As promised earlier in the week, here is the title and cover reveal!
The Rose Ransom (Girls Wearing Black, Book 3)
Relieved that the Date Auction was a success for Nicky, Jill Wentworth already has a plan for the next event in the Coronation contest: The Rose Ransom.
A strange ritual with a sordid history, The Rose Ransom sends the entire class on a hunt for a girl who has been kidnapped. Jill is certain she knows which girl will be taken and how she can locate her once she’s gone.
But minutes after she sets her plan in motion, Jill gets an alert that something strange has happened at the Bloom mansion. Hacking into the mansion’s security cameras, she finds a horrible scene of carnage. Three agents and one vampire were murdered during the Date Auction.
With Nicky on the other side of the world and the entire mission in jeopardy, Jill uncovers a conspiracy that could tear the Samarin clan apart, and learns that for this year’s class, The Rose Ransom is much more than a game.
Here is the cover, once again designed by Chris Stenger, who has made all the covers for Girls Wearing Black.
There it is. Title, blurb, cover, release date. I’m excited, are you?
If you want the book to be 100% brand new never-been-read when you download it, stop here. It has become standard practice among indie authors to give an excerpt or two or ten prior to release date. I’m going to give one, and only one. And here it is. From Chapter 5 of The Rose Ransom…
Nicky and Ryan sat together in a queen-sized bed at the back of a private jet. A movie blared on a 50-inch screen that hung on the opposite wall of the plane.
Speedboats, motorcycles, and explosions—that’s what the movie was to Nicky. She could hear it, but she wasn’t watching it.
Her face was pressed close to Ryan’s. Their lips had been locked since takeoff. All the nerves and jitters that occupied them both after the Date Auction had passed, and now there was only each other. The two of them headed out for a week-long date.
Nicky didn’t know what she was doing. And she didn’t care. Ryan had that effect on her.
She was going to tell him the truth. Whether the Network liked it or not, Ryan Jenson’s ten million dollar bid made him a part of their plan. When Sergio was dead and the mission was complete, everyone who was close to Nicky Bloom would be a suspect. Ryan’s name would be first on the list, and Nicky would be damned if she’d just disappear one night in the spring and leave him behind to sort out the pieces.
“Something’s on your mind,” Ryan said. “What is it?”
I should tell him now, she thought.
The noise of the aircraft engines made it impossible for their conversations to be recorded. There were no security cameras. There was no place for an eavesdropper to hide. The lone stewardess who accompanied them on their flight was in her quarters at the front of the plane where she would stay unless they rang the bell for her to come. And the pilots were sealed off in the cockpit.
They were alone.
“You made an offer to me at the Homecoming Masquerade,” Nicky said. “We were dancing, and you asked me to walk out the door with you and never come back.”
Ryan pulled away, and for the first time since takeoff, his lips weren’t within striking range.
“Where would we go?” Nicky continued. “You know…if I…took you up on your offer.”
“Are you being serious?” Ryan said. “I don’t want to talk about this if you aren’t being serious.”
“I am totally serious,” Nicky said. “Let’s talk about this.”
