Cocktails with Romance author Karen "KL" Docter PLUS a Half Price Special Offer & a Cocktail Recipe!

Good evening, dear readers! 

Thank you for joining me for Cocktails with Colette, my Happy Hour feature,  which I have on Thursday evenings on occasion to introduce you to some of my  author friends. You might notice that, although I usually have a picture of my own special dirty vodka martini, tonight I have something a little sweeter for your consumption. I call this the "Cosmo Compro" (as in "compromise") because, as always, I am trying to watch my weight - and lately have only watched it go up! This is approximately one part raspberry/pomegranate sorbet light vodka (I really should get a job as a D-minus-list celebrity endorser), one part (or so) club soda, and a bit of lime juice, garnished with a cherry. (I say "approximately" because when I fixed one for my daughter at a 1:1 ratio, she said it just tasted like the 
flavored fizzy water my step-mother always has -- so 
adjust to your own taste.) 

And get this:  it's only 75 calories! Well, not counting the cherry. Garnishes don't really count, do they? (If you follow me on Facebook, then you recently received the recipe for my other new cocktail I call "the cupcake." If you don't follow me - shame on you! I might take pity on you and include it on a future Cocktails; but you really should follow you favorite authors, like their posts, comment on them, and share them. Otherwise, Facebook won't post them in timelines! They are trying to force struggling artists such as myself to PAY to have our posts appear in the timelines of you and your friends. Sorry - I'm not going to pay so you can get a great cocktail recipe!)  But I digress.

Now, go on and pour yourself the cocktail of your choice as I introduce our guest.

I cannot begin to tell you how much I absolutely love Karen Docter. She writes both romantic suspense as well as sweet and spicy romance - just like yours truly! Throw in a Regency-era vampire, and we could be twins!

Tonight Karen is here to tell you about the first book in her "Thorne's Thorns" series, Killing Secrets. What a great title! And once you read this excerpt, you're going to be dying to read the rest. So guess what! For one week, beginning today (Thursday, December 4th), Karen (or "K.L.") has the Kindle version on sale for half price - only $2.99! So grab it at this special price while you can!

~Colette

 

Excerpt from Killing Secrets

Denver, Colorado.

At the first crack of gunfire, Rachel dove headfirst into the garden she was weeding. Listening for the second report she expected to follow, she prayed Amanda stayed at Patrick Thorne’s house where she’d gone an hour ago to play with her new friend, Suze.

Gasping for air, she inhaled the rich, spicy scent of freshly turned soil and crushed nasturtiums instead. Dirt and grit bit into her cheek and the bare flesh exposed by her cutoffs and T-shirt. The mid-afternoon sun beat hot against her shoulders and legs, and all she could do was lie there and watch a fat bumblebee dip into a russet blossom three inches from her nose.

Had she run almost nine hundred miles only to die like this, grubbing alone in the dirt like a spineless worm?

A surge of anger gave her impetus to lift her head. She peeked over the flimsy wall of twelve-inch annuals between her and the street. A second gunshot rang out, belched in a cloud of black smoke from an ancient Volkswagen bus that disappeared around the corner.

Backfire?

She groaned, more relieved than embarrassed by her overreaction. Her chin dropped. Taking several deep draughts of the thin Colorado air, she worked to calm the pound of her heart against her ribcage. Her efforts made her head swim. A
minute later she was able to push herself out of the three-foot section of garden she’d mown down.

Her nerves had been on edge since she fled Dallas on Friday, five days ago. If she weren’t so overwrought it would have occurred to her Greg would never stand at a distance and take potshots at her. No. Greg liked to look into her eyes when he meted out his punishments.

An icy shiver skimmed her skin. Each day that passed without his appearance should have reassured her she’d made the right decision to accept Katy’s arrangements with the Thornes. As long as Greg didn’t track her and Amanda to Denver, they were safe.

Problem is she hadn’t felt safe since Amanda was born and she discovered what kind of man she’d married. Now she couldn’t pluck enough weeds from Evelyn Thorne’s gardens by day to tear the anxiety from her heart at night. Her growing sense of trepidation kept her awake long after the morning stars dimmed above the mile-high city’s cloudless skies.

How could the justice system simply hand Greg a “get out of jail free” card?  She’d always known the man had connections in high places, but how had he arranged for the evidence in his case—evidence she’d risked everything to provide—to disappear before he even went to trial?  If he’d accomplished that feat while behind bars, how in the world was she and Amanda going to stay out of his clutches?

She felt like there were giant bull’s-eyes painted on their backs, that it was only a matter of time before Greg tracked them down. During their marriage the man would spend weeks, even months, laying meticulous groundwork for one of his cons. He’d had six months to plan dozens of new punishments for his betrayer.

“‘Til death us do part, darlin’.”

His words echoed over the expanse of time and distance, ringing a fresh peal of dread in Rachel’s breast. With one hand, she brushed clumps of soil off her tangerine T-shirt and whispered a small prayer. Please don’t let him find us!

 

About Killing Secrets

Some secrets are better left dead.

Rachel James’ ex-husband is released from prison determined to reclaim her and her little girl — the child is his key to controlling the James fortune. Frightened, Rachel flees to Denver with the child who hasn’t uttered a word since her daddy went to prison.

Contractor Patrick Thorne wants nothing to do with another of his parents’ charity cases. He failed his own wife so abysmally she took her own life as well as his unborn son’s. After two years, it’s time to concentrate on the bid he’s won and the saboteur trying to destroy his construction firm.

There is no room for trust in either of their hearts. But trust is all that will untangle the secrets that dominate their lives, free a little girl of her silent prison, and save them all from a serial killer who stands too close.

Available on Kindle Half-Price for One Week Only!
Thorne’s Thorns series
Romantic Suspense
Buy Now: Amazon | B&N | Print 

About the Author

K.L. Docter writes two different kinds of romance novels....

Romantic Suspense w/a K.L. Docter: Women hunted by killers...men who'd die to protect them.

Contemporary Romance w/a Karen Docter: Romance...With a Kick!

K.L.'s romantic suspense novels are filled with romance, although the dangers the hero and heroine face are intense, usually because a serial killer is bent on ending one or both of their lives before they can fall in love.

Her contemporaries (written as Karen Docter) are cute & spicy romances. She loves writing about real men and women with dreams and goals that don't allow for a relationship just so she can throw them in each other's path...with a tickle and a smile.

K.L./Karen's an award winning author, a four-time Romance Writers of America® Golden Heart® finalist, and won the coveted Kiss of Death Romance Writers Daphne du Maurier Award Category (Series) Romantic Mystery Unpublished division.

When she's not saving her characters from death and destruction or helping them fall in love, she loves camping and fishing with her family, reading, gardening & cooking. If she can do most of those things over a campfire, all the better!

For more information: Website/Blog/Twitter/Facebook/Pinterest: www.karendocter.com