Midnight Train to Paris by Juliette Sobanet (Guest Post/Giveaway)

Today I would like to welcome Juliette Sobanet who is joining us for her release of  MIDNIGHT TRAIN TO PARIS. ☺

Thanks so much for having me, Crystal! Today we’re celebrating release of Episode 7 of my Kindle Serial novel, Midnight Train to Paris, and I’m thrilled to share this story with all of your fabulous readers here at Reading Between the Wines Book Club!

First, a little more about the book:

When hard-hitting DC reporter Jillian Chambord learns that her twin sister, Isla, has been abducted from a luxury train traveling through the Alps, not even the threat of losing her coveted position at The Washington Daily can stop her from hopping on the next flight to France. Never mind the fact that Samuel Kelly--the sexy former CIA agent who Jillian has sworn off forever--has been assigned as the lead investigator in the case.
When Jillian and Samuel arrive in the Alps, they soon learn that their midnight train isn't leading them to Isla, but has taken them back in time to 1937, to a night when another young woman was abducted from the same Orient Express train. Given a chance to save both women, Jillian and Samuel are unprepared for what they discover on the train that night, for the sparks that fly between them...and for what they'll have to do to keep each other alive.

Midnight Train to Paris is a magical and suspenseful exploration of just how far we will go to save the ones we love.

The opening scene for Midnight Train to Paris came to me last summer while I was walking on the beach in San Diego. There is a train that runs up and down the coast—aptly named The Coaster. As it rambled past, whistle blowing, I envisioned a glamorous young woman, perhaps a woman from the 1920s or 1930s, holding her vintage suitcase and boarding a late-night train. She was running from something, or someone, and I knew that the train would be magical and would possibly transport its passengers forward or backward in time.

I kept this seed of an idea in the back of my mind for several months until one day my publisher asked me to write a Kindle Serial—a novel which is released in episodes, leaving you on a cliff-hanger each week—and I knew it was time to bring my Midnight Train story to life. Since I am totally in love with France and base all of my books in there, I took that late night train to the French Alps, and Midnight Train to Paris was born.

Episode 7 of Midnight Train to Paris is out today, and I am so excited to hear what my readers think of the story as we near the end!Next Tuesday, June 18th, when the final episode comes out, the book will release as a full-length novel in print and e-book, and it will then be available for all of my wonderful readers abroad on Amazon UK, France, Germany, and all other Amazon sites.
If you’d like to board the midnight train to 1930s Paris, here is a sneak peek of that opening scene…

Prologue

December 24, 1937
Lausanne, Switzerland

Rosie Delaney stood on the empty platform, gripping the handle of her cherry-red suitcase with ice-cold fingers. She desperately wished that she’d remembered her gloves.

Thick, heavy snowflakes poured from the black winter sky, dusting the tracks in an eerie white glow. Save for the giant clock ticking overhead, the silence in the Swiss train station that night was deafening to Rosie’s ears, which had never been so alert.

Despite her nerves, Rosie was certain she’d covered her tracks well. She’d put on quite the show with Alexandre before slipping out of the annual Morel Holiday Gala unnoticed. She’d even resisted the overwhelming urge to say good-bye to the one person she would miss.

Her mother.

Swallowing the lump in her throat, Rosie thought of the lovely sights of Paris and the even lovelier man who would be waiting for her there, in her favorite city, in only a few short hours.

Jacques Chambord.

She’d made the right choice.

Of course she had.

She’d left behind a closet full of shimmering evening gowns, fur coats, jewels, and high heels. Her meager suitcase contained only a few changes of her most practical, modest clothes and a box of letters.

Those letters meant more to her than any jewel-studded closet ever could.

Running her thumb over the newly bare skin on her ring finger, Rosie remembered how suffocating Alexandre’s elaborate diamond ring had felt on her left hand. And it wasn’t only the ring that had been suffocating.

The memory of him made her forget how to breathe.

If only the train would get here.

A nervous glance at the clock revealed that it was 11:37 P.M.

They would surely be wondering where she had gone by now. She could almost see Alexandre’s dark furrowed eyebrows, his beady brown eyes combing the party, searching for his fiancée, his trésor, his poupée.

Rosie was finished being Alexandre’s treasure, his doll.

She was finished keeping him and his elitist, power-hungry family happy.

A train whistle thundered through the night, and adrenaline shot through Rosie’s veins as she glimpsed the steam locomotive barreling down the snow-covered tracks.

Only one word soared through Rosie’s mind at the sight of the Orient Express on that snowy winter night in the Swiss Alps.

Freedom.

Juliette Sobanet bio:

Juliette Sobanet earned a B.A. from Georgetown University and an M.A. from New York University in France, living and studying in both Lyon and Paris. She worked as a French professor before turning a new page in her career, penning romantic women’s fiction with a French twist. She is the author of Sleeping with Paris, Kissed in Paris, Midnight Train to Paris and the upcoming novelsDancing with Parisand Honeymoon in Paris. Today she lives with her husband and two cats in San Diego, where she devotes her time to writing and dreaming about her next trip to France. You can find her on her website, Twitter, or Facebook.

Website - Twitter - Facebook
Midnight Train to Paris on Amazon

~*GIVEAWAY*~

Juliette is giving away a Kindle copy of Midnight Train to Paris to two readers as well as a signed print book to one reader. (US only, please see terms & conditions at the bottom of the Rafflecopter. ) To enter, just leave a question or comment for the author on this post and then fill out the rafflecopter below. Good luck!

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