#GiveAway #Interview ~ Gun For Hire by J.J. ~ @j_j_montgomery

Gun For Hire

The Maui Heat Series

by J.J. Montgomery

J.J. will be awarding 5 ebook of Gun For Hire to randomly drawn winners via rafflecopter during the tour. Please use the RaffleCopter below to enter. Remember you may increase your chances of winning by visiting the other tour stops. You may find those locations here. 

Interview with J.J. Montgomery: 

Crystal: Would you share a little bit about yourself with us today?

 J.J. Yes! I heard once that you can tell so much about a person by the order in which they share things about themselves, so I’m waiting for the armchair analysis!

I’m a mother of two little kids. I’m desperately in love with my husband. I’m Catholic. I cook with enthusiasm but not always with skill. I have a soft spot for stray animals and stray people. I hope the thing people remember about me is that I’m kind.

Crystal: Do you have a favorite scene you would like to share with us?

 J.J.  This is such an easy question for me! There is a scene where Samantha has just survived an attempt on her life and the cops — including Grady — have turned their backs on her. She’s alone, looking for clues on the beach and she looks out to the ocean and watches a surfer ducking under the waves. The water is turquoise, the sun is beating down, and she’s thinking of Grady and wondering why her life can’t be easier. And I know as a romance writer I should be focused on the first kiss, or the first time they make love, but the truth is the most important element of Gun for Hire is my heroine — Samantha. And the ways in which she has to grow and change and mature to find happiness, not just in love, but in life.

Crystal: Where did you come up with the idea for your latest release?

J.J.  I was on the beach in Maui with my sister. It was my first vacation after my son was born, and I just been crushingly — and rightly — rejected for my first novel. Like, rejected 30+ times. We were looking out at the ocean and I was wondering if I should give up. This commotion caught our attention — a woman, dressed in a private security uniform, was arguing with two police officers and about 10 tourists and she as just giving everyone hell. She’d been hired by a local land developer to keep the beach tidy and she was pushing the cops to give out tickets. I was struck by the thought that she must have been incredibly brave and incredibly desperate to get up every morning and work this job. And I just knew God was telling me what I had to do next.

Crystal: What are you currently working on?

 J.J. Mostly my son’s manners and teaching my daughter to use utensils! But my joy is writing — I spend my nights working on a sequel to Gun for Hire where I get to match up Samantha’s sister, Josie, and her secret love, Kai.

Crystal: Do you have any special routine that you follow when you are writing?

 J.J.  No. I have to carve out time wherever I can, so I’ve learned not to be picky about my writing process.

Crystal: Did you have to do a lot of research for this book or any other? If so do you have a fascinating fact that you have learned you would like to share with us?

J.J. I did a lot of research on methamphetamine production and the way the authorities gauge the status of the drug war. I also read a lot of heartbreaking articles on how methamphetamine is destroying families on the West Coast — it’s tragic, and I hope I made it clear in Gun for Hire that, while I’m telling a fun story, there is also a very real crisis going on in our communities.

Crystal: Who are some of your favorite authors that you like to read?

J.J.  I am desperately in love with Jennifer Crusie and Susan Elizabeth Phillips. I love how much their stories are romances, but they are romances where the heroine is the one we’re rooting for, rather than just the relationship. Sally Thorne’s The Hating Game was about as good as romance ever gets.

Crystal: Is there a genre you haven't written that you would like to try?

 J.J.  Definitely! I have lived overseas for years and I always think I have an international thriller hiding somewhere inside of me. I have two characters, Elliot and Rachel — a married couple — that I write about when I start losing my passion for what I’m doing. Someday I will give them the complex, nuanced story they deserve. 

BLURB:

The job should have been easy—patrol a swank beach that serves as a backyard for Maui’s rich, kick out the riffraff, and get a tan in the process. But rent-a-cop Samantha Winters didn’t anticipate a deliciously grumpy cop, Sergeant Grady Roark, who comes down to the beach to bust her chops and instead leaves her breathless…and wondering why the one man who could help her seems determined to thwart her at every turn.

Grady is keeping secrets from Sam that have him walking the line between attraction and duty. But when Sam becomes the target of a shadowy organization, Grady will have to choose between the law and the temptation of a woman who has him breaking every rule he’s ever known.

The job should have been easy, but when the bullets start flying, Sam learns nothing is as easy as it seems when you’re a Gun for Hire.

Buy Links:
Amazon | The Wild Rose Press

Excerpt: 

“The sunlight was intense after a half hour in that gloomy space, but I squinted hard and kept moving toward a narrow set of steps down to the parking lot. Grady walked a few paces behind me, and if he heard the crinkle of paper as I moved, he elected not to say anything.

Grady hit the remote to his truck and grabbed for the passenger side door, his hand light on my elbow as he helped me up. Paper crackled as my butt hit the seat and Grady’s eyes narrowed. Without a word, he slammed my door and went around to the driver’s side, climbing up into the cab and stabbing the keys into the ignition.

“So, I—” I hesitated as I shifted in my seat and my movement was accompanied by the distinct sound of cardboard bending.

“No,” Grady muttered, and clicked on the radio. “No talking.”

“But—”

“Shh.” Grady put a finger to his lips, his eyes still on the road. “Any minute you’re going to tell me about the felony crime you just committed. And then I’m going to have to deal with the fact that I was an accessory to a felony crime." 

“Umm, yeah.” I reached around to the back of my pants and eased the file folder up from my waistband, working it out slowly so as to not lose anything as Grady headed up the hillside toward his house. As I brought it around to look at it, the red block letters damning me to years of incarceration should I get caught, a muscle ticked in Grady’s jaw.

“You stole classified documents.” He shook his head from side to side.

I looked up at Grady and then down at the mangled file with the red Top Secret heading. I took a corner of the front sheet and ripped across the width of the page, separating the words “Top Secret” from the rest of the paper.

“They’re declassified now.” I crumpled up the classification and shoved it in my pocket.

Grady sighed.

I shrugged and opened the file.”

Author Bio: 

J.J. MONTGOMERY writes romantic suspense novels with a sense of humor. Her heroines are as smart as they are smart mouthed and the men in their lives are just trying to keep up. Gun for Hire is the first book in J.J.’s Maui Heat Series. 

If you'd like to know more, including info on her newest book, where she gets her ideas, and how it’s possible she can’t use Facebook, please visit her:
Social Links: 
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