Loves Betrayal @Liza0Connor

Love’s Betrayal

The Extraordinary Life of Amy Winston, Book 2

Is the lack of sexual interest an actual side effect of arsenic?

Yes, it is.

When Sicily started feeding Nicolas arsenic to kill him, one unexpected side-effect was he lost interest in Sicily and saw her as the unreasonable shrew she actually was. This however, only caused her to try murdering him faster. Thus, requiring Antonio to protect Nicolas, whom he decidedly dislikes by now.

Sicily evidently has strong pheromones which she uses to seduce all her many men.

BLURB

When Amy and her friend Domnika arrive in London, she discovers her guardian, Nicolas, is under the thrall of his ‘perfect’ wife. Neither is he happy she has come. The only person who seems pleased with her arrival is the handsome valet, Antonio, who turns out to be far more than a servant.

Needing to escape her guardian’s care, Amy and Domnika take refuge at a fellow schoolmate’s home. Antonio leaves Nicolas’ service and becomes one of her many protectors. Unlike the other protectors, he becomes the first of many admirers that vie for her hand.

All the while, Nicolas continues to prove over and over that he is not the fine fellow her uncle had thought.

Excerpt

“Do you mean to kill her?” Lady Anne asked.

“What? Good God, no!” Nicolas replied.

“Then I fear your plan will fail. In fact, if I recall, you tried this plan a year ago…”

“Yes, but I was blinded by my wife’s charm then. That is no longer the case.”

“Well, your open eyes might make the battle more interesting, but you will still lose, for Sicily will not retrench. While you may be squeamish to kill her, believe me, she will not hesitate to kill you. In fact, I am amazed she has not already tried.” Suddenly Ann stopped and then laughed. “But she has, only she failed to consider the side-effects.”

“What are you talking about?”

“The side-effects of arsenic. It impairs a man’s libido. That was how she always controlled you, was it not? Getting you so aroused that you couldn’t think straight?”

“Yes, I thought it was perhaps some form of mesmerism.”

“Possibly, but I doubt it. I’ve never met a true mesmerist in my life. No, I believe you have simply fallen prey to a seductress. Have you had headaches lately?”

“Yes, how did you know?”

“Another side-effect of arsenic. Do you mind if I examine your gums?”

Nicolas endured her invasive prodding of his mouth.

“I feel rather like a horse on the market,” he complained when she finally released him.

“Well, if it’s of any consolation, I wouldn’t buy you. In another month, you’ll be dead.”

“You are certain I am being poisoned?”

“Oh, absolutely,” Ann replied with a cherry lilt.

SALES LINKS

Book 2 – Love’s Betrayals

Amazon

Or

Visit your Favorite D2D book store

https://books2read.com/u/3ygWlV

More About the Author

Liza O’Connor’s favorite books are Pride & Prejudice and Douglas Adams’ four book trilogy, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Go figure…

Raised in the southern mid-section of U.S., Liza escaped to the East Coast once out of college. She’s worked as a journalist, a radio DJ, a security guard, a stock broker, a strategist, and a business solutions consultant to name a few of her many occupations.  Again…go figure.

She learned to fly planes, jump out of planes, hang-glide, kayak and scuba dive, to name of few of her ‘let’s kill Liza’ sports. However, her favorite activity is to hike with her dog Jess among the shaved mountains of NJ.

FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT

LIZA O'CONNOR

Investigate these sites:

Liza's Blog and Website   Facebook   Twitter

Check out Liza’s Many Books

There are more than 60 now.

A Better Life @Liza0Connor

A Better Life

By Liza O’Connor

Blurb

Angel’s husband had barely left the country when the first attempt on her life occurred. Fortunately, Anna was at home and shot the man as he entered through a window that for some reason had been left open. Now a dead body chilled in the basement freezer.

Angel had always known this day would come. She had lived in fear of this day for the last five years. The terrorists had somehow discovered her identity. By the sounds of gunshots outside the house, she knew her nightmare was far from over. Any thought of her living a normal life from here-on wasn’t possible. God only knows what would happen to her and her children now.

Discover the new life of the extraordinary forensic auditor named Angel. She can locate improperly acquired money better than anyone. Unfortunately, that puts her and her children at serious risk.

