A Cunning Plan by Astrid Arditi (spotlight, excerpt, review and GIVEAWAY) GFT

A Cunning Plan

by Astrid Arditi

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GENRE: Romantic suspense

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BLURB:

Determined to put her family back together, Sloane Harper stalks her ex-husband and his annoyingly stunning mistress, Kate Stappleton. But she’s not the only one.

Handsome IRS agent Ethan Cunning is surveying Kate too, but for entirely different reasons. He is attempting to nail Kate’s playboy boss.

Ethan and Sloane decide to help each other, which sends Sloane’s wobbly life spinning out of control. She’ll have to face danger, humiliation, and – scariest of all – the dating scene, to lure her daughters’ father home.

Losing control was the best thing to happen to Sloane…until it turned lethal.

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EXCERPT

So far, I have spent more than ten hours this week parked on the exact same street, in front of the exact same building, staking out my husband’s mistress. To be exact, Tom was my ex-husband now, but I was pretty sure he was still my husband when Katherine Stappleton started screwing him.

A sideways glance confirmed Claudia’s eyelids had finally closed, and I sighed in relief. If I had to listen to one more minute of heavy metal, I would hurl myself or my housekeeper extraordinaire out of the car window.

I shot my hand toward the Mini Austin’s radio. But just as the angry voices faded in favor of a monotonous radio show, Claudia’s hand lashed out and slapped my wrist away.

“Go back. I love that song.”

“But I don’t understand Polish,” I said with a pout.

“It’s music, you don’t need to understand it,” she countered, her eyes still closed.

My teeth hurt from the loud screeching she called music. I considered looking for Magic FM again, but Claudia read my mind first. She snapped open one fierce blue eye.

“Don’t,” she warned.

Heavy metal music wasn’t nearly bad enough to risk incurring Claudia’s wrath and chancing her leaving. Listening to any kind of music with her definitely beat sitting in the car alone.

I gave a last, longing stare at the radio then turned my attention to the dashboard’s digital clock. It was 3:43 p.m. according to the flashing orange numbers. Sighing, I thought again of how much time I’d spent here.

The details of my husband’s ‘infidelity’ mattered; they changed the way one perceived things. On one side, you had my ex’s new girlfriend, and on the other, the tramp who stole my husband. Doesn’t have the same ring to it, right?

The same way if you asked Katherine Stappleton, she might have described my endeavor as ‘stalking’ rather than ‘staking out’. If she knew I was hiding in front of her work place, that is, and I was extremely careful not be noticed. Plus, I never left the car or followed her home - the definition of stalking. Legally speaking, I was in the clear. I’d checked on Yahoo Answers.

BUY LINKS

My apologies, I was misinformed about the price change during the tour! Please always check prices before you click.

Amazon US
Amazon UK
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Kobo

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AUTHOR Bio and Links:

Astrid Arditi was born from a French father and Swedish mother. She lived in Paris and Rome before moving to London with her husband and daughter back in 2013. 

After dabbling in journalism, interning at Glamour magazine, and teaching kindergarten, Arditi returned to her first love: writing.

She now splits her time between raising her kids (a brand new baby boy just joined the family) and making up stories.


A Cunning Plan is Arditi's first published work.


CONTACT INFO

I blog at www.astridarditi.com
Facebook
Twitter @astrid_arditi


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GIVEAWAY

a Rafflecopter giveaway

The tour dates can be found here

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My review:

3.75 out of 5 stars

A Cunning Plan by Astrid Arditi is the first story in the ‘Sloane Harper’ series and follows her as she tries to cope with her husband’s betrayal and searches for a way to get him away from his mistress. A mysterious man, Ethan Cunning, tries to convince her to assist him in an investigation, and their odd connection complicates her life even more. Can her quirky best friend pseudo-housekeeper, her less-than-demonstrative mother, or her husband give her a reason to move forward or is she will she get what she thinks she truly wants?

This contemporary story blends wry humor with suspense and adds a bit of soul searching, character growth, and romance. The wacky situations Sloane gets herself into become almost slapstick and the gradually unfolding mystery highlights her naivete, resilience, and allure for those around her. I love the entertaining situations and adored the children but I wasn’t so fond of either of the main characters because their vacillation was frustrating to me and the ending wasn’t as defined as I would like, although I presume that things will pick up again in the sequel. Those in search of an amusing lighthearted mystery will undoubtedly enjoy the madcap adventures of Sloane Harper.

A copy of this title was provided to me for review