Today is my stop on the So Close by Silvia Day blog tour sponsored by Smith Publicity read on for an excerpt and more about the book and author.
Enjoy!
ASIN: B0B8MC9935
Publisher: Rōnin House
Release Date: 3-28-2023
Length: 397pp
Blacklist #1
Buy It: Amazon/ B&N/ IndieBound
ADD TO: GOODREADS
Overview:
From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Crossfire® saga comes the beginning of a twisty tale of obsession and rage, as a trinity of women protect what they covet at any cost.You can’t believe all of them, but can you trust any of them?
Widower Kane Black is still ruinously married to his late wife, Lily. Grief has hollowed him… until he sees a woman with his wife’s inimitable beauty on the streets of Manhattan. He whisks her up to his towering penthouse, protectively under guard, nestling her in dark opulence where Lily’s memory is a possessive beguiling force.
Aliyah, Kane’s mother, deals in science. There are too many questions, too few answers, and too much at stake. “Lily” has dangerous control over Kane and there can be only one queen on the throne.
Amy, Kane’s sister-in-law, has been bloodied by deceit and betrayal, and she’s devolving into murderous rage. She’s paid too high a price and now intends to claim what she’s owed.
Three women, linked by buried secrets, circle the man who unquestioningly accepts the return of his beloved long-dead wife. Kane is happier than he’s ever been, and he’ll do anything to stay that way.
Propulsive and sly, So Close is a lushly gothic novel of domestic suspense with the emotional intensity, scorching sensuality, and complex exploration of female trauma that are the hallmarks of multimillion-copy international bestseller Sylvia Day.
Read an excerpt:
Chapter One from Sylvia Day's New
Book, So Close
The following is an excerpt from So Close by Sylvia Day
Witte
The
party is a lively crush, yet I’m keenly aware of one singularly significant
presence—my employer’s wife, a woman who has been dead for many years.
Manhattan glitters in the vast night enfolding the penthouse tower. Clouds
froth against the floor-to-ceiling windows, at turns obscuring then revealing
the stygian spread of Central Park and its reservoir far below. The tower
creaks as it sways ever so slightly in gusts of evening wind, the plaintive
sound hidden beneath the music and sea of conversation.
Within the glass walls, tension seethes. Dangerous
electricity charges the air, the inevitable result of confining rivals in a
neutral space. Restrained by decorum and the fear of losing face, adversaries
bristle, claws and fangs only briefly and resentfully sheathed.
The event is a black-tie reception in honor of a new
cosmeceutical line. The attendees are the best known of Manhattan’s young
elite, a collective pool of the too-beautiful and too-rich. Among them are
celebrated friendships and infamous feuds. It’s a testament to Mr Black that he
could bring such a diverse – and divisive – group together in his home.
Like chess players, the guests have chosen their positions
for the best advantage. Mr Black’s longest-known friend, Ryan Landon, stands
opposite the spacious living room from Mr Black’s business partner, Gideon
Cross, the two men perpetuating an enmity passed down from their fathers. As
regretful as their discord is, I can still admire the purity of their open
dislike of one another.
In contrast, Mr Black’s main adversaries—his half-brothers
Ramin and Darius— undermine him whenever it benefits them. And then there is
Amy, Darius’s wife, the only woman in the room who won’t look at Mr Black. Not
even a surreptitious peek.
The spaces between these key players are filled with reality
television personalities and influencers, models and musicians. Bursts of light
bounce off the glittering dresses and wide windows as mobiles capture a
seemingly endless number of selfies that will be shared with millions of
followers. Most companies pay exorbitant fees for such photographic
endorsements, but that is not the case tonight. An invitation to the penthouse
is a social coup, as is proximity to Cross and his wife, Eva, seemingly the
world’s most popular couple, if measured by media coverage.
I glance around the living room, assuring myself that the waiting
staff are present but unobtrusive, supplying canapés and beverages while
clearing away the discarded Baccarat glasses and Limoges plates.
