Posts Tagged ‘Romantic Suspense’

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Perspectives on Predators

Cathy_Perkins | January 24th, 2012

We bought land in the mountains last spring, a Shangri-La escape from hectic day jobs. The critters outnumber the people, so when we kick back on the porch with a glass of wine, we watch the wild kingdom. Wood ducks, geese and the occasional heron hang out in the spring-fed pond. Owls haunt the trees at the edge of the woods. There’s even a bald eagle – how cool is that? They’re huge and have the haughty, I rule supreme around here attitude.

But I love the hawks. They ride the wind currents on wide wings until – boom – plummeting into the hay field after one of those irritating voles that dig huge holes and eat flower bulbs.

Spring rolled into summer and we spent long days clearing the property. The Canadian geese resented our work around the pond, departing with loud complaints. The wood ducks were more discrete, quietly fading into the rushes. Then ducks do what ducks do – we do write romance at Carina Press – and soon lines of yellow and brown fluffiness appeared behind the adults.

Gradually though, the lines got shorter and piles of poofed feathers appeared in the meadow. Yep, it appears hawks like baby ducks as much as they do voles.

Did your attitude towards the hawks just change?

Is the hawk a ‘bad guy’ or is it just doing what hawks are programmed to do in order to survive?

I had a lot of time to think about predators while cutting the hay field. I shared that story here. For many authors, the villain is a predator, either physically hurting someone or exploiting a situation for their own benefit. The best antagonists, in my opinion, have a reason for what they do, even if it only makes sense to them.

In the animal world, hawks eat to survive and they keep the world from being overrun with ducks. While a hawk is clearly a predator, is predator status inherently a bad thing? Or does it depend upon your perspective? Does it depend on the predator’s motivation?

What do you think makes the most intriguing villains?

When I write, I create a world, populate it with characters – good and not so good – and invite the reader along for the ride. An important element in making that journey rewarding is figuring out what motivates the characters. In THE PROFESSOR, the villain may have been warped by his childhood, but he chose to cross the line and prey on college women.

Meet the villain in THE PROFESSOR (read the excerpt here) – what’s your perspective on him?

I’d love to have you visit my website or Blame It On The Muse where I hang out with terrific writer friends. Connect with me on Facebook or Twitter.

Photos used by permission. Credits: hawk photograph Eagle Brother ; duck photograph NJ Birds

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Posted in Authors, Books, Carina Press, Cover Art | 4 Comments »

His Secret Past

Katie_Reus | January 3rd, 2012

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This month I’m celebrating my third romantic suspense release from Carina! It’s also my first release of the year so I’m even more excited! I read and enjoy pretty much all sub-genres of romance, but suspense will always be one of my favorites. Probably because it’s the reason I fell so in love with romance in the first place. Throwing characters into a dire situation full of suspense and danger automatically heightens the tension in a story. Whether it involves a serial killer, stalkers, rogue CIA agents (like in His Secret Past!), mafia henchmen, just give me risk and excitement and I’m happy.

I like a good balance of romance and suspense, but in my reading it often doesn’t matter if one area is heavier than the other. With some authors I find that I really dig the action-packed non-stop adventures from chapter to chapter, while with others the characterization is so amazing that I don’t mind if the suspense aspect is slightly slower paced. Of course, in real life I probably wouldn’t want to deal with what most of the characters I read about have to live through, but romantic suspense is such a fun escape.

If you’d like a chance to win a digital copy of His Secret Past, just tell me what you like about romantic suspense.

Official blurb for His Secret Past:

Six years ago, Alexis Baptiste’s world was turned upside down when Hunter Cassidy disappeared without a trace, leaving her alone and pregnant. She’s finally moving on with her life when he resurfaces, just in time to rescue her from a would-be assassin. Forced to join him on the run to protect herself and her young son, Alexis is now in even more danger: danger of falling for Hunter all over again.

Betrayed by rogue CIA agents after infiltrating an infamous drug cartel, former DEA agent Hunter Cassidy has spent years trying to clear his name. He’s not proud of the things he’s done, and knows he doesn’t deserve a future with Alexis, or the son he never knew he had, but he’s determined to protect them from the men who ruined his life. Convincing Alexis to trust him—and denying his feelings for her—is going to be the hardest mission he’s ever faced.

