Blog Archives
Cover Reveal for Sharon Wray’s ONE DARK WISH
Today is a celebration day because it’s cover reveal day for ONE DARK WISH!
“TENDER ROMANCE… EXCITING ADVENTURE!”—PUBLISHER’S WEEKLY
ONE DARK WISH, the second book in my Deadly Force romantic suspense series, follows the struggles of a group of ex-Green Berets determined to win back their honor and protect the women they love.
This is the second cover for ONE DARK WISH, and there may have been other renditions along the way. But I think this cover beautifully represents Nate and Sarah’s love story–a love story tinged with longing, regret, and ultimately hope.
I have to give huge credit to Dawn Adams, the Sourcebooks Art Director, for going above and beyond with this cover! It’s not easy coming up with artwork for a forbidden romance that also has a National Treasure-like plot.
“One Dark Wish … everything I love in romantic suspense…Twisty plots, fantastic characters, and pitch-perfect pacing. Fabulous!”—Allison Brennan, New York Times bestselling author
I also want to send out a huge thank you to Allison Brennan and Cherry Adair for reading this book and giving me such wonderful blurbs. And another huge thank you to Brenda Novak for including EVERY DEEP DESIRE, the first book in the series, in her September subscription box the same month ONE DARK WISH comes out. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!
Her life must be forfeit for his to be redeemed
Historian Sarah Munro is not used to being shot at, but that’s just what happens while she’s poking around cemeteries on Georgia’s Isle of Grace, searching for the key to a centuries-old cipher. Her quest has unwittingly drawn the attention of two deadly enemies intent on destroying each other—and anyone who gets in their way.
Ex–Green Beret Major Nate Walker is on a mission of his own: to restore the honor of his men. To do that, he is required to stop Sarah—or one of his own men will die. Caught in the middle of a deadly rivalry, Nate can’t afford to trust the woman standing in his way. But his heart says he can’t afford not to…
Thank you all for celebrating with me today! I hope you love ONE DARK WISH as much as I loved writing it.
One final thing–it’s available for preorder (print and e-book) at these various retailers. It’s also available in audio format (both CD and Audible). AMAZON | BARNES & NOBLE | BOOKS-A-MILLION | INDIEBOUND
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FINAL EXIT – The Explosive Conclusion to the EXIT Trilogy
It’s here! The last book in the EXIT Inc. trilogy, FINAL EXIT!
FINAL EXIT is the story of washed-up FBI agent, Kade Quinn, trying to redeem himself and rehabilitate his career after a personal tragedy sent him on a downward spiral into addiction. Rounding up all of the Enforcers who used to work for EXIT, so they can be re-trained and sent back out into society without the controls and oversight of their former agency, seems like “the right thing” to do. And Kade is proud to be a part of this mission. Until he meets Enforcer Bailey Stark. Her resistance to being taken, and her repeated assertions that the government is killing Enforcers instead of retraining them, is met with denial and then shock as Kade begins to suspect she might be right.
While Kade and Bailey work together to bring down the evil forces behind EXIT Inc. once and for all, they fall in love along the way. Of course! This is, after all, a romance. It’s full of action, like all of my stories. But I’m particularly pleased with the romantic arc of these two very damaged people. And if you’re a fan of the enemies to lovers trope, I really think you’re going to enjoy this one.
As with all of the EXIT books, there’s a host of sexy alpha-male secondary characters from earlier books, including the Buchanans from my Deadly Games series. The below flowchart is something I put together to show the connections between the characters in the DG series. (Yes, I’m a nerd, who loves flowcharts and spreadsheets.) You might have to click on the chart to enlarge it and see it better.
Did I mention that I love flowcharts? Here’s another one, showing an overview of the EXIT series. (Click on the chart to enlarge it and see it better.)
