Emerian Rich (in her secret identity as Emmy Z. Madrigal) has a fun new way to rate novels on her romance blog.  She invited me and some of the other Ladies of Horror (a super-secret Facebook group, kind of like the Ladies Anarchism and Knitting Society, except writers) to participate.

We were supposed to read through our novels for the Kiss Count.  Emerian wanted to know how many kisses, how many graphic sex scenes, and how many F2B (Fade to Black, like sex on broadcast TV) scenes there were.  I thought it would be fun to read through As Above, So Below to find out.

Wow, was I surprised.  As Above came in with 46 instances of kissing.  That doesn’t actually count all of the individual kisses, because I only counted the feverish kisses and little nips as one kiss each.  I knew the book was obsessed with kissing, but I had no idea.

Here’s the description of two of my favorites:

“I’ll show you mercy,” Azaziel threatened, looming over her suddenly. Lorelei whimpered—it wasn’t entirely feigned—but there was nowhere to go to get away from him. The angel grasped her head in his palms and bent down over her. She felt his cool breath in her hair. His lips melted against her flushed forehead. Sweet angelic compassion washed over her.

Lorelei collapsed as if her limbs were unstrung. The lingering pain in her head vanished, but the kindness of his grace turned to terror in her chest. She tried to remember how to breathe. She thought he’d killed her.

“Fuck your compassion, Angel,” she snarled weakly.

He laughed, the first truly amused laugh she’d heard from him. He stroked the hair from the succubus’s face. “You’re all right, Lorelei.”

As he said it, it was true. She drew a deep, shuddering breath. “That was one hell of a kiss, Aza.”

“Glad you liked it.”

She dropped her gaze and put just the right amount of hesitation into her voice. “Can I have another one?”

When his lips brushed her cheekbone, she turned her face into his. Their lips met. A spark passed between them, magnified as it traveled. They both jumped. He pulled away just a fraction.

Lorelei yearned toward him. Weakness trembled in her muscles. Aza couldn’t resist that. He supported her in his arms.

Using all her guile, Lorelei pressed her mouth into his. His compassion flowed into her again, but now that she was prepared, it didn’t paralyze her. She felt it swirl down into her body, curling smoky tendrils around her heart.

Deep in her hips, though, was the unquenchable fire of who she was, the lust that drove her. Raising that power up the ladder of her spine, she focused it as finely as a laser into her kiss.

You can check out the Kiss Counts here.

And here’s the book trailer: