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This May/September romantic suspense follows the teenage waif from
the group home where Cassie worked in Book One. No longer a teenager,
Daisy is carving a life for herself in spite of threats from her past.
Today’s excerpt comes immediately after last Sunday’s, where a strange man frightened the horse Daisy was working with in the Arlington Park barn.
EXCERPT
The man
frowned and sputtered before speaking.
“Sorry, kid, I didn’t mean to
put
you in danger. Don’t know
a damn thing about horses. I’ll be the first to admit that.”
Daisy exhaled slowly. “Okay, so why are you here?” She shifted her weight from foot to foot. An odd sensation swept over her—one she didn’t like. This man, although ignorant as hell about horses and barn etiquette, had an air of confidence that suggested he knew he belonged—whether in the board room, on a sailboat, or even in her barn. His staring made her uncomfortable, and she didn’t like being uncomfortable.
Riders Up
Book Three:
Willow Smoke
BLURB
When the chips are down, there’s nobody there. Willowy blonde Daisy Matthews has survived the Chicago streets with this mantra, but she’s unprepared for the much older Nick Underwood’s urgent pursuit. The wealthy businessman receives a thoroughbred in payment for a bad debt and is thrust into Daisy’s world. She teaches him about horse racing; he teaches her about love. When Daisy’s seamy brother-in-law threatens Nick’s safety, she doggedly tries to stop him by herself, but flees to the familiar streets when he attacks. Can Nick find her in time – and if he does, will she still want him?
When you’re born without a trace, no one knows you’re a weapon.
Book Blurb:
The
future isn’t real.
The past
isn’t real, either.
Only the
present is, solid and full, flying at our faces, our bodies, our hearts and
souls at breakneck speed as we work to take it all in.
As we
work to protect others.
And, finally
– ourselves.
We’ve
started to break the bonds of Stateless, a system as rotten as the one it seeks
to destroy. But systems are organisms with one brutal goal: to survive,
whatever it takes.
Kina has
to do the unfathomable to save a different system, one she created out of
empathy and love for children we rescued from the only home they know.
She’ll
use her mind, her body, her spirit — and her ultimate weapons: love, and —
Me.
Fateless is the final book in USA Today bestselling author Meli Raine’s newest trilogy.
“I love
you,” I say, watching as his fingers halt, two buttons undone, a sprinkling of
chest hair showing from his open shirt.
Smoldering
eyes meet mine.
“You
were going to say it when I came back, but you never did. I told you I loved
you. Love you.” Boldness makes me confront this head on, the timing bizarrely
perfect. In Stateless culture, clarity mattered. Emotion wasn’t allowed, but being
blunt and direct was prized.
Can we
balance both?
“Do you
need me to say it?”
“Only if
you want to.”
“That’s not
an answer to my question.”
“No. I
don’t need you to. I want you to love me, though. That much I know.”
“Do you doubt it? That I love you?”
Author Bio:
Meli
Raine writes romantic suspense with hot bikers, intense undercover DEA agents,
bad boys turned good, and Special Ops heroes — and the women who love them. Meli
rode her first motorcycle when she was five years old, but she played in the
ocean long before that. She lives in New England with her family.
“The
first book in the False trilogy is a psychological thriller worthy of
Hitchcock, keeping you guessing until the very end.” — Apple Books Editors
“…intrigue
and dark humor on display in this thriller…”
While
the immediate—and more compelling—tension in Raine’s (A Shameless Little Bet, 2018, etc.) heart-pumping series opener
comes from Lily’s constant proximity to her would-be killer, the action takes
place against a backdrop of secret government scandals. The “screwed-up
D.C.-insider scandal,” as it is clumsily summarized early on, is pleasingly
twisty…
Fortunately,
Lily’s voice is captivating, wry, and tough enough to sell this thriller. The
novel ends with a cliffhanger that startles, if only because readers will have
become so attached to Lily.
— Kirkus
Reviews
“Fresh,
riveting, and thrumming with emotion and romantic suspense, False Memory is
absolutely unputdownable. You need this book!” – New York Times bestselling author Meghan March
“I
accidentally lost a day to this trilogy! It is unputdownable. Apparently I’m on
a dark-and-twisty binge, and this book is addictive.” – USA Today bestselling author Sarina Bowen (review for Harmless
series)
Our monthly autographed print book giveaway for January is Willow
Smoke (Riders Up, Book Three). Contest details at the end of the post,
and of course, Willow Smoke is always free to read on Kindle Unlimited.
Be sure to check out the rest of this week’s Book Hooks authors!