Nor does her love life work nearly as well as her forensic abilities. Men are constantly using, then betraying her. Still, she remains positive and optimistic. Now that she is officially dead, living deep within a mountain, she hopes she and her children will be safe.

To her surprise, the biggest threat is not from criminals, but her husband, who has ordered her to be killed.

***

EXCERPT

“Please God, keep my children safe,” she whispered beneath her breath. Her three young sons, ages eight, five, and one year old, were at Derrick’s house, next door, the older two playing with his kids. Hopefully, at the first sound of trouble, the former FBI agent had gotten them to the safe room hidden beneath the house she had built for him.

She could accept her death, but not that of her innocent children.

Anna, a young woman of twenty-five, whom she loved like a sister, and Sahid, a new guest, whom she barely knew at all, were struggling before the front door.

“Let me go! I have to see to Pete.” Anna yelled.

Sahid held onto her. “No! They will kill you! You must stay here!” He slung her away from the door, slammed it shut, and bolted it.

A moment later, someone pounded on the outside. “Help! We need help!”

Anna fought with Sahid, determined to go to Pete. Angel’s heart went out to her. After four years of not speaking to her ex-fiancé, Anna had recently fallen back in love with Pete.

Before she could unbolt the door, a rapid burst of gunfire erupted, and the bullets pounded against the outside of the door. Any normal door would have disintegrated into wood chips, and Anna would be dead now. However, Angel’s husband Max had upgraded her house right after they married. Her door was two-inch steel and the windows bulletproof.

They both had known someday this nightmare would occur and Max had done all he could to ensure she would survive it.

Unable to shoot their way in, the attackers shoved Pete, Anna’s former fiancé, against the window. His chest was covered in blood, his face contorted in pain.

Anna ran to the window and pressed her hands against the bulletproof glass. “Don’t hurt him,” she pleaded. “Please, tell me what you want. We can negotiate.”

“Open the door, and we’ll tell you.”

Pete cried out, “No!”

The man rammed a gun against Pete’s head. “Open the door or he dies!”

She looked at Pete, her face against the glass. “I love you!” she cried out. “Don’t die on me, Pete, please…don’t die.”

“Open the door!” The man demanded.

Tears streaked down her face. “I can’t. The house is now in lockdown. Please, help him. I am willing to negotiate.”

The man pulled the trigger, and Pete’s brains splattered across the window pane.

Anna screamed, and Angel turned away, sick to her stomach. She had known one day she would die, but why Pete? Why Anna? And Sahid… he was just a temporary guest needing a place to stay.

Anna, amazingly strong just like her father, rebounded from her pain and focused on their imminent danger. “Take Angel to the basement,” she ordered Sahid.

“No, we should remain here together,” the man said.

Angel stared at Sahid. Why would he think he had any say at all? He was only an interpreter for the FBI. Anna had spent her life with some of the best FBI agents there were. And while she failed to graduate from the FBI academy due to a foolish prank, Angel never doubted her competence.

But Sahid was a Mid-Eastern man, so he would never think a woman could be competent.

D2D

                                        Choose your favorite book store

AMAZON

About the Author

Liza O’Connor

Liza O’Connor lives in Denville, NJ with her dog Jess. They hike in fabulous woods every day, rain or shine, sleet or snow. Having an adventurous nature, she learned to fly small Cessnas in NJ, hang-glide in New Zealand, kayak in Pennsylvania, ski in New York, scuba dive with great white sharks in Australia, dig up dinosaur bones in Montana, skydive in Indiana, and raft a class four river in Tasmania. She’s an avid gardener, amateur photographer, and dabbler in watercolors and graphic arts. Yet throughout her entire life, her first love has and always will be writing novels.

FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT

LIZA O'CONNOR

Investigate these sites:

Liza’s Multiverse Blog

Liza's Blog and Website   Facebook   Twitter

All the Many Books Liza has written

Over 60 books for your reading pleasure

Contemporary

Historical

Paranormal

Sci-Fi

***

Romance

Sleuths

Suspense

Humor

Feel Good Novels

***

Books range from young adult to mature audiences.

I write them as my characters want them to be written. 

Love's Betrayals @Liza0Connor

Love’s Betrayals

The Extraordinary Life of Amy Winston, Book 2

Is the lack of sexual interest an actual side effect of arsenic?

Yes, it is.

