Guest Post, Excerpt & Giveaway with HelenKay Dimon

Today I have author HelenKay Dimon here with us talking about her upcoming release, No Turning Back. Welcome to The Book Vixen HelenKay!

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Thank you for having me here. It's always great to visit.

NO TURNING BACK kicks off a new single title contemporary romance series. This one has secrets, brothers, strong female friendships and some sexy times.

Have I won you over yet? I'll keep trying…

One of the things I love about writing romance is exploring the connections people make as they go through life. Some characters are blessed with solid families where siblings and parents provide emotional and physical support. Other times, characters are alone when it comes to biological connections, but they build these rich trust circles from the people they collect as they move through life. In those cases, they create a special kind of family regardless of the lack of a biological bond.

In NO TURNING BACK, I get to use a little of both.

The books center on the sons of a notorious con man, Charlie Hanover. He charmed and schemed his way through life. He's the type to steal money from lonely old women and grab their jewelry on the way out the door. He left a legacy of lying, all while abandoning his sons and trying to drive a wedge between them. But people think the sons are the same criminal type as their dad, as if the grifter gene passed from one generation to another. His reputation followed the sons by bringing law enforcement to their doors and a load of distrust from everyone they meet.

Now, as adults, the sons are in my fictional town of Sweetwater, Oregon, wading through the lawsuits filed against their father's estate and trying to settle the house left to them by their grandmother. They start out estranged and trying to reconnect as they repair their father's damage. They end with something deeper and more complex.

And what works best for guys like this? Yes, strong women with their own issues but the determination to make sure these men know just how good they are.

NO TURNING BACK comes out March 19^th. I hope you enjoy it and try book #2, A SIMPLE TWIST OF FATE, out in July.

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It was as if the man had a magnet in his ass.

If Declan ventured from the house, she seemed to find him and stumble over him. This time at the gas station. Leah had been singing off-key to a song on the radio and generally trying not to think about her meeting with him tomorrow night and she conjured him up. She’d postponed the meeting to Sunday to have a day away from him and to put her argument together. So much for planning.

She seriously considered riding around on an empty gas tank over pulling in next to him. But Bob, the owner of the mini-mart stepped out and her cover was blown. She turned off the ignition and stared out the front window. It was either that or glance over and see those faded jeans and that impressive butt, the same one on full view as Declan bent over the hood of his truck. Clearly the Hanover gene pool excelled in the looks department.

She opened the door, keeping her eye on him the entire time. The goal was to sneak along the side of the car, play it cool and get the hell out of there. She got to the tank and whipped the cap off.

He cleared his throat. “I can see you, you know.”

Well, damn. “I know how this looks.”

He walked over and lifted the gas nozzle for her and started pumping her gas. “Like you have a significant stalker issue? Lucky for you I’m not the litigious type. I’m also not convinced I want you to go away.”

The move was so natural and non-threatening that she stepped back and let him do it. She tried to remember if any man had ever offered to pump her gas or just done it to be helpful. If this was part of some elaborate con to prove he was decent, she understood why men like Charlie were so successful. The moves worked. The charm reeled you in and you got hooked.

His words finally registered. “Wait…what?”

“Nothing.”

She reached for the hose. “I can get that.”

He set the lock and let the meter click as the tank filled. “It’s under control.”

“Are you going to pay for it, too?”

“If you need me to.”

Oh, lord, that smile. With the body and the face it amounted to a triple punch to a woman’s control. Smashed her common sense into a million pieces.

Much more of this and she’d be making him dinner. “Should I be worried?”

“About?” He put his hands in his front pockets. The move lifted his tee and showed off that sexy tattoo again.

Why couldn’t he have a duck or a naked woman or something totally unappealing? “You being nice to me.”

“Maybe I’m a nice guy.”

That was starting to be her concern. If he was who he appeared to be then all those years of running around and investigating were a waste of time. Worse, her father would never accept news of a good-guy Hanover and she’d get stuck between the men and infuriate her father when she refused to ruin Declan. Not a battle she relished.

“Don’t sound so impressed with yourself,” she said, her voice more gruff than intended because of the thoughts running through her head.

He gave his eyes and neck an exaggerated roll. “We’re not going to fight, are we? Because I haven’t had my coffee yet and think I may need caffeine to do battle with you.”

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HelenKay Dimon is an award-winning author of more than a dozen novels and novellas. Her first single title, Your Mouth Drives Me Crazy, was excerpted in Cosmopolitan magazine in August '07 and spotlighted at E! Online. She made Cosmopolitan a second time in December 2009 with her novella "It's Hotter At Christmas" from the Kissing Santa Claus anthology. Her books also have been published by Doubleday Book Club and Rhapsody Book Club and translated into several languages.

HelenKay's road to publication took a few turns. She's not one of those authors who burst out of the womb with a notepad in one hand and a pen in the other. She didn’t know she wanted to write until much later in life. She tried international travel and journalism and enjoyed careers in politics and law first. After graduating from Syracuse University with a double major in newspaper journalism and political science, she landed in Washington, D.C. A few years as a legislative assistant to a member of the House of Representatives convinced her law school might be a good idea. Three years at Wake Forest University and one bar exam later and HelenKay moved back to the D.C. metro area as a lawyer. General civil litigation gave way to a specialty in family law and an eventual partnership in a highly respected boutique firm.

After twelve years as a divorce lawyer specializing in unhappy endings, HelenKay now writes romance for a living. The sudden career change resulted from her husband getting one of those "can't turn it down" job offers. With only a few months' notice, his work took the family from Maryland to their current home in California. So, instead of days filled with court, clients and a great deal of whining and complaining, HelenKay now writes for a living. She thinks of herself as a "recovering lawyer" and is grateful every day for the ability to write full time.

Find the author online: website | blog | twitter | facebook

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Title: No Turning Back
Series: Hanover Brothers, Book 1
Author: HelenKay Dimon
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Published/Release Date: March 19, 2013

The Hanover brothers inherited some bad behavior from their con artist father. Now three strong women will make honest men out of them.

After ten years in the Army and four overseas deployments, Declan Hanover is ready for life away from a military base. Sweetwater, Oregon, a sleepy coastal town, seems like the perfect place to start over. His plan is to work out a deal with his brothers and the bank to let him keep the estate they’ve inherited, Shadow Hill. But he wasn’t prepared for Leah Baron, whose family lost everything to his father’s cons—including the house Declan intends to make his own…

Leah thinks Declan is just like his conman father. He possesses a bad boy charm that makes her heart pound, but that doesn’t mean she can trust him. All she wants is to get close to him so she can get her house back. But Declan has other ideas. He doesn’t mind being in close proximity to Leah—as long as it’s in the bedroom…

    

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Thanks to HelenKay Dimon, one lucky winner will receive an ebook copy of No Turning Back (to be gifted via Amazon or BN, winner’s choice). Good luck to all who enter!

• No purchase necessary.
• Must be 18 years old or older to enter.
• Giveaway open Internationally. Void where prohibited.
• Comments are appreciated, however, you must fill out the Rafflecopter form in order to enter this giveaway.
• Please read TBV's Giveaway Policy before entering.
• Giveaway ends 9:01 pm (Pacific Time) on 3/15/2013.

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