Romantic Suspense Unholy Alliance pre-order on Amazon @RowlandKathleen #Eggcerptxchange #Tirgearr #99cents

#eggcerpt exchange button
I’m kicking off this year’s #EggcerptExchange with a sneak peak at Unholy Alliance, romantic suspense by author Kathleen Rowland, now available for pre-order at Amazon for only 99 cents. That’s 99 pence if you live in the UK.

Unholy Alliance coverBlurb—Unholy Alliance

A decade ago, Tori Rourke, and her cousin, Vivienne, ran from the Irish mob after witnessing a brutal murder. Tori was framed by the mob, and while she served time in prison, she worried that the killer, Seamus McGinn, had kidnapped her missing cousin.

Attorney Grady D. Fletcher, defender of the wrongly condemned, appeals Tori’s case and wins her release. Now, going by Victoria Morningstar, she runs a food truck from a seedy waterfront neighborhood, hoping to find her cousin’s kidnapper.

When Grady agrees to defend a new client, Samuel Peterson, who’s been accused of beating to death the wife of a noted professor, the evidence mounts. The professor is missing, as well as his laptop that contains data dangerous to national security.

And Seamus McGinn is back, and rumors of a massive annihilation is about to begin. As they race to assist the FBI, the bonds between Grady and Tori are about to be tested. It becomes clear Grady and Tori are falling fast for each other, but what to do about it is a different story. He’s a divorced dad who wants more time with his kid. She brings danger to his front door.

Grady has questions of his own; Is Vivienne at the center of the mob’s operation? How much will it cost Tori before she learns the truth? All Grady knows is the biggest danger is the one standing right behind you.

Excerpt—

“Don’t let the anxiety of freedom consume you.”  Attorney Grady Donahue Fletcher clenched his teeth and rehearsed what he’d say to his client, Victoria Morningstar. He’d won her appeal and drove to pick her up at Gladstone Penitentiary. “At least you won’t be placed in solitary.” That was worse.

Six months earlier Grady had phoned a reporter at the Los Angeles Globe. “Drew Barker. Grady Fletcher here.”

“Ah, the lawyer. Calling about a tip?”

“I am. Here’s something you can investigate. Tori Morningstar, did she murder Irene Brennan?”

“I wrote that story many years back,” the journalist had said. “I assume you have new discoveries.”

“Fraud, illegal testimony. Do you want the story first?” A second passed. “Otherwise, I’ll call the Orange County Guardian.”

“Okay, okay. We want it.”

Three days later Grady had a hand in writing the first article in Drew Barker’s column. “The public labeled Tori Morningstar as an undesirable. Not black and poor, but disfavored, accused, incarcerated, and wrongly condemned. Her cellphone has been recovered. Her call to 911 identified her voice and substantiated screams of the victim in the background. Could she have beaten someone while speaking to dispatch at the same time?”

The reporter had written the second article. “People who get their ideas about criminal lawyers from TV probably would be disappointed in Grady Fletcher. He lacks flash but stands up straight, his posture neither ramrod nor slouched. He doesn’t smoke, doesn’t wear thousand dollar suits. His voice is soft and low, one of his assets. He speaks truth with a voice inviting confidences.”

As nice as that was, Grady’s stomach cramped over pressure and strain from Drew Barker’s final article with the headline, Tori Morningstar, Released Today. Picked up by the online service, Newser, KTLA, and CBS Los Angeles, they planned to broadcast his arrival to escort his client from Gladstone.

Tori’s decade-long prison sentence ended today but with a sobering fear over tomorrow.

When was a July morning this hot? Grady balanced her release papers on his lap as he rolled up one sleeve then the other while gripping the damp steering wheel. Sweat blossomed on his throbbing forehead, wrapped like a python’s grip. He adjusted the dial for the AC and embraced the challenge of helping another client get back on track. Embrace and conquer. Or at least sound like it.