Extravagant bouquets of Blacklist lilies decorate the
sterling-silver tops of African blackwood tables, adding texture and glamour
without colour or fragrance. Music weaves through the room, effervescent and of
the moment. The singer is present, slouched against a wall with his arm around
a woman’s waist and his lips to her jaw. His eyes are on Mr Black, but they shift
to me just as the smartwatch on my wrist gives a haptic signal announcing the
arrival of new guests.
I move to the foyer.
The moment the sleek brunette glides through the front door
on limousine heels, I know my employer will seduce her. She’s arrived on the
arm of an attractive gentleman, but that’s irrelevant. She’ll succumb; they all
do.
The lady resembles the late Mrs Black: inky hair, sultry
green eyes, crimson lips. A beauty, yes, but a pale imitation of the woman
immortalized in the portrait Mr Black treasures. They all are.
I greet them both with a nod and offer to take her wrap,
standing by as her attentive escort assists her instead.
“Thank you,” she says as her companion hands me her shimmery
wrap. She’s speaking to me, but Mr Black has already captured her attention and
her gaze is on him. Despite his deliberate withdrawal to the fringes of the
room, his towering height makes him impossible to ignore. His energy is a
lashing inferno checked only by a tremendous force of will. He is a man who
composes himself with a stark economy of movement yet somehow gives the
impression of furore. I can see the effort it takes for our new guest to look
away from him and take stock of the festivity.
Mr Black’s sister, Rosana, holds the command position in front
of the windows. She is a tall, dark beauty in a beaded turquoise dress.
Gleaming hair the colour of mahogany drapes her shoulders, a striking contrast
to the silvery blond of Eva Cross, who stands beside her, petite and curvaceous
and dressed in elegant blush-hued silk. Eva is Rosana’s co-ambassador in the
new venture; the two women so very different, yet both are tabloid and social
media darlings.
I look at Mr Black, searching for his reaction to the latest
arrival. I see what I expected: a focused gaze. As he scrutinizes her, his jaw
tightens. The signs are subtle, but I sense his terrible disappointment and the
resulting surge of self-recrimination.
For a moment, he’d hoped it was her. Lily. A woman whose exquisite beauty is immortalized in a single image
that hangs in his private rooms but whose profound significance haunts this
home and the man who is its master. That he continues to search for her in
every woman is heartbreaking.
Lily was absent from Mr Black’s life before he acquired my
services, so I know her only posthumously, but I’m in the position of
overhearing a great deal. That she was incredibly lovely is universally
acknowledged; many say she remains the greatest beauty they’ve ever seen.
Though her given name suggests delicacy and fragility, acquaintances describe
her as independent, sharp-witted and bold. She’s remembered as being kind and
encouraging, entertaining and deeply interested in others, a quality which I
would argue is far better than being interesting.
For some time, I had only those scant impressions and
opinions until a tormented night, when Mr Black was wild with drink and
half-mad, no longer able to suppress the furious grief inside him. I understood
then the extraordinary hold she continues to have on him; I can sense her power
when I look at the massive portrait of her that dominates the wall opposite his
bed.
In his room, her image is the only spot of colour, but that
isn’t what makes the photograph so striking. It is the look in her eyes,
feverish and incisive.
Whoever Lily was, her love for Kane Black consumed them both.
That obsession remains the most perilous element of his life to this day.
I watch as our newest guest wades through the others,
separating from her escort as she moves towards Mr Black. She is fire-bright in
a crimson dress, but she is the moth, and he is the flame.
A popular periodical recently declared him one of the sexiest
men alive. Mr Black is nearing thirty-three and wealthy enough to afford me, a
seventh-generation majordomo of British lineage, impeccably trained to handle
any situation from mundanity to extreme crises. He is remote and unreadable,
yet women are drawn to him without any thought of self-preservation. Despite
their best efforts, he remains staunchly unavailable. He is a widower who
remains deeply, thoroughly married.
