Deal Sharing Aunt: VENGEANCE by Belle Ami Giveaway & Interview

NEW BOOK RELEASE !!

Book 2 of the thrilling Tip of the Spear series by Belle Ami

VENGEANCE

Belle Ami

Series: Tip of the Spear Book 2
Genre: Romance, Thriller, Suspense
Publisher: Hartwood Publishing
Publication Date: September 12, 2017

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A Mossad agent will do anything to rescue his kidnapped wife and to stop a terrorist plot to blow up a nuclear facility.

Vengeance is a sexy thriller teeming with romantic suspense. A well-researched tale, scary in its possibility, packed with excitement, it will leave you breathlessly turning pages.

Layla Wallace Hassani is living her dream, curating a major art exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art. She has it all, a fabulous career, the perfect marriage and the perfect child. She’s madly in love with her husband Cyrus Hassani, a Mossad agent, and lives in Tel Aviv with their four-year-old daughter Cerise. Her life takes a disastrous turn when she’s kidnapped by Iranian terrorists during the bombing of a restaurant in Manhattan. Chained to a bed at a remote location, Layla is a pawn in a deadly game. She’s the bait to lure Cyrus to his death.

Driven by vengeance and a love that knows no bounds, Cyrus will do anything to rescue his wife and stop the terrorist’s plot to blow up a nuclear facility. Teaming up with the FBI he’s the only man capable of stopping a bombing that would result in the deaths of millions of people. Filled with vengeance, stopping the terrorists is his goal, but saving Layla is his mission.

Layla knows her Superman, Cyrus, is coming to save her. She also knows, unbeknownst to him, that by doing so it will mean the death of their child. Caught in a mousetrap, she struggles to find a way out of her deadly situation and to fend off the sexual advances of the kidnapper terrorist who’s fallen in love with her.

Layla must make a choice, save her child or sacrifice herself and her marriage. The clock is ticking.

Another page turner by Belle Ami. Suspense fans and those who enjoy a well crafted story won't be disappointed.

- Therese Gilardi, Goodreads Reviewer

Belle Ami's Book 2 of this Series may be my favorite yet. The depth of this story line, the suspense, kept me enraptured and breathless. I'm blown away! Congratulations!

- Amazon Customer

Purchase Links

Available now for $4.99 only. Grab your copy today.

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Other Books by Belle Ami

Don't miss the other books in the Tip of the Spear series:

ESCAPE

Series: Tip of the Spear Book 1

Escape, a sexy romantic thriller that “what ifs?” a nuclearized Middle East.

When Harvard student, Layla Wallace and her Saudi boyfriend are kidnapped to Iran, a deep-cover Mossad agent is activated and given a mission. He’s ordered to either get Layla out of Iran, or if failing that—kill her.

Buy Links: Available on Amazon.com

This story is suspenseful, it's smart, it's sexy, it's a page-turner that you will be loathed to put down.
- Romance Reviews

Giveaway

WIN $25 GIFT CARD AND MORE!

Prizes up for grabs:
$25 Amazon Gift Card
3 Digital Copies of Escape (Tip of the Spear Book 1)

Contest runs from October 13 - November 2, 2017.

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About Belle Ami

Belle Ami writes romantic/suspense/thrillers with a teaspoon of sex. Escape (Tip of the Spear Book 1) is up for a RONE Award in 2018. Her latest is entitled Vengeance (Tip of the Spear Book 2) published by Hartwood Publishing. She lives in Southern California with her husband, two children, a horse named Cindy Crawford, and her brilliant Chihuahua, Giorgio Armani.

Interview:

1. What’s your inspiration for writing Vengeance?

Vengeance is the second book in my Tip of the Spear Series. In my first book Escape I created a double agent, Cyrus Hassani, a man driven by his beliefs to fight against injustice and a passion to stop the Middle East from becoming nuclearized. Cyrus is a man who sacrificed his own chances for happiness for the greater good. He never intended to marry, have a family, or live a safe life, but when he rescued Layla, his perfectly planned life took a dramatic turn, he fell in love. In Vengeance, his world is upended when Layla is kidnapped again in New York and a terrorist cabal threatens to unleash devastation on the United States.

In the first book Layla is kidnapped because she’s in the wrong place at the wrong time. In Vengeance, she’s the target. Iran wants revenge against the traitor Cyrus Hassani and she’s the bait. This is a collision of Cyrus’ purpose in life. He must save the woman he loves and stop a deadly plot. My underlying inspiration is always to inform about the threats that face our world and dress them in a read that will take my audience on a roller coaster ride of romance and adventure.

