Playing It Close

Playing It Close
By Kat Latham

Book two of the London Legends

Where do you go to escape everything when you’re one of the most famous rugby players in the world? For Liam Callaghan, that place is a remote lodge on Venezuela’s Caribbean coast. Perfect, except he doesn’t exactly
want
to be alone with his thoughts. Enter Tess Chambers, the ultimate distraction.

Still reeling from a professional disaster that’s made her all but unemployable, Tess understands the desire to move through life as somebody else. So when instantly recognizable Liam uses a fake name, she runs with it and creates a temporary new identity of her own.

Their time spent together in paradise is idyllic but brief—after one passionate night, Liam wakes up to find Tess gone. Returning to London, he’s shocked to learn she’s taken a job with his team’s new sponsor. As the Legends’ captain, he’ll have to not only figure out how to work with the one woman who ever left him wanting more, but also convince her that their feelings in the present mean more than any lies they’ve told in the past.

90,000 words

Dear Reader,

I’m jumping right into it this month because
New York Times
bestselling author Shannon Stacey’s next book in the Kowalski series is out in both digital and print at the end of April.
Taken with You
is the story of girlie-girl librarian, Hailey. She’s easy to get along with, is a small-town girl who loves where she lives, but she also loves nice clothes and fine dining and is looking for a guy who will be there when she comes home at night, and who will dress up and take her out to something a little more upscale than the local diner. It’s also the story of Matt, a hunky forest ranger who loves the outdoors, loves his dog, and is looking for a woman who doesn’t mind his erratic hours, will take a muddy ride on an ATV and won’t kick him out of the house when he walks in covered in dirt. Needless to say, these two opposites attract when Matt moves in next door to Hailey, and their story will take you on a wonderful romantic rollercoaster that will leave you with that happy-book sigh at the end.

If you love the TV show
Scandal
, have I got a new series for you. In Emma Barry’s Washington, D.C.-set, politically charged
Special Interests
, a shy labor organizer and an arrogant congressional aide clash over the federal budget but find love the more difficult negotiation.

April also brings a week of sports-related romance releases at Carina Press and we have six fantastic, very different contemporary sports romances being added to our already fantastic sports romance lineup. Allison Parr’s
Imaginary Lines
continues her new adult series. Tamar fell hopelessly in love with Abraham Krasner at age twelve, but knew he’d never see her as more than the girl next door—until years later, she gets a sports journalist position covering the NFL team Abe plays for...

Author Michele Mannon follows up
Knock Out
with
Tap Out
. Underwear model and playboy extraordinaire Caden Kelly will let nothing stop his come-back as an MMA fighter, especially a red-headed busy-bodied reporter hell bent on ruining his shot at a title. Meanwhile, Kat Latham writes the London Legends series about the world’s hottest rugby team. Book two,
Playing It Close
, features the team captain and a scandalous woman with whom he spent one passionate night and never thought he’d see again—until she turns out to be his team’s newest sponsor.

Kate Willoughby brings the on-the-ice action when a hunky hockey player falls helmet over skates for a nurse, but has to convince her he’s not the typical different-puck-bunny-every-day athlete in
On the Surface
. In a much warmer-weather sport, professional tennis player Regan Hunter’s temper is as notorious as her unstoppable serve, but love and ambition will go head-to-head when she meets former player-turned-coach Ben Percy. Check out
Love in Straight Sets
by Rebecca Crowley.

And because we can’t leave out America’s favorite sport, Rhonda Shaw’s
The Ace
brings us a sexy baseball romance in a follow-up to her debut,
The Changeup
. “Love ’em and leave ’em” is real estate agent Karen Bently’s motto—that is until her longtime crush, ace pitcher Jerry Smutton, sets her in his sights and offers her a proposal she can’t resist.

But it’s not all contemporary romance all the time in April. We have an eclectic selection of books from a lineup of talented authors (as always, right?). R.L. Naquin is back with her popular Monster Haven series. If you haven’t checked out this fun, sometimes zany, but always adorable series, look for book one,
Monster in My Closet
, at all of our retail digital partners. This month’s installment,
Golem in My Glovebox
, finds crazy shenanigans mixed with a gruesome, cross-country trail of clues, as Zoey and Riley attempt to save the rest of the country’s Aegises—and ultimately, Zoey’s lost mother.

PJ Schnyder is wrapping up her London Undead trilogy with
Survive to Dawn
, in which werewolf and pack medic, Danny, must choose between his Alpha’s orders and the human witch who might have the cure to the zombie plague. And in the second installment of the Once Upon a Red World science fiction romance saga from Jael Wye, the tale of Jack and the Beanstalk unfolds on a devastated Earth 300 years in the future in
Ladder to the Red Star
.