So how are these series linked? The picture below is a BIG hint. Devlin (Devil) Buchanan is one of the brother’s from the Deadly Games series. Unbeknownst to his family, he’s also an Enforcer for EXIT Inc. In TAKE THE KEY AND LOCK HER UP, Devlin’s two world’s collide and he fights to protect both the woman he’s starting to love and his family from the employer he’s trusted his entire adult life. The aftermath of that struggle is the creation of the Equalizers, a group of former EXIT Enforcers and others who join together to fight against what EXIT has become. That struggle continues throughout the EXIT series, beginning with EXIT Strategy and ending in an explosive climax in FINAL EXIT.
Lena Diaz Website Books Page with Buy Links
It was so much fun bringing in the Buchanan’s and even Logan Richards (a friend of the Buchanan’s from HE KILLS ME, HE KILLS ME NOT) as secondary, but extremely important, characters throughout the EXIT series.
Although the four-book Deadly Games series and the three book spin-off EXIT series are incredibly fun to read in order, each story contains a unique and fulfilling love story and can be enjoyed as a stand-alone book. You’ll understand what’s going on even without reading the earlier stories.
I hope you’ll give FINAL EXIT a try. And let me know what you think! Shoot me an email through my website. And please join my newsletter list if you’d like to receive notifications of future releases or giveaways. Sometimes I do giveaways ONLY to my subscribers, like last week when I gave away ten books to randomly drawn names from my newsletter list.
A Series Finale, Saying Goodbye to Mystic Glades
HOSTAGE NEGOTIATION – Pre-order now for August 23, 2016 (paperback) or September 1, 2016 (eBook).
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Ibooks | Kobo
It’s with mixed feelings that I announce the upcoming end of the MARSHLAND JUSTICE mini-series. On August 23rd, the fourth and final book, HOSTAGE NEGOTIATION, makes its way into the world. While I’m extremely excited for readers to experience this incredibly emotional story, I’m sad to see my time in the town of Mystic Glades come to an end. It’s been a blast, one of the quirkiest, most unique series that I’ve written. And readers have been equally enthusiastic. The first book, MISSING IN THE GLADES, won the Daphne du Maurier Award of Excellence in mystery and suspense. The second book, ARRESTING DEVELOPMENTS, was a finalist in the Bookseller’s Best Award. I’m crossing my fingers that the last two books, DEEP COVER DETECTIVE and HOSTAGE NEGOTIATION, will also garner some award recognition.
Here’s a full description of the story in HOSTAGE NEGOTIATION…
Many women went missing outside Mystic Glades. She escaped.
When he took the job, Zack Scott heard about the horrors waiting in the swamp. So when Kaylee Brighton dashed into the road like the devil was on her tail, the new police chief gave her a safe place to recover. Imprisoned for months, Kaylee could lead Zack to her captor. Though Zack swore to protect her, only Kaylee knew the darkness that awaited them if she returned. She couldn’t begin to understand what drove Zack, but she knew the importance of having him by her side. Because it wasn’t enough for Kaylee to have escaped. Now it was time to take back her life.
I hope you’ll give the MARSHLAND JUSTICE mini-series a try, including this last installment, HOSTAGE NEGOTIATION. You can see the whole series, and all of my books, highlighted on the BOOKS page of my website.
Pintip Dunn Enters the Thriller Market!
The Darkest Lie, by Pintip Dunn
Excerpt
It’s time to view the body. Family first.
Well, technically, me first. There was always only three of us in the nuclear unit, and Dad’s been locked in the den for the past seventy-two hours. I’ve only seen him once, when he shuffled upstairs like a pajama-clad zombie and asked me if I’d eaten.
That was it: Did you eat?
Not: I prefer the cherry wood casket. Or: Let me make your grandma’s travel arrangements. Or even: I know this was Mom’s favorite dress, but isn’t the neckline a little…low?
Did I eat?
Yes, Dad. I had soup from the can and microwaved pizza rolls and a bowl of cereal. The food sloshes in my stomach now as I walk down the runner to the casket I picked out because of its mauve tint.
