When Sloane Drake learns her best friend Leigh has gone missing in Boston, she expects the worst. She and the rest of the ex-assassins go after Leigh to discover her whereabouts. No one’s seen her, not even Axel Whitman, the arrogant rich boy who used to be Leigh’s best friend.
Sloane has always stuck to the shadows. She’s not flashy, she doesn’t take charge, and no one notices her. But when everyone else disappears as well, she’s left on her own. She’s got to find where the others have been taken, and she’s got to rescue them.
Axel wants to help. He’s a careless playboy who owns a burlesque gentleman’s club and usually spends his nights snorting cocaine or screwing anything in a skirt. Helping Sloane is dangerous and exciting, and he can’t get enough of it. Furthermore, he can’t get enough of Sloane herself.
Sloane knows that Axel is getting in the way of her mission. He distracts her with trivialities when she should be focusing on freeing her friends. But being with Axel makes her feel like she’s been pulled from the shadows into the light. She’s never been so… noticed.
So… that’s right, all. Sloane’s love interest is AXEL!!!
Why? Because he’s Chuck Bass.
I mean, he’s not exactly Chuck Bass, but he’s very Chuck-Bass-influenced. A heck of a lot.
When I first wrote Slow Burn, and I created Axel, I knew right away that I wanted to tell that boy’s story. I thought it would be really fun to make him the love interest in a novel. He was such a delightful bad boy, and I was swept away by that idea.
But for a long time I was stumped about how to do it, because he didn’t seem to fit into the Assassins world. He was so urbane and sophisticated, and they were so gritty and bloody and angsty. I couldn’t figure how I was going to merge those worlds.
But I knew I wanted him to fall in love, and I knew I had Sloane to write, so I spent months and months thinking about how the heck this was going to work. At first, I kept coming up with ideas to get Axel to West Virginia, like maybe he’d come ask Leigh for help, or maybe he’d somehow know about Dewhurst-McFarland, or… I wasn’t sure. And what I didn’t like about all those ideas was that they took Axel out of his element, and I needed him to be in his slick, suave world in order to be as sexy as he was.
Anyway, I was watching an episode of The Vampire Diaries (ain’t that always the way), and Elena and Damon had been captured and were locked up someplace, and I thought… that’s it. If everyone gets captured except Sloane, and if she’s somehow only got Axel to turn to, that’s how I’ll do it.
So… here we are. Keep your eyes peeled, because I’m getting ready to upload this puppy right now, so it will probably be available by tomorrow morning. As usual, if you want to know the second it’s out, please subscribe to my email list. (upper right corner)
And finally, for your viewing pleasure: