Casey Dawes's Blog, page 3
December 2, 2021
California Romance State of Mind
I’m of the generation for whom California was irresistible. Interspersed with the Beatles music I adored, I did sing along to “Surfin’ USA” and other Beach Boy hits. I wanted to be “going to San Francisco” with the rest of the hippies.
When I finally got the chance to go in the 1990s, I jumped at the chance. I moved to Santa Cruz, a town with its psyche still firmly implanted in the sixties. I loved the weather, the vibe, and the ocean. I was less enamored with the commute over Highway 17, the real estate prices, or El Nino.
A friend once said people in California drink wine like water, and there is some
truth to that. My husband and I got to experience quite a bit of it when we wrote two books on the regions wineries.
California was part of my life for over 14 years before the real estate prices and the recession finally caught up to me. I had already begun the California Coast Romance series when I left. In fact the first full-length novel in the series reflects many events in my life, including being laid off from a major technical firm.
Enjoy the pictures, and if you want to dip your toes into the water, claim your free copy of California Sunshine and join my mailing list for more photos, stories from my RV life, and alerts of new releases and promotions. Simply click here for your free book.
The post California Romance State of Mind appeared first on Casey Dawes.
November 15, 2021
Women’s Literary Fiction Promotion
Choose one or more of the 30 books listed below for free! Go to https://books.bookfunnel.com/womensliteraryfiction/ifbbnk3vgi to start reading.
These women’s fiction books run the gamut from true literary fiction to a 19th century English romance. It even includes a novella by a short-listed Booker Prize author!
And, of course, one of my titles is included. Crossroads: The Path Home is a novella from the Beck Family Saga series. It can definitely be read as a stand-alone.
Discover a new author today! Go to: https://books.bookfunnel.com/womensliteraryfiction/ifbbnk3vgi
Books in the promo:
A Friend in Need by Elizabeth M Hurst
A Rose in Ashes by James Michael Starr
Absolute Zero by Margaret Lashley
An Unfinished Story by E.D. Hackett
Becoming Ruthless by Rita H Row
Bell Hammers by Lancelot Schaubert
Beth by Simone Leigh
Chasing the Tigers by Norah Lewis
Crossroads: The Path Home by Casey Dawes
Freak Story: 1967-1969 by Jim Musgrave
Funny Valentina by Heather Healy
Girls Like Us by Alex Apostol
High Connections by J.M. Eckford
Lies a River Deep by Vera Jane Cook
Mail Order Persuasion by Farrah Lee
Mending Fences by Patricia Yager Delagrange
My Dark Decline by Diane Ezzard
Not Gray by Aurora Darklight
Remembering not to Breathe by Clare and Alex Morall
Sea Breeze Cottage by Amy Rafferty
Starting Over by Jessie Kelley
The Breach by Aryan Smith
The Derelict Life of Evangeline Dawson by Je Rowney
The Dreamer and the Debutante by Ava Devlin
The Girl from Moscow’s Edge by Nadya Frank
The Intersect by Brad Graber
The Power Ballads & Other Stories by Ivy Ngfow
The Sins of the Father by Poornima Maneo
The Vice by Jennifer R. Jensen
Three Faces in the Mirror by Veronica Mixon
The post Women’s Literary Fiction Promotion appeared first on Casey Dawes.
November 8, 2021
Kat Martin’s New Novel: The Last Goodnight
When Kade Logan said goodbye to his estranged wife eight years ago, he never thought it would be the last time he saw her alive. Now her car has been hauled out of a nearby lake and Kade is determined to track down the man who murdered her. Enter Eleanor Bowman, a talented private investigator who’s about to stir up a hornet’s nest on his Colorado ranch.
With old scandals still buzzing about his late wife’s many affairs and new violence erupting, Kade is faced with the discovery of another beautiful woman’s body. Are the two killings linked? Who is the man who seduced, then murdered both women? Ellie believes they are dangerously close to the truth.
From corporate Denver highrises to posh Vail mansions, Kade and Ellie sense the killer is closing in again and this time Ellie is the target. Kade must risk everything to save the woman he’s coming to love—before she becomes the next victim.
