Today, I'm happy to be touring Into The Fury by Kat Martin. This romantic suspense was released by Zebra on January 26th. It's the first book in Martin's BOSS, Inc. series, which connects with Martin's earlier romantic suspense series. You'll find a few familiar faces looming around the edges of this book!
The Book
A bodyguard, a bounty
hunter, a P.I.--the men of Brodie Operations Security Service, Inc. are down
for the job. . .
Sinners, whores, and sluts
beware--your time is at hand: a faceless menace is threatening lingerie models
on a cross country tour, and Ethan Brodie is there to defend and protect.
Ethan's learned the hard
way that beauty is no substitute for character. So even though Valentine Hart
is one of the most breathtaking women he's ever seen, he's keeping his hands
off and his eyes open. Or that's what he tells himself.
Then one of the models is
murdered, and the closer Ethan gets to the answers, the closer he finds himself
to Valentine--and the hotter the pressure feels. There's more to Val--more to
the other girls--than he could have guessed. But one is keeping a secret that
could kill them all.
Into the Fury is available now!
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Excerpt
The
only lights on in Val’s Montlake duplex apartment were the lamp beside her bed
and the screen on her computer. She was up late studying, trying to catch up on
the Internet courses she was taking.
Snoozie, her big gray cat, slept on
his pillow on the back of the desk. Even asleep, he was great company.
Val sighed. With rehearsals, she
wouldn’t be doing much studying this week. She’d be getting home late and she
needed her beauty rest, needed to look her absolute best for the dress
rehearsal, then the fashion show on Saturday night. She owed it to the people
who were counting on her.
The Internet contest she’d won six
months ago had secured her a place as a La Belle Lingerie fashion model. Out of
thousands of women, she was the lucky winner.
The work was grueling. She’d never
understood how hard a fashion model worked. Though La Belle models weren’t
half-starved, anorexic women like high-fashion, couture design models, they had
to be in top physical condition. The women were expected to ooze sexuality.
They’d been chosen for their full breasts, small waists, and perfectly curving
hips. La Belle models wore lingerie designed to appeal to men—which was the
reason women bought it.
A strict diet regimen was required,
along with the two to three hours a day she spent with a trainer to ensure her
body stayed perfectly toned and fit.
The job had required her to drop out
of school to train for the fashion show and do PR work for the company, but La
Belle was paying her a boatload of money, enough that she’d be able to finish
at the U of Washington next year with a degree in veterinary medicine.
Val loved animals and always had.
Becoming a vet was a long-time dream, but her scholarship had run out after
she’d earned her bachelor’s degree. With her parents’ help and working two
part-time jobs, she’d managed to get through her first year of vet school, but
the tuition was nearly twelve thousand, with fees on top of that, living
expenses, food, and travel to and from campus.
On a whim, she’d entered the
modeling contest, and to her amazement, she’d won.
God and the genes she’d inherited
had blessed her with excellent bone structure, as well as a really good body.
Though a lot of women would think the high-paying, seemingly glamorous life of
a model was the job of a lifetime, running around half-naked in sequins and
feathers just wasn’t the life for her.
Instead, she was using her physical
assets to pursue the goals she had set for herself when she was in high school.
Val glanced at the clock, saw it was after midnight, reached over and turned
off her laptop. Tomorrow was another rehearsal day. At the end of the summer,
her contract with La Belle would be up and she could finish her final term at
school. Her job as a fashion model would be over and she could return to a
normal life again.
Val smiled. After the whirlwind tour
and her fifteen minutes of fame, it might take a while to figure out exactly
what normal was.
* * *
Sitting in front of his laptop on
the desk in his bedroom, the man moved the mouse and changed the font. He chose
another font and typed the next word, then changed the font again, continuing,
one by one, until he finished the note. The printer hummed as he printed the
words on a plain white sheet of paper.
Sinners, SLUTS, and
WHORES--BEWARE.
REPENT or you WILL
be NEXT.
He was proud of his handiwork. This
note matched the first, its message more than clear. When the note was found,
there’d be no doubt who was responsible. And he’d be careful to leave no clues
that could be traced back to him. He just had to work out the timing, then make
sure everything went the way he planned.
As he mentally went over his
preparations, he began to look forward to the encounter, always an adrenaline
rush. He’d been missing that lately. He settled back in his chair and studied
the note.
Soon, he’d deliver it.
He smiled, anticipating the
challenge, then the satisfaction of a job well done.
Ethan’s second day at the theater
was hectic. The women were busy rehearsing, and for the first time, he began to
see what a difficult job they had. Not just walking out on the stage tossing
their hair and smiling but placing each step exactly right, moving in ways that
best displayed the garments they were selling. They had to learn dozens of
different poses and cues from the choreographer, who was constantly making
changes and asking them to relearn something they had only just learned a few
minutes before.
Add to that, the way they took care
of their bodies required tremendous work. Ethan regularly pumped weights and
worked out in the gym in his apartment complex. It was just part of his job.
These women worked with trainers, dieted furiously, limited their alcohol
intake to practically zilch, and went to bed early. When in the hell did they
have any fun?
After watching them a while, when a
woman he’d dubbed Heather-with-the-silver hair strutted down the runway in her
sky-high heels, stepped wrong and went down hard, he was only a little
surprised.
Being close to the stage, he jumped
up on the runway and walked over to help. Her nails dug into his arm as she
took hold and tried to stand, released a grimace of pain.
“Take it easy.” Crouching beside her,
he urged her to lie back down.
“Don’t move her!” Daniel Clemens and
his young assistant rushed forward. “Someone call Dr. Harrison!”
“I’m okay,” the blonde said, but he
could hear the anxiety in her voice. “Please—just give me a minute, Daniel.
I’ll be fine.”
