HOTTER (book 2 in the Real Fling Series) by Lyla Bellatas
Publication Date: 3/15/2016
Fleeing Manhattan, after her failed engagement, tightly wound, Sandrine Tomasson escapes to a job interview she has no intentions of accepting, in the Big Easy and comes face to face with the only fire to melt her ice.
Nine years after they met on a Katrina relief effort, Leonce Decoeur has never forgotten Sandrine. He’s given himself one last chance to win her over and will do everything in his power to convince her to stay but does Sandrine have the courage to let love in?
Some flames never go out!
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Note from Lyla Bellatas:
Hotter Scenes based on my trips:
I’ve been to New Orleans, the setting of Hotter, a couple of times. I loved the architecture, the history, the tarot readers, the voodoo shops. Both times I stayed in the French Quarter.
My husband and I stayed at the Hotel Monteleone. We drank at the Carousel Bar. No Sazeracs I’m more a vodka martini gal but we did soak up the atmosphere. We toured the Cities of the Dead and were fascinated with how the deceased are interred. The scene when Leo and Zan tour Cemetery one is based on a tour I took with my husband. The crypts were bleached white and the statues were stunning. Marie Laveau’s tomb was covered in gifts. Votive candles, flowers, plastic reptiles. That same day we visited the ninth ward and the haunted homes in the French Quarter, the garden district and general sites in and around NOLA. I hate tours. Despise them, probably because every trip I went on with my parents, growing up, was filled with tours. They bore me to tears but my husband loves learning everything he can about a place so I agreed because I adore him. I was shocked with how much I enjoyed it. It was a great tour.
I think I had about five readings that first trip. I read tarot, have read professionally, but I still love getting read. One of the readers did a tea leaf reading which was interesting. I love magic and a reading holds such promise. Like an unopened present. When its on pointe it’s incredible. Enchanting, but even the worst readings are interesting to me. The way the reader connects or doesn’t jive with their medium – tarot, oracles, tea leaves…. I like to watch them tell a story. It’s a show, entertaining.
When I wrote the tarot scene in the beginning of Hotter I used my favorite deck, the Thoth tarot, and laid out the spread. I had done a reading for someone recently who had a breakup and I remembered the shadow cards. The ones at the bottom of the deck. I pull cards from the top of the deck for the reading. They represent the present and future to me. The cards at the bottom, shadow cards, for me hold a clue as to what has happened in the querent’s life up to now. Sometimes a person will ask for a reading with no idea what they want to know about…or they aren’t willing to voice it. The shadow cards give me a diving point.
I knew Sandrine had neglected her needs. Closed her mouth. She froze out what she wanted in favor of what she thought was right. She stifled herself. That’s Lust in the Thoth deck. Strength in the other decks. The image is a woman with a lion or in the case of the Thoth, riding a lion. The meaning is to be aware of your needs. To concentrate on what it is you aren’t saying. It’s the throat chakra. Your will. Your courage, the spirit of inner strength. How honestly you express yourself. Are you true to yourself? Have you met your needs? Sandrine hid herself. She had no clue what she needed she just knew she wasn’t getting it. This is the pivotal point where Sandrine was when she landed in New Orleans.
Once I pulled the Lust card the other cards in the reading popped out. When she meets Leo she’s drawn to him. He speaks his truth. He walks in it. She wants it but she needs to find the courage to speak it. It’s hard for her because she’s subjugated herself for so long.
The covenant, James the tarot reader talks about, is a concept I believe. I do believe in angels and fate. I believe that before you come into this life you make a contract with yourself. You pick the souls you will be with and your mission. Ultimately it is to evolve. I do believe in my own life that fate has stepped in and rerouted me. More times than not.
Her review for Deeper and Hotter
Real Fling Series by Lyla Bellatas is a quick read with a large dollop of steamy love making. Each one is a standalone and do not need to be read in any order.
The first book, Deeper, finds Adriana in Colorado on a ski vacation when she finds out she lost her job from her co-worker and supposed friend, Jackie. While trying to follow Jackie, she finds herself stranded and Val comes to rescue her. During a snow storm, they find love and a connection that neither wants to lose. Although it was fast paced, the book was enjoyable, fun, and hot! 4 stars!
