Susan's Books I Like: FORSAKEN by Lisa Renee Jones ~ Pre-Release Blitz

Meet Chad in the newest addition to The Secret Life of Amy Bensen series by Lisa Renee Jones!

Now available for Pre-order!

Pre-order Forsaken and Unbroken and receive exclusive content leading up to the release and super special bonus content after the release of Unbroken as well. You can find the form here - http://lisareneejones.com/pre-order-promotion/

Blurb

In this third book in the sexy, suspenseful “The Secret Life of Amy Bensen” series from New York Times bestselling author Lisa Renee Jones, we meet Amy’s brother Chad—and the woman who either loves him or wants him dead.

Six years ago, Chad’s hunt for a dangerous treasure turned deadly when his family home was set on fire, his parents killed. Faking his and his sister Amy’s death to protect her from further retaliation, he set her up in a new life with a friend’s help, letting her believe he’d died.

But now the men who hired Chad to find the treasure have found him, imprisoning and torturing him to learn where it’s hidden. A dark-haired beauty named Gia helps him escape, promising him access to his worst enemy. And as he tries to unravel the deep secrets of the past, he starts falling for her…only to discover she’s not what she seems.

Unable to trust anyone, Chad focuses on only two things: protecting his sister Amy and getting revenge. Is love even possible in the midst of heartache?

**Please choose one excerpt**

Excerpt #1

I cross the room to enter the master bedroom and Gia greets me at the door, her pale skin like ivory, her dark brown hair draping her shoulders, and worry etched in the furrow of her brow. She is beautiful. She is here. She is mine, if only for now, and I have every intention of keeping her.

I kick the door shut and she takes a step backwards, giving me space I do not want. “You have to know that party is a setup. You can’t show up there.”

“I take it you listened in on our conversation.”

“Yes. I did. Chad—”

She yelps as I grab her, rotating her to press her against the door, trapping her legs with mine. “He hacked your personnel file.”

“Of course he did. I don’t trust him.”

I tangle rough fingers into her hair, tugging just enough to force her blue eyes to mine. “He doesn’t trust you.”

“Like you?”

My answer is a deep, hungry kiss. The taste of her, addictively sweet, fills my senses, stirs a craving for more. She makes me crave more. Escape. Passion. That indefinable sense of needing what only she can give me. She moans, a soft, sexy sound I feel in the tightening of my body, the burn in my limbs. My free hand caresses her hip, her waist, the curve of her breast, and I want nothing more than to be lost at sea with this woman, floating on an ocean of waves, so far away from the rest of the world we can’t be found. But I have to settle for here. Now. Lost in her. With her.

Only, she’s not with me. I feel it in the tentative caress of her tongue, the uncertainty and reserve of her fingers barely flexing against my chest, and I tear my mouth from hers. “I fucked up in the lobby. But Gia, in a very short time, you’ve gotten inside my head and under my skin in a way no one else has. You know the real me, and that’s dangerous for both of us.”

“I’m a part of this world now, too, and I need to understand to survive.”

“You aren’t. You can’t be. I won’t allow it.”

“You can’t change what already is. You think that if I’m out of your sight, I’m safe? That’s a fantasy, Chad, and I’m not willing to live in a fantasy that could kill me.” She balls her fingers around my shirt.

We stare at each other, the sound of our breaths mingling together, the sun starting to dim beyond the windows, like the resistance I once had to this woman. “I want your help. I even need it, but I won’t lie to you anymore. You need to know that the first chance I have to make it happen, I will get you out of this.”

“If I don’t want to go?”

“You’ll go.”

She inhales and lets it out. “And never see you again.”

“It has to be that way.”

“If I resist?”

“Then we’ll go to war,” I assure her, “and I’ll win.”

“If you send me away, I’ll go after him on my own.”

I lean back, pressing my hands on the wall beside her. “That would be foolish, and you’re not foolish.”

“So is your thinking that you can take on something this big on your own. And don’t say you have Jared. You didn’t even tell him what you were hiding for six years.”

“What he doesn’t know can’t get him killed.”

“That’s bullshit, Chad. They’ll kill him to get to you, just like they’ll kill me, or your sister. You do have to destroy them, and I don’t even know how you do that.”

“I’ll figure it out.”

“Damn you and your stubbornness,” she hisses. “You’re going to end up dead.”