Calla lilies pile in urns around the viewing room, and the air-conditioning wars with the sweat along my hairline. My mom smiles at me from a portrait erected behind the casket. Her eyes are hesitant and a little wary, as if she knew, somehow, some way, she would wind up here. Lifeless. Pumped full of formaldehyde. About to be gawked at by a town full of gossips.
This was only going to end one of two ways—with Tabitha Brooks dead or in jail. I never thought I’d say this, but I’d give anything to see my mother behind bars.
I wade through the dense, chilly air and stop a few feet from the body. Behind me, my grandmother and aunt sit, a box of tissues between them, blowing their noses like it’s a sport.
“Look at our Cecilia,” Gram sniffs. “So brave. Not a single tear shed.”
If she only knew. I’m not brave. Fifteen minutes ago, I was retching into the toilet bowl. Five minutes from now, when the doors open for the visitation, I’ll be long gone, leaving Gram to shake people’s hands and deal with the bit lips, the knowing eyebrows, that inevitable speaking-in-a-funeral-parlor whisper. I can hear the titters: “Is it true? Tabitha’s heart stopped while she was boffing the high school quarterback? Why, she must’ve been twenty years his senior!”
Twenty-three years, to be exact, and a high school English teacher to boot. But she didn’t actually die during sex. Instead, a few days after Tommy Farrow came forward with their affair, my mother took her own life.
What could be a clearer admission of guilt? She might as well have been caught in the act. The investigation was shut down before it even began.
I take a shuddering breath. Two more minutes. A hundred and twenty seconds and then I can leave. I steel my shoulders and walk the final steps to my mother’s body.
Oh god. It’s even worse than I thought.
The room whirls around me, and nausea sprints up my throat. My hands shoot out to grab the casket, stopping short of actually touching the corpse.
This . . . this thing . . . can’t be my mother. She never smiled like that, all serene and peaceful-like. She never wore this much makeup; her red hair was never chopped so closely to her head. My mother was chaos and passion, devastation and joy. Dad used to say you could reach deep into her eyes and pull out a song.
Well, her eyes are closed now, and I’m not sure there’ll be any music in my life, ever again.
ABOUT THE DARKEST LIE
“The mother I knew would never do those things.
But maybe I never knew her after all.”
Clothes, jokes, coded messages…Cecilia Brooks and her mom shared everything. At least, CeCe thought they did. Six months ago, her mom killed herself after accusations of having sex with a student, and CeCe’s been the subject of whispers and taunts ever since. Now, at the start of her high school senior year, between dealing with her grieving, distracted father, and the social nightmare that has become her life, CeCe just wants to fly under the radar. Instead, she’s volunteering at the school’s crisis hotline—the same place her mother worked.
As she counsels troubled strangers, CeCe’s lingering suspicions about her mom’s death surface. With the help of Sam, a new student and newspaper intern, she starts to piece together fragmented clues that point to a twisted secret at the heart of her community. Soon, finding the truth isn’t just a matter of restoring her mother’s reputation, it’s about saving lives—including CeCe’s own…
THE DARKEST LIE: Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble
ABOUT PINTIP DUNN:
Pintip Dunn graduated from Harvard University, magna cum laude, with an A.B. in English Literature and Language. She received her J.D. at Yale Law School, where she was an editor of the YALE LAW JOURNAL. She also published an article in the YALE LAW JOURNAL, entitled, “How Judges Overrule: Speech Act Theory and the Doctrine of Stare Decisis,”
Pintip is represented by literary agent Beth Miller of Writers House. She is a 2012 RWA Golden Heart® finalist and a 2014 double-finalist. She is a member of Romance Writers of America, Washington Romance Writers, YARWA, and The Golden Network.
She lives with her husband and children in Maryland. You can learn more about Pintip and her books at www.pintipdunn.com.