When Sicily started feeding Nicolas arsenic to kill him, one unexpected side-effect was he lost interest in Sicily and saw her as the unreasonable shrew she actually was. This however, only caused her to try murdering him faster. Thus, requiring Antonio to protect Nicolas, whom he decidedly dislikes by now.

Sicily evidently has strong pheromones which she uses to seduce all her many men.

BLURB

When Amy and her friend Domnika arrive in London, she discovers her guardian, Nicolas, is under the thrall of his ‘perfect’ wife. Neither is happy she has come. The only person who seems pleased with her arrival is the handsome valet, Antonio, who turns out to be far more than a servant.

Needing to escape her guardian’s care, Amy and Domnika take refuge at a fellow schoolmate’s home. Antonio leaves Nicolas’ service and becomes one of her many protectors. Unlike the other protectors, he becomes the first of many admirers that vie for her hand.

All the while, Nicolas continues to prove over and over that he is not the fine fellow her uncle had thought.

Excerpt

“Do you mean to kill her?” Lady Anne asked.

“What? Good God, no!” Nicolas replied.

“Then I fear your plan will fail. In fact, if I recall, you tried this plan a year ago…”

“Yes, but I was blinded by my wife’s charm then. That is no longer the case.”

“Well, your open eyes might make the battle more interesting, but you will still lose, for Sicily will not retrench. While you may be squeamish to kill her, believe me, she will not hesitate to kill you. In fact, I am amazed she has not already tried.” Suddenly Ann stopped and then laughed. “But she has, only she failed to consider the side-effects.”

“What are you talking about?”

“The side-effects of arsenic. It impairs a man’s libido. That was how she always controlled you, was it not? Getting you so aroused that you couldn’t think straight?”

“Yes, I thought it was perhaps some form of mesmerism.”

“Possibly, but I doubt it. I’ve never met a true mesmerist in my life. No, I believe you have simply fallen prey to a seductress. Have you had headaches lately?”

“Yes, how did you know?”

“Another side-effect of arsenic. Do you mind if I examine your gums?”

Nicolas endured her invasive prodding of his mouth.

“I feel rather like a horse on the market,” he complained when she finally released him.

“Well, if it’s of any consolation, I wouldn’t buy you. In another month, you’ll be dead.”

“You are certain I am being poisoned?”

“Oh, absolutely,” Ann replied with a cherry lilt.

SALES LINKS

Book 2 – Love’s Betrayals

Amazon

Or

Visit your Favorite D2D book store

https://books2read.com/u/3ygWlV

More About the Author

Liza O’Connor’s favorite books are Pride & Prejudice and Douglas Adams’ four book trilogy, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Go figure…

Raised in the southern mid-section of U.S., Liza escaped to the East Coast once out of college. She’s worked as a journalist, a radio DJ, a security guard, a stock broker, a strategist, and a business solutions consultant to name a few of her many occupations.  Again…go figure.

She learned to fly planes, jump out of planes, hang-glide, kayak and scuba dive, to name of few of her ‘let’s kill Liza’ sports. However, her favorite activity is to hike with her dog Jess among the shaved mountains of NJ.

FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT

LIZA O'CONNOR

Investigate these sites:

Liza's Blog and Website   Facebook   Twitter

Check out Liza’s Many Books

There are more than 60 books now.

Check out the entire series!

Dance or Die @Liza0Connor

Why does Steel remember matters differently

then what actually occurred?

The brain is actually a terrible recorder of past events. Especially events that a person recalls frequently. For example, if the person, let us say Steel, had withheld information from his college and the students accompanying him to the Middle East to excavate what might be the first major agricultural sites of mankind, it is possible upon recollection, he would forget the withheld information entirely. In his mind, that never happened. Upon further recollection of the horrifying events that occurred, he would alter more facts each time he recalls the situation. The two young women who were raped by insurgents who entered their camp, were no longer raped. They were just spoiled, angry young women who ignored him when he told them to go to the house, rather than stay in the car.

Being a traumatic event he’ll recall it often and each time he’ll change details, each time softening his guilt and pushing the blame to others.

In a way, this altering of memories can make traumatic events tolerable. But it can also result in a person who never takes responsibility for his own actions and thus he repeats the same mistakes again. Nor is he consciously aware of what he is doing.

