Taryn Kincaid: Alexa Bourne

So pleased to have fellow Decadent Publishing author Alexa Bourne with me today, for the last stop on her LIAR, LIAR tour. She's doing an interview with her heroine! Take it away, Lexi!

Thank you to Taryn for inviting me for a visit! I’m so excited to share my romantic suspense, LIAR, LIAR, with you…and the kick-ass heroine, Devin. She’s agreed to do an interview with me today.

Alexa: Thanks for visiting, Devin.

Devin: I’m happy to do it. Grady told me how easy-going his interview with you was…except for the questions about his brother. You know how he feels about Scott.

Alexa: Yeah. I probably shouldn’t have even brought him up. Let’s get to you. Tell everyone what your job is.

Devin: I’m what you’d call an assistant. I help women and children who are in abusive situations to get to safety and a new life. I have a business called Soul Survivors.

Alexa: I hear you also tread the line between legal and illegal pretty often.

Devin: Wow. You don’t waste any time, do you? Technically I stay on the legal side.

Alexa: But…

Devin: Let’s put it this way. My main goal is keeping my clients safe and I’ll do whatever is necessary to make sure that happens.

Alexa: Fair enough. How’d you get involved with this line of work?

Devin: I had a rough childhood filled with harsh words, heavy hands and blood.

Alexa: Let’s talk more about your family.

Devin: It’s just me and my mom. We’re pretty close even now.

Alexa: What happened with your father?

Devin: (giving me the evil eye) He’s not in the picture and you know damn well why. Move on.

Alexa: Oooookay. Let’s talk about Grady. (Devin smiles.) What was your first impression of him?

Devin: He was obnoxious, self-centered and had stunning blue eyes.

Alexa: What changed your opinion through your story?

Devin: He was still all those things to some degree, but from the start he protected me. He may not have agreed with me or my work or how I handled myself, but he was always conscious of whether I was all right or not.

Alexa: What made you stay around during the story?

Devin: Besides trying to keep my client out of jail? Grady claimed to only care about getting his job done, but he did listen. He may not have agreed or understood me and why I did things the way I did, but he always seemed curious. Also, he was a big, tough guy, which I had always associated with the men I protect women from, but through his actions I started to realize there are good guys in the world. (Her smile grows bigger.) Soon you let me find out how good.

Alexa: So you think I made the right choice putting Grady with you?

Devin: He may be a big kid with a big mouth sometimes and as stubborn as a mule, but I’m very happy he’s all mine. (She stands.) Speaking of which, I’ve got some plans with him. (She heads toward the door.)

Alexa: He didn’t mention anything about getting together when I came to get you.

Devin: Well, let’s just say they’re an afternoon surprise with the love of my life. (She turns around, with a wicked grin and a gleam in her eye.) If you need either of us over the next twelve hours, don’t call. We’ll be…busy and I’m pretty sure we’ll be too tired to answer the phone.

Alexa: Got it. Thanks to Devin for hanging out with me and thank you, blog readers, for sticking with us.

Blurb:

Unable to protect her mother from her father as a child, Devin McQueen has made it her mission as an adult to protect as many abused women and children as she can. The rare moments she’s not consumed with work as a victims’ advocate, she limits her involvements to safe, predictable men….until she meets bounty hunter Grady Cooper. He is big, bold, brash, and has no problem speaking his mind.

Growing up in a broken home, Grady realized early on that good deeds had a price. To survive, he learned to weigh every decision by what he could gain. Unfortunately, the successful, solitary life he’s worked so hard to create spins out of control when demons from his past shake his confidence. His boss has given him one last chance—bring in Devin’s latest client quickly, and quietly and maybe he’ll still have a job. It didn’t sound unreasonable until he met Devin.

Suddenly, Grady must make a decision: save his career or follow his heart?

Excerpt:

If Grady Cooper had any hope of salvaging his professional reputation, he needed to charm Devin McQueen into giving him what she’d never given any other man.

He tucked his keys into his cargo shorts, stared up at the five-story office building and cursed the humidity.

And his dilemma.

Needing anyone was bad enough. Being forced to rely on a complete stranger to help prove he wasn’t a menace to society was as appealing as the Red Sox using his head for batting practice. If she refused to help him, he’d lose his job for sure.

“That’s not going to happen,” he whispered. He’d do whatever he had to, promise her the world even, to get himself out of this mess and restore his reputation. By the time she realized he had no intention of honoring his pledge, he’d be a free man and he could get back to chasing the bad guys instead of being labeled one.

