New Release Beautiful Sacrifice review and Q&A w/Elizabeth Lowell

 New Release Feature and 

Q&A with Elizabeth Lowell

Debbie - First of all Elizabeth I have to say that I’m a big fan from way back and have enjoyed many of your novels and all of your genre’s from your stand alones to your connected novels so welcome to the General Fiction forum here at B&N.com

Elizabeth--Thank you for inviting me. As a big fan of B&N, I’m really happy to be here.

Please tell us a little about your new novel

--My favorite stories involve a woman, a man, danger, and love. BEAUTIFUL SACRIFICE tells about what happens when Lina Taylor, a field archaeologist who works in the Yucatan, finds herself involved in illegal artifacts and a cult that believes the Turning of the Wheel on December 21, 2012, will usher in a new world order.  Hunter Johnston is a former federal agent who is trying to help a childhood friend with a case involving missing Maya artifacts and a string of ritual deaths.  Together they find the kind of answers that are hard to survive.

Did you go on location while researching this novel, do you usually travel to research a novel.

--Most often, I’m able to travel while researching a novel. For BEAUTIFUL SACRIFICE, a family emergency made that impossible. Instead, I picked my daughter’s brain and photo collection. She has hiked Maya ruins and is fluent in Spanish. She gave me the flavor of culture and place I would otherwise have missed. The rest of my research was online, in books, and in video.

According to your bio you’ve co-authored several novels with your husband do you plan on any more collaborations and how was it writing with your husband

--I’d love to collaborate again, but so far my writing schedule doesn’t allow it. I keep hoping that will change. Working with a partner is a unique experience. Working with someone you love is grand.

You have authored over seventy books
Does release day still give you butterflies

--Release day is usually when I’m living in my computer, finishing up the next book. Between that and handling publicity for the book just coming out, I barely have time to sleep, much less get nervous. That said, there’s no feeling quite like having a book come out after several years of work. 

Do you belong to a writers group

--No. When I first started publishing, I didn’t even know any authors. Now I know many, but we rarely talk about what we’re working on. Instead, we share insights (aka gossip) about the business itself.

Who are the authors that inspired you and who do you read now

--Jayne Ann Krentz was the author who inspired me to write romances. At the time, I had already published science fiction under Ann Maxwell, and a mystery series featuring a male/female duet with my husband, writing as A.E. Maxwell. Plus a few historical sagas, also with Evan, as A.E. Maxwell.
--There are too many authors whose work I enjoy to even begin listing them!

What advice would you give an aspiring author.

--Write what you love. Even if it doesn’t sell, you will have had the pleasure of living within imaginary landscapes and characters that you enjoy. If you want to write professionally, never give up.

What does someone who blows up buildings, boats and people do for fun when she’s not writing

--I love fishing, gardening, reading, travel, cooking, and being with family and friends. All very ordinary and non-explosive.  ;-)

I know I would love to and I’m sure many fans would love to meet you in person – do you have any events or signings at Barnes & Noble.

--When circumstances allow, I love meeting fans in person. But having a book due within weeks of having a new one come out makes traveling to signings very difficult. Then there is the fact that we are often out cruising on our boat when the new book comes out, which makes signings impossible.

--So many things to do. So little time.

Thank you for taking the time out of your schedule to answer a few questions and good luck with the new novel.

--Thank you for your interest. It’s a frenetic world we live in, which makes online as close to “face time” as it gets for me.

 My review of Beautiful Sacrifice

Beautiful Sacrifice
Elizabeth Lowell
William Morrow
ISBN13:978001629860
400 pages

Archeologist Dr. Lina Taylor knows a thing or two about Maya artifacts her family can trace their Maya roots back to before the Spanish set foot in Mexico and her family compound in the Yucatan has produced many Maya artifacts so it’s no wonder when Maya artifacts are stolen from a government ICE warehouse security expert and former ICE agent Hunter Johnston seeks Lina’s advice, it also gives him a chance to get to know her a little better. Lina Taylor has enjoyed the maybe dates that she and Hunter have shared over coffee so she’s more than willing to help him figure out the provenance of certain Maya items that went missing while in government custody, it also lets her spend more time with the sexy and a bit mysterious man. Lina and Hunter begin their investigation while also exploring the intense attraction they have for one another, but before the case even gets off the ground bullets start flying, bodies start showing up looking like human sacrifices of long ago Maya rituals. Does it have to do with drug trafficking like they first thought or does it have some more ominous meaning, is it just circumstance the end of the current Maya millennium is a few days away on 12-21-12, that it marks the Fourteenth Baktun or as the Maya call it the end of a Long Count and the beginning of another. Lina and Hunter will soon find themselves knee deep in danger, they’ll find out what real sacrifice means when survival is only a slim possibility and the newfound feelings they’ve discovered may never get a chance to grow.

Ms. Lowell has delivered another page turner, can’t put it down romantic suspense novel and this time she’s given this fan yet another twist to her multi-level storyline, the Maya connection, and yes I said Maya and you’ll see why I refer to it that way if you read the novel, which I’m sure you won’t be able to put down either. Her hero Hunter and Heroine Lina are the real rock stars of the piece but don’t count out the minor players in Ms. Lowell’s imaginative novel either because whether evil or good they all rock the pages. Her narrative is a bilingual mix of Spanish, English with a little Mayan thrown in for good measure and her words transported me from the dry heat of Texas to the humid sea air of the Yucatan while her descriptions of the many ruins and artifacts let me see in my mind what she described on the page. Her romance was absolutely amazing and I felt every emotion through her characters as they went from friends to lovers to much, much more.
If you’re a lover of romantic suspense, mystery, drama, the Maya end of days novels or just a great story to take you on a journey, this is your next Must Read.
Thank you Ms Lowell for an amazing trip and I can’t wait to see where you take me to next.
Buy the book here visit the author's website here