Spotlight & Giveaway: Deadly Obsession by April Hunt

Today it is my pleasure to Welcome author April Hunt to HJ!

Hi April and welcome to HJ! We’re so excited to chat with you about your new release, Deadly Obsession!

 
I just want to thank Harlequin Junkie for having me here today and I’m excited to talk to you about Deadly Obsession, the debut book in my new Steele Ops series…
 

Please summarize the book for the readers here:

A congenital heart defect stole Zoey Wright’s childhood. Actually, it stole her entire adult life, too, and she’s tired of playing it safe. She steps out of her cozy lab job and into one as DC’s crime scene investigators—and at a time when the city’s under the siege of its first serial killer in close to thirty years. To shake things up even more, Knox Steele, her brother’s best friend and her unrequited childhood crush, is back in town. The attraction between them is fierce as ever, but as things heat up between-the-sheets, the Beltway Cupid Killer ups the stakes, too—Zoey’s life.
 

Please share the opening lines of this book:

Chin up. Shoulders back. Breathe. Do not puke on the crime scene.
At her last position running the Washington, DC crime lab, Zoey Wright had never needed a peppy mantra. But thirty minutes into her first on-site homicide and she’d already hit an even two dozen mental re-plays.

Please share a few Fun facts about this book…

• Zoey’s a HUGE Buffy The Vampire Slayer and that part of her personality was fueled by my own. (The deciding factor of which night class I took each college semester was which one allowed me to sit in front of the TV on Buffy nights 😉 And FYI, there (may) have been a Buffy Halloween costume in my past…
•  I conjured up Knox’s physical description after binge-watching the yummy Alcide season of True Blood and drooling (as I always do) over Joe Manganiello.
• Sometimes I put real-life events that have happened to me (or close friends) in my books. Zoey’s unfortunate Potomac River scene was all me…and the reason why until this day, I cringe while stepping onto a boat.

Please tell us a little about the characters in your book. As you wrote your protagonist was there anything about them that surprised you?

Sometimes a story starts with a plot, or is even worked backward with a writer’s proposed HEA. But before there was an outline for Deadly Obsession, before I named my heroic Steele family or invented the Beltway Cupid Killer, I knew Zoey. It may sound odd to some, but I knew her struggle straight out of the gate—her congenital heart defect. If I would’ve taken it away from her, then she would’ve been Sofia, or Jessica, or…literally anyone else. I’ve seen CHDs up close and personal and from two vastly different angles. But unfortunately, it’s a condition that a lot of people don’t hear about unless they know someone who’s been affected. I wanted to shed a little light about life with a CHD via Zoey’s story, but of course I wanted to do it in a way that gives her her HEA with the man of her dreams (aka, her brother’s best friend, Knox Steele).
Yes, Knox is a tortured hero, and he can definitely get his protective alpha brood on when he wants to, but it was important for me not to make him overpowering. Zoey’s new life is all about standing on her own two feet after a lifetime of everyone treating her with kid gloves. She needed a man who let her do that—and who celebrated her choices instead of hindered them. For Zoey, Knox is that man…she just has to help him see it himself.

If your book was optioned for a movie, what scene would you use for the audition of the main characters and why?

I’d have to say the first kiss—which Zoey instigates. It’s hot and yummy, and remember that impromptu dip into the river that I mentioned above? Yep, directly after…;-)

Snippet:
Zoey swallowed her nerves.
Lifting onto her toes, she brushed her lips against Knox’s once, then twice before taking his bottom lip in a gentle nibble. He didn’t kiss her back. He didn’t deepen the embrace.
She’d scared the man immobile.
A tsunami of embarrassment flooded over her as she un-fused her lips from his. She’d
barely taken a breath when something snapped…changed. Like the veracity of a lightning strike,
one large hand slipped into her hair, and hungrily guided her mouth back for a claiming of his
own.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
 

What do you want people to take away from reading this book?

That helping those you love to overcome obstacles is all well-and-good, but sometimes what they may need most is for you to stand by their side while they do most of the heavy-lifting.

What are you currently working on? What other releases do you have planned?

Lethal Redemption (Book 2 of Steele Ops) has officially moved onward to copy edits and will be hitting stores this November. It follows former lovers Cade Wright (Zoey’s older brother) and FBI Profiler Grace Steele (Zoey’s best friend) as they dive into back into the very cult Grace worked damn hard to escape. Fatal Deception (Book 3) is currently being purged from my brain and will give the Steele Ops’ resident grumpy brother (Roman) his HEA.
And hey, if you want a reason to head to New York City this July, I’ll be at the Romance Writers of America Literacy Signing with a few hundred of my lovely author friends. Check it out and come say hello!
 

Thanks for blogging at HJ!

Giveaway: Print copy of Deadly Obsession (Steele Ops) by April Hunt

To enter Giveaway: Please complete the Rafflecopter form and Post a comment to this Q: Zoey’s unapologetically quirky. She boasts to her best friend, Grace, that she only needs 3 things in life: 1. Her family. 2. Her cat. 3. All 7 seasons of Buffy at the tip of her fingers.
What 3 things do YOU need in life? (Feel free to be as serious or funny as you want 😉

 
a Rafflecopter giveaway

 
 

Book Info:

After a lifetime spent in and out of hospitals, Zoey Wright is tired of playing it safe. She’s ready to take charge of her own life and get out of her comfort zone, starting with a new job as a CSI agent. But when her childhood crush Knox Steele gets pulled onto her case, Zoey needs to put her feelings for him aside or more women will die at the hands of the serial killer preying on her hometown.

Former Army Ranger Knox Steele is back in Washington to help his brothers open an elite private security firm. He never expected to stumble onto a crime scene, or see his best friend’s little sister working it. Zoey is all grown up now, and the attraction between them is electric, despite his best efforts to resist it. But all that changes for Knox when he realizes the victims have one thing in common . . . and Zoey might be next.
Buy Links:
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Meet the Author:

April blames her incurable chocolate addiction on growing up in rural Pennsylvania, way too close to America’s chocolate capital, Hershey. She now lives in Virginia with her college sweetheart husband, two young children, and a cat who thinks she’s a human-dog hybrid. On those rare occasions she’s not donning the cape of her children’s personal chauffer, April’s either planning, plotting, or writing about her next alpha hero and the woman he never knew he needed, but now can’t live without.

To learn more, visit:
http://AprilHuntBooks.com
Twitter @AprilHuntBooks
Facebook.com/AprilHuntBooks.