Guest: Constance Bretes #NewRelease OPERATION CODE NAME: DESERT LOVE

 Please welcome my long-time friend Constance Bretes. We met when Connie lived in Michigan and belonged to the same writers’ group, the Mid-Michigan chapter of RWA. Since then we’ve kept in touch, and I’m happy to celebrate her latest release.

As I usually do, I asked Connie what prompted her to write Operation Code Name: Desert Love. Here’s her answer. 

I wrote this book mostly because my publisher indicated she didn't have any military romances and put a call out for the authors to write one, so I did. When I did the research for this book, I read about Helen Johnston and her rescue by SAS in Great Britain. I changed it up a lot. I made my heroine to be an American humanitarian worker held hostage in Afghanistan and rescued by Delta Force. 

  

Operation Code Name: Desert Love by Constance Bretes

 

 Her best hope for survival is the one man she never wants to see again.

 

BLURB  

Clarissa Maasen is a humanitarian relief worker who’s stationed in Afghanistan. When she and two of her coworkers are kidnapped by insurgents and held hostage, she can only hope that her father, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, will send his best men to rescue them—more specifically, Len Roberts of the Delta Force.

 

The last time Len saw Clarissa, it did not end on good terms. But he will risk his life to rescue this woman who is never far from his thoughts?

 

Can he rescue her in time? And will they be able to control the passion erupting between them?

 

EXCERPT: 

“Can we take a small tour around the city and enjoy the coolness of the evening?”

“Yeah, we can do that.” Clarissa loved fast speeds, and Len seemed to have remembered that. He sped the Humvee on a few roads in Kabul that were open, with no dense neighborhoods. It felt exhilarating to Clarissa. She stood up a few times, holding on to the top of the windshield, feeling the wind against her face, and her hair going wild. After doing a few rounds, Len pulled up at the US Embassy. Clarissa stood in the vehicle before he came to a stop and yelled, “Woo! Hoo!” The guys standing outside the building turned then gave them the thumbs-up. “That felt so good.”

Len had a lopsided grin on his face. “Yeah. It did feel good. You still want to do that run?”

“Well, yeah.”

Len chuckled. “I’ll meet you back here in ten minutes.”

“Okay.” Clarissa hurried to her room to change. She pulled her messy hair into a ponytail, slipped into a pair of shorts with tassels around the hem she’d just bought, a lightweight top, and a new pair of running shoes and socks. When she got to the steps outside to meet Len, he was already there in his army shorts, doing warm-ups and talking to a couple of guys.

“Hi,” Clarissa said to the two men in army garb who were talking to Len. One guy nodded, and the other said, “Hey.”

“I’ll see you at the heli-pad at eleven hundred hours,” Len said. The two men saluted Len and sped quickly down the steps.

Clarissa looked at her watch. They had an hour to get a run in.

“Are you wearing draperies?” he asked.

“What?” Clarissa laughed and looked at him.

He was staring intensely at her shorts. “No. I just thought they were cute.”

Len rolled his eyes. “Hmm. Ready?”

Clarissa did a few body stretches. “Ready.”

They started out slowly. When they came to a street corner, he instructed, “Take a right here.” She started to turn slightly. “Len…”

She stepped into his path accidently, tripping him. As he went down he rolled himself in a somersault and came back up, standing. “Jesus, Clare, you trying to do me in?”

“I’m sorry, Len. I was just going to ask you something.” They quickly picked up their pace for a few more blocks. She wanted to know when he would be going back to the states, but she was afraid of his answer, so she decided not to ask.

 

Universal Buy Link:  https://books2read.com/u/3Gvola

 

BIO:  Constance started writing contemporary romance and romantic suspense fifteen years ago. She was born and raised in Michigan. After working for the State of Michigan for 38 years, she retired. She and her husband moved to Montana and lived in the mountainside of a small town. There, locked in her office overlooking the mountains, was where this story, Operation Code Name: Desert Love, was written. After living in Montana for three years, they moved to Alabama with her cat, Sunny, who owns both her and her husband. Her hobbies include basket weaving, reading mafia romance books, diamond painting, and fiddling at the piano. 

 Constance’s Website: www.constancebretes.com

Reader eMail: cbretes@constancebretes.com