PARADISE BURNING

Amanda Armitage plays a vital role in her family’s international investigations agency. Great job, great salary, great heartache, as she lives her life, eyes on the computer screen, fingers on the keyboard. When she loses an agent, a friend, on her watch, she is forced to examine the joylessness of her narrow existence.

Mandy’s resistance is minimal when her bosses—her parents—send her on a special assignment as research assistant to a best-selling author in Florida. Acknowledging her burnout, she agrees to spend the winter season in paradise, working for Peter Pennington, who is writing a book about international trafficking in women and children. The same trafficking that just got her friend killed. The job will give her an opportunity to unwind while enjoying a season in paradise and still work against the scourge of trafficking. There is, however, a slight glitch. Peter Pennington is the husband she hasn’t seen in five years.

When Mandy arrives in Florida, trafficking becomes more up close and personal than anyone planned. Peter involves her in his research of local “working girls,” while Mandy accidentally stumbles on a houseful of captive women in the Florida outback. A house where a dark, and unlikely, romance is creeping reluctantly into life in the midst of an evil as old as time.

As Mandy and Peter juggle a rekindling romance with the dangers of international trafficking, the girl once known as Mandy Mouse metamorphoses into a dynamic, independent woman. Perhaps too much so, as the world around them literally goes up in flames, and Mandy, discovering how easily black and white can dissolve into shades of gray, is forced to make the second most difficult decision of her life.


Author’s Note: Although Paradise Burning, which features several cross-over characters from Shadowed Paradise, is a stand-alone story, I recommend reading Shadowed Paradise first.

Special Note: In the course of preparing these two books for indie publishing, I discovered it's much easier to update historicals than books set in the present day. I originally wrote these books in the mid-90s when cell phones were just coming in and recordings were done on tape, to mention only a couple of things which had to be updated. I can only hope I caught all the anachronisms!

Both books can be found on Kindle & Smashwords and will soon be available for Nook, Sony, Palm, and other e-readers. Link to Kindle:
http://www.amazon.com/Paradise-Burning-ebook/dp/B005IDV3AU/ref=sr_1_2?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1315279214&sr=1-2

Thanks for stopping by. Coming in October: The Sometime Bride

Blair

SHADOWED PARADISE

When Claire Langdon’s affluent, near-fairytale life in New York is shattered by scandal, she and her eight-year-old son Jamie take refuge with her grandmother in Florida. Once a bright, confident young woman, Claire has been so badly hurt that when she stumbles onto a genuine downhome hero, learning to trust, to love again, seem beyond her reach. She is also forced to deal with the discovery that there are more serious dangers in Florida than alligators, snakes, spiders, and macho males. Like a serial killer, with her name on his list.

Brad Blue is the son of a Russian defector (from Cold War days); his mother, the daughter of one of Florida’s wealthiest cattle barons. (And, yes, Florida is the largest cattle-producing state east of the Mississippi.) Still under forty, Brad is retired from one of Uncle Sam’s many secretive “alphabet” agencies. He’s tough and lonely and more than ready to settle down to family life, but convincing Claire Langdon to marry him is one of his most difficult assignments. Almost as difficult as discovering the identity of the killer who is stalking female real estate agents in Calusa County, Florida.

From the moment Claire and Brad meet in the midst of a flooded bridge, cultural shock wars with romantic attraction. On top of that, they both have pasts that don’t bear close scrutiny. But when Brad offers Claire the job of “sitting” one of his model homes out back of beyond, she accepts. Which is just fine with the killer.

The killer plays a prominent, if anonymous, role throughout the book, gloating over his kills, attempting to justify them. And finally meeting Claire, face to face.

Reviews:

“Marvelously versatile, wondrously creative, intelligently written and sensuously inventive, Bancroft’s Shadowed Paradise adds new meaning to the term ‘romantic suspense.’ . . .as fresh as tomorrow and seriously scary. I loved it.”
Celia Merenyi, A Romance Review

“Shadowed Paradise contains all the elements I so enjoy in a book, excellent dialogue, great character development and fine descriptive scenes. The romance is steamy, the suspense is taut and exciting, and the result is a supremely satisfying, well-developed read, guaranteed to keep you glued throughout.”
Astrid Kinn, Romance Reviews Today

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Grace Note: Shadowed Paradise is the first of my Romantic Suspense backlist to be uploaded to Kindle, Smashwords, Nook, Sony, and other e-readers. The sequel, Paradise Burning, should follow by the end of August. And please remember that free reads of 20% of each of my books is available at Smashwords. www.smashwords.com

Thanks for stopping by!

Grace, who writes as Blair Bancroft