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Nominee
Now
in Trade Paperback
Dancing
With The Devil
Patricia Crossley
A dark
force who wants to reclaim what he believes he owns. . . a woman who must
face her worst fears. . . two people who must learn to trust each other
in order to survive.
Jazz Hargrove leaves her reporting assignment in the Horn of Africa
to settle her father's estate and finds herself plunged in a deadly
drama. She is good at her job as an international reporter. She's
in line for an award and due for another promotion. Back in the
small, provincial capital she'd left fourteen years before, she
realizes with mounting terror that someone from her past is watching
her, and he wants her back. Together with a man she does not wish
to trust, she must face her worst fears to save a child drawn in
to the web of danger.
Pete Browning is a freelance photographer recently assigned to Jazz's
crew. An ex-cop with a failed marriage and a past drinking problem,
he is not interested in falling in love, but he is determined to
protect Jazz as the threats around her grow, until his own family
becomes the target of a murderer.
Jazz and Pete
have no choice but to pursue the stalker into a world of danger.
Chemistry sizzles between them even as they follow the steps of
a madman. Drawn together by necessity, they learn much more about
each other and their own hidden fears and desires than they ever
expected, as they continue DANCING WITH THE DEVIL.
Read an Excerpt Here
Reviews:
"Patricia Crossley
is a fine storyteller, keeping her readers absorbed with her attention
to detail, & bringing life to each page. Dancing With The Devil
provides its readers with mystery, adventure & well written
& tasteful romantic scenes."
Kate Holmes
Rebecca Reads
----------------------------
"...the true strength
of this book comes from the mystery at its center. The stalker is
actually quite scary, and a few of the scenes gave me genuine chills."
- Cindy Lynn Speer
Affaire de Coeur
-------------------------------
"...
features strong writing and an even
stronger heroine. Jazz is an admirable woman who refuses to be a
helpless damsel in distress....Crossley has crafted an entertaining
tale of suspense."
-
Romantic Times Book Club
----------------------
Fourteen
years ago, Jasmine "Jazz" Hargrove left her hometown of
Victoria and made a name for herself as a reporter. She has never
returned to visit. When she receives word that her father has died
in a tragic car accident, Jazz must put her fears behind her and
return to the one place that haunts her dreams.
Shortly
after arriving, Jazz is plagued by a rash of odd break-ins, unusual
gifts, and alarming phone calls. She takes solace in the friendship
and protection that her photographer friend, Pete Browning, offers.
The past that Jazz thought was far behind is rapidly coming back
to haunt her. Will she find the courage to face her past?
DANCING WITH
THE DEVIL is a refreshing change of pace. While the storyline may
not be unique, that can also be true of any romance story as there
are only so many different plot devices, however, Jazz's character
did something that amazed this reader. Towards the end, the villain
tells her to show up and not involve the police or her boyfriend,
the first thing Jazz does is calls Pete and tells him to call the
police. Finally, a heroine with the guts to do what she knows is
right! The outcome is something you will have to find out for yourself
of course, and I do recommend you buy the book and
find out just what happens.
--Tracy Farnsworth
Administrative Coordinator & Reviewer for The
Romance Readers Connection
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
~ ~
Jasmine Hargrove,
better known to the world and her friends as Jazz, is a wonderful, top
notch, round-the-world news reporter who never knows where her next assignment
might be. At the moment, she's in the depths of Africa, following a lead
on a story. Pete Browning, a news photographer, is on her team and while
she's known Pete for years, they've never really gotten to know each other
more then just acquaintances.
However, take one
sandstorm and an overnight, outdoor stay in the cold desert and you've
got the makings of a closer friendship than you anticipated, and this
is what happens with Pete and Jazz. They're caught in the sandstorm because
Jazz has just been informed that her father has died and she needs to
get back home ASAP. Pete offers to drive her out of the desert and to
the airport so that she can catch a plane home. When the sandstorm hits,
Pete's just blown a tire and they have to batten down the hatches and
snuggle in for the night or until help comes to the rescue. Things are
a little tight under the tarp they make their bed in, but deserts can
be so cold at night. Whether Jazz likes it or not, she and Pete are forced
to snuggle under there and share their body heat.
