The Second Lie (The Immortal Vikings #2)
by Anna Richland
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A woman desperate to achieve her dreams.
To reassure wealthy clients, Christina Alvarez Mancini invented a jet-setting British owner for her Napa Valley wine collection service. Success has brought her close to buying her own winery, when irregularities at a London wine auction threaten her business.
A man in love with a good plan.
Stig, an immortal Viking thief, knows he’s found the perfect role. The California woman who created his character won’t discover what he’s up to in England until after he’s pocketed the money he needs. Then Christina walks into the auction preview, ready to ruin his plans, and he knows his boredom has ended.
Secrets that turn deadly.
By the end of the night, these two rivals must cooperate to escape kidnappers, British authorities, media and a pair of mysterious watchers. That’s when a game Stig’s played for a thousand years puts Christina’s life at risk.
Can two people whose identities are based on lies trust each other enough to survive?
INDIVIDUAL RETAIL LINKS:
Amazon – B&N – iBooks – Kobo – Google Play – Chapters/Indigo
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When Christina arrives at a London wine auction to unravel a fraud that threatens her business, she finds a man falsely claiming to be her employer.
“You’re an imposter. A liar,” she said.
“Miss Mancini, so are you.”
“No. No, I’m not.” He couldn’t know the full truth. There was no way he could have guessed her status. No one knew except her half brother and maybe her uncle. For all his faults, and they were numerous, she couldn’t imagine Uncle Robert would have told a stranger about her citizenship. And her brother wanted to sponsor her as soon as he’d finished his Marine Corps training, so he wouldn’t have let a word slip.
“What would Elaine and Jack Johnson think about how you fooled them?”
Relief swept through her and she slumped into the shelf, the cool glass of a bottle and the corner of a sign display pressing her shoulder blade through the dress fabric. He didn’t know. Even if her business reputation took a hit, the temporary insanity that had urged her to buy a ticket to London wasn’t going to cost her the ability to return to California.
“They’re friends.”
“Men like Jack don’t like to look foolish, and being Elaine’s surrogate daughter only goes so far. No, you can’t risk telling them. Or anyone. Certainly not Bodeby’s.”
It was frigid in here now.
“I think your evidence will stay in whatever ugly American rucksack you brought with you. I think you can’t do anything but watch.” He set the glass he’d been holding in an empty niche.
The tiny ringing as the thin walls of crystal vibrated, imperceptible to anyone who wasn’t as focused as she was on the moment, acted like an alarm. She jumped to the side, away from his orbit, closer to the door.
“Fine. You win this round. But I’m not done either.”
“I wouldn’t respect you if you were.” He looked at a gold wristwatch, a brand she couldn’t recognize but that screamed money. “Shall we disband our tête-a-tête? I’ll give you a moment to blend into the crowd outside. Do try not to look so blushy.”
She put her fingertips to her cheeks. They were hot, or else her hands were frozen. Damn him. She yanked the door but remembered to moderate her steps as she glided back into the preview.
The lights felt like stage glare after the dimness of the cave, but the connoisseurs chatting throughout the room remained oblivious to the scam artist in their midst. He fit with them and told them what they wanted to hear, exactly the way men like him pulled their schemes. Critics might accuse her of the same tactics, but she knew that creating a fake person wasn’t as bad as creating fake wines and selling them. The distinction seemed fundamental.
A fringe benefit of being small and wearing even smaller jewelry was that she could pass through the crowd as invisibly as a waiter, because if someone stopped her to talk, she didn’t know if she could be civil. By now, Elaine should be finished in the loo or the WC or whatever the English called it, and Christina could safely hide there to plan her next step.
Although intellectually she believed her wrong was minor compared to passing counterfeit wines, the imposter was right about one thing. She wouldn’t denounce him. The super-wealthy didn’t like to confront any gullibility. If she wasn’t extremely discreet, her own dreams would circle the drain as surely as the junk in the fake bottles.
But no way in hell would that man con Christina Alvarez.
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Tour Giveaway
A set of En Route notecards, gorgeously illustrated by Kate Pocrass (because falling in love with an Immortal Viking is a wild journey!) to a randomly drawn winner (INTERNATIONAL)
Anna lives with her quietly funny Canadian husband and two less quiet children in a century-old house in Seattle. The perpetual drizzle is a good excuse to drink more coffee. She’s a former US Army officer who now writes The Immortal Vikings series from Carina Press and also the author of His Road Home, a novella which Publishers Weekly called “Tantalizing … a raw, emotional story” and the website SmartB*tchesTrashyBooks gave an A rating.
She donates a portion of her book proceeds to two charities: the Fisher House Foundation, which provides housing for families of wounded soldiers in the US and Great Britain, and Doctors Without Borders, which delivers emergency medical care in more than sixty crisis zones world-wide.
