Graduate assistant and guy-on-the-side, Sean Richards wants Izzy to leave her sleazy husband. If she would only get away from that crook, he's convinced that he can bring out the better woman who exists beneath Izzy's tough sex siren exterior. He adores his hot blooded Latina and will do her bidding -- up to a point. Despite the mind blowing sex, he can't and won't murder for her.
As Izzy's nosy parker friend and colleague doggedly follows an obscure trail of clues about the department chair's death, Izzy is forced to choose between reverting to the ways of her unredeemable father--or becoming the extraordinary woman she sees in Sean's loving eyes.
Reviews for Desire and Deception
"Sharon Buchbinder writes a top-notch mystery that is hot! Sizzling hot! A genuinely exciting and sexually suspenseful mystery, Buchbinder delivers in her debut novel. Fast-moving with twists even a seasoned Mystery Reader won't see coming." -- Award-winning Romantic Suspense author Mary Buckham
"Begin with a pair of stone cold killers, stir in the angst associated with the publish-or-perish mentality of a major university, and spice it up with two lovers struggling to mix personal with professional. In Desire and Deception, this aptly named book takes the reader on a wild ride, cleverly weaving highly sexual scenes with gut-crunching deception, and doesn't let up till the very last page. I could not put this one down. Ms. Buchbinder has a winner on her hands. Brava!" -- Kat Henry Doran, author of Captain Marvelous and Try Just Once More
Read an excerpt from Desire and Deception
Visit Sharon Buchbinder's web site
Visit Sharon's Blog
About Sharon Buchbinder
I have always been a story teller. As a child, I got into a lot of trouble for "making things up." Now, I get rewarded for making things up. I love being able create heroes and heroines that people can relate to--even crazy cat ladies, as I did with CATASTROPHE, my first publication with The Wild Rose Press (WRP). I've been writing fiction since I was in middle school and have the rejection slips to prove it. In high school, I even submitted a script to "The Man from U.N.C.L.E." on yellow-lined paper in pencil. Not surprisingly, that was rejected, too.
After I graduated with a BA in Psychology and no job, I realized my dreams of working in the attic writing great prose would have to take a back seat to the simple pleasures of eating, drinking, and having a roof over my head. Fast forward a few decades, and I had a career path that would make all but the kindest say, "What were you thinking?" After working in health care delivery for years, I became a researcher, then an academic. I had it all-- a terrific, supportive husband, an amazing son, and a wonderful job. But that itch to write (some call it obsession), kept beckoning me to "come on back" to writing fiction. In the summer of 2004, I spent one whole month away from Baltimore in Florida doing nothing but writing fiction. The resulting effort was the first of many drafts of my first novel, which is now hidden away in a deep, dark drawer. The good news is that first novel taught me what not to do, and my second novel was so much better -- because I had made all those mistakes in the first one.
As an academic, I published numerous non-fiction articles and two textbooks, however, I found the road to publication in fiction to be much harder. After I published some short stories in horror and mystery, my friend, Rosemary Ellen Guileyrecommended that I join the Maryland Romance Writers (MRW). I became a member in 2005 and found friendship, support and the opportunity to develop as an author with MRW and the Romance Writers of America(RWA). Since romance has over a dozen sub-genres, I was able to turn my fascination with horror and mystery into paranormal romance and romantic suspense. I was home.
Back list
Bonded for Life Kiss of the Silver Wolf An Inn Decent Proposal
Enter Sharon's Drawing @ TRS
An Interview with Sharon Buchbinder
By Holly Hewson for The Romance Studio
HH: Sharon, thank you for talking with us at TRS BLUE. Your featured book is Desire and Deception and published by Red Sage. What can you tell us about this sizzling tale?SB: Thank you for having me. I'm delighted to be here.
Desire and Deception is the story of a driven woman who deceives her boss, her best friend, her lover -- and most of all herself in search of her desires.
Isabel (Izzy) Ramirez and Sarah Wright-Rosen are newly appointed assistant professors working toward tenure in the same department. They bond over their desire for promotion and make a pact to help each other advance their careers.
Driven by voracious desires -- ambition and lust -- Izzy‘s house of cards is threatened when the department chair confronts her about her transgressions. Used to getting her own way, Izzy isn't about to let her boss expose her deceptions.
