Annabelle Spencer’s life is every girl’s dream. She has wonderful parents, great friends, and of course the perfect boyfriend, Jack Roberts. That all changes on her sixteenth birthday when her life comes crashing down around her. Her dream night turns into a nightmare when Jack is murdered right in front of her, and she’s kidnapped by his murderer, Carter Thomas, a big time drug and arms dealer. After ten months of being with Carter, she’s found, but the experience has totally changed her. She’s no longer the happy-go-lucky girl that everyone used to know and love; she’s now cold, hard and suffers from night terrors. It appears that Carter broke not only her body, but her spirit too. A shadow of her former self, her slogan for life is now: ‘If you don’t care about anything, then you have nothing to lose’. Carter is currently serving time for the murder of Jack, a conviction that Anna helped secure. But his retrial is coming up because some key evidence appears to have been tampered with. Unbeknown to Anna, death threats are being received by her father, the Senator. It appears that Carter is still interested in Anna and will stop at nothing to get her back. Ashton Taylor is brought in to protect her. He’s a newly qualified SWAT agent, a bright spark, the agency’s new golden boy. He is assigned undercover, posing as her boyfriend. His job is to help her through college and keep her safe until the end of the trial in eight months’ time. For three years she has been the broken, damaged girl, refusing to feel emotion or pain, but can Ashton help her rebuild her life and finally deal with the grief of losing her childhood sweetheart? Will he be the one to make her see that life is, in fact, worth living and that not all men will hurt her? All the while, the shadow of the trial looms over the both of them, taunting them, reminding them that it isn’t over yet. After all, Carter Thomas will stop at nothing to be reunited with his ‘Princess’.
Kirsty Moseley has always been a passionate reader since she was a little girl, devouring books overnight, barely sleeping and paying for it at school the next day. Writing has come similarly to her and once she discovered Wattpad, she finally plucked up the courage to post one of her stories. Seven million reads later, she self-published her debut novel THE BOY WHO SNEAKS IN MY BEDROOM WINDOW, which later became one of 10 Finalists for the 2012 Goodreads' Choice Awards, Best YA Fiction. Shocked and overwhelmed by the response, she later published her second and third novels, Always You and Free Falling. If she had to sum herself up in one word, it would probably be 'daydreamer' - but unlike most of her school teachers, she doesn't necessarily view that as a bad thing. After all, she read somewhere once that books are like waking dreams.... She lives in Norfolk, England with her husband and son. Visit her website at http://www.kirstymoseley.com/ for more!EXCERPT: Ashton’s first sighting of Anna.
“It’s very nice to meet you, sir.”
“You too, Agent Taylor. This is my
wife, Melissa.” He gestured to the lady on the couch. I turned and smiled as it
clicked into place why she’d looked so familiar when I stepped into the room.
She looked like Annabelle, but Annabelle had a radiant beauty that far
surpassed her mother’s.
“It’s nice to meet you, ma’am,” I
nodded.
“You too. Hopefully you’ll last longer
than the other near guards; Annabelle needs some stability,” she said sadly.
Senator Spencer cleared his throat.
“So, Agent Taylor, I’ve read your file, and I must say it’s mighty impressive.
Your reputation is incredible at the agency. They have exceptionally high hopes
for you.” He gestured to the couch for me to sit. “You’ve read your brief, I
assume?” I nodded in confirmation and sat as instructed. “Do you have any
questions before you meet Annabelle?”
I nodded. “Only one, sir. I was
wondering why you don’t just tell Miss Spencer about the threats so that she
would be more cooperative with her guards. It would be a lot easier to protect
her, and ultimately make her safer, if she were more accommodating.”
Mrs Spencer gasped and the Senator
shook his head fiercely. “Annabelle is very fragile. She doesn’t like to show
it, but she’s still grieving for Jack, and what that animal did to her.” His
hand clenched into a fist before he took a deep breath and composed himself. I
liked this guy already. “She can’t be told. She barely copes as it is, she
doesn’t need anything else to worry about on top.” He stood up and walked to
his desk, picking up his phone. “Maddy, could you have Annabelle come in here
now, please?”
His face still looked sad with deep
pain across it. This man had worries about his daughter that no father should
ever have to go through. I hadn’t thought about them when I read her file.
Thinking about it now though, I realised that they had been through hell too.
Their sixteen year old daughter goes missing, presumed dead, then months later
she’s found broken, abused, and totally a changed person. They had to watch her
sink into depression and attempt suicide and turn into a cold, heartless
person, and now they couldn’t even hug her or hold her hand.
The phone on the desk buzzed, and
Maddy’s voice came through the intercom. “Senator, Annabelle’s here,” she
announced.
“Okay, Maddy, send her in,” the Senator
answered, glancing at me, his expression almost apologetic.
A few seconds later she walked into the
room. As soon as I laid eyes on her, I knew I was in trouble. She looked so
incredibly vulnerable. Her eyes were cold and distant and held a pain that I
couldn’t bear to think about. She had seen things that no one should ever see.
Carter had broken not only her body, but her spirit too.
Her eyes only flicked to me for a split
second and held no reaction whatsoever before she turned to her father. My
heart skipped a beat and my stomach tied in a knot. I wanted to run to her,
wrap my arms around her, and tell her everything would be okay. I wanted to
make her smile and hear her laugh.
Oh
fuck it; I really am in deep shit! AUTHOR INTERVIEW:
What would you say is your biggest
inspiration when plotting a book?
Biggest
inspiration… hmm… I like a strong male lead. Most of my males have certain
character traits of my husband; it’s usually the thought of creating those
males that make me want to write the book!
This is a tough one… while writing NLTL
it was definitely Ashton Taylor from it. He was always my favourite, but then his best friend got his own story
(Enjoying the Chase which comes out in March) and Nate Peters stole my heart.
It’s still a tough one for me though, I kind of feel disloyal to Ashton but if
I was held at gunpoint and had to choose… it’d be Nate.
Do you have plans for your next book?
Enjoying the Chase – the companion novel
about Ashton’s best friend – is already written and will be out in March. After
that, plans are already in motion for something new. Of course, it’s a new
adult romance. Not sure when it’ll be out at the moment though.
Have you read another authors book and
wondered why didn't I come up with that?
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