Spotlight & Giveaway: Eagle by Janie Crouch

Today it is my pleasure to Welcome author Janie Crouch to HJ!

Hi Janie and welcome to HJ! We’re so excited to chat with you about your new release, Eagle!

 
Thanks for having me back on HJ! Woot!
 

Please summarize the book for the readers here:

Former Special Forces soldier Finn is on an undercover mission that leads him straight to the woman he should stay farthest away from. She’s trouble, and she’s got secrets that will get them both killed. If their passion doesn’t burn them both first.
 

Please share your favorite line(s) or quote from this book:

“Princess, look at me.”

One of her eyes cracked open.

“You’ve done your part. Now it’s time to let someone else take over this fight.”

Please share a few Fun facts about this book…

The writing playlist for EAGLE was crazy all over the place. Sort of like this couple. I totally love it:

• And We Danced by The Hooter
• Take Your Time by Sam Hunt
• Something Beautiful by NeedToBreathe
• Letters From the Sky by Civil Twilight
• Nothing by The Script
• Dangerous Woman by Ariana Grande
• Legend by The Score
• Waiting Game by Banks
• After the Rain Has Fallen by Sting
• Don’t Let Go (Love) by En Vogue
• Riser by Dierks Bentley

What first attracts your Hero to the Heroine and vice versa?

This is a second-chance romance, so the hero and heroine first met in high school. They are soul mates–attracted to each other’s strength and passion. I’ve written a lot of couples but these were the first that I felt like were going to find their way back to each other whether I wrote them or not!

And, okay, admittedly, that’s a little weird. 🙂

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

He eased back. “Seeing you like that scared the hell out of me.”

She let go of his lip and whispered, “I’m not little now. Not weak. I know what I want—what I need—and that’s you. I owe you an explanation, I know that. But first give me this. Give me you, strong and courageous and big with me. Around me. Inside me.”

His growl was her only warning.

Her shirt was ripped over her head and he had her flipped around and tucked under him almost before she could finish the last word. She’d forgotten how fast he could move.

“Damn you, woman, you have always known how to push my buttons.”

Readers should read this book….

I think a Goodreads reviewer summed it up best: “It’s a story about trust, hope, forgiveness and love. A reminder that life is messy, but also wonderful when you have the right person by your side.”

What are you currently working on? What other releases do you have in the works?

CYCLONE and SHAMROCK, also part of the Linear Tactical series are what I’m working on now! Cyclone is already available and Shamrock releases December 4.
 

Thanks for blogging at HJ!

Giveaway: Janie is giving away an ebook copy of both CYCLONE and EAGLE. Open internationally.

To enter Giveaway: Please complete the Rafflecopter form and Post a comment to this Q: Halloween is this week! What was your favorite costume as a kid?

 
a Rafflecopter giveaway

 

Excerpt from Eagle:

“Why are you here, Charlie?”

“I came in for a drink—”

“No, in Oak Creek as a tutor. You never mentioned wanting to help kids when we were together.”

That was because she thought she’d have half a dozen kids of her own. It had never occurred to her that she might want a job helping someone else’s children.

Yet another thing she was never going to tell him. She crossed her arms over her chest. “We haven’t seen each other in almost a decade. I think we can agree that people change in that time. I got a master’s degree, found something I was good at. Is that a sin?”

He took that final step so all the ways he hadn’t been touching her, he now was. He was pressed against her from thigh to shoulder. Again, she should move away.

Again, she didn’t.

She had the strength to survive what would bring others to their knees, but not to move away from Finn Bollinger. She’d done it once, and it had nearly killed her.

“Sin,” he whispered, his mouth so close to hers. “You mentioned that last time I saw you. This is the only sin I think about when I’m anywhere near you.”

His hands started at her elbows and slid all the way up to her shoulders. She shuddered inside her thin jacket even though the night was mild. His fingers kept trailing up, along her collarbone, then to her throat. He tilted her chin higher as he bent toward her.

And then his lips were on hers, like they belonged there. And maybe they did. She gripped his wrists and held on as the heat surrounding them crackled in the air.

The kiss was lush, open, and hot, the way it always had been between them. It had been a long time, so damn long, since she had kissed anyone. Since she had been this close to anyone at all. Her body was starved for it.

But it hungered for Finn most of all. Only he had ever been able to ignite a fire in her with just a kiss. And this one went on and on like it had when they were in high school, when kissing was all they’d known how to do. When they’d been young and hadn’t figured out there was so much better.

