Darker Water by Lauren Stewart

Some fairytales begin with a kiss…

After another painful breakup, Laney Temple finally understands love is a fairytale and sex rarely comes with a happy ending. She’s too busy for it right now anyway—she has a business to run, art to create, and candy to crush. Sure, eventually she’ll be ready to switch from her plastic-and-silicon lover to a flesh-and-blood one. But before that happens, she has to be sure she won’t feel any of those annoying emotions that make her heart do things it wasn’t meant to do…

Like break

Carson Bennett is completely upfront about what he wants, and it has nothing to do with Laney’s heart. Her lips? Hell yeah. Other parts of her body? You better f*cking believe it. But her heart? Nope, not even a little. Until it does…a lot. But having feelings for someone isn’t allowed. It’s the kind of thing you’re supposed to push down deep and cover up with one-night stands, sarcasm, and booze…

Like secrets

Two people want the same thing—a commitment to nothing more than great sex in a bunch of different positions. Simple. Enjoyable. A win-win. Problem is, those two people have families and fears and pain that spill into every moment of their lives, control what they do and who they are. And if either Carson or Laney can’t free themselves from the past, they’ll both be pulled under by it.

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About the author:

Lauren Stewart grew up reading Stephen King, Ray Bradbury, James Clavell, Piers Anthony, and Agatha Christie, which explains why she can't seem to stick to one genre at a time. She loves emoticons and hates when people speak in the third person, so…

I got to the more romantic stuff pretty late, but paranormal romance was what changed me from an obsessed reader into an obsessed reader AND writer. I think my writing style comes from a mash-up of all my early favorites and my new ones, women like JR Ward, Karen Marie Moning, Nalini Singh, Charlaine Harris, and Janet Evanovich. Wow, how much would you pay to be invited to that dinner party?

I want to make people think, cry, and giggle, not necessarily all at the same time (although it's great when it happens). In every one of my books, you'll find elements of other genres – fantasy, mystery, romance, paranormal, suspense, YA, women's literature, all with a touch of humor.

Because what doesn't kill us should make us laugh.

What inspired you to write your book?

This whole series began on a dare–that I wouldn't be able to write a standalone novel that ended in a happy ending (until then, I'd always written series where one couple takesa few novels to reach their happy ending).

What can I say? Definitely not that I can pass up a challenge because I can't. And so, I wrote Darker Water.

Darker Water is a twist on The Frog Prince, with the heroine believing she has the metaphorical power to turn good men–princes–into a**holes–frogs. Because all the men she's fallen for had seemed perfect right up until she found out they were total pricks. So what does she need to make her believe in love again? A frog, of course. An a**hole who, because of her love, finally shows us that he's been an amazing man all along.

The fairytale at the beginning of that book (and for the next five books) came to me as soon as I started typing. It just flowed and set up the entire framework for the story. The second part of Laney and Carson's fairytale, at the end, encapsulates what they've learned and where they're headed.

All the books in my Once and Forever series will take a theme from a different fairytale and then quickly go in another direction. And it ain't towards Disneyland, folks. Because without darkness, we can't see the light.

VIRTUALLY IMPOSSIBLE, a twist on sleeping beauty, and DEEPER WATER, Carson and Laney's after happily-ever-after, are available now!