Mystery

Mystery, Mayhem, and Murder SALE #MFRWAuthor #suspense #RomanticSuspense #BookSale

January 15, 2020 by Adriana Kraft Leave a Comment

Huge SALE!

Thrillers, Mystery, Suspense

FREE or $.99, now through January 19!

Click HERE to land on the SALE page

Our sale book is the romantic suspense The Unmasking

just 99 cents today through January 19

The Unmasking

B&B Publishing

Romantic Suspense: 87,000 words

Cover by Dawne Dominique

Heat Rating: Four Flames

Explicit sex: m/f

BLURB

Whose mask will crumble first— the enigmatic professor of Celtic Studies, the undercover cop masquerading as a co-ed, or the campus stalker, biding his time to strike again?

Is anthropology professor Matt Bayfield the Blackthorn College rapist, or a potential ally? Aloof and unapproachable, Matt has academic ambitions. He can’t escape Blackthorn College soon enough, and he doesn’t want any entanglements to slow down his exit.

Nancy Appleby would like nothing more than to solve the string of campus rape cases before Thanksgiving so she can go home. The last thing she wants is a relationship to complicate her life—but she’ll settle for a fling, especially when the sex sizzles.

The stalker has his own carefully crafted timetable, with a special date just for Nancy. Can Matt and Nancy force him out of his hidey-hole before it’s too late?

EXCERPT

Who will be the next victim?

Nancy Appleby scanned the co-eds in the small lecture hall. Each could be his next prey. Each looked much younger than she remembered being as a full-time student. Each woman hung on Professor Bayfield’s well-crafted words.

Was it the topic, Celtic Myths and Rituals, or was it the aloofness of the tall, dark-haired lecturer with the strong protruding chin that mesmerized? He did command attention. Although his tone was mild, Bayfield played with his audience like a polished actor. Clearly, he was in control. Though he gestured but rarely, he moved like an athlete, comfortable in his body.

Nancy jotted notes on a yellow pad pretending to be no different than anyone else in the room. She glanced up at Bayfield, whose eyes had settled on her; they were piercing and inquisitive. Then he shifted his gaze, but he’d noticed her, was thinking about her. Why? She’d done everything she could to blend in. He hadn’t seemed particularly troubled by her presence, just curious.

Don’t forget to hit the SALE page!

Her Gray Eyes Turned to Steel #MWTease #MFRWAuthor

March 22, 2017 by Adriana Kraft 8 Comments

Welcome to MidWeek Tease, where authors share tempting snippets to tide you over till the weekend. A huge shout out to author Angelica Dawson for hosting our blog hop every week!

The Painter is a Lady is now available in paperback!

Amazon

Available in EBook from the following retailers:

Amazon Barnes & Noble iTunes

Kobo Smashwords Extasy

Secrets. Trust. Courage.

Who will knuckle under first—

The war hero?

The spirited single mom?

Or the former high school bully who still hates them both?

Word count: 74,600

Genre:
Romantic Suspense

Heat Level:
Three flames

BLURB

When war hero Michael Jarvis returns to his hometown on the shores of Lake Superior, he doesn’t plan to stay—he’s undercover, investigating a possible sex trafficking ring operating on the Great Lakes. But he does want to sample the pesky girl next door he always turned down—and it wouldn’t hurt if she’d clear up a few mysteries of her own along the way.

Successfully established as an interior house painter, Brenda Tower finally has her act together as a single mom—but it hangs by a thread, a secret she’ll guard with her life. The return of her youthful crush Michael Jarvis threatens to unravel everything.

Jealousy has inflamed Brett Hill’s hatred of Michael and Brenda for as long as he can remember. Revenge will be so sweet—and it will fit in perfectly with his high stakes game.

When the secrets break open, can Michael and Brenda find the courage to trust each other, or will revenge and betrayal triumph?

~o~ ~o~

This week we’re backtracking a bit, to Michael and Brenda’s first meeting after his return to Ashland. They’re working on the same house, and he’s stood in the doorway watching her paint an interior bedroom, her headphones on and her volume clearly turned up.

EXCERPT

Michael narrowed his eyes watching Brenda stand back to assess her work. She was even sexier in those coveralls than he’d remembered her as the girl next door pestering him and spying on him. She’d tied her dark shoulder-length hair into a ponytail, and it stuck out the back of a white painter’s cap―well, a once-white cap. It was now speckled with every color of the rainbow and then some.

Brenda whirled around suddenly, catching him by surprise.

He remained slouched in the doorway, watching her reaction.

“What the…” Her eyebrows rose and her nostrils flared. “Oh. It’s you,” she said, looking more than a little deflated.

