This case may prove to be too hot to handle.
There's silver out there: Sabrina Eckhart is sure of it. And when she finds the hidden mine on that big piece of West Texas desert, all of her financial problems are solved. That is, if she can find it. The man with the skills she needs is private investigator Alex Justice—a former navy fighter pilot and a current pain in the neck.
When mysterious "accidents" start to plague their search, it seems Rina's multi-acre inheritance might be more a curse than a blessing. And yet, there's still something sensual about the heat…his arrogance…her stubbornness…being thrust into each other's arms by danger… But the vultures are circling, and if they don't watch their backs, the relentless desert sun could be the last thing Rina and Alex ever see.
Kat Martin
Currently living in Missoula, Montana, Kat Martin is the bestselling author of over fifty Historical and Contemporary Romance novels. Before she started writing in 1985, Kat was a real estate broker. During that time, she met her husband, Larry Jay Martin, also an author. Kat is a graduate of the University of California at Santa Barbara, where she majored in Anthropology and also studied History. "I love anything old," Kat says. "I love to travel and especially like to visit the places where my books are set. My husband and I often stay in out-of-the-way inns and houses built in times past. It's fun and it gives a wonderful sense of a by-gone era." To date, Kat has over twelve million copies of her books in print. She is published in twenty foreign countries, including Germany, Norway, Sweden, China, Korea, Bulgaria, Russia, England, South Africa, Italy, Spain, Argentina, Japan and Greece.
From author about the book:
The book was interesting to write, a different kind of story that deals with survival in the harsh, inhospitable desert, family betrayal, and long-buried secrets. The characters had to overcome stereotypes and learn to trust and love.Alex and Rina are two of my favorite characters, so different on the surface, yet oddly suited. Though it takes a life-and-death struggle before they begin to see the truth.
Guest Post
CHRISTMAS IN TEXAS
by Kat Martin
Though
I’ve never experienced Christmas in Texas Houston
Born
in the little town of Uvalde
It’s
the inheritance Rina receives from her uncle--an abandoned silver mine in the
West Texas desert--that gives her the courage to ask her long-time nemesis,
Alex Justice for help.
G.Q.
handsome and obscenely rich, Alex is a private investigator and an ex-Navy
pilot. Rina met him when he was helping
with security for her best friend, Sage Dumont.
Sabrina doesn’t like him, but she knows he’s good at his job and she
trusts him to keep her safe.
Alex
is just the man she needs to fly her into the desert in search of her late
uncle’s property. Running out of money,
she’s determined to find the mine and make it productive, even if it means
putting up with the cocky jet jockey she finds annoyingly attractive.
The
book was interesting to write, a different kind of story that deals with
survival in the harsh, inhospitable desert, family betrayal, and long-buried
secrets. The characters had to overcome
stereotypes and learn to trust and love.
Alex
and Rina are two of my favorite characters, so different on the surface, yet
oddly suited. Though it takes a
life-and-death struggle before they begin to see the truth.
I hope
you’ll watch for AGAINST THE ODDS--out December 18th--and that you enjoy the
book. What Holiday Traditions do you
celebrate in your family? Merry
Christmas! Kat
Rina’s
adrenaline was pumping. The thrill of
being so high in an open-air helicopter was a rush unlike anything she had ever
felt before. Add to that, flying with
Alex Justice, watching his long-fingered hands work the controls, seeing the
capable way he handled the machine, made her heart rate soar even higher. There was something about a man taking
charge, a man who was good at what he did, that turned her on.
Not
that she would ever admit it.
Alex
wasn’t her type and she wasn’t his and both of them knew it. Still, she wasn’t dead and Alex was
definitely eye candy and more.
She
forced herself to concentrate on the search they were making. They’d been flying for more than an hour, had
located the property but not the mine itself--assuming there was one. There’d been nothing in the will to indicate
its location or anything about it. Just
the legal description of the land itself, three-thousand acres, five-square
miles, of what appeared to be dirt, rocks, and cactus.
Her
gaze followed the contours of the property.
Ravines scarred the landscape, and ridges of granite rose out of the
sloping desert floor. Chaparral,
mesquite, and scrub brush dotted endless stretches of rocks and sand.
“Not
much out there,” Alex said above the whip, whip, whip of the rotors.
“We
haven’t covered that much area yet.
Maybe we’ll find something that marks the mine.”
“If
there is one,” Alex said, reminding her there might not be anything more than
exactly what they were seeing--miles and miles of vast, empty desert.
The
hours began to blur together. Once they
had reached the property location, Alex had begun searching in a grid pattern
to cover as much of the area as possible.
The temperature was rising, the heat building inside the chopper, the
afternoon slipping away. Rina yawned and
rubbed her eyes, which felt gritty from the wind and heat.