Whatever it took.

He pushed the glass door open and flew up the stairs two at a time to the third floor. As he walked down the hallway, he glanced at the business names on the doors: law offices, non-profit offices, save the bleeding heart offices. Rooms of people he’d probably chased a bail jumper for at one time or another.

Loud thumps filtered into the hallway from somewhere up ahead.

The hairs on the back of his neck stood up. Trade rule number one: Always expect the worst. Still, the noises could have been any number of things: a fallen chair, a muffled voicemail message, boxes of printer paper being dropped. It could have been nothing connected to this woman.

As he got closer to the door with Soul Survivors carved on it, the name of McQueen’s business, the noises got louder. Glass shattered. A series of thumps passed from behind the door. A woman’s voice flew through the walls like a high-pitched war cry.

What if someone wanted Devin McQueen even more than Grady did?

Too bad. He had to put his own needs first.

Adrenaline pushed him. He turned the doorknob.

Damn it. Locked.

He shoved his shoulder against the wooden door. It budged. Barely. Inside, more glass broke. A male voice growled through a string of swear words.

Whoever stood on the other side of this door could not have her.

Grady gritted his teeth and jammed his shoulder against the door again. This time, it flew open and hurled him into the office.

Silence reigned across the room. With his shoulder throbbing, he scanned the scene. One upended chair, one thug cradling his nuts, the other, older one, bleeding from his nose and one wild-eyed woman in the center of it all. The bleeding man had his arms wrapped around the woman’s chest, crushing her…assets under his forearms.

Grady bit back a grin. If this was Devin McQueen, then some of the rumors were true. She could hold her own. But now she didn’t need to. “What’s the matter, guys? Couldn’t find anyone your own size to pick on?”

Amazon | Decadent Publishing | Barnes and Noble | All Romance Ebooks

Alexa Bourne is a teacher by day and a romance writer by nights, weekends, and all school holidays. She also teaches online classes for writers throughout the year. She writes romantic suspense and contemporary romance and is thrilled to have the chance to share her stories with readers everywhere.

When she’s not concocting sinister plots and steamy love scenes or traveling and exploring new cultures, Alexa spends her time reading, watching brainless TV, and thinking about exercising. Okay, she also spends way too much time interacting with readers and writers on social media sites. But don’t tell her editors! Find out more about her and her books on her website, www.alexabourne.com.

Today is the LAST DAY of Alexa's LIAR, LIAR Blog Tour! Tweet about the tour and share the details on Facebook. For each comment you make (or tweet or Facebook post) on any of the posts, you’ll move closer to winning one of three great prizes!

alexa@alexabourne.com

http://alexabourne.com/cuan-macdougall-pub/
https://twitter.com/AlexaBourne
http://www.facebook.com/AuthorAlexaBourne
http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5818611.Alexa_Bourne

Happy to have Alexa Bourne as my guest today. Here's Alexa:

My head is spinning. My heart is racing. My fingers are flying. Why? Because I’m in between two book releases! This means I get to spend about a month visiting various blogs to talk about my characters, my books and my writing process. LIAR, LIAR was released on December 27^th and DANCE AWAY, DANGER releases tomorrow! Both stories are romantic suspense and both were so much fun to write.

LIAR, LIAR has larger than life characters. The hero and heroine are explosive together, which means they take the reader on a bumpy ride. This story is about a bounty hunter and a victims' advocate hunting down the same woman but for different reasons...before the woman's husband finds her.

DANCE AWAY, DANGER has engaging characters, neither of which wants to be in the situation they find themselves. But, for the hero, honor demands he stick close to the heroine. And for her, loyalty requires she push herself in ways she never thought possible. This story is about a woman whose cop brother has disappeared and she has to rely on one of his old Army buddies to keep her alive...a guy she's never met and who hasn't seen her brother in years.

It’s been a lot of fun getting to this point, where two of my favorite couples FINALLY get to spread their wings and dance with the public. You’d think that I’d now be able to take a break, right? But no! I’ve got events planned for both stories and prizes, too. We’ll be having The 2014 Danger Challenge and The Justice is Served Scavenger Hunt.

If you read one or both of these books, I hope you love them as much as I loved writing them. I also hope you’ll consider joining us for the Challenge and the Hunt. (For more details on either or both, visit my website- www.alexabourne.com) Okay, I must go. I’ve still got things to do and a nice cocktail to have to celebrate my newest releases! Happy New Year!