Today's Special - - Dana Marton

Dana Marton is the award-winning author of twenty-three books with Harlequin Intrigue. The latest is The Spy Who Saved Christmas (check out PJ's review here), more of a Die Hard kind of Christmas story than It’s a Wonderful Life. High stakes, instead of fruitcakes. Dana is known for her fast-paced action and sexy, emotional romance. Dangerous men, thrilling women. Connect with Dana online at www.danamarton.com and www.facebook.com/danamarton.

Please welcome Dana as she blogs about one of my favorite topics: sexy men in aprons!



  

Guest Author Dana Marton on the New Sexy: Men in Aprons

One of the things I love about writing is that I get to test drive every career that piques my interest without actually having to do any work. In my latest book, THE SPY WHO SAVED CHRISTMAS, I played with a traditional gender role reversal in the characters’ professions. Lara is a butcher, and Reid is a baker.

(Well, really he’s an undercover agent on a mission to save the world. Harlequin Intrigue is romantic suspense, after all. But as far as Lara knows when the book starts, he’s a baker.)

Can a man in an apron be sexy? In my opinion, the answer is not just “yeah” but “heck, yeah!” and “hallelujah!”

Commercial baking is a very physical profession. Picture this: A well-built man in a black fitted tee, muscles straining as he kneads a ball of dough. He has powder marks on the back of his faded jeans, drawing your attention to his butt. It’s a good butt. A world-class butt. His dark hair is just a little damp because of the effort and the heat of the ovens.

Then picture this (the opening scene from THE SPY WHO SAVED CHRISTMAS):

His hands were stained and rough-skinned. Large. These were the hands that testosterone hath made, she would think later, when she could think. His grip was all male and possessive. His fingers dug into the pale skin at her hips. … At the urging of the man who was kissing all common sense from her, she lay back on the wood-topped table – flour dust be damned …

Whew! I better stop there. Those large hands could get me in trouble. The Romance Dish is a PG-rated blog, right? You can read the rest of Chapter One on my website, www.danamarton.com.

Contests: I’m holding an ongoing contest on my facebook page, www.facebook.com/danamarton. Every time we reach a new 100-level of fans, I’ll give away an Amazon e-gift card. And as a special contest here at The Romance Dish today, I will send a copy of THE SPY WHO SAVED CHRISTMAS to a random commenter. So speak up for your chance to win!

What do you think of men in aprons? Has a man ever cooked for you? Was it a special occasion or something he does on a regular basis? What did he make? Did his cooking make him sexier in your eyes?

Review - - The Spy Who Saved Christmas

The Spy Who Saved Christmas
By Dana Marton
Publisher: Harlequin Intrigue
Release Date: October 12, 2010








Undercover government agent, Reid Graham is in a race against the clock to bring down a home-grown terrorist cell before a planned Christmas attack so he’s none too pleased when he comes face to face with former lover, Lara Jordan while he’s trying to obtain critical data from a snitch. Reid works alone and avoids entanglements but, two years earlier, while working undercover as a baker next door to Lara’s butcher shop, he broke his “no entanglement” rule with a single night of passion then, to keep her safe, let Lara believe he had been killed in a fire that burned both of their shops.

For the past two years, Lara has grieved for the “bad boy” baker who died without knowing he had fathered her twin boys. But now, when she’s finally about to move forward with her life, she’s shocked to see Reid, alive and well, in a New York City restaurant. She calls him by name, blowing his cover, and before she can blink the woman with him is dead at the hands of the terrorists and Lara finds herself and her babies stashed in an FBI safe house with one of Reid’s fellow agents. But the house isn’t as safe as they thought. The terrorists attack while Reid is away from the house, injuring the agent and Lara and kidnapping the babies. When the FBI refuses to negotiate with the terrorists, Reid and Lara are forced to take matters into their own hands, working together to stop the terrorists and rescue their sons before it’s too late.

The Spy Who Saved Christmas is an emotional, action-packed roller coaster ride that I could not put down. Marton plunges the reader into the action from the very start of the book and maintains the pace until the heart-stopping conclusion. In today’s world, the realistic premise of this book could happen to any of us, which only escalates the breath-stealing intensity of the story. The characters are fully developed and faced with situations to which I could easily relate, especially the terror, then anger, and finally the steely determination of a mother whose children are in the hands of killers and a reluctant father who finally comes to understand the importance of love and lives that are shared only to face losing the family he's just found if he’s unable to get to them in time.

This was my first book by Dana Marton and I thoroughly enjoyed it.  I was also delighted to discover that she has an extensive Harlequin Intrigue back list that I’m now itching to read. If you enjoy heart-stopping romantic suspense, I highly recommend Dana Marton and The Spy Who Saved Christmas.

~PJ