His Secret Past is now available from Carina, Amazon, Barnes & Noble and other major online retailers. To read the prologue and part of the first chapter, please click here.

Thanks so much for stopping by today! One random commenter will win a digital copy of His Secret Past. I’ll announce the winner in the comments section tomorrow on January 4, after noon Central time. (Contest open to all readers, 18 years or older, who are legally allowed to participate in such a contest as allowed by their local laws.)

A little about me: I’ve been reading romance since I discovered my mom’s hidden stash at a young age and the addiction stayed with me into adulthood. I write dark paranormal romance and sexy romantic suspense. I write for Carina Press, Harlequin Nocturne, and NAL/Signet Eclipse. To learn more about me please visit my website, my blog, facebook or find me on twitter @katiereus.

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Posted in Books, Carina Press, Contest/Giveaway | 25 Comments »

EDGE OF SURVIVAL: Story of my life

Toni_Anderson | November 22nd, 2011

I grew up with a massive travel bug but was too poor to actually go anywhere. So instead, when I was a little girl (at home in rural Shropshire), I spent a lot of time hanging out in the Australian bush with Elyne Mitchell’s silver brumbies. Then as a young teen I borrowed my grandmother’s Mills & Boons and got to visit most of continental Europe and a lot of million dollar villas. When I was older I hung out in the alternate dimensions of Tolkien and David Eddings and Stephen Donaldson.

In my twenties I finally got to visit, in person, some of the places I was desperate to go.

I moved to North America in 1995 (for the first time–it’s complicated) and discovered Romantic Suspense. I spent a lot of time screaming around, dodging bullets and getting to know some really hot heroes :) . Little did I know that this would change my life.

After I started writing, I realized my hunger for travel came in pretty useful. My experiences fed my muse. They gave me really cool locations to set my stories and useful insight into different countries and cultures. In 1996 I got the chance to spend the summer in Northern Labrador (top right, North America–I didn’t know either) tagging fish, living on an icebreaker and being chauffeured around by helicopter pilots.

It was so incredible I HAD to use it in a story :) And that story is EDGE OF SURVIVAL and it released yesterday.

I still have a travel bug. I still love to visit new places, but now I get to call it research :)

Where’s the most exciting place you’ve ever been? Are you a wanderer or a homebody?

Blurb
Contains a foreword by Brenda Novak
Edge of Survival

Dr. Cameran Young knew her assignment wouldn’t be easy. As lead biologist on the Environment Impact Assessment team, her findings would determine the future of a large mining project in the northern Canadian bush. She expected rough conditions and hostile miners—but she didn’t expect to find a dead body her first day on the job.

Former SAS Sergeant Daniel Fox forged a career as a helicopter pilot, working as far from the rest of the human race as possible. The thrill of flying makes his civilian life bearable, and he lives by his mantra: don’t get involved. But when he’s charged with transporting the biologist to her research vessel, he can’t help but get involved in the murder investigation—and with Cameran, who awakens emotions he’s desperate to suppress.

In the harsh and rugged wilderness, Daniel and Cameran must battle their intense and growing attraction while keeping ahead of a killer who will stop at nothing to silence her…

My heroine has diabetes and I’m donating 15% of my royalties from Edge of Survival to diabetes research.

Toni’ Bio

Toni Anderson is a former Marine Biologist turned Romantic Suspense writer who now lives in the Canadian prairies with her husband and two children.  Her stories are set in the stunning locations where she’s been lucky enough to live and work—the blustery east coast of Scotland, the remote isolated mining communities of Northern Labrador, the rugged landscapes of the U.S. and Australia.

Check out her website for a list of current titles, her blog and Facebook Author Page for writing news and her personal Facebook page and Twitter for constant nonsensical chatter. She is also part of two wonderful group blogs—Not Your Usual Suspects and Just Romantic Suspense. Come introduce yourself.

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Posted in Books, Cover Art | 14 Comments »

Learning to Trust – and to love.