“Thought you might be expecting me.” Michael pushed away from the door frame and entered the room. His lungs burned with the smell of fresh paint. “Forgot how stinging fresh paint can be to the eyes and lungs.”

She shrugged, placed the sprayer on a work bench, and crossed her arms over her midsection. “Welcome back,” she grunted, regaining her cool. “Ted told me you wanted to buy into the business.” She frowned. “Are you really going to stay in Ashland?”

“Thought I might.” He hesitated. He was hardly ready to trust her with his future plans. Not yet. He hadn’t been around long enough to figure out who to trust. “I’ve seen enough of the world to last a couple lifetimes.”

“I’m sure you have.” She took a half step back as he approached. “But I never thought you’d want to be a finish carpenter.”

He smirked. “Don’t think I’ve got the patience for it?”

“I remember you throwing tools and screaming when a rusted bolt wouldn’t yield, or when the sides of a bird house you were making didn’t quite fit.”

Chuckling, he nodded. “You have a good memory. Of course you always did seem to be lurking about. Though it does seem like your memory is faulty in some matters.”

Brenda stiffened. Her gray eyes turned to steel.

~ o ~ ~ o ~

Lots of fabulous authors have teases waiting just for you – click the links below to travel:

Sexy from the back row… #MSS175 #MySexySaturday #MFRWAuthor

February 4, 2017 by Adriana Kraft 3 Comments

Welcome to My Sexy Saturday Week 175, where authors tease you with seven sentences or paragraphs from their sexy stories!

This week’s theme is “Sexy About Town—perhaps at your local cafe, the gym, where you work…what if you’re a professor, and she turns up in your lecture hall?

Whose mask will crumble first—

the enigmatic professor of Celtic Studies,

the undercover cop masquerading as a co-ed,

or the campus stalker, biding his time to strike again?

Romantic Suspense

Four flames Explicit sex: m/f

EXCERPT

So who was the mystery woman? Matt Bayfield gathered his notes and glanced toward the newcomer standing in the rear of the lecture hall. He’d been offering this lecture series for nearly a year, roughly every six weeks. This fall, only three freshmen had inquired about last year’s handouts. The dark-haired female in the back wasn’t one of them.

Odd that she’d sit in the last row, because most women, especially those as comely as the co-ed with full lips and watchful eyes, wanted to sit up front to impress him—as if he were looking. He didn’t expect to be hanging around Trillium, Minnesota long enough to develop any romantic interests. And he had an ironclad rule against such liaisons with students.

Nonetheless, the woman in the bulky gray sweater and black slacks didn’t fit. Matt prided himself on having honed some keen observation skills in his fieldwork as a sociologist. The other students chattered with one another. The interloper remained silent and observant, almost aloof.

Bayfield recoiled. Aloof—that was what Carol Macy accused him of being. He’d found it ironic that it was his lesbian colleague who seemed most concerned about his lack of romantic relationships. Her periodic nagging was an irritant he chose to put up with because he counted Carol as his best friend at Blackthorn College—one of few.

He shrugged into a tweed sports jacket. Snapping his briefcase closed, he looked up into two of the most calculating gray eyes he’d ever encountered. They belonged to the woman from the back row.

Click the links below to travel to the other Sexy Saturday Snippets!

Sexy Suspense #MySexySaturday #MFRWAuthor

January 7, 2017 by Adriana Kraft Leave a Comment

We’re getting excited for our next romantic suspense, scheduled for release in mid March. Romantic suspense is where we got our start, until an editor’s comment that we write sexual tension well led us to venture into the steamy side with our erotic romance releases. But we’ve never forgotten our roots.

Here’s a taste of our first romantic suspense release – the very first fiction we wrote together!

High stakes, a fiery Irish redhead, her stunning racehorse, and a fiercely loyal rancher

EXCERPT

Shaking her head, Cassie grabbed a hoof pick from her back pocket, lifted one of Hope’s front hooves, and began extracting dirt and pebbles.

“Nice lookin’ filly.”

Cassie groaned at the strange deep voice and the too-familiar line. Couldn’t men anywhere be a little more original?

Dropping the hoof, Cassie glanced across Hope’s back and gasped. The deeply tanned hunk behind the voice had shoulders that stretched taut a pale yellow polo shirt covered, in part, with a thin buckskin vest. The wide cowboy buckle appeared unnecessary to hold up well contoured Levi’s. A sweat-stained brown Stetson, tipped low, cast a light shadow across his facial features. His worn boots were those of a working man. This was no drugstore cowboy.

