Angelina M. Lopez
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Contemporary Romance Author, Hyperromantic
My sexy Latinx short story featured in Whoa!mance podcast
(Author’s note: The Twelve Naughty Days anthology is no longer available, so I’ve made this short story available on Patreon. For just $3/month, you can read a steamy short story from me every month! You can learn more here.)
It may be long past Christmas, but I just discovered this phenomenal 45-minute podcast about my "Twelve Drummers" short story in the Twelve Naughty Days holiday anthology.
“Twelve Drummers” is about what happens when a Latinx jewel thief, a Latinx museum guard, and an ancient Mexica drum magically collide on the longest night of the year.
Here's what Morgan and Isabeau of the romance podcast Whoa!mance had to say about it:
Morgan: Very very steamy. I realize it’s been a long time since I read a Sierra Simone-level steam.
Morgan: I’ve become desensitized to pretty run-of-the-mill sex scenes.
Isabeau: I don’t know that I feel that I’m desensitized, but this is certainly something that blows me out of the water. Like I haven’t read this level in a really long time. And I think that’s probably not necessarily unique to this author.
Morgan: I actually read a lot of supremely boring sex scenes. You know, where it’s pulling all the levers and pushing all the buttons. It’s putting the cream in the Twinkie, but this is someone making an eclair and slowly warming the shoe pastry and baking it. This is a whole other level.
Isabeau: It’s a feast.
Morgan: The majority of this story is a sex scene so it is taking up more real estate, but I also feel like it doesn't detract from the character building in this short story. It's rich for twenty pages let alone twenty pages of an erotic romance. The world building was perfect, you had just enough things. Our characters dream or goals, their reason for being in this space, their reasons for doing what they do, are completely fleshed out.
Isabeau: This books gives you something evocative.
Morgan: And I think it’s so fucking keen that you take this pretty Christian-centric content of the twelve days of Christmas and being part of an anthology with that theme and being able to cleverly but not shoehorn in a different cultural tradition that’s kind of a subtle critique. Once again this story occupies just 20 pages of this anthology.
Isabeau: I was mostly surprised by every sex scene. I just walked in to each one like, “What’re we gonna do next?”
You can listen to the whole podcast here.
And you can still get your hands on Twelve Naughty Days, which will only be available for a limited time. Each story is a never-before-seen short from NYT and USA Today bestselling authors: K.A. Linde, Skye Warren, Fiona Cole, Nana Malone, Claire Contreras, Nikki Sloane, Giana Darling, Sierra Simone, CD Reiss, Laurelin Paige, M. Malone, and me!
All of the proceeds go to the Trevor Project, which is a national, 24-hour, toll free confidential suicide prevention service for LGBTQ youth. Twelve Naughty Days is available in ebook, paperback, and audiobook. Just like the ebook, all the narrators on the audiobook are donating their work and time to the project!
Two sexy stories in upcoming anthologies just in time for Christmas!
(Author’s note: Twelve Naughty Days is now available and was named a #1 Amazon bestseller! Best Women’s Erotica of the Year, Vol. 7 has been delayed until Dec. 21 because of supply chain issues.)
Right before Christmas, I will have sexy short stories coming out in two well-known anthologies. The Best Women’s Erotica of the Year collection puts together stories from some of the best steamy romance writers in the business — I was thrilled to be asked to submit for Volume 7, along with romance greats Adriana Herrera, Holley Trent, Lucy Eden and others! It will be available in ebook and paperback.
The other anthology pulls together incredible New York Times and USA Today bestselling authors to celebrate Twelve Naughty Days. It’s a sexy anthology based on the Twelve Days of Christmas song; I got Twelve Drummers Drumming 😅! I can’t wait to see what the other incredible authors — Sierra Simone, Skye Warren, M. Malone, Nana Malone, and others — come up with!!
One thing that makes Twelve Naughty Days collection very exciting is that all of the proceeds will go to the Trevor Project, which is a national, 24-hour, toll free confidential suicide prevention service for LGBTQ youth. Twelve Naughty Days will be available in ebook and audiobook for a limited time. Just like the ebook, all the narrators on the audiobook are donating their work and time to the project!
