Release Blitz -
Ice (The Salisbury Series #2) - Chris Quinton & RJ Scott
Authors: Chris
Quinton & RJ Scott
Release Date: July 1
2016
Other Books In Series:
Blurb:
With millions in diamonds at stake, can Jon make Greg see that some
things are not worth dying for?
Footloose adventurer Greg Drakowski used to live for the moment but these days shadows of grief and guilt cling to him. Recklessly following one lead to the next, Greg crosses oceans at the very hint of treasure, and doesn’t care that he rushes into danger.
This time his quarry is a cache of diamonds, hidden away decades ago. When the clues bring him to the ancient city of Salisbury, he knows he’s close to success.
Renovations expert Jonathan Ellis is part of Ageless Wood Restorations - three generations of knowledge and trade. Focused and hard-working, Jon finds value in recreating the elegance of the past with his own hands, and it will take something - or someone - extraordinary to break into his enclosed world.
When Greg drops into Jon's lap he finds it impossible to refuse him. Even when the bad guy appears and Jon isn't sure whom he can trust, he knows he has to stand by Greg, if only to save the idiot from himself.
Footloose adventurer Greg Drakowski used to live for the moment but these days shadows of grief and guilt cling to him. Recklessly following one lead to the next, Greg crosses oceans at the very hint of treasure, and doesn’t care that he rushes into danger.
This time his quarry is a cache of diamonds, hidden away decades ago. When the clues bring him to the ancient city of Salisbury, he knows he’s close to success.
Renovations expert Jonathan Ellis is part of Ageless Wood Restorations - three generations of knowledge and trade. Focused and hard-working, Jon finds value in recreating the elegance of the past with his own hands, and it will take something - or someone - extraordinary to break into his enclosed world.
When Greg drops into Jon's lap he finds it impossible to refuse him. Even when the bad guy appears and Jon isn't sure whom he can trust, he knows he has to stand by Greg, if only to save the idiot from himself.
Excerpt:
Greg woke up a good hour before his alarm went off
and rolled out of bed to shower and shave, and dress in his usual jeans and
T-shirt ready for work. He drank instant coffee and ate the small wrapped
cookies that came with the room, then took out all his notes and spread them
out in chronological order on the floor, holding down recalcitrant corners with
anything he could find.
A mug held down one, a notebook another, a pillow
near his knee, and a shoe furthest from him.
Not exactly the best way to have this laid out, but
he couldn’t pin everything up on the wall.
Andrey would laugh at him, seeing him on his hands
and knees like this. Familiar grief welled inside him. A year and he could
still conjure up Andrey’s face. He held the pendant that hung around his neck
in a tight grip.
Greg sat back on his haunches to get a better
perspective on the papers and to get a grip on the heartache that wouldn’t
leave him. Instead he focused on why he was doing this: a mental promise to
Andrey to find the Khlebnikov Diamonds. Somehow, in his screwed-up brain,
he had rationalized the guilt he felt over Andrey’s death with finding the diamonds.
Like it would restore some sort of cosmic balance in his life.
“Stupid,” he muttered to the empty room. “Find the
diamonds, give them to Mack, get your cut, give the money to Lena, and fucking
retire, already.”
His own island in the Aegean, beaches, warm water,
peace.
Find the diamonds.
Review:
I recently read ‘Heat’
the first of the Salisbury Stories, so I thought I had a pretty good idea what
to expect from ‘Ice’—a fast paced, well written, almost impossible to put down
thrilling story featuring an against the odds romance.
And that’s more or
less exactly what I got, except that it was faster and darker than I’d
anticipated and the romance came close to having too many obstacles for me. On
the upside, while it took me some time to warm to Devon in the previous book, I
was charmed by both characters in this book from the very start and firmly
rooting for them, even if I couldn’t quite see how they might pull of a happy
ending.
The story starts
with tension, danger and a for Greg disastrous turn of events. It changes him
and he’s getting ready to say goodbye to his old life and start out on a new
path as soon as he finishes one more ‘job’ for the man who’s been keeping him
busy with questionable quests for years. This last commission brings him face
to face with Jon.
Jon is up to his
neck in a tightly scheduled job renovating the woodwork in Laurels when his
business partner and uncle injures himself, leaving Jon shorthanded and in need
of an assistant. Greg’s appearance when Jon needs help seems too good to be
true, but his talent is obvious so Jon hires him.