The second book, Hotter, Sandrine finds herself face to face with her past and a man she fell in love with while they worked to clean up after Katrina. After she believed he broke her heart and abandoned her, she fled to New York and got engaged. That relationship fell apart and now she’s back…and her attraction to Leo is still as strong as ever; however, finding out he had something to do with her being back in New Orleans doesn’t sit well with her. She can’t allow herself to fall in love with him all over again, but can she stop it? Lost love, found love…can they keep it this time? Another faced paced book, but it doesn’t move too quickly and was just as hot as Deeper! 4 stars!
Her review for Deeper and Hotter
Deeper is the first book in the Real Fling Series.
I would give this book a 3.5 stars.
I would recommend to readers that are looking for a quick steamy read!
Adriana is on vacation, she not only finds out her jobs is in jeopardy but the friend she is with... is not really a friend after all.
When she finds herself in a very bad position on the ski slopes injured and no one around she never expects to be rescued by the
broody stranger Val...
Val is trying to live life after an accident that left him in pieces... when he comes to the rescue of the beautiful Adriana he never realized
it would become so much more than a rescue.
Can this vacation and steamy affair change the paths of both of there lives? Or will the sparks only be held while in the mountains? What will happen when real life comes in to play??
Get to one clicking to see what happens!
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Hotter is the second book of standalone's in the Real Fling Series.
I would give this book a 3.5 stars.
This a quick hot sexy read and I would recommend to others.
Sandrine (Zan) is trying to move on with her life after a broken engagement and what better way then going down south to New Orleans, she is offered a job and wants to find out if this is finally what will make her life complete? What she doesn't expect is to run into a man from her past that broke her heart many years prior...
Leonce (Leo) is doing well in his business life but there has always been something lacking in his personal life/love life... and when Zan shows up her is determined to show her what she has been missing being away for 9 years....
Can these 2 find the spark that brought them together in the first place or will Zan still hold a grudge???
Get to one clickin to find out what happens!
Her review for Deeper
Deeper - 3.5 stars
If you are looking for a quick hot read then this is it.
Adriana is on a ski trip with a friend/co-worker. She is told that the company they are working for will be downsizing and that she will be losing her job. Her friend seems only concerned about her self and sets off to hot a slope with a random guy. Adriana attempts to catch up and goes off the path and falls. She becomes injured and missing a ski.
Along comes Valentin (Val) and he helps her down the mountain and proceeds to help her with her injuries. They form an instant connection. Val too had a serious accident recently and is recovering from that.
Together they are hot - on and off the slopes.
Can they maintain their connection once Adriana heads back home?
One click to find out!
Her Review for Hotter
Hotter - 4 stars
This too was another quick hot read.
Sandrine (Zan) has been offered a job position that she can't refuse. It is a perfect time in her life having just ended her engagement weeks before her wedding. She is looking for a change to leave New York for a bit and New Orleans might just be it.
Scoping out the job site she runs into Leonce (Leo), someone she had met nine year prior and for whom she thought she had feelings for but something kept them apart.
Now Leo is determined to get her to stay and to make them work as a couple. You see he never forgot Zan and he would regret making one last try.
Caught in a storm forces them together and to face the misconceptions of the past. Will she take the job? Is the spark still there?
Go one click to find out!
On the ski vacation from hell, Adriana Gallo wipes out in a snow storm. Injured, she realizes her party has left her stranded with no way down the mountain.
Valentin Barinov came to Vail to recover from an accident, never expecting to find the woman of his dreams broken in the snow.
Val penetrates Adriana's defenses, too haunted and tender for Adriana to resist. What starts as a night of mindless fun opens them up to each other in ways they never imagined.
Too much is never enough!
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Born Armenian American on Long Island's Gold coast, Lyla has defied convention and morphed too many times to count. Beginning as an engineer, she swiftly made the move to marketeer then drifted to digital design, printing CEO, tarot enchantress, life coach and math/science tutor, collecting stories along the way.
As with her career, Lyla's passions have also led to many outlets. She's a high performance race car driver and driving instructor, poker player without the face, loves to shoot pool and while she hates not sleeping in her own bed she loves to travel. She was gifted her first tarot deck during a chance encounter in an elevator. Innately empathic and claircognizant, tarot unlocked the natural witch within. She's read tarot, stones and junk professionally for decades and still reads with or without a deck when the moon shines just right.
Swept off her feet by a handsome Greek she met at the race track Lyla finally found her happily ever after as a wife, mother to a spirited, beautiful daughter and writer. They live in the NYC suburbs, loving the fast paced brutal honesty, great restaurants, arts and energy that define NYC and never fail to light a new / full moon candle charmed now by three.