To sign up for Anna’s newsletter, find out more about her books, and read longer excerpts, please visit her website at www.annarichland.com, her Facebook page at AnnaRichlandAuthor, or her Goodreads page at Anna_Richland.
lillian
March 16, 2015 at 8:34 pm
This book sounds awesome love the cover
Anna Richland
March 16, 2015 at 8:58 pm
Hi Lillian! I hope you’re entered into the contest for the card set! It’s still open for entries for the rest of the week through the blog tour.
And … not to shamelessly ask for votes or anything – but what the heck — my 2014 holiday novella HIS ROAD HOME is in the Dear Author/SmartB*tches “March Madness” tournament! I can’t believe it – but voting begins tomorrow and a new author like me would love love love a click on my book at http://www.dabwaha.com.
While the book tournament doesn’t have covers, unfortunately, I actually think the cover of HIS ROAD HOME would look great here on Angel’s Guilty Pleasures. Unlike my new release, which is **just** the hunky dude in the tux shirt, HIS ROAD HOME is a scene with a gorgeous red maple leaf tree on the front – perfect with the tree and the cardinal in the corner here.
I guess I’m sort of like a bird – hopping from thing to thing – because I can’t manage a blog tour for THE SECOND LIE and also the book tournament for HIS ROAD HOME without feeling like I’m going in circles. The best kind of crazy, I guess!
Thanks again – Anna
Anna Richland recently posted…The Second Lie (Immortal Vikings #2) is Here!
Anna Richland
March 4, 2015 at 9:05 pm
Just returning to the comments after the big loop from school to baseball field to swimming pool back to baseball field. Wish I could dictate a book while driving, because I’d have the rest of the Immortal Vikings paired up so darn fast and in readers’ hands – but since I live in Seattle with all the joys of city driving, dictating and stop lights and left turning cars – maybe a bad idea.
I hope you’ll follow the tour to all its stops – I have different excerpts at each blog, including the “you’re not hairy enough to be a Wookiee” scene. Come find it!
(** well, a few are short version of the same scene done longer somewhere else, but they’re technically all different).
Anna Richland recently posted…The Second Lie (Immortal Vikings #2) is Here!
Angela
March 5, 2015 at 9:18 am
Thank you Anna!
Angela recently posted…ARC Early Review: A Curse Unbroken (Weird Girls #5) by Cecy Robson
bn100
March 4, 2015 at 7:24 pm
interesting sounding book
Angela
March 5, 2015 at 9:17 am
Thank you for stoping bye BN100.
Angela recently posted…ARC Early Review: A Curse Unbroken (Weird Girls #5) by Cecy Robson
Kris w/ The Book Beacon
March 4, 2015 at 12:28 pm
Great blog!
I am a HUGE fan of these books & will be doing a Spotlight Post soon!
Kris w/ The Book Beacon recently posted…Review: The Hidden Library by Heather Lyons
Angela
March 4, 2015 at 12:42 pm
Hello Kris, Thank you for stoping in. I stopped by your blog The Book Beacon and have to say I like the beach them, very cool! ^_^
Nurmawati Djuhawan
March 4, 2015 at 8:46 am
thx u for hosting 🙂
Angela
March 4, 2015 at 12:21 pm
Thank you for stoping bye Nurmawati!
Anna Richland
March 4, 2015 at 8:05 am
Thank you Angela for hosting – I love your blog layout and the background tree shows off our books beautifully!
It’s probably already on your blog – but is there a special reason you chose the background? (The little cardinal up in the corner – the flash of red – I keep thinking he must be magic).
Anna Richland recently posted…The Second Lie (Immortal Vikings #2) is Here!
Angela
March 4, 2015 at 12:20 pm
Hello and Welcome Anna,
It has been my pleasure to spotlight your book today. I so love your cover for this book and blurb. It is nice to hear that you and others enjoy the layout and background. It took me some time to find just the right picture to portray what I enjoy and what I wanted my followers to enjoy for this blog.
The background: Well I was looking for something that portrayed the magic of reading, all the wonders someone can imagine up. The full picture is called fantasy tree and is a giant tree with a road leading to an open doorway that goes to who knows what… A library, A magical adventure, A sex romp with a stranger… It’s all up to the imaginer where they go. I also like that their is a little red bird who could be magic leading the adventure to their next adventure. ^_^
Goddess Fish Promotions
March 4, 2015 at 2:27 am
Thanks for hosting!
Angela
March 4, 2015 at 7:09 am
My pleasure!
Mai T.
March 4, 2015 at 1:16 am
I love the hot cover!
Anna Richland
March 4, 2015 at 8:03 am
So glad you love the cover! I really wanted the open white shirt, because for the first couple chapters Stig is wearing a tuxedo that gets more and more abused and torn up. He’s a cufflink-wearing sort of Immortal Viking – a sharply dressed paranormal hero – and so I wanted that on the cover, in contrast to my fully shirtless cover hero on First to Burn. Glad the look works!
Anna Richland recently posted…The Second Lie (Immortal Vikings #2) is Here!