Grab Your Passport: Next stop Tokyo

One of the best things about the Precious Gems series is bringing my characters—and readers along with them—to another country. The first in the series, Rarer Than Rubies, was set in Thailand and Italian Ice was set in the gorgeous volcanic islands off Sicily. Book Three, Jaded, takes place in Japan. I’ve been lucky enough to have spent significant amounts of time in all of these places, and setting a book there gives me the pleasure of reliving my experiences.

More than that, I want to bring you along on the journey so you feel like you’ve been down an alley in Bangkok or climbed live volcano in Italy.  In Tokyo, you’ll join Trent Copeland and Reed Acton for a traditional cherry blossom viewing party, a Yakuza sex party, and a Japanese jail. I have been down that alley and climbed that volcano and spent many raucous evenings under the ephemeral beauty of the cherry blossoms, but I have not been in a Japanese jail or met any Yakuza—as far as I know.

That’s the fun part of writing fiction: the chance to blend reality with pure invention. A good bit of research smoothes the process!

If you haven’t yet read any of the Precious Gems books, they feature Trent Copeland, a gay-romance author and his former Army Ranger/FBI agent boyfriend Reed Acton. There’s romance, action, adventure, mystery and suspense as they hunt down—usually unintentionally—art thieves, smugglers and the like. I think of the books as Indiana Jones meets Romancing the Stone. If you enjoy a contemporary romance with some action and a chance for globetrotting, please check out Precious Gems, from Dreamspinner Press.

To get you started, I’m going to give away the e-book version of Rarer Than Rubies. If you’ve read that one, I’ll send Italian Ice instead.

To enter, please comment with a country you think Trent and Reed should visit for a future Precious Gems book.

JADED

Blurb: Gay-romance writer Trent Copeland finds his life in a rut while his boyfriend, Special Agent Reed Acton, is away on an undercover mission. After attending a special course at FBI headquarters in Quantico, Trent’s eager for another challenge. He jumps at the opportunity for a trip to Japan to oversee appraisals of two art collections to be sold at the gallery he co-owns. But the trip isn’t all cherry blossoms and Hello Kitty. When one of the collectors he meets—rumored to be the head of a Yakuza gang—turns up dead, Trent is accused of the murder and thrown in jail.

Reed drops everything to help find out who really committed the crime. He’s in unknown territory in Japan, forced to navigate Tokyo’s sex underworld to unravel the truth and save Trent. He poses as a “host” at a seedy late-night club. When Reed’s undercover activities place him at a ruthless Yakuza leader’s sex party, he must be willing to go to any lengths to secure Trent’s safety and freedom. But trusting the wrong people brings both Reed and Trent to the Yakuza leader’s attention. If they’re ever to have a happy ever after, they’ll first have to call on every skill just to stay alive.

Buy link: Dreamspinner Press

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

EM Lynley, a Rainbow Award winner and EPPIE finalist, has worked in high finance, high tech, and in the wine industry, though she’d rather be writing stories where the hero gets the guy and the loving hits 11 on a scale of 10. She spent 10 years as an economist and financial analyst, including a year as a White House Staff Economist, but only because all the intern positions were filled. Tired of boring herself and others with dry business reports and articles, her creative muse is back and naughtier than ever. She has lived and worked in London, Tokyo and Washington, D.C., but the San Francisco Bay Area is home for now.

She is the author of Sex, Lies & Wedding Bells, the Precious Gems series from Dreamspinner Press, and the Rewriting History series starring a sexy jewel thief, among others.

Website: www.emlynley.com

Blog: blog.emlynley.com

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