Blog Tour, Exclusive Excerpt & Giveaway:
We Burn Beautiful
By Lance Lansdale
We went into this knowing we’d get burned. And God, we burned so beautifully.
Kent Fox is not okay. Thanks to a botched selfie swap, thousands of his colleagues have borne witness to a photo of his sock-covered crotch. Branded a professional pariah, he’s had to move home with his mother, and the only job the 38-year-old former executive can land is stocking shelves at a grocery store. To make matters worse, his new boss is none other than his ex-gay ex-boyfriend.
To everyone else, Gray Collins is the perfect Christian. He manages the local Pick-n-Save, attends West Clark Apostolic Church four times a week, and he’s just bought a ring for the woman who has agreed to help him hide his homosexuality. To Kent, however, Gray is the same coward he was twenty years ago. The boy with a list of seventeen reasons why he deserved Kent’s heart. The man who did nothing as his brother ripped Kent from his arms and out of his life for two decades.
Forced together, Kent and Gray will have to confront the trauma that tore them apart, and all the old feelings that never truly died. Kent may not have a list of seventeen reasons for Gray, but he has three words that are just as true as they’ve ever been.
We Burn Beautiful is a single-POV, second chance slow burn romance about two childhood boyfriends who never had the chance to shine. There’s pining, there’s passion, and there’s a group of 80-year-old Apostolic debutantes ready to help Kent Fox find his forever.
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Exclusive Excerpt:
“Trevor pulled out that box of matches and it was like my whole life was flashing in front of me. That was it. I knew he was going to kill me as soon as I saw them. He lit seventy-one of them. I counted. He’d let them burn for a while, and then he’d strike another one.” Gray pressed his face against my neck and whimpered. “I saw you, Gray. All I saw was you. The day we met at school. Us outside the bakery eating cookies. Me sneaking you into the movie theater to watch that scary movie. You got me through it. I could smell the gas and feel the pain from where they’d been beating me, but when I closed my eyes, all I saw was you. That smile on your face when you looked up at me after that movie was over. That was the first time.”
“The first time, what?” he whispered.
“That I knew I loved you.” I winced when I said those old, familiar words. Even though it was true, I didn’t want to hurt him. I didn’t want to make him uncomfortable by bringing truths to light he’d rather stay hidden. “Is it okay to say that? I’m sorry if—”
He pulled me even closer. “Why then? What made you realize?”
“You’d been so scared through the whole movie. I felt like an asshole for talking you into watching it with me, but when it was over you looked up at me and smiled. Do you remember what you said to me?”
“Never again?” he mumbled into my neck
I shook my head. “‘Gosh that was scary.’ And you were smiling so big, Gray. Right at me.”
“I got to cuddle up next to you for two hours. Of course, I was smiling.” For a second—the briefest of seconds—it almost felt like he’d pressed his lips against my neck. I pried his arms off of me and pulled away, just needing to see him.
“Can I ask you something?” I said.
He nodded. “Anything.”
“That night at the lake, before we went back to your room. Before Trever took me. Do you ever think about it?”
“Yes,” he said without hesitation.
“Do you think we would have been happy? If that night never happened—if I’d just gone home after the lake and broken up with Kate—do you ever think about where we’d be right now?”
“I would have lost my family.”
“You would have had me.”
Enter the Giveaway:
To celebrate the release of We Burn Beautiful, Lance is giving away a Signed Paperback copy and an e-copy of this beautiful debut!
Enter the Rafflecopter giveaway for your chance to win!
Direct Link: http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/cc0f2a57800/?
About the Author:
Like Kent Fox, I’m a thirty-something gay man with a flair for the dramatic and a passion for gay romance and LGBTQ+ fiction. I write stories focusing on queer joy and families found along the way.
Connect with Lance:
lancelansdale.com
instagram.com/lancetastik
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