, mood, and philosophy on life into sharp focus. He’s not interested in love or demonstrations of it. Commitment is way down on the list of things he wants to have.

In so many areas of his life, Graham could be considered completely fearless. Not in love. He’s a cowardly lion when it comes to relationships. He’s a man who has made one massive mistake and refuses to try again.

A cowardly ginger lion.

The first paragraph makes me laugh because I know what’s to come for him. Graham finds in The Wanderer how much courage he actually has. He learns, I think, how to love—and be loved. It’s not perfect, but he doesn’t need it to be.

After all, perfection is boring.

Are you fearless in love?

I wasn’t when I was younger–but I think I am now lol.

#LoveisLove

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As a general rule of thumb, I avoid political and social topics on my blog.  I don’t always avoid them in my books, but I try to avoid them here.  My heart couldn’t handle that this morning.  I had to share my thoughts–and my grief.

In my novels, I have always tried to include a diverse cast of characters and relationships.  Love is after all–all around and for all.

No one should be persecuted simply because they happen to love someone of the same gender.  It’s monstrous what happened in Orlando.  My heart and thoughts go out to them.

If you find yourself in need of help and support over the coming days, here are some places to go if you are in the US:

The Trevor Lifeline (866-488-7386) (Toll-free, suicide hotline for gay and lesbian youth (and those questioning their sexuality). Offers information and support.)

Gay and Lesbian National Hotline (888-843-4564) (Toll-free, nationwide hotline for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender youth. Completely confidential. Offers information, referrals and peer counseling.)