by Angela Smith | Jul 23, 2019 | Books
She’s in love with her sister’s killer…
Lauren has loved Luke since first grade. They planned to marry—until he murdered her sister. The moment he was sentenced to prison, Lauren fled with her secret baby and made a new life. Now she’ll do anything to keep their daughter safe. But her hard won peace shatters when Luke is exonerated, and it sets her on a path of mixed emotions to discover the truth. Letting a killer into their tightly knit family is out of the question. Or is it?
She almost destroys her life by threatening his…
Prison stole his future with Lauren and twelve years of Luke’s life, so the last thing he needs from her is a knife in the back or a gun in his face. Lauren believes he killed her sister, and he has no plans to pick up where they left off. Luke can’t afford to trust her, but he wants nothing more than to convince her he’s worth fighting for.
Their daughter is in danger…
Luke is heartbroken when he learns they had a child together. Now his daughter is in danger. Lauren trusted the wrong person for far too long, but he hopes she’ll now trust him. Luke will risk everything to keep them safe. And Lauren will risk everything if she lets him into her heart.
PREORDER NOW FOR 99 CENTS!
by Angela Smith | Aug 3, 2018 | Introspective
What exactly is romantic suspense?
I recently had a reader tell me that I would be better suited to contemporary romance than romantic suspense, as she didn’t think my romantic suspense was dark and gritty enough. I admit that I have had a few self-discovery issues with myself and on what genre to call my books when I first embarked on my writing journey. I’ve been off and on what to label my writing for many years.
You see, I love romantic suspense, and I grew up reading the genre and the many aspects of the genre. Many of it is dark and gritty, but it doesn’t have to be to be called romantic suspense. Romantic suspense can be thriller based or a lighter type of suspense, but danger at some level is usually involved.
So I’ve decided to keep calling my stories romantic suspense. I try to write a 50/50 spectrum and my stories are always focused on the hero and heroine falling in love. There’s always a danger element, but I sprinkle a lot of relationship building into the story. Maybe too much for some people, but it is romance after all!
So why shouldn’t I call myself romantic suspense? There are so many genres and sub-genres and different types and elements nowadays, but contemporary usually has no type of suspense, or death, or someone being kidnapped or scared for their life. I will not write cardboard romances where such and such better happen on such and such page. I write organically, intrinsically, and some of my stories are more suspenseful than others, but there is always a level of danger there. Maybe not as much as someone hopes, or maybe more. I did love listening to what this reader had to say and learning and helping to grow in her comments. But reading is very subjective, and I personally prefer my romantic suspense without all the blood and guts. Sometimes it’s more action/adventure or solving some type of crime or mystery. Final Mend is about a child kidnapping and trying to find this child and being concerned for their life in the process. And yes, someone does die. Dark Ride is about a heroine witnesses a crime and then going on the run with the hero in order to survive.
I’ve been a romantic suspense fan my entire life but recently decided to do a bit more digging on the sub-genre. After all, things do change. Here are some of the best articles I found on the subject:
https://www.autocrit.com/editing/library/unraveling-the-complexities-of-romantic-suspense/
And this article, which was amazing and pretty much defined exactly how I feel about the situation:
https://tracycooperposey.com/what-is-romantic-suspense-part-ii/
So there you have it. I am still calling my genre romantic suspense!
Any thoughts on this subject? I’d love to hear them!
by Angela Smith | Jun 28, 2016 | Books
1. One Wrong Move was published under a pseudonym almost exactly ten years ago! It has been rewritten and edited, and I’m happy to say has found a lovely home with a new publisher.
2. One Wrong Move shares a release date with my favorite author’s newest book: Sting, by Sandra Brown.
3. One Wrong Move is a standalone novel. However, Rayma, the character is this book, was the heroine’s best friend in One Last Hold.
4. One Wrong Move is one of the steamiest books I have written.
5. After publishing One Wrong Move the first time 10 years ago, I made a wrong move and didn’t publish again for many years afterward! I finally got rid of my pseudonym and reevaluated my goals and am happy to say it’s still one of my favorite books yet, but now even better!