Buy NowAmazon Kindle">Amazon Kindle
Kobo | Google Play | iTunes
From KatI’ve always loved a good plot. People ask me how I come up with ideas for my novels, but much of the time, I really don’t know.
Sometimes the kernel of an idea grows out of a newspaper article or something I see on Facebook or just some old movie. In THE LAST GOODNIGHT, I knew I wanted to write a novel set on a cattle ranch. I love writing Westerns, both historical and modern day.
I was raised in a rodeo family. My grandmother was a wild west rodeo cowgirl back in 1916. My dad was a team roper, my uncle a bullfighter. I’ve spent a lot of time around horses and cattle and always feel at home in that setting.
Since I write romantic thrillers, I wanted to incorporate ranching into the plot.
THE LAST GOODNIGHT is a cold-case murder mystery, something I hadn’t really written before. In the novel, when Kade Logan said goodbye to his wife eight years earlier, he never thought it would be the last time he saw her alive. Then her car is found in a nearby lake and Kade is determined not to fail his dead wife again–this time he won’t rest until he finds her killer.
Eleanor Bowman, a private investigator, joins him in the search. Having been raised on a ranch in Wyoming, Ellie is able to fit in undercover on the ranch.
And of course the chemistry between the two is hot from day one.
The plot challenged me, and the Colorado ranch setting provided an intriguing background. I hope you’ll watch for THE LAST GOODNIGHT and that you enjoy it.
Next up for me is THE LAST MILE, the second Logan brother, Gage, a world renown explorer, the man Abigail Holland hires to find her grandfather’s missing treasure. It’s a high-action adventure I hope you will watch for.
Till next time, happy reading and all best, Kat
About Kat Martin
New York Times bestselling author Kat Martin, a graduate of the University of California at Santa Barbara, currently resides in Missoula, Montana with Western-author husband, L. J. Martin. More than seventeen million copies of Kat’s books are in print, and she has been published in twenty foreign countries. Fifteen of her recent novels have taken top-ten spots on the New York Times Bestseller List, and her novel, BEYOND REASON, was recently optioned for a feature film. Kat’s new novel, THE LAST GOODNIGHT, a romantic thriller, will be released in hardcover on October 26th and is the start of her new Blood Ties series.
WEBSITE
http://www.katmartin.com/
SOCIAL MEDIA
Twitter: https://twitter.com/katmartinauthor
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KatMartinAuthor
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/KatMartinAuthor
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/52293322-the-ultimate-betrayal
The post Kat Martin’s New Novel: The Last Goodnight appeared first on Casey Dawes.
October 26, 2021
Kat Martin’s New Novel: The Last Goodnight
[image error]When Kade Logan said goodbye to his estranged wife eight years ago, he never thought it would be the last time he saw her alive. Now her car has been hauled out of a nearby lake and Kade is determined to track down the man who murdered her. Enter Eleanor Bowman, a talented private investigator who’s about to stir up a hornet’s nest on his Colorado ranch.
With old scandals still buzzing about his late wife’s many affairs and new violence erupting, Kade is faced with the discovery of another beautiful woman’s body. Are the two killings linked? Who is the man who seduced, then murdered both women? Ellie believes they are dangerously close to the truth.
From corporate Denver highrises to posh Vail mansions, Kade and Ellie sense the killer is closing in again and this time Ellie is the target. Kade must risk everything to save the woman he’s coming to love—before she becomes the next victim.
Buy NowAmazon Kindle">Amazon Kindle
Kobo | Google Play | iTunes
Excerpt from The Last GoodnightKade Logan stood on the bank watching the sheriff and his deputies haul the mud-covered vehicle out of the lake. The crane groaned as the automobile tilted upward, the rear end lifting into the air, the front wheels dragging across the spongy earth. Brackish lake water poured out through the open windows.
For eight long years Kade had been haunted by the mystery of what had happened to the dark green Subaru that belonged to his dead wife. Her body had been found in a shallow depression in the hills at the base of the mountains outside Denver, but until now, eight years later, her car had never been found.
