Alana Loren, New Release Excerpt + Giveaway!

I met Alana in the Colorado mountains between Denver and Boulder during a Margie Lawson Immersion Master Class and she’s here today to tell us about her new romantic suspense series–Pittsburgh Lady Lawyer Series! Alana has utilized her many years as an attorney in crafting reality into these novels and she’s also giving away one copy of each book, CONVICTION OF THE HEART and SECOND CHANCES. Plus, there are many ways to win on past blogs throughout the tour as well!

Here’s Alana!!

For two months, I’ve been sharing bits of myself and my stories out here in the blogosphere, and I’ve met so many lovely readers AND writers. The Pittsburgh Lady Lawyers blog tour has definitely made the rounds across America, Down Under and to the United Kingdom and back a couple of times, talking about the stories and the wonderful city of Pittsburgh, where they’re set.

As a lawyer, I have a window into my clients’ lives, often at a time in their life when nothing seems to be going right. It’s my job to help them navigate treacherous waters as the family life they’ve always known sinks beneath the waves and must be recovered. Sometimes that turmoil reaches over into my own world—as I said earlier in the tour, there is a bullet hole in my office window. I’ve been threatened over the phone, and even by one idiot who was stupid enough to write it down. People who feel desperate, like they’re losing everything, tend to act desperate, too. I hope I’ve brought that sense of urgent danger to these two romantic suspense stories.

In CONVICTION OF THE HEART, family law attorney Suzanne Taylor understands her clients’ problems—her own husband left her with two babies to raise alone. Now that they’re teenagers, her life is full. The last thing she wants is the romantic attentions of a police lieutenant, no matter how good-looking.

Lt. Nick Sansone is juggling the demands of a new promotion, and doesn’t need complications either. But when he sends a councilman’s battered wife to Suzanne for help, he realizes he wants to connect with the lovely, prickly lawyer on more than a professional level.

They are soon confronted with a different battle, when the abused woman’s husband threatens retribution. The powerful, well-connected councilman can damage both their careers—not to mention hurt those they love. Can they bend enough to admit they need each other in a time of crisis? Or will a husband’s revenge take them down before they ever get a chance?

(see the trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a84IZoH-JKw )

In SECOND CHANCES, Inessa Regan, a 10-year associate at a Pittsburgh law firm, gets a pink slip when the economy tanks. Insecure, her pride wounded, she flounders helplessly until she meets Kurtis Lowdon, a man 15 years younger than she, an Iraq War veteran with cancer. He helps her take the first steps back from the pit of despair after she loses everything that defines her.

First as her client, then as her landlord, then as her partner, Kurt shows her the power of believing in oneself. Their journey is tainted with secrets from Kurt’s own past, as well as some of the horrors of war that have followed Kurt and his friends home from overseas. When his cancer returns, she must take control of her own life and fight to survive. Can the lessons he’s taught her keep her strong enough to survive? How much will she risk to save him?

(See the trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CEMtSxd6FQQ )

The series has more strong women to share, more trials to get through, in the coming years. Thanks so much to Joan Swan and all the authors who’ve allowed me to share their blog space on this adventure! I’d like to leave you with an excerpt from CONVICTION OF THE HEART, in a courtroom scene where Suzanne has just gotten her client Maddie Morgan a restraining order against her abusive councilman husband:

          The judge took a recess. As he left the bench, Suzanne saw smug satisfaction cross Morgan’s face, and the look he gave Maddie, the one that said “You’ll be back.”

          The only minor blessing was that Maddie hadn’t seen the look. Through the whole hearing, she’d stared into her lap, where her hands twisted and pinched each other, white with tension. Even in a $500 suit and shoes at least half that, the woman hadn’t had the courage to do more than whisper an answer to anything the judge asked her.

          Suzanne stood as the courtroom cleared, doing the best she could to remain a physical barrier between the Morgans, despite her own distaste for the man. Frank Rosenblatt packed his papers into his briefcase without saying anything further to his client, ignoring Greg’s penetrating stare at the other table. Those eyes, so full of passion—be it obsession or hatred—had the power to frighten Suzanne. She didn’t want Maddie to have to deal with them.

          “Call me Tuesday,” Frank murmured to his client, then after a nod to Suzanne, he left the courtroom. As soon as he’d cleared the door, Greg walked right up to Suzanne, perhaps a foot from her. Well within arms’ reach. It was all she could do not to shove him away.

          “Don’t think you’ve won here, counselor. Our dance has scarcely begun. I’m going to take that bitch down. But that’s not all. You chose the wrong side in this case. I’ll destroy you, and yours. All of you.”

          Even before she faced him, Suzanne could feel his presence, a red-hot ball of anger. Since she didn’t have Maddie’s expensive wardrobe to act as a shield, she’d have to wing it. She turned slowly and looked Greg Morgan in the eye.

          “I’ve heard that speech before…where was it? Oh, yeah. The Wizard of Oz. ‘You and your little dog, too.’ As I recall, that character didn’t survive till the happy ending.”

          His hand, closed into a fist, came open as she finished speaking, and for a moment she thought he was going to hit her right there in court. She didn’t flinch, though, not wanting to give him the satisfaction of knowing he could get to her. She glanced inside the bar for the broad-shouldered bailiff, but he was occupied, flirting with the court clerk. By the time she looked back at Morgan, he’d stepped back with a wide smile.

          “Someone’s not going to get out alive here. That much is true.”

          He started to whistle then, and turned away, walking out of the courtroom as if he had no care in the world. Frozen, she watched till the door closed behind him. A little whimper behind her caught her attention, along with the shout of someone in the gallery. Maddie had fainted.

Last chance to win!

DUAL BOOK/BLOG TOUR!!

CONVICTION OF THE HEART

And SECOND CHANCES

The first and Second books of the Pittsburgh Lady Lawyer Series!

Simply leave a comment to enter!

Come by the tour blogs or live booksignings and leave a comment to be entered in a drawing—at the end of the tour, Alana will give away one ebook copy of each book and one paperback copy of each book—Four lucky winners!

Check out all the blog tour website stops at http://alanalorens.com

About Alana:

Alana Lorens (aka Barbara Mountjoy) has been a published writer for over 35 years, including seven years as a reporter and editor at the South Dade News Leader in Homestead, Florida. Her list of publications includes the non-fiction book 101 Little Instructions for Surviving Your Divorce, published by Impact Publishers in 1999, stories in A Cup of Comfort for Divorced Women, in December 2008, and A Cup of Comfort for Adoptive Parents, in June 2009. Her Clan Elves of the Bitterroot series (as Lyndi Alexander) is available from Dragonfly Publishing; THE ELF QUEEN in 2010, THE ELF CHILD in 2011, and THE ELF MAGE in 2012.

Her newest release (as Alana Lorens) is CONVICTION OF THE HEART, in the Crimson Rose line from The Wild Rose Press, her sixth published novel, which will be followed in July 2012 with SECOND CHANCES, a women’s fiction with romantic elements story from Zumaya Publications. The Wild Rose Press is also publishing her contemporary romance novella THAT GIRL’S THE ONE I LOVE later this summer.

When she’s not busy writing, practicing law or teaching, she takes care of a husband and a bunch of kids and blogs on a variety of subjects, including autism, science fiction and life at Awalkabout.