Monday, September 30, 2013

Lethal Pursuit Is Here!

At last, the final book of my Bagram Special Ops series is out! Lethal Pursuit might not be for the faint of heart, but it's gritty and intense and, in my opinion, the best of the series. Plus, it's on sale at Amazon right now for less than $3.00!

Blurb: Security Forces Lieutenant Maya Lopez is right at home in a war zone: she’s been fighting all her life. A hard-won commission in the air force has brought her to Afghanistan, and if she plays her cards right, she could end up with an FBI job. It won’t be easy, but that just makes her more determined.

Jackson Thatcher is a protector in all senses of the word. A pararescue jumper with Southern-boy charm, he easily captures Maya’s interest, but her trust is another story. He’s sexy, strong and caring, but she makes it clear she’s no damsel in distress. She’s never relied on any man, and she’s not about to start now.

When Maya and Jackson become pawns in a radical warlord’s deadly game, they find themselves on the run and must depend on each other if they want to make it out alive.


Buy Links:  

Excerpt:
The latch clanged into place and the men came back. This time they stopped directly in front of the Sec Def’s cell. Out of the corner of his eye, Jackson watched as the flashlight illuminated the body draped over the second man’s shoulders. Whoever he was, he was already dead. Blood covered his face, head and the light blue oxford shirt he wore. One of the Sec Def’s personal security detail.

The tall man whispered something, and the one carrying the dead man shuffled off down the corridor. Then the tall one, who had to be the leader, hunkered down so that his face was lit by the flashlight beam. Unable to stop himself, Jackson risked a glance at him. He had a full dark beard and a light complexion. His eyes were a strange yellow-hazel. Jackson forced his gaze back to the floor as the leader spoke, in English.

“Hello, Mr. Secretary. I am honored to have you as our guest.” His heavily accented voice was pitched low, but what really upped the creep-out factor was the maniacal gleam Jackson had seen in those hellish eyes.
When Doug didn’t answer, the leader let out a low chuckle, as though his prisoners’ silence delighted him. “We have important plans for you while you stay with us.”

White noise. It was all just white noise, Jackson reminded himself. He had to tune it out and focus on reinforcing his will to survive.

“Eventually we will expect you to tell us about coalition operations in the area and make a recorded statement denouncing the war for the world to see, but you would obviously be unwilling to do so at this point. Unless I am wrong?” Silence was his only answer, and Jackson swore he could hear the smile in the bastard’s voice when he continued.

“Then instead I believe I’ll start with a less worthy opponent. Mohammed,” he commanded and rose to his feet as the young one hurried down the row of cells into the darkness. Another screech of mental hinges, then the sounds of a scuffle, quickly ended. The metal latch clanged into place, and Mohammed returned with another prisoner draped over his shoulders. Jackson could hear the prisoner’s harsh breathing, a stifled, painful moan.

The leader said something, and Mohammed lowered the prisoner to the floor. A sense of foreboding swept through him. Despite himself, Jackson had to look. The man grabbed a handful of the prisoner’s hair and yanked, forcing the person’s head up. The beam of light illuminated a pair of frightened blue-green eyes before they squeezed shut against the sudden glare.

Jackson’s heart stopped beating.

Maya.

He jerked like he’d been electrocuted, barely managing to swallow back the cry of denial lodged in his throat. Staring into her pinched face, he felt like someone had stabbed him in the gut.

“Do you recognize your fellow guests?” the leader purred, swinging the beam of light at Doug, then at Jackson. He squinted but couldn’t make himself look away and when the light shone on her once again, she was staring right at him, her expression utterly haunted. Jackson squeezed his numb hands into fists of helpless rage.

Maya didn’t answer but her devastated expression said it all. She’d seen and recognized him. From the look in her eyes it was clear she understood that whatever hell they put her through now, she’d have to withstand it alone. And somehow he’d have to endure that knowledge while battling the crushing agony that there was nothing he could do to protect her from any of it.

Jackson held her gaze, trying to give her strength. Sweetheart, please hang on. Whatever they do to you, just hold on. F*ck, he wanted to throw up.

“No? Ah, well.” The leader sounded almost disappointed in her lack of reaction. “Now that you have seen your fellow guests, I think you and I should become better acquainted.” He jerked Maya’s hair, forcing her to her feet, which were still bound.

She shot a look of terror in Jackson’s direction that made his guts churn and it took everything he had not to call out in protest as they dragged her away. He thought he’d understood what fear felt like before? Not even close. But he did now.
 *end excerpt*

I hope you love this finale to the Bagram Special Ops series! Maya and Jackson's story is raw and emotional, and it only makes their happily-ever-after that much more satisfying.

