GUN MOLL ARC SIGN UP

Hey, all.

I am sharing the ARC signup form for Gun Moll today!

The release for Gun Moll is May 23rd. ARCs will be sent out May 9th, after cover reveal. 

Find the easy-to-fill out form below.

Or the direct link can be found here. 

GUN MOLL SNEAK PEEK

             Today Bethany-Kris and I are excited to share a sneak peek of GUN MOLL. Enjoy.
   

                                                                CHAPTER ONE

 

Deep down into the depth of her core, Melina Morgan could feel a blaze burning hotter and hotter. Her soul was on fire. Soon, she knew it would consume her, but there was nothing she could do. Life had already decided her fate and fate was a real bitch.

A droplet of water splattered her face as she readjusted the black umbrella she was holding. The sky was open, pouring water down all around her, but it didn’t matter. Not much did anymore.

She watched with gritted teeth as the simple maple-oak-finished casket was lowered into the waiting plot in the ground. Melina stood alone as the first and only witness to the final resting place of a great man. A great man who’d been all but shunned and forgotten by everyone except her. Hot tears slipped down her cheeks, and as the thunder clapped overhead, she couldn’t hold them in any longer. The despair and anger she’d been holding inside burst from her lungs like a train running at full speed.

Bitterness filled her mouth as she sobbed. Her knuckles cracked as she clutched the umbrella as if it were the only lifeline to hold her up. It wasn’t fair. Those fucks had betrayed him, stripping him of everything he’d worked so hard for; everything he’d honored and held in high esteem, they’d taken it away. Melina shouldn’t have been the only person at this funeral. It should have been filled with friends and colleagues of Daniel Morgan Jr. There should have been a line of men saluting him and placing the symbol of everything Daniel had ever stood for in Melina’s hands.

But Melina held nothing except a worn, black umbrella that did little to keep the rain from chilling her bones. It was just too bad; the rain couldn’t cool the fire in her soul. As the casket came to its final resting place, the gravedigger started to throw the first shovel of dirt in.

“Wait.”

He threw dirt on the top of the casket.

“Damn it, I said wait!” Melina yelled at him.

“It’s raining cats and dogs out here. I’m soaked.”

“Well, so am I. Do you know who you’re burying? Do you know who it is that you’re giving less than a damn about?”

“Look, I’m just doing my job.”

“So did he, and he got no respect for it. No appreciation. But today, you’re going to give me a chance to show him the respect he didn’t get when he was alive. Got it?”

The man glared at her, his muddy brown eyes were hard, but Melina didn’t care. He was going to allow her this moment. Reaching inside her black trench coat, she withdrew a small souvenir. She’d had it since she was a small girl and now she was returning it to the one who’d given it to her. Staring at it with a measure of love and anger, Melina threw the small replica of the American flag down on top of the casket.

“You finished?” the insolent gravedigger asked.

“No, I’m not. You might want to get out of the way for what I’m about to do next.”

“Can you hurry the hell up?”

Melina’s russet brown eyes closed briefly before she opened them again. Reaching once more into her coat, she pulled out a black handgun with a worn grip and aimed it at the gravedigger.

“I suggest you shut the fuck up before you find yourself in a hole out here, too.”

The man raised his hands. “I don’t want any trouble. Please.”

“Then be quiet and let me do what I came here for. You are welcome to continue your miserable excuse for a job, after.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Melina raised her Smith & Wesson 386 towards the sky and fired one round.

“Lance Corporal Daniel Morgan Jr., thank you for your service. Thank you for believing that no man deserves to be left behind. Thank you for taking a stand and sticking by it, no matter what it cost you in the end.”

Melina blasted another round off into the sky. The gravedigger jumped, but she ignored him. She wasn’t finished yet. Her voice wavered as she continued talking.

“When others would’ve simply turned a blind eye, you stuck to your values and you always did the right thing. When life fucked you any way but right, your spirit let you hold on and keep fighting. Few knew your pain, but I saw it, no matter how much you tried to hide it from me. Few will ever know the real cost you paid for serving your country as an honorable man, but I know and I remember.”

With tears streaming down her cheeks, Melina raised the gun and fired one last time.

“This isn’t goodbye. It’s just an ‘I’ll see you later’ and when we meet again, you’ll be the man you once were. The man who looked at life through shining eyes with the hope and belief that no matter what, doing the right thing would always save you in the end. Rest now and know that the pain of this life is over, and you’re in a far better place. See you later.”