Read and excerpt here!
by Angela Smith | Feb 23, 2016 | Books, Guests
Today’s guest post is by Lynn Crandall. Lynn’s book, Always and Forever Love is part of the collection of stories in the Noir Nights bundle. Welcome, Lynn!
Lynn:
I love the element of suspense in books. As a reader, I like to bite my nails, follow twists, see the red herring, and discover after all the threat of danger or capture by a villain, the hero or heroine solve the problem. In my case as a writer, not only do my characters face triumph over life-threatening situations and defeat the villain, he or she finds true love.
Give me a Magnum PI, Sheriff Longmire, or Elena Michaels story and I’ll happily get caught up in the drama and suspense. But my interest in writing suspense actually has its roots in books such as The Secret if the Old Clock and The Whispering Statue, stories that followed investigations led by intrepid girl detective, Nancy Drew. There were so many Nancy Drew books, I could finish one and go right on with the next one. In fact, my mom gave me an entire collection of those books. Even though some were written in the late 1950s, I related to Nancy, a young girl with curiosity and keen instincts for puzzling out mysterious situations.
With this background from my childhood, when I started writing fiction it was natural for me to write romantic suspense. In Always and Forever Love, I wanted to team two sisters with completely different personalities to work on uncovering truth and in the process face personal issues. Lacey Aegar, the heroine in the story, her client, Jackson Carter, must work with her archenemy, and she must work with him to uncover the truth that will save his business and free her from the unbearable loss of her husband, who has shown up in her life as an embodied spirit.
I don’t expect to discover a real-life plot to release a dangerous drug into the world. But let’s be honest, life is suspenseful. When we’re young, we don’t know what we’ll do for a living or where we’ll end up living. We each have personal challenges to discover and learn to manage. And if we want true love, we have to figure out what kind of person that would be, then we have to search for our love. It’s all a mystery.
How has your life been suspenseful?
Blurb: The presence of a ghost in her life doesn’t alarm Lacy Aegar, in fact, it makes her happy. Two and a half years ago when her dead husband Nicholas reappeared in her life as a full-bodied spirit, she questioned her sanity. But with Nicholas’ explanation that there are things about life that are not as she’s always believed, she settled into a pleasant routine of working with her sister at their private investigation business and enjoying home life with her now 10-year-old son – with Nicholas never very far away.
Lacey’s complacency and sense of stability is sent topsy-turvy when she runs into Jackson Carter, the son of powerful and influential business tycoon, William Carter. Typical of the Carter reputation, Jackson’s slick new private investigating business is siphoning off clients from the Aegar sisters’ business, creating financial difficulty. It’s a recurring nightmare for Lacey, who has already seen damage done by the Carter family, and when she encounters Jackson, she wants nothing to do with him.
But things are not what they seem when it comes to Jackson Carter, either. Unbeknownst to Lacey and her sister, Jackson is fighting a battle to preserve his business, too, and his integrity. For him, it’s a fight for his soul, and he enlists Lacey’s help because of her unique investigative skills and open heart. When she uncovers a mole in his business, she also discovers that one of his clients’ drug trials has been given the green light to go to the next phase based on falsified data. As they work together to save both their businesses, Jackson and Lacey not only face death, they must come to grips with their feelings about love and life.
http://lynn-crandall.com/2016/02/21/life-is-suspenseful/
http://amzn.com/B01BN2BO9Y
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/noir-nights-lynn-crandall/1123425862?ean=9781440597398
https://www.facebook.com/LynnCrandallAuthor/?ref=hl
https://twitter.com/lcrandall246
https://itunes.apple.com/ca/book/noir-nights/id1083667009?l=fr&mt=11
by Angela Smith | Oct 12, 2015 | Guests
The Harvester is out there … watching, waiting, biding his time.
