PW #134: Adult Contemporary Romance (Body-Positive): MOONLIGHT & WHISKEY

Manuscript Status: Finished

Mentor: Rebecca Yarros
Mentee: Tricia McKee
Title: MOONLIGHT & WHISKEY
Category/Genre: Adult Contemporary Romance (Body-Positive)
Word Count: 93,000 

Pitch:

When a plus-sized engineer with body issues collides with a tattooed, commitment-shy frontman, Avery learns to rock her curves. But as her connection with Declan deepens and Avery’s vacation ends, attraction alone can’t burn away their darkest fears. Both must face powerful insecurities to embrace a love as elemental as the sultry New Orleans night.

Excerpt:

I had a porn habit.

It wasn’t an obsession. It wasn’t a fetish. It didn’t require trips to anonymous meetings where you said, “Hello my name is X and I’m addicted to naked men.” I simply enjoyed watching people have sex. The women in porn, however, never looked like me.

Mainstream porn stars looked more like some variation of silicone Barbie, i.e. half-modeling career failure, half-sex doll/mechanical experiment, a la Frankenstein. There were exceptions, of course, but generally, the Frankenhookers with fake funbags were the rule.

Conversely, I was soft, curvy and…not a size six.

I’d been told that I wore the weight well, that I had a pretty face; all of that shit curvy women heard. Men told me that I had a great rack. That if I lost 40 pounds I’d be fuckable––that’s actual verbiage there––and even referred to flirting with me as “taking one for the team.”

I’d never be thin; some women aren’t meant to be, but I was so damn tired of feeling invisible. I wanted to learn how to rock my curves and be confident in my skin.

It was high time I threw up the old double-bird salute at all of the guys who’d overlooked me or used me to get to my best friend. To send out a giant fuck you to the men who’d thought I was either too much or not enough.

Which was how I ended up in a tacky-as-hell waiting room.