And her killer had never been caught.
“You okay?” Sam Bridger, Kade’s best friend, stood beside him, a tall blond man Kade had known for years.
“She’s been dead eight years, Sam. So yeah, I’m okay.” But the rage he felt had never lessened. It should have. At the time of her death, their marriage was already on the rocks. The second time Kade had caught Heather cheating, he had filed for divorce.
“Maybe they’ll find something in the car that’ll give them a reason to reopen the case,” Sam said.
“Maybe.” Kade hoped so. He wanted Heather’s killer found and punished. No matter how things had turned out between them, he owed her that much.
He glanced back at the car. The last time he had seen the dark green SUV was the night Heather had left him. That night, she had packed her things, taken the car, and driven away without a backward glance. Kade had never seen her again.
Since then, he had been tormented by guilt, had lived each day with a terrible sense of failure that he had never found the man responsible for her death.
Never made the bastard pay.
“I’ve seen enough,” Kade said. “I’m heading back to the ranch.”
“That’s it?” Sam asked, a blond eyebrow edging up.
Kade thought of Heather and felt the old rage burn through him. “Not by a long shot,” he said.
Eleanor Bowman sat at her oak desk near the front door of the office, a two-story brick structure on Acoma Street in Denver.
Photos of local wildlife hung on the walls, elk, deer, a big black bear, along with autographed photos of celebrities the company had done business with over the years. The faces of Tom Selleck, Clint Eastwood, Denzel Washington, and Kevin Costner looked down from sturdy oak frames.
Though most of the guys who worked at Nighthawk Security held P.I. licenses, Ellie and a woman named Skye Delaney were the only two female private investigators. Since Ellie had just finished a case, she was looking for something to do, hopefully something interesting, but work was work. She didn’t want her savings account to dwindle.
She looked up as the glass door at the front of the office swung open and a tall, broad-shouldered man wearing a dark brown Stetson walked in. People thought of Denver as a western town, but it had been years since Ellie had seen a guy in a cowboy hat who looked like it belonged on him.
In crisp dark blue jeans that fit snuggly over a pair of narrow hips, brown lizard-skin boots, and a white shirt with pearl snaps on the front, the man removed his Stetson, revealing neatly trimmed, golden brown hair, and strode toward the desk closest to the door, which happened to be hers.
“My name’s Kade Logan.” He had a lean, muscular build, and the long, powerful legs of a bulldogger. His deep, masculine voice fit him as perfectly as his hat, and his hard, handsome face could rival any of the celebrities hanging on the office walls. “I have an appointment with Conner Delaney.”
“Yes, Conn mentioned he was expecting you.” Her boss, the dark-haired, handsome man who owned and ran the company. Ellie wondered if Kade Logan could possibly be the client Conn had in mind for her.
She smiled up at Logan. “His office is down the hall. Go ahead and go on in.” A little under five-foot-four, she was at least ten inches shorter.
Logan gave her a cursory nod, then strode off and disappeared inside Conn’s office. She wondered what kind of help he needed.
Ten minutes later, she found out.
“Kade meet Eleanor Bowman.”
His eyes narrowed, tiny sun lines forming in the corners. “You’re Eleanor Bowman?”
“I’m Ellie.” She smiled and stuck out a hand. “Pleasure meeting you.”
His jaw tightened an instant before he reached out and accepted her handshake.
He turned back to Conn. “Eleanor. With a name like that, I thought she’d be an older woman, someone with more experience. Either way, this is a bad idea.”
“What idea is that?” Ellie asked.
“Eight years ago, Kade’s wife was murdered,” Conn explained. “Her body was discovered in the mountains outside Denver, but the killer was never found. Two weeks ago, the car Heather was driving the night she disappeared was discovered in a lake near Coffee Springs. It’s possible the killer abducted her, dumped the car in the lake, then drove her somewhere else and murdered her.”
“And that’s the reason you want to hire me? To find out who murdered your wife?”
Logan’s gaze swung to hers. “First off, I don’t want to hire you. Conn thought it would be a good idea. He said your specialty is working undercover, but the last thing I need on my ranch is a female playing detective.”
Irritation bubbled up and her spine went straighter. “Did Conn tell you I was born in Wyoming? I was raised on the Grass Valley Ranch near Jackson Hole. Did he tell you I can ride just about anything you have in your remuda? And the weather doesn’t bother me. I know ranching, Mr. Logan. I can fit seamlessly into your operation. I can do whatever it takes to make people accept me and gather the information you need.”
Silence fell.
Conn Delaney’s lips twitched. “I think you can see why I thought Ellie was the right person for the job.”
A muscle worked in Logan’s square jaw. He raked a hand through his hair, mussed a little from the hat.
“I need some time to think about it.”
“Are you sure?” Ellie asked. “Because you’ve already had eight years to think about it.”
Kade’s golden eyes narrowed, seemed to burn into her green ones. “You really think you can do it?”
“If you want me to succeed, I’ll need straight answers to any questions I ask. If you’re willing to do that and if the information is out there, I’ll find out who it was.”
For the first time she caught a glimmer of respect in Logan’s eyes. “When can you start?”
“I can be there tomorrow, if we can figure out the best place for me to fit in. That way I’ll know what I need to bring.”
Logan’s hard mouth edged up. “You mean besides your pistol?”
“You better make that plural.” Ellie flashed him a phony smile. “Remember, Mr. Logan, I’m from Wyoming.”
About Kat Martin
New York Times bestselling author Kat Martin, a graduate of the University of California at Santa Barbara, currently resides in Missoula, Montana with Western-author husband, L. J. Martin. More than seventeen million copies of Kat’s books are in print, and she has been published in twenty foreign countries. Fifteen of her recent novels have taken top-ten spots on the New York Times Bestseller List, and her novel, BEYOND REASON, was recently optioned for a feature film. Kat’s new novel, THE LAST GOODNIGHT, a romantic thriller, will be released in hardcover on October 26th and is the start of her new Blood Ties series.
WEBSITE
http://www.katmartin.com/
SOCIAL MEDIA
Twitter: https://twitter.com/katmartinauthor
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KatMartinAuthor
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/KatMartinAuthor
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/52293322-the-ultimate-betrayal
The post Kat Martin’s New Novel: The Last Goodnight appeared first on Casey Dawes.
October 7, 2021
New Adult Christmas Romance–Sweet Montana Christmas
Do you remember life when you were just starting out as a new adult? Maybe you are there now. Your whole life is ahead of you. You are finally able to do things the way you do. You can have what you want for dinner … a decision you get to make every day for the rest of your life. (Trust me, this can get old.)
But I digress. It is an exciting time. You may be embarking on a career you’ve worked hard to attain. Or starting a new business. No matter what there’s always time for romance … especially at Christmas.
The heroine in Sweet Montana Christmas (available for 99 cents Oct. 11-14, 2021) has lots of opportunities ahead of her. Sue Anne Devereaux is following her bliss: chocolate. She is going to create the best chocolate shop in the entire state of Montana!
But she’s not sure her current boyfriend is up to the task. He seems to take her for granted, even borrowing her car when it suits him. She ends things right before the holidays. Better to be alone than be with someone who doesn’t appreciate her.
Photo by LongitudeLatitude. Creative Commons LicenseZach Crippen screwed up … big time. He’d let down his team and cost the airport a demerit in the eyes of the feds. No matter what he did, he couldn’t live that down. So here he was, in a Podunk airport in freezing Montana. At least the scenery was pretty.
His goal is to get through the purgatory of exile and get a new job at a real airport.
But then Sue Anne Devereaux walks into his airport and his life.
Sweet Montana Christmas has all the seeds you need for your Christmas reading. Join Sue Anne and Zach as they work for their business, careers, and maybe a shot at happily ever after.
Only 99 cents from Oct. 11 to Oct. 14 at your favorite online store. (Click here for links.)
The post New Adult Christmas Romance–Sweet Montana Christmas appeared first on Casey Dawes.