What are the stories about?
For the Best Women’s Erotica of the Year, Vol. 7 anthology, I wrote HOT POCKETS, a story about a busy married couple with kids who have to squeeze in time for intimacy whenever they can find it. Editor Rachel Kramer Brussel asked us to write about surprise for already established couples. In romance, we usually write about people’s journey to their happily ever after; I loved this opportunity to write about people after they’ve reached it.
The story explores how two people who love and are devoted to each other keep the “happy” in the HEA when real life and all its demands — jobs, kids, packed weekends, errands, chores, tight budgets, aging parents — get in the mix.
A #1 Amazon besteller
For Twelve Naughty Days, I wrote TWELVE DRUMMERS. Discover what happens when a Latinx jewel thief, a Latinx museum guard, and an ancient Mexica drum magically collide on the longest night of the year. It’s verynaughty. I’ve already made my mom swear not to read it (or if she does, she has to swear to never EVER tell me!!!!).
Can I read an excerpt?
I've loaded up excerpts of the short stories on the super secret, newspaper-subscribers-only spot on my website where subscribers get all their goodies! Want a sneak peek? You can sign up to my newsletter here.
Join me online to celebrate the release of Best Women's Erotica of the Year, Vol 7
Why my next book is close to my heart…
I just turned in After Hours on Milagro Street, my first book in a new series, to my editor. It’s about a Mexican-American middle sister and black sheep who returns to her small Kansas hometown to save the family bar and discovers an idealistic East Coast professor standing in her way. It’s a high-heat, small town contemporary with:
a huge Mexican-American family
two opposites who are irresistibly attracted to each other
a just-one-bed scenario
and lots of small-town legends and family lore.
A story close to my heart
I was born in a small town in southeast Kansas; the Mexican-American side of my family has lived in the same town since the early 1900s. But so often, when I told people that I was from Kansas, they’d answer, “Where are you originally from?”
As if someone who looks like me, with the last name Lopez, can’t be from Kansas.
People think small towns can only look one way. In today’s day and age, that has unfortunately translated to a belief that the United States only looks one way, or was somehow an ideal when it looked less diverse. My family’s story – part of a community since 1908, tortillas at every meal, huge 50-person family gatherings for lunch every Sunday after mass, a Mexican food stand at our town’s annual celebration, piñatas at every birthday – shows that America has been an integration of a lot of people, a lot of cultures, and a lot of ideas for a long time.
The Milagro Street series is finally an opportunity for me to tell that story.
Why I wasn't -- at first -- excited to tell this story
After the ugliness of the 2020 election season, I wasn’t sure I wanted to tell this story. I was embittered about the backwards way we seemed to be heading as a country. Also, my story was about a Mexican-American male bartender coming home.
I realized the core story that I have to tell is about women finding their strength to determine their destinies, so I decided to make the story about three sisters coming home. And that’s when the idea really came alive for me. This series is about three Mexican-American sisters who return to their small Midwestern hometown to revive their family bar and, to their surprise, save the town they didn’t realize they loved. It's got all my standard tropes: bonkers story lines, strong women, supportive men, a focus on life's pleasures, lots of sexy times. But it’s also an opportunity to talk about the magic of brown women. The world is made magical by the strong, diverse women who make an impact on it.
I’ve seen the cover for After Hours on Milagro Street and it’s GORGEOUS!!! I can’t wait to show it to you. The release date is July 12, 2022, but you can preorder it now. Preordering is a great way to show your favorite authors love because it builds hype for the book. Thank you!
Newsletters subscribers will be first to know all the exciting After Hours on Milagro Street news.
Listen to the Filthy Rich series on audiobook
I’m thrilled to announce that today — with the release of Serving Sin in audiobook — you can now listen to the entire Filthy Rich series.
The whole series was produced by Dreamscape Media, who produced audiobook versions of Helen Hoang’s The Bride Test, Veronica Roth’s Divergent, and Candace Bushnell’s Is There Still Sex in the City?, and narrated by the astonishing Scarlette Hayes.
