01 | March | 2017 | Travels n Reads

To uncover the truth, Max and Christa must win their toughest battle yet.

The battle of hearts between them.

THE RUSSIAN OBSESSION

Foreign Affairs #3

Nikki Navarre

Releasing Feb 21, 2017

Christabel Orlova remembers nothing before the night she woke in a Turkish bazaar with two passports, two governments on her tail, and no memory of her shadowy past.
Armed only with keen wits, survival instincts and mad skills in the research lab, Christa has three goals. Stay alive. Stay one step ahead of her hunters. And find a cure for the Ebola bioweapon whose secret is locked in her brainbox—before it wipes out the human race. Gypsy, loner and wild child, her first rule of survival is never to trust.

Ex-Russian fighter pilot Max Vasylko is a gun-for-hire smuggler who’ll fly contraband
cargo anywhere in the world, no questions asked. But he can’t fly far enough to forget the wife and daughter who died in an Ebola outbreak. When a bioweapon from a rogue U.S. program is to blame, Max’s mission turns personal. Find the scientist responsible for designing the super virus—and make her pay. The last villain he expects is Christa: a smart, sexy, scrappy survivor in hiking boots who’s lost her own brother to the virus.

Now Max is flying high above the African jungle with enemy agents in his six and a sweet
redhead he’ll risk his backside to protect. Christa’s tempted to trust this hot-as-hell jet jockey with his wildcat courage and Mafia past. But the vaccine isn’t the only secret locked in her head. To uncover the truth, Max and Christa must win their toughest battle yet. The battle of hearts between them.

Her Favorite Obsessions:

Meet the Heroine from The Russian Obsession

By Nikki Navarre

I always swore I’d never write an amnesia story. Until I met Christa. The haunted, half-Russian viral engineer/nomad wakes in a Turkish bazaar with two passports, two governments on her tail, and no memory of her dangerous past. Christabel Orlova walked out of some shadowy recess of my psyche right into my heart. And for Max Vasylko, cocky ex-Russian fighter pilot and gun-for-hire smuggler in my sexy spy romance The Russian Obsession, wild child Christa is (as he would say) abso-frigging perfect.

While she hopscotches from hostel to cyber café across Southeast Asia, one step ahead of the scary goons who hunt her, Christa stows a journal in her grungy backpack. And she’s a list freak. I snuck a peek over her shoulder while she scribbled at a bus station in Thailand.

My Top Five Obsessions

Cure for Ebola. Talk about obsession. I’m going to design the perfect virus—a vaccine to wipe every known strain of Ebola off the planet. Then donate it to the Red Cross and the World Health Organization so every kid in the world can be vaccinated. Someday.
The Bourne Identity. Saw the film on a bus to Phuket and just…can’t…get it out of my head. And it’s not just because, you know, Matt Damon.
Speaking of Jason Bourne…HAVE to get my memory back. But I’ve just about given up hoping.
Tar-black coffee. Bitter and perfect. Lots of it. Getting three squares a day’s a challenge when you’re basically, um, homeless and broke. High-octane caffeine keeps me fueled.
That guy I met running security at the Embassy. With his Superman shoulders and neon blue eyes and, yeah, that sexy grin. No wonder I’m obsessed. Not to mention he saved my life from those terrorists. If Major Max Vasylko ever walked through my door, I’d be in big-league trouble with a capital T…

——

Let’s just say Christabel Orlova definitely piqued my interest! If she piques yours, check out The Russian Obsession.

Happy reading!
Nikki

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The Russian Obsession is the third book in Nikki Navarre’s Foreign Affairs series. Since I’m late to the series I would say this can be read as a standalone and still be fully enjoyed.

The action starts with the very first page. I was immediately intrigued with Christa’s amnesia. And then Max enters the story. Both have secrets they are holding close with an undeniable attraction. There is so much happening in this story that you’ll feel like something might slip past.

I’ll be picking up the first two books in Nikki Navarre’s Foreign Affairs series. I can’t wait to see what I was missing out on.

DOSSIER FOR NIKKI NAVARRE

DECLASSIFIED

Subject: Nikki Navarre

Assignment: Double Agent

Cover: Diplomat.
Playgirl. Author of the Foreign Affairs series.

Nikki Navarre is the author of the award-winning Foreign Affairs series and the sinister twin of unsuspecting historical romance author Laura Navarre. In her other life, Nikki is a diplomat who’s lived in Russia and works on weapons of mass destruction issues. In the line of duty, she’s been trapped in an elevator in a nuclear power plant and has stalked the corridors of facilities churning out nerve agent and other apocalyptic weapons. In this capacity, she meets many of the world’s most dangerous men.Inspired by the perilous realities of her real life, Nikki writes romantic suspense set in glamorous international locales and laced with political intrigue. From her island compound in the Pacific Northwest, she divides her time between her writing career and other adventures for government clients. Her notorious exploits in the world of diplomacy will get her in trouble one of these days.

The Russian Obsession may be the last mistake she ever makes.

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Cora Matthews grew up with the Adams boys, twin brothers and best friends who wouldn’t let anything come between them except for one thing—her. One of them became her best friend, the other, her fiancé.

She always knew she’d wind up marrying one of them, and Jacob Adams is the very epitome of Mister Right. At least he is up until he fails to show up for their wedding day. Not that Cora realizes it. At first.

As Jacob’s best man, and identical twin, Matt makes a split second decision, but one that will affect the three of their lives forever—he steps in to take his brother’s place. In front of the altar, exchanging vows with the woman he’s secretly been in love with for years.

Cora eventually finds out about the groom swap. The morning after the wedding. As if realizing she just slept with her fiance’s brother wasn’t disturbing enough, she’s forced to confront her feelings for Matt Adams she thought she’d buried years ago.

