Night Reads: October 2013

Title: Beautiful Player (Beautiful #3)

Author: Christina Lauren

Publication Date: October 29, 2013

Where to buy: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Mysterious Galaxy, Simon & Schuster, Books A Million, Powell’s Books, Indie Bound or The Kings English.

A bombshell bookworm. A chronic Casanova. And a lesson in chemistry too scandalous for school.

When Hanna Bergstrom receives a lecture from her overprotective brother about neglecting her social life and burying herself in grad school, she’s determined to tackle his implied assignment: get out, make friends, start dating. And who better to turn her into the sultry siren every man wants than her brother’s gorgeous best friend, Will Sumner, venture capitalist and unapologetic playboy?

Will takes risks for a living, but he’s skeptical about this challenge of Hanna’s…until the wild night his innocently seductive pupil tempts him into bed- and teaches him a thing or two about being with a woman he can’t forget. Now that Hanna’s discovered the power of her own sex appeal, it’s up to Will to prove he’s the only man she’ll ever need.

Here it is! An EXCLUSIVE Q & A with Christina and Lauren, the authors behind the Beautiful Bastards you all know and love. Beautiful Player, the final full length novel of the series, will hit shelves and e-readers tomorrow!

Night Reads asked for submissions from readers between September 25 through October 29, choosing the 5 best questions for the ladies to answer.

Who would you rather be stuck in a fallout shelter with; Bennett, Max, or Will? Why?

Lo: Bennett is a good choice, because he’d stay in there long enough to relieve some tension (ifyouknowwhatImean) and then bust out of there and demand that someone fix the problem so he can go back to work. Of course Max would be good, too, because if there is anyone you want to be with when things get stressful, it's the relaxed, happy sugar of Max Stella. (And his three fingers.) But I’m going to go with Will, because he’s a scientist and could probably build contraptions to determine whether the air is safe outside. Also, he’s got stamina and we might be in there for a while.
Christina: If it's like the zombie apocalypse and there's a chance for survival give me Will. If I just have a few hours to kill I’m gonna wax the floor with Max like whoa. But if we’re all dying, then give me Bennett, because I’m going out with a bang.

Do you know anyone in your real lives that you draw on for character personality for either the men or the women in your books?

It’s funny to see different aspects of each of them in us. There are some ways that Lo is a lot like Bennett and Chloe—impatient and ambitious. She has some of Max’s openness and generosity with affection, and Hanna/Will’s analytical view of the world. Christina is patient like Sara, but surprisingly has a lot of Chloe’s fire in her, too. And Christina definitely has Hanna’s easy, everyone-is-a-friend approach to life. It’s probably been easier to draw on aspects of ourselves than it is to try to model the characters on someone in particular.

Will the Beautiful Bastard audiobook ever be re-done with a male narrator doing Bennett's chapters? Because, hello, Sebastian York!

There aren’t plans to as of right now, but oh boy do we agree. He’s an amazing Bennett, isn’t he? Lucky for us, he’s also an amazing Will in BEAUTIFUL PLAYER

How did you decide on Bennett, Max and Will's professions? Did it take some researching or were you already familiar with the profession?

Bennett needed to be in some sort of generic boss role, and his role in marketing seemed to add a layer of creativity to his business side. We wanted Max to also be in business, but it was sort of fun for us to imagine a venture capitalist who is passionate about art of all things. It seemed a little bit of a fun dichotomy to write, but we got help from friends on the art side of things. And Will . . . well, Lo is a scientist and so we knew we had to write a couple of characters in that world because nothing is more fun than writing geeks falling in love.

When you write, is one of you the male character and the other the female character? Or is it a collaborative effort?

It’s a completely collaborative effort. Sometimes we start writing one or the other, but in the end, we both go through each paragraph, sentence, word so carefully that it never is just one voice or one author.

Super special thanks to Christina Hobbs, Lauren Billings, and Kristen Dwyer from Simon and Schuster for this wonderful opportunity!

Want to connect with the dynamic duo? You can find them on their website and all of these other places: