Blog Tour - Deadly, Calm and Cold by Susannah Sandlin
 |
Deadly,
Calm and Cold
The
Collectors
Book
2
Susannah
Sandlin
Genre: Romantic Suspense
Publisher: Montlake Romance
Date of Publication: December 2,
2014
ISBN: 978-1477826812
ASIN: B00LF7ONEG
Number of pages: 280
Word Count: Approx 88,000
Cover Artist: Kerrie Robertson/
Book Description:
From
award-winning author Susannah Sandlin comes the second book in The Collectors
series.
How far will ordinary people go
to protect their secrets? The Collectors’ games are as much about manipulating
lives as finding lost treasure. Everyone is expendable as the ruthless C7
pushes people into gambling with their lives in order to find priceless objects
lost to history.
Samantha Crowe's secrets could
ruin her career, while Brody Parker's could get him killed. They become pawns
for two Collectors seeking Bad King John's crown jewels, which disappeared in
rural England back when Robin Hood roamed Nottingham.
This time, however, the
Collectors--a ruthless dotcom billionaire and a desperate London
detective--might not be playing for the same team, leaving Sam and Brody
trapped in the middle.
One thing's for sure: If either
hope to survive, Sam and Brody will have to find a way to overcome their
distrust--and their growing attraction--in order to succeed on this winner-take-all
treasure hunt.
Available at Amazon BN Book
Depository
|
 |
Excerpt:
Samantha hadn’t
intended to watch Brody Parker take a shower, only to peek in the window to see
if he was in the bathroom so he could let her in the house.
But damn, that
man was sexy. He was facing her, his head thrown back and eyes closed as the
water cascaded over every ridge and muscle and . . . everything. She had to
look, right? She might have taken a vow of celibacy but she hadn’t taken a vow
of blindness.
You’re an
absolutely pathetic loser, Sam’s inner nag said, and she agreed. Anyone who’d
stand in the middle of a monsoon and ogle a man in his shower should have LOSER
stamped on her forehead.
As soon as Brody
stepped out of the water and saw her, his mouth and eyes battling for which
could open the widest in shock, she stepped away from the window and splashed
her way around the corner, returning to the back door. And yeah, giggled a
little, the laughter bubbling up and spilling out before she could get it under
control. She hadn’t laughed much in the last couple of days.
She’d never been
quite so wet and cold in her life. The wind had picked up, stabbing horizontal
blades of rain into her face as she waited at the back door. For a few seconds,
she wondered if he might leave her out here, but then the door opened and he
stood there with a white towel slung loosely around his hips, which would have
been sexy as hell except for the black T-shirt he’d pulled on. Droplets of
water dripped from his black wavy hair onto his shoulders, getting said T-shirt
wet.
“Nice fashion
statement.” She gave him her best lopsided smile as he moved aside to let her
in. “You’re shy about going without a shirt? You have man boobs, don’t you?”
Which would be a crime against nature.
“I certainly do
not.” Looking offended, Brody pulled the T-shirt up, exposing a rock-hard set
of damp abs and nice, firm pecs without a trace of man boob. He jerked the
shirt back down before she started salivating, which was good, given her
celibacy and all.
“Why were you
leering in my bathroom window?” He cocked his head. “Are you stalking me? How
long had you been watching?”
Not nearly long
enough. “Just a few seconds. I knocked on the door earlier and you didn’t
answer.”
He glanced out
the door, where the rain almost obscured the garage. “Where’s your car?”
“Ah, that’s the
real story. Do you have a fire lit?”
Brody closed the
door, shutting out the hiss of rain hitting the slate courtyard. “Not yet. I
was going to do it as soon as I showered. Give me a minute to get dressed.” He
made no attempt to leave, though, but instead treated her to a head-to-toe
visual inspection that she could swear grew a little heated when his gaze
landed on where her soaked, thin sweater clung to her breasts.
Her nipples
perked up just to make sure he could see them, the traitors. They didn’t want
her to be celibate. They wanted to be touched and licked and nibbled on, even
if the attention came at the lips and tongue and teeth of the man who’d
deliberately punctured her tire.
 |
Shhh…..It’s a Secret
Susannah
Sandlin
Winston
Churchill once called Russia “a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.”
I’ve always liked that quote, but when I started writing the book that became Deadly, Calm, and Cold, I hadn’t really
planned to write one of those riddle-mystery-enigma thinga-ma-jigs.
It’s
all my characters’ faults. Because, you see, they have secrets. Every last one
of them.
There
are four primary characters in the book—a hero, a heroine, a bad guy, and a guy
who is morally gray.
First,
there’s Brody Parker, our hero, which might not be his real name. He’s an
American artist living in rural England who knows an awful lot about cyber
security, has a smokin’ hot workout body, carries a gun alongside his easel,
and is afraid of spiders. Well, you just know this landscape artist has a
secret or two, and he’ll do almost anything to keep them. Which makes him very
unhappy when his space is invaded by….
The
heroine, Samantha Crowe, which might not be her real name. Her story is mostly
true—that she’s an American graduate student in England to study what happened
back in the 13th century when “Bad King John” managed to lose the
crown jewels, which were never recovered. She’s just leaving out the part about
how she’s being blackmailed into finding those jewels and using Brody to do it.
But she can’t tell him the truth because everywhere she turns, there’s…
Tom,
which is really his first name although Brody and Sam don’t know that for sure.
Tom and his wife Donna, who live in London, have made some very bad decisions
over the years. Tom’s made bad decisions for good reasons, bad decisions for
bad reasons, and got in way over his head in a situation he can’t find a way to
escape. Unless he can somehow use Brody Parker and Samantha Crowe, his
blackmail victims, to help him. But that’s really hard to do because looking
over his shoulder is…
Brent
Sullivan, which is his real name, although Samantha knows him by a different
identity altogether. Brent grew up on the wrong side of the tracks in the San
Francisco Bay area, so power is everything to him. Well, and money. Which is
why he so badly wants to find…
King
John’s lost crown jewels. Lost in the English East Midlands eight centuries
ago, the crown jewels are considered one of the world’s great lost treasures.
Some historians believe the baggage train in which they were being transported
was lost in quicksand. Others believe John gambled them away, or hid them so
they couldn’t be seized by the church that had excommunicated him or the rich
landowners who’d already forced him to sign the Magna Carta.
 |
About
the Author:
Susannah Sandlin writes
paranormal romance and romantic thrillers from Auburn, Alabama, on top of a
career in educational publishing that has thus far spanned five states and six
universities—including both Alabama and Auburn, which makes her bilingual.
She grew up in Winfield, Alabama,
but was also a longtime resident of New Orleans, so she has a highly refined
sense of the absurd and an ingrained love of SEC football, cheap Mardi Gras
trinkets, and fried gator on a stick. She’s the author of the award-winning
Penton Legacy paranormal romance series, a spinoff novel, Storm Force, a
standalone novelette, Chenoire, and a new romantic thriller series, The
Collectors, beginning with Lovely, Dark, and Deep.
Writing as Suzanne Johnson, she
also is the author of the Sentinels of New Orleans urban fantasy series.
Website: http://www.suzannejohnsonauthor.com
|
Secrets, and secrets, and more secrets make DC&C a fascinating read. If you haven't read it you should. Wonderful addition to the Collectors series.
ReplyDeletesecrets can add a wonderful tension, suspense in a story but in real life... some secrets should not be kept either
ReplyDelete