The Locke Brothers

Obsessed
The Locke Brothers Book 1
by Twi J Bryant
Genre: Contemporary Fiction Love Story
When Vanessa loses Sebastian to rehab once again, she finds passion in the most unexpected person.
Vanessa and Sebastian have been best friends forever, but they’re not just friends, they’re friends with benefits. This arrangement has never been a problem, but Vanessa starts to long for more. How much longer can she stand the empty bed and a note on the bedside table the morning after?
When Sebastian, a sexy drummer with a bad boy attitude, falls back into his bad habits, Vanessa watches him go to rehab with a broken heart, again. But the lead singer of Sebastian’s band, Jessie, is ready to cheer her up. Vanessa needed a shoulder to cry on; instead, she found a dom she can’t help but want to please. Jessie ignites her body in ways she’s never imagined and slowly inches his way into her heart.
Vanessa didn’t want to fall in love, especially with a man so different from Sebastian, but sometimes the heart wants what it wants.
The only problem is, Jessie is Sebastian’s younger brother.
Devoted
The Locke Brothers Book 2
Jessie and Vanessa are happy and in love. Finally, she’s with the brother that is ready to commit, or so she thinks.
Sebastian is back from rehab and although he wants Vanessa to be happy, it’s hard to be just a friend while his brother steals her heart. Regrets follow him daily; but if he reveals his true feelings now, he won’t only lose a brother, he might lose Vanessa for good.
An awkward situation becomes impossible when Jessie asks Vanessa the unthinkable.
Faced with a life or death decision while Jessie is already running for the hills, she turns to the one friend who has always been there for her, Sebastian.
The rift between Jessie and Vanessa puts Sebastian in the middle; a hard place to be when you’re trying to balance on a thin line between a devastated brother and the girl you’ve always loved.
Will Jessie realize what he’s giving up? Can Sebastian finally be the man Vanessa needs him to be? How will Vanessa choose and will it be the right choice?
Beloved
The Locke Brothers Book 3
For the Locke brothers loving the same woman has always been a challenge, but nothing compared to the challenge they’re yet to face…
Finally able to pursue her happily ever after with Sebastian, Vanessa is overwhelmed and excited for the future. With Jessie’s blessing, they move from dating to being engaged in a matter of weeks. She can’t wait to spend the rest of her life with Sebastian and doesn’t want to waste another second.
But something is lurking in the background, something neither the brothers nor Vanessa could see coming. Something more dangerous than love, more threatening than heartache. When the news strikes, the turbulent love triangle is shaken to the core.
Out of desperation to change her story, Vanessa, who was ready to say I do to one brother, ends up proposing to the other. The Locke brothers are at a crossroads. Faced with impossible decisions, heart-wrenching revelations and a love strong enough to tear them all apart. They both know that in the end, they’ll do anything to please the woman they love.
Love, heartache, regret, and passion all converge in this final novel of the Locke Brothers Series. Twi J. Bryant turns this love triangle on its head but in the end only one thing matters; their memories of her.
This is actually two authors writing together!
J. Bryant lives in a zoo. Not really, but come over at dinner time and you’ll think you’ve stepped right into one between the teenagers and twins. She started writing as a creative way of getting her frustrations out and never expected anyone to read the madness that she jotted down. Then she partnered with Twi, who encouraged her to start a tumblr account and post the stories she’d written. HUGE MISTAKE! Now, we’re sitting by the phone waiting on Ellen’s call to invite us on her show. In the meantime she’ll be cheering on her beloved Saints (ehhhm. Ellen, we’re practically family) football team from where she resides in Louisiana!
Twi is a devoted mother and wife who wasn’t that good at cooking to begin with so she doesn’t feel guilty when she orders dinner in so she has time to write. Her love of sticky notes and all office supplies keeps her organized while her house slowly dissolves into madness during writing jags with her lobster, J. Bryant. (It’s a Friends reference. Look it up.) She lives in Phoenix, AZ, where it is too hot to do anything outside, so she spends most of her free time on her computer or playing Destiny 2 with friends. Writing is her favorite creative outlet.
$10 Amazon gift card
Follow the tour HERE for special content and a giveaway!

Far Reaching Consequences

Far Reaching Consequences

by Anya Summers

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

GENRE: Contemporary Erotic Romance

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

BLURB:

Phoebe needs a second chance at life.

