Dangerous Pursuit
Margaret Daley
Blurb:
Reading
about danger never prepared Samantha Prince for the desperate phone call from
her brother in Brazil that sent her from the safety of her New Orleans
bookstore into the rugged, inhospitable Amazon in search of him and a hidden
treasure. And reading about romance never prepared Samantha to resist the
mysterious appeal of Brock Slader, a guide she hired to help her in her quest.
Alone with Brock in an alien world of orchids and
anacondas, primitive headhunters and very up-to-date gunmen, she struggles to
keep their relationship strictly business. Will Samantha survive the dangers in
the jungle only to have her heart broken by a man who lives on the edge—no
strings attached?
Dangerous
Pursuit is the first book in The Protectors Series
Coming
Soon Dangerous Interlude and Dangerous Paradise
Review:
Dangerous Persuit was a nonstop, hot romp in the jungles of the Amazon! Samantha gets tossed into a crazy situation trying to find her missing brother. From a priest who isn't a priest, to howler monkeys, to head hunting (????) natives, Samantha has set off on the adventure from hell. If it wasn't for the tall, dark, handsome guide, Brock, she hires to help her find her troubled brother, she wouldn't really wouldn't be having any fun at all.
:)
Full of adventure and lots of heat (and I ain't talkin' jungle heat either), Dangerous Persuit is a fantastic read!
Author Bio:
Margaret Daley, an award-winning author of eighty-five
books, has been married for over forty years and is a firm believer in romance
and love. When she isn’t traveling, she’s writing love stories, often with a
suspense thread and corralling her three cats that think they rule her
household. To find out more about Margaret visit her website,
Twitter at and Facebook.
Giveaway:
Win one of five copies of Dangerous
Pursuit.
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Excerpt:
Chapter One from Dangerous Pursuit
by Margaret Daley
As Samantha
Prince leaned forward to straighten the books on a lower shelf, her long braid
fell across her shoulder. Impatiently she flipped it back, considering again
whether she should cut it short. Some people called her hair-color auburn; she
called it red. Fiery-haired auburns were the heroines in the romance books she
read. The color did not describe her.
“Samantha,
what do you think of this book? I’m going out of town again and need something
to keep me warm at night,” a stylish businesswoman in her forties said.
“A very good
mystery, Mrs. Carson, but I wasn’t impressed with the main character. Not
enough backbone to get out of all the scrapes he and the heroine got into.”
“It sounds
like more adventure than mystery. Once I start a good adventure I can’t put it
down and end up reading through the night. All those cliff-hangers, you know.”
Mrs. Carson scanned another book from a display near the checkout counter.
Samantha
smiled to herself. Mrs. Carson always came into her bookstore right before a
business trip and went through almost every book on the shelves, looking for
just the right one that was a great story but wouldn’t keep her up past
midnight. Samantha had never found a novel with both ingredients, and she read
at least half the books that came through her store. It was her favorite
pastime, to lose herself in the lives of the characters and imagine herself
doing things that she would never do in her real life.
“Maybe I
should try a romance this time,” Mrs. Carson continued, shifting her attention
to another section. “The last mystery I read had me waking up every time I
heard anything. And you know in a hotel how many sounds you can hear.”
Actually, she
didn’t. She had never been anywhere, unless she counted visiting Aunt Lou. She
had planned a trip to Europe two summers before but had to cancel it. She was
beginning to believe her lack of travel experience was a crime at the age of
thirty.
“A good love
story,” Samantha said, indicating the book Mrs. Carson picked up. “That ought
to keep you warm at night. It’s very hot.”
She waved her
hand to show just how hot the book was. While Mrs. Carson examined both books
again, Samantha glanced around at the rows of bookshelves. After three years
her business was doing very well—at least well enough for her to afford a
vacation. Maybe she’d go to some exotic place, she thought as Mrs. Carson
decided to buy both the romance and the mystery.
When Mrs.
Carson left the Purple Ink, the noise of New Orleans traffic and a blast of
cold air rushed into the shop. Samantha shivered and pulled the front of her
brown sweater more securely across her chest. Somewhere exotic and warm, she
amended. In her mind the only good thing to come from cold weather was curling
up in bed under layers of wool blankets with a great book to read while sipping
a steaming cup of hot chocolate with lots of marshmallows in it.
Tonight, she
vowed as she began to finish restocking the shelves of the adventure section.
Pausing to examine a cover on one book, she was instantly reminded of her
younger brother, Mark, who traveled the world, going from one adventure to the
next while she remained in New Orleans, working day after day to make Purple
Ink a success. The biggest adventure Samantha ever encountered was the rush
hour traffic on Interstate 10.
Sighing
heavily, she completed her task and noted it was time to close up for the day.
Standing, she stretched to ease the ache in her lower back. It was time to
start exercising again. The holiday season had been busy, and she got out of
the routine once Thanksgiving had passed. Now it was the first of February, and
she had ignored her better sense and found excuse after excuse not to get back
to it. Though exercising would never head her list of favorite things to do,
she promised herself to sign up for a new aerobics class. Soon. Maybe in a
month or so.
“Samantha,
I’m going. I’ll see you tomorrow morning at nine thirty,” Nell, Samantha’s
assistant, said as she gathered up her purse and coat.
“Don’t forget
we have to start the inventory tomorrow. Can you stay late?”
“Yes.”
“I have
everything lined up, so it shouldn’t take as long as last year.”
Nell shook
her head. “You are the most organized human being I’ve ever met. If I know you,
you’ll have devised a way to cut our time nearly in half.”
“Oh, at
least. Why else invest in a computer?” Samantha laughed and waved her friend
on.
Nell was
always teasing Samantha about how neat and orderly she was. But she had
practically raised her younger brother while her mother had worked to support
them. As a teenager she had juggled school, part-time work, and housework. It
hadn’t been easy, but her mother and younger brother had depended on her, so
she had learned to be organized the hard way.
Samantha went
through the same routine to close her shop as she had done ever since she had
bought it. After one final survey of her store, she went out the back door to
her car.
Mark always
laughed about her and her routines, but they gave her a sense of security and
stability that was important to her. Neither she nor Mark, as children, nor
their mother, had had much of either. It didn’t seem to bother her brother, but
it did bother her.
When she
finally arrived at her house after grocery shopping, exhaustion from a long day
gripped her. She picked up the bag of food and was planning her dinner as she
stepped into her house. The phone was ringing, and she nearly dropped the bag
as she rushed to pick up the receiver.
“Hello,
Samantha Prince speaking.”
“Sam! You’re
home finally. Why isn’t your cell working?” Her brother’s voice was faint, but
he sounded frantic.
“Mark, what’s
wrong? Where in the world are you?” Samantha set the grocery bag on the kitchen
table and dug in her purse for her cell phone. She’d left it on silent,
something she did often.
“Manaus.”
The long
distance connection wasn’t a good one, and Samantha had to strain to hear his
answer. “The Amazon?”
“Yes.”
“The last I
heard you were in Rio. Why are you there?” She had read plenty of books set in
the jungle and couldn’t imagine anyone wanting to go there.
“It’s a long
story. I don’t have the time to go into it.”
The tone of
her brother’s voice, laced with impatience, alarmed Samantha. Tiny prickles of
fear rose on the nape of her neck. “Why did you call?” She forced her voice to
remain calm while her grip tightened on the receiver. He was her only close
relative, their mother having died four years before. Though they didn’t see
each other a lot, she loved him very much and their relationship was a good one.
“I need a
thousand dollars to get out of here. I needed it yesterday. Can you send me the
money?” Mark’s voice faded in and out.
“You said you need a
thousand dollars?"
