Tainted by @Marsharwest is a Black Friday Deals pick #99cents #romanticsuspense #giveaway
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    • Nov 28, 2021
    • 6 min read

Tainted by @Marsharwest is a Black Friday Deals pick #99cents #romanticsuspense #giveaway



Title: TAINTED


Author: Marsha R. West


Genre: Second Chance Romantic Suspense


Book Blurb:


Socialite and philanthropist Elizabeth Hartman needs to start a new life after divorcing her husband Gerry Richardson who’s in federal prison for money laundering, a crime the Feds suspected her of being involved in. Her mother’s family vacation home in Red River, New Mexico offers just the respite she needs. Or does it?


One too many deaths sends retired Dallas homicide detective and now Marshall Matt Thornton to Red River to seek a less dangerous place to serve. The New Mexico mountains promises to be that refuge until his high school sweetheart Liz Hartman arrives, bringing with her danger to his town and his heart.


Excerpt:

Liz got back in the car. “Let’s go home, sweetie.” She closed the car door and buckled up. “I’m bushed.”


“After we unload, I’ll run to the grocery store and pick up soup or chicken for supper. How does that sound?”


“Perfect. Except, what if I drop you to shop while I go by and pick up the boy from the pet sitters?”


“What about the bags?”


“I work out, Lauran, and I can manage them, even if it’s only one at a time.” Liz resisted rolling her eyes at her daughter.


“Of course, you can, Mom.” Her daughter’s huff of acknowledgement made Liz happy.


Liz stopped in front of the grocery store to let out her daughter before driving to the pet sitter’s house. A friend of Terrie’s had volunteered to keep the pup. Charley expressed his delight in seeing her by slathering kisses all over her face like she’d been gone a month. After thanking Terrie’s friend with a bottle of wine she’d picked up in Santa Fe and loading the dog and his stuff into her car, she drove to the condo and parked out front.



Liz set two bags on the porch and got the key out to unlock the door. She swung it open first before reaching for the bags. She picked up both and attempted to back inside. Not the best idea. Should’ve done one bag at a time. They didn’t weigh much, but the two together were awkward and made her struggle to manage them.


Liz screamed when hands clasped around her throat from behind. She dropped the bags, and clawed at the fingers around her neck, her heart pounding like a deep bass drum. “Let me go.” She kicked back her foot, aiming for the guy’s knee. He grunted and loosened the grasp on her throat. Liz wiggled from his grip and stepped for the door.


“No, you don’t.” Strong hands descended on her shoulders violently shaking her. “I’m delivering a message. Go back to Fort Worth. Use your married name. Or you’ll be sorry.”


Liz gasped with relief when he released her, pressing the fingers of one hand to her throat to relieve the ache there, but then pain exploded in the back of her head, and she pitched forward as blackness descended.


****

Barking drew Lauran’s attention to her mother’s car in front of the condo. “Hey, Charley. What are you still doing in there?” She set down the bag of items she’d picked up from the store and opened the car door. The pup jumped out and scooted away before she got hold of him to lift him from the car. He dashed up the steps to their condo, his leash trailing behind.


Lauran paused at the entrance where the door stood ajar. She shoved at it, but something stopped her from opening it completely. Charley ooched his way through the partial opening, his whines sending chills up and down Lauran’s back. She pushed harder, moving the door enough to allow her to squeeze through. Her heart raced. Her hands grew clammy.


“Oh, my gosh! Mom?” Her mother lay crumpled on the floor. Blood trickled down the side of her face. How had she hit her head? Had she fallen down the stairs? But the bags stood here near the entrance. Lauran knelt and checked her mother’s pulse. Thank God. Liz’s chest rose and lowered with each short breath. Lauran clutched her cell and thanked her mother’s insistence that she put important numbers in her phone. First, she dialed Emergency for the ambulance and then the number for Matthew Thornton.


“Hey, Matt. Something’s happened to Mom. She’s lying on the floor in our condo, bleeding, and is unconscious.”


“Did you call the ambulance?”


“Yes, I called them first.”


“Good. I’ll be right there. Stay on the line with me, okay?”


“Yeah. Thanks.” Lauran’s hands trembled.


Charley licked her mother’s cheek and made whiney noises that sent shards of glass into Lauran’s heart and made her stomach cramp. What had happened here?


Matt and the EMTs arrived at the same time. Lauran scooped up the pup, who went into his furious barking routine to protect his mom.


“You need to step outside on the porch, Lauran.”


“But Mom.”


“She’s in the best of hands.” Matt guided Lauran outside. “Have you looked at the rest of the condo unit?”


“No.”


“You stay here. I’ll be right back.” Matt squeezed through the door and disappeared.


It seemed like forever, but he couldn’t have been long, because the unit wasn’t large. Lauran jumped when Matt came around the side of the unit and joined her on the porch.


“Looks like someone broke in the back door. Tell me what happened.”


“After we dropped off Sarah at your place, we drove into town. Mom left me at Der Markt to pick up supper. She planned to pick up the little guy, which she obviously did and came on to the condo.


“When I got here, Charley’s barking caught my attention. I opened the car door to scoop him up, but he got by me and dashed for the condo entrance. The door stood partially open, and he squeezed through. I followed and found Mom lying unconscious on the floor. I called you and the EMTs. Is she going to be all right, Matt? Tell me she’ll be all right.”


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What makes your featured book a must-read?

It’s always good to read a second chance romance. We want to believe we’ll always get a second chance. This family story showcases the beautiful mountain town of Red River, NM. We get to see how a family grapples with a life changing event when the ex-husband is arrested by the FBI for money laundering. When a person makes bad decisions, those decisions don’t just affect them, but everyone around them. Besides the relationships between Liz and her daughter Lauran and her mother, we have the relationship between Matt and his daughter, and we have thrills and chills and of course romance.


Giveaway –


Enter to win a $25 Amazon gift card:



Open Internationally.


You must have a valid Amazon US or Amazon Canada account to win.


Runs November 26 – December 2, 2021.


Winner will be drawn on December 3, 2021.



Author Biography:


Retired elementary school principal, former school board member, and theatre arts teacher, Marsha R. West writes Romance, Suspense, and Second Chances. Experience Required. She lives in Texas with her supportive lawyer husband and Charley, a deaf, Chihuahua/Jack Russell Terrier. Their two daughters presented them with three delightful grandchildren who live nearby.


Marsha’s four-part series is called The Second Chances Series, and that’s the theme of her nine books. Her Heroines and Heroes are in their 40s and 50s with their parents and children often playing supporting roles. Her husband picked up a plaque for her on one of their trips to Maine that states her philosophy exactly. Everything will be all right in the end. If it’s not all right, it’s not the end.


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