Fiction? Reality? A trip to California’s San Diego foothills and a #FREE download
Did we take this trip to write a book? Well, maybe. Mostly we wanted to escape the cold, windy, snowy, gray, all-too-short mid-January days in Minnesota’s north woods, where we then lived.
Southern California beckoned, and we found a time share we could trade for, not very far north of San Diego, in the foothills outside Ramona.
It was a brief taste of heaven. Warm, sunny, inviting, a horse stable and marvelous riding trails – and we had the place practically to ourselves. We never did figure out why such an upscale property in its beautiful setting wasn’t filled to the gills in mid January.
But Mr. Kraft, among other things, is a criminologist, and it took no time at all for a sinister plot to emerge: Maybe the property was being used to launder money; maybe someone wanted the resort to fail; maybe someone wanted to pick it up for a song and turn it into tract houses. What would they target?
We biked, went on trail rides (led by the easy-to-look at wrangler who ran the stables, and yes, even when married, it’s okay to look!), and explored the region. On one of our forays into the surrounding country we found a back road with a sign pointing to our resort town, so we took it – and Traci Steele’s detour was born. On her way to the (fictitious) resort where her friend Cassie has booked her for a month of badly needed R&R, she’s forced to take a detour in the pouring rain down a twisting mountain back road.
Traci Steele may be the most damaged of the heroines in our four-book horse racing suspense series, Riders Up. If she was a real person, she could say “Me, too” – except she’s never told anyone, not even her best friend, Cassie.
To celebrate this weekend’s 144th running of the Kentucky Derby, Detour Ahead will be FREE at Amazon today through Monday, May 7!
Detour Ahead (Riders Up Book Four)
Download Link: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00RPT6YJA/
Always free at Kindle Unlimited
Each book in this series may be read as a Stand-Alone
BLURB:
Threatened race horses, city slicker attorney, sexy California wrangler—what can possibly go wrong?
Hot-shot Chicago prosecuting attorney Traci Steele works tirelessly keeping rapists off the street to prevent other women from suffering the hell she’s endured, so she resists her friends’ insistence that she take a two-month R&R in their California Live Oak condo—until they persuade her to help their rancher friend as a private investigator.
Though he runs the stables at Live Oak, well-muscled mustached wrangler Scott McCord much prefers working with the race horses he trains at his ranch, and he can’t believe his old friends have sent a greenhorn female to help him with horse troubles.
The improbable dance between this mismatched pair barely fits in around the escalating suspense of whoever’s after Scott’s horses. Traci is as tenacious in her sleuthing as she is terrified about her inability to ever love a man. Can Scott succeed in gentling her - like he does his horses - before she flees in panic?
EXCERPT:
Traci Steele peered through the rain-splattered windshield of her rental car trying to focus on the taillights ahead. She’d climbed the foothills east of San Diego for nearly an hour. Abruptly, the traffic slowed to a snail’s pace.
Why so slow? The rain was letting up some. Traci loosened her grip on the steering wheel to rub first one forearm and then the other.
She squinted trying to read the orange road sign. Damn. The sign grew clearer with each few feet she advanced: Detour Ahead.
A lanky deputy sheriff leaned down to answer her unasked question. “Sorry ma’am, the road is closed. We had an oil tanker jackknife and roll on the slick pavement. This road likely won’t be reopened until sometime tomorrow.”
“I’m headed for Buteo. To the Live Oak Resort.”
“No problem. Just stay on this route we’re sending traffic over.” The deputy gestured toward the narrow road to Traci’s right. “About a mile down that road you’ll have an option to come back to the main road you’re on now. Don’t take it. This detour is actually a short cut to Buteo, and the views can be spectacular. Just don’t try going too fast.”
“Thanks.” Traci nodded, raking fingers through her hair. “I won’t be rushing on these roads.”
She took the right hand turn. A small, paint-chipped sign read “Buteo Canyon Road.” Another stated “Open Range.” What did that mean?
Riders Up Series
Always free at Kindle Unlimited
Each book in this series may be read as a Stand-Alone
Riders Up Series
Genre: Romantic Suspense
Three Flames: Explicit sex, M/F
Danger, suspense, stunning race horses, courageous heroines, and the complicated men who love them.
Cassie’s Hope (Book One)
High stakes, a fiery Irish redhead, her stunning racehorse, and a fiercely loyal half-blood rancher. http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00GDWTUGY
Heat Wave (Book Two)
Hang onto the land – but at what cost? Feisty widow hires ace racehorse trainer to salvage her family’s heritage. Can they survive escalating threats to life and limb? http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00JZ6GW6G
Willow Smoke (Book Three)
When the chips are down, there's nobody there. Apprentice racehorse trainer Daisy Matthews has survived the Chicago streets with this mantra but is unprepared for the much older Nick Underwood's urgent pursuit. http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00N0DH13I
Detour Ahead (Book Four)
Threatened race horses, city slicker attorney, sexy California wrangler—what can possibly go wrong? http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00RPT6YJA/
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Award winning author Adriana Kraft is a married couple writing Sizzling Romantic Suspense and Erotic Romance for Two, Three, or More. Whether readers open our romantic suspense or our erotic romance, they can expect characters they care about, hot sex scenes, and a compelling story. Our suspense stories deliver one man, one woman, danger and intrigue – always a happy ending, but oh, what a ride! Readers can count on our Romantic Suspense line for “warmth, blazing hot sex, and well-developed characters” (Romance Junkies Reviews) as our hero and heroine battle outer threats and inner demons to stay alive and fall in love. Together we have published more than forty romance novels and novellas to outstanding reviews.
Website https://adrianakraft.com
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Thanks for being my guest today, Adriana!
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