Journalist Emma Portland would do anything to save her career, even go undercover at the 31st Annual GalaxyCon in search of a story. Emma thinks she’s hit pay dirt when she meets Luke Evans, a bestselling sci-fi author whose readers have turned against him. She has no problem getting close to the sexy writer to get the scoop on his downfall. Except for the more time she spends with Luke, the more she has a different kind of exposé in mind…
Luke can’t believe he’s found the one woman at GalaxyCon who hasn’t heard of him and can look that hot in a metal bikini. For the first time, he’s opening up about himself…and the secret that torpedoed his writing career. Too bad his former fans are out for blood—and out to sabotage his budding relationship with Emma.
But amidst rival reporters, eager fanboys, and overzealous role-players, it’s Emma’s secret that may put the brakes on their sizzling attraction for good…
Carina Press, Amazon, Barnes and Nobles
Excerpt:
Blaster rifle at the ready, the stormtrooper stalked dead center down
the wide hallway, his white plastic armor clacking with each determined
step.
Emma Portland fought a groan. Here we go again.
Why
couldn't these people stay to the left or the right? It was the normal thing to do. But in the last hour not a damn one of these adult-sized
children dressed in battle gear had done so, no matter how packed the lobby had been. It'd taken three sharp knocks to her shoulder for her to realize these guys expected everyone to move out of their way.
Emma sidestepped him to save her shoulder from another heavy blow and bumped into Little Red Riding Hood.
Grimacing, Emma murmured, "Sorry." She shuffled through the crowd and stood with her back against the wall.
The
stormtrooper disappeared, people parting before him as if he were a
king. She shook her head. She might be walking down a simple hotel
hallway, but to this crowd, they were prowling the corridors of the
Death Star, protecting their evil lord.
And it was the most ridiculous thing she'd ever seen.
"I'm going to kill Bob," she muttered.
"You're the one who wanted to be an undercover reporter. No reason to complain."
She looked over at her brother, Eddie, and scowled. "I don't need comments from the peanut gallery, thank you very much."
He shrugged. "Just keeping it real."
Keeping
it real? No, that would be outright telling her that this was it--her
last shot. One more screwup, and buh-bye, career. She worked too hard and put everything in her life on hold for too long to allow that to happen.
If sending her into hell was Bob's way of forcing her to make amends, then so be it. She'd suck it up and prove that taking a
chance on her hadn't been the biggest mistake of his life.
She
just wished he'd given her more than three hours' notice. All she'd had time to do was a quick search on the sci-fi world before she had to hit the road. Although she suspected no amount of research would've prepared her for the reality.
"These people are all nuts."
Eddie
pushed his glasses up with an index finger. "Watch it, sis. You asked
for my help, but if you're going to bad-mouth my people, I'll leave you
here and you can do this on your own."
Emma sighed. "Don't even think about it. I'll never make sense of this without you."
"Not
my fault. You were too busy playing Miss School Newspaper to bother learning about my interests. You should have paid attention."
Truthfully
she knew more than she wanted to admit. Years of growing up listening
to Eddie and his cronies mumble about six-sided die and power levels
would do that to a person, but she'd never imagined her future would
come down to knowing the difference between a class one mutant and a
class five.
Reviews
4 Stars from RT Magazine!
"The plotlines in this story come together to create a complex romance in an unusual setting, complete with fabulous supporting characters. Readers will be on the edge of their seats wondering what will come of Emma and Luke’s relationship, while also enjoying the endearing bond between Emma and her geeky older brother Eddie. Niles accurately depicts the world of Sci-Fi conventions in a way that is accessible to newcomers but does not disparage or poke fun at what occurs at these events."--RT Book Review
"If you haven’t guessed so far, I really loved this book. It had a great romance with a tortured hero and a hysterically funny setting. This is the first contemporary romance set at a Sci-Fi convention that I’ve seen and the choice of setting was absolutely brilliant. Definitely check this one out!"--Rebelovesbooks, Reflections on Reading Romance
"The best part of this book was the inner turmoil of Luke’s writing career, the craziness he felt, the guilt, the impotence at not being able to win back his fans, it's written from such a place of honesty I went and looked up the author to see if the same thing had happened to Ms. Niles. It was utterly fantastic"--Nicole, Romance Books Forum
"This was Abby Niles debut novel and what a great deduce it turned out to be. I see many great works from this author in the future."--Dreabcraft, Judging the Book by its Pages