September 23, 2021
Wyoming Setting for Starting for Home
McDonald CreekLiving in Montana has made me aware of the impact of the land and climate on the way we go about our everyday lives. Passes in and out of the state may clog with snow, leaving grocery supplies on the other side of the mountains. Once spring/summer hits, it’s hard to find anyone at work. They’re too busy fishing, hiking, and exploring the last best place.
But Montana isn’t alone in the impact of the land on the people. The state to our south has it’s own dealings with the ground and what’s underneath it. I recently finished Rising from the Plains by John McPhee. I confess I didn’t understand all of it, but it still gave me new insights into Wyoming, and McPhee is such a marvelous writer.
In our RV life we’ve traveled through the state a number of times. The wind is constant in my memory. It was downright scary driving from Cheyenne to Lander with gusts about fifty miles and hour hitting the the trailer and swinging it side to side on the road. So much of the ground in the eastern half is sagebrush, with pumpjacks rising and falling like robots in the distance, and windmills whirling atop many high points, their silver arms a reflective display.
The west contains the beauty that most of us think about in Wyoming: Yellowstone and the Tetons. Native American reservations hold the middle.
From this background I crafted a place for Kaiden Beck to struggle with his conflicting desires: a job in the energy industry against a home and family. Gerri Keffer has done everything to show her father she’s as good as her brothers, including rising the ranks in the oil field. But is it what she truly wants?
As the pumps ride up and down, and the oil reserves dwindle down, the Wyoming landscape provides a back drop of mountains, plains, and small towns. The local bar that holds fund drives for ailing kids and grandparents. The “fancy” restaurant in the big city. The miles and miles between one place and another. And the wind. Always the wind.
Come along to Wyoming to see where Gerri and Kaiden wind up. Read more about Starting for Home by clicking here.
Dinner at the CowfishOh, and if you’re ever in Lander, do stop at the Cowfish. The food is great!
Starting for Home is available NOW on Amazon and other online bookstores.
The post Wyoming Setting for Starting for Home appeared first on Casey Dawes.
July 22, 2021
LAUNDROMAT–Springfield Illinois
Living on the road requires going to the laundromat every few weeks. It’s convenient when the facilities are at the RV park, but we are often places where it’s necessary to unearth a laundromat and go there.
Laundromats are great equalizers, like the military once was. And it’s a great place to observe.
Laundromat: Springfield Illinois
Creative Commons License. Photo by Justin Ruckman“Best laundromat and town,” says Dale on Google.
So we go.
Funky.
Throw in the laundry and sit on the bench.
Not the one Arlo made famous.
But the one outside where the cacophony of whirling machines
And reality television are lower.
Slightly.
I’m reading about a Scottish second-hand bookstore.
Rain and pricey old volumes.
I’m in the sun drinking bad coffee, waiting.
Reality.
The man carrying T-shirts on hangers—
One is a bright tie-dye—
Gets into a Prius.
A cream-colored Caddy crawls onto the lot.
Fifty-fifty shot: Old white man or young black man?
A tanned man with day-old beard and deep clefts in his face
Brightens with a smile.
“It’s hot,” he says,
Informing us of something we have already understood.
“But it’s the dew point. Dew point is too high.”
He shakes his head as he unlocks his bike.
“Wouldn’t be so hot if it wasn’t for the dew point.”
He rides off with a wave.
Slowly, a tall black man unfolds from the Caddy.
The post LAUNDROMAT–Springfield Illinois appeared first on Casey Dawes.
July 8, 2021
Montana Author Red L. Jameson’s New Book
I love being able to support fellow Montana authors, especially when there is synergy involved! Red L. Jameson’s new book is set in Choteau, Montana. This is the same small town that my women’s fiction series, Rocky Mountain Front, is placed. Warning, though: Wild Rose Water is a little spicier than my books!
~ ~ ~
Karina DeRoss lines up forty Ambien, intent on terminal sleep. Just months ago, she lost her only child to a fentanyl overdose. But instead of a final exit, she finds herself in snowy Choteau, Montana, her hometown, rescued by her aging and alcoholic parents. Then she runs into her childhood best friend, the one person she betrayed as much as her Emma.
