New Release | Treasure: The Pirates of the Eastern Shore by Morgan Malone #pirates #romance #enemiestolovers #laterinlife #99cents #bookboost
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    • Feb 14
    • 6 min read

New Release | Treasure: The Pirates of the Eastern Shore by Morgan Malone #pirates #romance #enemiestolovers #laterinlife #99cents #bookboost



Title: Treasure: The Pirates of the Eastern Shore

 

Author: Morgan Malone

 

Genre: Romance, Pirates, Later-in-life love, Enemies-to-friends, American History

 

Book Blurb:

 

Hundreds of years ago, off the coast of the newly created United States of America, pirates still prowled the waters of the Atlantic. Though the Golden Age of piracy was waning, there was yet one ship that struck fear into the hearts of merchants and navies: Satan’s Mermaid. Her captain, The Hawk, was hated by the British, admired by his crew, and loved by almost every lady he encountered. Except one. Rouge, the mystical pirate captain of the Crimson Lion, eluded his control, fought him for treasure, and—if legend has it true—led him to his death in the cold waters off the coast of Maine.

 

Henry Carl Sherwin, Doctor of Marine Geology, has been searching for The Hawk’s lost treasure for decades. His search has cost him almost everything, including the love of his life. Now, Hank’s sure his dream is within his grasp as he uses recently discovered journals and maps to locate a shipwreck near the last sighting of Satan’s Mermaid. All he needs to do is to convince the best Oceanographic Archaeologist in the world to help him unravel the mystery surrounding the only proof he has that the sunken ship was captained by The Hawk.

 

Dr. Victoria Davies Rand has fought for her place as one of the world’s foremost experts in Oceanographic Archaeology. Vicke’s paid a high price for the respect of her colleagues: the loss of her husband, Hank. Then, he arrives on her doorstep in the midst of a howling storm and turns her well-ordered life upside down with what he claims is proof that The Hawk and Rouge were together when they met their fiery deaths in the cold waters of the Atlantic Ocean.

 

Drawn by the promise of wealth and fame, respect and vindication, Vicke and Hank unite to solve the mystery of Satan’s Mermaid and the Crimson Lion. It’s their greatest adventure—and the treasure they discover may be worth more than gold.

 

Treasure is the contemporary romance prologue to Morgan Malone’s three-volume historical romance series: The Pirates of the Eastern Shore.

 

Excerpt:

 

“That was a damn short dive, Missy. I thought you were going to take at least thirty minutes to scope the site out. Was it too cold for you?” Phil pulled off her mask and headgear, then unstrapped her tank.

 

“No.” Much to her amusement, a giggling exclamation came from her lips. She sounded like a giddy school girl. Vicke looped her wet arms around Phil’s sturdy shoulders and planted a kiss right on his surprised mouth.

 

“We found it. We found a lion medallion. It has to be Rouge’s. Only the captain would wear this!” She held up the gleaming gold disc for Phil and Jamie to see. “We found Rouge.”

 

Phil swung her in his arms for the second time that day.

 

As soon as he put her down, Jamie took his turn, lifting his mother high.

 

Vicke was dizzy from their attentions and from sheer exhilaration. To find proof of Rouge’s existence on the first day was more than she had imagined. This proved the wreck was the Crimson Lion and not Satan’s Mermaid, as Hank had predicted. Oh, no. Hank.

 

Vicke looked around for him.

 

He leaned against the rail, unzipped dry suit hanging from his hips, just staring at her, with those piercing blue eyes. Hank’s chest was already bare; lightly dusted with silver hair over taut, tanned muscles.

 

Her mouth went dry, and she was sure she gaped at him. Just like she had done when she was twenty-five.

 

Then he grinned at her and began clapping his hands. For her.

 

Still zipped into the nearly form-fitting dry suit—and she wondered again how he had gotten her precise measurements because it fit her almost like a second skin—she executed an awkward curtsey in acknowledgment of his praise. “Past be damned,” she whispered and launched herself into his arms.

 

He caught her and pressed her close. The smell of the sea was on his skin and her pulse quickened. Briny water on Hank had always had an effect on her. And that had not changed. 

 

“Looks like you were right, Vic.” His voice was a harsh whisper in her ear. She pulled back to stare at him. There was no sarcasm in his voice and no challenge in his eyes, just pure admiration. The one thing she had never received from him.

