RITA AWARD WINNER BARBARA FREETHY

Fog City Publishing, LLC 

FALLING FOR A STRANGER

Callaways, #3

Fog City Publishing, LLC

From #1 NY Times Bestselling Author Barbara Freethy comes the third book in the popular Callaway Series, an emotional and suspenseful novel of love, family and dangerous secrets. 

Ria is as sexy and sultry as a warm tropical night and as beautifully dangerous as the island drinks she serves at the beachside bar on Isla de los Suenos — The Island of Dreams. But Ria is not as carefree as she appears, and the pretense is wearing her down. One night she risks everything to escape from reality.

Drew Callaway is a former Navy pilot and rescue operative looking for his own escape from a life that has seen too much tragedy. Meeting Ria is like embracing the sun, and their single night together is life-changing. But the dream quickly fades when Ria is killed in a tragic accident at sea.

Months later, thousands of miles away from where they first met, Drew sees a woman who looks just like Ria. She claims her name is Tory, and that they’ve never met before, but he can see that she’s in trouble, and he can’t walk away. He’s going to save her whether she wants it or not.

Drew isn’t afraid of a little danger, but can he risk losing his heart to a beautiful stranger?

Read an excerpt

BARBARA FREETHY is a #1 NY Times Bestselling Author of 35 novels ranging from single title contemporary to romantic suspense and women's fiction. Barbara was traditionally published for many years but began self-publishing in January of 2011 and since then has sold over 3 million ebooks! She has also put nine of those books on the New York Times and USA Today Bestseller Lists. Barbara is known for her emotional stories about love and family, something with a little mystery and/or a little magic.

PSSSTTTT... THE WAY BACK HOME recently won the RITA for Best Contemporary Single Title Romance of 2012 by Romance Writers of America.

GETTING TO KNOW BARBARA...

 ANGI: How often to you get lost in a story?

BARBARA: I've been a voracious reader since I was a child, so I get lost in a story on a regular basis!

ANGI: What’s the first book you remember reading? 

BARBARA: Because my mother was also a big reader, I remember graduating from the Nancy Drew series to Georgette Heyer and Barbara Cartland, then on to Harlequin/Silhouette romances. I also love mysteries and thrillers as well.

ANGI: What do you like about the hero of your book?

BARBARA:  Drew Callaway is the third oldest son in a family of firefighters, but he chose a different path. He wanted to fly. So he joined the Navy and then the Coast Guard. Drew is very much a family man, but also his own man. He's very alpha. He flies helicopters for a living, and he puts his life on the line every day. But Drew is usually observing people from a distance. IN FALLING FOR A STRANGER, he gets caught up in the heroine's tangled web of secrets. And for the first time, he's not sending down a rescue swimmer while he hovers above the scene. He's in it -- all the way in, and his guard walls have to come down. I think Drew and Ria are a great couple, and so far readers are loving them, too!

ANGI: Is there a playlist you’d recommend for reading your latest release?

BARBARA:  I don't listen to music when I write, however, there were a couple of songs that I listened to during the time I was writing the book that really resonated with me. One was the song titled Lovesong by Adele (I think several other artists have covered it as well). But the lyrics go something like this: "When I'm with you, I feel like I'm young again, fun again, home again…" And that really resonated with my story.

Also the title came to me during an episode of Glee! There was a dance number and the lyrics were something like "boys like a little danger … falling for a stranger". And it seemed like the perfect title for my new book about a man who is used to danger, but finds more than he expected with a beautiful stranger.

Accepting the Award for Best Contemporary Single Title
Atlanta, June 2013

ANGI: Where do you read and how often?

BARBARA: I read probably a book a week these days. If I'm not on deadline, I read more titles in a shorter period of time. I read wherever I am. I love reading on an e-reader now, so I can take it with me wherever I go. But I most often read curled up on the couch or on my bed.

ANGI: What sound or noise do you love?

BARBARA:  I love the sound of water, ocean waves crashing on a beach, a stream trickling through the rocks, the cascade of a waterfall, the lake current as it hits the beach. There's something about water that I find musical and soothing.

ANGI: What was the first story you remember writing?

BARBARA: The first story I wrote was called PROMISE OF MARRIAGE and it was about an optimistic wedding planner who ends up sharing office space with a cynical divorce attorney who tells her, "You get the clients on the way up, I get them on the way down." Of course, she changes his mind about love!

ANGI: What is your biggest vice?

BARBARA:  Freshly baked chocolate chip cookies. I can't resist them!

ANGI: How is it working with hot guys and sexy women all day?

BARBARA:  It's the best job in the world! I love creating characters. I really like finding their flaws, their emotional wounds, their secrets. I think that's what really brings my characters to life. I often think that I write about ordinary people caught up in extraordinary adventures!

ANGI’S GOTTA ASK: There are some very interesting FAQs on your website. You mention that your favorite book is the most recent you've finished. So how about telling us which book you had the most fun writing and why?

BARBARA'S GOTTA ANSWER: I really loved writing SILENT RUN because it was very challenging. The heroine is in a car crash and wakes up in the hospital without any memory of who she is. An angry man appears at her bedside. He claims he's her husband and that she took their baby and left him eight months earlier. He demands to know where their baby is, and she has absolutely no idea. Giving a heroine amnesia was cool and fun and incredibly challenging. Because she knows nothing about herself, she has no introspective thoughts about who she is. I had to have her find out about herself solely from outside clues, the clothes she had on, the things in her bag, what people tell her about herself. But mostly people tell her terrible things, and she can't believe she would do some of the things she's being told she did. It was a really fun, complex story, but the readers seem to enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it!

FIND BARBARA:

Contact  Website  Facebook   Twitter @BarbaraFreethy

Goodreads  Previous GLIAS interviews

UP NEXT for BARBARA:

Book #4 in the Callaway Series will be released in October of 2014. Cover and title will be revealed in upcoming weeks.

For a complete backlist of Barbara's books check out her website.

ON A NIGHT LIKE THIS

The Callaways, Book 1

December 2012

SO THIS IS LOVE

The Callaways, Book 2

March 2013

BARBARA is giving away ebooks of FALLING FOR A STRANGER to two lucky winners for North American and International Readers.

Note: COMMENTERS are encouraged to leave a contact email address to speed the prize notification process. Offer void where prohibited. Prizes will be emailed to winners. Odds of winning vary due to the number of entrants. Winners of drawings are responsible for checking this site in a timely manner. If prizes are not claimed in a timely manner, the author may not have a prize available. Get Lost In A Story cannot be responsible for an author's failure to mail the listed prize. GLIAS does not automatically pass email addresses to guest authors unless the commenter publicly posts their email address.

Don’t forget to FOLLOW us on Twitter #GetLostStories or LIKE us on Facebook to keep up with all our guest authors and their prizes. Join me Wednesday when I host Susan Mallory. And come back tomorrow when Clover hosts Kimberly Packard. ~Angi

BARBARA WANTS TO KNOW: In Falling For A Stranger, Drew and Ria meet on a tropical island in a beautiful beachside bar … Where did you meet your significant other? Do you have a good story to share?