Darren Hassack promised himself he’d never forgive Karina. Back in junior high, she’d thrown him away for the popular crowd. And she’d known he was on his own without her. His Blackfoot and Hutterite heritage meant he straddled an invisible line of race and “otherness” yet never had a foothold on either side. But one look at his now shattered, long-ago best friend, and he finds himself not only offering his shoulder to cry on but his own home for her to recover, and a job as an extra hand for this year’s barley crop.
A Korean proverb says that when a child dies, you bury the child in your heart. It is a grief swaddled and held close, but it’s nearly unbearable to witness, especially for Darren who has never dealt with his own grief, let alone his loss of trust in Karina. As winter turns to spring and the night stays a midnight blue, grief will break them both. They must decide if they want to rebuild to live, truly live. Wild Rose Water explores the connections we have to our past, to our grief, to the land we call home, and to love.
Buy Wild Rose Water Now!
Amazon.ComAppleBarnes-NobleKoboSmashwordsExcerptEver notice how dirt collects onto a snowflake? Dark matches light. They fuse together, one pattern over another, neither competing, just growing into microscopic lace. Icy dirty lace.
“Ma’am,” he says, scooping up the book that had fallen from my swollen, numb hands onto the frozen sidewalk.
I forgot people say such things. On a street corner in Choteau, Montana, where dingy snow is piled here and there, they do. I’d been staring at dingy snow, noticing the icy dirty lace, how the land here creates dark and light.
Such a little word, ma’am. But the politeness, light, flickers through my thoughts, dark.
His black-felt Resistol’s worn around the brim, barely noticeable gray sweat stains around the band. The hat dives down over his eyes, but I can still see them. Ice-blue, like the primordial glaciers a hundred miles north of here, and glowing in the shadow of his bill. Glaciers gaze down at the title of the book. The Grief We Don’t Speak. His denim-clad arm stretches farther, pretending he hadn’t read those words. Or the subtitle. Bereaving after Our Child’s Death. I expect him to throw the book, impatient from waiting for my sluggish response, and to run. Most people run from me. I became a pariah the day Emma died at thirteen.
Thirteen. Thirteen. Thirteen. Odd, stilted, or repeated half thoughts are the fog of my brain. I can’t get her number out of my head. I don’t want to get Emma’s number out of my head.
I reach for the book, but my fingers slip. I blink and try again, vaguely recalling how to be polite. Smile. I need to smile. But I just can’t.
He steps closer, his long legs in jeans with an ironed crease down each shin. The jeans are worn, like his hat. Worn, but taken care of.
It’s easier to retrieve my book now that he’s nearer, though I haven’t read much of it. Does the book mention how my attention span is less than a Cocker Spaniel with ADHD? And my thoughts, God my thoughts—I’m not sure if I have the same IQ I had four months ago. I feel stupid. I know I must look it with lazy blinks and my mouth agape, wondering if I might scream at any second.
“Thank you.” My voice … When was the last time I’d spoken? I sound like someone strangled me. I feel like someone strangled me and I’m not sure I survived.
I stuff the book into my idiotic Birkin. The ten-thousand-dollar bag so out of place here in my hometown, a cowpoke village where men wear Wranglers and say “ma’am.” I don’t know why he’s not treating me like I have smallpox. I don’t understand why he’s still standing in front of me, looking down at me, his eyes—light, light blue, like the sky right before a winter blizzard—roaming over my face. A warning bell might be ringing through my skull about him or it could be an old reminder to grab Emma a juice or water about now, because that adorable kiddo of mine is always dehydrated. Was dehydrated. Was.