In the aftermath of the devastation from her failed marriage, Phoebe returns to her old stomping grounds to open her own bed and breakfast. Starting over is the bravest thing she’s ever done – or so she thinks. But opening her front door to find a blast from her past on her front porch changes all that. The teenager she’d once known has become a jaw-dropping, dominant man in his prime.

He wasn’t looking for a relationship until she blazed back into his life.

Graham runs his own construction business, remodeling homes, and building brand new ones. When his buddy gives him a lead on a new project, he never expects to run into Phoebe, the woman he shared a single kiss with eons ago. Nor is he prepared for the Dominant in him to stake his claim before the end of their first meeting. He wanted her in high school but there had been too wide a gulf separating them. Now, Graham will stop at nothing until he makes her his. But there are larger forces at work, attempting to tear them apart.

When everything Phoebe holds dear becomes a target, Graham will risk it all for the one woman he knows he can never live without.

Publisher’s Note: This steamy second chance romance contains elements of power exchange. While it is the second in the Crescent City Kings series, it can be enjoyed independently.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

EXCERPTS (Please choose only ONE to use with your post):

Excerpt One:

The rubber soles of Phoebe’s taupe-colored work boots squeaked against the golden cinnamon hardwood floor. Daisy’s paws clicked as she trotted beside her. Phoebe would have to trim Daisy’s nails again. The plantation itself was in sad disarray after decades of neglect. In some ways, the plantation was strangely like her life—or at least the way it had been, until she made the commitment to fix it. For the last thirty years, this place had stood vacant and unloved. The previous owners had been unable to sell the property and unable to invest in her upkeep. This grand old lady had become a dilapidated ruin of a bygone era.

Phoebe hoped to fix this place up, just like she had her life. She believed, with a bit of elbow grease, she would be able to turn the plantation back into a showpiece—one for which people would pay for the experience of staying there. New Orleans and the surrounding area was a pre-eminent tourist destination that Phoebe planned to capitalize on.

She eventually wanted her own airport shuttle for guests. But that was getting ahead of herself. The first step was a complete renovation.

It was only recently that Phoebe had been able to actualize her dream of owning Riverland to renovate it into a fully operational bed and breakfast. She’d used the inheritance her late grandpa, Ralph Mackenzie, had bequeathed her in his will a year ago. The tidy sum he’d left her had been enough to buy this place outright, along with the small acreage surrounding the old plantation, with money left over for the needed renovations. 

Financially, it would be tight at first until she started having paying guests. That was why she waited tables at the strip joint Bayou Sin on Bourbon Street in the meantime. Not because she loved wearing skintight clothes with men trying to grope her, but it helped supplement her income.

This plantation was infused with all her hope for the future, one that belonged to her and her alone.

As she reached what had once been a grand entrance, with its heavy, double oak doors the same warm cinnamon as the floors, she drew the right-side door open, a greeting on her lips as she spread them in a fake smile like the one she wore serving drinks. Daisy’s whole body vibrated, her attention directed at the man on the opposite side of the door. The initial punch of fear disintegrated as she studied him and memories dulled by time and distance surfaced.

He was tall, a good six two, and built like a professional baseball player with broad shoulders and a head full of dark chestnut hair that was a few weeks past needing a trim. His button-down ivory dress shirt was rolled up to his elbows, leaving his tanned, brawny forearms bare. The shirt was tucked into a pair of well-worn blue jeans with a brown leather tool belt slung around his lean waist.

But it was the man’s eyes, artic blue, making her think of frost and snow, in the tan, slightly weathered face that caused a bell of recognition to sound through her and made her lips curl into a genuine smile.

“Graham? Graham Layton, is that really you? You’re the contractor Dante recommended?” Joy filtered into her voice as she stared at the blast from her past. It had been almost nineteen years since the night of the winter formal in high school. The night she had always considered one of the best of her life.

Excerpt Two:

“Graham? Graham Layton, is that really you? You’re the contractor Dante recommended?” Joy filtered into her voice as she stared at the blast from her past. It had been almost nineteen years since the night of the winter formal in high school. The night she had always considered one of the best of her life.

Surprise filtered over his handsome features. A grin split his face wide and his thick, dark chestnut brows rose to nearly beneath his hairline, almost touching the Rayban sunglasses shoved on top of his head. There were tiny laugh lines around his eyes that crinkled.

“Phoebe, as I live and breathe. Well, aren’t you a sight?” Graham dismissed all formalities, stepped through the doorway, and surrounded her with an effusive hug. She stiffened at the impromptu embrace, but only for a moment, because the delight of seeing him overrode her internal panic button. 