She would’ve expected his lips to be hard and punishing, vengeful. But they weren’t. They coaxed, slid, nibbled against hers, as if he could sense how alone she had been, how close to the edge she’d been walking these last few months. How close she’d been to breaking.

They both emitted low sounds of hunger as their tongues met and dueled. His thumbs rubbed gentle circles on her throat, the sensation more arousing than anything she’d experienced in years. The feel of his big body pressing her hard against the door of her car should probably have made her wary. Concerned.

But it didn’t. This was Finn. They might tear each other apart, but he would never hurt her. She just wanted to stay here and kiss him forever and forget about everything else that waited, ready to pounce, beyond the two of them.

But it wasn’t long before people were coming out, laughing, talking, and very definitely coming within visible range. Finn eased his body back from hers, then took a step away, completing the distance.

She wanted to cry at the loss.

“I’ve got to go back inside,” he said. “We’re celebrating and it’s important I be there.”

She looked down at their feet, his so much larger than hers. “Yeah, no problem. I need to get going.” To absolutely nowhere.

“You can come in if you want. Hang out with us.”

She swallowed. God, was that possible? Could she actually start over? Reclaim some of what she’d lost here when she’d turned away all those years ago? Friends. Finn. The slightest bit of hope bubbled up inside her. Possibly she could find her way back.

It wasn’t definite, she understood that. But she didn’t need it to be definite. Just the possibility was enough.

A maybe.

She tried to keep it casual. “Sure. I guess I could. . .”

She looked up at his face, and the hope that had been building inside her was wiped away in an instant. He was just being polite. The tension in his features was concrete evidence he didn’t honestly want her inside with them. She made him uncomfortable.

And who could blame him?

She almost wished she didn’t know him so well. But she’d spent so many years studying that face, that body. Most people wouldn’t have been able to tell that he was feigning politeness.

She gave him her best smile, hoping it would hold up for just a few more seconds. “Actually, what am I saying? I can’t stay. I’ve got somewhere I have to be.”

It sounded like the most pathetic excuse in the history of pathetic excuses.

Evidently to him, too. His features softened. “Charlie. . .”

Oh God, she couldn’t stand any kindness right now. She would shatter all over the ground. “We both know I don’t belong in there, Finn.” Her voice was low, husky.

He rubbed at the back of his neck with one hand. “Yeah, probably not.”

And there it was. The truth, stated as gently as possible. But the jagged edge of it ripped across her heart all the same.

She slipped away from him—what she should’ve done as soon as he’d followed her—opened the door of her car and got inside.

He didn’t try to stop her.

Because what else was there to say?

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
 
 

Book Info:

Finn Bollinger. Military codename: EAGLE.
A single dad, a warrior, a hero.

For Charlotte Devereux he’s also the man whose heart she broke years before. And now, he’s her only chance for survival.

When former Special Forces soldier Finn Bollinger is asked to help with an undercover mission, he’s up for the task. His job teaching survival skills to civilians at Linear Tactical keeps him sharp, and he can still handle himself in the field.

But the Army damn well didn’t teach Finn how to handle Charlotte Devereux. She’s back and she’s all sorts of bad news.

Charlotte can’t change the past. Can’t change the choices she made or the fact that they cost her everything. All she can do is endure the fallout. Even if that means putting her future in the hands of Finn, the man who has every right to want to destroy her.

And can in so many more ways than he thinks.

When Finn’s undercover mission goes impossibly wrong, he’ll have to depend on Charlotte’s strength in order to survive. But everyone has a breaking point.

He’s fighting for what’s right.
She’s fighting just to survive…
Book Links: Amazon | B&N | iTunes | kobo | Google |
 
 

Meet the Author:

USA TODAY bestselling author Janie Crouch writes what she loves to read: passionate romantic suspense. She is a winner and/or finalist of multiple romance literary awards including the Golden Quill Award for Best Romantic Suspense, the National Reader’s Choice Award, and the coveted RITA© Award by the Romance Writers of America.

Janie recently relocated with her husband and their four teenagers to Germany (due to her husband’s job as support for the U.S. Military), after living in Virginia for nearly 20 years. When she’s not listening to the voices in her head—and even when she is—she enjoys engaging in all sorts of crazy adventures (200-mile relay races; Ironman Triathlons, treks to Mt. Everest Base Camp) traveling, and movies of all kinds.
Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | GoodReads |