Cover Reveal: Burning Embers by Hannah Fielding
Burning Embers by Hannah Fielding
Blurb
Coral Sinclair is a beautiful but naïve twenty-five-year-old photographer who has just lost her father.
She's leaving the life she's known and traveling to Kenya to take ownership of her inheritance – the
plantation that was her childhood home – Mpingo. On the voyage from England, Coral meets an
enigmatic stranger to whom she has a mystifying attraction. She sees him again days later on the
beach near Mpingo, but Coral's childhood nanny tells her the man is not to be trusted. It is rumored
that Rafe de Monfort, owner of a neighboring plantation and a nightclub, is a notorious womanizer
having an affair with her stepmother, which may have contributed to her father's death.
Circumstance confirms Coral's worst suspicions, but when Rafe's life is in danger she is driven to
make peace. A tentative romance blossoms amidst a meddling ex-fiancé, a jealous stepmother, a car
accident, and the dangerous wilderness of Africa. Is Rafe just toying with a young woman's
affections? Is the notorious womanizer only after Coral's inheritance? Or does Rafe's troubled past
color his every move, making him more vulnerable than Coral could ever imagine?
Excerpt
Though the afternoon sunshine was beginning to fade, the air was still hot and heavy. Coral was
struck by the awesome silence that surrounded them. Not a bird in sight, no shuffle in the
undergrowth, even the insects were elusive. They climbed a little way up the escarpment over the
plateau and found a spot that dominated the view of the whole glade. Rafe spread out the blanket
under an acacia tree. They ate some chicken sandwiches and eggs and polished off the bottle of
cordial. They chatted casually, like old friends, about unimportant mundane things, as though they
were both trying to ward off the real issue, to stifle the burning embers that were smoldering
dangerously in both their minds and their bodies.
All the while, Coral had been aware of the need blossoming inside her, clouding all reason with
desire. She could tell that he was fighting his own battle. Why was he holding back? Was he waiting
for her to make the first move? Rafe was lying on his side, propped up on his elbow, his head leaning
on his hand, watching her through his long black lashes. The rhythm of his breathing was slightly
faster, and she could detect a little pulse beating in the middle of his temple, both a suggestion of
the turmoil inside him. Rafe put out a hand to touch her but seemed to change his mind and drew it
away. Coral stared back at him, her eyes dark with yearning, searching his face.
The shutters came down. “Don’t, Coral,” Rafe whispered, “don’t tease. There’s a limit to the amount
of resistance a man has.”
“But Rafe…”
A flash of long blue lightning split the sky, closely followed by a crash of thunder.
Coral instinctively threw herself into Rafe’s arms, hiding her face against his broad chest.
She had always had a strong phobia of thunderstorms.
Now she knew why the place had seemed eerie, why there had been no
bird song or insect tick-tocks, no scuffling and ruffling in the undergrowth. Even though the skies
when they entered the valley had not foretold the electrical storm that was to come, just like with
the animals, her instinct had told her that something was wrong. But she had been too distracted by
the turbulence crackling between her and Rafe to pay attention to the changing sky.
Rafe, too, was shaken out of his daze and turned his head to see that the sun had dropped behind
the mountain. Dense clouds had swept into the valley and were hanging overhead like a black
mantle.
“Where did that come from? No storm was forecast for today?” he muttered, jumping up.
There was another tremendous peal of thunder, lightning lit up the whole glade, and again another
crash. Then the heavy drops of rain came hammering down against the treetops, pouring down
through the foliage.
A wind was starting up. Without hesitation, Rafe folded the blanket into a small bundle and tucked it
under his arm. He slung the hamper over his shoulder, and lifting Coral into his arms, he climbed his
way up to the next level of the escarpment where a ledge of rock was jutting out and found the
entrance to a cave where they could shelter. Coral was shivering. She tucked her face into his
shoulder, her fingers tightly gripping his shirt. She was completely inert, paralyzed by fear. They
were both drenched.
There was no way they would be able to get back to Narok tonight. Coral knew from her childhood
that storms were always long in this part of the country, and through her panic she prayed that he
wouldn’t be piloting that little plane back in this howling gale. At least here they were protected
from the storm. It was not yet completely dark. Rafe looked around, still holding her tightly against
him. Coral couldn’t herself as she sobbed uncontrollably.
“Shush, it’s all right,” he whispered softly in her ear. “It’s only a storm. By tomorrow morning it’ll all be over.” He brushed her tears away as more fell. “I’m going to have to set you down for a moment,
Coral. I need to light us a fire and get you out of those wet clothes.”
Reviews
First class – beautifully written with an intriguing premise and interesting characters. – Romancing
the Book
Hot, sultry, breathtakingly beautiful and entirely unpredictable… I think the end analysis of a good
read is whether it lingers, and this one certainly did. – A Bookish Libraria
It warmed every corner of my heart. – Cocktails and Books
Hannah Fielding created a backdrop for this story that held me spellbound. – Unwrapping Romance
An epic romance like Hollywood used to make… – Peterborough Evening Telegraph
A truly compelling and romantic tale that you won’t want to put down. – Go City Girl
The kind of romance that makes you sigh dreamily… – Bookish Temptations
Book trailer
Hannah Fielding bio
Hannah Fielding is a novelist, a dreamer, a traveller, a mother, a wife and an incurable romantic. The
seeds for her writing career were sown in early childhood, spent in Egypt, when she came to an
agreement with her governess Zula: for each fairy story Zula told, Hannah would invent and relate
one of her own. Years later – following a degree in French literature, several years of travelling in
Europe, falling in love with an Englishman, the arrival of two beautiful children and a career in
property development – Hannah decided after so many years of yearning to write that the time was
now. Today, she lives the dream: she writes full time, splitting her time between her homes in Kent,
England, and the South of France, where she dreams up romances overlooking breathtaking views of
the Mediterranean.
Her first novel, Burning Embers, is a vivid, evocative love story set against the backdrop of
tempestuous and wild Kenya of the 1970s, reviewed by one newspaper as ‘romance like Hollywood
used to make’. Her new novel, The Echoes of Love, is a story of passion, betrayal and intrigue set in
the romantic and mysterious city of Venice and the beautiful landscape of Tuscany.
Social links
Website: www.hannahfielding.net
Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/fieldinghannah
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/fieldinghannah
Purchase links
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