An odd
noise caught her attention. The whop,
whop, whop had been so regular she’d been trying not to fall asleep. This sound was different, a kind of grinding
that had her gaze shooting to Alex, who features suddenly looked grim.
Sabrina’s
heart stalled and a few seconds later, so did the engine.
“Alex,
what’s happening?”
Alex
heard the fear in Sabrina’s voice. There
wasn’t time to answer. Instead, his
years of training and experience kicked in and he did what he had been trained
to do--slamming the collective down to neutral, taking the pitch out of the
blade. The chopper fell like a stone.
“Oh,
my God!” Sabrina’s voice rose even
higher as she realized they were in trouble.
The
blades were flat now, the wind whistling up between them, making them spin even
faster than the engine, which had gone deadly silent.
“Just
hold on!” he shouted. “We’ll auto-rotate
down! We’ll be fine!” He’d done it dozens of times, knew without
thinking exactly how to make it happen.
As the inertia built, he began to search the ground for a place to land,
but something didn’t feel right, something was altering their approach while
they were still too high to make a safe landing.
It was
the blades, he realized. Instead of
moving at the speed they should have, they were sticking and slowing, jerking
instead of spinning smoothly. They were
going to hit the ground hard. Way too
hard.
At the
last minute, he flared the chopper, hoping to slow it as much as possible, hit
a little softer, keep the helo in one piece, but the chopper was coming in too
fast and the ground rushed up.
Sabrina
screamed as the windshield shattered and he leaned over her, tried to cover her
as much as he could with his body. The
rotor blades tore free and spun away, shattering into jagged pieces that flew
like deadly knives into the desert.
The
chopper shook and continued to disintegrate.
After what seemed like minutes but was only seconds, the machine finally
started to settle. Alex popped his
seatbelt and reached for Sabrina, eased her back in the seat and saw blood
trickling down her forehead. She was
moaning, conscious, but barely. From the
corner of his eye, he spotted the lick of orange flames behind them, rushing up
from what was left of the engine.
The
fuel tank was going to blow. They had to
get out and fast. Reaching behind his
seat, he grabbed his emergency gear bag, slung the strap over his shoulder, then
reached for Sabrina, popped her belt and started to pull her out of the chopper
from the pilot’s side.
The
effort had him hissing in pain, his body telling him he had injured a couple of
ribs, but there wasn’t time to worry about that now. Ignoring the sharp stab in his side, he
pulled Sabrina free of the wreckage, half dragged, half carried her over to an
outcropping of rock, settled her behind it.
There
was just enough time to throw himself over her, protecting her as much as he
could, before the helo exploded into a ball of thick black smoke and searing
flames. The blazing inferno shot into
the sky, and a barrage of shrapnel sliced through the air around them.
Alex
felt a sharp sting as a jagged piece of metal cut through his shirt and sliced
into his back. A second explosion ripped
through the air, then the only sound he heard was the crackle of flames.
He
took a quick look over the rock to make sure it was safe, then turned his
attention to the woman on the ground.
Her face was as pale as the sand under her head, and a thin line of
blood trickled from her forehead to her left temple.
She
moved her head a little and groaned.
Then her pretty blue eyes cracked open and she looked up at him. “Alex...?”
The
pain and fear in her voice made his chest clamp down. She was lucky to be alive. They both were. Lucky he’d been able to make any kind of
landing at all.
“It’s
all right, baby, you’re safe. I need to
take a look, see where you’re injured.”
She
reached a shaky hand up to her forehead.
“My head...hurts.” She swiped at
the trickle of blood. “I think I cut
myself.”
His
jaw hardened. She had hired him to
protect her. But he couldn’t protect her
from this. “Are you hurt anywhere else?”
“No, I
don’t...don’t think so.”
Jerking
the strap of the canvas bag off his shoulder, he set the bag aside and made a
cursory check for broken bones, felt her legs and arms, which seemed to be
okay. He checked for neck or spinal
injuries, didn’t find anything obvious.
There were nicks and cuts from the crash on her neck and arms, but aside
from that she seemed to be okay. Alex
breathed a sigh of relief that she hadn’t been hurt a lot worse.
“I’m
kind of dizzy.”
“You
probably have a slight concussion.” He
held up three fingers. “How many do you
see?”
“Three.”
He
checked her pupils. They looked
normal. “You remember what happened?”
“We
crashed. I remember how scared I was,
how fast the ground seemed to come up from beneath us. Then I blacked out.”
“We
hit pretty hard.” To say the least.
“Can
we...can we radio for help?”
“Chopper
exploded. No time to call it in and now
the radio’s gone.”
Her
eyes widened at the news. She sat up a
little too quickly and hissed in pain.
