Behind the Stars (34 page)
Authors: Leigh Talbert Moore
Tags: #love, #romantic, #action, #adventure, #small town, #paranormal, #female protagonist, #suspense, #survival
A full-length New Adult contemporary romance. Recommended for readers 13+ due to mature themes and mild sexual content.
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* * *
Quarter Finalist—Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award, 2013.
Romance, velvet, sequins, and murder...
Hale Ferrer is the rising star of the hottest cabaret in New Orleans, and her one goal is escape.
Escape from the lies, from the crime, and from her growing fear that one day she'll have to earn her living in the secret back rooms, where the dancers do more than dance. But she won't leave behind Teeny, the orphan-girl she promised to protect.
Freddie Lovel is rich, handsome, and in love with Hale, and he's ready to sweep her away with him to Paris. But her heart is captured by Beau, the poor stagehand with eyes as blue as Louisiana iris flowers.
Denying her fears, Hale is ready to choose love and a life with Beau, until a predator hidden in the wings launches a chain of events that could cost her everything—Teeny, their one hope of escape, and possibly even her life.
A full-length New Adult historical romance, romantic suspense. Recommended for readers 13+ due to mature themes and mild sexual content.
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* * *
T
he Dragonfly Series
“The Dragonfly Books are original and unpredictable! Superb plot twists, characters that you will love, endings that leave you craving more!” -D. Blair, Goodreads
“Moore’s DRAGONFLY series has a lot of tension, a lot of drama, and a whole lot of sexy entertainment!”—Magan Vernon, bestselling author of
The Only Exception
––––––––
Book #1
Falling in love changes everything...
Anna Sanders expected an anonymous (and uneventful) senior year until she crossed paths with rich-and-sexy Jack Kyser and his twin sister Lucy.
Pulling Anna into their extravagant lifestyle on the Gulf Coast, Lucy pushed Anna outside her comfort zone, and Jack showed her feelings she’d never experienced... Until he mysteriously withdrew.
Anna turned to her internship at the city paper and to her old attraction for Julian, a handsome local artist and rising star, for distraction. But both led to her discovery of a decades-old secret closely guarded by the twins’ distant, single father.
A secret that could permanently change all their lives.
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––––––––
Book #2
Falling in love will pull you under...
Bill Kyser has a plan to take the sandy farms of his hometown and turn them into a world-class tourist destination—and become a billionaire in the process.
Alexandra "Lexy" LaSalle has a plan to change her life by becoming a world-famous artist.
Meg Weaver has a plan to hold onto Bill no matter what she has to do.
Three friends, three dreams.
One fatal decision will change all their lives forever.
––––––––
I
n
Dragonfly
, Bill Kyser gave Anna the three journals that held the story behind the powerful developer's seclusion and the damaged lives of his family members.
Anna hopes to find a way for Julian to know the truth, but as she digs deeper into the tragic events of the past, she realizes silence could be their only option.
Now she’s in an alliance with the man she formerly feared. And if Julian finds out what she knows, she could lose the boy she's starting to love for good.
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––––––––
Book #3
Love is stronger than distance...
Finishing senior year is supposed to be the best time in a person’s life.
Finishing senior year as Julian’s girlfriend should’ve been the icing on the cake.
Knowing the secret that could change everything for him is the only thing threatening to spoil it all.
Until Jack returns.
Anna and Julian are together at last, and it’s as hot and happy as they knew it would be. The only problem is The Secret. And Jack.
But while Anna is determined to fight for the guy she loves, she could still lose Julian when he discovers the truth she’s been helping to hide.
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––––––––
Book #4/Final
Love is stronger than time...
The future never goes as planned.
People are never what they seem.
And time changes everything.
So you want to know what happened to Anna and Julian? Well, listen up, because I’ve got the whole scoop. I’m Jules, btw, and I am an artist, as you already know if you’ve read
Watercolor
. What you might not know is I inherited my mother’s cute little newsy nose, thank you very much.
It’s high school reunion time, and everyone’s coming back to Fairview—everyone who’s not already there, mind you. What went wrong, who’s fault it was, and why the heck nobody knew about me... it’s all coming out.
Long-distance relationships rarely last, and a lot of water has passed under that bridge. Big Secrets will be exposed, and in the end we’ll know if that old saying is true: Love is stronger than time.
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* * *
By K. Gentry
(daughter of Leigh T. Moore)
Hanna Panama has been framed for stealing the Blue Diamond from the Diamond Kingdom. Before she is executed, she tells her one daughter Scarlett the truth.
Scarlett Panama goes into hiding as "WarriorCat" until the real thief can be caught. Only one person knows who Scarlett really is.
But when Scarlett's secret identity is exposed, will the real thief be caught before she is executed?
A Minecraft fan fiction story. Suitable for readers ages nine and up.
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D
ragonfly
(Book 1 in the Dragonfly series.)
Chapter 1
The first time I saw the Gulf of Mexico I didn’t believe it was real.
The colors were so vivid—turquoise and deep marine blue splashing on sparkling-white grains of sand—it was as if the whole place glowed in the sunlight. It was beautiful. Magical.
