Current Works and Events

Greetings to all you lovely readers!

Today was my birthday (which is not normally a matter for cheering), but I did receive a particularly lovely surprise in the mail. My sexy romantic suspense, THE RUSSIAN SEDUCTION, has finalled in the River City Romance Writers Duel on the Delta contest! It was particularly pleasant since this is not only the first contest in which I’ve entered this particular story, but the first contemporary romantic suspense I’ve written. I entered a few contests primarily to get feedback from within the romance industry on this rather exotic bird of mine. And was frankly delighted to find the feedback so positive!

Interesting also that the aspects of the story I expected to be “misunderstood” actually went over pretty well. The judges seemed to like my storyline of Russia-Ukraine at war, and seemed to like my very alpha, chain-smoking Russian hero. Now the final round will be judged by Keyren Gerlach, an associate editor at Silhouette Romantic Suspense!

If interested, you can find out more about the contest at http://rivercityromancewriters.org/duel.html I’ll keep you posted on how it turns out!

Cheers,
Xenia

Set in the cosmopolitan world of modern-day Moscow, THE RUSSIAN SEDUCTION is a sexy romantic suspense of 80,000 words. When a hard-line Russian leader invades a neighboring democracy the U.S. has sworn to defend, war can only be avoided by a risky back-channel liaison between a renegade Russian submarine captain and an ambitious, by-the-book American diplomat —- the forbidden woman he’s aching to seduce.

Captain First Rank Victor Kostenko was the golden boy of the Russian Navy, a submarine commander with a maverick image, until he lost his command for an act of treason he didn’t commit. Arrogant and aggressive, he’s also savvy and super-smart —- which is why he made captain despite the drawback of his Ukrainian ancestry. The captain pairs his daunting reputation with an appetite for adventure, and he’s never met a rule he won’t break.

The Russian intel agencies exploit the renegade captain’s skills, but Victor wants out of the spy business. He’s determined to clear his name and restore the reputation of his father —- a senior officer who was killed while trying to defect, or so they claim. Tarred by his father’s treason, Victor’s reputation was destroyed. Now it’s rumored he’ll do anything to get back in his government’s good graces.

Political Counselor Alexis Castle is the highest-ranking woman at the U.S. Embassy, a rising star who yearns to live up to her father’s legacy as a legendary ambassador. Brilliant and driven, she’s earned her recent promotion the hard way: logging twelve-hour days at four overseas posts. Yet it’s whispered she owes her advancement not to her own merits, but to her prestigious father and her ex-husband —- another senior U.S. diplomat. Determined to prove her value, Alexis ALWAYS plays by the rules. She’d torpedo her career for sure if she falls for one of the world’s most dangerous men —- a bad-boy Russian sub captain who breaks every rule in the book.

All her life, Alexis has executed her duties like a shiny robot performing safely within parameters, her needles and gauges never swinging to the red. When sexy adventure junkie Victor switches on the rest of her, the attraction between them short-circuits the whole damn system. Add to the program the input that: 1) both are coming off difficult divorces from spouses who betrayed them, 2) the Russians declared her predecessor “persona non grata” for seducing the woman Victor’s just replaced, and 3) she’s been warned the pissed-off Russians might target Alexis for the payback —- and the output equals trouble.

THE RUSSIAN SEDUCTION is Xenia’s current work-in-progress. The story has been workshopped at the Stonecoast MFA program and is currently entered in several RWA-sponsored contests. Check back with the blog regularly for updates on THE RUSSIAN SEDUCTION! The first chapters will be posted soon for an “exclusive peek” by interested readers at www.XeniaNavarre.com