 

With the medallion still clutched in one hand, Vicke traced the contours of his lips with the fingers of her other. Time stood still for her. The past dropped away. She knew the regrets of her years alone would come back to her once the moment had passed but, in that instant, she thought, “Regrets be damned.” And decided she would take her reward. Then her fingers fell away from his mouth, replaced by her lips.

 

The kiss was different.

 

And it was exactly the same.

 

His mouth was made for hers. He opened for her, and her tongue darted inside, just for a second to lazily caress that slight chip on his front tooth, the one that gave his smile such devilish appeal.

 

It was only Jamie’s pained exclamation of “Jeez, Moms, get a room!” that kept her from taking the kiss deeper.

 

She turned away from Hank, but he kept an arm possessively around her shoulders.

 

Others had come up from belowdecks at the sound of celebration. A few faces she remembered from her last voyage on The Explorer, but the rest must be the new crew, who Hank had explained, like her and Jamie, were joining the expedition for the summer.

 

Hank grabbed her hand still clutching the medallion and held it aloft.

 

“Look what my lovely wife discovered today—right under our noses! The Captain’s medallion from the Crimson Lion. I’ll bet my share of the booty”—he paused as the crew laughed and hooted and Vicke gasped—“Well, I’ll bet almost anything that this chain hung around the neck of the infamous Rouge, the Pirate Queen. Just as Vicke always said, if we find the Crimson Lion, we’ll find Satan’s Mermaid. I didn’t believe her, but she’s proven me wrong today.”

 

Vicke’s cheeks were burning from the excitement of discovery and from all the attention focused on her.

 

They were all looking at her, expecting her to say something.

 

“I’m certain I’ll be able to prove this medallion belonged to Rouge and the wreck below is the Crimson Lion. But this expedition is the culmination of decades of Hank’s unrelenting pursuit of The Hawk. What I need all of you to do is make Hank’s dream come true. You need to find Satan’s Mermaid and prove that we were both right—The Hawk went down off the coast of Maine. And Rouge was with him.”

 

The men and women gathered on deck cheered and applauded her words.

 

It was the right thing to say, she told herself. Gracious and enthusiastic. And, Vicke realized, as Hank leaned in and kissed her cheek, she meant every word of it. She’d been wrong about Hank and Betsey, refusing to listen to him, refusing to believe anything he told her. Of course, he was wrong to leave her in the lurch, but as she clutched Rouge’s necklace in her hand, she could not tell herself with any certainty that she would not have done the same if she had believed this moment would happen.

 

And if she’d been mistaken about Hank’s fidelity, had she been mistaken about his feelings for her? His respect for her as a scientist and a woman? Vicke’s gaze searched the green-gray sea, the waves gentled in the afternoon sun, the sky peeking deep blue through the drifting white clouds. And the sun, glinting off the gold chain trickling though her fingers. An omen? Perhaps. But today’s discovery had not provided many answers—it had, Vicke realized, only raised more difficult questions.

 

Buy Links:

 

Grab your ebook on sale for only 99 cents!

 

 

 

 

 



Special Giveaway:

 

Readers who comment on my new Facebook page, Captain Morgan’s Crew, on release day, February 14, will be entered to win a bag of Lindt Valentine’s Day Truffles.

 

 

Details on the FB page.

 


Author Biography:

 

My pen-name is Morgan Malone. A twist on the old “What is my stripper name? A combination of the name of your first pet and the street you grew up created Morgan Malone, an erudite yet brazen hussy, who left her career as an administrative law judge and counsel to pursue her first great love: writing.

 

I am the best-selling, award-winning author of a variety of romance novels: some steaming hot, some sexy, some sweet, mostly contemporary but look for my new historical series, The Pirates Of The Eastern Shore, in 2024. I also have written two romantic memoirs, Cocktales and 32 Days. I belong to several romance writers groups. My mainstream essays have been broadcast on NPR’s 51%, a nationally broadcast show directed at women. I frequently give workshops at author-reader conferences about writing “later-in-life” love stories featuring heroes and heroines, who are falling in love for the last, or maybe the first, time in their lives. Because, if you’re over 25 (and I am), maybe your book boyfriend should be too!

 

I live in Saratoga County, NY with my rescue diva dog, Princess. My daughter is a clinical psychologist practicing in Westchester County and my son (the real estate magnate), daughter-in-law (award-winning registered nurse) and two grandsons, live nearby. I travel, paint watercolors, play Mah Jongg, officiate weddings, and arbitrate employment contract disputes, in between writing romance and memoir.

 

Social Media Links:

 

Amazon Author page: URL:amazon.com/author/morganmalone, 

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