A.J. Larrieu debuts with her first full-length paranormal romance novel,
Twisted Miracles
. A reluctant telekinetic is drawn back to New Orleans’ supernatural underworld when her friend goes missing, but once she’s there, she finds her powers—and her attraction to the sexy ex-boyfriend who trained her—are stronger than ever. Talented fantasy author Angela Highland is back with Rebels of Adalonia book two in her epic fantasy
Vengeance of the Hunter
. As rebellion ignites across Adalonia, the healer Faanshi must save both the Hawk Kestar Vaarsen and the assassin Julian—the one from magical annihilation at the hands of his Church, and the other from a path of revenge.

For mystery fans, we welcome author Delynn Royer to Carina Press with her book,
It Had to Be You
. An ambitious tabloid reporter stumbles upon the story of her career when she joins up with a jaded homicide detective to solve the Central Park murder of a notorious bootlegger in 1920s Manhattan.

Rounding out the April lineup is a book for all Regency historical romance fans. Wendy Soliman’s Forsters series wraps up with
Romancing the Runaway
. When Miranda and Gabe discover her childhood home has been stripped of all its valuables, Gabe uncovers more to the old house than either of them had imagined. And with Gabe’s safety hanging in the balance, Miranda is prepared to make the ultimate sacrifice...

I’m confident you’ll find something to love among these books and I hope we provide you with many hours of reading enjoyment and escape from the neverending dishes!

Coming next month: Fan favorite male/male author Josh Lanyon, an amazing science fiction lineup, more sexy cowboys and hot moments from Leah Braemel and so much more!

Here’s wishing you a wonderful month of books you love, remember and recommend.

Happy reading!

~Angela James
Executive Editor, Carina Press

Dedication

For Doodle Bug, who was born when I was 17,000 words away from writing
The End
. Writing became so much harder when my other option was marveling at you all day long.

And for my parents, who practically shoved me out the door so I could finish this book...and so they could marvel at Doodle Bug all day long. Thank you for all of your support.

Acknowledgments

I owe thanks, hugs and wine to the following people:

My friends, for answering all of my random questions about British vocabulary. And especially to David, who gave me the phrase “banana hammock.”

Arthur Tanner, for answering my many rugby questions.

Johanna Lopez Trimarchi, for describing Venezuelan food to me.

Sarah Oughton, Elise Rome, Moriah Densley and Suzanne Johnson for reading early versions of this story and giving me honest and encouraging feedback.

My awesome editor, Deb Nemeth, whose patient and thorough editing has helped me become a much stronger and more confident writer.

My agent, Laura Bradford, for helping me develop this story.

The readers who gave me such incredible encouragement when my debut novel came out, which gave me the strength I needed to finish writing this book.

My parents, for the countless hours of free babysitting, as well as the café-style service Mom provided when I was editing in their backyard.

And Tim, who, even though he had deadlines of his own, stayed up late several nights to give me feedback that made this a much stronger story. You will always be my favorite rugger bugger.

Author’s Note

There are a few words and phrases that might be unfamiliar to readers who don’t speak British English.

In the UK,
pants
are underwear. You wear trousers over your pants.

An
aubergine
is an eggplant and
courgettes
are zucchini.

Sarky
is British slang for sarcastic.

Something with elastic in it is
elasticated
, not elasticized.

A
leaving do
is a goodbye party, usually thrown by your colleagues on your last day of work (sometimes the night before your last day, which is dangerous when there’s alcohol involved and you have to face your colleagues the next day).

The City of London (also known as the City and the Square Mile) is where London’s financial services industry has historically been based. The term is also used to refer to the financial services in general, much like Wall Street is both a place and a general term.

When talking about dates, Brits will sometimes use ordinal numbers (e.g., first, second, third, etc.) for both the day and the month. For example,
the first of the third
would be the first day of the third month, or March first.

In British English, collective nouns (i.e., a noun that refers to a group of individuals, such as
family
and
team
) are plural because they’re composed of more than one person. That’s why you’ll see phrases like
my family are
and
England are
—when referring to the England rugby team, not the country—instead of
my family is
and
England is.
I know it looks like a typo if you’re not used to it, but it’s not.

Brits often refer to
sport
in the singular (
I
don’t watch much sport
) and
maths
in plural (
I’m great at maths
).

Lastly, Brits don’t use the word
gotten
(as in,
I
have gotten used to explaining British English
). They use
got
instead.

Rugby for the Uninitiated

You should be able to read (and, I hope, enjoy!) this book without knowing anything about rugby. But if you want to find out more about the world’s greatest sport, here’s a glossary of terms for you.

Rugby union:
Over 100 years ago, the sport of rugby split into two types—
rugby union
and
rugby league
—with each developing its own rules and governance. I write about rugby union.

Kit:
uniform

Pitch:
the playing field

Touch:
the out-of-bounds area around the pitch. The
touch line
separates the playing area from the out-of-bounds area.

Kick into touch:
to kick a ball out of bounds, a common way of ending a rugby match. The expression
kicking someone into touch
means breaking up with someone.

Try
(as in
scored two tries):
the equivalent of a touchdown in American football, only a player has to place the ball on the ground on or behind the try line in order to score. A try is worth five points.