Why Willow?
When we lived in northern Minnesota, our forty acres included a small marshy area that grew willow shrubs. I always cut some branches each spring and set them in a vase inside to open as pussy willows, usually the first blossoms of the year. My husband dabbled in wood carving while we lived there, and gnarled willow sticks made inviting projects to carve, sand, and stain.
Enter Daisy Matthews, the waif Cassie rescued through her
Chicago group home job in Riders Up, Book One. By Book Three, Daisy is
tall and lanky and holding her own as an assistant trainer at Chicago’s Arlington
Park.
We did not have a title when we began writing this book, but we did know our characters. The much older Nick Underwood has left the stock market, where he made a killing, and he now runs a small company crafting handmade wooden canoes. When he first encounters Daisy in the Arlington Park track barn, he doesn’t know her name, but he’s struck by her smoky eyes and her tall willowy frame. He decides to call her Willow. Our title was born, but we had no idea how important this small shrub genus would become in our story.
As the story gradually made its way onto the page, we sent Nick and Daisy on a canoeing trip to northern Minnesota’s boundary waters, which we so often enjoyed ourselves. On their way home, he stops at a friend’s home (forty acres and a farmhouse, imagine that!). Daisy has often watched Nick working the wood at his shop, and his friend finds an appropriate willow stick and talks her into getting started with it.
We won’t give away the story’s ending here – I’ll just say
that Daisy’s willow stick plays an important role when the chips are down.
When the chips are down, there’s nobody there.
BLURB
Willowy blonde Daisy Matthews has survived the Chicago streets with this mantra, but she’s unprepared for the much older Nick Underwood’s urgent pursuit. The wealthy businessman receives a thoroughbred in payment for a bad debt and is thrust into Daisy’s world. She teaches him about horse racing; he teaches her about love. When Daisy’s seamy brother-in-law threatens Nick’s safety, she doggedly tries to stop him by herself, but flees to the familiar streets when he attacks. Can Nick find her in time – and if he does, will she still want him?
REVIEWS
Five stars at Amazon
“Adriana Kraft has created memorable characters that linger long after the
story has ended and I’ve closed the book. She has done what an author should –
brought me into the book’s world and made me care about the characters so that
my world will not be the same as before their foray into it.” Sheila G.
Five stars at
Goodreads “Suspenseful, intriguing and truly romantic! What a fabulous story of
the blending of two worlds… the plot twists and turns and keeps you on the edge
of your seat and the pages turning.” Risha C “…dreams can become reality, love
can transcend age… Exciting, engaging and very entertaining story. The
character interplay is spot on and the story is extremely well written.” Donna
H.
EXCERPT
Here’s the opening scene:
“I won’t let anything hurt you.” Daisy Matthews finished
wrapping the ankles of the chestnut mare and sat back on her haunches to
evaluate her work. The mare’s ankles were cooler than they’d been two hours
earlier.
It wasn’t easy to convince a horse to stand in buckets of
ice, but after three years of being a groom and an exercise rider, she could do
it about as well as anybody at Arlington Park. At least that was what her boss
said when he promoted her to assistant trainer.
Daisy grinned. There wasn’t much prestige associated with
being an assistant trainer for a fellow with a string of only twenty-some
claimers and allowance horses, but it was something, particularly for a girl
from the wrong side of the tracks.
RainbowBlaze took a step forward.
“I know.” Daisy groaned. “Step one: pay attention. Sorry, I
got lost daydreaming. You’re right. Taking care of you is an important job.”
She chuckled. “I can’t think of anything I’d rather be doing.”
“Hey kid, do you always talk to horses?”
The horse reared and pawed.
“It’s okay, girl.” Daisy kept her voice soft and ran her
hand slowly along the mare’s neck.
When the mare had stopped trembling, Daisy stepped out of
the stall, shaded her eyes from the sun and faced the interloper. She scowled
at the man’s new sneakers, monogrammed shirt and neatly pressed slacks. He
looked like he’d be more at home on a sailboat than in a barn.
The man peered over wire-rimmed glasses like he knew
something she didn’t. Or was he appraising her? Why? His dark hair set off a
chiseled face; it was hard to guess his age, but she could see a few gray hairs
at his temples. He was money. Understated, but money. Probably the stock
market. What was he doing in her barn?
She thrust her jaw at him. “So who the hell are you? Don’t
you know better than to sneak up on someone who’s working with a horse?”
BUY LINK
Willow Smoke is available on Amazon as a print book or an
e-book, and is always free to read at Kindle Unlimited:
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