Keep Your Friends Close by June Taylor @joonLT @damppebbles #blogtour #extract #excerpt #damppebblesblogtours

Good morning and welcome to my stop on the blog tour for Keep Your Friends Close by June Taylor! My thanks to Emma Welton for the invitation to join! I have an extract to share with you all today but first, here is what this book is all about.

Author : June Taylor
Title : Keep Your Friends Close
Pages :
Publisher : Killer Reads
Publication date : October 26, 2018

A friend who won’t let you escape.
When Karin is taken on a romantic break by her loving partner Aaron, she can’t wait for him to propose. But her surprise weekend quickly becomes a nightmare from which she may never escape.

Who wants everything you have.
They are staying by the beach at the Midland – a grand hotel where Karin used to work. And where Karin’s dangerous and obsessive ex, whom she has been trying to leave behind for years, is waiting patiently for her to return.

Who won’t stop until your life is in ruins.
Now all of Karin’s darkest secrets are being dragged into the light and her friends are turning against her. When one of them is murdered, Karin begins to realise just how treacherous relationships can be…

‘You sure you’re okay?’

The sound of Aaron’s voice snapped her back into the moment, and Karin realized she had become unbearably hot. Her dress was clinging to her and her scalp felt prickly. ‘Yeah, sorry,’ she said. She lowered the window and stuck her head out, not bothering about what it might do to her hair at this speed. ‘I was just thinking about where we might be going.’

‘You’ll soon see,’ said Aaron, holding her hair down until she came back in again and put the window up. ‘You look amazing tonight, by the way.’

‘Thanks. You don’t look too bad yourself.’

The sharp blast of air seemed to work, and Karin visualized them making plans for the future, getting their first place together. A house with a garden where children could play. A log cabin, and plenty of long grass to run around in and be wild. She would be a good mother. Stay home and spend time with her kids. There would be more than one; an only child was a miserable child. She would wrap them in love and laughter, never abandon or ignore them and definitely never send them away.

And Aaron would make a great father.

But what if he ever did find out? What then? Aaron didn’t deserve to be hurt, not again. His marriage had ended badly. Infidelity, not on his part, followed by a messy divorce.

Karin closed her eyes. When she opened them again she registered they were heading north up the M6, the sign for Morecambe having fleetingly caught her eye. ‘Erm. Are we going to the coast?’ she asked, turning quickly to look at the sign even though she knew it would have disappeared by now.

Aaron didn’t pick up on the panic in her voice. ‘We might be,’ he said, a boyish grin spreading across his face.

But the signs repeatedly said Morecambe. And after a while there it was. Marine Road West. She could see it up ahead, a building of elegant white curves. Of all the places to bring her. Why here? It was her birthday, a simple meal in Leeds would have been perfect. Couldn’t they just go back to Leeds? Couldn’t she suggest that? Was it too late to turn round?

They swung into the car park of The Midland hotel, gleaming white in all its restored Art Deco glory, and Karin felt herself shaking. As beautiful and magnificent as it was, she never intended coming back here.

Not ever.

It stood before her now like a defiant ghost, keeper of memories she didn’t want to revive. She thought she had left all this behind.

What did Karin think she’d left behind forever? What is lurking in her past and will Aaron ever find out? If you want to find out, you can purchase your digital copy of Keep Your Friends Close now! The paperback will be published in January.

June Taylor writes mainly psychological thrillers and YA fiction, as well as plays. In 2011 she almost won the Times/Chicken House Children’s Fiction Competition. The only proof of this is a back-pocket cutting from the Times that she showed to her mum!

She studied French, followed by an MA in Scriptwriting. She has done many jobs from TV promos producer to EFL and French club teacher, as well as volunteer work with Childline and the Refugee Council.

June is on the Board of Script Yorkshire and a big supporter of Leeds Big Bookend. She lives in Leeds and loves to travel to new places.

Author links : Twitter | Website