Over the years, many of you have reached out personally to let me know how much you enjoyed Scarlette’s re-creation of these books. I say “re-creation” because that’s exactly what Scarlette did with them — make them come alive in a new way, even for me, the author! I remember the first time I heard Scarlette read one of my love scenes. I was laughing, blushing and shocked — and I wrote it!
Here’s what Audiofile Magazine had to say about her work on Lush Money: While their relationship is initially quite contentious, Hayes lets listeners hear how it gradually develops into something far more complex and passionate as they get to know each other.
As fantastic as her work was on it, she took it even in further in Hate Crush. I don’t know if at that point she knew my tone and the characters better, but listening to her reading Hate Crush is like listening to an audio play of it. She completely sweeps you away. And her reading from my hero’s point of view is so hot that I forget that it’s not a hot guy in my ear!
Audiofile Magazine said Hayes perfectly captures Sofia's incandescent rage at not being taken seriously despite her demonstrated excellence in her chosen field simply because she has the misfortune and audacity to be a woman.
Scarlette has over six years of voiceover experience and specializes in stories that are sassy, sophisticated, and sexy. Passionate about bringing characters to life, she has narrated titles in both English and Spanish as well as some in Greek. Give her a follow on Instagram!
I can’t wait to see what she pulls out for Serving Sin!
Purchase the Filthy Rich audiobooks at your vendor of choice!
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My interview with Supernatural's bodyguard, Clif Kosterman
On Saturday, June 12, a dream came true for me when I got to interview Clif Kosterman, the close protection specialist for Supernatural’s Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki for the last 15 years. Anyone who’s followed me on social media for long knows what a huge fan I am of the CW’s Supernatural, a fun horror-fantasy series that has the distinction of being the longest-running horror series in history.
I didn’t interview Clif for pure fan’s sake. I’d become fascinated about the job of close protection specialists — or bodyguards — when researching my bodyguard romance, Serving Sin.
Clif is a true good-guy hero in real life!
Some highlights from our interview include:
How he got involved with Supernatural way back in the first season
That time he had to go rescue Jensen, who’d been abandoned on the side of the road
The first time he knew Jared was head-over-heels for a woman on the show
How he and the guys feel about the enthusiastic Supernatural fandom
The incident when police handcuffed a man for trying to enter Jared’s house
Why this close relationship works for these “three musketeers”
Click below to watch full video!
Win a paperback copy of SERVING SIN signed by Clif Kosterman!
On Thursday, June 24, I’ll be releasing my monthly newsletter with an opportunity to win one of four paperback copies of Serving Sin with Clif’s signature! Sign up now and enter Thursday!
SERVING SIN now available!!
At long last, Serving Sin, my final book in the Filthy Rich series, the book that wraps up the story of the Monte del Vino Real and its three siblings hoping to make a better kingdom for their people and a better life for themselves, is here.
It’s HEEEEEERRRRREEEEE!
At long last, Serving Sin, my final book in the Filthy Rich series, the book that wraps up the story of the Monte del Vino Real and its three siblings hoping to make a better kingdom for their people and a better life for themselves, is here.
With the Filthy Rich series, I was able to tell the story of three self-made, hard-working, world-dominating, alpha heroines who make their world a better place with their strength.
Early reviewers of Serving Sin seemed to enjoy my kickass heroines!
I have really enjoyed Angelina M. Lopez’s spectacularly soapy Filthy Rich series. The series has the melodrama and glamour of a 1980’s nighttime soap, but with a lot less misogyny….Cen is a great character – strong and dynamic enough to make Roman upend everything he has ever thought about himself.—Emmalita, Cannonball Read
One of the things I really enjoy about Angelina M. Lopez’s writing is how she writes her female characters. They are strong and fierce, smart and savvy, fully aware of what they want in life and how to go about getting it. Cenobia, no longer the trembling, scared 18-year-old Roman rescued from kidnappers 13 years ago, is on the verge of becoming the permanent CEO of her father’s company. I have to say, I really loved her character….She’s gutsy, she’s not one to suffer fools, and in an industry and culture and country known for its machismo and condescension towards women, she’s well able to hold her own.—Melanie, Smexy Books
Serving Sin is available in paperback and ebook now, and will be available in audiobook on June 15. Check out the video below to find out all the fun stuff I’ve got going on with the Serving Sin release and to discover what’s coming up next!
