Carmen DeSousa

If you haven’t read, She Belongs to Me , readers who adore J.D. Robb/Nora Roberts, Iris Johansen, and Nicholas Sparks have loved it. In fact, She Belongs to Me has been neighbors with all these great authors on Amazon’s ‘paid’ bestsellers in romantic-suspense and has 40+ reviews averaging 5-stars. Below is a brief summary of this romance/mystery and a deleted scene—an archived email that the protagonist, Jaynee, was writing before her…er…um…incident. Brief description of She Belongs to Me: After secrets and a mysterious background leave a wife’s life hanging by a thread, a husband must look for answers in the only place he knows—the past. When wealthy construction company owner and Charlotte detective, Jordan Monroe, meets Jaynee for the first time he is awestruck and determines to make her his wife. Jaynee, however, has a history she cannot easily overcome and is fearful to submit to love. Jordan succeeds in making her his wife, but five years into their mar...

My wonderful blog friend, Denise Moncrief at Suspense She Writes , passed on this award to me. I never, ever do these, Denise. Simply for lack of time, but…I’m going to follow through on this one, and now I can’t say never, ever anymore. J Five of my most fabulous moments: 1. When my husband-to-be walked up to me and said, “Hey, where’s your stepsister?” I was mad at her for dragging me out to party and then leaving me, so I pointed her out across the room and said, “Over there. What’s wrong with me?” We were married one month later and have been married twenty-two years for those of you who don’t believe in “love at first sight” or “happily ever after”. J 2. When my son was born (I thought I couldn’t have kids). 3. When my second son was born and he was only one (They thought I might be having twins). 4. When I became a published author. 5. When my first novel hit bestseller in “paid” right alongside Nicholas Sparks. Five things I love. 1. God 2. My hus...

If you haven't been here, we're writing a short story. Each week I use readers’ suggestions and write exactly five hundred words based on their feedback. And just to make this interesting, I offer up one of my novels free to the commenter whose suggestion I use. Okay…let’s write a story. (If you haven't read the first scenes, please click on the link. Otherwise, the story won't make sense. Don’t worry; there's a link, which will bring you right back.) 500 and Counting Scenes 1 and 4 Chapter 1 ~ Scene 5 Gino paced, his mind spinning. Was he crazy? The dreams, the music, the pipe scent, the bells. It couldn’t all be a coincidence. He hunched over, resting his hands on his knees, as his mind spun. Another voice echoed in his head, but this time it wasn’t a dream or ghost chimes. An embedded memory from his childhood when he was learning to ride his bicycle. His Pap had scolded him when he cried and wanted to give up after he’d run into...

She Belongs to Me is a true romantic-suspense. The first scene literally starts with a bang, and from there, I take you through the lives of two people destined to be together, but life has a way of confusing the real issues and leading us down a scary path. I’m not giving away any secrets, because you know from the synopsis that my female protagonist ends up in the hospital in a coma: the question is why—or who? I’m just going to take you behind the scenes to a neglected scene. I say neglected, because I wanted to show this, but knew I didn’t have the room, so I purposely left it out. From the first chapter: Jordan is in a hospital waiting room, waiting on word of whether his wife is dead or alive. Jordan’s gaze wandered to the locked emergency room doors for the hundredth time in the last hour. As much as he wanted to call his family for support, he needed to wait. He needed information; he couldn’t just tell them she’d been shot and may not live. But ...

When Alexandra’s choices dissolve into Entangled Dreams, pushing her down a dark and dismal path, she must trust her instincts to escape danger, but be able to surrender all to find her happily ever after. Knowing how to decipher the difference, will be her toughest challenge. This is just a teaser. If you want to read the first three chapters click here .  Last excerpt our female protagonist, Nicky, asked a complete stranger if he'd give her a ride because she was depressed about her father’s death and ticked off at her boyfriend. Let’s get a glimpse of what she saw in this stranger. Excerpt from first chapter: Motorcycle-guy looked bewildered, too. “Uh, sure. You can wear my helmet, I suppose.” Nicky accepted the helmet, latched it under her chin, and walked around to the left-hand side of the bike. She climbed on lithely and then wrapped her arms around his waist. “You’ve rode before,” he stated matter-of-factly. Obviously the fact that s...