Blog Tour: HEART OF DECEPTION by Gayle Feyrer

Heart of Deception

by Gayle Feyrer

 

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GENRE: Historical Romance

 

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BLURB:

 

Intrigue and treachery stalk the grimy streets and the royal courts of Elizabethan England. Returning from war, Rafe Fletcher finds his family accused of conspiring to murder Elizabeth and place Mary, Queen of Scots, on her throne. His only hope to save them lies in infiltrating the criminal underworld of nefarious siblings Nick and Vivian Swift.

 

Rafe discovers it’s Viv who is the mastermind of the duo. Bold, clever and ruthless, Viv is also loyal and fiercely passionate. Rafe fights the intense magnetism that pulls him ever closer to destruction. But desire defies every warning he gives himself and they begin a blazing affair--until murder and betrayal severs their newly formed trust. Restoring that trust may be the only way Rafe can save the Queen, his own family, and the woman he’s come to love.

 

Their adventure takes them from the fledgling theatres of Shakespeare’s London to the desperate corridors of Bedlam, from the deadly backstreets of the Clink to the glittering court of Queen Elizabeth. It is a world of dark secrets and darker intrigues. Will the fire of their passion burn bright enough to incinerate the lies, and illuminate the truth?

 

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Excerpt One:

 

Prickling with the awareness of being watched, Rafe looked up to the house, his search stopping at a shadowy form behind the great bow window. He stared up at the window until the shadow moved forward. Circular panes sparkled in the sun as the central casements opened to reveal a woman watching. Dark and slender, she looked clothed in flame, her velvet gown a blaze of scarlet slashed with black. A shock went through Rafe as her glittering gaze met his own, then slowly browsed him from head to toe.

 

Used to seductive appraisal, flirtatious or serious, still he flushed at the flagrant assessment, and the heat that flashed through him seemed to ignite in her eyes, bright within their dark. Rafe had never seen a lady with so bold a glance, which mocked as it weighed, invited as it challenged. But no lady would be here among these criminals, though the woman gazing down at him knew how to dress the part. Rubies burned at her throat, and ropes of sparkling jet draped her vivid scarlet bodice. The distinctive garb, the total presumptuousness of the woman, made him tense with suspicion. Slowly, her gaze swept his body, scanning the breadth of his shoulders and assessing the strong muscles of his thighs. … The black eyes sought his again, and he stared back defiantly, icy anger running in cold currents against his hot arousal. Rafe felt more than provoked—he felt deliberately tested to see how long he could stand in the fire.

 

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GUEST POST

Topic: what drives characters in your story and how do they develop in the story?

 

    Rafe Fletcher is deeply conflicted, and only half realizes it. He was indulged and adored by his dashing actor father and the mother who’d abandoned a Puritan family to run off with him. But she read Rafe the bible every night. He is very much the child of both.

    After Rafe is caught stealing gingerbread, his father confronts him: “Raphael, that wide-eyed gaze could make the angels believe your innocence. Perform so on stage and you will be a god.” He was whipped, but not as if his father meant it. Rafe was proud of the theft, his lie, his beating, until he faced his mother’s accusing eyes. It was her shame, her icy reproach, that secured his repentance.

     Then his parents die of the sweating sickness and Rafe’s sent to a different world. A Puritan world.

But while his grandparents were stern in their judgments, still they offered refuge, a stability he’d never known in his vagabond life. Craving their affection, he learned to hide the wildness they feared. Slowly, his life flowed into the narrower channel they set. He learned to swim more deftly, seldom colliding with the hard walls of their faith. But like sunken treasure, the memories of his childhood glittered just below the surface.

Rafe’s broken free of that rigid life to a great extent, first with his friend Gabriel, and then in integrating himself into Vivian’s world. But there’s still a bit of the prude mixed with the sensualist. And since he always had to hide the sensualist from his grandparents, he’s been an actor his whole life. Becoming an undercover agent for the crown is a boon. He’s seeking justice for his family and his murdered friend, but he gets to be bad in service of goodness.

In loving Viv he comes the closest he ever will to integrating those warring facets and simply being himself. He can define his own moral code and reclaim the glittering treasure.

Viv has very little inner conflict. She’s always known who she is and what she wants. The problem is that she’s a woman she’s not allowed to have it and is expected to want something else. Some women in Elizabethan England were similar powerhouses who knew how to play the game or had enough power to break the rules. Viv might have triumphed in the world she was born into, or she may have been, not broken, but imprisoned within its limitations.

    But Viv and her brother are on the run for murder. That same childhood catastrophe frees her to become her most dynamic, her most ruthless self. There remains a lingering fear of discovery and wariness of betrayal. Given the hidden crime in her past, the daily violence and treachery of the world she’s slowly mastered, she gives her trust sparingly. There’s only her brother, who’s pulling away from her because he’s fallen in love, Izzy, who rescued them both from the streets, and one or two henchmen who’ve been tested enough to be trusted.

    And then Rafe, who she only meant to play with, not love. Not trust.

    And he breaks her heart.

    Viv’s courageous, even reckless, but always aware, always weighing the odds. She has a violent temper that she indulges too freely. She likes power, likes controlling others, but it’s less for its own sake than for the sense of security it gives her. She likes having wealth but has a generous hand. Life is a game, albeit a deadly game, and Viv likes to play. A little more over the edge and she could be a true villain, but has empathy for others, her own sense of justice, and a capacity for love she’s seldom been able to offer. Loving Rafe, forgiving Rafe opens up the generosity of her nature to a depth and height she have been able to reach on her own.

 

AUTHOR Bio and Links:

 

Gayle Feyrer began drawing as soon as she could hold a crayon and writing when she was twelve. She holds a Bachelor's in Pictorial Arts from UCLA, and a MFA from the University of Oregon in Creative Writing. In her varied career, she has been a tie dye artist, go-go dancer, baker, creator of ceramic beasties, illustrator, fiction teacher, and finally, novelist. A Libra with Scorpio Rising, Gayle’s romantic nature takes on a darker edge.  She hopes these shadows bring depth to her romances.

 

A world traveler, Gayle has visited Paris, England and Italy numerous times.  She lived for two years in Jakarta, Indonesia, with many trips around Asia. She currently resides across the bridge from San Francisco, with her husband and their two rescue cats, Charlotte and Emily, the Flying Bronte sisters, half Siamese and half tabby.

 

Tygerbright Press – Novels of Romance and Mystery: https://tygerbright.com/

https://www.facebook.com/YvesFey

Gayle Feyrer (@yves_fey) • Instagram photos and videos: https://www.instagram.com/yves_fey/

https://www.pinterest.com/yvesfey

 

Book Video: https://youtu.be/zLQ_AydxEyE

 

 

https://www.amazon.com/Heart-Deception-Gayle-Feyrer-ebook/dp/B0BSP8JMMW/

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/heart-of-deception-gayle-feyrer/1143302694

 

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GIVEAWAY 

Gayle Feyrer will be awarding a $25 Amazon or B/N GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.

a Rafflecopter giveaway