Thursday, May 28, 2015

Against the Tide (The Brodies of Alaska #3) by Kat Martin - Blog Tour, Excerpt, Review & Giveaway


Enter to win one of three print copies of AGAINST THE TIDE 


Against the Tide
The Brodies of Alaska #3
By: Kat Martin
Releasing May 26, 2015
Zebra



Secrets—and safety—melt under a midnight sun…

Liv Chandler is running for her life, and the cops haven’t been able to do a thing to help. But there’s one man who makes her feel safe, no matter what…rugged charter boat captain Rafe Brodie.

To Rafe, Liv is a beautiful mystery, one he can’t ignore. He means to unearth her secrets, and in the process, if luck is on his side, maybe the spark between them will ignite.

But Liv’s past is more dangerous than Rafe could guess, and when his first mate turns up dead, she fears that she’s next. That there’s something else coming she can’t see. That even Rafe and the remote village of Valdez, Alaska can’t protect her forever…



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Rafe leaned back in the booth as Olivia walked away. Beneath her light blue apron, she wore black leggings under a black skirt, and a black turtleneck sweater. She wore black a lot, he’d noticed, and with her heavy, dark hair, pale complexion, and striking features, it suited her.
The café was beginning to fill with customers, both locals and the first of the tourist crowd. Besides deep-sea fishing, the area offered helicopter sightseeing, wildlife cruises, glacier cruises, kayaking, hiking, camping, and a jillion other things visitors thought up to entertain themselves in a place so rich in natural beauty.
By the first of May, as winter slid into spring, the local hotel and restaurant businesses jump-started into high gear. So did Rafe’s company, Great Alaska Charters.
His fleet was composed of a thirty-two-foot Armstrong; a Glacier Craft thirty-five; and his thirty-eight-foot Mac, all of which worked from April through October, depending on the weather. Scotty had made a place for himself in the company, had become an important part of the business, and it was going to be damned hard to replace him.
Scott Ferris had become Rafe’s right-hand man, and more than that, a very good friend. There was no easy way to lessen the personal loss Rafe felt at Scott’s death. He needed to go see Cassie, find out if there was anything he could do to help her get through her grief.
Rafe knew from experience it was going to take a helluva long time for her to heal.
He looked over at the tall, slender woman moving around the café. She was the real reason he had come to the Pelican this morning. Just watching her eased some of the tightness in his chest. Trim and lithe, she moved like a dancer, in more of a glide than a pattern of steps, so light on her feet she was there one moment, then she wasn’t.
With her high cheekbones, wide forehead, and unusual gray eyes, Olivia was a beautiful woman. Her chestnut hair, twisted into a knot at the nape of her neck, glinted with vibrant highlights. By midmorning, a few strands escaped around her face, softening the severe appearance she seemed determined to maintain.
And there was that mouth. Lipstick was the only real makeup she wore, a glossy dark red on lips so plump and perfectly curved they could have been in a magazine ad. That mouth made him think of dirty sex and taking her to bed, or anywhere else he could have her.
Maybe she could read his mind; maybe she knew what he was thinking and that was the reason she never waited on him. And though she was always polite, she spoke tohim only if she had to and rarely by name.
For the first couple of months after she’d taken over the business, he’d figured she was just too busy to notice him. Besides, he was still dating Sally, and he wasn’t the kind of guy who cheated on a woman he was involved with.
Four months ago, Sally had moved on, and Rafe had discovered he was glad. He cared for Sally Henderson, but he wasn’t in love, never had been. He’d told her from the start he wasn’t interested in marriage. At the time, she’d convinced him she wasn’t either. But relationships changed, and Sally was ready to settle down.
Sally was ready. Rafe wasn’t.
It wasn’t until after they’d parted that he started to take an interest in Olivia Chandler. Besides her striking looks and porn-star mouth, there was just something about her, something that began to intrigue him. She was always friendly to the other customers, though according to Nell, she had no close friends outside the people she worked with, and no family in the area that anyone knew of.
At first he’d told himself he just wasn’t the lady’s type, but the more she ignored him, the more intrigued he became. She rarely went to the local pub, he discovered, just kept mostly to herself in the apartment she lived in above the café. She was a runner, he knew, having seen her jogging early in the mornings with the big, black-and-brown German shepherd she called Khan.
Every time he went into the Pelican, which was often since he was a bachelor and a lousy cook, he watched her, and eventually a funny thing happened. Over the days and weeks that passed, Rafe became more and more certain Olivia Chandler wasn’t avoiding him because she wasn’t attracted to him.
She was avoiding him because she was.
Liv Chandler was a beautiful mystery, one Rafe no longer intended to ignore. He meant to unearth her secrets, and in the process, if luck was on his side, maybe he’d discover the fierce attraction he felt for her was returned in equal measure.
Rafe damned well hoped so.
Rising from the booth, he tossed a dollar bill on the table for the waitresses’ tip jar and started for the door. Olivia Chandler was a mystery he meant to solve.
But another mystery needed solving first.
His jaw hardened. Rafe wasn’t about to let the man who murdered one of his best friends go unpunished.
Whatever it took, he was going to see justice done.


There are plenty of secrets and lies to keep you wondering how it was all going to play out, even though as the reader you know who the players are. The chemistry between Rafe and Liv is great and the way their relationship progresses is believable. Both Rafe and Liv are likeable characters from the start and remain likeable through the end. As with all small town stories, they have friends and family to help them along the way. Although this is the third book in the series, it can be read as a standalone. Overall, a solid romantic suspense, look forward to the next Brodie finding love when least expected.

ARC via NetGalley






Kat Martin is the New York Times bestselling author of more than sixty books across multiple genres. Sixteen million copies are in print and she has been published in twenty-one foreign countries, including Japan, France, Argentina, Greece, China, and Spain. Her books have been nominated for the prestigious RITA award and won both the Lifetime Achievement and Reviewer’s Choice Awards from RT Book Reviews.

A resident of Missoula, Montana, Kat is a graduate of the University of California at Santa Barbara, where she majored in Anthropology and also studied History. She and her author husband, L.J. Martin, spend their winters in Ventura, California. She is currently writing her next Romantic Suspense. Visit Kat at www.katmartin.com






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