2. Vengeance is book 2 in the series. What connects all the books in the series?

Tip of the Spear is the translation of the Hebrew word Kidon. It functions as an elite, super-secret Intel agency within Mossad. Kidon is completely autonomous and is comprised of assassins and warrior agents, women and men who are responsible for retribution against enemies that wish to destroy Israel. Very little is known about them, which is lovely fodder for an author’s imagination. All the books planned for the series entail heroic stories about the members of Mossad and more specifically Kidon. Naturally, my hero, Cyrus will continue to be prominent, but I have other characters who will step forward to take their place as heroes with him.And, of course, there is always an endless supply of evil and bad guys.

3. Please share an interesting fact you’ve uncovered in the course of researching for your book.

I had no idea that in the United States, one of our weakest links in our security is nuclear regeneration plants. Although, we have numerous safeguards in place we still are particularly vulnerable. The possibility exists of a breach in security that could cause a nuclear meltdown killing millions of people. In my research, I learned that many of these facilities have been cited for incidents in the past and lapses in security. To this day, spent fuel is stored on site because no state wants to store the stuff. However, there are plans to increase security and to store spent rods elsewhere, but to date there has been no resolution.

4. What is it about romantic suspense/thriller that draws you?

I’m drawn to complicated stories of life and death that embody passion. Whether it be a passionate love, or a passion about improving the world and stopping evil. Combining the two makes my story's human, vulnerable, and exciting.

Wilkie Collins’ in his book Woman in White wrote, “The best men are not consistent in good—why should the worst men be consistent in evil?” It completely conveys the type of characters I enjoy creating. Nothing in this world is black and white, but rather shades of gray. I love stretching my ability as a writer, challenging myself. My favorite review from readers is when they share that they couldn’t put the book down.

5. Tell us about Layla Hassani. Why is she a character readers would empathize with?

Layla personifies a woman who is striving to have it all. Career, motherhood, and the nurturing of a great love for her man. She’s beautiful and feisty, and willing to do anything to protect those she loves. In Vengeance, she’ll be asked to make choices, choices no person should ever have to face. She’ll have to use every tool in her toolbox to save herself and those she loves. Beauty, brains, and deception, just to name a few. Survival does strange things to people. The question is can she emerge victorious, can she return to the woman she once was?Can she have her cake and eat it too?

6. What about Cyrus Hassani? Why is he Layla’s Superman?

Cyrus is a spy, a killer, a chameleon, a man altered by his experiences and training. With Layla, he found the one person who offered redemption. He may have saved her life countless times and rescued her from Iran, but her love saved him. Without her he’s lost, soulless.

Layla knows she has a tiger by the tail with Cyrus. However, she also knows that he’d lay down his life for her, he’s done it before.

In book one, Escape, when Cyrus first rescues her from Evin prison he doesn’t identify himself. Given the circumstances, and the way he looks and acts she thinks of him as her Superman. It becomes her private nickname, one that only he and she share.

7. Please give us a sneak peek at the next book in the series.

The truth is I’m two-thirds done with another book that demanded to be written in between my beginning Cyrus’ next adventure. The working title of the new one is Out of Time and it’s about an art history researcher at the Getty museum and an art detective on the hunt for a painting. I’m very excited about this book and most likely another new series. The coolest thing about Angela Renatus and Alex Caine is, this isn’t their first go around together. They’ve lived before and their past lives are catching up with them. I’ll just let those seeds germinate in your imagination.

As far as the Tip of the Spear series goes, I end Vengeance with a hint to where we’re headed. It seems that fifty million dollars’ worth of diamonds has been taken by a Kidon agent who’s disappeared in Lebanon. For what purpose, you’ll just have to wait and see. However, I will share that North Korea, Hezbollah, and Russia will factor in and Cyrus will be drawn into an intrigue that will threaten Layla, their children, and the world.

Unedited excerpt from Out of Time

He’d begun following Angela two weeks before and discovered her odd behavior. Just before closing time, every day Angela left the Getty Research Institute, where books and research papers were left neatly stacked on her desk. She always returned to the same painting as if a moth drawn to a flame. A portrait by Sandro Botticelli of Giuliano de’ Medici on loan from the Berlin State Museums.

He couldn’t figure out her fixation on the portrait and he was determined to find out why.

It was nearly closing time and there were few people left in the North Pavilion where pre-1700 paintings and sculptures were displayed. Natural light from the ceiling cast a warm glow through the room, washing the precious masterpieces in a filtered luminosity. When he heard her heels click on the herringbone parquet floors he pretended to be absorbed in a painting. From the corner of his eye he watched her disappear into the adjoining exhibition room.

