Daddy’s Best Friend and the Barely Legal Teen

By Giselle Renarde (Guest Blogger)

What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you hear the word “bandwagon”? The image I get is an Oregon Trail covered wagon rattling along by oxen power. It ain’t goin’ nowhere fast.

But here’s the thing about bandwagons in the writing industry: they move like greased lightning. Flash and burn. A topic that’s in one day is out the next. And every time I jump on, like a hobo boarding a boxcar, it’s too little, too late. I’ve missed the bus… or the train… or the wagon. Whatever it is, I’ve missed it.

More than a year ago, I wrote a book with a working title of “Daddy’s Best Friend Thing.” At the time, readers were snapping up anything with “Daddy” in the title. Take an older man, pair him up with a barely legal teen (maybe his step-daughter, maybe not) and you’ve got yourself a party!

So I wrote this smutty little book (romance? I guess it is…) about Cherry, an 18-year-old girl whose father’s recently-divorced friend comes along on their family camping trip. Her sexual aggression makes Phil nervous… but curious. Cherry’s a ripe young thing and she knows the impact her nubile presence has on men. She’s the kind of girl who likes to think she knows it all even though there’s plenty she hasn’t experienced.

Well, a lot can change in a year. All those “Daddy” titles that were so popular? Amazon started banning them. All that beautiful smut! It sold like hotcakes! And my “Daddy’s Best Friend Thing” hadn’t even been published yet! What to do?

Here’s the thing about bandwagons: they’re more like subways than buses. If you miss a bus, you’re waiting 40 minutes and then three come at once. If you miss a subway, another will come along two minutes later. (I take public transportation. I know things.) I guess bandwagons are different because one isn’t exactly the same as the next, but we’ll set that aside for the moment.

“Daddy’s Best Friend Thing” needed a new title (well, obviously!), so I called it “Cherry.” But “Cherry” is kind of a short title and a common title and not likely to garner sales from readers searching lovely keywords, so it really needed a subtitle too.

In the meantime, my mother called me to say, “Have you heard about these books where teenagers have sex?”

No, Mother. Tell me more.

She was talking about the genre known as New Adult. From what I understand, it came to into existence when adults reading Young Adult fiction were like, “Damn, I wish I could watch these teenagers fuck!” But that’s icky, so someone somewhere decided to bump up the teens’ ages so they’re (barely) legal adults. Then the characters could face many of the same dilemmas but also have sex on the page.

There’s a lot I’m leaving out and I’m being overly snarky about it, but no hate mail, please. I know I’ve oversimplified. I know New Adult romance follows older young people (older young people?) as they navigate love and romance and finding their place in the world and all those things we do as we enter our twenties.

I was going to call my new book “Cherry: An Erotic Novella” but the thing about Amazon is that if you classify a book as Erotica you can’t also categorize it as… well, anything, really. It can’t be Erotica and Science Fiction or Erotica and Lesbian Fiction or Erotica and Coming of Age. And my little Cherry fits so well in that coming of age category that I decided to go with the title “Cherry: A New Adult Novella.”

Was that terribly cheeky of me? Am I going to get letters because my book is oh-so-smutty? Maybe I am. I don’t know. Maybe I jumped on a bandwagon just because I didn’t want to wait two more minutes for the next one. Or maybe I’m being way too hard on myself and this book actually suits the genre as well as anything else. I mean, I came to erotica naively, not knowing what I was supposed to write to fit in, and eight years later I’m still going strong. So maybe this book is the breath of smutty air New Adult readers are looking for.

Honestly, if you’d given me “Cherry” when I was an 18-year-old reader, I would have kissed you.

About “Cherry” by Giselle Renarde

Late nights by a roaring fire, star-gazing with the cute park ranger, lazing around the balmy beach—sounds like a perfect summer vacation, doesn’t it? Cherry loves camping so much she doesn’t even mind spending a week with her nosy parents. Anyway, camping is kind of their family tradition.

That’s why Cherry’s so upset when her father invites his recently-divorced friend, Phil, along. A geeky guest intruding on their family vacation? Not fair!