Happy reading!
Kaylea Cross



Kaylea Cross writes edge-of-your-seat military romantic suspense. Her work has won many awards and has been nominated for both the Daphne du Maurier and the National Readers’ Choice Awards. A Registered Massage Therapist by trade, Kaylea is also an avid gardener, artist, Civil War buff, Special Ops aficionado, belly dance enthusiast and former nationally-carded softball pitcher. She lives in Vancouver, BC with her family. You can find Kaylea through her website, Twitter, Facebook, and her blog.

 

Thursday, September 26, 2013

Saving Captain Phillips

They had AK-47s. But he had his wits.

There is a new movie coming out on October 10th, Captain Phillips. Like Act of Valor, I can't wait for this film. It tells the true story of the Captain and his crew who were boarded by Somali pirates in 2009.

You can read more about this true story and see the movie trailer here:


movies.yahoo.com

My husband and I got a chance to see the real red capsule at the UDT/Navy SEAL Museum in Fort Pierce, Florida. If you look at the picture closely, you can still see the hole the three Navy SEAL snipers shot through to kill the pirates. They did this simultaneously, bobbing up and down in swells up to ten feet. One mishap could kill the Captain. They couldn't miss, and more importantly, they didn't.

As most of you who read this blog know, I write Navy SEAL Romance. My stories are made up, and mostly take place stateside, when the SEALs are home, when they get to be the normal "Joes" they most certainly are not. When they get to wrestle around in their Superman underwear with their kids. Or when they first find that one little lady that turns their big strong macho life on its ear and no specialized training in the world can save them from falling. And they fall hard.

These men are heroes in every sense of the word. They don't ask for much. They like to do what they do in secret. They are the ones who get it done. They don't need the tickertape parade and certainly don't want the accolades from any podium.

If you get a chance, pay homage to the history of the US Navy SEALs by visiting the museum at Fort Pierce. This museum was founded by former SEALs who felt there should be a place where the beginnings of the UDT/SEAL program was birthed during the Vietnam war. You'll be amazed at the stories of valor and bravery, men whose names we don't remember but should never forget. It will make you proud.


 
Sharon Hamilton
Life is one fool thing after another.
Love is two fool things after each other.

Sharon's new release, Book 3 in the SEAL Brotherhood series, SEAL Under Covers is available now.






Tuesday, September 24, 2013

A Santini Christmas Cover Reveal

Good Morning, everyone! I am happy to share the next SANTINI cover with you. Done by the talented Brandy Walker, this is the cover for Joey and Papa Santini! The book will release in digital late November/early December.


Monday, September 23, 2013

The Santinis Collection is a USA TODAY Bestseller!

HURRAH! When I priced the new Satinis Collection at a low intro price, the idea was that I would gain some new readers for the series and for Tease Me, the first Semper Fi book due out in a few days. I never expected it to explode the way it did. I definitely didn't expect it to become a USA Today Bestseller!!! 
It is my first and I am pretty proud of the fact that I did it in a book by myself. Thank you, readers for making it a bestseller!



Homecoming


Well, I'm about as wound up as a set of three year-old ADD twins running on a gallon of double shot espresso. That being said, focus can't be found and writing this post has been somewhat impossible.

Sometime very soon, and I can't say when until boots hit the tarmac, my son and his unit will be home from Afghanistan. Hugs go out to all the families and fellow mothers--and to the warriors who put their lives on the line to keep home and hearth safe. I am excited to say, this time, when the plane touches down, all the Marines that went are coming home together, alive and well.

Oorah! Well done Marines, well done.

D L Jackson

Update!!!! Now I can say.











Thursday, September 19, 2013

Guest Post: Denise Agnew!

Thanks so much to the For the Love of Military Romance for having me on the blog today to talk about my upcoming military romantic suspense novella Sudden Heat which releases September 25. Sudden Heat is the first story in my Love Under Fire Trilogy.

The Love Under Fire trilogy was a gamble. How could military romantic suspense be a gamble? Especially when it’s erotic romance? What if a trio of brothers, all in different branches of the military, came back to their old hometown and landed right into a firestorm of danger? What if that danger put them in the position of protecting three women they’re very attracted to? Even those questions wouldn’t seem terribly controversial.

Okay, let me step back a second. As a writer I create stories that call to me. I don’t plan series or novels based on how popular that type of story is at the time. My creativity doesn’t work that way, and I get so much more creative pleasure from writing books that I love rather than planning books to trend. When I realized I wanted the stories to be set in a mall during a madman’s rampage, I knew it could make some people edgy. I put the stories on the backburner to finish some other books, knowing that I’d come back to them later. I did and got them ready to submit to Ellora’s Cave. Within almost the same month, the Sandy Hook shootings occurred. Obviously I was horrified by the shootings, and I wondered if the stories I’d just written would find a home. After all, who wanted to read about people trapped in a mall with a shooter? Then I reminded myself that these stories are about much more than that. I’d created stories where the heroes and heroines would work together to survive, and their love would develop through what they’d learn about each other and themselves living through such a trauma. Luckily for me, Ellora’s Cave loved the idea, too!