The attraction
between the two men is clear from the beginning. But both Jon and Greg have
good reasons for keeping their distance. Jon knows it would be a bad idea to
start anything with an employee, and besides, while Greg is charming and Jon
can’t deny he wants him, he can’t get enough of a handle on Greg to fully trust
him. Greg would love to act on the attraction he feels but tries to pull back
because he knows that what he feels for Jon is more than just the heat of the
moment, and Greg already knows he’ll have to leave and disappear before too long.
Just as the two men
give up the fight and surrender to the passion between them the danger that has
been lurking in the background bursts into Greg’s life and Jon has to deal with
feelings of betrayal battling with the love he’s already developed for Greg.
That’s all I’ll say
about the story itself. It is shortish, it is fast and it is breathtakingly
furious at times. For me the story could have been a bit longer. The attraction
between these two men grew into real feelings too fast even for my liking and
while I’m not a huge fan of angst, the relative ease with which Jon forgave
Greg was a bit too good to be true for me.
Having said that, I
thoroughly enjoyed this read and found myself racing through it if only to find
out how these two men could possibly overcome the issues between them and still
arrive at their happily ever after. It was wonderful to get another glimpse of
Devon, Lewis and Rachel. The writing in this book is faultless and a delight to
read, and the balance between tension-filled and more relaxed scenes was spot
on. If you like your reads fast paced, thrilling, laced with an edge of danger
and mystery as well as hot, you could do a lot worse than reading ‘Ice’ (or Heat
for that matter).
Author Bios:
Chris
Quinton started
creating stories not long after she mastered joined-up writing, somewhat to the
bemusement of her parents and her English teachers. But she received plenty of
encouragement. Her dad gave her an already old Everest typewriter when she was
ten, and it was probably the best gift she'd ever received – until the
inventions of the home-computer and the worldwide web.
Chris's reading and writing interests range from historical, mystery, and paranormal, to science-fiction and fantasy, writing mostly in the male/male genre. She refuses to be pigeon-holed and intends to uphold the long and honourable tradition of the Eccentric Brit to the best of her ability. In her spare time [hah!] she reads, embroiders, quilts and knits. Over the years she has been a stable lad [briefly] in a local racing stable and stud, a part-time and unpaid amateur archaeologist, a civilian clerk at her local police station and a 15th century re-enactor.
She lives in a small and ancient city in the south-west of the United Kingdom, sharing her usually chaotic home with an extended family, three dogs, a frilled dragon [lizard] and sundry goldfish and tropicals.
Chris's reading and writing interests range from historical, mystery, and paranormal, to science-fiction and fantasy, writing mostly in the male/male genre. She refuses to be pigeon-holed and intends to uphold the long and honourable tradition of the Eccentric Brit to the best of her ability. In her spare time [hah!] she reads, embroiders, quilts and knits. Over the years she has been a stable lad [briefly] in a local racing stable and stud, a part-time and unpaid amateur archaeologist, a civilian clerk at her local police station and a 15th century re-enactor.
She lives in a small and ancient city in the south-west of the United Kingdom, sharing her usually chaotic home with an extended family, three dogs, a frilled dragon [lizard] and sundry goldfish and tropicals.
chris.quintonwriter@ymail.com
http://chrisquintonwriter.blogspot.co.uk/
https://www.facebook.com/chris.quinton.14
https://twitter.com/Chris_writer
http://uk.pinterest.com/writerchris/
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/2952441.Chris_Quinton
http://www.librarything.com/author/quintonchris
http://chrisquintonwriter.blogspot.co.uk/
https://www.facebook.com/chris.quinton.14
https://twitter.com/Chris_writer
http://uk.pinterest.com/writerchris/
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/2952441.Chris_Quinton
http://www.librarything.com/author/quintonchris
RJ's goal is to write stories with a heart of romance, a troubled road
to reach happiness, and most importantly, that hint of a happily ever
after.
RJ Scott is the bestselling gay romance author of over ninety MM romance
books. She writes emotional stories of complicated characters, cowboys,
millionaire, princes, and the men who get mixed up in their lives. RJ is
known for writing books that always end with a happy ever after. She lives
just outside London and spends every waking minute she isn't with family either
reading or writing.
RJ also writes MF romance under the name Rozenn Scott.
The last time she had a week’s break from writing she didn't like it one
little bit, and she has yet to meet a bottle of wine she couldn’t defeat.
mailto:rj@rjscott.co.uk
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