We are thrilled to celebrate the Release Day of Elizabeth Lee's WHERE THERE'S SMOKE!!! WHERE THERE’S SMOKE is a New Adult Romantic Suspense novel that you don't want to miss!
About
WHERE THERE’S SMOKE:
There is something to be said for letting go. Ryland
Roberts knows that better than anyone. He'd let go of his ambitions, of his
family and—most of all—of her. He'd perfected the art of putting his past
behind him and accepted the fact that the town he wanted to leave in his
rearview was the place where he was going to live out his days. But sometimes
the past doesn't just go away. Sometimes it comes back to haunt you.
Piper Jameson convinced herself that she left for all the right reasons. She'd
saved people by leaving—made sure that they weren't tainted by her rebellious
ways. When her little sister asks her to come home and say goodbye to their
ailing mother, she's forced to see that things aren't always as they seem. The
people who she'd left behind might not have been saved at all.
In the amount of time it takes a bullet to travel from point A to point B,
Piper and Ryland will have to put their feelings for each other aside and make
a choice. Forced on the run with Piper's sister, they begin to understand that
the future they thought was gone was never really lost.
WHERE
THERE’S SMOKE Excerpt:
I
stretched my arm out and placed a hand on the cool concrete, the grit and dirt
sticking to my palm. Such a contrast to
the warmth I felt with Ryland firmly pressed up against me. The curves of my backside fit perfectly against
his long, lean frame, our skin heating up the chill around us.
The
fall weather had descended upon our small Midwestern town almost
overnight. It seemed like only a week or
two ago we had been wearing shorts and flip-flops. Now it was jeans and jackets. Well, actually, now it was nothing.
I felt
my cheeks heat as I thought about what we had just done. I wasn't embarrassed. Far from it.
In fact, I'd never felt more sure about anything in my entire life as I
was about what had just happened with Ry.
“That was incredible,” he whispered against my neck as he
traced lazy circles on my shoulder with his fingertips.
“Yeah,” I breathed, rolling onto
my back to look up at him. The soft glow
of an outdoor utility light crept through the open side of the airplane hangar,
barely lighting up the space. “Never
imagined our first time being on a blanket spread out on a cold, hard floor,
but I would do it again in a heartbeat.”
“Me too. Let’s get on that then,” he said with a wicked grin
before he pressed his lips to mine.
Propping himself on one arm—his hand resting against the side of his
head—he snaked his free hand under one of the flannel blankets he'd
commandeered from an airplane parked beside us.
I liked
this side of him. The side that wasn't
perfect and calculated. The side that
just did, said, and felt what he wanted.
He was literally feeling his way up my body—his hands smooth and rough
all at the same time—sending all of my teenage hormones spiraling out of
control. We were living in the moment,
which was exactly where I preferred to be.
“You know how much I love you, right?” His face became very
serious, almost concerned.
“I wanted
tonight to be special. I thought we'd go
back to my house after we looked at the planes.
My parents are gone and...” He
was back in his head, thinking about his meticulously thought-out evening. Doubting his ability to be perfect. He did this sometimes—overanalyzed
things. “It didn't go exactly as I
planned, but—”
“It was perfect,” I assured him. “Plans, schmans.” I pulled his face to mine, giggling, my lips
barely grazing his. “And I love you,
too.”
That
was the thing about Ryland—I saw a side of him that no one else saw. I could probably say the same for him about
me. Until him, I’d never felt like I was
going to amount to much, but he believed in me, even when I didn't—which was
most of the time. When I was with him, I
didn't feel like I needed to do everything in my power to piss people off. He made me want to stay in this Godforsaken
town with a family that ignored my existence.
They ignored it until I did something wrong—which was about ninety
percent of the time. Then my stepfather
made sure to let me just how worthless I was.
“So do you feel like a rebel?” I asked. “This being your first breaking and entering
and all.”
It had
been his idea to sneak on to the airfield—something that was much more in my
wheelhouse than his. I was the one who
usually threw caution to the wind. He
was the good boy. The straight-A
student. The doting son.
“Oh yeah.” He laughed. “I'm a regular badass. Nothing like walking through an open gate to
an abandoned shed.” He cast his arm out
sarcastically in the vacant space above our heads. Nothing but sheet metal and wooden
beams. A handful of airplanes were parked
around us with a smattering of fuel cans, tools, and parachutes hanging from
the walls. “I'm not sure we actually
broke into anything. More like casually
strolled in.”
We
lived in a town where people left their front doors unlocked. The kind of town where everyone knew everyone
and all of their business. Truitville.
It was a place with a minimal crime rate.
I think that night, that's what we’d both thought: What's the worst
that could happen?
“So what's next then, Clyde? Wanna rob a bank?”
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About
Elizabeth Lee:
When I'm not writing or playing the part of wife and
mother, you can find me dancing back-up for Beyonce, singing back-up for
Miranda, or sunning myself on the beach with a drink in hand. Here's the thing about being born and raised
in a small town—you have a very vivid imagination! Now, I channel it all to create stories where
the girl always ends up with the right guy, first kisses are magical, and a
happy ending is just that!
Links:
Giveaway
Sarahbeth Caplin holds a bachelor's degree in English Literature from Kent State University. It was during college that she first saw her name in print as a columnist for her campus newspaper, The Daily Kent Stater. Now living in Denver, Colorado, she can be found in various microbreweries when not chained to her laptop working on future books, with themes exploring religion, feminism, and self-exploration. Find more writings at www.sbethcaplin.com, or follow her on Twitter @SbethCaplin