His most frequent escort, the slender blonde who hovers
nearby, gleams in ivory and pearls. She’s his mother, although no one would
suspect the relationship if it weren’t widely known. Age isn’t the only thing
Aliyah hides well. The lone clue to her nature is her manicure, the long nails
filed into a modish almond shape resembling talons.
As I turn away from the coat cupboard, I hear the pop of a
champagne cork. Crystal flutes clink merrily, and conversation hums. A small
fortune in designer shoes clicks and taps across obsidian floor tiles so
liquid-like in their pristine reflectiveness one is reminded of the calmest of
nocturnal waters. Mr Black’s residence is a study in maximalism: dark woods,
natural stone, rich leathers and hides … all in the darkest of shades, creating
a space as elegant and masculine as its owner.
My daughter assures me he is blessed with uncommonly good
looks and cursed with something she claims is even more compelling: a brooding,
edgy torridity. The fact that he once loved so deeply and remains so shrouded
in private grief has potent allure. His air of unattainability is irresistible,
she says.
It’s not artifice. His many sexual liaisons aside, Mr Black
is taken in the most profound sense of the word. Lily’s memory hollows him. He
is a husk of a man, yet I’ve come to love him as a father would his son.
A woman laughs too loudly. Too much to drink, clearly. And
she’s not alone in over-indulging. A flute falls from someone’s careless grip
and shatters, with the unmistakable discordant music of tinkling shards of
glass.
Sylvia Day is the #1 New York Times, #1 USA Today,
and #1 international bestselling author of over twenty award-winning novels,
including ten New York Times and
thirteen USA Today bestsellers. Her
work has been translated into forty-one languages. With over twenty million
copies of her books in print, she is a #1 best seller in twenty-nine countries.
Day served as the 22nd President of Romance Writers of America and
presently serves on the Board of Directors of the Authors Guild and the Authors
Guild Foundation. Her work has been covered in Time, Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, People, the Wall Street Journal, Cosmopolitan,
the Associated Press, USA Today, and Entertainment Weekly, among others. Her bestselling novel Afterburn / Aftershock was developed
into a motion picture by Passionflix and released in November 2017. The
documentary following her 2016 world tour, Beyond
Words: Sylvia Day, was released in October 2018. Bestselling titles in
Sylvia’s canon include Bared to You,
Reflected in You, Entwined with You, Captivated by You, One with You, Wish
List, A Touch of Crimson, Eve of Darkness, Seven Years to Sin, and more.
The sequel to So Close and the final
chapter of the Blacklist Duology will be entitled Too Far. Connect with Sylvia onFacebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, Goodreads, or at www.sylviaday.com.
Praise:
"A dangerous and sultry novel about lies, secrets, and the line between love and obsession. The perfect first entry of a two-book series, So Close drew me in and kept me reading, desperate to know what happened next. Domestic suspense at its sexiest."—Samantha Downing, USA Today bestselling author"Sylvia Day...fans are going to be delighted with her latest offering, a dark, brooding, gothic story in her inimitable style that will have you gripped from the first sentence. Everything is not what it seems in this page turner. Expect another sell out."—Glamour UK
"Wow, is this book twisty and twisted! I am a huge fan of Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier, and So Close is almost an ode to Rebecca. I love a good psychological thriller, and top it off with unreliable narrators and the feeling that more than one of them is a little mental? Yes, please! This book was so fun to read, I read it all in one go."—Katie, bookseller
About the author:
Her work has been covered in Time, Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, People, the Wall Street Journal, Cosmopolitan, the Associated Press, USA Today, and Entertainment Weekly, among others. Her bestselling novel Afterburn / Aftershock was developed into a motion picture by Passionflix and released in November 2017. The documentary following her 2016 world tour, Beyond Words: Sylvia Day, was released in October 2018.
Now that sounds different and I'm curious. :)
ReplyDeleteI know
DeleteI have not read this author before but this sounds like this one would be hard to put down.
ReplyDeleteit does Carole
DeleteI've read this author but it's been a while. This sounds like a great story.
ReplyDeleteI think I may have read her before too Mary
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