Check out books 1 and 2 in the Filthy Rich series
Celebrating new beginnings with small-town series
In one week, the final book in the Filthy Rich series will hit retailers. As I celebrate endings, I’m thrilled to also announce new beginnings!
(Author’s note: My next book, After Hours on Milagro Street, is now available for preorder. See the bottom of the blog.)
In one week, the final book in the Filthy Rich series will hit retailers. As I celebrate endings, I’m thrilled to also announce new beginnings!
I can’t wait to work with Carina Press and my fantastic editor, executive editor Kerri Buckley, once again!
This new series comes from the depths of my heart. I was born in southeastern Kansas to a multi-generational Mexican-American family. When people ask me where I’m from, I tell them, “Kansas.” It's not uncommon for them to respond with, “No, where are you originally from?”
“Kansas,” I say, looking them dead in the eye.
This series will explore how strong women of color make the world around them – even a small Kansas town – magical.
I’m hard at work on Book 1, about a Mexican-American middle sister and black sheep who returns to her small Kansas hometown to save the family bar and discovers an uptight and irritatingly hot East Coast professor with designs on their historical building standing in her way.
Its tentative release date is July 2022.
Stay up to date on all the announcements about the new series!
Celebrating endings
When Serving Sin comes out in one month, it will mark the end of my debut romance series. In the hustle of writing, publishing, promoting and deadlines, it’s so easy to lose sight of accomplishments like these. I’m trying to take a moment to celebrate and be grateful.
When Serving Sin comes out in one month, it will mark the end of my debut romance series. In the hustle of writing, publishing, promoting and deadlines, it’s so easy to lose sight of accomplishments like these. I’m trying to take a moment to celebrate and be grateful.
I WROTE THREE BOOKS, PEOPLE!!!!
When Serving Sin releases on May 25, I will have three books out in the world with my name on it. I will have successfully completed a three-story arc about the loves and lives of a wine-growing royal family in the mountains of Spain. I will have told a series of stories based on a theme intensely important to me: What does power look like when strong, worthy, alpha heroines wield it, and strong, worthy, alpha heroes support them?
I was a 20-year aspiring author, but I wanted this job for my whole life. As a longtime romance fan, I can’t help but reflect on series that I’ve loved – Cecilia Grant’s Blackshear Family series, Susan Elizabeth Phillips’s Chicago Stars series, J.R. Ward’s Black Dagger Brotherhood – and hope that someday, somehow, some way, my Filthy Rich series joins their ranks.
Hey, I write fantasies for a living!
With the publication of Serving Sin, I say goodbye to:
Roxanne and Mateo, the billionaire businesswoman and winegrowing prince of Lush Money, who are now the responsible royals and semi-frazzled parents they were always meant to be
Sofia and Aish, the star-crossed ex-lovers of Hate Crush, who’ve grown out of their childish, tempestuous love affair and into their strong, focused, and happy forever
Roman, the former Army Ranger and reluctant prince with secret wounds finally healed
the Monte del Vino Real, the beautiful winegrowing village in the mountains of Northern Spain, and the hardworking people who populated it, who at long last are prosperous and excited about their futures
incredible side characters who enriched the Filthy Rich universe – bodyguard Henry and his barrel-making wife Gina, friend and grower Carmen Louisa, the best nanny in the world Titi, and the awesome priest and father figure, Father Juan.
Wrapping up all of their stories in the Epilogue of Serving Sin was one of the proudest moments of my life. It was so wonderful seeing them all on the page together, toasting what they’ve (and I’ve) created.
I’ve never cried harder.
Want a sneak peek of the Epilogue?