I had no idea it would change my life. That my parents’ decision to move our family almost a thousand miles south, to their tiny hometown just off the coast, would drop me into the middle of a decades-old impasse.
A separation mandated by a long-forgotten crime.
A secret I would accidentally revive.
* * *
L
ast day of summer break. I was alone at the public beach just south of Fairview, my new hometown, feeling sorry for myself. Senior year was a day away, and Gabi, the best friend I’d made since we moved here, was gone, her Coast Guard dad reassigned to Key West.
A military brat, Gabi was practiced at the art of breaking into a new town, meeting a whole new group of people. I was preparing for the loneliest year of my life.
We’d lived in Fairview three years, and I still didn’t get southern “hospitality.” People weren’t
weird
here, they were
quirky
or
eccentric
. On top of that, everybody knew everybody, and if you didn’t ask about everyone’s family members, most importantly their mothers, you were considered rude.
It was a setup I was destined to fail, but Gabi could always turn it around with a funny quip or a hilarious questioning of how anyone could be so nice. They were clearly either hiding a secret life or they needed to get one. Now I was the one entering senior year in need of a life. Of course, I had other friends, but none like Gabi. We shared everything, and now it was just me and my journal.
On the beach, I could pretend it wasn’t happening. I could close my eyes behind giant shades, and disappear into the sounds of Nova Bossa, which my earbuds delivered directly to my brain. My crazy-curls were tied in a knot at the base of my neck under a huge, Audrey Hepburn-style straw hat, and I pretended I was somebody important, tanning outside of Cannes or Nice. Maybe a cabana boy would bring me a fruity drink, and I would call someone
darling
or something unexpected like that.
I was no longer Anna, the outsider. I was a star.
The song ended, my damp eyes flickered open, and there they were—right next to me on the sand, facing the opposite direction. Not really setting up camp or even looking like they planned to stay for long. Just glowing in the sun.
“Dad will never go for this, Lucy,” the guy said.
He was incredible. Tanned, slim, and somewhere around my age—maybe a little older. His blonde hair blew in his eyes, which I couldn’t see behind his dark Ray-Bans, and he moved in a way that radiated confidence. He was the type of guy I was sure got whatever he wanted. I slid my filmy beach-wrap across my soft stomach, wishing I did more sit-ups and thankful at least my frizz was well-hidden.
Lucy’s hair was perfect. It was the exact same color as his and hung down her back. It blew in beachy waves around her arms, and she slid one thick lock behind her shoulder before turning to touch my arm. I jumped as if I’d been electrocuted.
“Excuse me,” she said, smiling like a Junior Miss contestant. “Have you been here all day?”
“Um... no,” I said, cheeks hot. “I’ve only been here about an hour.”
“Oh, sorry. I was just looking for someone. I thought you might’ve seen him. I’m Lucy, by the way.”
“Anna,” I said, shaking the hand she offered. “And I didn’t. Sorry.”
“No worries, Anna.” She was still smiling as she turned away again.
I was sure I’d seen her red bikini on television, and she had the supermodel body to wear it. For a moment I wondered if they might be as-yet unknown celebrities, here for a secret, incognito weekend before going public and becoming superstars. Only, why would they pick this spot?
More likely they were from Crystal Beach or Hammond Island—one of the ritzy gated communities lining the coast to the east. Only, it still didn’t make sense for them to be here. Those places had their own guarded beaches, safe from the commoners like me.
The guy spoke again in his smooth, deep voice. “Let’s go. He’s not coming.”
“You’re being annoying, Jack,” she said, leaning back on her elbows and getting comfortable. “It’s only been five minutes. He hasn’t had a chance.”
“I can’t believe you’re doing this again.”
She waved at the turquoise water. “Cool off and give him a few more minutes.”
It was impossible not to stare as Jack walked down to the shore. His unbuttoned shirt blew in the breeze showing off his lined torso, and his board shorts hung loosely around his waist. The water rushed around his legs and my heart beat a little faster as I imagined the impossible—me standing beside him, him putting his arm around me, maybe pulling me in for a hug. I actually shivered at the thought.
I didn’t have a ton of experience with guys, but I knew what a hug felt like. And in a place where most people lived in swimsuits half the year, I was familiar with the sensation of skin against skin.
Suddenly he turned back. I squeezed my eyes shut, embarrassed, even though I knew he couldn’t see me watching him behind my dark sunglasses. When I peeked again, he was back on the towel, feet shoved in the sand, seeming angry.
“So is B.J. short for ‘bad joke’?”
Lucy shook her golden hair back. “Something must’ve happened.”
“Good. This was a setup for trouble. Again.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“You do,” Jack said. “And it won’t get you what you want.”
She sat up and smiled, blinking innocently. “I want to find the cute lifeguard I met at Scoops yesterday.”
“You want things to be different with Dad.” Jack’s voice was low and even.
“Dad can go straight to hell.”
“Yes, that’s exactly the message you send.”
Jack exhaled and smoothed the sand under his hands. I was flat-out eavesdropping, no getting around it, but their conversation fascinated me. Not to mention, he was in perfect view.
“Besides,” Lucy sighed, her voice a little sad. “I can’t change the reason Dad hates me.”