Clemens was tall and slender, with
light brown hair moussed into some kind of bed-head style. Ethan had a
hunch
he was gay, but he wasn’t flamboyant. And as Matt Carlyle had said, he was
clearly good at his job.
The choreographer knelt next to Ethan.
“We can’t stop rehearsal. We need to get her off the stage, but she can’t walk
on that ankle. Do you think you could carry her back to one of the dressing
rooms?”
“Not a problem.” Bending, Ethan
scooped the girl up in his arms and started striding toward the back of the
stage.
Heather slid her arms around his
neck. “Wow. If my ankle wasn’t hurting so damn much, I’d be impressed.”
His mouth edged up. “You aren’t that
heavy.”
“Oh, you are a sweet talker.”
Heather flashed him a pain-filled smile, then returned her attention to
Clemens, who hurried along beside them. “I’ll be okay, Daniel, really. It only
hurts a little. I’ll be fine by tomorrow.”
“Sorry, dear girl. You know show
policy. We’ll have to see what the doctor says. I’ll go make sure he’s on his
way.”
Daniel hurried off as Ethan carried
Heather into one of the dressing rooms. He tried not to notice the array of
hot-pink panties, skimpy lace bras, feather boas, sequined thongs, and
God-only-knew what else. Gently, he settled Heather on the sofa against the
wall and stood up just as another woman pushed her way into the already cramped
quarters.
Though her dimples weren’t showing,
he recognized the blonde.Valentine.
She reached down and gently caught
hold of the injured woman’s hand. “How are you doing, Heather?”
At the contact, the girl fought not
to cry. “Oh, God, Val, I can’t believe this.”
“You’re going to be okay. Just lie
back and let me take a look, all right?” Valentine knelt next to the platinum
blonde.“Somebody get an ice pack. We need to keep the swelling down.”
She glanced over, spotted him
standing in the doorway, and seemed to remember who he was. “Ethan, can you
find someone to get an ice pack for us?”
He nodded. “I’ll take care of it.”
His last glimpse as he walked out of the dressing room was Valentine moving the
ankle. He heard Heather’s hiss of pain, and then she started to cry.
“I’ve got the ice coming,” Daniel
told him when he reached the open area behind the stage. “We keep a couple of
physicians on our payroll, on call for emergencies like these. It shouldn’t
take Dr. Harrison long to get here.”
“Will she be able to do the show?”
Ethan asked.
Daniel shook his head. “From the
looks of that sprain, it isn’t likely. La Belle has liability concerns when it
comes to job-related injuries. Besides, I don’t think she’d be able to walk the
runway in a pair of spike heels.”
Ethan didn’t think so either. But
then, he couldn’t figure out how the models managed to do it when there was
nothing wrong with them.
My Review
Into The Fury is a really thick, full story. Sometimes I find that romances can be a little thin on plot beyond the relationship. Romantic suspense almost always sidesteps the issue by including a mystery or action-oriented plot of some kind. Into The Fury goes beyond this by providing a multi-faceted threat to face down, that puts Val and Ethan on full alert for most of the book.
I quite liked the relationship between Val and Ethan. I thought it developed relatively organically within the context of the story being told. I liked that assumptions were tested, and that there wasn't a lot of second-guessing their own emotions. I'm definitely 'over' books wherein the 'will they-won't they' hinges on bad communication and each character individually questioning whether they should attempt a relationship or not.
The pacing of Into The Fury is excellent. Martin understands how to balance the intrigue and tension of the suspense with the development of a romance. I had a really hard time putting this book down at the end of the day--it was easy to read just another two pages, and then another two, and then...
The only downside of Into The Fury, for me, was the set-up for the next book in the series, which will feature two characters introduced in this book. I was put off by the way that their relationship begins, and I found it distracted me from Ethan and Val. There was some business around communication with regard to that thread of plot, and because we never fully focused, and never really got to know why the heck neither of the two characters involved had been particularly open about themselves or their lives... Yeah, I was a little frustrated by that. There were so many details dangled out there with the promise that the next book would clarify things, and I just... wasn't hooked. BUT, this didn't diminish my enjoyment of the main story. It just didn't add anything to it.
If you like contemporary romances, I suggest you pick up Into The Fury. It's a solid story, with some heft to it, a great romance, and it sets the stage for future books in this new Kat Martin series.
4.5 stars
For fans of romantic suspense, models/the fashion industry
About the Author
Kat Martin is the author of twenty-one
Historical and Contemporary Romance novels. She tackles many different aspects
of her genre with settings ranging from the rugged West to the Antebellum
South, Regency, Georgian, and Medieval England. Not one to shy away from
change, she also tackles Contemporary Romantic Suspense novels which involve
the paranormal. Some of her titles include Nothing But Velvet, Sweet Vengeance,
and Dangerous Passions. These works have won a bevy of awards including a
recent Romantic Times Magazine nomination for Best Historical Romance of 1998
for her latest release, Wicked Promise. She is also published in, among others,
Germany, Norway, Sweden, China, Russia, and Spain.
Before starting her writing career in
1985, Kat was a real estate broker. During that time, she met her husband,
Larry Jay Martin, also a Kensington author. After double majoring in Anthropology
and History at the University of California at Santa Barbara, she found herself
incredibly interested in the past. In fact, she and Larry often do research in
the areas where their books take place. She remarks, "We like to stay in
out-of-the-way inns and houses built in times past. It's fun and it gives a
wonderful sense of a bygone era."
Giveaway
Note that the giveaway is hosted by Avon, and is US only.
Lovely review! Thank you for hosting INTO THE FURY today!
ReplyDeleteCrystal, Tasty Book Tours
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ReplyDeleteFelicia-- Hope you like them all! warmest, kat
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