The Hierarchy of Needs by Rebecca Grace Allen ~ Guest Post & Giveaway

The Hierarchy of Needs by Rebecca Grace Allen was released this week, and today I have a Guest Post for you. I wanted to know whether or not Rebecca had her own “what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas” moment. She explains how she came up with the concept behind the book. Enjoy! 

Title: The Hierarchy of Needs

Author: Rebecca Grace Allen

Series: The Portland Rebels #2

Genre: Erotica, Romance

Published: July 7th 2015

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Jamie Matthews is stuck in a rut. After hitting a wall with her dream career, she’s back in her hometown, living a life as monotonous as swimming laps in the neighborhood pool.

Being surrounded by her perfect brothers is a painful reminder of her failure to launch. The last bonfire of the summer is an ideal way to let off steam, especially when she runs into Dean Trescott, the playboy friend she had one hot-as-hell night with back in high school.

Since the day Dean met Jamie, he’s loved her beauty, talent, and smile that lit up the whole damn block. But dating isn’t an option. She has a bright future ahead of her, and he refuses to chain her to his—helping run the family business that’s barely staying afloat.

A “what-happens-in-Vegas” weekend was supposed to get their craving for each other out of their systems. But neither counted on the past repeating itself, drawing them together in even hotter and dirtier ways and dangling the possibility they might both be able to get exactly what they need…

Warning: A friends-to-lovers twice over story that contains some hot ’n’ heavy kissing in the waves, hair pulling, and a man who knows how to use his hands. It may also feature a few practical jokes—only the fun kind, of course.

I wish I could say I had my own “what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas” weekend that helped inspire Jamie and Dean. (If I did, however, anything about it would’ve had to stay in Vegas, so I wouldn’t be able to blog about it!)

Creating these two characters was actually a very different experience for me. Most of my characters pop into my head with the hint of a storyline already in place, but the two of them were a bit of a mystery to me. All throughout writing The Duality Principle, Jamie and Dean were just outside of my grasp. It felt like hanging out with really interesting people at a party but not getting to spend enough time with them.

The decision to bring them to life happened in a side note between my editor and me during one of our revisions. Christa’s suggestion of “let’s write these two next” was the catalyst that had me figuring out who these two were. I already knew they’d known each other since high school, and that Jamie was a little bit wild. The baby of her family with three older brothers, she was a fashion-obsessed partier who loved playing practical jokes. Dean worked for his father, enjoyed downtime at the beach with his truck and a six pack, and was an incredibly loyal friend. The two of them were comfortable around each other, flirted easily, even got a little handsy at times, but their interactions suggested that there was more under the surface. A kind of buzzing attraction that at one time had zinged to life and then got quickly shorted out. I knew something out of their control was needed in order to bring them together, and thus Jamie’s brother’s wedding scene was born. It’s my favorite scene in the book, so here’s a little snippet for you:

      “Dean sought her out in the crowded ballroom, locating her in the middle of the dance floor. She was laughing loudly, her head thrown back like she was on a roller coaster. She’d downed a couple of beers and more than her fair share of champagne, but what the hell. It was a party. And Jamie having fun was always a sight to be seen.

      Not to mention her body in that dress. Jesus.

      Short. Tight. A dark blue color that set off her skin perfectly, and fuck if it didn’t highlight the tight circle of her waist and those badass arms. He’d wanted to find a corner to hide her in and see how good that dress looked in a puddle around her feet.”

       From there it was figuring how they got from A to B: where the wedding scene figured within the rest of the book, what happened after that even when they were sure they couldn’t be together, and how they got their ‘happily ever after’ in the end. I had a lot of fun figuring these two out, and I hope you enjoy reading them!

Rebecca Grace holds a Bachelor of Arts in English with a double concentration in Creative Writing and Literary Comparison, which seemed like a good idea at the time. After stumbling through careers in entertainment, publishing, law and teaching, she’s returned to her first love: writing. A self-admitted caffeine addict and gym rat, she currently lives in upstate New York with her husband, two parakeets, and a cat with a very unusual foot fetish.

Author links:
Website  / Facebook / Twitter / Goodreads

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