Go on a Mission (and win free books) with Amelia Autin!

Rescued by the Billionaire CEO

Harlequin Romantic Suspense

A billionaire on the hunt for justice meets his match in Amelia Autin's latest Man on a Mission romance 

When she's bound, gagged and kidnapped, Alana Richardson is terrified…until a masked avenging angel saves her. There's something unforgettable about the mysterious man. But when she uncovers her hero's identity—drop-dead-gorgeous alpha male Jason Moore—Alana is irresistibly drawn into his dangerous world…

A CEO by day and a vigilante by night, Jason lives and breathes danger. Yet, for the first time, he may have found a woman who understands his commitment to justice at all costs. His hunger for right to prevail could put Alana in harm's way—but one night and one secret will change everything.

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Meet Amelia!

Award-winning author Amelia Autin is an inveterate reader who can’t bear to put a good book down…or part with it. Her bookshelves are crammed with books her husband periodically threatens to donate to a good cause, but he always relents…eventually.

Amelia is a long-time member of Romance Writers of America (RWA), and served three years as its treasurer. She currently resides with her Ph.D. engineer husband in quiet Vail, Arizona, where they can see the stars at night and have a “million dollar view” of the Rincon Mountains from their back yard.

Amelia says...

Hi there! I’ve been a guest on the Get Lost in a Story blog several times now, so instead of the usual question and answer blog post, I thought I’d just tell you a little bit about how Rescued by the Billionaire CEO came to be. (This blog is supposed to be about getting lost in a story, and I can’t think of a better example of me doing exactly that.)

It all started when I wrote King’s Ransom. The heroine’s best friends were Dirk and Sabrina (Bree) DeWinter, who were so terribly in love with each other they exemplified what Juliana (the heroine) yearned to have with the man she loved. Not that she was jealous of her friends. She just envied them. Imagine her devastation when Sabrina died…just as Juliana was finding her HEA with Andre. (Sob)

Juliana stood at Sabrina’s grave with Andre, his strong arms around her, holding her as she cried. Shielding her from the paparazzi and their long-lens cameras. Pulling her face into the comforting shelter of his chest as she wept, not just for Sabrina lying so peacefully in her grave and for her twin daughters still in neonatal intensive care, but for Dirk, too. Dirk, who stood stoically at the graveside, his face displaying no emotion whatsoever, lost in a world grown dark and cold without Bree, a world where he blamed himself for her death.

“This is my punishment,” he’d told Juliana, his eyes wild with grief when she’d gone to see him the day before. “God is punishing me, but she paid the price.” And nothing Juliana said to him made the slightest difference. Nothing she said seemed to break through that impenetrable barrier. And now Dirk had shuttered himself against everyone and everything. Against friendship. Against every human emotion. Even against fatherhood—he’d only visited his tiny daughters twice in the neonatal ICU, both times for less than ten minutes.

Memories of Dirk and Sabrina came back to Juliana as she stood there. Good memories and painful ones. Remembering with a pang of guilt how she’d been envious of her friends and the love they shared. Not that she’d wanted to take anything away from them; she’d just wanted what they had. Now she did…but now they didn’t. Now Bree’s dead and Dirk might not survive. She would carry that grief…and guilt…for a long time.

Fast forward a couple of months. Long before heartbroken readers of King’s Ransom begged me to write an HEA for Dirk, I’d wanted to write a love story for him from the moment I’d written Bree’s death in King’s Ransom. I’d broken his heart—it was up to me to heal it. I also wanted to set a book in Hong Kong, because I was enamored of the city and its fascinating history. Then it came to me. Dirk had been so in love with Bree he couldn’t possibly fall in love with a woman who remotely reminded him of her. What could be better than making my heroine (and Dirk’s new love) Chinese?

As I started to write the story that would become A Father’s Desperate Rescue, however, I realized it would add another layer of dimension if my heroine Mei-li was Eurasian rather than pure Chinese, and it would be appropriate for the setting since there are quite a few Eurasians in Hong Kong (a British colony at one time). So I gave her a British father and a Chinese mother, and a nebulous older brother Jason, since I didn’t want her to be an only child. But I knew nothing about him, and honestly didn’t intend for him to have any role whatsoever in A Father’s Desperate Rescue.

