The
Broken Hero
We
love alpha males as heroes in our novels, right? They’re strong,
stubborn, and surly—until, of course, our heroine breaks through
the outer shell of steel to find the vulnerable heart inside.
But
what if your hero is truly broken? What if the outer shell he has
built up is almost impenetrable. Almost.
That
was the challenge I faced when writing Black
Diamond
and the book’s hero, Coleman Ryan. I can’t spill the beans as to
why Cole is so broken, but when he meets heroine Jena—a wildlife
enforcement agent in Terrebonne Parish, Louisiana—he has forgotten
how to even talk to another person.
Which
could be why his first response to encountering Jena is to slam the
door in her face. She might be a game warden investigating a nuisance
alligator call, but she’s also a cop, and there’s nothing like a
freaked-out hermit slamming a door on her to rouse her curiosity. And
she has the badge to back it up.
Jena
wasn’t sure what to expect when she knocked on Cole’s door and
demanded that he open it. A crazy guy, maybe. A criminal. Certainly a
man either trying to escape or trying to hide, or both.
When
she left that first meeting with Cole, she still couldn’t answer
that question. It would take a while to figure out Cole’s story.
Five
years earlier, well and truly a damaged man, Cole Ryan had arrived in
Louisiana, continuing to drive south until he could go no further
without falling into the wetlands leading to the Gulf of Mexico.
There, in the southern reaches of Terrebonne Parish, he found an
isolated house and proceeded to learn how to live alone. Once he
bought the house and got his utilities, it didn’t take him long to
slide off the grid of society. He hunts or fishes or grows his own
food. He does his own repairs. He hasn’t cut his blond hair since
he arrived, so it’s almost waist-length. He speaks to no one,
doesn’t socialize, has no phone or email, no past or future. For
Cole, today is all he has.
Face
it, this man is NOT ready to fall in love. He struggles to carry on a
simple conversation—as Jena finds out once she uses her badge to
force him to talk to her.
Before
long, however, Cole finds his desire to live off-grid at odds with
his desire to know Jena, in whom he recognizes another damaged soul.
(Yeah, she’s pretty broken herself but is healing thanks to a
strong social and professional network.)
Jena
instinctively trusts Cole, and they grow closer as they are both
drawn into a criminal case involving dangerous dealers of a bath-salt
drug ravaging the parish. The closer they get to answers, the more
the danger to both of them grows.
But I had to be careful with
these characters. Sure, they could be attracted to each other from
the get-go, but I couldn’t move their relationship too quickly
without being untrue to their personalities, especially Cole. Fragile
characters need special treatment, and I hope I handled Cole and Jena
well as they began to heal and even imagine a future.
***
Black
Diamond
Wilds
of the Bayou Series
Book
Two
Susannah
Sandlin
Genre:
Romantic Suspense
Publisher:
Montlake Romance
Date
of Publication: October 18, 2016
ISBN:
978-1503940413
ASIN:
B01F1Z6818
Number
of pages: 266
Word
Count: approx. 80,000
Cover
Artist: Michael Rehder
Book
Description:
For
some people, the untamed beauty of the bayou is a place to hide. For
Louisiana wildlife agent Jena Sinclair, it’s a place of refuge—one
where she can almost forget the tragedy that scarred both her skin
and her soul. But when the remains of yet another fisherman turn up,
Jena realizes that Bayou Pointe-aux-Chenes is not safe for her…or
anyone else.
The
mysterious deaths aren’t her only problem. A dangerous drug known
as Black Diamond is circulating through Terrebonne Parish, turning
addicts into unpredictable sociopaths. Jena’s investigation leads
her to Cole Ryan—a handsome, wary recluse struggling with his own
troubled history—who knows more than he’s willing to admit. If
they want to stop the killer, Jena and Cole must step out of the
shadows of their pasts and learn to help each other…before the
evils lurking in the bayou consume them both.
eBook 1, Wild
Man’s Curse, on Sale Through the End of October
for $1.99 at
Amazon
Excerpt:
Cole stood inside
the door, knowing she’d be there any second. She would knock,
probably with a firm rap to remind him who had the authority here,
and it wasn’t him. She would expect to come inside, and while he
could deny her entrance without a warrant, he wouldn’t. It would
raise too much suspicion.