Take a tiny taste of Sudden Heat.

Sudden Heat from Ellora's Cave!
Denise A. Agnew

Book one in the Love Under Fire series but can be read independently.

Where do you yearn to be in the face of danger? In the arms of a man bound to serve, to protect and to love…
Librarian Melanie Falconer knows too well the horrors of war. Military men, as far as she’s concerned, are off the marriage menu. As maid of honor at her best friend’s wedding, she makes a mall run and lands straight into the arms of seriously hot marine Matt Frasier, the best man. Matt has seen too much violence, and his heavy attraction to Melanie promises to soothe his soul and set his body on fire. Gunfire erupts, the game is on, and Melanie and Matt fight for their lives and the heat exploding between them.

* *
Juggling two large shopping bags, soon-to-be maid of honor Melanie Falconer stepped out of the lingerie shop and slammed into a hard body.
It was late Tuesday and the mall would close in less than an hour. She couldn’t afford one more delay in her busy life. Especially when the totally ripped body belonged to best man Matt Frasier. She registered Matt’s surprised face a half-second before momentum won and their bodies collided.
“Oof!” Her breath rushed out and her packages went flying in all directions.
Strong hands gripped her waist and prevented her from landing on her butt. She faced an intense stare that reminded her of sky fading into night. No, his eyes did more than look into her soul and bring forth her secrets. They caressed her, wrapped her in instant warmth that enveloped her body with breath-stealing attention. Every time the tall, muscular marine walked into a room and she was there, Melanie’s breath halted and her pulse skittered.
Ridiculously aware of him, she wanted to run from the crazy attraction that stole her self-control. And she needed all the self-control she could get.
This last week didn’t bode well for that.
Work at the library had ramped up with the introduction of a new computer system, her boss had come down with the flu and Thanksgiving week always gave Melanie that sinking feeling. When her best friends and bridesmaids Kathleen McSwain and Lena Williams had decided the wedding party should buy a group present for the groom Patrick and the bride Danielle, Melanie went into overdrive. What to get the couple who seemed to have everything? It was Melanie’s idea, initially, to have a large frame engraved as an additional present, and the others had been thrilled. Patrick and Danielle had established their own business in Constitution and they’d moved in together two years ago. With a well-appointed house, they didn’t need many things a couple would normally ask for on a gift registry. Melanie wanted to give her friend something special for her wedding. The biggest strategic problem had been figuring out how to get the entire wedding party to the engraver’s. The engraver had told her he wouldn’t have time to see them until about five fifteen today.
She’d agreed to the idea with relief. With everyone there at once there wasn’t much chance she’d have to spend any time alone with Matt Frasier.
Yeah. Right.
 “Hey Melanie.” Usually his eyes looked somewhat stoic but now they had softened by a degree. “Sorry. You all right?”
“I’m fine.”
They bent at the same time to grab her purchases. Heat filled her face as he gathered a red lacy demi cut push-up bra in his big hand. A thirty-four C-cup. His gaze lingered on the bra and she imagined his big hand caressing the bra while it was on her. Heat shot through her.
She snatched the bra from him and stuffed it back in the small bag. “Thanks.”
His assessing gaze said volumes. Straight-laced librarian Melanie Falconer wore screaming red underwear? Say it isn’t so.
“Are the other ladies in the shop too?” he asked as they stood.
“Heading that way.”
He gestured back toward the tuxedo shop. “Jake and Rick are still having last-minute measurements on the tuxedos. Rick was late getting here. He’s chronically late to everything. I decided to head over to the engraver’s.”
“We’re all late tonight. Kathleen and Lena got caught in traffic. We split up to get things done.”
As he handed her one of the bags, his fingers brushed against hers. A tiny shock went through her body and coiled in her stomach. A hot, undeniably sexual spark that refused to be extinguished.
His hands fascinated her—which was strange considering she’d never given a man’s hands much thought. They felt and looked so strong, so purposeful.
She almost winced, not because of pain but because Matt Frasier turned her on. His brand of masculinity seemed to have found her brand of femininity and called to all the primitive channels inside her. Oh yes. It wasn’t only his body that floated her boat. Since she’d met him at the party, he’d impressed her with what he’d said, his opinions and an inherent sense of the honorable.
And she wondered too much. She wondered how he’d make love, if the sensuality he seemed to have in spades would bring her to a mind-stealing orgasm. Orgasm. Yeah, well, she hadn’t experienced one of those in a while. Heat filled her face, her entire body. God, she needed to forget these raging hormones. Matt would leave town soon and that would be it. Fini. Done. And there was no way in hell she’d get involved with a marine who’d experienced what he’d no doubt experienced recently in Afghanistan. No way.

