New Book: Gamble

Hello everyone,

Today, it gives me great pleasure to host Staci Troilo on the release of her latest book, GAMBLE. This is the second book in her Nightforce Security Series. I read the first one, PASSWORD, and thoroughly enjoyed it. I’ll be checking out this latest installment too 🙂

Take it away, Staci!  …

Hi, everybody. Thanks for letting me visit today. I promise I’ll be quick.

Most men I know (and even many women) kind of turn up their noses at romance novels. Maybe they’re picturing the old bodice-rippers of the past where the heroine wasn’t a hero at all, but rather was a damsel in distress waiting with breathless anticipation for someone to rescue her.

Those kinds of novels probably still exist. I neither read them nor write them, so I can’t be sure.

Back in 1987, Congress declared March as National Women’s History Month (in perpetuity). Given that fact as well as the #MeToo movement and all the abuses coming to light, I want to talk about strong women—like the women in my work. Specifically Daphne, the heroine of Gamble.

In most romances, and certainly in mine, the heroines are strong, smart, capable women who don’t need men to solve their problems. (That doesn’t mean the guys aren’t going to try, or even succeed, in helping. It just means they aren’t necessary.) I don’t know what you’re picturing, but I can assure you these aren’t ladies born into royal families or who have servants to take care of trivial details while they sit on the boards of multinational conglomerates and spend mornings in bed and afternoons at the spa.

My heroines are a bit more relatable than that. They have problems at work, they worry about unexpected expenses, they pay their own ways—even when the cost is steep. They have pride in themselves and their families, and they aren’t afraid to stand up for what’s right. They have the same types of insecurities and flaws as everybody else, and they struggle to overcome them just like the rest of us. They’re realistic. They’re also strong, passionate, and persevering. Probably like a lot of women you already know.

I’m partial to Gamble’s Daphne because we meet her at the pinnacle of a bad day. She looks awful, feels worse, and has every right to wallow in her misfortunes. Instead, she seizes an opportunity to make herself feel better. She solves the problem. Maybe it’s better to say she takes action, because in true “terrible day” fashion, she initially makes things worse.

But that’s okay. Daph’s a fighter. And the action she took that made her day spectacularly bad may, in the end, actually be to her benefit. Either way, the choice was hers. She didn’t wait for or expect someone to come to her rescue. She took charge.

And that’s why I like this character. She might not be an alpha male, but she’s definitely a hero.

Blurb for Gamble:

Sometimes stakes are too high to gamble. Other times they’re too high not to.

Noah Crawford is a consummate bachelor—until a one-night stand piques his interest in something more. The only problem is, she wouldn’t give him her name, and he has no way to find her.

A week later, resigned to forgetting her, he accompanies his friends to a casino. Floor traffic promises to be light while everyone clusters at the sportsbook for the college basketball championship game. But Noah isn’t in the mood for frivolity and sets off on his own. No one is more surprised than he is when he bumps into his mystery woman.

He’s playing a far different game than cards when armed criminals take over the poker room. Noah is separated from his friends, and somehow the room has been cut off from security. Help

 isn’t coming. It’s up to him to keep everyone safe while he tries to thwart the gunmen.

Noah quickly realizes he’s trying to prevent more than a simple heist. And he doesn’t know who he can trust. The stakes have never been higher, and he’s all in. But one of the

thieves might have an ace up his sleeve, and that could cost Noah everything.

More Information | Universal Purchase Link

About Staci:

Staci Troilo writes because she has hundreds of stories in her head. She publishes because people told her she should share them. She’s a multi-genre author whose love for writing is only surpassed by her love for family and friends, and that relationship-centric focus is featured in her work.

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