About Red
Red L. Jameson lives in the wilds of Montana with her family. While working on a military history master’s degree, she noodled a story that became her bestselling, award-winning romance, Enemy of Mine, part of the Glimpse Time Travel Series. After earning her gigantic master’s—the diploma is just huge, she couldn’t stop noodling stories, more Glimpse stories—because she couldn’t get enough of hunky Highlanders and buttoned-down Brits—and other stories: a paranormal romance series and a contemporary romance series, which grew into the pen name R. L. Jameson, under which she writes cerebral and spicy erotic romance. While working on yet another master’s degree—nowhere near as giant as the first, she wrote her first women’s fiction novels. But no matter which genre she writes, her novels always end with a happily ever after.
You can find Red L. Jameson at . . .
Website: www.redljameson.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RedLJameson/
Amazon Author Page: http://goo.gl/Gvd2vq
Goodreads: http://bit.ly/1Gvpo5O
Twitter: https://twitter.com/RedLJameson
The post Montana Author Red L. Jameson’s New Book appeared first on Casey Dawes.
Later in Life Romance Novel: California Sunset
Her ex is an alcoholic. Her teenage son is in trouble with the law. She’s about to lose her job. How can she even think about falling in love?
Love doesn’t end when you are in your twenties. If you are lucky, the person you met and married has grown with you and weathered the arrival of children, and sometimes the departures of friends or relatives. You have grown separately, but that has only strengthened the bond of togetherness.
If you are unlucky, the bonds of love may fray and chafe. One person may descend farther into a disease like alcoholism, stray, or you may simply grown apart. Such is the fate of my heroine, Annie Gerhardt in California Sunset. Once she decided she could no longer be married to a man who caused her continual pain, no matter how much she may love him, she forged a life for her and her teenage son in the Central Coast Town of Costanoa. He’s approaching the last critical years of high school, her best friend keeps her sane, and her job in Silicon Valley is going well … she thinks.
John Johnston had a wonderful marriage, one that would have lasted his whole life. But suddenly he was a widow who could no longer face the big Montana sky. He’s moved to Costanoa to buy an iconic bookstore and start over again. He’s had the love of his life and isn’t looking for anyone new.
A chance meeting between the two sets them on a path that just might lead to new lives full of joy and happiness, if they are willing to let it happen.
Buy California Sunset at Amazon or other online bookstores NOW to find out if Annie and John can attain the love they deserve.
The post Later in Life Romance Novel: California Sunset appeared first on Casey Dawes.
June 3, 2021
Kat Martin’s New Novella: Come Midnight
(Maximum Security)
Kat Martin
A routine flight turns into a suspenseful race through the remote jungles of Honduras.
When strangers Breanna Winters and Derek Stiles met on a flight to Colombia, they never imagined they would need to rely on each other for survival. Taken hostage by a group of radical environmental vigilantes, Bree worries her secret identity has been discovered—and her fears are confirmed when she learns a ransom request has been sent to her father. Though she’s the daughter of a prominent tech mogul, Bree’s wealth can’t guarantee her safety, so former Navy fighter pilot Derek pretends to be her fiancé in order to accompany her on a dangerous jungle trek led by the radicals. With chemistry building between the pair, a romance isn’t hard to fake, though they can’t let their attraction distract them. If Bree and Derek ever want to see civilization again, they’ll have to work together and rely on their wits to escape their captors.
Buy NowAmazon Kindle">Amazon Kindle
Kobo | Google Play | iTunes
Excerpt from Come MidnightThe sound of a baby’s high-pitched, incessant crying put his teeth on edge. Derek Stiles forced himself to relax as he settled back in his wide business class seat. The airplane engines hummed outside the window, dulling the noise a little, but the crying only grew louder.
Derek silently cursed. His trip to Colombia had already gotten off to a rocky start when a meeting in the Houston office of Garrett Resources, where he worked as VP of Mergers and Acquisitions, ran overtime and he’d missed his non-stop flight. Now he’d be landing in El Salvador, laying over a couple of hours before changing planes and continuing on to Bogota, not getting to his hotel until well after dark.
He pulled out his laptop and set it on the fold-down table in front of him. He usually worked on a flight. He always had plenty to do, but he’d been staying up late every night so he also needed some sleep. It was important to be at the top of his game first thing in the morning.