Lynne_Connolly | November 22nd, 2011

Learning To<img src=

In Learning to Trust, I tell the story of Jonathan and Lina, two damaged survivors who find love and strength in each other.

It started as a story for Harlequin Presents, but part way through, I needed something to bring them back together again. So I put in a firebomb. It just worked so well. So I went back and researched the background.

My heroine works in a café in Naples. She’s an ex addict, ex New York party girl of Italian origins, bringing her life back on track. Jon finds her in his search for his brother, Byron, and he knows she’s been seen with him.

So how could I connect drug addicts and bombs and Naples with a prominent New York family?

Easy. It turned out to be so easy, it was as if it was predestined. I couldn’t ignore this and turn it back to be a Presents, it would have been criminal to force all that wonderful source material back in the box.

The more I researched, the scarier the story got, and the more I loved it. Not scary in the horror sense, scary in the bombs and guns sense. Apparently, Naples is as gang-ridden as it always was. I avoided using the word “mafia,” because it’s not like “The Godfather” any more. It’s all business and money, and a lot of corruption. The government of Italy struggles to control the culture, but the gangs themselves are carefully organized, connected with others all over the world and enormously rich.

Naples itself has no-go areas, but Lina doesn’t work in one of these. She works in the kind of area where the working man and woman go, rather than the tourists. But even these areas have to pay protection money. And if they don’t—boom!

One of the things I learned was about knock-off goods. In most big cities you see people with makeshift stalls selling fake t-shirts, bags, sneakers and so on. They come from the East. But so do drugs. The main producer of heroin these days is Afghanistan, and the people who buy it will combine it with the fake goods for illegal importation to Europe and America. The old contacts in the States still receive the goods, and some of them have big legitimate businesses. Early in “Learning to Trust,” someone asks Jon where he gets his expensive sneakers from, and are they real. None of Lina’s friends know she is from wealth, and she doesn’t want them to, so he makes up a story on the spot, claiming he imports knock-offs to the States. A throwaway remark that leads to terrible repercussions later in the story.  Jon’s family owns sports and leisure goods stores. See what I mean about things working out?

This story melded so beautifully, I hardly had to write it. It happened in front of my eyes.Naples, Italy

I start writing by imagining the story, start to finish. I write the bare bones, the synopsis, then I go through it in more detail—in my head. I went back to the beginning and completely rewrote this one. It just came alive, the more I went into the research about this business.

Then another surprise. Someone I planned as a foil later in the story took on a life of his own. He wasn’t supposed to be a sympathetic character, but the more I saw his point of view, the more sympathetic he became.

More still. When I was doing research on how the authorities cope with the problems in Naples, I came across a covert section of British Intelligence I’d never heard of before. They’re the people who go to trouble spots and do things that aren’t quite legal, or they do illegal things in pursuit of a larger goal. The whole question of who you trust when there is nobody to trust fascinated me. And I’d love to write more.

So if you do your bit, I’ll do mine!

Lynne Connolly, http://lynneconnolly.com

Find me on Twitter as lynneconnolly

Learning To Trust from Carina Press

Lynne Connolly, http://lynneconnolly.com

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Posted in Authors, Books, Carina Press | 5 Comments »

The idea came from where?

Adrienne_Giordano | November 9th, 2011

The other day my editor asked me how I came up with the idea for the men of the Private Protectors series. Considering the men who work at Taylor Security are the heroes in the books, one would think I had a slam-dunk answer to this question.

Nope.

The series didn’t start with the men.  Roxann Thorgesson, the heroine in the newly released Risking Trust, was the first character I created for this series.

Here’s a little factoid about me: I have a love for the newspaper industry. Back in my newspaper days, I’d get a thrill when I walked into the pressroom and saw that monster press in action. So, when I decided to dedicate myself to writing a book, I immediately went to a topic I knew about. Plus, I’d just finished reading Katharine Graham’s autobiography on running the Washington Post. Mrs. Graham’s book inspired me to write a story about a woman suddenly responsible for running a large newspaper.