His fists clenched
and unclenched. Again. Again. The press and release of tension
filtered out some of the stiffness from his arms and shoulders. The
woman was striking, her wistful expression had resonated with him,
and he had wanted to look at her. He’d looked long and hard enough
that she’d caught him standing in the doorway like an idiot.
Otherwise, he could’ve pretended to be gone and not answered his
door. Now, hiding wasn’t an option.
The last thing he
needed in his life was a woman. Especially a woman with a badge and a
gun.
Though expected, the
sharp knock made his shoulders jerk upward, and his fingers clenched
again into fists. Weapons his body provided to protect itself, to
protect him, to keep everyone away.
“Sir, I know
you’re in there. I’m Agent Sinclair of Louisiana Wildlife and
Fisheries.” Her voice was clear and no-nonsense. He tried to place
her accent—she wasn’t from Terrebonne Parish but didn’t have a
typical Southern accent either. “I want to talk to you about the
gator in front of your neighbor Doris’s house. It’ll only take a
minute or two.”
Damn. Now that he
knew his neighbor’s real name, the Wicked Witch was dead. Now she
was Doris.
He took a deep
breath, turned, and opened the door an inch. Maybe two inches.
A hazel eye, heavy
on the green, and the bill of a dark-green baseball cap came into
view, peering through the crack. A strand of hair that trailed over
her forehead from beneath the cap shone like pure molten fire.
“You can open it
all the way, you know. I don’t bite. I’d like to come inside for
a few minutes and talk, or you can come out on the porch. Having a
conversation isn’t optional, but where we have it is. For now.”
Damn it. Cole had to
admit he was stuck and it was his own damned fault for standing in
the doorway and watching her for so long. He opened the door wide,
dread giving way to curiosity when he finally saw her face up close.
She was beautiful but lightly scarred, more on her cheeks than her
forehead, so she’d probably been hit by flying glass rather than
having her head go through a windshield. Fairly recent too. The spots
were still pink, but they were scars and not wounds. Five or six
months old, he’d say. Eventually, they’d fade and, with her fair
skin, would easily cover with makeup. If she hadn’t been so
close—not to mention his fixation on her face—he wouldn’t have
noticed them even now.
“Are you going to
let me come inside, or are you coming outside, or do I need to make
it an official order?”
About
the Author:
Suzanne
Johnson writing as Susannah Sandlin is the author of the
award-winning Penton Vampire Legacy paranormal romance series,
including the 2013 Holt Medallion Award-winning Absolution and Omega
and Allegiance, which were nominated for the RT Book Reviews
Reviewers Choice Award in 2014 and 2015, respectively. She also wrote
The Collectors romantic suspense duology, including Lovely, Dark, and
Deep, 2015 Holt Medallion winner and 2015 Booksellers Best Award
winner. Her new suspense series Wilds of the Bayou started in 2016
with the release of Wild Man’s Curse and continues with Black
Diamond. Johnson is the author of the award-winning Sentinels of New
Orleans urban fantasy series. A displaced New Orleanian, she
currently lives in Auburn, Alabama. Susannah loves SEC football,
fried gator on a stick, all things Cajun, and redneck reality TV.
Newsletter:
http://www.suzannejohnsonauthor.com/newsletter
Twitter:
@Suzanne_Johnson https://twitter.com/Suzanne_Johnson
Goodreads:
http://www.goodreads.com/Susannah_Sandlin
Pinterest:
https://www.pinterest.com/sj3523/
Tour
giveaway
1
$50 Amazon gift card
5
$10 Amazon gift cards
Suzanne, you handled Cole and Jena well. Thanks. Black Diamond is great. Buy the book guys.
ReplyDeleteSuzanne, you handled Cole and Jena well. Thanks. Black Diamond is great. Buy the book guys.
ReplyDeleteSo excited for this!! Thanks for the amazing giveaway
ReplyDeleteCole is not your typical hero. That is what makes their relationship interesting.
ReplyDelete