Spotlight & Giveaway: The Takedown by Carlie Walker

Posted October 4th, 2023 by in Blog, Spotlight / 28 comments

Today, HJ is pleased to share with you Carlie Walker’s new release: The Takedown

 

Spotlight&Giveaway

 

An undercover CIA agent is sent home to investigate her sister’s criminal fiancé but the last thing she expects is to fall in love with his bodyguard along the way in this sexy romantic comedy.

It’s been a long time since Sydney Swift has gone home. An unrelentingly successful CIA field officer, she has spent the last five years pretending to be someone — anyone — other than herself.

But this year, the festive season is coming with some added surprises. Sydney’s beloved little sister has just announced that she’s engaged to Johnny Jones, the heir of an organized crime dynasty. With her built-in cover and her best-in-class reputation, Sydney is approached by the FBI as their way to infiltrate the Jones family at last.

Sydney has until Christmas to gather enough evidence on Johnny to take him down before he pulls off his most dangerous heist yet, all without losing her sister forever. But she hasn’t counted on the challenge of pulling this off right under her family’s nose or the complications of a romantic entanglement with Johnny’s handsome friend and bodyguard, Nick. Sydney always gets her man — but this time love is a target she can’t afford to miss.

 

Enjoy an exclusive excerpt from The Takedown 

Hand-to-hand fights, my Farm instructor told me, aren’t won by circling each other like hawks; they’re won with full-body con- tact, when you have the chance to catch your opponent off bal- ance. Off guard. Be so close that you can smell their skin, so close that you know what kind of soap they wash with, so you can see every tiny freckle on their neck.
Nick has three large freckles running down his throat.
My elbow whips out, and he blocks it carefully—almost gently—feet shuffling to the side. I dip under and, with my shoulder, plow him into the wall; he hits with a fantastic thud, rat- tling a framed picture of the White Mountains. The glass quivers in the frame. “Careful,” he heaves, and I am careful. I carefully pin him to the wall. And I remember the first time we ever prop- erly spoke, in the kitchen with those gingerbread cookies, and I thought about how I’d take him down, shoved up against the wall. If I’m honest with myself, even then, something in my belly flut- tered.
My eyes dig into his, passing him a message: If you respect me, you’ ll fight back.
Message received.
Powerfully, he twists his arm between us, edging me back, and we start sparring properly. Like real colleagues would in the CIA. He doesn’t swing to miss—but he also doesn’t swing to harm. We’re training right now. Competitively. Block for block. This is an inn chock-full of people, and I’m hoping that all of them will sleep through a minor disruption. Our footfall is quick, swift, barely there. Until I catch him unaware, hooking an ankle behind his knees, literally sweeping him off his feet.
I pounce, straddling his hips with my thighs. Our backs flatten the ridges in the mat as we roll, grunting—real guttural stuff, scrounged up from the belly. I realize, belatedly, these are very similar to the noises I make when I’m having sex. Nick’s cheeks are flushing with the faintest splash of red, and I doubt it’s from the workout; we haven’t been wrestling that long. Neither of us is truly winded.
My limbs tangle with his limbs; his breath turns hot against my neck. “Sydney,” he chokes out, and I’m waiting for him to fin- ish that with something like Sydney, get off of me, you weirdo, or Syd- ney, this is a little too intense for me, but what he says is, “Was any of it real?”
I pull back, on top of him, face over his face. “What do you mean?”
“You know what I mean,” Nick says, voice strained, and I do.
That’s the thing. I do.
Swallowing hard, I throw it right back at him. “Was any of it real for you?”

“Yes,” he says without hesitation or a twitch of his mouth. No lies. His eyes are flaming in the fluorescent light of the gym, and I . . . don’t know what’s happening right now.

Excerpt. ©Carlie Walker. Posted by arrangement with the publisher. All rights reserved.
 
 

Giveaway: A print copy of THE TAKEDOWN by Carlie Walker

 

To enter Giveaway: Please complete the Rafflecopter form and post a comment to this Q: What did you think of the excerpt spotlighted here? Leave a comment with your thoughts on the book…

 
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Meet the Author:

Carlie Walker attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she first majored in Peace, War and Defense, a feeder program for intelligence services—before realizing that she is way too anxious to be a spy. Having gone on to study at Oxford University and at City, University of London, she worked briefly in publishing before becoming the bestselling author of seven books for children and young adults. She has a registered 250-pound dead lift, volunteers in a cat shelter, and used to spend her Saturdays practicing Krav Maga. She lives in Atlanta, Georgia, with her husband and their American dingo

Amazon | BookShop | http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/059364039X?tag=randohouseinc7986-20
https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-takedown-carlie-walker/19816171?ean=9780593640395
 
 
 

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28 Responses to “Spotlight & Giveaway: The Takedown by Carlie Walker”

  14. Crystal

    Wow loved the excerpt. Makes me want to read the book especially print copy. Love title and book cover too. Would love to see if she takes him down or he gets his date. Personally would love to see her take him down and see how she does that LOL.

  22. Dianne Casey

    I really enjoyed the excerpt from the book. Can’t wait to read.

  25. Joye

    A crime dynasty.  The CIA.  And someone they are not. What could possibly go wrong

  26. noraadrienne

    I love the story line. I live about a mile and a half from Brighton Beach, Brooklyn. The home of the Russian Mafia. They own some really good restaurants. If you get passed the doorman. LOL One of my long gone cousins was O.S.S. in WWII (pre-curser to the C.I.A.) I got lots of stories from him.

  27. Anita H.

    I am really intrigued by the excerpt and want to know more about what went on between Nick and Sydney!

  28. Tina R

    Congratulations on your debut novel! This sounds like a story I’d really enjoy reading.