Enter Roxann Thorgesson, who, in the course of one day, becomes a grieving daughter and takes the reins of her family’s 250 million dollar company. To make her life just a tad more complicated, I threw Michael Taylor, CEO of Taylor Security, at her.

Michael, the love of Roxann’s life and a man she never fully recovered from, walked out on her twelve years earlier. Now he’s come to her for help, and Roxann needs to decide if the man standing in front of her, the man she dreamed of a life with, the man she wanted children with, can be trusted.

Did I mention he’s suspected of murdering his estranged wife?

Try as she might, Roxann can’t resist the pull of Michael’s story and agrees to help him uncover the true killer. When their partnership leads them to a city hall conspiracy, Roxann is forced to put her trust into a man who had once nearly destroyed her.

And that’s where the Private Protectors series began. All I wanted was to write a story about a strong woman who takes on a newspaper while battling her emotional demons. I didn’t know the secondary male characters would start yapping at me and begging for their own books. I figure they were lonely.  Or maybe they wanted to feed their adrenaline addictions. Or have sex. With this bunch, that could very well be.

Then again, I like to think they were just ready to fall in love.

Readers, I will be giving away one copy of Risking Trust. Please leave a comment to be entered in the drawing and check back in the morning for the announcement of the winner.

Risking Trust available:

Carina Press

Amazon

Barnes & Noble

Adrienne Giordano writes romantic suspense and women’s fiction.  She is a Jersey girl at heart, but now lives in the Midwest with her workaholic husband, sports obsessed son and Buddy the Wheaten Terrorist (Terrier). She is a co-founder of Romance University blog. For more information on Adrienne’s books please visit www.AdrienneGiordano.com. Adrienne can also be found on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/AdrienneGiordanoAuthor and Twitter at http://twitter.com/AdriennGiordano.

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Posted in Authors, Carina Press, Contest/Giveaway | 17 Comments »

Wedding Fever

Marie Force | September 9th, 2011

By: Marie Force

I haven’t been to a wedding in years. All my friends are more likely to be celebrating their 20th anniversaries these days than getting hitched. We’re at the kids-in-high-school stage. In fact, I’m on the whirlwind college tour circuit this fall with my daughter, who’s a junior. While I attended my share of weddings and wore my share of bridesmaid dresses, weddings seem to be a thing of my past. So imagine my surprise when I found myself planning one for my Fatal Series characters Sam and Nick.

To say I was a little out of my element was putting it mildly. I quickly realized that to give Sam and Nick the day they deserved, I was going to need a LOT of help. Around this same time, I had the big idea to let the Fatal Series readers plan the wedding, like they do (or used to do?) on the Today show. That idea put me even further out of my element, and I was short on time to give this event the attention it deserved.

Enter the A Team of Aly Hackett and Ronlyn Howe, readers who have become dear friends over the last year. They became wedding planners overnight. To be fair, their weddings were a lot more recent than mine, but I learned that these two ladies have style to spare. Sam, Nick and I are eternally grateful for all the gorgeous choices they came up with for the big day.

The wedding planning fun began on my blog on February 1 and ran for 14 straight days, culminating on Valentine’s Day. Readers voted on everything from Sam’s dress, hair and shoes, to Nick’s suit, the cake, rings, flowers, invitation, first dance, wedding favors and honeymoon destinations.

Once all the votes were tallied I had two weeks to write the wedding the readers had planned and turn in the Fatal Destiny novella by my February 28 deadline. Thanks to the wedding planners, I was able to easily visualize the wedding as I wrote it, and I hope readers will have the same experience as they read the story.

Beginning on August 22 and leading up to the release of the novella this past Monday, we did the Big Reveal, showing readers what choices won the voting. If you’d like to picture the wedding as you read, visit my blog and scroll down to the September 5 entry where the entire wedding is featured in one post.

So many readers and friends turned out to help plan the wedding. On Sam and Nick’s behalf, I thank you all for making what could’ve been a daunting task so fun and exciting. I hope you all enjoy Fatal Destiny!

Watch for Sam and Nick’s next adventure, Fatal Flaw, coming February 6, 2012.

Here’s an excerpt from Fatal Destiny, which is FREE at Carina Press and wherever e-books are sold.

