I’m so pleased to kick off this week by welcoming Lori Solberg as she shares a little bit about her newest, Grave Vengeance – the third book in her “Grave” series, which looks super sexy, with a terrific amount of angst and a fantastic paranormal twist.
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Have you ever worked with someone you really didn’t like? How about someone you outright despised? One who made you dread coming to work and avoided at all costs?
I once worked with a woman who was known as The Human Petri Dish. She came in to work sick. All. The. Time. Coughing and hacking like Typhoid Mary, and not bothering to cover her mouth. And every time someone said something about her going home, she’d insist it was her asthma, and that whatever she had wasn’t communicable. Yeah, right. Try telling that to all of the people who sat around her and ended up catching her funk.
In GRAVE VENGEANCE, Dmitri Stavitsky and Gwen Peterson have been enemies for over fifty years. And by enemies I mean they hate each other with a white-hot burning passion. During the Cold War, Dmitri was a Soviet KGB spy while Gwen worked counterintelligence for the FBI. And after their deaths, to their utter dismay, they both came back as reapers. Now they work on the same side harvesting the souls of the dead, but that doesn’t mean they have to like it. Normally, they avoid each other like the plague, but now they’re being forced to set aside their differences in order to apprehend a rogue reaper.
Which is a lot easier said than done. These two have enough combined baggage to weigh down an aircraft carrier. But working together under intense conditions ignites emotions neither is willing to acknowledge. After hating each other for so many years, can they accept the fact their feelings toward each other are changing? Maybe, if they learn to like each other, they might just fall in love…
I hope you all enjoy reading GRAVE VENGEANCE as much as I enjoyed writing it. It’s the third in a series, but can be easily read as a standalone. Thanks so much for having me here today!
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Grave Vengeance
The Grave Series Book Three
by Lori Sjoberg
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Publisher: Kensington Books
Date of Publication: January 19, 2015
ISBN: 9781601832696
ASIN: B00M01756O
Number of pages: Approx. 284
Word Count: Approx. 93,000
Cover Artist: Kensington Books
Blurb:
The past doesn’t like to play dead…
Handsome and haunted, he’s a reaper who prefers to work alone. But Fate has other plans for him and the sassy secret agent who shot him in another life—if their pasts don’t catch up with them first.
Dmitri Stavitsky has never played well with others—a Soviet KGB spy in life turned reaper after death, his work of bringing souls to the other side is best done alone. But orders from the top soon place him alongside fellow reaper Gwen Peterson, the American counterintelligence agent who took his life so many years ago. Now, as a ghost from Gwen’s past resurfaces with the power to steal reapers’ souls, the two have no choice but to set aside their differences and apprehend the rogue together. But their cross-country mission soon ignites feelings Dmitri thought he was no longer capable of—for the woman who helped destroy him.
With an ancient force and a small army against them, he’ll have to let go of old grudges or risk his future with Gwen…as Fate hangs dangerously in the balance.
Available at Amazon BN iTunes Kobo Google Books
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Excerpt:
Some men were nice to look at. Others, you couldn’t look away from. And then there was Dmitri Stavitsky.
He was taller than her, around six foot four, and had the powerful build of a gymnast. The shirt he wore did nothing to conceal his thick, corded arms or the broad expanse of his chest. His thighs strained against the confines of his jeans. He carried himself with an air of confidence that most men found intimidating and most women found irresistible. And even though Gwen despised him as much as he despised her, she had to admit he wore it well.
Gwen could feel his eyes moving over her while she drove, and she resisted the urge to squirm in her seat. “What?”
The passing streetlights played over the planes of his face. He hadn’t shaved in a day or two, and his jaw was shadowed with stubble. It made him look almost as dangerous as he was.
Almost.
Back in the day, he’d been one of the KGB’s top agents. For nearly a decade, he worked within the borders of the United States, stealing some of the country’s most valuable secrets. What he couldn’t steal he usually destroyed with calculated and ruthless efficiency. He killed defectors before they could spill their secrets as well as killing anyone else deemed an enemy of the Soviet Union. The full extent of his treachery was never determined; he’d taken those secrets to the grave.
“You cut your hair.” During the Cold War, he spoke with a flawless American accent to mask his true identity. The habit died when the Iron Curtain fell, and now his rich, deep voice contained a blend of both Russian and American, with the former growing more pronounced whenever he got pissed off.
Like now.
“So nice of you to notice.”
One corner of his mouth twitched. “It makes you look like a boy.”
Bastard. Her grip tightened around the steering wheel. “Like I give a damn what you think.”
He laughed under his breath. “I think you do.” The smirk on his face vanished when she ground the gears. Careful! It took me two days to rebuild the transmission.
“Sorry.” Not really. She totally meant to do that. “Third’s a little sticky.” She held back a smile as she hooked a right onto Alafaya Boulevard.
Dmitri raked his hands through his short, dark hair. He was a few weeks past the time for a cut, and the ends curled around the nape of his neck. “Why are you here, Gwen?” Her name sounded like poison on his tongue.
Good question. Her current base of operations was on the opposite side of the country, along the American side of the border with Mexico. Samuel had been vague on the details when he contacted her late last night with orders to fly to Orlando for a special assignment. She hated the idea of working with Dmitri, but knew better than to refuse an order. After all, the Big Kahuna wasn’t known for his gentle demeanor. The quicker they got the job finished, the quicker they could return to their normal routines and forget the other existed.
“Samuel sent me,” she replied with a shrug, knowing he’d understand the way the boss operated.
He nodded, his expression grim. “And why did you steal my car?”
“Because I could.” And because she knew it would piss him off. It was the way things had always worked between them. They’d lost their humanity and become reapers together, and had been at each other’s throats ever since. Two Cold War relics, passing through the modern age. “You really need to install a better anti-theft system.
Anybody with a screwdriver can hot-wire this thing in less than five minutes.” She’d done it in three.
She could have sworn he growled.
An uneasy silence fell between them. She darted a quick glance in his direction and saw the unwashed hostility darkening the blues of his eyes. The muscles along his jaw clenched and unclenched, his full lips pressed into a thin white line.
The light ahead switched from green to yellow. After checking for cops, she punched the gas to make it through the intersection before the yellow turned to red. “You know, I’m not happy about this either. The sooner we do whatever Samuel wants, the sooner we can go our separate ways.”
With a huff of annoyance, Dmitri rolled down the passenger side window and propped his arm on the sill. “Doesn’t mean I have to like it.”
For once, they were in perfect agreement.
*****
Author Info:
Growing up the youngest of three girls, Lori never had control of the remote. (Not that she’s bitter about that. Really. Okay, maybe a little, but it’s not like she’s scarred for life or anything.) That meant a steady diet of science fiction and fantasy. Star Trek, Star Wars, Twilight Zone, Outer Limits – you name it, she watched it. It fed her imagination, and that came in handy when the hormones kicked in and she needed a creative excuse for being out past curfew.
After completing her first novel, she joined the Romance Writers of America and Central Florida Romance Writers. Now she exercises the analytical half of her brain at her day job, and the creative half writing sensual paranormal romance. Grim reapers are her specialty, but she loves to write about all creatures of the night.
Web: www.lorisjoberg.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AuthorLoriSjoberg
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6574214.Lori_Sjoberg
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Lori_Sjoberg
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Giveaway:
$20 Amazon.com gift card
http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/ba112ffc924/
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Anya Breton Author’s Blog
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The Bookish & The Romantic
January 26 Guest blog
ARe Cafe
January 26 Character Interview
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