Good morning, everyone! Please welcome Marie Astor, and her new book, To Catch A Bad Guy!
Marie Astor
Janet Maple’s stellar career ended with a layoff and her boyfriend of five years told her that he wants to be just friends. When she lands a job at one of New York’s premier boutique investment firms, Janet begins to hope that her luck is finally turning for the better. Not only is she happy with her new paycheck, but things also seem to be looking up on the personal front, as the company’s handsome attorney expresses keen interest in Janet. However, her euphoria is short-lived, as Janet soon discovers alarming facts about her new employer’s business tactics. When her boss dismisses her suspicions as groundless, Janet finds herself confiding to a cute IT engineer, Dean Snider. The closer she gets to Dean, the more Janet is tempted to break her rule of not dating co-workers, but what she doesn’t realize is that everything she knows about Dean, including his occupation and even his name, is a lie.
Dennis Walker is a top-notch white collar crime investigator who will stop at nothing to put culprits away. When an opportunity for an undercover assignment at one of New York’s premier boutique broker dealers comes up, Dennis jumps at the chance, adopting a persona of geeky IT engineer, Dean Snider. While he may be an ace at his job, years of experience fail him when Dennis meets Janet Maple and finds himself torn between his professional obligations and his personal desires. Will he have to choose between his feelings and duty, or will he find a way to satisfy both?
Marie is sharing an exclusive excerpt and hosting a give away today. Let's jump right in, shall we?
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EXCERPT
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“Hello there.”
Janet turned around at the unexpected sound of a male voice.
“Hi.” Janet remembered the IT guy she had found in her office the day before. It was impossible to forget him. She had never seen anyone who was so incongruously good-looking and clumsy at the same time.
“It’s Janet, right?” The IT guy focused his blue-gray eyes on her. “I’m Dean.”
“Yes, I remember,” Janet lied, making a mental note to commit Dean’s name to memory. “Do you work on this floor?”
“Yep.” Dean nodded. “My desk is on the trading floor – this way if any of the traders need help, I can be summoned to their rescue.”
“Sounds terribly important.”
“It is.” Dean puffed out his chest. “Not really.” He shook his head. “The other day I had to explain to a guy that his monitor was black because he forgot to turn his computer on.”
“Oh…” Janet laughed a bit louder than she intended. “I’m sorry.”
“Is that your oatmeal?”
“Yes. I’m sort of on a diet,” Janet blurted out.
“I think it’s about to run over.” Dean reached for the microwave and popped it open just as the oatmeal was about to topple over the rim of the cup. “Here you are.” Dean set the oatmeal on the kitchen counter. “And if
I may add, you don’t need to be on a diet, Janet.”
“Thanks.” Janet blushed – was Dean flirting with her? If he was, she could not say that she minded it, except for the fact that she seemed to have forgotten what it was like to flirt with a cute guy. I’m sort of on a diet. Nicely done. And Dean was not even that good-looking; he was just mildly cute. What was going to happen to her if she were up against a real stunner? Would she unravel completely and blabber uncontrollably?
“Well, Janet, have a good one. I’ve got to get back to my charges. Who knows, while I was away, all kinds of disasters could have struck – knocked-out power cords or coffee spilled on keyboards.”
“Sounds serious. Good luck.” Janet grinned. “And thanks for rescuing my oatmeal.”
“You’re welcome, Janet.” The corners of Dean’s mouth lifted in a smile as his eyes met Janet’s for a moment. “I’ll see you later.”
“Bye,” Janet mouthed. Thanks for rescuing my oatmeal. She just brimmed with charm and mystique this morning. Enough with this nonsense, Janet snapped at herself. Her third day on the job, and instead of focusing on her work, she was flirting – correction -- miserably failing at flirting – with idle IT guys, and, how could she forget, lascivious attorneys. Her awkward encounter with Tom Wyman still made her cringe. Well, it takes practice to get better at things, Janet reasoned, so perhaps she should practice on Dean Snider for now.
Back in her office, Janet looked over the chart of Bostoff Securities’ corporate structure that Tom Wyman had given her yesterday. There were about ten different entities. The structure seemed odd to say the least, but Tom had cited a specific business purpose for each entity. His reasoning had made perfect sense when Tom had been explaining the set-up to Janet, but the moment he departed from her office, leaving a trail of masculine cologne, questions began to stir in her mind.
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YOU HAVE JUST READ AN EXCERPT FROM TO CATCH A BAD GUY
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Giveaway!!
Marie will be awarding custom designed semiprecious jewelry pieces to five randomly drawn commenters during the tour.
Prize 1: Citrine quartz and prehnite sterling silver necklace
Prize 2: Red agate sterling silver necklace
Prize 3: Onyx sterling silver bracelet
Prize 4: Smoky quartz sterling silver earrings
Prize 5: Blue quartz sterling silver earrings
Follow the tour and comment; the more you comment, the better your chances of winning. The tour dates can be found here:
AUTHOR Bio and Links:
Marie Astor is the author of
contemporary romance novels This Tangled Thing Called Love, Lucky Charm, On the
Rim of Love, romantic suspense, To Catch a Bad Guy, and a short story
collection, A Dress in a Window. Marie
is also the author of young adult fantasy adventure novel, Over the Mountain
and Back.
If you would like to learn
more about Marie’s writing, please stop by her website: www.marieastor.com or
visit her on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/marieastorcollection
Social Media Links:
Website:
http://www.marieastor.com/
Twitter: @marieastor
~Claire
www.claireashgrove.com
www.toristclaire.com
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