Guest Post! S.K. Brown
Haunting and Beautiful
By S K Brown
Halloween happens to be my birthday. I also live in the northwest corner of the continental United States. It has been the setting for many a scary book, movie and television series from the Twilight Saga to Twin Peaks and more in between. It’s no wonder that the title of my first book is Outrunning the Devil.
Those of you unfamiliar with the Pacific Northwest are probably picturing a dreary, gray, waterlogged, inhospitable landscape. Skies dark enough for vampires to wander the streets during the day. Where haunted Native American burial grounds abound. And miles of deep, thick forests ideal for werewolves to camp out in cover the land.
We, who live here and love it, know it as so much more than. Yes, the sun does shine here occasionally. Most of the rain is just drizzle, although it adds up fast. But isn’t it a bit nonsensical to complain about rain if you live in an actual rainforest?
The Secret Haven series of romantic suspense novels I wrote are set, for the most part, in the haunting rainforest of Western Washington. The first book, Outrunning the Devil, begins right after a horrific accident on an icy road in Connecticut.
Laura Adams, one of the principal characters, barely survives her life-threatening injuries. But her debilitating pain is secondary to the realization that this accident was really an assassination. Her FBI agent brother fakes her death and takes her to a distant island off the coast of Washington State to assume the identity of a gentle fisherman’s wife.
Nick Kasanovic is that fisherman, an old college buddy of Laura’s brother, Shane. He agrees to take the stranger in, sight unseen, to protect her. He also marries her to facilitate a lifesaving name-change. When he realizes he’s married the woman of his dreams, he regrets making a platonic promise to her brother.
Laura falls in love with the haunting beauty of the Pacific Northwest and finds comfort and safety under the overcast skies. She loves the deep emerald waters under the Deception Pass Bridge between Fidalgo and Whidby Islands, the tulip fields of Mount Vernon, and the mossy forest around her new home. She also starts to love something else…
But struggling with severe PTSD, Laura fears falling for her protector could send her over the edge. Will the unexpected couple turn their fake marriage into something real?
The Fisherman’s Wife is the second book in the series. Laura gets a handle on her PTSD and even thrives. She blossoms into a strong, confident woman; taking full control over her own life until new challenges arise and old ones threaten her very existence. She must draw upon every ounce of this strength if she wants to survive the last few unbelievable chapters.
The third book, The Secret Life of Ghosts, begins with a hair-raising fight to the death. Shane and his team of agents are in a race against time, trying to track down the bloodthirsty killers. But someone totally unexpected will change Shane’s life forever before the final battle.
Centuries old information uncovered near the end of book III will reveal a secret, unbelievable connection between the Adams and Kasanovic families.
The series will take you on a tour of lush settings: the San Juan Islands, the mountains, and ocean beaches of the Olympic Peninsula, and the towering peaks of the remote Cascade Mountains.
Are you looking for some place haunting and beautiful?
Check out the first book in the series, Outrunning the Devil, HERE.