Sam stood outside their place, taking a moment to appreciate the ramp Nick had had installed as a surprise for her so they could have her dad over. When she’d first seen the wreckage of their front stairs, she’d mistakenly thought her newly freed ex-husband had planted another bomb. The sight had given her a few rough moments before Nick arrived and set her straight. That he’d opened their home to her paralyzed father meant the world to her. There was no denying that her fiancé was one of a kind.

Anxious to see him, Sam hustled up the ramp and used her key in the door. Inside she was greeted by the smell of something mouthwatering and candlelight flickering in the dining room. He emerged from the kitchen wiping his hands on a towel with his BlackBerry tucked into his shoulder.

“You’re sure you’re okay with staying with Sam’s sister Angela and her family Saturday night?” He paused to listen. “Right, Jack’s parents. You met them at the dinner at Sam’s dad’s house. They’ll drive you home on Sunday.” Nick laughed and winked at Sam. “I’ll be there at noon on Friday. See you then, buddy. Okay. Bye.”

“How’s Scotty?” Sam asked.

“All kinds of excited about me signing him out of school on Friday.” Nick had met the twelve-year-old at a state home for children in Richmond, and the two had formed a fast friendship based initially on their shared love of the Boston Red Sox. The boy had spent a recent weekend with Sam and Nick, and hadn’t seemed to mind following Nick around on the campaign trail. Sam suspected there was nowhere the boy wouldn’t go if it meant he got to spend more time with Nick, something she could certainly understand.

“Did you remember to order his tux?” she asked.

“All taken care of.”

“Of course it is. Do you ever screw anything up? Forget something? Ever act like a normal person who occasionally drops one of the seventy-five thousand balls he has in the air at one time?”

Smiling, he said, “Once in a while.”

“Will you let me know the next time it happens? I’d really like to savor the moment.”

“You got it.” He planted a kiss on her forehead and took her coat, hanging it as he always did in the front closet. Sam would’ve tossed it over the sofa. Why hang it up when she’d just need it again in the morning?

“How was the fitting?” he asked.

“It was great, and the best part? It was the last one.”

He chuckled. “How’s it looking?”

Sam made a face and shrugged. “Eh. You know. A dress is a dress.”

“Are you trying to lower my expectations?”

“I’d really hate for you to be disappointed.”

With his fingers on her chin he tilted her face to meet his intense gaze. “You could wear a burlap sack, and I wouldn’t be disappointed—as long as you’re in it, and as long as I get to take it off you afterward.” He punctuated the statement with a sweet kiss.

Whenever he looked at her in that particular way, she positively melted. “Now you tell me! You couldn’t have saved me all those damned fittings by telling me that six weeks ago!”

That smile of his… Whoa, so potent.

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Posted in Authors, Books | 8 Comments »

Into the Dark Mind

AnneMarie_Becker | September 8th, 2011

Only Fear cover image

It’s been a long road to publication, but it’s been an interesting one.  Releasing my debut novel, ONLY FEAR, has me reflecting on how I got here.  In particular, how did I come to write about chilling villains and the people who take them down, and why do I keep doing it?

I’m an optimistic person by nature.  But I also come from a long line of worriers.  My fascination with the dark side has always danced with what some might say is a “Pollyanna” attitude.  It’s walking this line that led me to study psychology and biology side-by-side as an undergraduate, and to pursue a counseling degree after.  I wanted to know what made people tick.  In particular, how do dark thoughts overwhelm people to the degree that they choose to behave in socially unacceptable ways?

So, of course, when a show on something called The Vidocq Society came on cable, I was glued to the set.  I’d never heard of this group of 82 men and women who come together in Philadelphia once a month to discuss unsolved cases.  The idea fascinated me.  Who were these men and women who gave of their free time and special talents to help find justice for people who had probably lost hope?

Therein lay the kernel of an idea… my Society for the Study of the Aberrant Mind grew from that seed.  SSAM (for short) is a private organization that is the link between the books in my Mindhunters series.  At SSAM, I’m free to bring together any talent I choose to hunt monsters.  In ONLY FEAR, I bring an ex-Secret Service agent who has become a personal security expert for SSAM into the life of the threatened heroine, a psychiatrist.

