Tag Archives: Romantic Suspense

Kara Comes Clean – Gift Read her Story Anytime

Riverton Road Series, , ,

Kara Comes Clean. My name is Kara Cartwright. Some people think I’ve got a chip on my shoulder, but what I really have is a wound in my heart. That wound was inflicted in Riverton, New York, a place everybody else seems to love.

Kara Comes Clean. Too many of my Riverton memories are painful. From the heartbreaking fate of my mentally ill mother, to the day I met Anthony Benton, a cruel man who preys on the vulnerability of others, especially women. Nine years ago, I was one of those women, vulnerable and naïve and making the worst choice of my life.

Kara Comes Clean. I’d lost the man I loved, and I was shattered. Anthony Benton promised comfort and protection. He gave brutality instead, until I was finally able to escape from him, and from Riverton.

Kara Comes Clean. Unfortunately, that meant I also had to leave Aunt Dee, the one person in the North Country I truly cherished. Other than Matt Kalli, of course, the person who destroyed my heart.

Kara Comes Clean. Now, Aunt Dee has died and left me her big old house on Flower Street, but with some strings attached. I’m in Riverton to untangle those strings, then leave here asap. That is my plan, and I intend to stick to it, like hard winter ice sticks to a North Country highway.

Kara Comes Clean. I have remade myself and my life since I was last here. I’m no longer either shattered or vulnerable. I am quite the opposite as a matter of fact, strong and independent and in charge of my life. Or so I think, before the old hurts and confusion return the moment I drive into town with a dead cell phone and unsettling realities assaulting my heart.

Kara Comes Clean. Maybe that explains my hare-brained impulse to call Matt Kalli from the ancient phone booth I can hardly believe still stands on the corner next to the Victory Diner. I have been in Riverton less than half an hour, and I’m already making foolish choices. Kara Comes Clean. Maybe I haven’t changed as much as I thought, which makes me more than a little shaky in my no-nonsense hard-heeled boots. AND, I don’t yet know Anthony Benton has been murdered. OR, that I could be a prime suspect. What I do know is that I have definitely taken A Wrong Way Home.

Alice Orr – www.aliceorrbooks.com

– R|R –

A Wrong Way Home – Riverton Road Romantic Suspense Book 1 – Matt & Kara’s Story – is a FREE Kindle eBook HERE. Danger & romance explode in a red-hot read. Don’t miss it.

A Time of Fear & LovingFor yet another great read and fiery ride – readers recommend Alice’s latest novel. A Time of Fear & Loving – Riverton Road Romantic Suspense Book 5. Available HERE

What readers say about A Time of Fear & Loving. “I never want an Alice Orr book to end.” “Alice Orr is the queen of ramped-up stakes and page-turning suspense.” “Warning. Don’t read before bed. You won’t want to sleep.” “The tension in this novel is through the roof.”
“A budding romance that sizzles in the background until it ignites with passion.”
“The best one yet, Alice!”

Look for all of Alice’s books HERE.

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How to Make Giveaways the Best Fun Ever

Promo Tip, , ,

Coconut Body LotionQuestion: Can you tell us what it’s like to run a non-book giveaway?

Answer: It’s great. I’m in the middle of my second one now.

The first was a replica of the coffee mug sitting next to me this morning. Brown letters on ivory ceramic spell out, “Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you’ve imagined.” The mug was given to me by my grandchildren so it is precious and personal. The words are precious and personal too. I smile each time I read them.

This time, I wanted a gift from my new story A Villain for Vanessa – Riverton Road Romantic Suspense Book 4. There’s emphasis on a jacket, but I can’t afford several of those. How about the lighthouse? If somebody sent me a miniature lighthouse I’d think, “One more trinket to dust,” and take it to the neighborhood thrift store that benefits at-risk children.

Back when I was publishing Harlequin Intrigue novels, I had a perfect solution for the giveaway dilemma. I’d embed an item in the story, and give away a replica of it at book signings after publication. My last Intrigue plot is a good example.

Dear Santa’s hero and heroine Vic and Katherine try to save two very at-risk children, Coyote and Sprite, from serious danger during the holiday season. In a poignant yuletide scene, Sprite hangs a sparkling glass angel ornament on an evergreen tree.