Matt’s wrong for her. In every way. But through the course of her real honeymoon with her fake husband, she starts to uncover truths both Adams brothers were hoping to keep hidden, for opposite reasons. One to protect himself, the other to protect her.

She married the wrong brother, but what if he’s been the right one all along?

“So?” I crossed my arms and leaned into the banister behind me. “Did you? Like my brother?”
She sighed, turning toward the open door. “Jacob . . .”
“What? It’s a fair question.” I shoved off the banister, feeling hope and heat tangling in my veins from the look on her face, from the sound of her voice. She’d felt something for me, whether it be the most passing of crushes or something much deeper. Realizing that had me feeling drunk from something other than alcohol. “Besides, you’re stuck with me now. Won’t matter what you ’fess up to.”
Cora started through the doorway. “I don’t want to talk about it.”
Grabbing the suitcases, I followed her. I wasn’t letting this go. Never. Not if she threatened death or castration or anything else. “Why not?”
She broke to a sudden stop a few feet inside the room. “Because I don’t want to focus on the past. I want to concentrate on the future. That’s not going to work if you keep asking me questions about Matt.”
There was a sharpness in her voice—one she didn’t use too often. She didn’t want to keep talking about me, which only made me want to continue talking about me. I’d struck a nerve, but I wasn’t sure how deep that nerve went.
I needed to know how deep it went. I had to know. My whole life, I’d been under the impression that Cora saw me as nothing more than a good friend and substitute brother. She cared for me, but not in the same way I cared for her.
Or did she?
“This thing with Matt . . .”
Her back stiffened.
“Was it a thing? Like ancient history? Or is it still a thing?” I closed the door and wondered why I could feel my heartbeat in my eardrums.
She kept her back to me, standing in the middle of the dark room like a lone ship on a vast ocean. “I married you.”
Yeah, she did marry me.
“But if he’d made a play for you, way back before all of this”—I waved my finger between the two of us, not that she could see it—“would you have given him a chance?”
“He never made a play for me.” Her voice sounded faraway, like she was out of reach when she was less than an arm’s length away.
“That doesn’t answer my question.” I stepped closer. “If he had? Would you have?”
Her back was moving faster from her quickened breathing. This conversation was making her uncomfortable. Why was that?
“Stop, Jacob. Enough.” She spun on me, swaying in place just enough that I reached out to steady her. She shook my hand away like it was white-hot. “I’m not going to get into another fight with you over Matt. I’m done. I picked you. I married you. What else do I have to prove?”
“That you don’t—”
“I don’t love Matt!” Her arms flung out at her sides as her voice spilled across the room. ‘There. I said it. Are you happy now? Are you happy we’ve managed to get into another argument over this infatuation you’re convinced I have for your brother? On our wedding night of all times?” She glared at me with bleary eyes. I couldn’t tell if that was from tears or from alcohol. Maybe both.
“Cora, I’m sorry.” I ran my hands through my hair, wondering what in the hell I was doing—for the millionth time that day. Deceiving her, betraying her, and now accusing and angering her. Maybe I didn’t know the first fucking thing about love. Maybe Jacob knew more about it than I did, because I wasn’t sure love was supposed to hurt as badly as this did.
“Just . . . enough already.” As she shouldered past me, I reached for her, but she shook me off. “I need to be alone.”
She slammed the front door behind her a moment later, leaving me alone with my idiocy.
“Cora,” I called to an empty room. I wasn’t thinking when I rushed toward the door after her. “Cora!”
The moment I pulled the door open, something crashed into me. It made a sharp breath rush out of my mouth as I staggered back a few steps.
My arms barely had time to wrap around her before Cora’s mouth was on mine, moving in such a way that made staying upright next to impossible. Before I had a chance to catch up to the fact that I was kissing Cora in an entirely different way than we’d kissed at the wedding and reception, her fingers were working at my belt. Quickly.
I didn’t know she’d already gotten it undone before she’d moved on to my zipper. The sounds she was making as she kissed me, the way her body felt aligned against mine, the way her mouth knew the intricate balance of submission and domination . . . one moment at a time, Cora was crushing the last remnants of my resolve. Destroying the final pieces of my views of right and wrong.

I’m always looking forward to a Nicole Williams read and with a title like Mister Wrong, I couldn’t wait.

For this journey, Williams takes us from a wedding in Florida to the honeymoon in St Thomas. Perfect locales to read while still in the midst of winter. We start off in Florida with Matt at a wedding, his twin brother Jacob’s wedding. With Jacob no where to be found, Matt steps in as the groom. What else would an identical twin do?

It isn’t until we are in St Thomas for the honeymoon that the stormy weather happens. As Cora discovers she’s married to the wrong brother, the storms kick up. Feelings long denied, lies uncovered, and truth discovered.

I enjoyed my travels in the pages of Mister Wrong. Not what I may have expected but sometimes the unexpected make the journey that much more memorable.

mister-wrong-nicole-williams-teaser-3

Nicole Williams is the New York Times and USATODAY bestselling author of contemporary and young adult romance, including the Crash and Lost & Found series. Her books have been published by HarperTeen and Simon & Schuster in both domestic and foreign markets, while she continues to self-publish additional titles. She is working on a new YA series with Crown Books (a division of Random House) as well. She loves romance, from the sweet to the steamy, and writes stories about characters in search of their happily even after. She grew up surrounded by books and plans on writing until the day she dies, even if it’s just for her own personal enjoyment. She still buys paperbacks because she’s all nostalgic like that, but her kindle never goes neglected for too long. When not writing, she spends her time with her husband and daughter, and whatever time’s left over she’s forced to fit too many hobbies into too little time.

Nicole is represented by Jane Dystel, of Dystel and Goderich Literary Agency.

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