Is now the time to mention I’m a pantser, not a plotter? That is, I write by the seat of my pants, and any synopsis I cobble together when I pitch a book bears little resemblance to the end result.

Soooo…I was halfway through A Father’s Desperate Rescue before Mei-li’s brother made his first appearance, along with his highly secret and totally illegal covert operations organization, Right Makes Might (RMM). As I wrote in the “Dear Reader” letter for Rescued by the Billionaire CEO,

“…Once Jason took the stage, however, it was one of those “ah ha” moments for me, and I fell in love with him (as I do with all my future heroes)…”

The more I wrote about Jason and his secret organization, RMM, in A Father’s Desperate Rescue, however, the more I realized he deserved his own book. Unfortunately, I had three other books already under contract I had to write first (Her Colton P.I., Killer Countdown, and The Bodyguard’s Bride-To-Be), before I could get to Jason’s story.

But then, when I was finally free to work on Rescued by the Billionaire CEO (which had been simmering in the back of my mind for more than a year!), I was stumped at first. Again, pulling from the “Dear Reader” letter,

“…while I knew my hero—a man shaped by two cultures and one life-altering tragedy, a true knight in shining armor (in the heroine’s own words, sans peur et sans reproche)—I had no idea who my heroine might be. This is a common problem—my heroes always appear first.

“Then suddenly she appeared—Alana Richardson, cousin to the heroine of King’s Ransom. Alana has traveled halfway around the world to escape the privileged life she was born to lead…and runs headlong into trouble. Who else but Jason can rescue her…from her abductors and her uneventful past? And who else but Alana can accept that the man she loves could die or end his days in prison…all in the name of protecting the innocent?”

Once I found her, Jason and Alana’s love story just seemed to pour out of me. It happens like that sometimes. Don’t misunderstand. Writing is work. But just as with any job, some days are easier than others, and this was one of those times. (Happy sigh)

Jason isn’t perfect, and Alana knows this. But she also knows there could never be a man more perfect for her than him. And isn’t that what we’re all looking for…in a romance and in real life? That magical pairing of soulmates?

I hope that after you read Rescued by the Billionaire CEO you’ll agree Jason and Alana are the soulmates they’ve both been seeking. Because if you do, then I’ve done my job.

Thanks for reading about the genesis of Rescued by the Billionaire CEO. Be sure to keep scrolling down for a couple of giveaways (books and SWAG!)

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UP NEXT:  

Black Ops Warrior, December, 2017

Black Ops Warrior is Niall Jones’s story (the second oldest of the Jones clan, and the last sibling to have his story told). That book is set mostly in northern China on a land tour/river cruise similar to one I took myself with my husband in the fall of 2015. But I couldn’t write about Niall as a hero until he suddenly appeared as a secondary character in Killer Countdown. Because strange as it might seem, my characters are as real to me as my friends. So I couldn’t possibly write Niall’s story before I knew more about him, about the man he is. Now I know him intimately, and I think I’ve paired him with the perfect woman for him. Dr. Savannah Whitman.

My editor gave me a “sneak peek” of the Black Ops Warrior cover, but (alas) I can’t share it yet because it’s not finalized. But I absolutely love it! It captures the essence of the book, and (unlike a lot of covers) is actually a scene in the book and not just a “representational” cover. As of now the back cover copy is just as eye catching:

AN ALPHA HERO FALLS FOR THE WOMAN HE’S SWORN TO TAKE DOWN IN AMELIA AUTIN’S LATEST MAN ON A MISSION ROMANCE!

Help her. That’s all Niall Jones can think to do when his target almost panics. Undercover operative Niall is tracking suspected traitor Dr. Savannah Whitman, but when she comes under threat, he can’t help but swoop in to save her. And the sparks that fly between the secret agent and Savannah are anything but covert.

