Hi, Cynthia! Thank you so much for allowing me to visit your site today! It’s an honor. “Courageous women, honorable men, and a land wild enough to hold them both.” Wow! Great tagline—and great covers. I find your stories to be fascinating and irresistible; I hope your readers might enjoy some of mine!

My tagline is Out of Darkness, Into Hope—Novels of Suspense and Healing. Yeah, that’s a bit of a mashup: suspense and healing? What’s that all about? Well, like many women, I love a happy ending, or the promise of one, so when I first started writing, I was drawn to romance as a genre. I also love reading suspenseful stories, and as I developed my writing skills, I learned I have a strong suspenseful voice. But my stories always took off on their own tangent. My heroines are strong—and flawed, with painful back stories. Likewise for my heroes. They all needed to find healing of some sort. Thus, the mash-up.

So, if you read my stories, you’ll find suspense, excitement, quirky characters, and some twists that might surprise you. They might make you think. And they might stick with you longer than you expect. For instance, here’s the blurb for Unholy Bonds, Book #2 in The Appalachian Foothills series, on sale right now for 99c:

Pilot Lannis Parker has triumphed over her past—or so she thinks. She faces her rapist, then dredges up the courage to bring him to trial, and is relieved to see Robert Davis imprisoned.

But the closure she’d sought is elusive. Resurrected memories invade her life and threaten to splinter her relationship with those she loves most, including Ben, her new husband. Lannis discovers she’s as much a prisoner as Davis, shackled by fear and inextricably bound to him through his crime. Frustrated at her descent into the past, Ben tries to understand, but fails.

Cracks appear in their fledgling marriage, and Lannis becomes desperate to repair the underlying cause. She gradually realizes that healing will come only when she acknowledges Davis’s humanity—not a popular notion, but one she increasingly understands as essential. In a bold move, Lannis meets with Davis in prison—and challenges him to recognize her humanity.

Will Lannis’s gamble free her from that unholy bond and open a path to peace? Can she save her marriage? Or will she lose everything in the process?

Read on for an excerpt:

His. She’d been his.

Robert Davis tapped his index finger in a precise, angry tattoo against the clipboard holding his flight planning charts. He still couldn’t believe it. Not only had she deprived him of his rightful prey, she’d gotten away.

They never got away. Unless he let them. He told himself he’d let them both slip through his fingers tonight, but he knew it was a lie, and the lie infuriated him.

Too bad he didn’t know where she lived. It would be a brash and impulsive move on his part to find her, but he would enjoy exacting some satisfaction for her interference. He discarded the idea as soon as it formed, though. Too risky. He prided himself on his discipline, swiftly decisive once he’d explored problems from all sides, but never hasty.

Distracted, he gave up on planning tomorrow’s flight and conjured the image of her leaping up from the booth at the bar a few hours ago. Her clothing was designed to conceal, but it wasn’t difficult to imagine the flesh beneath. Supple, toned, and slender in the right places. Lush in the others. A little taller than average, maybe five feet six or seven inches, and lean. But for all that promise, she lacked in spirit.

The sleeves of her T-shirt had quivered, telegraphing her distress. Ripples of her fear had lapped against his skin, sparking his stalking instinct in spite of her pathetic attempt to stand up to him, to speak her piece. He snorted. He liked a woman with some fight, not a mousy librarian type. Even so, his blood had thundered hot and eager from his heart into his fingertips and into his loins. The echo of it pulsed even now, a pale shadow of what might have been.

What should have been.

A sharp rap at the door jarred him from his thoughts. He frowned and hit the mute button on the remote bolted to the bedside table. The table, in turn, was bolted to the floor. He’d found the bolts amusing at first, but now everything about this cheap motel irritated him. He should have treated himself to the Galt House, or the Brown Hotel, places he’d receive the treatment he deserved. The ancient television flickered as naked bodies writhed across the silent screen, and he paid them little attention. Neither the low-budget porn nor his potent imagination replaced the reality that had been stolen from him.

He unfolded his six-foot-four-inch frame and stretched, in no rush to answer the door. No one in Louisville, Kentucky, knew him, except for the woman who’d ruined his evening. And the last thing she’d do was track him down. Nope. Pure pleasure flickered at the memory of her terror, but a surge of anger extinguished it. She’d derailed his hunt. His jaw tightened at the unfairness of it, and he swung the door open without stooping to look through the peephole.

It’s me again. I really enjoyed writing this book. The seeds were planted many years ago as I watched the Republic of South Africa abolish apartheid under Nelson Mandella—and then undergo a radical process called Restorative Justice through the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. The idea for the book sprouted as I watched responses to atrocities and tragedies through the years. People largely fell into the category of “I hope they burn in hell,” regarding the perpetrators of violence upon their loved ones—or a few managed to find a way past their bitterness and learn that forgiveness allows one to let of the burden of grudges and move on. Find healing. That’s the choice Lannis makes in Unholy Bonds. The book chronicles her journey. To be honest, it was a challenge to write. It was more technically advanced than anything I had attempted up until then, plus, I had no idea how I was going to get the characters to the end that I envisioned. So I did what I had to: I dove in and gave it my best shot. It took time, sweat, and prayers, but I think it turned out pretty well. I hope you consider giving Unholy Bonds a try; I suspect you might enjoy it.

Again, Cynthia, thank you for letting me visit with you and your readers today! It’s been a joy!

*Check out my website www.leslielynch.com for my other books; if you are an audiobook aficionado, several are available in audio format!

Award winning and Best Selling author Leslie Lynch gives voice to characters who struggle to find healing for their brokenness—and discover unconventional solutions to life’s unexpected twists.

Leslie lives near Louisville, Kentucky, with her husband and a rescued cat.  While not engaged in wrestling the beautiful and prolific greenery of their yard into submission, she flies light aircraft, loves the exuberant creativity and color of quilting and pottery…and, of course, writes.

You can find her at www.leslielynch.com, on Facebook at LeslieLynchWrites, on Pinterest at Leslie Lynch, and on Twitter @Leslie_Lynch_