BlogTour-Guestpost and Giveaway: THE RUSSIAN SEDUCTION by Nikki Navarre

Today I welcome Nikki Navarre on the Blog with a Guest post and a Giveaway of THE RUSSIAN SEDUCTION. I just finished the book and it was a great romantic suspense: with its political theme and unusually uniqueness and Nikki’s enticing writing style it has reeled me in and I can’t wait to read more in this series. 

THE AUTHOR

DOSSIER FOR NIKKI NAVARRE 

DECLASSIFIED 

Subject: Nikki Navarre 

Assignment: Double Agent 

Cover: Diplomat. Playgirl. Author of The Russian Seduction. 

Nikki Navarre is the sinister twin of unsuspecting historical romance author Laura Navarre. In her other life, Nikki is a diplomat who’s lived in Russia and works on weapons of mass destruction issues. In the line of duty, she’s been trapped in an elevator in a nuclear power plant and has stalked the corridors of facilities churning out nerve agent and other apocalyptic weapons. In this capacity, she meets many of the world’s most dangerous men. 

Inspired by the perilous realities of her real life, Nikki writes romantic suspense set in glamorous international locales and laced with political intrigue. Her literary credentials are suspiciously similar to those of her innocent twin. A member of Romance Writers of America’s Published Author Network (PAN), winner of the 2012 Pacific Northwest Writers Association award for romance and a 2009 Golden Heart finalist, she has won the Emily Award for Excellence, the First Coast Romance Writers Beacon Award, the Georgia Romance Writers Maggie Award, the Golden Pen, Hearts through History’s Romance through the Ages, and other awards. 

Nikki holds an M.F.A. in Writing Popular Fiction from the University of Southern Maine, an M.A. in National Security Policy from The George Washington University, and other alarming credentials. Based in Seattle with her screenwriter accomplice and two Siberian cats, she divides her time between her writing career and other adventures for U.S. government clients. Her notorious adventures in the world of diplomacy will get her in trouble one of these days. 

The Russian Seduction (October 2012) may be the last mistake she ever makes. 

THE GUESTPOST

Russian Heroes in Romance:  Not Your Average Ivan

By Nikki Navarre

 

“The lamplight spilled around him like water in a ship’s wake, streaming past an impregnable hull.  The Slavic sharpness of high cheekbones; a canny crease between tawny brows; hard jaw glittering with the gold dust of day’s-end stubble; and a mouth whose firm press suggested ruthlessness…and sensuality.

But God—his eyes.  That Nordic gaze fized her, unwavering, piercing blue as winter ice. Alexis wondered how many men had looked their last into those cold eyes, then told herself to get it together. Still, she could barely contain the shiver that whispered through her.

His lips tightened in a humorless smile. “I’m Captain First Rank Victor Tarasovich Kostenko. I’m told you’ve been looking for me.”

That’s how we meet the hero of my debut romantic suspense, The Russian Seduction, winner of the Golden Pen and the launch book for my Foreign Affairs series with River Valley Publishing.  Victor quickly stakes his claim as the nemesis of my heroine, rising-star American diplomat Alexis Castle.  He may be Russian (with Ukrainian roots), an unconventional choice for a romance hero, but Victor is hardly your average Ivan.  Until recently, he was a submarine captain with a maverick image, the golden boy of the Russian fleet.  Now he’s lost his command for an act of treason he didn’t commit.  And it’s rumored he’ll do anything to get back in his government’s good graces. 

Are you wondering why I chose a Russian hero?  In my other life, I’m a diplomat who’s lived in Russia, where I specialize in weapons of mass destruction issues.  In the line of duty, I’ve been trapped in an elevator in a nuclear power plant and stalked the corridors of facilities churning out nerve agent and other apocalyptic weapons.  In this capacity, I meet many of the world’s most dangerous men.  A renegade Russian submarine captain like Victor Kostenko definitely qualifies!

Look at it this way.  International intrigue demands a super-smart alpha hero with a hidden agenda, an agent who operates with considerable flair.  I like to think five years spent watching and working the Russian political and diplomatic scene, living in the edgy cosmopolitan world of modern-day Moscow where The Russian Seduction takes place, gave me the insider’s knowledge to write a Russian hero who’s been hard-wired by tough circumstances, like a bomb on a hairpin trigger. 

My smart, sexy, uber-competitive hero—an ex-Olympic athlete with an intelligence background—makes the perfect foil for my ambitious, buttoned-tight, by-the-book American heroine.  Here’s hoping you’ll agree!   If you’d like to check out the rest of the scene where Alexis and Victor first meet, you can take a peek here: https://www.allromanceebooks.com/product-therussianseduction-927681-149.html

I love to hear from readers!  You can find me at these coordinates…unless I find you first.

www.facebook.com/NikkiNavarreAuthor

@Nikki_Navarre on Twitter

www.LauraNavarre.com/book/Nikki-Navarre-Books

THE GIVEAWAY

 One randomly drawn commenter from each tour stop will win one digital copy of THE RUSSIAN SEDUCTION. (The winner will need to have an All Romance ebooks account to have the book ‘gifted’ to them in an epub format.) The giveaway is open internationally as long as the winner can accept a digital format via All Romance eBooks. 

Tour Stops: 

Additional tour stops can be found at: 

http://events.litconnect.com/the-russian-seduction-by-nikki-navarre 

The more stops you comment on, the greater their chance of winning.