Ideal Angels - blog tour and Extract

Ideal Angels - blog tour and Extract:

Today I am part of the blog tour for the new book by Robert Welbourn - Ideal Angels.

BLURB  

Is it possible to keep secrets in the age of social media? 

When someone lives their entire life in the spotlight, what could they possibly hide from you? 

Ideal Angels explores just that. It s the story of one man, one woman, one week. 

They meet, fall in love, and never look back. 

Eloise's phone is never far away, furiously cataloguing their ups and downs. But there are always shadows, lurking just out of reach. 

The moments after the camera flashes, unseen, uncaptured. 

The threat of an inescapable doom. 

How much can one person change you? 

How much can one person be your downfall?

Robert Welbourn

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: 

Robert Welbourn is Yorkshire born and bred - he's lived there almost all his life, and now written a book set there. He’s had a passion for books as long as he can remember, and has been writing his whole life. 

His favourite authors are Bret Easton Ellis and Stephen King, and he cites Ellis as his number one influence.

He studied English Literature at Salford University, and this confirmed that he wanted to spend his life working with books. He currently works in marketing, but is hoping to spend his life telling stories.

Twitter @r_welbourn

Now here's an extract to whet your appetite:

That familiar burn, the sting in your nostrils, the supreme energy and

confidence, you haven’t felt this in a long time. It isn’t long before the

coke talk begins, and though it’s usually bullshit, this time it’s actually

interesting, you’re actually listening. And listening is all you’re

doing, because she’s practically ranting. Yeah so you’re probably wondering

about the hotel well my parents own it well not own it it’s sort of like franchised nothing official but basically they put a lot of money into it

and take a lot of the profits and they’ve done this all over the world and the

penthouse is owned by them but I don’t think they’ve ever been here except

maybe once just after they first got it. She breathes. And yeah so I come

here a lot it’s technically where I live well it’s one of my homes I guess my

official home is in the States with my parents but I don’t really like it there

it’s too hot and the people are all annoying so I have most of my stuff here

but really I spend all my time in my other place near the art school I’m going

to near where we met. She stops talking briefly, another massive line,

then more words, she’s like a waterfall. So yeah that’s the hotel and that

explains the car too and why I don’t go to art school very often I mean I

know I should but it’s hard to see a point in it you know to me the point is

looking good, feeling good, people knowing you look and feel good and that’s

why I’m always photographing you and me and stuff and that’s why the

drugs too I love my parents don’t get me wrong at least I think I do, well I

know I should anyway but they’re never around and it makes me feel pretty

shitty but with this stuff, she indicates the bag, with this stuff it kind of

doesn’t really matter so yeah do you know what I mean?

You’re sort of blown away, you’ve been pacing to try to dissipate

some of the energy but it’s not really done anything, you’re

ridiculously high considering how early it is in the afternoon, and

you stop pacing but only for a second to look at her, and you

know she wants an answer but none comes to mind, and so you

grab her arm and pull her to her feet, to you, and kiss her hard,

probably too hard but you’re both so coked up it seems the right

thing to do. You can feel your erection but this isn’t the time,

not now, so you let her back down to the floor and take the note

from her and do a massive line yourself.

The late afternoon and early evening sort of pass in a haze and

before you know it you’re out, in the town, wearing the same

clothes you’ve had on all day and you’re unshowered since this

morning but you don’t care, you’ve got pure confidence in your

veins and so the two of you are walking, practically strutting

down the street, you have a cigarette but you’re not paying it

much attention, except to make sure none of the ash goes on your clothes. You come to a bar, The Oyster Bar, not the most fashionable

but reasonably discreet, and soon you each have a largely

ignored drink in front of you, and while she sits and texts and

makes the occasional call you just sit, look around, wanting to

go outside, breathe the air, expend some energy, but not wanting

to not be by her side. She says some of her friends are coming,

she hopes you don’t mind, and you say it’s chill, it’ll be nice to

meet some of the people in her life, and because of the drugs she

laughs but you actually mean it, you don’t want to let this one

go, you want to get your hooks into her. You know that’s an

awful way of phrasing it to yourself but you also know it’s true,

and so when her friends arrive you pretend not to be high, which

you’re not really much anymore anyway, you’ve purposefully not

been bumping in order to not make a bad impression. Her friends

are just like her: slim, beautiful, phones out, drinks out, but from

the looks of them they’re not currently reading Ulysses; in fact

you wonder if they can read at all.

You let them talk, it’s mostly about you, Eloise’s friends interrogating

her about you, but she’s ducking questions, trying to

avoid the fact she doesn’t actually know much about you, and by

now the coke has worn off and so you drink your drink, then

drink another, and soon you’re pretty buzzed off the alcohol. A

couple of her friends look familiar, you feel like you’ve seen them

before, but you chalk this up to the alcohol. That sense of familiarity

a slight buzz often brings. Is it the alcohol? Do you care?

You sense Eloise is buzzed too from the way she’s looking at

you, lust tinged with desperation, but regardless her phone is out

and her friends’ phones are out and it’s all selfies, group photos,

you’re dragged into photos by people whose names you don’t

even know, faces you won’t remember, and you’re thinking it’s

all so cheap, this is all so vague and unnecessary, but you let it

happen anyway. You know Eloise is like this, you’re just glad it’s

not as much as her friends are.

Soon Eloise is taking your hand and you’re outside, leaving the

bar, moving on to the next. You light a cigarette for the walk

and give one to Eloise but soon all her friends are asking, begging cigarettes from you, and it just seems easier to give them all

one and so you do, and they’re coughing and looking unsure but

they’re all so proud of themselves, this small act of drunken rebellion

making them feel like better people, even though you know

if anything it’s the opposite. The next bar is Footage, you’ve not

been here for a while, but nothing much has changed. This bar

is more crowded, and despite being drunk you practically beg

Eloise and she takes you into the disabled toilet and you do a

bump each, two, and once you’re back in the room everything

seems much easier to handle, it’s given a perspective that means

something to you, or at least feels like it might. Her friends have

attracted a lot of attention but you and Eloise stay on the periphery,

not wanting to be antisocial, but not wanting to be involved.

Drinks are ordered and drunk, bumps are discreetly done, and

soon it’s the early hours and you’re tired, your nose hurts, your

head is spinning, you’re dreading tomorrow, dreading your exposure

to the world under the influence of such solicitous inebriants.

But in reality you’re back in the penthouse and it’s just you

and Eloise, you’ve managed to kick out her friends, and their new

friends, and it’s just the two of you and you go to the toilet, to

actually use the toilet for a change, and when you come back

Eloise has left the living room. You head for the bedroom and

find her standing in a pile of clothes, wearing only her pants, and

this time she does actually pounce on you.

Available on Amazon, click here for more details