As the rain slowed to a light downpour, Melina put her gun away and nodded towards the gravedigger. “He’s all yours now.”

She turned to walk away.

“Ma’am, I don’t mean to pry, but if he was a vet, why didn’t he have a military funeral?”

Wiping her eyes, Melina swallowed the lump in her throat and faced the gravedigger with the familiar coldness already settling in her heart.

“While in Afghanistan, a small group of men under him were trapped behind enemy lines and ordered to be left behind. He disobeyed orders and went back for them; two of those men died. My father lost his right forearm. Instead of giving him a medal for risking his life for his fellow man and for losing a limb, they discharged him dishonorably. He was an example for other men, and nothing more.”

“That was mighty shitty of them to do that.”

“Yes, it was.”

“What about the men he saved? Why aren’t they here?”

“I was unable to get the contact information for the ones who survived.”

Melina turned away and started to walk.

“He was your father, wasn’t he?” the gravedigger called from behind her.

“Yes, he was.”

Taking a deep, cleansing breath, she started to walk through the graveyard and to her car. It was over and she would never return here. Contrary to what many thought, there was no sentimental value to visiting a grave. The person you loved was gone. There was no lingering spirit, waiting around for you to come visit. Only a body remained. A body that had already begun to deteriorate and would soon return to the earth from which it came.

No, Melina was done here. There was no reason to visit a headstone, especially one that did not even begin to convey the true measure of the man buried beneath it.

The rain continued to slacken as Melina walked back to her vehicle. A loud beep made her stop. Opening her purse, she reached inside. Her fingers closed around a black beeper that was outdated and behind the times, but necessary, according to her boss. The number “711” flashed across it. Putting it back inside her purse, Melina kept walking. She’d just received another lesson from life: It doesn’t matter what the fuck is going on, the world keeps moving. Deal with it.

Sad, but true. Anyone else would have the time to grieve properly, to get affairs in order. Hell, just a little time to sift through their father’s belongings and reminisce. But not her.

It was time to dry her tears and close the vault to her heart permanently. She was in this world alone, and she had to make it the best she could. Even if she cringed every time the numbers 711 came across her beeper. Even if her stomach turned, imaging what kind of desperate fool she’d have to entertain tonight. It didn’t matter. She was an escort and tonight, she belonged to the highest bidder, whoever he might be.

Add GUN MOLL to your TBR List on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29504632-gun-moll

 



GUN MOLL TEASERS

                           Today my co-author and I are sharing a few teasers from Gun Moll. Enjoy!

 

 Add Gun Moll to your TBR List on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29504632-gun-moll

 

James “Mac” Maccari’s career in the mafia is at a standstill. As the best solider in his Capo’s crew, all he wants is to be noticed enough to get Made in the Pivetti Crime Family. But instead, his Capo’s interests seem more focused on keeping his solider hidden from the boss, and every other Made man he can. Seemingly stuck right where he is with no chance of going up, Mac doesn’t know what will finally get him the attention he needs to earn his button.

Until she shows up and all eyes are on them …

Melina Morgan survives—that’s just what she does. She’s never been able to depend on anyone but herself to keep her safe and get things done. When a chance encounter puts her in a bad situation with the cops and the mafia, Melina has no choice but to put her faith in the hands of a man that not only infuriates her with his cocky arrogance, but catches her interest, too. Playing pretend in a fake relationship with Mac doesn’t seem all that terrible, until pretend turns real and bullets start to fly.

A man is nothing without his woman …

When the attention on Mac and Melina turns from bad to worse, and someone in the Pivetti Crime Family decides the couple needs to go, they know they’re fighting an uphill battle alone. But making it to the end alive means Mac could get what he’s always wanted, and Melina might find what she didn’t even know she needed.

Together, they’ll make waves the mafia has no choice but to notice …







PUSHING LIMITS

      June 21st will see the release of my 4th published solo novel, Devious Little Lies. Writing this novel pushed me to my limit in a lot of ways. For starters, it is the longest novel I've ever written. Pre-edits it was a whopping 98.3K. That's a lot of words. Add in writing it under a deadline in the middle of nursing school and I can truly say DLL was a true labor of love. It was also a labor of heart ache as well.