Ms. Renatus obsession with the Renaissance noble grew longer every day, and Alex wondered about the young man captured in eternal contemplation. He couldn’t remember ever seeing another portrait like it, where the subject’s eyes were hidden from the viewer. Nonetheless, the artist had chosen to paint the young man with his eyes downcast. The youth was very handsome, almost beautiful, his face framed by thick, luxurious dark waves of hair. He was attired in a rich red velvet tunic that distinguished him as a man of royalty or rank. However, wealth could not dispel the overwhelming sense of sadness imbued in his face. In three-quarter profile, his finely etched brows portrayed a man of extreme sensitivity, his face and demeanor more that of a poet.

Trailing Angela, he found her sitting on a sofa in the center of the gallery. When he entered, she showed no sign that her private sojourn with the painting had been intruded upon. With her hands folded in her lap she sat like a statue, her brown hair neatly pinned in a bun. Her eyes never fluctuated from the young noble’s face.

She was so deep in contemplation that he felt certain he could have broken out in song and still she wouldn’t have reacted. He hovered for a few minutes, unsure of what to do next. Curious as to her reaction, he sat next to her on the sofa and faced the painting. There was a decent amount of space between them, but he could still smell the floral scent that emanated from her. He tried to ignore the disturbing jolt of attraction that vibrated through his body.

When he turned slightly to observe her face, he was surprised to find that she’d closed her eyes. Had he misplaced his curiosity on a painting that meant nothing? Had she stolen away to this quiet space for a cat nap?

At that moment, the light coming from the skylight dimmed. Shadows enfolded the paintings, changing the perspective of the works, throwing them into darkness and dulling their brilliance. When he returned his gaze to the portrait, however, he found that while all the other paintings had grown darker in the gloom, Giuliano’s portrait seemed to grow brighter. Alex looked up to ascertain where the strange illumination was coming from, but he could see no beam of light coming from the skylights that might explain the radiance that lit the painting.

What happened next caused him to doubt his own sanity. Angela’s eyes fluttered open. Her lips became fuller, and her eyes grew wide and catlike. Something about her gaze felt amorous and sensual, and he couldn’t contain his body’s reaction. She’d become a mesmerizing beauty who seemed to gaze lovingly at the man in the portrait, a man dead for over five hundred years. It was confusing, without reason or source. His eyes shifted back to the portrait and what he saw had him nearly jumping out of his skin. What the hell is going on? Giuliano, the man in the portrait, opened his eyes and stared back at Angela, his dark eyes reflecting her same sensual gaze. The man in the painting and the woman were locked on one another. The intensity of their desire made the hair on Alex’s arms stand up. He felt as if he was witnessing a seduction that might result in a steamy sexual encounter. But the oddest sensation was his own arousal as if he too was the focus of their gaze.

Alex shook his head, trying to clear his vision. Any minute he expected to hear Rod Serling say “There is a fifth dimension beyond that which is known to man.” Am I in some kind of Twilight Zone?

Then, bizarrely, Angela turned to him and began speaking Italian. He was fluent in Italian and her words and the way she said them made his heart pound in his chest. “Tu sei l'unico uomo che farò ogni amore.” He couldn’t take his eyes off her full lips when she repeated, “You are the only man I will ever love.” She leaned in and pressed her lips to his, her tongue prodding, provoking him to respond. Uncontrollable desire seized him and he grabbed her behind the head, unable to stop his response. His fingers entwined in the silk of her hair, pulling it free from the confines of her bun. A waterfall of waves fell sumptuously down her back. Their tongues danced together and he lost himself in her impassioned kiss. Regaining his composure, he pulled from her mouth, his eyes darting back to the painting. He was relieved to see Giuliano’s eyes were once more closed.

He returned his gaze to Angela and found her observing him. Her eyes the color of green forest moss bore the same sensuous gaze as before. He shook his head. He could have sworn her eyes were brown. When his focus returned, he realized he must have been hallucinating because her eyes indeed were brown. Standing, she whispered, “Siamo in questo insieme. Devi aiutarmi. È il nostro destino.” He was paralyzed by her words, “We are in this together. You must help me. It is our destiny.” And without another word she rose and left.

The gallery filled with light again, the clouds no longer blocking the rays of the sun. There was nothing to indicate that anything out of the ordinary had occurred.

He was sweating and his pulse was elevated. The surprise kiss had unglued him. There was no one he’d dare share this with. If he did, he’d probably find himself in a straitjacket packed off to some looney bin. He sought to find a plausible explanation. It must be this case. Searching for a painting that might not even exist, based on letters from an art historian who disappeared off the face of the earth seventy-three years ago.

Inanimate objects don’t come to life. It must have been the light playing with my imagination. And the kiss? Yeah, it’s been too long since there’s been a woman in your life. You’re losing it buddy, working too hard.

One thing was for sure, if anything he was more intrigued than before to where his investigation would take him. Tonight, he planned on learning more about Ms. Angela Renatus, and how she fit in the puzzle.

Official website: http://belleami.us/

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