Pre-order 0.99 price is available on Amazon and Smashwords—find all links here:
http://www.tirgearrpublishing.com/authors/Rowland_Kathleen/unholy-alliance.htm

Kathleen RowlandA little about Kathleen Rowland—

Book Buyers Best finalist Kathleen Rowland is devoted to giving her readers fast-paced, high-stakes suspense with a sizzling love story sure to melt their hearts.  Writing a romantic suspense Irish American series for Tirgearr Publishing, Deadly Alliance is followed by Unholy Alliance with a release date of March 29, 2017.  Keep an icy drink handy while reading these hot stories.

Other books are sweet new adult such as Lily’s Pad and the Intervenus Series: A Brand New Address and Betrayal at Crater’s Edge.

Kathleen used to write computer programs but now writes novels.   She grew up in Iowa where she caught lightning bugs, ran barefoot, and raced her sailboat on Lake Okoboji.  Now she wears flip-flops and sails with her husband, Gerry, on Newport Harbor but wishes there were lightning bugs in California.

Kathleen exists happily with her witty CPA husband, Gerry, in their 70’s poolside retreat in Southern California where she adores time spent with visiting grandchildren, dogs, one bunny, and noisy neighbors.  While proud of their five children who’ve flown the coop, she appreciates the luxury of time to write.  If you’d enjoy news,  sign up for Kathleen’s newsletter at http://www.kathleenrowland.com/

Find Kathleen online at:

Tirgearr Publishing – Leading The Pack

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/786656.Kathleen_Rowland

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Kathleen-Rowland/e/B007RYMF7S/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/rowlandkathleen
Blogs: https://kathleenrowland.wordpress.com/
http://www.kathleenrowland.blogspot.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/romanticsuspense.kathleenrowland/

They Called Her Liberty by @KimHeadlee #EggcerptExchange

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Please welcome author Kim Iverson Headlee and her heroine, Rhyddes, also called Liberty from Kim’s historical novel of the same name, for our last Eggcerpt Exchange of the year.

Liberty coverLiberty, second edition
by Kim Iverson Headlee
Kim Iverson Headlee
Historical Romance (ancient Rome)
Winner BooksGoSocial Best Book 2015.

They hailed her “Liberty,” but she was free only to obey—or die.

Betrayed by her father and sold as payment of a Roman tax debt to fight in Londinium’s arena, gladiatrix-slave Rhyddes feels like a wild beast in a gilded cage. Celtic warrior blood flows in her veins, but Roman masters own her body. She clings to her vow that no man shall claim her soul, though Marcus Calpurnius Aquila, son of the Roman governor, makes her yearn for a love she believes impossible.

Groomed to follow in his father’s footsteps and trapped in a politically advantageous betrothal, Aquila prefers the purity of combat on the amphitheater sands to the sinister intrigues of imperial politics, and the raw power and athletic grace of the flame-haired Libertas to the adoring deference of Rome’s noblewomen.

When a plot to overthrow Caesar ensnares them as pawns in the dark design, Aquila must choose between the Celtic slave who has won his heart and the empire to which they both owe allegiance. Knowing the opposite of obedience is death, the only liberty offered to any slave, Rhyddes must embrace her arena name—and the love of a man willing to sacrifice everything to forge a future with her.

BUY & TBR LINKS
Worldwide Amazon Kindle link: http://getBook.at/Liberty_2ed_by_KIH_Kindle
Worldwide Amazon paperback link: http://myBook.to/Liberty_2ed_by_KIH_paperback
BARNES & NOBLE PAPERBACK – http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/liberty-kim-iverson-headlee/1120850556
Nook: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/liberty-kim-iverson-headlee/1120850556
Inktera: http://www.inktera.com/store/title/51ee3025-035a-4b2a-9439-a6f470fe23a9
iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/id947768951
Kobo: http://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/ebook/liberty-38
Oyster: https://www.oysterbooks.com/book/TVmoQZ34weKKJcMm6HBg4X/liberty
Scribd: https://www.scribd.com/book/249011006/Liberty
Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/498417
GOODREADS – https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23636999-liberty

Excerpt:

With the party’s noise muted somewhat, Aquila paused beside a column, bade Vederi to give them some distance, and faced her.