She caught a whiff of him, a sinful mixture of man with traces of his soap, a spicy, exotic fragrance that made her want to bury her face in his chest and just inhale him. The boy she’d known on the cusp of manhood in the intervening years had grown into a powerfully built man. A very hot man, with a killer smile and a body that made her dead hormones rise from their early grave and pay attention before he released her. It left her dumbstruck: the sudden onslaught of disappointment that rose in her chest when he released her.

Wasn’t that just the oddest thing?

“It’s great to see you. If I’d known it was you…”

Graham gave a manly half-shrug as he stepped back. “It is a surprise—a nice one, to boot.”

Then he knelt, resting his elbows on his knees so that he was at eye level with Daisy, and held his hand out for her to sniff. “And who is this?”

“Daisy, this is Graham. He’s a friend.” Daisy glanced up at her for the okay, her golden eyes searching Phoebe’s face. When Phoebe nodded in the affirmative, Daisy’s stance relaxed, and she turned into a normal, goofy dog. She snuffled Graham’s hand, and then lavished his face with a few swipes of her pink tongue against his cheek before falling at his rather large feet as he stroked her fur and gave her a belly rub. Euphoria emanated from Daisy. And, for a split second, Phoebe wondered what it would feel like to have Graham rub her belly—and further south.

“Beautiful dog.” Graham rose with Daisy following him up into a sitting position from which she stared at him with adoration. “I cannot believe you’re the one who bought Riverland Plantation. When Dante gave me your name, it didn’t ring any bells.”

“Same. I didn’t realize you were G.C. Layton of Layton Construction. For me, it’s the last name that’s different. Probably why my name didn’t sound familiar to you.” Quite a few other things had changed as well, like that she no longer believed in love or happily ever after, or that she could depend on anyone but herself.

Excerpt Three:

She opened the door to the small groundskeeper’s house, which was really nothing more than a glorified pool house. It was four hundred square feet, little more than a studio apartment in size. The only thing enclosed was the tiny bathroom. But she had spruced her home up as best she could, painting the walls a fresh, light powder blue and had put her bed near the window to catch the early morning sunlight.

There was room enough for her couch and a small television, plus the eat in kitchen with her small, pine dinette set. She’d painted the walnut cabinets an eggshell white, giving the place a farmhouse look. Daisy made a beeline toward her water bowl and dog bed up against the far wall.

“This is where you’re living?” Graham studied her place without judgement, his gaze assessing the space.

It might not be much, but it was home and, best of all, hers. “Yep. I don’t need a lot of space or things. Most days I will be over at the main house from sunup until sundown, at least until I can afford to hire help.”

If things worked the way she hoped, she would have a hostess and servers for the dining room. Phoebe already had her eye on a waitress at the nightclub to entice to come work for her. While she was confident in her abilities, it would be a juggling act to cook and serve meals in the dining room at the same time. At first, there was no way around it and she would be forced to manage it somehow. But she hoped this place would be successful enough that a few months after opening, she would have the available budget to hire help.

“Have a seat. Would you like a cup of coffee? And I have some croissants on the table there, just baked them fresh this morning,” she said, rather thrilled to be playing hostess. Phoebe enjoyed cooking and had found early in life that she had a knack for it. But this was a new croissant recipe she was testing out, and she was interested to see Graham’s reaction.

“It’s barely ten.” He smiled as he sat, facing her and the kitchen.

“I tend to be an early riser. Always have been.”

“I’m the same.”

Using one of her good mugs, she served him a steaming cup of coffee, then brought over all the accoutrements on a wooden tray: sugar, cream, and sugar substitute. She noted that he took his coffee black as night, but he slathered the croissant with her homemade jam.

“Mmm, oh my god.” He groaned, and the sound pinged low in her belly. “You made this?” Graham asked, looking at her and then back at the pastry as if he had died and gone to heaven.

“Yep.” She expelled a breath. The new recipe appeared to be a hit. Graham ate the croissant with relish. Pinpricks of satisfaction flowed through Phoebe. She slid into the seat across from him as he put a thumb covered in jam into his mouth and sucked it off.

Her girly bits throbbed at an unexpected blast of desire that struck her system like a thunder bolt. It had been an unconsciously sexy move on his part. It wasn’t like he was attempting to get into her pants. He was here to earn a potential payday, and work. Yet when he glanced her way with sublime satisfaction in his eyes, across the small expanse of her pine dinette table, her insides quivered—and not with fear.