FBI cult specialist Lilith Munroe lives in dread that one day the man who tortured her when a case went bad will find her again. So leaving her sanctuary in Quantico to join the Harvester Task Force in Boston is her version of hell. But the Harvester is kidnapping babies, and Lilith’s profiling skills may mean the difference between life and death for the most innocent in society.
Australian millionaire and former member of the New Horizon commune Jacob Andrews returns to the United States searching for his sister. Instead of the happy reunion he expects, he discovers she is dead and his twin brother may be responsible. He agrees to lend his law enforcement skills to help find his former cult leader before the man can implement his plan to kill millions.
Now uneasy partners, Jacob and Lilith must learn to trust each other even as they fight their growing attraction. But when Lilith’s greatest fears materialize, will Jacob be able to set aside his anger and save the woman he loves?
Sensuality Level: Sensual
Buy Links
Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/White-Lily-Susanne-Matthews-ebook/dp/B015P79XZ0/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1443387932&sr=8-1&keywords=The+White+Lily+Susanne+Matthews
B&N: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-white-lily-susanne-matthews/1122682664?ean=9781440591228
KOBO: https://store.kobobooks.com/en-ca/ebook/the-white-lily
Excerpt:
“That must have been awful for her, for all of you.” Lilith said.
“It doesn’t matter now. Dying was probably the only way out Mom had. From that day on, Eloise’s life was hell. The other kids in the commune, including my cousins, made fun of her and said the burn was Satan’s mark on her—something they’d heard my uncle say—but when I was around they left her alone. When I confronted my uncle about that and other things, I ended up in the desert.”
He closed his eyes, seeing a tearful Eloise held back by her aunt as he was led out to be disciplined.
“Leaving my brothers and sisters wasn’t easy, but I figured Jimmy would step into the breach and protect Eloise. They’d always been close. The conversation with that boy got me thinking that maybe she’d somehow escaped from the commune, and I decided to look for her.”
“My God, knowing what her life was like, how could you do it? How could you walk away from that poor child and leave her there for eighteen years? And when you decided to look for her, you waited again. Why?”
The implication that if he’d come sooner he might’ve saved Eloise was clear.
“Because I was an angry, seventeen-year-old bastard who’d almost died, and I was too damn scared to go back,” he said through gritted teeth. “Don’t judge me, Agent Munroe. Until you’ve been brutalized as I was, you don’t have the right to.”
Her face paled, no doubt stunned by the viciousness of his attack, but he didn’t care. No one could possibly hate him as much at the moment as he hated himself.
“As for coming after her a few months ago, fate conspired against us. Andrew had a heart attack, and I made the choice to stay with him, a decision I refuse to regret. I hired a private investigator in Boston to find the girl with the tattoo. He found her right away, in mid-June. When I saw the picture, I knew it was my sister. She looks—I mean looked—like my mother. The PI arranged for me to contact her. She told me James had taken her to get that tattoo on her sixteenth birthday.”
“How did Eloise feel about seeing you again?” Her voice had lost its warmth, and her eyes were cold.
“She was surprised, but excited when I told her I wanted to bring her to Australia to live with me. She was worried about what might happen if my uncle discovered I’d survived and that she was planning to leave the States. I gathered from what she’d said that New Horizon had changed and not for the better. Through the man who’d found her, I made arrangements for her to get a passport and a ticket to Sydney.”
Susanne Matthews was born and raised in Cornwall, Ontario, Canada. She’s always been an avid reader of all types of books, but with a penchant for happily ever after romances. In her imagination, she travelled to foreign lands, past and present, and soared into the future. A retired educator, Susanne spends her time writing and creating adventures for her readers. She loves the ins and outs of romance, and the complex journey it takes to get from the first word to the last period of a novel. As she writes, her characters take on a life of their own, and she shares their fears and agonies on the road to self-discovery and love.
Follow Susanne on her: Website Blog Facebook page Twitter @jandsmatt
Amazon author page and Goodreads author page
