CELTICLADY'S REVIEWS: Quake Jazz Sessions Book 1 by Maya Alden Book Tour! @authormayaalden @mayalden

The secrets of the bayou dance to the rhythm of jazz!

Quake

Jazz Sessions Book 1

by Maya Alden

Genre: Romantic Suspense

The secrets of the bayou dance to the rhythm of jazz!

She was the princess of Bayou Belle, sleeping with me, a bayou rat born on the wrong sides of the sheets.

Gaia Doucet was my first love, the one who had me body and soul…until she accused me of something terrible; and I was sent into cruel exile by her mother. But now, ten years later, I'm back. Her grandfather has left me controlling interest of the Doucet empire and I'm ready to enjoy my revenge. I'll start with her mother and end with her.

While I made a fortune in New York, she's slinging drinks at Jazz Sessions, her brothers' bar in the pulsing heart of the French Quarter. I have achieved all my dreams and she's a failure.

I'm ready to crush her into the ground even though I want her with the same desperation as I did a decade ago.

But when someone hires a hitman to kill her, it sets off a tumultuous QUAKE that shakes the very foundations of our lives. Hate her, I may, but I won't be able to live in a world where she's not there.

In the steamy, seductive streets of New Orleans, where secrets and scandals are as common as the sultry jazz rhythms, Quake is the first book in the Jazz Sessions series. Please note, each novel in this series is a standalone romance, complete with its own satisfying happily ever after. Yet, the shadow of a sinister family mystery stretches across the arc of the first three books.

Perfect for fans of LJ Shen and Shain Rose.

Note: This book contains mature themes, including violence, strong language, & sexual content, for full content warnings, please see Content Warnings page on Maya's website

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Warning: Language

Chapter 1

Gaia

I knew he was back when I saw the single calla lily leftat the doorstep. The prodigal son had returned. My first lover, my only love, had left his calling card.

I'd have thought it was a romantic gesture when I was younger, but now I knew it was a threat. Rome Decuir didn't do romantic gestures. Even ten years ago, when I'd first fallen into bed with him, he told me what we had was just sex.

I'd been seventeen, silly in love.

I picked up the calla lily and walked out to the front porch of the Bayou Belle Mansion: my childhood home, my prison, my source of joy and pain, all wrapped into one.

This is where Rome and I had begun. I was so much in love that I'd done what I could to protect him, which included staying away from him. He'd been exiled from Bayou Belle for his sin of fucking Gaia Doucet, granddaughter of Lucien Doucet. Rome may have been banished from Bayou Belle, but I had been discarded.

I knew he'd come to New Orleans.

My grandfather had told me what was in his will before he died. I'd told no one, not even my brothers, because Grandpère had asked me not to. He'd wanted to warn me that Rome Decuir would be the first non-Doucet to own fifty-five percent of Bayou Belle Holdings and the beautiful prison I had grown up in, the house that was more palace than home.

But what was in a name? Rome was more Doucet, more like my grandfather Lucien when it came to business acumen, than my mother, siblings, and cousins all put together, even if he was born on the wrong side of the sheets and had no Doucet blood flowing in his veins.

My mother and cousins all owned shares of Bayou Belle Holdings—but Rome would have the deciding vote as soon as Lucien Doucet's will was read. Grandpère had done this to make right what had been done wrong ten years ago. He'd done it to punish my mother for her crimes against Rome and to punish me for being weak.

I had lived for ten years without Rome, knowing he hated me, wasn't that punishment enough?

"The whole family will be out for blood," Grandpère had chuckled.

For Rome's blood.

Well, good luck with that. The boy he used to be had been tough, but the man he'd become, from all accounts, was more formidable. He'd made a lot of money, like he'd wanted. He'd become the corporate juggernaut he'd promised he'd be. And now he'd own Bayou Belle and have more power than any Doucet. A big fuck you to all of us, Doucets.

I was happy for him. I had wanted this for him. Had made sure he'd have it. I had given up Bayou Belle, relinquished my inheritance, and invested in Rome's future.

I knew that my brothers wouldn't mind what Grandpère had done; in fact, they'd celebrate. My oldest brother, Blaze, had jazz and traveled the world with his saxophone and band. Sure, he got a law degree from Duke, but he ditched that. He had no interest in the law, Bayou Belle or being a Doucet. My middle brother, Zephyr, co-owned Jazz Sessions with Blaze, a jazz club in the French Quarter where I managed the bar and kitchen, and he the jazz.

I didn't have any of the Bayou Belle fortune; instead, I was free of my mother and of being that Doucet.

My brothers still had plenty of Doucet money in their bank accounts after selling their shares of Bayou Belle to Grandpère and buying Jazz Sessions. They'd given me a job at the bar and a place to stay in the apartment upstairs. They'd tried to make me an equal partner, but I'd resisted. I couldn't take something I hadn't earned.

I had changed ten years ago; they saw it and correctly associated it with Rome and me breaking up.

Zephyr had begged me to tell him what had happened when Rome was exiled. I didn't. Couldn't. Then, it had been perilous in case Rome returned. Now, it didn't matter. The statute of limitations for rape was only five years in Louisiana.

Maya has a passion for weaving tales of love and desire.

With a background in literature and a heart filled with hope, Maya pours her emotions onto the pages of her novels, capturing the essence of true love and the power it holds to transform lives. Combining unforgettable characters, sizzling chemistry, and heartfelt emotions, Maya's stories will whisk you into a world of passion and enchantment.

Maya invites you to join her on a journey of love, laughter, and happily-ever-afters that will leave you with a sigh and a smile.

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