She needed to shut the gate closed and seal it tight. Phoebe didn’t do relationships anymore. That wasn’t in her plans for her life any longer.

No matter how sinful the packaging happened to be.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

AUTHOR Bio and Links:

Born in St. Louis, Missouri, Anya grew up listening to Cardinals baseball and reading anything she could get her hands on. She remembers her mother saying if only she would read the right type of books instead binging her way through the romance aisles at the bookstore, she’d have been a doctor. While Anya never did get that doctorate, she graduated cum laude from the University of Missouri-St. Louis with an M.A. in History.

Anya is a bestselling and award-winning author published in multiple fiction genres. She also writes urban fantasy, paranormal romance, and contemporary romance under the name Maggie Mae Gallagher. A total geek at her core, when she is not writing, she adores attending the latest comic con or spending time with her family. She currently lives in the Midwest with her two furry felines.

Website: www.anyasummers.com

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/AnyaSummersAuthor  

Twitter: @AnyaBSummers https://twitter.com/anyabsummers?lang=en

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/15183606.Anya_Summers

Amazon https://amzn.to/2SmLqWm

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

a Rafflecopter giveaway https://widget-prime.rafflecopter.com/launch.js/script

The Art of Remembering

Author: Alison Ragsdale

Narrator: Heather McRae

Length: 11 hours 49 minutes

Publisher: Alison Ragsdale

Released: Sep. 23, 2019

Genre: Contemporary Fiction

Professional ballerina Ailsa MacIntyre is at the peak of her career when her world is shattered by a shocking diagnosis. Life-saving surgery leaves her with a fractured memory, little recollection of her husband, Evan, and none of her career as a principal dancer. While recuperating at home, Ailsa hears beautiful music coming from the apartment upstairs, and the sound of the grand piano at the hands of a talented new neighbor sparks her muscle memory. As her recovery progresses, the broken pieces of her past gradually re-emerge, a picture not quite as idyllic as Evan would have her remember. Ailsa must navigate the conflicting visions of her past, and potential future, as they collide.
Buy on Audible
A former professional dancer, and marketing executive, originally from Edinburgh, Alison now lives near Washington DC with her husband and dog. She was educated in England and holds an MBA from Leicester University. Alison is the author of five, bestselling novels: TUESDAY’S SOCKS, THE FATHER-DAUGHTER CLUB, FINDING HEATHER, A LIFE UNEXPECTED and THE ART OF REMEMBERING. She is also a two-time IPPY Award winner with THE FATHER DAUGHTER CLUB being awarded the IPPY 2016, Bronze Medal for Best Regional Fiction – Europe, and A LIFE UNEXPECTED, winning a Bronze Medal in the 2018 Popular Fiction category. THE ART OF REMEMBERING, released in July, 2019 debuted as an Amazon bestseller, was a finalist in the American Fiction Awards Literary Category and was selected by BookBub for their Best Book Club Book list in both July and August, 2019.
WebsiteTwitterFacebookInstagram
Narrator Bio Heather McRae is from Falkirk in Central Scotland, but met her husband whilst studying at Lancaster University in the North of England, where both were very involved with the Theatre Group. Having moved back to Scotland in 2006, she and her brother took over the music and advertising business their grandfather had started back in the ’60s, and she’s currently in the process of setting up a glamping business to support the maintenance of a listed building. She also sings in two choirs, and she and her husband breed pedigree Tiffanie cats and are very involved in the cat show world. Reading and writing have been lifelong passions, and Heather won numerous awards for poetry recital and public speaking growing up (though now prefers to be backstage). In 2018, some people commenting on a video she had uploaded to social media mentioned that she has a soothing voice, that would be good for audiobook narration. Seeing this, one of her friends pointed her in the direction of Amazon’s Audiobook Creation Exchange, and helping authors to bring their books to life has become a new source of much enjoyment in her free time. She has developed a fascination for dialects and accents, and now drives her husband mad by trying to learn to mimic every new accent she encounters.   I received this audiobook as part of my participation in a blog tour with Audiobookworm Promotions. The tour is being sponsored by Alison Ragsdale. The gifting of this audiobook did not affect my opinion of it.
Q&A with Author Alison Ragsdale
  • How did you select your narrator?
    • I worked with ACX to find the perfect narrator for this book. Initially, I searched through the available narrators/producers who met the criteria I had: primarily a female and a native Scot, who was versatile with accents. Then I uploaded an audition script and waited to see who would submit an audition reel. I also sent direct messages to a couple of narrators whom I felt would be a good fit. Soon the audition reels began to come in and I listened to each one, closing my eyes and letting the voices soak in. When I heard Heather McRae’s reel, the hairs literally stood up on my arms and I knew she was the voice who could bring this cast of characters to life. When I contacted her, she agreed to take on the project and, the rest is history.
