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Showing posts with label Desperate Deeds. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Desperate Deeds. Show all posts

Sunday, September 12, 2010

Winners of Desperate Deeds by Dee Davis

CONGRATULATIONS
to the winners of
Desperate Deeds by Dee Davis
Desperate Deeds
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I will send Robyn, Jacinda, Neljo, Tracey and Beverly the form to fill out for the Hachette win.

Thank you to everyone who entered and thanks again to Hachette for sponsoring the giveaway.

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Review - Desperate Deeds by Dee Davis

This book has lots of action, underlying secrets, betrayal and sexy romance.

Desperate Deeds by Dee Davis

  • Mass Market Paperback: 400 pages
  • Publisher: Forever (August 2, 2010)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0446542024
  • ISBN-13: 978-0446542029
Rating: 4.0 of 5.0

Product Description
As the demolitions expert for A-Tac, a black-ops CIA unit masquerading as Ivy League faculty, Tyler Hanson has two great loves: literature and explosives. She lives by the motto "Duty First" and doesn't have time for personal attachments . . . until a steamy one-night stand turns into a professional partnership.

BURNED BY BETRAYAL
When Tyler meets Owen Wakefield, a handsome British operative, she seduces him with no intention of ever seeing him again. But then the sexy Brit is brought into A-Tac, and despite Tyler's efforts to keep her distance, she finds herself falling for him. Trusting him.

Owen seems too good to be true - and he is. He's hiding his true motives and identity, and no matter how he feels about Tyler, he can't keep her secrets. One of A-Tac's members has turned traitor and helped terrorists to hijack a shipment of nuclear weapons. As witnesses start dying and evidence starts disappearing, Owen and Tyler must race to find the mole - and prevent a final, cataclysmic act of destruction.
Review:
This is book 3 of the A-Tac series. I had not read book 1 but I read and reviewed book 2, Dangerous Desires. A common thread to each story  is the threat of a traitor on the team.

This story starts out with Tyler in depression over a failed mission where two young soldiers were killed but she survived. The circumstances put her involvement as suspect especially with the recent string of sabotaged missions involving the A-Tac team.

Tyler decides to assuage her misery with the handsome Brit who was supposed to receive the stolen detonators. Tyler is pretty much a loner. She concentrates on her bombs and missions with A-Tac.  She was once in love but she was abandoned.  Now she doesn’t waste time and energy on romance, but a one night stand seems like a good idea ... at the time.

Owen is sexy and suave, like James Bond. He has a few hidden secrets though.  The biggest secret is that he has been recruited to spy on the A-Tac team, particularly on Tyler who is the primary suspect for the thefts.  The more he is around her the less he suspects her but the clues still point to her involvement and his superior, who has it in for A-Tac, is set on exposing the team.

Tyler and Owen follow a trail of dead people as each time they go to interview a witness or a lead they find another person murdered. Along the way they are dodging bullets as there are several attempts made on Tyler’s life. There are a few red herring suspects which keeps the reader’s interest in wanting to learn who the traitor is.

The hardest part of this plot for me was the hunt and the “down to the wire” attempts to prevent detonation of the nuclear weapon. This book reminded me of one of the not so believable episodes of the TV series 24; a series I really like. Even though you might wonder if  all of that could really happen in 24 hours (and you wonder why Jack is a one man hero), there is a lot of enjoyable excitement in the action.

The romance is sexy and sweet in its own way as the characters grow from lust to love.  Isn’t that what we love about romance? Watching the characters overcome the obstacles as they journey from aloneness, to reluctance, to “maybe this is it” and finally arriving at “lets stick together till our dotage.” Of course, that assumes that Tyler will get over feeling betrayed when she learns that Owen’s real role in helping the team has been as a spy.

I always enjoy Dee Davis’ characters and their interaction as well as the intriguing plots. This is  a solid, entertaining read.
xxx
Thank you to Hachette and Anna for providing the book to read and review. Be sure to check out the author interview and the giveaway!
CymLowell

Giveaway - Five Copies Desperate Deeds by Dee Davis



Enter to win a book with intrigue, suspense, danger, and romance!


TO ENTER THIS GIVEAWAY:

1. For your main entry make a comment on one of these four items. Make sure you leave your e-mail address!
a) Answer the Question the Author posed at Q11 of the Interview.
b) Check out the Five Fun Facts and tell me something you found interesting. OR
c) You can visit the author's website and tell me something you found there.
d) Tell me what other Dee Davis book you have read.

2. For an extra entry, become a follower or tell me if you are already a follower.

3. For another entry, blog, facebook, tweet (any of those networks!) about this giveaway and tell me where you did.

4. For TWO extra entries comment on the review post.

5. For another TWO extra entries comment on the author interview.

It isn't necessary to use separate entries unless you want them in different chronological order.

(Seven total entries possible.) MAKE SURE YOU LEAVE YOUR E-MAIL! Five winners!

