Guest Post and Giveaway: Take the Key and Lock Her Up (The Deadly Games Series #4) by Lena Diaz

Release Date: August 5th, 2014

Description:

Lena Diaz returns with another sexy, thrilling Deadly Games novel and the darkest question of all: What do you do when your freedom could cost you your life?

Detective Emily O'Malley just stumbled upon a killer's lair—and the remains of a woman he kept locked away for years. But this killer isn't done yet. More women are missing, and all clues point to Devlin Buchanan—the man who seems to know just a little too much. Emily's instincts are rarely wrong, and now they're telling her this sexy, mysterious man is hiding something big …

As a trained assassin for EXIT Inc—a top-secret mercenary group posing as an international tour company—Devlin "Devil" Buchanan isn't afraid to take justice into his own hands. But when the hot new detective on his trail gets too close to the organization and a contract is placed on her life, Devlin does the only thing he can: he turns rogue agent and kidnaps her to save her life.

With EXIT Inc closing in and passions running hot between them, Emily and Devlin must work together to find the missing women and clear both their names before time runs out … and the key to freedom is thrown away.

GUEST POST

The Romantic Suspense - A Deadly Game 

Thanks for having me here today! As a romantic suspense author, I blend a central love story with a suspenseful external plot. But there are plenty of books with suspense elements that you wouldn’t consider to be romantic suspense. So, what exactly are the key ingredients that make a story a romantic suspense? I’m sure every author has their own opinions about this, but here are the ingredients that I believe are key to any RS. 

1. Romance! The hero and heroine must fall in love and have a “happy ever after” by the end of the story. But of course, in an RS, it’s way better if they fall in love while running from bad guys and dodging bullets! The romance must be furthered by the external danger element. 

2. Opening Tone: An RS can be funny, dark, or anything in between. But it has to have an element of danger right away, in the opening of the story, that sets the tone for the rest of the book. If you don’t feel tension and danger from the beginning, it’s probably not an RS (or not a very good one.) 

3. Escalating Stakes: Typically an RS has life and death stakes. And those stakes have to escalate throughout the story to increase the tension and feeling of danger. The story could start with the heroine’s life being threatened, then get worse because her family is in danger, and then maybe an entire town. Or, the hero and heroine could be in peril throughout the novel but the odds against them surviving seem to get smaller and smaller as the story goes on. Either way, the danger must feel real and the situation must seem so dire by the climax of the story that the reader is genuinely wondering if the hero and heroine will survive. (But of course, since this IS a romance, we know they both will! That’s the “happy ever after” promise to the reader.) 

4. Fast Pace: The pace is the speed at which the reader feels propelled through the story. A lot of times this is because of intense action. But emotional conflict between the hero and heroine can also make the story feel like a page-turner and leave the reader breathless. If you have too much backstory, description, or internal thoughts in a scene, it slows the pace, reduces the tension and can ruin all of that suspense that’s been carefully building throughout the novel. 

5. Three-Dimensional Villain: People don’t generally think of themselves as “bad”. Likewise, a good villain in an RS shouldn’t be a cardboard character who thinks of himself as evil. To the villain, he has a perfectly reasonable goal and the hero and heroine are standing in the way of that goal. And the stronger and tougher the villain, the more the suspense and stakes will increase. 

6. Mystery Element: This is a debatable point. An RS doesn’t have to have a mystery (in my opinion.) It may be clear from the beginning who the villain is and the story focuses on how the hero and heroine will outwit him and survive. Or the hero and heroine may have to spend the story figuring out the identity of the villain. But for me, the best RS’s have some kind of mystery element and unexpected twists and turns that surprise the reader. 

I could probably keep going, but those are what I consider to be the main parts of a romantic suspense story. I’d love to hear your opinions and whether you think I’ve missed anything important! 

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About the author:

Originally from Kentucky, romantic suspense author Lena Diaz also lived in California and Louisiana before settling in Northeast Florida with her husband, two children, and a Shetland Sheepdog named Sparky. 

A Romance Writers of America Golden Heart® finalist, she's won the prestigious Daphne du Maurier Award for Excellence in Mystery/Suspense and has been a finalist for the National Excellence in Romance Fiction Award. She loves to watch action movies, garden, and hike in the beautiful Tennessee Smoky Mountains.

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