The baby’s cries grew louder and his nerves revved up. He hadn’t really noticed the woman sitting in the seat beside him until she stood up and turned toward mother and child in the row behind him.
She jangled her car keys over the back of the seat and smiled. “Look, baby. Look at these. I bet you’d like to play with these, wouldn’t you?” The baby’s crying slowed, turned to whimpers, then sniffles, then stopped altogether. Glancing over his shoulder, Derek watched a little girl bundled in pink, maybe a year old, reach up for the car keys.
“I never thought of that,” the mother said, sounding desperate and making him feel guilty. He didn’t have kids but he could imagine how tough it would be to take a child on an international flight.
The mom, a black-haired woman in her mid-twenties, took out her own set of keys and held them up, but the baby ignored them, fascinated by the glittering heart on the end of the other keychain dangling in front of her.
“I hate to ask you this,” the mother said, “but is it all right if Sophie plays with your keys for a while?”
“Absolutely,” his seatmate said. She was pretty, he realized, with long blond hair and big blue eyes. A little above average height, slender but curvy in all the right places. “Once we’re in the air,” she continued, “if you want me to hold her, give you a little break, I’d be happy to.”
The mother’s smile held relief mixed with gratitude. “I might just take you up on that. My name is Carmen, by the way.”
“Breanna.” Her smile went even brighter and Derek felt an unexpected kick. He was usually able to leave his libido behind when he was away on business.
“You have a darling baby,” Breanna said.
Carmen smiled. “Thank you.”
The flight attendant urged Breanna to sit back down so the flight could get underway, and the engines roared, preparing for take-off.
“So I guess you’re a mom,” Derek heard himself saying, though he made it a habit not to talk on a flight. He always had too much to do.
Breanna shifted toward him. “I’d love to have children someday, but I’m not a mother yet. I work with kids so I know a few tricks.”
“What kind of work do you do?”
“I’m with a non-profit called Shelter the Children. Abrego Los Ninos in Spanish. We support an orphanage in a little village outside San Salvador. That’s where I’m headed.”
He smiled and held out a hand. “Derek Stiles. I know your name is Breanna.”
“Yes. Everyone just calls me Bree.”
They were an hour out of San Salvador International Airport when Derek noticed a commotion at the rear of the cabin.
Then the curtain behind the business class section jerked open and a lean, black-haired man stood in the aisle. Derek’s blood ran cold when he noticed the assault rifle strapped across the intruder’s chest.
About Kat Martin
New York Times bestselling author Kat Martin is a graduate of the University of California at Santa Barbara where she majored in anthropology and also studied history. Currently residing in Missoula, Montana with her Western-author husband, L. J. Martin, Kat has written sixty-five historical and contemporary romantic suspense novels. More than sixteen million copies of her books are in print, and she has been published in twenty foreign countries. Kat is currently at work on her next romantic suspense.
“I loved writing Come Midnight. No idea where the story of a hijacked airliner that resulted in a love story came from, but it turned into a terrific novella–one of my all-time favorites. I wish I had made it into an entire novel!
Sitting on the plane next to each other in business class, Breanna Winters and Derek Stiles find themselves kidnapped by Honduran terrorists and marched into the jungle. It’s soon apparent they’ll have to depend on each other to stay alive.
Fortunately, Derek is a former Navy fighter pilot with extensive survival training. And he has spent time in the jungle before. It’s a high-action adventure and I loved the interaction between the two main characters, who seemed to have nothing in common at first and in the end were the perfect fit.
I hope you enjoy Come Midnight and that you’ll watch for Derek again in The Perfect Murder, Reese Garret’s story. Till then, all best and happy reading, Kat”
WEBSITE
http://www.katmartin.com/
CONTEST LINKS
MONTHLY CONTEST
Link: https://www.katmartin.com/monthly-contest/
SOCIAL MEDIA
Twitter: https://twitter.com/katmartinauthor
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KatMartinAuthor
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/KatMartinAuthor
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/52293322-the-ultimate-betrayal
The post Kat Martin’s New Novella: Come Midnight appeared first on Casey Dawes.