* This contest is only open to residents of US and Canada.
* No P.O. Boxes Please - for shipping reasons
* This contest will close 10 PM (Central) on September 10, 2010. The winners will be randomly selected from all entries.

Blog Tour INTERVIEW with Dee Davis, Author of Desperate Deeds

Please help me welcome author Dee Davis to the interview mic!  Then read my review and enter the giveaway for Desperate Deeds

Martha:
1Q.  I am very thrilled to get to ask you some questions! I have been a fan since 2001 when I read Just Breathe which is still on my shelves. (See the feature post for proof of my collection.)  I see that you have some time travels that I need to get and some women’s fiction. What inspired you to write the different genres you write? Do you have plans to write in any other genres? 
Just Breathe
Dee Davis: Well first off, thanks for loving Just Breathe – it’s one of my favorites, too!   I actually fell in love with Time Travels when reading a book by Leslie LaFoy and then later reading Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander.   But all three of my time travels (Everything In Its Time, The Promise, and Wild Highland Rose) are at heart, romantic suspense, just with the added twist of a hero or heroine out of time.   The women’s fiction books are in essence romantic comedies, and were books I wrote in an effort to stretch my writing abilities.  A new challenge as it were.  A Match Made on Madison is an homage to Austen’s Emma and also to my love of Manhattan.   Set-Up in SoHo is a sequel to Match.  At the moment, I’m enjoying concentrating on the A-Tac series.   There will be three more A-Tac books coming in 2011 and 2012.

Martha: That sounds good to me - except if we have to wait that long to discover the identity of the traitor!

2Q.  Is there a big transition in your writing style from one genre to another?

Dee Davis:  Definitely a change with the romantic comedies, particularly because they’re written in first person rather than third.  But I do think there are commonalities in all my books.  My voice is still present in each style, just expressed a bit differently.   There’s less room for comedy in romantic suspense, but I do think (as in Just Breathe) it can become a part of the story.  Shakespeare was famous for using comedic bits to break up the suspense/tragedy in some of his plays.  I’m certainly no Shakespeare, but the principle holds true.

Martha: Yes. I think that is one thing that caught me with those stand alone books: the humor as a plus with the intrigue and romance.

3Q. I love series and I like to ask this question:  When you do a series do you have each book plotted out before you start the first one or do the subsequent books flow from the first book?

Exposure (Last Chance Trilogy)Dee Davis:  I like to think of plotting as a road map.  I know where I’m starting and where I want to end and maybe a few stops along the way.  But the rest of the journey is in the discovery.  So I have some idea of each book.  But not a complete synopsis.  That’s done just as I begin each book.  And there’s always room for a detour or two.   In my Last Chance series, the third book was meant to go to a different hero, but as I wrote Nigel Ferris, I began to realize that his needed to be the third story (Exposure).  So changes do happen!  So the answer I guess is a bit of both.  Some planning and some flowing J.

Martha: That was another exciting trilogy.
4Q.  What most inspires your plots?

Dee Davis:  Ideas come from anywhere.  In the beginning it can be a character—like Tyler in Desperate Deeds.  She came to me almost fully formed and demanded her fifteen minutes of fame.  Sometimes it’s an incident from my life.  When we lived in Vienna we traveled a lot by train.  I had a six month old when we first arrived and I live in fear of the gap between the bottom of the train steps and the platform, certain that I was going to fall and hurt my child.  From that came the premise of Just Breathe.  What if a woman fell from a train onto a dead man?  Occasionally, as with The Promise, it’s all about location.  I spent my summers growing up just outside Creede, Colorado.  My dad was a fly fisherman.  And over those years I grew to love the mining town and its history and wanted to feature it (fictitiously) in a book.  The Promise was born.   With the A-Tac series the central premise came from my love for academia (I adored college and always thought it would be cool to be a professor) and my love for international intrigue.  The CIA wasn’t as interested in me as I was in them, unfortunately, so I live my dreams through A-Tac.  But, the good part is, that it’s a lot less dangerous that way.

Martha:  Yes - having the adventures through books is much less dangerous!
5Q.  Can you summarize Desperate Deeds in one sentence?

Dee Davis: Two people finding love in the midst of trying to stop a nuclear detonation.

Martha:  Good job summarizing!
6Q.  In Desperate Deeds is there anything that your heroine would never be caught dead doing or saying?

Dee Davis: The word “No.”   Tyler isn’t the kind to give in.   She’s up for almost any challenge.  And she’s determined to see it through.  She’s afraid of commitment.  Or more realistically that no one would be willing to commit to her as she is.  But she’s so determined to follow through that even when she doubts Owen, she hangs in there trying to find the truth.

Martha: I say "Yay for tenacious Tyler"!
7Q.  Is there an ancillary character you had the most fun with during the A-Tac series?

