Dear Readers,
I began my love affair with New Orleans over twenty years ago during my first visit for a writers’ conference. There was something about the city: the timeless look, the cross-cultural flavor, the music drifting out from open doorways along with the spicy smells on the heavy, humid air, the graceful drape of lacy moss and explosion of flowers, the formal old world atmosphere imparted with a tawdry wink. I was intrigued and inspired by my first trip through the bayou, by the first tour of genteel plantation homes, by that first stroll along broken sidewalks after dark as the mists rolled in off the river. I was charmed by their motto of lagniappe—of giving a little something extra, a little something unexpected to make the whole experience special and memorable. And that was my goal in creating my new dark paranormal series for Pocket Books—gifting the reader with a little something more.
My BY MOONLIGHT series started out as just one book: a classic werewolf tale. I channeled those memories of the French Quarter, that haunting sense of danger lurking in stagnant backwaters, the careless lusty attitude along the crowded after-midnight streets, and created my characters around a gruesome murder scene. The minute fiercely focused Detective Charlotte Caissie exchanged words with Max Savoie, the enigmatic and deadly right-hand enforcer of the crime lord she’s determined to see convicted, I knew I had that something special. The scenes enfolded as fast as I could type, as if I were watching a movie play out on my laptop, through one book, two, three, then four…all with the same hero and heroine, because not only the plotline, but also the romance, was too big for one book to contain. It was no longer a simple werewolf story. It had evolved into something more. I call it “Beauty and the Beast meets the Sopranos in the Big Easy.” Romance, dark paranormal, action and suspense. Those elements combine in a tasty, long-simmering roux with just the right kick of heat and spice for a savory experience.
It starts with the romance: A sizzling cross-crossed Romeo & Juliet with a kick butt Beauty and a dangerously sexy Beast. Charlotte lives for the job to escape her traumatized past. To convict the man responsible for her cop father’s murder, she’s willing to use the only person who can get her close to mob boss Jimmy Legere. The problem is, there’s something about Max. He’s a mystery, a killer, probably the most dangerous man in New Orleans, but he’s also the only one she instinctively trusts, as if her heart knows a secret it won’t share with her sensibilities. His slow smug smile, his quirky behavior and spooky ability to intuit things not apparent to others irritates her. The way he makes her pulse race without even touching her, scares her to death. He’s protecting her enemy and threatening her control, yet she can’t seem to resist him…especially when he saves her life . . . and not, she’s surprised to discover, for the first time.
Max Savoie isn’t your usual paranormal hero. Sure he’s tall, dark and deadly, and smoking hot, but he’s also strangely vulnerable and almost naïve because of the way he’s been raised in the isolating world of Jimmy Legere. Rescued from the swamps as a child, with no knowledge of who . . . or what he is, his only purpose is to blindly serve the man who saved him…until he meets Charlotte. Her courage and strength shock though his wall of blind obedience to awaken emotions long hidden away and test his loyalties. When he risks his life to save hers, he risks more than his heart . . . he risks the exposure of his dangerous secret: the fact that he’s a shape-shifter.
CHASED BY MOONLIGHT continues where MASKED BY MOONLIGHT left off. Max and Cee Cee’s delicate and sometimes deadly courting dance is interrupted when she’s appointed lead investigator on a high-profile murder case that points to Max as the prime suspect. Torn between her duty and her desire, the harder she fights to clear his name, the more he pushes her away. Who is he trying to protect by hiding the truth from the one woman who can save him . . . if he’ll let her?
Left adrift in charge of a criminal empire and protector of a clan of wary shape-shifters, Max is desperate to discover more about his past. But dare he trust the conniving stranger who promises to reveal all . . . for a price—a conman who’d betray anyone to make a profit? Time is running out as Max searches for the truth about his heritage as Charlotte closes in on a merciless killer, putting their lives and their love on the line.
CAPTURED BY MOONLIGHT follows on the stands in August, as Max is forced to choose between protecting a family he’s just discovered and preserving a love that is spiraling out of his control. To have Max, Charlotte must face her greatest fears by accepting who and what he is . . . someone deadly, unnatural and outside the law she serves. Loving Max Savoie isn’t easy, but holding onto him could prove fatal.
Keep up with my BY MOONLIGHT series on my website at http://nancygideon.com.
Laissez les bon temps rouler!