Thus starts a story
that took off like a flash and never stopped until I read the last sentence.
This book was a page turner for me. This book had it all; love, romance,
murder, mystery and a stalker that was hunting Jazz down and making her
wonder who he was and why he was stalking her. There was hardly a moment
to breathe in this book. I wanted to keep turning the pages and since
I was trying to fit in this book with a lot of other things going on in
my life right now, suffice it to say that I still managed to read it in
four heavy-duty days.
This book's a keeper,
most definitely, and not just a good Sunday afternoon read before a Sunday
afternoon snooze.
--Deborah Barber,
Escape
to Romance
-------------------------
Jazz Hargrove is a
famous journalist, roaming the far reaches of the world in search of the
latest groundbreaking news and stories. She is happy in the career that
she has chosen over family and hopes that burying the past will erase
it altogether. Then tragedy strikes. Her father is dead in an accident
and her mother has disappeared off the face of the earth! All of a sudden
she is forced to go back to her hometown and to the old way of life, all
of which she had done her level best to forget for the past fourteen years.
Once there, she is constantly haunted by painful memories of the past.
She can’t wait to settle the estate and be gone on her jaunts again.
But there is someone out there who is very happy to have her back and
will do almost anything to keep her home. Is it a friend or a foe?
Mysterious and chilling
things start to happen. Some breaks into her home, she gets mysterious
phone calls and is sent roses by some unknown admirer. What is happening
and why are the police not taking it seriously? And what does her photographer/colleague
Pete Browning have to do with it? Why is he suddenly always by her side?
Is he somehow connected to it all? If he is, then why is Jazz so attracted
to him? And what is the secret that Jazz is trying so hard to conceal?
These are only some
of the questions that come to the reader’s mind when they read this
extremely slick suspense. The plot is intricately woven and there are
red herrings galore. Patricia Crossley manages to keep the readers guessing
till the last page. The character of Jazz is beautifully and clearly depicted.
Her past and her actions are credibly displayed and she comes across as
a brave and enterprising woman. Passion between the lead characters erupts
as quickly as a volcano and is equally hot and scorching. The bad guy
is terrifying and leaves a vague sense of menace hanging throughout the
book. The pace is taut and this fast-paced tale makes for some great suspenseful
reading. Very intricate!
Reviewed by Rhea for
Road
to Romance
About the Author:
Patricia
was born and brought up in London, England, has moved countless
times and lived in six different countries. She taught languages
for many years and now lives in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada,
with her husband and a sailboat, although she does her writing on
dry land. Having come to the edge of the North American continent,
she and her husband still have itchy feet and left last September
for a six month stay in Kenya where they
administered a scholarship program for girls from poor, rural families
to go to High School. Some stories and pictures of her experiences
are on her web site (www.patriciacrossley.com/vignettes.htm)
Patricia would like to share this quotation with you:
"Solomon said one of the most wonderful, mysterious things
on Earth is 'the way of a man with a maid.' Every culture has a
means of recognizing the delicate, breathtaking dance that takes
place between a man and a woman -- getting to know someone, liking
what you experience, falling in love. It used to be called courting.
To be wooed and won was a beautiful, romantic process, one that
fostered a lifetime of passion and commitment. Indeed, the civility
and respect for boundaries that romance and courtship entail used
to be the raw material of learning how to treat anyone well. They are
foundational to culture as a whole. It is arguable that if this civility
is
not cultivated between men and women, it will not likely exist anywhere."
(Elizabeth Nickson, in the National Post on May 11 2001)
Happily married herself, and believing strongly in the bond of love
between two people, Patricia delights in seeing what brings them
together, how they fight the odds against them, how they stay together.
All her books are about two lovers "finding" each other:
across time, after betrayal, through history or in the midst of
danger.
Patricia loves to write stories with a twist. These are the books
for you if you like a strong romance, mingled with elements of mystery,
time travel and the paranormal. DANCING WITH THE DEVIL is the story
of a strong, determined woman who is faced with secrets from her
past she thought well and truly buried.
Patricia invites you to her web site to read extracts and reviews,
find the links to a prize wining short story and help yourself to
some free
downloads.
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