“Take
it easy.” He tried to ease her back
down, but she moved his hand away and managed to prop herself against the rock
to look over at the slow-burning chunk of metal, all that was left of the
helo. “What...what caused the crash?”
A
muscle tightened in his jaw. “I don’t
know. Something went wrong with the
engine. We should have been able to
auto-rotate down safely, but the rotors jammed.
We’re lucky we faired as well as we did.”
Her
eyes remained on the chopper, then swung to his face. “You saved me. You got me out of there. I never would have made it on my own.”
He
thought of how close they’d both come.
“You’d have made it if you hadn’t hit your head. It’s no big deal.” He could see by the set of her chin that she
didn’t believe him, but she didn’t say more.
He
pulled his cell phone out of a pocket in his jeans, noticed a burn hole in his
pant leg, felt the sting where the hot metal had struck. He had the same nicks and cuts she had, a few
more, maybe. His back was bleeding, but
he didn’t thing the cut was that bad. He
was just grateful to be alive.
Flipping
open the phone, he saw there wasn’t any service, as he had expected. There weren’t any cell towers this far out in
the middle of nowhere.
Sabrina
silently watched him. Tentatively, she
touched the growing knot on her forehead next to her hairline. “God, Alex, what are we going to do?”
RTBook Reviews"Martin just keeps getting better and better! Her characters have more depth, and her plots are more sinister, as the Against series continues. Set in the sizzling desert of Texas and rife with mystery, intrigue and twisted family secrets, this entry is sure to earn a spot on any fan's keeper shelf."
RTBook Reviews"Martin just keeps getting better and better! Her characters have more depth, and her plots are more sinister, as the Against series continues. Set in the sizzling desert of Texas and rife with mystery, intrigue and twisted family secrets, this entry is sure to earn a spot on any fan's keeper shelf."
My Review
If you found my review helpful, please consider voting "yes" for my review on Amazon by following the link below. Thanks!!
http://www.amazon.com/review/R29NS3JDAWZKQ4/ref=cm_cr_rdp_perm?ie=UTF8&ASIN=0778314227&linkCode=&nodeID=&tag=
GIVEAWAY!!
Kat Martin has donated an autographed copy of Against the Odds for one lucky reader to win! Wouldn't you lovc to win it?!
Just leave a comment with your email for a chance to win!
Against the Odds can be purchased on Amazon by clicking the icon below
As always,
Kat Martin delivers an action packed thriller romance in the form of Against
the Odds. The book is full of macho muscle wielding men who stand by their
women when they aren’t busy rescuing them from danger.
The book
included loads of action that captured your attention along with enough romance
to keep the pages burning hot.
Kat Martin
does such an outstanding job with her descriptions that the reader is
transported into Houston, Texas and the surrounding area as though they are
part of the story.
If you are
currently a Kat Martin fan, you are going to love this addition to the series.
If you are a first time reader, you are going to become a fan.
If you found my review helpful, please consider voting "yes" for my review on Amazon by following the link below. Thanks!!
http://www.amazon.com/review/R29NS3JDAWZKQ4/ref=cm_cr_rdp_perm?ie=UTF8&ASIN=0778314227&linkCode=&nodeID=&tag=
GIVEAWAY!!
Kat Martin has donated an autographed copy of Against the Odds for one lucky reader to win! Wouldn't you lovc to win it?!
Just leave a comment with your email for a chance to win!
Against the Odds can be purchased on Amazon by clicking the icon below
Purchase Links:
Amazon.com
http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780778314226
Other Links:
BOOK TRAILER ON YOU TUBE
Other Links:
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CONTEST
CONTEST
Publishers Weekly Reviewhttp://www.publishersweekly.com/paper-copy/reviews/single/978-0-7783-1422-6
Reader to Reader Review
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Life. One Story at a Time. is an advertising affiliate with Amazon. A small
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I just love the blurb and the excerpt was pure action. I LOVED it! Thanks for sharing. I'm putting this on my to read list right now.
ReplyDeletelisa(at)vetteklisa(dot)com
Hi, Lisa-- Hope you like Against the Odds. it's a personal favorite. Hope all of you at One Story have a fabulous Christmas. very best wishes, kat
ReplyDeleteHi there, just stopping by to say how delightful your blog is. Thanks so much for sharing. I have recently found your blog and am now following you, and will visit often. Please stop by my blog and perhaps you would like to follow me also. Have a wonderful day. Hugs, Chris
ReplyDeletehttp://chelencarter-retiredandlovingit.blogspot.ca/
liked the excerpt thanks for the giveaway! - regnod(at)yahoo(d0t)com
ReplyDeleteI love her books, would love to read this one! myreadingaddiction@gmail.com
ReplyDelete