Here is the premise of ONLY FEAR:

After a violent incident with a patient leaves scars on both her mind and body, psychiatrist Dr. Maggie Levine craves isolation. A radio talk show host seems to be the perfect profession, a job where she can help people from a distance while staying safe. When a strange caller begins stalking her on the air and murdering people to get her attention, Maggie realizes she can no longer close herself off from the outside world.

A personal security expert, former Secret Service Agent Ethan Townsend is no stranger to tracking down the most violent monsters of society and bringing them to justice. Still, it will take all of Ethan’s skills to protect his new assignment, the irresistible Maggie, from a man intent on teaching her the ultimate lesson in fear…

I continue to peek into the dark side of human life on a daily basis, especially through the SSAM team, and I think it will always fascinate me.  Is it morbid curiosity or self-preservation?  Probably a bit of both.

I’m wondering, as a reader, what career specialties would you like to see put to use on the SSAM team?

PhotobucketAnne Marie has always been fascinated by people—inside and out. She writes to reclaim her sanity.  Anne Marie’s manuscripts have won several awards, including the 2009 Golden Heart® for Best Romantic Suspense, which was won by “Only Fear.”

You can connect with Anne Marie at:

Website:           www.AnneMarieBecker.com

Facebook:       Anne Marie Becker, Author

Twitter:           @annemariebecker

Blogs:              Not Your Usual Suspects, The Ruby-Slippered Sisterhood

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Posted in Carina Press | 23 Comments »

A Man And His Books

Betsy_Horvath | September 8th, 2011

Is there anything sexier than a sexy man reading a book? I THINK NOT! And I don’t appear to be alone because there’s a whole website devoted to pictures of Hot Guys Reading Books.

FBI Special Agent Lucas Vasco, the hero of my romantic suspense novel, Hold Me, is as addicted to books as I am – and that’s saying something. His bedroom is a massive lava flow of books. Here’s Katie’s (the heroine’s) first impression when she enters the room:

Not only were there bookcases full of books, there were piles and piles and piles of books in every position, covering every surface, seemingly on every topic. She wandered farther into the room, intrigued and, in a way, enchanted. There were books on the floor, books on the dressers, books on the nightstands, and an impressive stack of volumes teetering next to the bed. It was just so completely unexpected that if the space hadn’t been so obviously occupied she would have thought she’d made a mistake.

A couple of weeks ago, Luc and I got together so I could interview him for my blog. And when two bibliophiles get together the conversation is bound to turn to books. Here’s that part of our discussion.

“So, Luc,” I flipped a few pages in my stenopad to get to the right notes, then looked up at him. “You like books.”

“Yes, Betsy. I like books.” Luc settled into his chair, fingers laced on his flat stomach. He balanced the heel of one worn running shoe on the opposite knee. I saw no evidence of socks.

I pulled my focus back to my notes. “I’ve been in your bedroom–”

His dark eyebrows flew up. “You have?”

“Um, yeah.” I fidgeted a little. “I had to go in there. I was writing.”

“Uh huh.” He looked unconvinced.

“Anyway,” I shuffled papers. “What books do you have up there?”

Luc shrugged. “All kinds. If I like something, I buy it. I just got an eReader, so now I’m really dangerous.”

“Tell me about it,” I muttered. “Okay, give me some examples.”

“Examples?”

“Well, I know you were reading The Illiad during the time period covered in Hold Me.”

“Oh, yeah.” He settled further back in his chair, a dreamy look in his beautiful dark eyes. “Katie noticed I was reading it and brought it down to me. She wasn’t wearing any–”

“Luc!”

“Sorry.” He looked at me directly and his eyes twinkled. “Yeah, I was reading The Illiad. I read all kind of things.”

“Maybe tell me what you like best.”

“It depends on the day.” He frowned. “Graphic novels. Comics. I like some of the classics, but others put me to sleep. Shakespeare’s great if you can figure out what he’s saying. I love Stephen King.”

“Ew. I don’t like to read Stephen King. He scares me.”