He stepped closer. She could make out a scowl. Dark eyes snapped a foreboding anger. Raven black hair framed chiseled features, searing them into Cassie’s brain. Her toes curled involuntarily. She rubbed Hope’s coat vigorously. Who the hell was he? And to top it off, he didn’t even seem to notice her. His eyes appraised only the horse.

“Thanks,” she mumbled, ducking down by Hope’s flank.

The handsome stranger walked around the horse. “Very nice,” he drawled at last.

BUY LINK

Print and E-Book

REVIEWS

Five stars at Goodreads and Amazon:

“Extremely well written and very entertaining to read. Real life hopes and dreams becoming a reality. This story really moved me.” Donna H.

“I loved Cassie and Clint. These two stubborn, prideful people remind me of Darcy and Elizabeth Bennett…Cassie’s Hope is the first book of a series. I cannot wait to read the rest of the books” Sheila G.

“I took their journey with them. I felt their pain, their sadness, their struggles, and most of all their love. And that is the mark of a truly good book.” Faith H.

BLURB

What happens when a fiercely loyal widowed half-Ute cowboy meets a fiery redhead with an Irish temper to match? Cassidy O’Hanlon – Cassie, to her friends – has set aside her Chicago career for six months to train racehorses for her dad after his stroke.

Furious the interloper has shipped in a ringer from the Chicago circuit to his Wyoming turf, Rancher/trainer Clint Travers sets out to put her in her place. Sparks fly immediately, but after their rocky start, the two quickly forge a passionate relationship, and he follows her to Chicago.

When it becomes clear someone is drugging Cassie’s horse, Clint sets out to solve the mystery, but storms off in a cloud of wounded pride when suspicions turn to him.

Can love trump pride?

My Sexy Mystery ~ It’s Villain’s Choice #MSS171 #MySexySaturday #MFRWAuthor

December 17, 2016 by Adriana Kraft 2 Comments

Welcome to the 171st week of My Sexy Saturday!

This week’s theme is My Sexy Mystery. Did you know we write both Erotic Romance for Two, Three, or More and Sizzling Romantic Suspense? Hence our tag line, When it’s Time to Heat Things Up. With hubby’s criminology background, we love a good mystery, and we love to write them.

A heist? A murder? It’s villain’s choice.

BLURB

A special-order art theft? Tedious, but seamless – until small town museum director Kara Daniels calls in the experts. Furious her favorite trio of priceless impressionist paintings has been stolen from its traveling exhibit on her watch, Kara is determined to save not only the paintings, but her future in the art world. She’ll stop at nothing to entrap the thief.

Ted Springs knows the underbelly of the criminal world a little closer than he might like—but he’s turned it to good advantage, first as a police officer, and now as detective for the Upper Midwest Arts Council. His job? To guarantee the security of the valuable paintings in the Council’s traveling exhibits.

Heat sizzles when Ted and Kara collide—can they work together, before it’s too late?

SETUP

Ted’s been called in to solve a break-in at the small-town museum where Kara is curator. He’s bumped into Kara once before, very pleasantly so, from his perspective – she’s more ambivalent. They’re in her office discussing next steps…

EXCERPT

Ted exhaled slowly. “And do you think I’ll ever get to know you?”
Kara giggled softly. “Not in the way you’re thinking.” She thrust out her chin. “At least not while you’re working this case.”
He took his time to chew on that information. “Fair enough,” he said. He wished he knew what he done or said to disarm her. Maybe it had been the memory of their brief encounter. “Not that I need more incentive to wrap this museum situation up quickly.” He paused. “Do you suppose we’ll be able to hug now and then like friends, now that we’ve cleared the air? Shaking hands seems so stodgy.”
Kara laughed quickly and then peeked over at him with a devastating smile. “As long as you don’t paw my boobs.”
Smiling, he didn’t miss a beat. “How about your rear?”
She arched an eyebrow at him. “That is a different matter. Your large hands did leave a pleasant impression on my ass.”
So she didn’t mind a little flirting even while he worked the case. “Good. I believe in first impressions, and I always like to be clear about the rules of the game. Now maybe you should tell me how you think one or more people entered the museum supposedly without a key.”
She scrunched her mouth. “So do you play by the rules?”
“I didn’t say that. I just like to know what they are.”

REVIEWS

Five stars at Goodreads: “The sex is hot and I loved the phone sex scenes. Never did I expect the ending. It was brilliant. The Heist is a winner!” Sheila G.

Five stars at Amazon: “Very hot…engaging, entertaining, funny and serious, well written and extremely enjoyable to read.” Donna H.