I slide my hands to her hair. “You need to stop talking. Right here, this moment, is about just that: the moment.”

“This moment won’t erase the facts. This is bigger than you and me. I have to be a weapon if I can be.”

“But not another loss,” I declare. “You give me the information. I risk myself. End of story.” She opens her mouth to argue and I silence her with a kiss, and I swear I can almost taste the blood I won’t let be hers, almost hear the piercing scream of my mother’s agony in my head. I cup Gia’s head, deepening the connection between us. Needing again. Demanding. Taking. Relieved when she goes from stiff and unyielding to wildly responsive, her tongue stroking mine, her hands sliding under my shirt, her palms soft and warm. Her touch is somehow like a calm summer breeze on a hot Texas night and at the same time it’s the fire that makes it hotter.

But Gia isn’t calm. She’s all over me—kissing me, touching me, possessive in her own right, as if she is trying to hold onto me beyond the moment.

Excerpt #2

I join her at the sink, where she’s struggling to get the bandage wrapped around her palm. I grab her hand and take over and our eyes lock and collide, the air instantly thick with a huge dose of lust-filled distrust.

“You’re going to get caught in here,” she warns softly, as if she can’t quite find her voice.

“It’s a Walmart in Texas,” I tell her. “They’re happy if you manage to show up with pants on.”

She laughs despite an effort to stop herself. “I suppose so. I’m just nervous about getting attention we don’t need.”

“We’re fine.” I fit some tape over the bandage on her hand and dump the supplies back inside the basket sitting on the counter.

“Right,” she agrees. “I know we are.”

She doesn’t sound convinced, and I can’t seem to quell my need to convince her otherwise. “Don’t let my getting captured fool you. It took him years to find me. I’m good at what I do. He won’t find me again. That means he won’t find you.”

“Until you’re done with me,” she murmurs, cutting her gaze away from me, and for the first time since that bedroom in East Austin, fear radiates off her. I tell myself to let it go, that she could be working me over, but I can’t seem to care.

I slip a finger under her chin and force her gaze to mine. “No matter what your intentions were when this started tonight, if you help me, really help me, I’ll make sure you stay protected.”

“I don’t work for him, and I don’t know why I’m even saying that again. I know I can’t convince you.”

“I told you. Help me. I’ll help you. Okay?”

“Yes. Okay.” She’s not convinced, and the truth is, neither am I. I stayed away from people until Meg, Amy included, for a reason. People die when they’re near me, but I’m not telling Gia that, and I let my hand fall away, settling both on my hips.

She hugs herself and for several beats we simply stare at each other, until she wets her lips, and I try not to look at her mouth, or think about kissing her, but I fail. I think about it. In vivid, I-want-to-fuck-her detail.

“This is what you do?” she asks. “How you live? Always looking over your shoulder? Is that how I have to live?”

“I, like others in the organization I work for, find what no one else can find.”

“For a price.”

“Yes. For a price.”

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Escaping Reality (book 1) is available to "Read Free" on NetGalley right now - https://s2.netgalley.com/catalog/book/62595

Infinite Possibilities (book 2) is on sale for $1.99 (reg. $7.99) until 8/16

For More information on The Secret Life of Amy Bensen series page including: buy links, and excerpts for the previous two and also upcoming releases. Visit Lisa’s website here: http://bit.ly/AmyBensen

About the Author:

New York Times and USA Today Bestselling author Lisa Renee Jones is the author of the highly acclaimed INSIDE OUT SERIES, and is now in development by Suzanne Todd (Alice in Wonderland) for cable TV. In addition, her Tall, Dark and Deadly series and The Secret Life of Amy Bensen series, both spent several months on a combination of the NY Times and USA Today lists.

Watch the video on casting for the INSIDE TV Show HERE

Since beginning her publishing career in 2007, Lisa has published more than 40 books translated around the world. Booklist says that Jones suspense truly sizzles with an energy similar to FBI tales with a paranormal twist by Julie Garwood or Suzanne Brockmann.

Prior to publishing, Lisa owned multi-state staffing agency that was recognized many times by The Austin Business Journal and also praised by Dallas Women Magazine. In 1998 LRJ was listed as the #7 growing women owned business in Entrepreneur Magazine.

Lisa loves to hear from her readers. You can reach her at on her website and she is active on twitter and facebook daily.