Join me as I chat with Supernatural's bodyguard Clif Kosterman
I am thrilled -- beyond thrilled, actually, more flabbergasted and still in shock -- to announce that, to celebrate the release of my bodyguard romance, Serving Sin, I will be chatting with bodyguard-to-the-stars Clif Kosterman, close protection specialist for Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles, stars of the TV show, Supernatural.
(Author’s note: You can watch my interview with Clif Kosterman here.)
Calling all Supernatural fans!!
I am thrilled -- beyond thrilled, actually, more flabbergasted and still in shock -- to announce that, to celebrate the release of my bodyguard romance, Serving Sin, I will be chatting with bodyguard-to-the-stars Clif Kosterman, close protection specialist for Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles, stars of the TV show, Supernatural.
The event will be Saturday, June 12 at 5 pm CT/6 pm ET, and will be streamed live over the YouTube page of my favorite indie bookstore, One More Page Books in Falls Church, VA. Signed copies of Serving Sin will only be available through One More Page Books in June.
I contacted Clif because Roman Sheppard, the hero of Serving Sin, is the head of an elite security firm and the protector of the Mexican CEO heroine he tries hard not to fall in love with. Clif and I will be chatting about the perils and rewards of being a bodyguard to the rich and famous.
Clif Kosterman was already recognized as one of the top close-protection specialist’s out of Vancouver -- having protected celebrities like Sharon Stone, Justin Timberlake, Selena Gomez, and Morgan Freeman -- when he was hired to protect Jared Padalecki's visiting family during the show's first season. On that day, Kosterman’s life changed. For the last 13 years, Kosterman has worked exclusively to protect stars Jared and Jensen and their families, a unique role of longevity in his constantly shifting industry.
Jensen Ackles, Jared Padalecki, Clif Kosterman, and Genevieve Padalecki at Jared and Gen’s wedding
Jensen Ackles and Clif Kosterman at Clif’s wedding
Clif and I will chat about his journey to becoming a close protection specialist, the fascinating ups and downs of the job, and his role protecting two popular TV stars and their families for the last thirteen years.
"I've always been a defender," he told me. "When I played football, I played defense. When I played hockey, I played defense. When you're dedicated to something you love, it isn't hard to do."
It was at this moment that I felt super blessed to connect this awesome guy to my hero!
Clif is well known by Supernatural fans, having appeared in two episodes of the show as well as always appearing at Supernatural conventions to keep the stars safe. He's an understated and laidback celebrity in his own right, with 45K followers on Instagram and 94K followers on Twitter. It couldn't have happened to a nicer guy.
I can't wait for you all to meet him!
The Alpha Roll: The Perfect Man?
The Alpha Roll. Hard and tough on the outside, soft and sweet on the inside. In my opinion, the perfect man.
The former military protection specialist from Serving Sin also cooks and makes sure everyone gets enough sleep. He’s the prefect Alpha Role!
I had a blog all planned out for the week.
And then the brilliant romance author Charish Reid had to go and ruin it with this excellent Tweet.
To explain, a “cinnamon roll” is a romance character who is all soft on the inside. This term came into play as a contrast to “alpha,” a lead character who displays a dominant, take-no-prisoners attitude.
More often than not, these terms are applied to male heroes: Mr. Ooey-Gooey-Sensitive vs. Mr. “I will shove you up against a wall and take you.”
Charish plucked a prefect kumquat from the air when everybody else was looking at the apples and oranges. The Alpha Roll. Hard and tough on the outside, soft and sweet on the inside.
In my opinion, the perfect man.
Evolution of the Alpha and the Cinnamon Roll
The romance genre has been flooded with alphas since the dawn of its creation. Kathleen Woodiwiss’ The Flame and the Flower, which catapulted romance into a genre-fiction leader, featured a strapping ship’s captain who raped his soon-to-be-wife (I know; that’s for another blog) because he thought she was a prostitute just playing coy. In the modern era, Fifty Shades of Grey cemented the alpha into the modern consciousness. Alphas were rich, powerful, grunty, closed-off emotionally except for that one special woman who thought that all of his single-word sexual commands were charming, and great in bed.