“Gladiatrix, I am sorry for any unseemly behavior this evening.”

A nobleman apologizing to a slave? Had the world gone mad?

“My lord?”

His gaze intensified. “I am serious. I did not intend to cause you discomfort.”

She glanced past him. The braziers were still burning bright and warm. The aromas of roasted meat and fish still wafted from the dining hall, along with bursts of raucous laughter. Her guard still kept his gaze trained upon them. As she regarded Aquila, her stomach’s fluttering resumed.

Mayhap she was the one who’d gone mad.

“My lord, I thank you.” Her honor demanded a trade in kind. “I am sorry I raised my rudus against you, and I thank you for intervening with Lanista Jamil on my behalf.”

“I deserved your scorn. You did not deserve to feel the lash for my transgression.”

“Your… what?”

“My mistake.” He reached his hand toward her, seemed to think better of it, and rested it against the column. “You attacked me because I killed a worthy opponent, did you not?”

“Yes, my lord. I—” There could be no remedy other than the truth. “I viewed it as an act of murder. And I despised you for failing to change the sponsor’s decision.”

“It was murder,” he ground out between clenched teeth. “But I was sponsor that day.”

“You?” She felt her jaw slacken. “But why couldn’t you—”

“That man was my father.” His fist pounded the column with a dull thud. “He ordered me to obey or die.” An ocean of anguish washed through his tone.

Character interview of Rhyddes, heroine of LIBERTY:

Thank you for visiting us today. We understand that you have quite a tale to tell. Let’s start with a few questions about you, and then you can tell us about the book.

Can you tell us a little about yourself?

I am Rhyddes ferch Rudd, which in your tongue means Freedom daughter of Red. The blood of ancient Celtic warriors flows in my veins, though I am a farmer’s daughter by the circumstance of my birth.

How did you first meet your writer?

My bones were discovered by some men and women of her era, almost two millennia after I was laid to rest. Because of the wealth of gladiator-themed grave goods buried with me, these people surmised that I must have been a popular gladiatrix. But it was Kim Headlee who unearthed the details of my story for all to read.

Do you sneak into your writer’s dreams?

Most certainly, though oftentimes I find the realm quite crowded with many other folk with whom I am not acquainted.

We’d love to hear about your setting. Where and when is it and what makes it special?

My life spans much of the reign of the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius, one of a very few men ever to claim that title who did not abuse his power for personal gain. When my lover Aquila came to me with news that this man was in danger, I could see the loyalty and respect—and concern—in Aquila’s eyes, and for that reason alone I chose to help him protect his sovereign, even though I cared not who ruled and who died in that gods-cursed empire.

Did you help your writer come up with the title or do you know how this title was chosen?

The title of my tale is Liberty, the word in your language that translates to the Latin word Libertas, my arena name, which I adopted since Rhyddes is too difficult for the Romans’ stiff tongues.

Thank you, Rhyddes, for stopping by and letting us get to know you.

And thank you for taking the time to converse with a lowly gladiatrix-slave. I earnestly pray the association shall not bode ill for the preservation of your social status.

author Kim HeadleeAUTHOR BIO

Kim Headlee lives on a farm in southwestern Virginia with her family, cats, goats, Great Pyrenees goat guards, and assorted wildlife. People and creatures come and go, but the cave and the 250-year-old house ruins—the latter having been occupied as recently as the mid-twentieth century—seem to be sticking around for a while yet. She has been an award-winning novelist since 1999 (Dawnflight 1st edition, Sonnet Books, Simon & Schuster) and has been studying the Arthurian Legends for nigh on half a century.

FOLLOW KIM:

AMAZON AUTHOR PAGE – http://www.amazon.com/Kim-Headlee/e/B001KE2LK2
BLOG – http://kimiversonheadlee.blogspot.com
FACEBOOK – https://www.facebook.com/KimIversonHeadlee
NEWSLETTER – http://eepurl.com/boiQ0z
TWITTER – https://twitter.com/KimHeadlee