This really happens. Researchers have proven this over and over. It’s why past memories can be so easily manipulated by suggestions from a psychiatrist. But what most people don’t realize is that everyone changes their memories every time they recall an event in their past. It might remain mostly true or it might not be even recognized as the same event by others who witnessed the original event.

True story: When at college my roomie and I joked about kidnapping a cute friend of ours. We laughingly plotted out the various ways we could go about it. There was another participant to our conversation, Kim, and this event, plotting to kidnap Steve, altered in her memories and became a real abduction that impacted the rest of her life. We reconnected through facebook many years later and she brought up the time when we kidnapped cute Steve and she shared how much that impacted her life (negatively).

 

I had no idea what she was talking about. Neither did my former roomie. So I contacted Steve on facebook and asked him if recalled us ever kidnapping him.

“No, but sounds like fun,” was his response. So I contacted Kim and gave her the goods new. We never kidnapped Steve, and she could lose the guilt. That resulted in a great deal of anger and a defriending.  Evidently, this trauma had become the cornerstone of her life and she was NOT giving it up.

So don’t linger on negative events in your past. If you do, they will begin to consume you.  However, when you make a mistake, derive what you can from the lesson, and then move on. Revisiting it over and over can worsen matters.

Dance or Die

By Liza O’Connor

Contemporary Suspense/Romance

Blurb

Tess Campbell, mafia princess has fallen in love with a British prince, who is protected by a Secret Service agent during his stay in America. Two weeks into their budding romance, Tess’s father, a psycho mafia don, kidnaps and nearly kills the prince and his Secret Service agent, believing she has taken both as her lovers. The brutal assault reveals the true character of each man and Tess must face some hard truths, even as she takes control of her destiny to build the finest state park in the country.

Excerpt for 

Dance or Die

“Are you talking about the helicopter incident in the Middle-East?” Tess asked.

“That’s an excellent example. The CIA and the British Intelligence had warned Steel that the area was rife with insurgents and to attempt entry would be suicidal—advice that he kept from the school and the kids traveling with him.

“Three weeks into their trip, their campsite was raided. The insurgents tied up the men and made them watch as they gang-raped the two women. Then they gathered up all the gear, food, and water and left them there to die.”

Tess was shocked. This was nothing like the story that Steel had told her.

“Their driver returned in the morning and found the men bound and the women unconscious. Steel called the American embassy on the man’s phone and demanded they send him new equipment and better protection at once. They told him he was in a war zone and to get out. Steel told them to fuck off and hung up.”

“Dear God!”

“Fortunately, his students had no intention of staying and called the American Embassy back, begging for rescue. So the driver was given firm orders upon where to take them to await pickup. Steel was furious when he’d learned what they’d done and he promised to ruin all their careers if they didn’t stay. They all believed being alive was more important than staying to work on his site. Given Steel had no food, water, shelter or equipment, he went along as well, condemning his students the entire drive there.”

Steel had made it seem like he was the victim and that the deaths were other people’s fault, which was exactly what he was doing now as well.

“The driver warned everyone to the house, but the girls were in too much pain to be removed from the jeep. So the men ignored the driver and hung around the jeep.”

“Which made it a target for the enemy helicopter,” Tess said.

“Yes. The jeep blew up, killing the girls instantly. The young men ignored Steel who was yelling to hide behind a small fence. Two ran to the house and the other two ran for the hills. They survived. Amazingly, Steel did as well. They found him hiding against the fence with the driver’s body protecting him.”

“That is nothing like Steel’s version.”

“Well, that’s the four students’ version and why Steel was fired at once. And the reason he was fired from his most recent position was that once again, he withheld the warnings he’d received from the CIA, but this time, they called the head of the university and relayed what had happened the last time Steel took students into a war zone. They fired him and the woman who was responsible for ensuring all university travel locations were properly cleared. He’d evidently convinced her he knew better than the CIA.”

Buy Links for

D2D

BUY LINKS For Amazon

BOOK 3

Dance or Die

About the Author

Liza O’Connor lives in Denville, NJ with her dog Jess. They hike in fabulous woods every day, rain or shine, sleet or snow. Having an adventurous nature, she learned to fly small Cessnas in NJ, hang-glide in New Zealand, kayak in Pennsylvania, ski in New York, scuba dive with great white sharks in Australia, dig up dinosaur bones in Montana, sky dive in Indiana, and raft a class four river in Tasmania. She’s an avid gardener, amateur photographer, and dabbler in watercolors and graphic arts. Yet through her entire life, her first love has and always will be writing novels.

FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT

https://www.lizaoconnor.com/p/liza-oconnors-books.html

Investigate these sites:

Liza's Blog and Website   Facebook   Twitter

Lessons from Wabbaseka @Liza0Connor

(Banner)

Lessons from Wabbaseka

By Liza O’Connor

Liza’s real memories of Wabbaseka

When I was a young girl (6-7 years old, I think) I recall my uncle worked in a dark but soothing store, that sold most anything you could ask for. Clothes, tools, snacks. It was rather like a Woolworth store.  (I think he was the bookkeeper.) At the time he and my aunt lived in an apartment on the second floor of the building.

The next time I visited them, they had moved to a one-story Victorian house with a porch and a swing. They spent the rest of their lives there until the minister wrongly convinced them to go into a nursing home.

Here’s a pic of my aunt & uncles actual house.

(House Pic here)

They went to a nursing home about six years ago, and died soon after, so the place is a bit overgrown now and it’s going to be torn down. I got this 2015 pic off the internet.

(cover)

Blurb

When Anna Baker is fired from her New York job, she accepts her aunt and uncle’s offer to come live with them in the little town of Wabbaseka, Arkansas. She discovers a house in dire need of repairs and her relatives in need of proper care. Under the misconception that being unemployed means she has no money, the local sheriff gets involved in her life, trying to determine how she can afford the building materials to fix up the house. Her cousin, Dewayne, appears and wants her evicted, and the FBI thinks she’s involved in a money-laundering scheme. While Anna doesn’t find the peace and quiet she seeks, she may find love…

Excerpt

Bad habits of the Yankee woman

Anna knelt and hugged the blonde cherub. “How’s my best friend?”

“I get to stay the whole day with you. We’re going to have so much fun! Daddy says so.”

Anna looked up at Jeremy in surprise. So far he had been less than enthusiastic with her “odd yankee ways”.

He ran a hand through his dark brown unruly hair, as his seductive brown eyes met hers. “I said she was staying the day. She added the part about fun on her own.”

Yep. No change of attitude there. She refocused on Claire. “Well, you are absolutely correct. We are going to have a whole bunch of fun today.”

“Are we going to help Daddy carpentry?”

“Nope. We’re going to do our own project.”

“What project?” Jeremy demanded, as his brow furrowed.

Anna took a great deal of pleasure from his look of worry. She picked Claire up into her arms. “You’ll have to wait until this afternoon to find out.”

Claire clapped her hands in reply.

“You aren’t taking my daughter anywhere until I know.”

God. She’d never met such a chauvinistic control freak in her life. “Don’t worry, Claire will be perfectly safe.”

***

Jeremy worried as he made his way up into the attic. God knows what that crazy woman had planned for the day. As he worked, he mentally listed all her annoying qualities, and it was an impressive list. She cursed like a man. She dressed like a man. She never fixed her hair or tried to pretty herself up. She just didn’t give a rat’s ass what people thought of her. She was rude, much too forthright, and her accent grated his nerves. However, she did pay well, and her smile—when she smiled—was genuine. There was nothing fake about her. Her desire to do things on her own was annoying as hell, yet she’d been very helpful. In fact, he missed her assistance more than he expected. She was a damned good table saw cutter.

D2D Link

Amazon Link

About the Author

Liza O’Connor lives in Denville, NJ with her dog Jess. They hike in fabulous woods every day, rain or shine, sleet or snow. Having an adventurous nature, she learned to fly small Cessnas in NJ, hang-glide in New Zealand, kayak in Pennsylvania, ski in New York, scuba dive with great white sharks in Australia, dig up dinosaur bones in Montana, sky dive in Indiana, and raft a class four river in Tasmania. She’s an avid gardener, amateur photographer, and dabbler in watercolors and graphic arts. Yet through her entire life, her first love has and always will be writing novels.

Social Links

Click here For ALL Novels by Liza

(There’s over 50 now)

Social Networks 

Facebook    Facebook Author Page   Twitter

LizaO’Connor Blog    Multiverse Blog