by: M. O’Keefe
Series: Everything I Left Unsaid
Genre: Erotic Contemporary Romance
Release Date: August 9, 2016
Publisher: Random House ~ Loveswept
The only thing that matters to me is rescuing my sister from the drug-cooking cult that once enslaved us both. I’ve run cons my whole life, and I’ll use my body to get whatever I need. Max Daniels is the last connection I have to that world, the one person reckless enough to get involved. Besides, now that his brothers have turned on him, he needs me too.
The deal was supposed to be simple: a place to hide in exchange for rescuing my sister. Now he’s my prisoner. Totally at my mercy. But I’m the one captivated. Enthralled. Doing everything he asks of me until I’m not sure who’s in control.
We both crave the heat. The more it hurts, the better. But what if Max wants a different life now, to leave the game . . . to love me? I thought I knew better than to get burned. Now I’m in too deep to pull away. And the crazy thing is . . . I don’t want to.
Hi Molly, welcome to Read Your Writes Book Reviews. Thank you so much for being here. How are you?
Well, I’m neck deep in summer at the moment, so life is pretty great. Though, my floors could be cleaner…
Please let’s not talk about house cleaning. I’d much rather read a book. I, like a lot of other readers, fell in love with Dylan Daniels, Annie McKay and the other characters from your Everything I Left Unsaid series. The series seems to be different from what you usually write. How did you come up with the idea for it?
My editor, Shauna Summers really pushed me to write something a little darker and hotter and I had this idea about a woman finding a cell phone and starting a relationship with the man on the other side. From that spark everything else was created.
When you originally wrote the series, did you anticipate there being more than just the two books?
As a reader I love series sooo much. So, while I had not thought of adding more books initially, as soon as Joan appeared on the page I knew she’d get a book. And then Tiffany. So, I think every time I begin a book I’m probably beginning a series. I just can’t help myself.
I love that. I personally always hate to see series end. You’ve created this crazy six degrees of separation with all the characters. They seems to know each other, but don’t know they know each other. Was that intentional on your part? (i.e. Phil is Blake’s brother who is Dylan’s business part, who happens to be married to Tiffany, the only friend Annie has.)
The world is CRAZY small (the real world, though my book world is pretty small too) and I figured, I needed a few ties between Dylan and Blake’s business on the mountain and the trailer park where everyone else lived. It was also an extension of family too… everyone is sort of keeping one eye on each other.
You know, I didn’t really think of the family side of it. Everyone does seems to watch out for everyone. In Burn Down the Night, will readers get a chance to catch up with Dylan and Annie?
Yes! Dylan and Max have an “I love you brother” moment. Though, I don’t think they actually say I love you. Dylan and Annie come back again in Blake and Tiffany’s story. So, we see lots of them being happy.
I love you right now. You are making me really happy. Max Daniels and Joan were a surprise to me, at the end of The Truth About Him. What can you tell me about them?
Kit Rocha just described Joan as a feral heroine – and that pretty much works!! She’s in total fight or flight mode in Burn Down The Night – she’s been alone for a long time, doesn’t trust people easily and she’s desperate.
Max is –oddly enough- the softer of the two. He’s ready to get out of the dangerous life that’s nearly killed him and he’s able to see Joan’s soft underbelly.
They’re a REALLY combustible couple!
Interesting. I really can’t wait to read this book. Max and Joan seem to be two people who play by their own rules. Do you feel they took over the story, or were you able to stick with the plot and direction you had in mind?
Truthfully – the sex got a little out of hand. I couldn’t get either one of them to bend, but there is so much sexual conflict that had to go somewhere….
You touched on this briefly, in an earlier question. Is there any chance there’s a story in the works for Blake and Tiffany together?
I JUST finished Blake and Tiffany. We don’t have a title for it yet – but as soon as I do, I’ll let you know. Their story is really very lovely! I love writing kids as secondary characters in romance novels and it’s been a
while since I’ve done it. Tiffany sort of feels like who Lorelie from The Gilmore Girls would have been if Christopher had been really abusive…
How would you sum up Burn Down the Night?
Kidnapping gone wrong? Or maybe kidnapping gone really right….
Is there anything you would like to add for the readers?
I’m attaching some fun graphics!!
Thank you so much for your time, Molly. I’m looking forward to reading Burn Down the Night and seeing just how crazy Max and Joan are together.
I wasn’t watching him sleep. I was thinking. I was formulating a plan. An argument that would sway him, that would make him see things my way.
The tiny, white bikini I wore was a visual aid.
Because if there were any breaks I caught in this life, they were a rocking metabolism and Aunt Fern’s rack. I made this cheap, white bikini look better than it should.
Sitting on the dresser, I licked yogurt from a spoon and tried to think of what was going to really sway a guy like Max. What was going to make him give up on revenge and instead help me get my sister free.
He was sprawled across the bed, the sheets pulled up to his waist with his injured leg kicked out. Every once in a while he jerked, like the dream he was having had teeth, and the handcuffs rattled against the bed.
This was kidnapping.
I could add that to the list of shit I never thought I’d do.
Finally he stirred in earnest and I held my breath. Trying not be nervous. Trying not to show him that I was scared. Max was a wild animal and if he sensed fear he’d come after me.
He lifted his head off the mattress, his black hair, wild around his head. That spot on his scalp with the stitches was so pink and wounded. Tender. The only soft thing about him. The rest of him, his chest and arms, was rawhide and muscle and grit covered with bright tattoos. And technicolor bruises.
Max was whittled down to the bone. No excess. I recognized it because I felt exactly the same way. Like there was nothing to feed me.
If we weren’t in this stupid situation, we might have been friends. Lovers for as long as we could make it work because we were the same kind of people. The same sort of wild and alone.
“Joan?” His voice was rough and deep. He lifted his hands to rub his eyes but the handcuffs stopped him.
“Morning, Max.” I licked my spoon. “How are you feeling?”
“I’d feel a whole let better if you let me go.”
“Not going to happen.”
He lifted his free arm. Stretched. Made a fist out of his hand and then relaxed it. “What’s your end game here, Joan? You’re going to keep me locked up here forever?”
“Only until you give up on this revenge idea.” And agree to my plan.
“Not going to happen,” he parroted my words back at me.
“How’s the head?” I asked.
“Better.”
“Ribs?”
He shifted in the bed and only barely winced. “Better.”
Good. This was . . . good.
“You think you could eat some soup without spilling it all over yourself?”
“I think I could teach you a lesson about having a smart mouth.”
I hummed in my throat as if disappointed in him and then dug up another spoonful of yogurt and put it in my mouth. He watched every motion. My tongue. My hands. He missed nothing.
And maybe it was because he was imagining what it would be like to kill me.
But I preferred to think he was wondering what it would be like to fuck me.
It was a long shot considering his injury, the fever, his being handcuffed to the bed. But I was banking on him being a dude.
And the white bikini. I was banking on the white bikini pretty hard.
“What are you doing?”
I shrugged.
He lifted his eyebrows at me and slowly pushed himself up farther up the bed. He leaned against the cast-iron headboard, exposing all of his skin, which was covered in dark tattoos. He looked like some kind of leopard. Some sleek animal that if unchained would tear me apart.
He would tear me apart.
And I could not wait.
Purchase Burn Down the Night from:
The Everything I Left Unsaid Series:
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Places to find M. O’Keefe:
Great interview
ReplyDeleteThanks. I'm really looking forward to reading this book. The first book is on sale for #99cents. This is a really really good series.
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