Author Links: Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Goodreads
2 GIVEAWAYS!
Prize pack including the following 5 books!
Forget Tomorrow by Pintip Dunn
Six Months Later by Natalie Richards
Find Me by Romily Bernard
From Where I Watch You by Shannon Grogan
Lies I Told by Michelle Zink
Rafflecopter for Prize Pack
Goodreads Giveaway for THE DARKEST LIE
The FBI’s Most Wanted (Profilers, That Is)
Dr. Caity Cassidy and Special Agent Atticus Spenser are topping the most wanted profilers list at the Federal Bureau of Investigation. And I’m thrilled to report they’ve just been spotted in Dallas!
In my latest release, NOTORIOUS, our intrepid heroes rush to Texas to aid a fellow agent-turned-murder-suspect.
I’m so excited about this third installment in my Cassidy & Spenser Thrillers. There are lots of revelations in this one, including some deep secrets from Spense’s past. And I know many of you having been waiting patiently (or impatiently) for Spenser & Cassidy to make some tough decisions about their off-duty relationship. I think you’ll be pleased with how things unfold in NOTORIOUS. But no spoilers here. I love that my editor said she never saw the twists coming. I hope you’ll be caught by surprise, too!
I’ll paste the blurb for Notorious below, but first I want to THANK YOU! Because of you, my fabulous readers, Caity and Spense have had a banner year.
On December 10, FALLEN, soared to the top of the bestseller lists across all major online retailers becoming the number one bestseller in Nook mysteries. That same day, FALLEN hit the top ten mysteries on Amazon taking the number one best seller spot in psychological fiction and number two in romantic suspense! FALLEN also topped the charts at iBooks and Kobo. That was quite a day for me, and I thank you from the bottom of my heart.
Now here’s the scoop on NOTORIOUS. I hope you read and enjoy.
The woman everyone loves to hate is dead.
Dallas socialite Cynthia Langhorne is infamous for her beauty, her philanthropy, and her home wrecking–until she’s found shot through the heart and posed nude at a fundraising ball. The case is high profile, and there’s a bigger problem: Cindy is the wife of a decorated FBI special agent–the prime suspect in her murder.
When the Bureau sends FBI profiler Atticus Spenser and forensic psychiatrist Dr. Caitlin Cassidy to Texas on behalf of Dutch Langhorne, the special agent-turned-suspect, they’re suspicious of the very man whose interests they’re supposed to protect. But with a psycho hitman on their heels and a trail of evidence leading up the food chain, it quickly becomes clear this is no ordinary case. The truth points to someone–or something–larger than Spenser and Cassidy ever thought possible. Solving this case is no longer a matter of clearing Dutch’s name–it’s a matter of national security.
Published by William Morrow
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You can order NOTORIOUS on AMAZON BARNES&NOBLE iBOOKS and wherever e-books are sold. Print version available 4/5/2016.
Meet the Newest, Sexy Alpha Male in the EXIT Inc. Series!
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | iBooks | Kobo | HarperCollins
It’s release day! My thirteenth published novel, NO EXIT, continues the sexy, action-packed EXIT Inc. series and introduces Jace Atwell and his tough, super-smart heroine, Melissa Cardenas.
Here’s what RT Book Reviews says about No EXIT: “The battle continues between EXIT, Inc. and their former enforcers, keeping up the intensity level and intrigue from previous installments. Finding love amongst the chaos is the real miracle.”
Here’s a short excerpt.
We need to think of an excuse, a cover story. What are we supposed to tell them?” Melissa asked.
A convincing reason for being here.” He snapped a large pink bloom off a nearby plant.
No kidding. Like what? I can’t think of anything.” She put her hands on her hips, exasperated that she was finally on board about how much danger they were in and now he was … gardening? “Jace, what are we going to do?”
He shoved the flower into her hair over her right ear. “This. We’re going to do this.” He yanked her to him and covered her mouth with his.