  • How closely did you work with your narrator before and during the recording process?
    • I worked very closely with Heather, listening to each chapter as she uploaded them, making edits as we went along, and no doubt driving her crazy with my attention to detail. However, she dealt with all my concerns and edits, quickly and gracefully, so the book began to emerge exactly as I’d imagined it.
  • Did you give them any pronunciation tips or special insight into the characters?
    • Yes. The book includes characters from various regions of Scotland, England, and from Sweden, both male and female, so it was important to clearly differentiate between them as they were read. The book is also choc-full of ballet terms that required some clarification, here and there, on pronunciation. I also gave Heather information on the characters’ motivations and emotional temperatures, in certain scenes, to help her interpret particularly intense sections of dialogue. She brought wonderful drama, where it was needed, that made me well-up when listening to it back.
  • Were there any real life inspirations behind your writing?
    • Yes, there were. I am a native Scot, a former professional dancer, and a brain tumor survivor, so to a large extent, I mined many of my personal experiences for this book. However, I always make a point of clarifying that it’s not MY story, and that those are the only things I have in common with Ailsa. It is still, however, a very personal book to me, in many ways.
  • How do you manage to avoid burn-out? What do you do to maintain your enthusiasm for writing?
    • As far as avoiding burnout, I rely on mother nature. I take long walks every day, with my sweet dog Maddie, soaking in my surroundings without any technology invading my mind-space. It’s meditative, and lets me recharge my sense of calm and connectedness to the earth. I also do yoga, and spend time with my husband and sisters, who help keep me sane.
    • Maintaining my enthusiasm for writing hasn’t been a problem, so far. I am an avid reader and the more great books I read, the more motivated I am to keep learning, and producing books I’m proud of. In terms of my process, I give myself licence to take breaks from writing, even as long as a few weeks, in some cases. That way I’m removing some of the pressure to produce when I may not be feeling inspired, or the story just won’t come.
  • What do you say to those who view listening to audiobooks as “cheating” or as inferior to “real reading”?
    • I’d say, think again. Whatever method a reader uses to enjoy the written word is as legitimate as any other. Also, think about all the keen readers out there who aren’t gifted with sight, or those who are so busy with life that the only way they can absorb a book is to listen to it, while going from point A to point B. There are so many things that may influence this choice, that to judge it as an inferior method of ‘reading’ seems unfair.
  • How did you celebrate after finishing this novel?
    • It had been 3.5 years in the making, so felt like a major accomplishment. My husband cooked me a lovely dinner and we cracked open a special bottle of Tuscan red wine we’d been saving. It was the perfect way to celebrate, and mark reaching the finish line.
  • Have any of your characters ever appeared in your dreams?
    • Yes! Jeffrey Mere, the protagonist in my debut novel, TUESDAY’S SOCKS, first came to me in a dream. I woke at 3.00 am with his name, his face, his personality quirks and a basic outline of his story – all glowing in the dark. It also happened with Heather Forrester in FINDING HEATHER, and then again with Ailsa, in THE ART OF REMEMBERING.
  • What’s your favorite:
    • Food – I love rich, comfort foods like hearty soups, curries and veggie dishes. I also love fish, and the fresh mussels from the west of Scotland are the best in the world.
    • Song – Can’t think of a song, but my favorite piece of music is Vaughn Williams’, Lark Ascending.
    • Book – The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera.
    • Television show – Call the Midwife
    • Movie – Julie and Julia
    • Band – Genesis
    • Sports team – I don’t follow sports
    • City – Edinburgh or Florence
  • What bits of advice would you give to aspiring authors?
    • The best advice I can give would be to start writing. Don’t put it off because you feel as if you might not be good enough, or that others will judge your work. I was crippled by fear in the beginning – fear of failing, fear of letting myself down, fear of sharing my work etc etc. The best thing I ever did was join a writing group. I found a circle of wonderful people who all wrote from the heart, in a diverse range of genres. It was a safe place to share, and discuss each-others’ work, and we all grew as writers as a result. It was the first place I shared anything I’d written, outside of with my family, and it helped me get over what was holding me back.
  • What’s next for you?
    • I’m now working on the third draft of book number six, titled DIGNITY AND GRACE, which is a very poignant tale about family, loss and redemption. When that is ready to go back to my editor, I’ve already got book number seven planned out, so I’m excited to start writing that one. The wheels keep on turning.
Q&A with Protagonist Ailsa
 
  • How would you describe the feeling of being on stage?
    • Like floating, but scarier. It’s an adrenaline rush, the sense of looking out at an audience you can’t see, but being totally under their scrutiny. There’s something magical about the fear, though, because it becomes almost addictive.
 
