A businesswoman desperate to achieve her dream.
Wine seller Christina Alvarez Mancini told one little lie—to reassure wealthy clients, she invented a suave British boss. With her ultimate dream, a winery of her own, close to becoming reality, she can't allow irregularities at a highend wine auction to jeopardize her reputation.
A con man in love with a good plan.
Stig needs money, fast. An immortal Viking thief who discovered the perfect role as a fictional wine merchant, he's days away from the big payoff. Even if the California woman who created his character realizes a real person is conducting business in London, he'll disappear. That's what he does best.
Secrets that turn deadly.
Stig has success in his sights when Christina walks into his auction preview, ready to ruin his plan. Experience tells Stig to cut and run; a thousand years of boredom compel him to flirt. And when deadly Vikings from Stig's past crash the party, Christina and Stig are forced to cooperate in order to escape. Yet everywhere they flee, it's these two rivals' own lies that set the greatest traps…
I received this book for free from Gifted in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
The Second Lie is a story about Christina who has to lie about who she is. She lies in order to be able to do what she loves. Wine is her love. The older and most expensive the better. It is almost impossible for a young woman, or a woman in general to be in the field. In order for her to work in the field she creates a business partner. A partner who just happens to show up at an art show. Yup, her imaginary partner becomes very visible and she knows that something is up. How would you not know right?
When she learns just who her exotic and very attractive business partner is, she wants to go back in time. Why can’t he be just a figment of her imagination and a name on her website? Obviously, if they just fell in love and lived happily ever after there wouldn’t be much of a story. The fact that he is not only immortal, but why is one of the reasons I like this book. The author takes a legendary myth and uses it to create a world.
I grew up on the Beowulf myth, and so to read about how it may have been is wonderful. The way the author twists the story just slightly is really smart and well worth the read. She takes a legend that essentially has an ending and tweaks it slightly. This tweaking really makes the story, and likely the entire series one worth reading. Yes there is a little of that nauseating romance book feel to it, but I easily pushed that aside for the retelling of Beowulf.
This is the second book in the series, and I did not read the first one I am sure that there is some small details that I don’t know. I don’t know how much of it made a difference because the author was really good at giving information. Yes, there was a wedding of some sort in the first one, maybe. It didn’t seem like a lot was missing, and I am glad that she gave the information she did so the reader feels like they are part of the world.
About Anna Richland
Anna lives with her quietly funny Canadian husband and two less quiet children in a century-old house in Seattle. She writes paranormal romantic suspense and award-winning military romance in the spaces left after dealing with kids, laundry, crazy volunteer commitments and internet distractions.
Her lifelong passion for new places (and a need to pay tuition) led her to become an army officer en route to visiting four continents and twenty-two countries. Now the places she goes are more likely to be field trips than trips to the field, but it's still fun.