After a personal tragedy, Savannah decided to depart her high-security defense job to live life to the fullest. But she never expected to meet a sexy, mysterious stranger—or for her very safety to be under siege…and enigmatic Niall is the only one who can protect her!

I’m also working on other ideas, and not just romantic suspense.

PREVIOUS RELEASES:  

Man on a Mission miniseries

The Bodyguard’s Bride-To-Be (HRS November 2016)

Killer Countdown (HRS August 2016), a 2017 RITA finalist (the Academy Awards of romance!)

  Check it out on YouTube! https://youtu.be/NcJRtTphUpg

A Father’s Desperate Rescue (HRS April 2016)

Liam’s Witness Protection (HRS October 2015)

Alec’s Royal Assignment (HRS August 2015)

King’s Ransom (HRS June 2015)

McKinnon’s Royal Mission (HRS April 2015)

Cody Walker’s Woman (HRS October 2014)

Coltons of Texas miniseries

Her Colton P.I. (HRS May 2015)

WILL YOU HAVE A DRAWING FROM THOSE LEAVING COMMENTS or do you have a promotion you'd like us to link to?

SWAG! I have SWAG from the RWA 2017 conference! (In the interest of full disclosure I’ll volunteer that these darling makeup bags were leftovers and were going to be discarded on the last day of the conference; we were told to take whatever we wanted. So of course I immediately thought of my readers, most of whom love SWAG!)

To win one (smaller than a football, by the way, no matter how big it looks in the pictures) all you have to do is be one of the first five US residents to email me the correct answers to the Scavenger Hunt questions at AmeliaAutin@aol.com. Please don’t comment the answers—that would spoil the game!

If you’re not a US resident but you still want to play, the prize for being one of the first five with the correct answers will be an emailed ebook of Rescued by the Billionaire CEO for Kindle, Nook, or iPad.

Scavenger Hunt Questions

Since eight is a lucky number in Chinese numerology (which appears in Rescued by the Billionaire CEO, by the way) There are eight scavenger hunt questions. Some are easy, some are a little harder, but all answers can be found on my website, www.AmeliaAutin.com.

1) There are five books featuring the Jones siblings (four heroes and one heroine). What are the titles?

2) Mara, the heroine of McKinnon’s Royal Mission, is the sister of what hero from what book?

3) What was the title of my “second” debut book, when I made a comeback in 2014?

4) What’s the opening sentence from King’s Ransom?

5) What was the name of the manuscript that won a Golden Heart® award from RWA®, and in what year? (This manuscript became my first published book and was renamed Gideon’s Bride because my editor told me the word “Bride” in the title would sell more books, the same way “Billionaire” and “CEO” in the title are expected to do in Rescued by the Billionaire CEO).

6) Des Jumelles à Secourir, the French translation of which one of my books will be released in September 2017 (with a totally different cover)?

7) “They nailed it” refers to what heroine on the cover of which one of my books?

8) There are three authors who take up all ten slots in “My Top Ten Category Romances” list. Two authors each have three listed, and one author has four. Who has four?

Thanks for playing the Scavenger Hunt game. Giveaway ends at midnight, Vail, AZ time (aka MST), on Sunday, 08/13/2017. Winners will be notified by email no later than Monday, 08/14/2017.

I’d also love to give away two autographed copies of Rescued by the Billionaire CEO (sorry, US only for the autographed paperbacks). For international entries (including Canada and Mexico), I can email an ebook for Kindle, Nook, or iPad.

To enter the drawing all you have to do is comment below, either in response to my question or anything you’d like to say. Giveaway ends at midnight, Vail, AZ time (aka MST), on Sunday, 08/13/2017. Winners will be posted on Monday, 08/14/2017, so be sure to check back!

GOT A QUESTION YOU’D LIKE TO ASK YOUR FANS?

Absolutely! Do you think it’s possible to fall in love in a day? (I’m talking true love, the happily-ever-after-in-real-life kind of love, not just in a romance novel.) And if you’re skeptical, what about an enforced proximity 24-hour day where you’re bound to see the other person at both their best and their worst?

Thanks for stopping by today, Amelia!  Always a pleasure to hear from you!