“Well, you don’t have to read him, hun. This is me, not you.”

“Hello! I WRITE you.”

“Good point. Anyway, I like sci-fi, mystery, and thrillers, of course.”

Now we were getting somewhere. “Which authors?”

“Oh, God. There are so many. For sci-fi, Silverberg and Heinlien. Theodore Sturgeon. For mystery, uh, Robert B. Parker. Shirley Wells. Julie Moffett makes me laugh. I like early James Patterson. J.D. Robb–”

“Wait!” I flapped my hand in front of his face. “You like J.D. Robb?”

“Sure. Great futuristic police procedurals.”

“You know that’s Nora Roberts, right?”

Luc shrugged. “I read Nora Roberts.”

I stared at him. “You’re kidding.”

“Why?” He scowled at me. “I read a lot of romance. You know what I do for a living. I see a lot of bad stuff. Romance reminds me there are good things in this world. People really do love each other. Plus, there’s sex. So, yeah. I read romance.”

“Oh.” My voice sounded a little faint even to my own ears. “Who?”

“Well, Nora Roberts, of course. Jenny Crusie. Love Nalini Singh. Maureen Miller. Adrienne Giordano. Loretta Chase is great.”

I opened my mouth, then closed it, then opened it again.

“That’s why I got an eReader,” Luc continued. “Carina Press is putting out a lot of great books in all different genres, so I thought I’d go crazy. Did you know they’re having a Romantic Suspense week this week?”

“Yeah,” I said. “We’re kind of…part of it.”

“We are?” He smiled fully and deep crevices appeared around his mouth. “Cool.”

I couldn’t go on. I don’t know if it was his smile, or his beautiful dark eyes, or the fact that Lucas Vasco, super tough FBI Special Agent liked to read romance novels. I felt myself melting into a pool of unprofessional goo at his feet.

Maybe it was just the fact that he was talking about…books. Be still my heart.

A sexy guy reading a book only makes the sexy guy sexier, in my humble opinion. What about you? What kinds of books does your idea of a sexy man read? Thrillers? Romance? Everything and anything? Come on, spill! Inquiring minds want to know.

Hold Me
Available now from Carina Press, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books On Board,
and anywhere fine ebooks are sold.

Katie McCabe’s life is going nowhere fast when FBI Special Agent Lucas Vasco jumps into her car at an intersection. Luc, his undercover guise blown, is on the run from the Mafia and expects to be killed at any moment. What he doesn’t plan on is finding himself attracted to the firecracker beside him. He feels compelled to protect her when her life is threatened, and insists she stay with him for her own safety.

After learning she has become the target of a psychotic hit man, Katie is whisked off to Luc’s house to hide. Once there, she’s shocked to discover that she and Luc have an unexpected connection—a connection Luc already knew existed, but withheld. Will their intense attraction reach flashpoint despite their misunderstandings and the pain of the past?

************

Betsy Horvath was raised on MGM musicals, old skool Harlequins, and Nancy Drew, so it should not have come as a shock that one day she’d be writing romance novels. The biggest surprise was that it took her so long to actually buckle down and do it.  Hold Me is her debut romantic suspense novel. You can usually find Betsy wasting time on her website,  Facebook, Google+, or Twitter.

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Posted in Authors, Carina Press | 25 Comments »

To Be, or Not To Be. . . A Virgin

Dee_Adams | September 7th, 2011

Hi everyone! Welcome to my virgin blog!
Crazy, right? It seems as though it took me almost as long to lose my blog virginity as it did to lose the real thing. TMI? Sorry. My point is this… I remember reading something a long time ago about someone not wanting to read stories about virgins because there were no virgins left in the world. C’mon… Really? Everyone has to lose it sometime and it doesn’t always have to be before the 20th year. Or 25th year for that matter. Or even later. The point is that women (and men) tend to feel pressured into losing it at one point or another.

Consider this… What if someone wanted to lose their virginity but was too afraid of exposing a secret? What if someone never imagined they’d ever lose their virginity so when the opportunity presented itself they jumped at it? (Yes, there is a pun intended there… But that doesn’t make it any less true.)

