Title: Romance & Revenge
Author: Laina Turner
Genre: Cozy Mystery / Chick Lit
Book description:
The
bookkeeper at Jared’s company has been murdered and if that wasn’t bad enough
someone is trying to sabotage the company by leaking company documents to other
firms who are then upstaging their presentations. Jared asks for her help to
find out who is trying to take Sleeping Bear Designs down and while Presley is
always willing to help a friend, she is also hoping it will take her mind off
obsessing over Cooper.
Presley
and Cooper are on a break or are they broken up? It was never really
clarified and she just found out he’s in town and he hasn’t called. Is he
avoiding her? What does that mean?
Are
they done for good?
Purchasing link:
Excerpt
“What
is it, Jared? Did you get fired?” Hoping that wasn’t the case, but I couldn’t
think of anything else that would bring him home at this time and this upset.
“Not even close,” he said, walking to the liquor cabinet, pouring a shot of
vodka and downing it before getting some coffee and sitting down.
Katy
and I just stared. I didn’t know what to say. He was acting bizarre.
“Jared, what is going on?”
“Remember Becky I work with?
You met her when we went for drinks to celebrate
Sally’s
birthday.”
“Petite
brunette. She does the books.”
“Yep, that’s her. Or was her. She’s been murdered.”
“Oh
my God,” I said. No wonder he looked the way he did. “What happened?” Jared ran
his hands through his hair, clearly distressed.
“John had called an emergency
meeting because someone is stealing company information.”
“What?” I interrupted.
“Oh
yeah, it’s been quite the morning. I’ll get to that in a minute. We were all
there but Becky. John called Becky’s phone to see where she was and the police
answered. They said she had been found murdered and got all our contact
information from John saying they would need to talk to all of us.”
“That’s
horrible, Jared. How’s everyone taking it?”
“Not well. Things have already
been a mess these last few weeks.”
“What
else is going on?” I asked. “We initially were meeting because we have a leak
in our office and John doesn’t know what to do about it.”
“What?” I asked. “Can’t he just
call a plumber?”
“Not that kind of leak.” He looked at me and rolled his eyes. “Sorry,
I was trying to lighten the mood.”
What
kind of leak?” asked Katy.
“We’ve been working on this really big branding campaign. One of the
biggest all year. We showed it to the client yesterday and when we did, they
had already seen it. Or rather something similar the day before by one of our
competitors,” he said. “Needless to say, they weren’t very happy with our pitch
and almost seemed accusatory. Like we had stolen the other company’s ideas.
John was already pissed over that. I mean it not only loses us the client but
makes us look like idiots and tarnishes our reputation.”
“Jared,
you always tell me that there are only so many original thoughts. Could it just
be a coincidence?” I asked.
Author Bio
As a child Laina thought she would either be a truck driver
(thanks to Jerry Reed in Smokey and the Bandit) or work at Taco Bell (her
favorite restaurant as a child). As she grew older she realized her talents lay
in academics and business and for the last several years has been a business
consultant and college professor where she uses the analytical side of her
brain and not the side that makes up stories.
Through all her career choices she has continued to have a
passion for writing. This stemmed from childhood whereas an only child she
developed a vivid imagination spending most of her time making things up and
thinking the Incredible Hulk lived in her closet.
Proud of her vast experiences in life from barrel racing to
being on the dance team for a semi pro basketball team to being a mom of 2
amazing kids, she tells her family and friends that no one is safe from their
escapades slipping in to her books.
Taking the plunge to write books that she actually lets people
read in 2010, she has worked her way up to having 5 fans (maybe 6 now). Her
blog, The Art Of Living Fabulously, was launched to share the daily fun in the
life of a Real Housewife of the Midwest along with the musing of other fabulous
ladies.