I don’t remember how many crystal angels I ordered, but they were everywhere in our house. Plus spools of red ribbon printed with the title and small, clear bags covered in snowflake images. We sat on the floor. My husband Jonathan bagged the angels. I tied ribbons.

I led lots of writing workshops back then. I trundled those packets with me each time, for the book signings after my presentation. More than once, an airport security person stared askance at the x-ray machine. “Angels,” I would say, and they’d let me through.

More recently, I was wishing I’d included Vanessa’s version of a crystal angel in her story, when a solution occurred to me. Much of the book happens at a spa. I’d give away something associated with that setting. That was when the real fun began. Shopping!

I spent happy hours online playing with possibilities. Everything from way-to-pricey items to way-too-chintzy ones. All the while I was circling, more or less deliberately, toward the ideal destination for me. Things that make you smell good and feel better.

I settled on Oahu Coconut Sunset Shea and Vitamin E Body Lotion from Bath and Body Works, a great match for my spa fantasy.

I placed the order, smiling almost as wide as I do when I read my grandkids’ mug. I love giving presents. Don’t you? Soon I’ll be giving presents to contest winners. I can hardly wait for the July 11th drawing. That will be the best fun of all.

 Alice Orr – https://www.aliceorrbooks.com http://www.facebook.com/aliceorrwriter https://www.twitter.com/AliceOrrBooks 

RR

Email “I’ll meet you at the spa,” to aliceorrbooks@gmail.com to be entered in the Spa Lotion Giveaway Contest.  A Villain for Vanessa and my other books are available from Amazon HERE and most other online book retailers at their websites.

 

Family Stories and Colliding Memories

Great Read,

Collision imageI’m fascinated by the patchwork we as family members create with our family memories. An incident occurs in our shared past. An important even traumatic incident. The details sear our consciousness. Yet when we compare notes we discover those details differ from one of us to the other. From one family member to the other.

Sometimes the discrepancy is good natured like it could be with my brother and me. We’d debate and tease each other. Maybe even accuse each other of fabrication in the same teasing manner. But that was only with the not-so-touchy bits. Nostalgia rather than gut wrenching. The dreadful stories were just that – worthy of dread – so we mostly didn’t mention them.

We tiptoed around those narratives because they were quicksand. One wrong step and we could be sucked down with no hope of rescue. Rescue from what? Rescue from the collision of my version of reality and his and from the powerful confrontation that might erupt. We had mutually and silently agreed to avoid such battles and generally we did.

Consequently my brother left this earth with all but a few of our most potent shared experiences unspoken. Otherwise the relationship might not have survived as long as it did. Would I have preferred an open field of exchange? Yes of course. Nonetheless I chose silence and dissembling over openness and its fearsome revelatory glare.

Maybe my regret of that sin of omission is the reason colliding stories flow like a brackish river through so much of my Riverton Road Romantic Suspense series. In the first story A Wrong Way Home Hailey and Julia spend their early years as close friends before being separated for a long and painful time. Their stories of that separation and its origin vary dramatically.

Julia’s mother Virginia’s memories diverge even further as do those of Hailey’s mother Annemarie. What these recollections have in common is their mine field potential to blast both families – their past as well as their present – to kingdom come. And they do. A Wrong Way Home begins with a murder after all and wades through a quagmire of secrets afterwards.

Book 4 – A Villain for Vanessa is rife with the raw material for more combustible collisions. Between Vanessa and her mother Amelia. Between Amelia and her sister Angela Kalli. Among just about everyone involved with the Westerlo side of Vanessa’s family. The explosive tonnage is terrifying. Nobody would want to be in the midst of this family when it implodes.

This is fertile ground for storytelling. But it’s toxic territory in real life. Think about it. Who in your family do you tiptoe around for fear of a collision of your differing truths? What conflagrations have you barely survived when one of those toes slipped into the memory mine field? My advice. When you tell those stories – swear to heaven they are fiction.

Alice Orr – https://www.aliceorrbooks.com http://www.facebook.com/aliceorrwriter http://www.twitter.com/AliceOrrBooks 

RR

A Wrong Way Home – Riverton Road Romantic Suspense Book 1 – is a FREE eBook at Amazon and other online retailers. A Villain for Vanessa and my other books are available at my Amazon Author Page http://www.amazon.com/Alice-Orr/e/B000APC22E/.