When I graduated high school, I seriously felt like the only virgin in my town. I know it wasn’t true, but everyone seemed to have more experience than me. And when I got to college…! Ha! I discovered – now living in the big city – that I was actually the last virgin (of my age) in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. Holy smokes. I had to change that. Unfortunately, I did. Rather quickly.

All this leads to my character, Tracey Bradshaw, and the secret she’s hiding in Dangerous Race. Tracey is certain she’ll never loss her virginity because she can’t let anyone see the terrifying scar on her leg. But when the opportunity presents itself by way of a quick seduction and a dress that covers the scar, Tracey can’t wait to lose something she never thought she would. Does she regret it? You betcha. She never intends to fall in love with the man who seduces her and she knows no one else can ever take his place.

So what about you? If you had it to do over… would you lose your virginity the same way? Would you wait for the right person or a better time? (Sure, hindsight is a bitch, but maybe we can teach our kids the value of our mistakes.)

And that ends my virgin blog. I think I need a cigarette. (Just kidding. I don’t smoke. )

Dee J. Adams moved from El Paso, Texas to California to study acting. She worked in television and commercials for twenty years before discovering her first love was writing. She’s married to the love of her life and has one beautiful teenage daughter and two large mutts. You can follow her on FaceBook and Twitter.

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Posted in Authors, Books, Carina Press | 40 Comments »

Psychic Tendencies

Olivia Brynn | September 6th, 2011

Hello! I’m Alanna Coca, romance author–I also write erotic romance as Olivia Brynn. Today I’m hacking Olivia’s Carina Press blog account so I can talk to you about my new release. PREVIEW is a romantic suspense with a psychic twist.

There’s a reason why I wrote this book.

I’ve always wanted to be psychic. I wanted to see ghosts and read minds.  I used to think I wanted to see the future too. But then I realized how hard it would be to live like that. If I knew I was going to spill grape juice on my white pants, would I avoid grape juice? Or white pants? If I knew I’d have a child who would end up murdered at a young age, would I still have the child? And what about knowing when and how I’ll meet my maker?

Yeah, seeing the future just isn’t for me.

When I was younger, I had a bit of a psychic connection to my mother. She always knew when I was getting into trouble. Seriously. I’m one of seven children, and I’m the only one who didn’t get away with anything. Of course I was the most rambunctious,  so that’s probably part of it. Okay, I’m rambling.

While I can’t see dead people, what I do have–and I’m sure many of you can say the same thing–are some really whacked-out dreams, and then I’ve dreamed a few things that ended up occurring days later. For example, I once woke up in a cold sweat after dreaming about a former boss of mine falling off the roof of a building and breaking his leg. I laughed it off, but three days later, as he was roofing, sure enough…the poor guy fell two stories and broke his femur. Then I felt guilty for not warning him. I’ve dreamed about friends becoming pregnant days before they make the announcement, and back in 2009 I dreamed about my neighbor being crushed by a refrigerator that he tried to move up a flight of stairs. This time I mentioned it to him, with an embarrassed laugh. He lost some color, and told me that he had just made plans with some friends to drag an old fridge out of his basement.

My dream convinced him to hire professionals. Now I can’t say that these were premonitions, but they sure made me wonder.

So that’s what inspired this book. Ryann Phillips, the heroine in my book PREVIEW, can see the future. Little snippets of events, involving complete strangers. Usually these dreams aren’t anything to worry about, but one night Ryann dreams about a murder, and she sets off to find the victim. And the murderer.

Romantic suspense is my favorite genre. Both to read and to write. I love twisty plots, and endings that make me want to flip back to the beginning and start all over, just to see what clues I missed.

Want more info? I’ve gathered everything about PREVIEW onto a page on my site. Come on over, read an excerpt, and watch the trailer.

What about you? Have any premonitions that came true? I’d love to hear about them. I’m nosy like that. Tell me your best dream, whether it was prophetic or not, and I’ll pick one dreamer from the comments to win a copy of PREVIEW.

Thanks for stopping by!

~Alanna

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Posted in Authors, Books, Contest/Giveaway | 15 Comments »

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