  • When did you first know that you wanted to be a dancer?
    • At the age of nine. I’d started ballet classes at five, and never looked back.
 
  • Why didn’t you stand up to your mother sooner about her pushing you so hard?
    • Because she had sacrificed a lot for me, and I knew she thought she was doing the best she could to prepare me for life as a professional dancer. Even though she was hard at times, it came from love, so as a young woman I found it hard to go against her, or to disappoint her.
 
  • When did you know for sure that Sam was the man for you?
    • When we sat on his floor and ate strudel. That was the day he told me about his wife. There was something so endearing in how much he had loved her, I knew there was real depth to him – real caring. It touched my heart deeply.
 
  • If you could go back and change anything, what would it be?
    • I don’t think I’d change much, because I believe that we end up where we’re meant to be. The choices we make, whether in retrospect we think them good or bad, get us to where we are now, and I wouldn’t change anything about that.
 
  • Are there any roles you’d liked to have danced that you didn’t?
    • Yes. I always wanted to dance The Firebird, from Rite of Spring, to Stravinsky’s score. It never happened, though.
Oct. 27th: Nesie’s Place Valerie Ullmer | Romance Author Viviana MacKade Southern Girl Bookaholic Oct. 28th: What Is That Book About 4 the Love of Audiobooks Oct. 29th: The Book Junkie Reads . . . Eileen Troemel Oct. 30th: Jazzy Book Reviews Just 4 My Books Oct. 31st: Reading A Page Turner Nov. 1st: Cover Lover Book Review Nov. 2nd: All the Ups and Downs what.shawna.reads

Plugging you into the audio community since 2016.

Sign up as a tour host here.

The Umbrella Men

The Umbrella Men
by Keith Carter
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
A witty and acerbic novel for our times about corporate greed, the hubris of bankers, contradictions of the clean energy economy and their unintended consequences on everyday people.
Finance, environmentalism, rare-earth mining and human frailties collide in a complex of flawed motives. We follow Peter Mount, the self-made Chief Executive of a London-based rare-earth mining company as he and his business are buffeted by crisis-torn Royal Bank of Scotland and by his own actions, real and imagined. Meanwhile in Oregon, Amy Tate and her group of local environmental activists do their contradictory part to undermine a component of the green economy, unwittingly super-charged by the Chinese state. The repercussions of events in pristine Oregon are felt in the corporate and financial corridors of New York and London with drastic consequences. This is a deeply involving novel about the current workings of capitalism, miscommunication, causes and unexpected effects, love and survival.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LaSOyv_mIFQ?feature=player_embedded]
Keith Iain Carter was born in Scotland in March 1959, second son of Marian van Westendorp and Ralph Carter. He attended a variety of bog standard state schools in northern England and in 1978 went up to Cambridge to read Economics, taking a First in 1981 when he was elected a Scholar – too late to enjoy the privilege of walking on the grass.
Other than corporate annual reports, he has not previously been published, unless you count a letter printed in Business Week deploring the widespread use of the word ‘wannabe’ and this quote in Investors Chronicle: “I used to be a banker, then I went straight”.
As an investment banker Keith worked for three now-disgraced institutions – he denies that any causation is associated with this correlation – Lloyds, Drexel Burnham Lambert and NatWest (RBS). A corporate financier, he ended up by specialising in pharmaceuticals and, in 1998, was part of a team acquiring a small vaccine business from GSK. As CEO he took the company public in 2004. Since 2010 Keith has worked as a business consultant to healthcare companies and as a writer, which he prefers.
Keith lives in London, Yorkshire and aboard a boat currently in Greece. He is a French-speaking Europhile who also loves America, travel, politics and economics, reading and writing, music, sailing of all kinds and food and drink.
Follow the tour HERE for exclusive excerpts and a giveaway!