Shannon here: Romantic Suspense author, Lisa Phillips shares her inspiration for her latest release, Easy Prey. Comment or answer the question at the end of the post to enter the drawing. Deadline: Oct 3rd, 11:59 pm central time. Here’s Lisa:
Hello there! Thank you for joining me today on Shannon’s blog!
EASY PREY, my fourth book for Harlequin’s Love Inspired Suspense line, is a story about a woman coming home to help her town rebuild their zoo after a recent flood (my third book, Manhunt.) In the story, Elise meets up with an old friend, Jonah—the older brother of her deceased husband—a man she had a crush on for a long time.
But when someone tries to harm her, it becomes clear something at the zoo is not right. Elise descends into the world of exotic animal sales with Jonah by her side to protect her and her son—his nephew.
This story was at times both fun and heart wrenching. Elise is repeatedly attacked by someone trying to kill her and who is harming innocent animals for their own gain, while Jonah is hard at work figuring out who is behind it all.
But my favorite part to write was the interplay between the characters. Jonah and Elise had a long history together as teens before he left to join the marines. Elise grew close to his brother, and the two eventually married. But when Elise’s husband was killed in army action she left town to take a job at an animal sanctuary in Idaho not knowing that she was pregnant. The start of EASY PREY is Elise’s first step back in town, and her first visit back to the zoo she volunteered at as a teen and which she now has the job of rebuilding.
As such, there was a great deal emotionally that both the characters had to work through. Elise’s faith has kept her steady through a lot of hard years, raising a boy now a seventeen year old-almost man. And her faith is what keeps her through the story. Jonah’s journey comes full circle when he sees this in her, and realizes he needs this steadiness through a faith in Christ of his own.
2 Timothy says that even when we are faithless, God is still faithful. It’s His nature. He can’t act in any other way. He proves Himself to us every day without us even asking. We only need to sit up and take notice. God is working in each of our lives, writing the best kind of story in our hearts—the story of His love for us. What a wonderful thing to ‘read’!
About Lisa: Lisa Phillips is a British-born, tea drinking, guitar playing, wife and mom of two and an Airedale puppy.
Lisa favors high-stakes stories of mayhem and disaster where you can find made-for-each-other love that always ends in happily ever after. And she understands that faith is a work-in-progress more exciting than any fiction. Learn more: www.authorlisaphillips.com
About the book – Easy Prey: When she’s attacked by animal traffickers in the zoo she’s been brought on to rehabilitate, Elise Tanner begins to doubt the wisdom of returning home after decades away. Especially because her self-appointed protector is US Marshal Jonah Rivers. Jonah isn’t just the brother of her dead husband. He’s the man who’s consumed her dreams for far too long. Jonah needs to come to terms with Elise’s long-held secrets—including the fact that he’s now uncle to a teenager. But Jonah and Elise have more pressing matters: conquering the dangerous forces around the zoo before they fall victim to them…
Purchase Link: Amazon Easy Prey
Question for Readers: Since Elise and Jonah spend a lot of time with wild animals in EASY PREY, in some cases trapped with them, here’s my question: What kind of WILD animal would you most like to be stuck somewhere with?
Come back Sept 28th for Paula Mowery!
a elephant or monkey! Your book sounds interesting!
Thanks for being here, Lisa. Your story sounds really unique.
Wild animals make me nervous. It would have to be something really docile. Are zebras docile. They always fascinate me for their hair to grow in perfect stripes. Only God could do that especially since no two have the same pattern.
Elephants but only if I could hide up in a tree to observe them. If left alone they seem to be docile but if enraged they can become a deadly enemy.
A chimpanzee would be my choice for a wild animal to be stuck with.
melback at cebridge dot net
You are probably going to think I am crazy but I would choose to be with a skunk. 🙂 See there are two little skunks that live in the wash behind my house. They often sneak onto my deck for cat food and water. We named them Kate and Leopold and they are just darling with big fluffy plumey tails. Silly but yep that’s my choice. Oh as far as I know they don’t stink either. Usually you can smell a skunk coming, but we never smell Kate and Leopold. We only hear them and see them when they are on the deck.
It would really depend on whether it has to be a predatory animal or not. See, I live on the edge of a wilderness area, one of the wildest in my state, so we have lots of wild animals go through our yard. Deer, Elk, Coyotes, Moose, Black Bears, Mountain Lions, Wolves, Grizzly Bears…. Anyway, I would probably rather be stuck with a bunny rabbit, yes, a bunny rabbit because they are smallish and not much of a threat. Unless…. unless you count one of my Alaskan Malamutes as wild because their not-so-distant ancestors were??? Then I would take either my boy because he is big and fluffy and warm or I would take my girl because of her hunter instincts.
Anyway, the book sounds wonderful! I just read Manhunt a couple of months ago and would love to read more about Jonah.
Blessings!
Jasmine
Hee Hee. Such a funny question. I would want to be stuck with a docile creature, of course. Maybe a giraffe. In a large enough enclosure that I wouldn’t have to worry about them falling asleep on me.
I am allergic to all wild and domestic animals so I’m afraid I can’t answer your question.
I have a winner! Kathleen Clark won the drawing. I appreciate Lisa for being my guest and everyone else for stopping by.