When Sarah fishes her department chair out of the Florida waters on her overdue honeymoon, she insists on initiating her own investigation -- despite her husband's objections, the possibility of career suicide, and her ticking biological clock.
A trail of clues leads Sarah outside her dean's door -- and inside Izzy's home. Sarah is forced to choose between her husband, her friend, her career, and her integrity -- and it seems as if no one will come out a winner.
HH: What do you like best about Izzy and why will readers relate to her? SB: Izzy is the larger than life embodiment of all that is forbidden to "good girls": she embraces her sexuality and desires and takes control of her life and the men in it -- and pleases herself.
HH: What do you like best about Sean and why will readers love him? SB: Sean loves Izzy unconditionally -- and is the only man who has ever truly loved her for more than just her sexuality. With him, Izzy discovers the redemptive power of true love and realizes that she can change, despite her horrific past.
HH: What challenge is there for an author when one of the characters is already married to someone else? SB: In this story, I had to show that there were reasons for Izzy's man-eating behavior -- and for cheating on her husband. Her sexual appetite is driven by her need to be accepted and loved--not for who she is, but for who she can become. Tomas is a good-looking thug who worked for Izzy's crime boss father and saw an opportunity to marry into a wealthy crime family. Izzy fell for him -- but soon found herself searching for fulfillment outside of her marriage. Let's just say, Tomas has his dirty little secrets, too.
HH: What can you tell us about writing for Red Sage? SB: In writing Desire and Deception, I wanted to tell a sexy suspenseful tale about smart, powerful women and the men who love them. I wrote about society's expectations of what a woman should be versus what a woman wants to be. And since the standing advice to writers is to "write what you know," I then placed these characters into the setting of a rigidly hierarchical academic world where tenure and promotion are the duo brass rings. With Isabel and Sarah chattering at me the entire time, Desire and Deception is a story that practically wrote itself.
The only problem I had with the book was getting an agent, editor or publisher to give it a read because it had "too much sex" in it. "Seriously?" I asked, "Too much sex?" I couldn't take it out. The sex was integral to the telling of the tale. Isabel is a man eating sex goddess on the prowl and Sarah is a newlywed trying to get pregnant. Hello? Sex, anyone? I was not taking it out. Then at the suggestion of another romance writer and friend, I attended the Red Sage Publishing session at Romance Writers of America. After the session, I introduced myself to Alexandria Kendall, CEO, Red Sage Publications, and said, "I have this book--but everyone tells me it has too much sex." Alexandria's eyes lit up and she said, "Send it to me!" I am delighted that Red Sage gave my story a chance and that Isabel, Sarah, Sean, Dan and all the other characters finally have a home. I hope readers enjoy the story--and the sex!
HH: What else do you have in the works? SB: I'm working on a paranormal romantic suspense novel, the sequel to Desire and Deception. In Desire and Obsession, a recovering addict must team up with a Mexican drug lord to rescue her year-old son from the clutches of a cult leader who believes the child is the Chosen One. One of my critique partners dubbed it Religious Zealots versus Mexican Drug Cartels.
HH: What do you enjoy most about the writing itself?
SB: I enjoy the opportunity to create new worlds populated with interesting characters who have exciting adventures. I also enjoy entertaining readers and moving them to laughter, anxiety, suspense, tears and the sigh of a satisfying ending.
HH: What advice would you give to aspiring writers today?
SB: Tell the story of your heart. Write, revise, write, revise -- and find good critique partners.
HH: What are you reading right now? SB: I have four books going right now -- most related to research for another novel that I'm working on, Kiss of the Virgin Queen, which is the sequel to Kiss of the Silver Wolf. I'm almost done with Wisdom's Daughter by India Edgehill, have just started Living with Djinns by Barbara Drieskens and have just finished Warrior Queens by Antonia Fraser and Sheba by Nicholas Clapp.
HH: Any fun plans for the summer? SB: I'm attending Romance Writers of America in New York City the end of June and beginning of July. And, we'll probably get some time in at our second home in Punta Gorda, Florida -- which inspired a number of scenes in Desire and Deception.
HH: Thank you!
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