Exclusive Excerpt from Finding Our Love
by Amy Tasukada
August
“Come on Detective Pom-Pom,” Iroha cheered.
The animated poodle had five minutes to solve the case of the missing mittens or else little Mew-Mew would be blamed. The poodle walked around a few seconds blowing bubbles through his pipe while the other anthropomorphic characters eagerly waited. After a few moments of recycled bubble blowing artwork Detective Pom-Pom’s large blue eyes grew wide, and he declared he’d solved the case.
Iroha popped the last octopus shaped hotdog in his mouth.
At first, the water-colored style of the characters intrigued Iroha, but the more his art gallery fail the more the Detective Pom-Pom’s mysteries mattered. All of Pom-Pom’s problems could be solved in under a half-hour while the very real problem of Iroha’s growing debt would take months to turn around. If it ever turned around.
Iroha scrapped off a bit of green paint stuck to his long black hair as the credits rolled.
Maybe if his parents allowed him to watch Detective Pom-Pom as a kid instead of shoving colored pencils and blank paper in his face he’d figure out how to solve the mystery of the gallery with no traffic.
The annoying high-pitched theme song for the next show played signaling Iroha need to open the gallery, even if it really didn’t matter. The ribbon cutting had some fanfare, but after people realized his sister, nor any of her art wasn’t there everyone left.
He slumped down the stairs separating his home from the gallery. Then through the rentable studio space no one booked and to the gallery in the front. The lights illumined each piece’s best feature.
He examined each work standing close, standing away, glancing over his shoulder. Each one still knocked him in the heart. Each one from a talented artist who deserved to have their work shown. Each one deserved to have a red sticker on their placard marking the piece as sold.
Three of them withdrew their works since Iroha couldn’t sell them. Soon word would get to the others that he was the only one admiring their art. No one would come by asking to be in show and when Iroha called some leads they’d rejected the offer.
Iroha stepped to a blank patch on the wall. Maybe he should put one of his own paintings there to fill up the space, but leaving it empty would look like someone had bought one.
Who was he trying to fool? No one came into the gallery all week, and the only person who came in the week before asked if she could use the bathroom and left without saying thank you.
Iroha booted opened the office door and clicked through his emails hoping between spam messages someone replied to his offer.
He had to fight. He couldn’t go crawling back to his parents to be his sister’s lacky.
Hours past.
No one came.
And none of Iroha’s emails to other artist received a replied. The only action through the front door was the mail delivery.
Iroha threw the bills on his desk and ripped open the protective plastic of the latest issue of Nihon Art Today came. The thick magazine was filled with art criticism more than glossy pictures and every serious artist bought the bi-annually tome. Even the smallest article people talked about for months.
A sculpture of a girl flying a kite glossed the over. He skimmed the headlines then stopped.
Ichigo Osumi’s Brother Opens Gallery
Iroha groaned low like a rumble of thunder. Always her bother. He almost couldn’t blame them since anything with her name on it sold. He didn’t remember being asked for an interview though.
He flipped to the two-page spread. He hadn’t even earned a picture by himself in the feature. Instead they chose one of him and his sister standing next to her record-breaking auctioned painting. She was thirty-four and he’s turn seventeen that day. His party turned into a double feature that she completely usurped. Still in high school, he was still eager to follow where his parents told him. So he’d followed Ichigo to every event like a dog on a leash.
He shook his head and read. They did it to sell more copies. It wasn’t about his sister but his gallery. It could be the turn he needed to really get it off the ground.
He read.
Iroha showed some promise in his youth.
His eyes narrowed. He skimmed down.
A gallery covered in the same mediocre art he creates.
A bolt burned a hole in his chest, but he couldn’t stop his gaze from skimming over the words.
Talentless hack
Will always be the disappointment of the Osumi name.
Too bad the apple didn’t fall close to the tree.
Iroha threw the magazine. It knocked against one of the desktop sculptures he made of a popsicle brain.
With such a scathing review no one would come. He failed, again. He might as well crawl back to his parents before getting into more debt. He could hold off for a few months, but after that…
The door chimed. They probably came to mock him. Still, he rubbed his eyes and put on a smile.
“Welcome to ABC gallery,” the last word caught in Iroha’s throat.
The older gentleman before him might’ve looked like forty-something salaryman, but a dark aura floating around him. His smile stretched too large across his face like he never had to ask twice for anything. His swagger as he approached left no doubt in Iroha mind. The man was a yakuza.
Iroha cleared his throat. “Is there anything I can do for you?”
Somehow the smile on the man’s face grew larger. “I have a proposition for you.”
About Finding Our Love
Kyoto, Japan. Iroha is sick of his boyfriends only dating him to get closer to his famous artistic sister. Shelving his own creative ambitions to run a mafia-funded gallery, he seeks comfort in a fake relationship at an exclusive host club. But when he sets eyes on the outlandishly dressed Kenta, something real stirs in his heart.
Kenta works hard to keep his place as a top-five host at the exclusive Aphrodite’s Castle club. Though it’s put a damper on his love life, the lucrative gig earns him more than enough to support his elderly parents. But when he breaks the rules and falls for the enigmatic Iroha, his income plummets and jeopardizes his family’s welfare.
Heedless of the consequences, Iroha and Kenta plunge into a passionate affair. But the shadow of Iroha’s creative failures threatens to break them apart. And when trouble pulls Kenta back home, the rift between them becomes a chasm.
Can Iroha and Kenta find a common canvas to paint their perfect picture of devotion?
Finding Our Love is the delightful first novel in the Aphrodite’s Castle Host Club MM contemporary romance series. If you like caring men, Japanese culture, and the quest for happiness, you’ll adore Amy Tasukada’s heartwarming tale.
Buy Finding Our Love to enjoy passion’s delicate brush today!
Available at: Amazon
About Amy Tasukada
As an only child, Best Selling Author Amy Tasukada began putting her daydreams to paper at the young age of ten. She was inspired by Japanese literature, works from French classic authors like Marcel Proust, as well as tons and tons of yaoi/boys’ love manga. However, there were only so many books that piqued her interest. Fueled by an obvious lack of books she wanted to read, Amy decided to write them herself.
Amy found her niche in the LGBT genre with Japanese influenced gay fiction. Though her works span a wide range — from gritty mafia thrillers to fluffy, contemporary romance, Amy uses her deadly, but delicate writing style to weave exciting tales of suspense, love, and gore, all under the supervision of her amazing editor (and calico cat), O’Hara.
While crafting her novels, Amy researches each setting extensively to paint the most colorful picture for her readers. She creates each story’s setting in a way that has been described as “crisp and lyrical” by fans.
When she’s not penning a new installment of her mafia series or attending a writing workshop, the North Texas author can be found drinking tea, reading, or filming J-fashion hauls on her YouTube channel.
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As part of this blog tour, Amy is giving away three ebook copies of Finding Our Love!! To enter, just click the link below!
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