It’s so fun to be back on the Fresh Fiction Blog!
If we haven’t met before, I’m Lisa Kessler and I write
paranormal romances that have plenty of twists and turns, danger and adventure, and sexy
romance that will curl your toes.
I love writing paranormals, but I don’t stop with vampires
and shifters. In the Sentinels of Savannah series, I’ve got a sexy crew of immortal pirates, but
they’re not vampires.
Their final plunder as mortals turned out not to be gold, but
the Holy Grail. They’ve been immortal ever since, living and working at their favorite port city,
Savannah Georgia! My new release,
Pirate’s Pleasure, is book 3 in my new Sentinels of
Savannah Series but it can be read as a standalone.
Why pirates in Savannah?
My grandmother was born and raised just outside of
Savannah in Darien, so I’d visited America’s Most Haunted City before and pirates are a big
part of their history. I've wanted to write a pirate
series since the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie came out, but I didn't want to write a
historical soooo...
One day it hit me! What if the pirates were still here, today?
Immortal.
They all have jobs and try to stay current in a world that is
constantly changing around them, but recently they’ve been approached by a government
agent in charge of protecting Americans from paranormal threats. The crew is working
together again, stealing powerful relics that most of the world believes are only fiction.
In
Pirate’s Pleasure, the crew is hunting down Pandora’s box,
and they have no idea the thief is so close…
Hope you’ll give the Sentinels of Savannah a try! The books
are a romantic adventure through one of America’s oldest cities, and an exciting escape from
the real world!
Here’s a little taste:
He jogged up the stairs and into a gale force wind. The
raindrops stung his cheeks like tiny projectiles. The stay rope, supporting the main mast,
groaned as the sail swung around to catch the wind from a new angle.
He went to the wheel and shouted over the storm at
Keegan. “We’re changing course?”
“Aye!” His grip tightened on the wooden pegs around
the wheel as he fought for control of the ship against the turbulent ocean. “Colton wants us
back at port before the storm gets angrier.” Keegan met John’s eyes with a grin. “Your lady is
a pirate at heart.”
John scanned the slick deck. Colton and Duke were
tying down the lines after tacking the Sea Dog into the wind, but there was no sign of
Harmony. He peered down toward the stern. Light came through the windows of the Captain’s
quarters.
He turned to Keegan again. “Are the women in Colton’s
cabin?”
Keegan chuckled. “Char and Skye are.” He pointed
straight up. “But your lass had other plans.”
John looked up, struggling to see through the rain and
inky darkness. Her voice carried on the wind. “Boom about!”
Instinctively, John ducked as the boom swooped
across the deck, but his gaze never left the woman straddling the beam at the top of the
mainsail.
Drake yelled back, “Aye!”
Colton shouted from the deck. “Come about!”
John’s heart palpitated in his chest as the Sea Dog
creaked, fighting into the wind and raging waves. He grabbed Keegan’s shoulder. “She’s up in
the riggings.”
“Aye.” Keegan nodded. “She beat Drake to the
top.”
While part of John was inclined to respect her skills,
most of him wanted to race up there and carry her back down to safety. He ground his teeth,
barely able to keep his voice steady. “She’s up there with no life vest, and the grail is locked
away in Savannah. What if she falls?”
Keegan sobered. “You know Drake and Greyson would
never let her fall.”
“Not on purpose. Fuck.” John raced to the wet ratlines
and in one jump, pulled himself up into the rungs. His pace was quick but controlled. When he
neared the top, he looked up.
“What are you doing up here?” Harmony’s smile, the
gleam in her eyes, swamped him with emotions he wasn’t sure what to do with.
“I’m rescuing you.”
She raised a brow. “Do I look like I need to be
rescued?”
“You look like you didn’t have enough sense not to
climb up here without a life vest or a safety harness.” He made his way up and sat on the
beam of the mainsail beside her, instinctively wrapping a line around his arm just in case.
At least she’d had the sense to do that.
Her eyes narrowed. “Do not tell me you came all the way up
here to lecture me on boat safety.”
Drake and Greyson finished tying the sail. Greyson
shouted over the wind. “See you two on deck.”
“Every pirate on this crew can fall overboard and won’t
drown.” A muscle clenched in his cheek. “Can you say the same?”
“Give me a break, John.” Harmony pushed her wet hair
back from her face and met his eyes. “Do you even have any life vests on this ship?”
“Aye. We have to for our insurance for school
tours.”
“Fine.” She rolled her eyes. “This was risky, I’ll give you
that, but I know what I’m doing.”
He reached over to cup her cheek. “My crew forgets
what mortality is all about sometimes. You could have fallen overboard, or just fallen
period.”
