Title: Wild in Paradise (Paradise, #2)
Author: Leslie Pike
Release Date: November 11, 2015
Synopsis
A movie set is a great place to test one’s endurance for
temptations. They’re all there for the taking. A person can get away with their
indulgences. For Finn Kennedy, Father Paul Cruz and Esme Scott, things are
about to get very tempting.
Finn Kennedy is flying high, after his hit comeback film.
He’s slayed his personal dragons, and with his Irish good looks and penchant for
play, he’s catnip to women. For Finn, there’s no reason to settle on one, when
there are so many to be sampled.
Father Paul Cruz is burned out from his years as the
Catholic chaplain at San Quentin. He’s been a priest for all of his adult life,
and he’s questioning that choice. Father Paul has never enjoyed the less
cerebral pleasures of life. A sabbatical is what he needs. When best friend
Finn is cast in a film about a Jesuit priest, he gets Father Paul hired on as a
consultant. His world is about to be rocked.
Esme Scott’s a young woman running from an abusive husband.
She’s on her own for the first time, and trying to make her way. When she gets
a job as the Wardrobe assistant on the film, she discovers just what she’s been
missing, personally, professionally and sexually. And she finds out just how
much it takes, to correct past mistakes.
Beautiful Park City, Utah is the setting for Wild In
Paradise, the second book in the Paradise Series.
Excerpt
They say luck is a lady. I think they’re right. Women have
given me second chances before, chances I didn’t deserve. Lady Luck was no
different. She resurrected this Irish soul from the ashes of my bad de-
cisions. This limousine that I’m comfortably cocooned in confirms it’s so.
A decade ago my pass at fame had slipped through my fingers.
I had a minor role in one hit movie, which by some miracle became a cult
classic. I had ten lines at most, but people connected with me. I was the
fireman who rescued the ingénue. My one close-up and the line, “Give me your
hand, darlin’ and I’ll take it from there,” was remembered. Then it all went
bad.
I’d had a brief ride on the carousel and reached for the
brass ring, only to feel the metal brush my fingertips as I moved by in a haze
of tequila and cocaine. Noticed by few, then quickly forgotten, I had become a
footnote in Hollywood’s history book and a fading image on a few reels of
celluloid.
What a fool I’d been. I became a regular in the “Whatever
Happened To?” articles, where they would compare my looks in before and after
photos. The com- parison was not good. I not only lost my career and my
dignity, but I lost my wife. Bliss finally got tired of liv- ing with a husband
who was frequently too stoned or hammered to know whose bed he was in. Any
attempt at trying to get me to stop drinking and using was met with contempt. I
didn’t deserve Bliss. After a time, she came to agree with me completely.
The day she walked out I felt a pivot. The seat of my reason
nudging at me, like a finger poking me in the chest. I kept using and drinking
myself stupid for a few months, but it was never as satisfying. I kept chasing
the high, but I couldn’t catch the same intoxication. I became aware of the
lesser man I had become. Conscience is the most effective buzz kill.
Then I began tallying up the costs of my addictions. You
can’t ignore your own thoughts. I couldn’t, anyway. My better self was
disgusted and let me know on a regu- lar basis. Every day I’d wish that asshole
would shut the fuck up. But he was unforgiving. And in the end, I saw the
truth. As good as drunk is, it always ends in thirst.
Now, by life’s artfully twisted itinerary, Bliss and I find
ourselves friends. She in love and engaged to Steven French, a man I’ve come to
respect, and me six years so- ber and enjoying another go around on the
carousel. And rightfully, satisfyingly single. Life can be such a grand
unpredictable bitch. So tonight this limousine is more than a ride. It’s a
magic carpet, carrying me back to a place I’ve missed, a place I belong. I got
another chance. This time I’m not going to piss away the opportunity.
I pull out my cell to check my messages. Seventeen missed
calls and six texts. Ironic, to think a few years back I’d go days without a call.
The only name that con- sistently popped up was my coke dealer, Grandma, as
listed on my phone. If someone had read my recent calls back then, they’d have
thought I was the best bloody grandson in the world. I scan the list of names.
Carl is the only one I’m looking for. I always return my dad’s calls, no matter
the hour. He’s alone, but not interested in leaving his Bay Area home of forty
years, to come live with me. Moving to Los Angeles is not an option as far as
he’s concerned. We’ve had that conversation many times.
Synopsis
BLISS NOVAK has a great life. She's happy, beautiful and
financially secure. What more could she want? Fortune has smiled on STEVEN
FRENCH too. Handsome, talented and sexy, the stuntman has it all. At least
that's what he believes until he meets Bliss. When a movie production comes to
Pacific Grove, these two are drawn together in a passionate romance. Their love
creates their personal Garden of Eden. But there's only one thing wrong with
the Garden of Eden....there's always a snake.
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About the Author
Leslie Pike lives in Laguna Niguel, California, with her
husband Don, and Pom-Poo Mr. Big. Before writing her novel, Leslie worked as a
screenwriter on episodic television. She has traveled the world with her
Stuntman/Stunt Coordinator/Director husband, on movie sets from Africa to
Israel, from New York to Los Angeles. Some of her favorite things include
calligraphy, long walks with her friends, and enjoying delicious food that
other people have cooked! The Trouble With Eden is Leslie's debut novel.
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