But when Phil arrives at the campground… WOW! Was he always so cool? No, definitely not. When she was younger, Phil had been just another dorky dad. Now he’s stylish and fun and even pretty hunky! Divorce suits him nicely, as far as Cherry’s concerned.

Phil is the last man in the world who should be turning Cherry’s head, but the fact that their love is forbidden makes it that much tastier. The forest isn’t big enough to keep two lovelorn people apart… even if they’re totally wrong for each other.

This book contains scenes some readers may find offensive. It is intended for mature audiences only. 

 

Cherry

by Giselle Renarde

published by eXcessica

Excerpt:

“Why don’t you sit here on my towel?” Cherry asked. “You can put on sunblock for me.”

“Oh, I…” Phil’s face turned bright red, zero to crimson. “I don’t think I… I’ll just get sand in it, then you’ll be itchy all day.”

Cherry looked out over the water. She’d lost sight of her mother. “You don’t want me to burn, do you?”

He didn’t answer. That’s when she knew she had him in her snare. She felt ridiculously guilty as she handed him the sunblock, because she knew this was wrong, but she kind of didn’t care. And, somehow, feeling bad for tempting Phil made her feel good about herself. It didn’t make any sense, but that’s how she felt.

Phil’s body heat blazed against her back as he knelt behind her. “Do you think you could…?”

She glanced over her shoulder to catch him fumbling with the sunblock. “Do I think I could…?”

He chuckled, red-faced, like he was scared of her or something. “Just lift your ponytail so I can get your back?”

“Oh.” She giggled, even though she wasn’t usually that kind of girl. “Yeah, sure.”

Twisting her rope of sandy-brown hair around her hand, she held it in a fist on top of her head. She felt like a pin-up girl in this position: kneeling on a towel, the sun glinting off the golden beach, toasting her skin. Her nipples peaked as she stuck out her chest. There weren’t any boys her age around, not that she could see. Just families building sandcastles and playing in the water.

“I forgot my raft.”

“Hmm?” Phil still hadn’t worked up the courage to touch her. “What did you forget?”

“My blow-up raft.”

“For a second there, I thought you were going to say blow-up doll.” His slick palms landed firmly on her shoulders.

“Eww! Yeah right, like I’d have one of those.”

He must have forgotten he was afraid of her, because he rubbed the sunblock in pretty forcefully. “I guess if you’re desperate enough…”

“What about you, Phil?” Cherry tugged on her ponytail so hard it hurt. “Are you desperate enough to fuck a blow-up doll?”

“Cripes, Cherry!” It sounded like he was choking on her name. “Next time warn me when you’re about to say something like that.”

“What?” She shrugged, bouncing his hands against her shoulders. “We’re all adults, here.”

“Adults have a little decorum when discussing their sex lives.” His hands landed flat against her back, one on either side of her spine. “They’re not crass about these matters.”

“Sure they are—well, some are. Maybe not you or my parents, but some people aren’t ashamed about being horny. Sex is totally natural. I hate it when people act like you’re evil or whatever just because you like screwing.”

Phil’s hands slid down Cherry’s back, tracing creamy lotion almost all the way to her ass. He stopped when his fingers met her bikini bottoms, and turned his hands so his palms pressed into the small of her back…

Buy Now from:

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Cherry-Giselle-Renarde-ebook/dp/B00KSS762Y

B&N: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/cherry-giselle-renarde/1119690608?ean=2940149444922

(print) http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/cherry-giselle-renarde/1119662247?ean=9781499730654

All Romance: https://www.allromanceebooks.com/product-cherryanewadultnovella-1542566-341.html

Excessica: http://www.excessica.com/books/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=19&products_id=722

Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/445632

BookStrand: http://www.bookstrand.com/cherry-0

About Giselle

 

Giselle Renarde is a queer Canadian, avid volunteer, and contributor to more than 100 short story anthologies, including Best Women’s Erotica, Best Lesbian Erotica, Best Bondage Erotica, and Best Lesbian Romance. Ms Renarde has written dozens of juicy books, including Anonymous, Ondine, and Nanny State. Her book The Red Satin Collection won Best Transgender Romance in the 2012 Rainbow Awards. Giselle lives across from a park with two bilingual cats who sleep on her head.