After a lot of books with single, suggestive objects on the cover (a tie, an apple, a rose, what does it mean?), authors and readers were ready for a change. Thus was birthed the cinnamon role: Sweet guys who didn’t base their egos on being the biggest dick in the room. Or sweet ladies who were fine with being ooey and gooey. Jen DeLuca’s Well Played, Roan Parrish’s The Remaking of Corbin Wale, Alisha Rai’s Girl Gone Viral, and, like, all of Talia Hibbert’s phenomenal books have cinnamon-role characters.
But the alpha roll?
In her tweet, Charish Reid, author of the contemporary romances The Write Escape and Hearts on Hold, realized she was writing one.
Her tweet made me realize I’d written one, too.
Hero in Serving Sin = Alpha Roll
Roman Sheppard, my taciturn prince bodyguard in my upcoming release, Serving Sin, is without a doubt an alpha roll.
On paper, Roman’s totally an alpha. He’s a former Army Ranger who saved his squad, head of an elite security firm that protects the wealthy and the vulnerable, and a reluctant prince. He likes action more than words, and every action is exacting. His words are few, and his smiles are practically non-existent.
But the big, big heart on this guy. Readers who got to know Roman in Lush Money and Hate Crush will remember him swooping in to help save the kingdom for a half-brother and half-sister he didn’t even know very well. “I don’t want your kingdom, man,” he told his brother in Lush Money. “I’m a soldier, not a king. I had to pick a side and I pick yours.”
In those two books, we got to see Roman’s loyalty, love, and need to protect.
But in Serving Sin, we get to see his inclination to nurture.
Cenobia “Cen” Trujillo, the Mexican-heiress-turned-CEO who Roman is in Mexico to protect in Serving Sin, is so busy launching the first made-in-Mexico-by-Mexicans-for-Mexicans car company that she doesn’t worry too much about food. Or sleep. Roman makes sure she has good meals. He urges her to forgo the late night café de ollas she adores and get a good night’s rest. One of the sexiest scenes without any sex in it is when he feeds her from a ballroom hors d'oeuvres table while she’s distracted.
With his thick, capable fingers, this warrior prince had been feeding her. Right now, he was holding up a small taco and she’d been about to take a bite.
“What are you doing?” she asked, rearing back.
His green eyes looked darker in the shadows here at the edge of the gilded room. “Have you eaten today?”
She realized she’d skipped lunch. “No.”
“Then you need to eat, Cenobia.” His voice was like black silk over sand. “I said I’d take care of you.”
To any curious eyes, they simply looked like two longtime friends juggling a plate and two champagne glasses.
Heart pounding, she slowly tilted her head and opened her mouth. He kept his eyes on hers as she fit her lips around the corn tortilla and bit into it. She’d never been more aware of the simple mechanics of eating. He lifted the rest of the taco to his mouth and finished it in one bite. He’d been sharing food with her as if their mouths had already shared other intimacies.
When the threats against Cenobia and her family ratchet up, and Roman takes her, her little brother Adán, and her brother’s bodyguard to his sister-in-law’s lake-side home in Kansas, Cenobia quickly realizes that he is a great cook, a well-organized event coordinator, and an excellent trail guide. Her taciturn warrior prince has all the makings of an ideal camp counselor.
He worked so hard to convince her, the world, and himself that he was nothing more than a stone-faced soldier. But in the Monte del Vino Real, he had a royal brother who trusted him as second-in-command, a royal sister who’d embraced him as a big brother, and a niece and nephew who feted him with homemade jewelry. With their little family here, he’d become head chef and entertainment director, grocery list maker and boardgame referee.
He wasn’t a taciturn soldier. He was a den mother. He was a devoted son and a beloved brother and a leader of heroes and the savior of lost causes.
In Spain, Roman (who not-so-secretely loves high-end men’s fashion) helps 12-year-old Adán pick out just the right outfit when he’s going to meet the king.
I mean…
Romance aficionados have their favorites — alpha or cinnamon roll — and will fight to the death on their hills. But with the alpha roll, we can all get along.
Because I’ve decided. The alpha roll is the perfect man.
Angelina M. Lopez,
contemporary romance Author
Writing ferocious love stories
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