Dee Davis: I’ve always adored Harrison Blake.  He first made his appearance in the Last Chance Books (Endgame, Enigma and Exposure), so I was delighted when he wound up assigned to help Owen with A-Tac in Desperate Deeds.  And if I had to predict, I don’t think this is the last we’ll see of him either.   I also adore Hannah Marshall.   Her changing eyewear and hair color make her quirky and provide contrast to her more serious A-Tac persona as a Sunderland College professor of political science and resident intel expert.

Martha: I too hope to see a story for Hannah and Harrison!
8Q.  Have you had to do any unique research or what was one of the most surprising things you learned in researching for any of your books?

Chain ReactionDee Davis:  I do a lot of research and to be honest most of it is quite interesting.  For Dangerous Desires, I had to learn a lot about Colombia and the Andes area where the book is set.  So there was a lot of history and topography as well as learning about plants and vegetation that inhabit that part of the world.  Perhaps the most interesting area of study came for Chain Reaction when I had to study frog poisons.  Particularly a lethal variety that certain frogs in the South American jungles carry.   (The use of this poison as a biochemical toxin came strictly from my imagination).  Over the years I’ve learned all kinds of things.  From the ATF robots used to defuse a bomb (Enigma) to the correct technique for climbing a sheer cliff in Cyprus (Dark Deceptions).  I have vertigo, so that one was strictly on paper.

Martha: It sounds like you have fun with the research.
9Q.  I was pleased to learn that you mention Mary Stewart books in your first 15 books.  She was the first romance novelist I read after seeing The Moonspinners as a teen. Is there an author who inspired you or helped you along on your writing career?

Dee Davis: Mary Stewart is my most favorite author.  I still believe her descriptive narrative is some of the best ever written.   And her heroines were always intelligent which is something I find very important in the books I read.  The Moon-Spinners is one of my all-time favorite books (along with My Brother Michael!)  I also was influenced by Michael Crichton, Robert Ludlum, Alistair McLean and Madeline L’Engle.  All of those authors, and many, many others helped shape what I believe makes a good book.  And so indirectly they helped me as I developed my craft.  Before starting my first book, I actually read something like 400 romance books over one summer as I attempted to get a handle on the market and on what I particularly liked and disliked in a romance.  And still today, I find bits of other people’s books that inspire me to try harder to make my books the best they can possibly be.  But overall, I’d have to say that it’s my editors who help me grow the most.  Their insight is invaluable. 

Martha: lI am glad that you've had lots of good inspiration and lots of good support.
10Q.  What type of promotion do you do and do you enjoy promoting?

Dee Davis:  Promoting---now there’s the ten million dollar question.   I do promote.  Primarily these days through blogs like yours. (Thank you!).   And social networking like Twitter and Facebook.  Although I also enjoy using those to rediscover old friends and/or just for fun.   I also maintain a website.  I speak at conferences.  And love anything that gives me the chance to interact with readers.  Writing is a solitary endeavor, so it’s always great to be reminded that books don’t just fall into a void.  Talking with readers about characters and books is always a treat.

Martha: I am very pleased to host you (and other authors) and to spread the word about good books!
11Q.  If you could have readers finish a sentence what would it be?

Dee Davis: If I were a romance heroine, my idea of the perfect location for my story would be….....?

Martha: Ohh- good question!
12Q.  Just for fun: Since you like cooking, do you have a favorite meal or recipe that you’d like to tell us about?

Dee Davis: At the moment I’m in love with a recipe for Macaroni and Cheese.  I’m a latecomer to the dish and this one is truly comfort food at its best.  The original recipe called for Gruyere cheese but I adapted it for my family’s tastes.  So:    Melt four tablespoons of butter in a saucepan.  Mix in ¼ cup plus two tablespoons flour.  Stir over med low heat for four minutes until flour begins to brown and smells nutty.   Add three cups of milk (whole –for richer sauce).  Stir constantly for another four minutes. Add salt and white pepper to taste.  Then add one package of shredded Italian mix cheese (I use Kraft) and about a cup of cheddar cheese cut into cubes.   Stir until completely melted.    Meanwhile – cook one lb. of pasta – your choice of shape but you want something the sauce can cling to, (like penne or shells).   Drain.    Add pasta to sauce (or the other way 'round depending on your pan) and toss together.   Pour into a 13 x 9 inch pan.    Then take ¾ cup bread crumbs (I use Japanese Panko) and ¼ cup grated fresh parmesan and mix with three tablespoons melted butter.   Sprinkle this on top of the casserole.  Cover with foil and bake at 350 for 30 minutes.  Uncover and cook for 15 minutes more.   Serve with a salad and crusty bread and Yum!

Martha:  Thank you, Dee, for sharing with us today; thank you for the yummy recipe and thank you for your yummy books! :)
Dark DeceptionsDangerous DesiresDesperate Deeds

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