“I met the boy I wanted. But then he vanished and a new man claimed me instead. My father approved, my colleagues congratulated, and behind closed doors, I was bedded by a stranger.”
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Crown of Lies
Truth and Lies Duet – Book 1
By Pepper Winters
Buy: Amazon / Amazon UK / B & N / IBooks / Kobo
Synopsis
“I met the man I wanted. But then he vanished, and a new man claimed me instead. My father approved, my colleagues congratulated, and behind closed doors, I was bedded by a stranger.”
Noelle Charlston lives a fairy-tale life: a doting father, a powerful job, and a future blessed with financial security.
However, two meetings with two men changes her happy existence forever. First, she meets the man who makes her heart sing. Three years later, she meets the man who makes her blood quiver.
Broken-hearted from a teenage romance, Noelle’s freedom is no longer hers. It belongs to the stranger her father believes is her perfect match. The stranger who pulls his lies over everyone he touches.
Including her.
Seduced and manipulated, Noelle gives into the mysterious Penn Everett. The lies he spins, the truth he hides, the mystery he weaves—it’s all enough to slowly erode the woman she is and turn her into something else.
Until her past collides with her present.
And it’s her turn to lie.
To everyone…including herself.
Michel’s Review
Crown of Lies is the latest release by Pepper Winters.
In true Pepper Winters style, this book is a complicated, intricately executed story where words are chosen with conscious precision to add multiple layers to the complex characters and their evolving story. Each passage is delivered in perfect synchronicity that challenges the reader’s perceptions of the characters and the direction of the story itself. Her thought process and brilliant use of the English language give the readers more than a story, it gives them a dynamic reading experience that not only involves the mind but also engages all the senses. The reader becomes a participant rather than an observer. The slow burn of sexual tension to explosive passion is only a small fraction of what is happening between the complex characters. The true chemistry comes from their psychological sparring and foreplay. It is a battle of wills fighting against the battle within oneself. There are no dividing lines between right and wrong, black and white, or good and bad. It is all a part of the intricate puzzle that is completed with the last word.
The first sentence had me hook, line, and sinker….
“IN EVERY GIRL’S LIFE, there is betrayal.
“Betrayal from loved ones, unknown ones, and from the ones we choose to make our own. However, where there’s deceit, there’s trust, too. And sometimes, those two things camouflage themselves to mimic the other.”
Retail heiress, Elle Charleston, has been groomed to become one of the most powerful women in the United State. Her throne is the Belle Elle retail chain. She spent her childhood reading ledgers and spreadsheets rather than chasing fairytales. Instead of playing dress up with dolls, she dressed mannequins and window displays. She chose clothes for real women rather than Barbie dolls. She was the princess in a world of merchandise rather than an ivory tower. Her seclusion in a corporate world stole her childhood. She became socially awkward unless she was in a business environment. Her contorted perceptions, and social inadequacies were at war with a young girl yearning to experience the real world.
On her nineteenth birthday the desires of a young girl won the battle over the carefully groomed future CEO. The naive princess stepped out of her gilded castle to explore the kingdom known as New York City. She had been prepared to complete multi – million dollar deals but she was not prepared to navigate the streets. What happened the night she stepped out of her gilded prison would change her life and her perceptions of her carefully orchestrated life.
What starts as a celebration turns into a night of violence and paralyzing fear. Her knight in shining armor is a mysterious young man in a hoodie. A young man that is different from any person she has met in her world. Four simple words changed her world. “ Do you trust me?”. Those four simple words led her to adventure, her first kiss, and ultimately a broken heart. It was a night where the boy of her dreams vanished before the sun began to rise. Her unrealistic dreams were forever lost.
Three years later Elle is a completely different woman. She has succumbed to her prison. She takes her position as a prisoner, other wise known as CEO of Belle Elle, with great pride. She knows her strengths in the business world and the power she carries along with it. She has turned her back on the naïve young girl with grand ideas of romance and love. She no longer believes in romance and love. She no longer puts her blind trust in the hands of others. She has resigned herself to the life she was groomed to rule. In a sense she has betrayed her younger self.
Two men are vying for her attention. One has been groomed to become her husband and partner in business. The other is a repulsive man shrouded in mystery and deceit. One makes her blood boil in many ways. The other makes her soul recoil in everyway. The choices are hers to make. Is she willing to take chances with her perfectly synchronized life? Is she ready to step out of her gilded cage and become free at last?
“IN EVERY GIRL’S LIFE, there is betrayal.”
CLIFFHANGER… IN TRUE PEPPER WINTERS BRILLIANCE!
The reader is left with so many questions,. There are so many intricately woven lies that the truth is hiding within the pages and carefully chosen words. It will all be revealed in the Throne of Truth on February 28th, 2017.
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Pepper Winters wears many roles. Some of them include writer, reader, sometimes wife. She loves dark, taboo stories that twist with your head. The more tortured the hero, the better, and she constantly thinks up ways to break and fix her characters. Oh, and sex… her books have sex.
She loves to travel and has an amazing, fabulous hubby who puts up with her love affair with her book boyfriends.
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