And just like that, the world around them faded away, leaving only the two of them. Their first kiss had been a surprise, all about discovery, awakening feelings inside her that she hadn’t felt in a long time, if ever. But this … this was consuming, ravenous, wild. This kiss seared her from the inside out, breaking her down, molding her, changing her and reforging her into someone new, someone different, someone who would never, ever be the same again.
And she didn’t want to be.
I hope you’ll give NO EXIT a try! It’s the second book in the series. The first book is also available and is called EXIT STRATEGY.
Here are some early reviews from Goodreads for NO EXIT:
This is my first book by Diaz and wow I really enjoyed every minute of it! It was fast paced and filled with non stop action that I honestly didn’t want to end.
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It’s been a while since I have read a good romantic suspense with characters that I really enjoyed and this one just did it for me. I never got bored and I honestly didn’t want to put this down. I had no issues on keeping track with who was who and what side they were on.
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If you’re looking for a good suspense to get your heart rate going I definitely suggest reading this book! ~ Danielle, Goodreads
We all know that the second installment to series are rarely better than the first, but this one blows the first out of the water…and I LOVED the first one. I have to give the author credit. This is the second book of hers that I’ve read that there is non-stop action on every page. Yes, every page. So if you’re a skimmer, don’t do it with this one. You’ll miss something important, guaranteed.
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We as readers are thrown a twist in the first Chapter. Yep, I said it. Don’t worry though. It won’t be the first twist, turn, and jaw dropping moment in this.
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I highly recommend this to any suspense, action, military reader and it CAN be read as a stand alone….but why would you? ~ Christina, Goodreads
To learn about all of my books, visit my website.
12 Authors, $100, Free Books!
How would you like to win a $100 gift card from Amazon or Barnes and Noble? Plus, have a chance to win a book from one of your favorite authors? THIS IS YOUR CHANCE!
There may be a chill in the air, but your favorite romance authors can take that away by Warming Up Your Winter–from the inside out! I’ve teamed up with some fantastic writers to give you the chance to win a $100 gift card to Amazon or Barnes and Noble…and to introduce you to books you’re going to love!
Participating authors include:
Julia London
Maureen Child
Debra Webb
Lena Diaz (Hey, that’s me!)
Sharon Hamilton
Jill Sanders
Dana Marton
Kendra Elliot
Melinda Leigh
Cristin Harber
B. J. Daniels
Jean Brashear
Enter right away at www.PrizesforReaders.com.
And GOOD LUCK!
Author Lena Diaz Just Had Her Baby!
Amazon | Barnes & Noble
And the baby’s name is… ARRESTING DEVELOPMENTS! Lena’s 12th published romantic suspense novel is out in paperback now. The ebook version releases on January 1st. This is the second of four books in the Marshland Justice series, featuring a quirky, lawless, fictional town called Mystic Glades, hidden deep in the Everglades off Alligator Alley.
Here’s what RT Book Reviews said about this book: “Diaz is on a streak with her latest. With a host of suspects and hiding places, Arresting Developments is packed with action, suspense and mystery–not to mention a charming hero.”
And here’s a full description of the story…
A mysterious beauty had nursed him back to health–and attracted the attention of some very bad men…
Somewhere over the Everglades, the airplane’s engine failed and Dex Lassiter plummeted into the swamp’s murky depths. Amber Callahan didn’t expect to find any survivors in the wreckage, but Dex was about as tough as they came. And too smart not to dig into why a woman like her had run away to settle in remote Mystic Glades. Or why a killer circled their every move. As floodwaters rose, deputizing Dex was just what this lawless small town needed. Because escape wasn’t possible. And the only thing Dex did better than starting things was defending them.
I hope you’ll give ARRESTING DEVELOPMENTS a try. If you do, please drop me a note and let me know what you think of it!
To learn about all of my books, visit my website.
Kiss and Thrill 