      As some may know, I am a die hard fan of General Hospital. That soap opera has inspired more than its share of fan fiction from me. But General Hospital also created something else, a complex, beautiful but deadly "villainess" I have come to love and adore, Ava Jerome. Played by Emmy winner, Maura West, Ava is one of those characters you either hate or love. She is a mob princess, a liar, manipulator, adulteress, cradle-robber, ect. The list goes on. But Ava is also a mother, a sister, and a miraculously flawed woman and I couldn't love her more.

    While I named the heroine from my first novel Dirty Little Secrets after her, my "heroine" in Devious Little Lies was without a doubt, wholeheartedly inspired by her. Rena Rosetti is not your typical novel heroine. In fact I would go so far as to say that she is not a heroine at all. What Rena is, is a multi-faceted woman who makes a lot of mistakes and does some less than stellar things. Who am I kidding? She does some terrible things.

    Creating Rena was strangely cathartic. I had the freedom to tell the story of a woman who goes on the most difficult character journey I have written so far. From a woman desperately searching for her own identity to a woman who finally discovers what she really wanted all along, I'm proud to have created her. Now there are going to be people who will not like her. Some will find her off-putting and rail at the choices she makes. But regardless of that being the case, I love Rena.

     Telling her story forced me to push my limits. I had to reach deep down inside of myself and realize that although the choices she makes are so far removed from who I am, that she was her own person with her own decisions to make. And make them she did with a bang.

    So if you're looking for a female anti-hero not afraid to hang with "the big boys," and do WHATEVER needs to be done to get what she wants, then Rena Rosetti is the woman you've been looking for.

  http://www.amazon.com/Devious-Little-Lies-Ashley-Tanner-ebook/dp/B01DCCH2E4?ie=UTF8&keywords=devious%20little%20lies&qid=1460669245&ref_=sr_1_1&sr=8-1



Devious Little Lies Excerpt-NEED

 



 

         His girlfriend slept like the dead. Tricia hadn’t stirred once despite the sounds of her

mother’s yelling and screaming. He, on the other hand, was too twisted in knots to sleep.

Today had been eye-opening in so many ways and as Tricia slept beside him in sleep shorts

and a t-shirt, he wondered for the first time if he’d finally gotten himself into something that

had the potential to blow up in his face. Tricia and Rena were like fire and water, complete

opposites and he was attracted to both of them for very different reasons.

       
        What he and Tricia had was safe, comforting, and wonderful, but the fire he felt being

in the same room with Rena was unlike anything he’d ever experienced. It was a force of

nature that couldn’t be contained. He wished he could forget about the simmering attraction

between them as they’d made small talk, but most of all he wished he could forget the

sadness in her eyes. He couldn’t now, not after hearing what he just had and listening to the

pain in her voice.

              She needed someone to be there for her.

              She needed him.


#DeviousLittleLies  #Organized Crime  #May-December Romance  #June 21st

DEVIOUS LITTLE LIES BLURB REVEAL

  Devious Little Lies is my second Organized Crime Romance with Samhain Publishing. It has no connection to my previous Samhain release Dirty Little Secrets. I can't wait for everyone to meet Rena Rosetti and Shane Van Adams.

They say love is complicated. They never said it could be deadly.

Sometimes the thing you want most can cost you everything.

 

 

After ten tumultuous years as the wife of a feared mob boss—five of them spent alone, thanks to her husband’s incarceration—Rena Rosetti is tired of watching the men Tony left in charge ruin his criminal empire.

 

Though she has a fight on her hands, she’s determined to prove that the old-school ways of Cosa Nostra need to be permanently laid to rest. But power means nothing with no one at her side.

 

Rena has done her best to ignore the fire Shane Van Adams ignites in her, because… he’s her daughter Tricia’s boyfriend. But when Tricia decides she no longer wants him, Rena isn’t prepared for the onslaught when Shane turns those penetrating hazel eyes her way.

 

Finally, Rena has everything she ever wanted. But all things come with a price, and she’s made some dangerous enemies. Forced to battle mob rivals out to take her down, she must face the harshest truth of all—that the greatest danger she faces is the man sharing her bed.

 

Warning: Advanced mind games between a sassy broad who bites her tongue for no one, and a younger man who, given the chance, could have been the smoothest criminal of all.