Blog Tour; Where Death Meets The Devil

A note from the Author: 

Hi all!! Welcome to my inaugural blog tour. I’m incredibly excited to be here, introducing you to my new book, Where Death Meets the Devil!! It’s full of action and suspense and two damaged men who shouldn’t be friends—or more—coming together to uncover a common enemy—and more. I’d love to have you join me on the tour where I’ll be dorking… ah hem, talking about the importance of titles, the dangers of research, theme songs and other stuff. And if watching while I potentially embarrass myself isn’t enticement enough, there’s a chance to win a $10 Riptide gift card!

Jack Reardon, former SAS soldier and current Australian Meta-State asset, has seen some messy battles. But “messy” takes on a whole new meaning when he finds himself tied to a chair in a torture shack, his cover blown wide open, all thanks to notorious killer-for-hire Ethan Blade.

Blade is everything Jack doesn’t believe in: remorseless, detached, lawless. Yet, Jack’s only chance to survive is to strike a bargain with the devil and join forces with Blade. As they trek across a hostile desert, Jack learns that Blade is much more than a dead-eyed killer—and harder to resist than he should be.

A year later, Jack is home and finally getting his life on track. Then Ethan Blade reappears and throws it all into chaos once more. It’s impossible to trust the assassin, especially when his presence casts doubts on Jack’s loyalty to his country, but Jack cannot ignore what Blade’s return means: the mess that brought them together is far from over, and Ethan might just bring back the piece of Jack’s soul he thought he’d lost forever.

Available now from Riptide Publishing! 

Guest Post from L.J. Hayward 

What’s in a title?

A title should convey a sense of context for the story, hint at its essence and, most importantly, entice the wild reader in for a closer inspection. Projects will often go through many titles before the perfect one is found. You will know the moment you find the perfect title. It will resonate with you. It will encapsulate every ephemeral notion you poured into the project. It will… well, all right, sometimes it’s none of those things. Sometimes it’s just the best you can do.

When I began the very first draft of Where Death Meets the Devil, it was simply titled ‘Assassin story.’ As the story and characters began to solidify, it became Sympathy for the Devil, which was awesome, if only everyone else under the sun hadn’t already used it. However, ‘sympathy’ blended very well with the story. The main character, Jack, experiences unlikely sympathy for the bad guys—and one in particular. After several sad attempts at alliteration, I decided ‘sympathy’ wasn’t working in a title, so I looked to the devil part.

The devil in question is the assassin, Ethan Blade. I also came to realise just how important ‘where’ was to the story. Where were they now? Where was Jack’s head? (Up his own arse, usually.) Where did Jack’s loyalties lie? Where was Ethan leading Jack? Where did Jack want to be instead of where he actually was?

I also thought about the absolutely dismal life Jack had—no close family, very few friends, no significant other and a job that looked likely to see him killed violently. He was sort of dead. If Ethan is the Devil, then perhaps Jack is Death.

The title dropped into place. Where Death Met the Devil. I sent off the MS and managed to snag a publisher, who then suggested Where Death Meets the Devil and I knew then that was the perfect title. 

Review

I have to say that Where Death Meets the Devil is one of my top reads of 2018 so far. It has the suspense and action that I crave and while it cannot really be placed in the romance category it has enough romantic elements to satisfy the hopeless romantic that lives deep deep inside. 

Jack is an works for a Government agency and is one of the top agents, however, after spending months undercover he's suddenly compromised by one of the best assassins in the world. Jack shouldn't trust Ethan, but he does. He has a tendency to feel sympathy for the bad guys he's set in to capture, something that is very telling about his character. Jack is a good person, straight to the core. He has morals, but working for Meta-State, being undercover, sometimes those morals are very black and white and sometimes they hit the edge of gray. 

When Ethan crashes into his life everything Jack knows and thought he knew is turned on it's head-in every way possible. 

This book flips between the past and present and I love that way of storytelling. It's hard to pull off, even for the most polished of writers, you have to make sure your timelines are perfect, however L.J. Hayward does it perfectly. It's a unique way to tell the story, but in order to understand the book you have to know everything. 

Jack is drawn to Ethan, despite his best intentions. There's something about the assassin that is hard to resist. I loved Ethan, he was different that other gray area types. He wasn't a complete bad guy, but he wasn't a good guy either. His morals were more skewed than Jack's but that's why they worked. Even though Jack would never admit it-even to himself-Ethan is and does the things Jack wishes he could. 

Ethan is something else. I loved him but it was hard to. Not because he killed people for a living. Not because of all the things he did and said. But because he didn't want us-both the reader and Jack-to love him. He both tried hard to push him away and pull him closer. It was a twisting game of right and wrong. And I loved every single second. 

I want more. I need more. I really hope that there's a sequel planned for these two. This book doesn't need one, really, all loose ends get tied up and the story-line works perfectly, however, it would make for an amazing sequel. I feel like there is still so much to tell and I so hope that L.J Hayward tells it. 

-Abri

About L.J. Hayward

L.J. Hayward has been telling stories for most of her life. Granted, a good deal of them have been of the tall variety, but who’s counting? Parents and teachers notwithstanding, of course. These days, the vast majority of her story telling has been in an honest attempt to create fun and exciting ways of entertaining others (and making money).

As such, she is still a mad (always provoked!) scientist in a dungeon laboratory (it has no windows—seriously, the zombie apocalypse could be going on outside and she’d have nary a clue) who, on the rare occasions she emerges into the light, does so under extreme protest and with the potential hazard of bursting into flames under the Southeast Queensland sun.

Connect with L.J.:

• Webiste: http://www.ljhayward.com/
• Twitter: @lj_hayward

Giveaway

To celebrate the release of Where Death Meets the Devil, one lucky winner will receive a $10 Riptide credit! Leave a comment with your contact info to enter the contest. Entries close at midnight, Eastern time, on March 3, 2018. Contest is NOT restricted to U.S. entries. Thanks for following the tour, and don’t forget to leave your contact info!