* *
Sudden Heat releases September 25! Stop by my website www.deniseagnew.com for all the details and be sure to join my Sudden Heat contest on my blog that day at www.deniseagnew.com/blog. There you’ll find all the details that day on how to enter. You could win an Amazon gift card.


Thanks again!

Sunday, September 15, 2013

Two Times as Hot has two times the soldiers!

**NEW RELEASE**
September 24th marks the release of TWO TIMES AS HOT, book 2 in my Oklahoma Nights series out through Kensington Brava. Like Tucker Jenkins, the hero from book 1, ONE NIGHT WITH A COWBOY,  Logan Hunt, the hero of book 2, also straddles the line by being both cowboy and soldier. But Logan and Tuck are very different. Where Tucker has embraced both his halves and is just as comfortable in cowboy boots as he is in combat boots, Logan really leans more toward his soldier side, in spite of his country upbringing.

Lifelong friends and neighbors, the two men are still definitely individuals. The differences between them were fun to explore and write, as were their reactions to each other at various times throughout the books. Logan thinks Tuck is crazy for hopping on the back of a bull. Tucker, and even Tuck's younger brother Tyler, call Logan out when he tries to use his commanding officer voice on them while they're home and 'civilians'. But different or not, when it comes time for Logan to make a choice between career and family, Tuck is there for him, offering a sounding board and sometimes a bit of tough love.

**SALE**
Here's some exciting news! To celebrate the release of book 2, Kensington has discounted book 1. Until Sept 24th, the eBook of One Night with a Cowboy can be found for $1.99 (a discount of 80% off list price) at quite a few retailers.
    One Night With a Cowboy by Cat Johnson   Two Times as Hot (Oklahoma Nights Series)

“Impressively fresh… [Johnson’s] dialogue lilts off the tongue . . . fans will be looking forward to the next in the series."  Publishers Weekly on TWO TIMES AS HOT


How about an excerpt from Two Times as Hot while you're waiting for release day?

Enjoy!
Cat Johnson


**EXCERPT**

Two Times as Hot (Oklahoma Nights Book 2) by Cat Johnson

Logan put his plan to figure out what was up with everyone into action the moment he left the Jenkins’ kitchen. Thinking like the military leader he was, he chose the target he judged would be the easiest to break—Tyler.
He waited until Tuck went to the garage to cut some two-by-fours to length. As the whine of the table saw filled the air, Logan turned to Tyler. “What was going on at the breakfast table this morning?”
Tyler’s brows rose. “Uh, we were eating breakfast?”
“I know that.” Sometimes Logan had to wonder if this young smart ass who joked about everything was really Tuck’s brother. They were such opposites. “What else? Why was everyone acting so strange and staring at me and Emma? And why is it so important to Tuck and Becca that I take Emma to the store with me?”
“Uh, I don’t know.” The way Tyler avoided eye contact with Logan now was in direct opposition to his casual shrug.
“Tyler. You know something. Spill it.” Logan employed the no-nonsense tone he used to reprimand his troops and his cadets.
“Oh, no.” Tyler shook his head. “I’m very happily a civilian so you can’t pull that army officer shit on me. You can frown at me all you want, Logan, but I can’t tell you.”
“You can’t tell me because you don’t know? Or you won’t tell me, which means you do know something?”
“Stop trying to trick me.” Tyler’s frown deepened. “That’s it. Discussion closed. I mean it, Logan. Drop it or I’m out of here. I love your father like he’s my own, but if you don’t ease up, you can finish this ramp your own damn self.”
Wow. Logan had never seen the smooth talking, easygoing Tyler so agitated. There was something going on, and judging by Tyler’s reaction to his questioning, it had to be bigger than just a bunch of interfering friends and relations sticking their noses where they didn’t belong.
Tyler whipped out one end of a tape measure. He shot Logan a glance over his shoulder. “Don’t you have a grab bar to install or something?”
Maybe Tyler wasn’t the easiest target to pick off after all. Logan cocked a brow at Tyler’s attitude. “Yeah, I do.”
And he would get to it right after he interrogated Tuck. Logan spun toward the garage and stalked his way to his next victim. By the time he reached Tuck, Logan found him frowning down at his cell phone. When Logan walked farther into the garage, Tuck shoved the cell into his pocket and turned back to the board on the workbench.
“What’s up?” Tuck asked the question without looking at Logan. Instead, he concentrated solely on the wood.
“You tell me.” Logan folded his arms across his chest.
“Just measuring.” Tuck shot Logan a glance over his shoulder and then went back to focusing on his work. “You know what they say. Measure twice, cut once.”
“Yes, so I’ve heard.” Logan drew in a breath and moved closer. “Now, put that pencil and tape measure down, turn around, and tell me why you and Tyler and Becca are throwing me and Emma together.”
One brow cocked high, Tuck asked, “Is that an order, sir?”