“And I could have gotten hit crossing the street after
we had ice cream earlier today. It’s called living, John. Dying is always an option, we just hope
our number doesn’t come up. That risk…that’s what being alive is all about.” She covered his
hand with hers and the onslaught of rain lightened.
John lost himself in her eyes, and his words came
directly from his soul. For a moment, he wasn’t sure if he spoke them aloud or just inside his
head. “The cup took away the risk.”
She searched his eyes. “What are you talking
about?”
He lifted her hand to his lips as the realization
manifested in his heart. “For lifetimes, my life has been numbers and order. You brought in
risk, and now I find myself wondering…” He looked up at the dark sky, searching for words. “I
drank from the Grail to live forever, but I think my life was stolen the second that water passed
my lips.”
She laced her fingers with his, squeezing his hand until
he met her eyes. “It doesn’t have to be like that. Just because you can’t die, doesn’t mean you
don’t have any risks. You stepped in front of a bullet for me today. I’d say that was a huge
risk.”
He chuckled, rolling his eyes. “I knew it wouldn’t kill
me.”
“But you also knew it would hurt, and you did it
anyway.”
“I’d do it again in a heartbeat.” His thumb caressed her
knuckles. “This worry festering in my gut––I hate it.”
“But the adrenaline is a rush, right?” Her smile beamed
even in the dim light. Her features softened. “Caring about me is a risk, but you climbed this
sail anyway.”
“You’re the biggest risk I’ve ever faced.” He swallowed
the lump in his throat. “Tell me something?”
“All right.” She nodded as a shiver ran across her
shoulders. He needed to get her out of the cold.
“What drives you to keep pushing the envelope? You
chase after risky investments, you steal artifacts from the government, you climbed the
mainsail mast in a storm on the open ocean. It’s more than a yearning for adrenaline.”
She sighed, breaking eye contact. “From my mom, I
guess. When her marriage fell apart, she grabbed the bull by the horns and got everything she
ever wanted.”
“I saw your picture with her on your desk.”
“We should get back down before I end up dying on
pneumonia.” She gripped the beam and turned around, placing her feet on the first rung of the
ratlines.
John caught her wrist before she could move down
any further. “I didn’t mean to upset you.”
She shook her head without making eye contact. “I’m
not upset, just freezing my ass off.”
He let it go for now. This wasn’t the first time he’d seen
Harmony disengage when things got too personal. In the office at the holidays, she always had
an excuse to miss the family pot luck event, and the company picnics too.
He’d never given it much thought before, but every
second he spent with her, the yearning to connect, to know every chapter of her story, ate at
him. He shouldn’t pry. It was none of his business. After tonight, she’d have her replica to sell
for the Digi Robins.
For all he knew, she’d go back to being a broker at his
firm, nothing more.
His hand slipped off the ratline and he cursed under
his breath. “Damn it.”
“If you fall on me, I’m gonna be pissed.” Harmony
called from below.
He grinned in spite of himself as he found his rhythm
again. “I’m not fallin’ anytime soon, love.”
But truth be told…he was starting to suspect he’d
already had.
For her.
(c) Lisa Kessler, Entangled: Amara, 2019
Sentinels of Savannah Book 3
John Smyth has survived mutinous pirate crews, wars, and the passage of centuries by
keeping his life as he did his ships, organized and well stocked. But when his crew is tasked
with stealing Pandora's Box for the government, it opens a door to destruction, and her name
is Harmony Andrews.
A risk-taking investment broker by day, and a thief by night, Harmony is a member of the
underground Digi Robins crew. Stealing relics to sell on the dark web, they donate the money
to people without insurance who need life-saving medical treatments.
What she doesn't realize is the box she just stole is the very one her boss is looking for––the
boss who just happens to be an immortal pirate. And as their adventure heads into the danger
zone, she doesn't know what's more dangerous: the risk to her life or the risk to her heart.
Each book in the Sentinels of Savannah series is STANDALONE:
* Magnolia Mystic
* Pirate's Passion
* Pirate’s Pleasure
Romance Paranormal | Fantasy [Entangled: Amara, On Sale: April 22,
2019, e-Book, ISBN: 9781094901022 / ]
Lisa Kessler is an avid reader and writer of dark fiction. Her short stories have been
published in print anthologies and magazines, and her vampire story,
Immortal
Beloved, was a finalist for a Bram Stoker award.
Her first novel,
Night Walker, won a San Diego Book Award for Best Published Fantasy-
SciFi-Horror as well as the Romance Through the Ages award for Best Paranormal.
When she's not writing, Lisa is a professional vocalist, performing with the San Diego Opera as
well as other musical theater companies in San Diego. Lisa lives in southern California with her
incredibly fun husband and two amazing kids.
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