Jimmy Smits. Remember him?
Yeah, me, too. And what has that to do with anything, you ask?
Oh, lots…
I grew up without a TV, so when I was a young adult, I pigged out on TV, catching up on TV series I hadn’t seen, but had heard all the gossip about for years. There are still major gaps in my personal TV history, especially the US shows that were big hits in Australia at the time, as I still didn’t have access to the commercial stations and wouldn’t for years yet.
So my early TV drama diet included mostly UK shows, and some of them were brilliant. British TV produces excellent historical dramas—Anna Karenina, I Claudius, and A Woman of Substance jump easily to my mind, all based upon excellent books.
The Brits are no slouches at thriller series, either. One of the early ones I caught up with was a miniseries, Running Blind, set in Iceland of all places, and based upon a book by Desmond Bagley. I promptly scrounged the secondhand bookstores for a copy, devoured it, and spent a year finding copies of every other thriller he’d written.
That piece of serendipity is still shaping the stories I tell even today. Running Blind remains one of my favourite books of all time, ever.
Finally, though, and after a few more years had passed, I got access to commercial TV channels and VHS movies. Enter a phase of binge-watching everything. All the classic movies I’d missed out on (no movie theatre, either, you see), including all of the original Star Trek series movies, right up to The Undiscovered Country (which is my favourite of the TOS movies).
Still spotting the parallels?
One of the US TV series I managed to catch up with during those, um, golden years, was LA Law, which is where I first came across Jimmy Smits. And, oh my, did he catch my attention!
Before the series ended, I moved to Papua New Guinea and promptly lost access to commercial television again. I never did get around to seeing the end of that series, but Jimmy Smits stuck in my mind.
After my return to Australia, I started binge-watching movies I’d missed while living just below the equator. One of them was a new-to-me movie, Old Gringo, that featured Jimmy Smits and actually pre-dated L.A. Law.
It was a thriller set in 19th century Mexico, with Jane Fonda and Gregory Peck…and Jimmy Smits.
It was brilliant.
I can see why it didn’t do well in the box office, as it’s not a standard shoot-out/bad Mexicans/name your cliché movie. But Jimmy Smits blew the set apart with his charisma. I have never forgotten the story.
Fast forward a few dozen years and I again binge-watched all three (later to be four) El Desperado movies, the last three of them starring Antonio Banderas in his first English-speaking role.
Oh…mama.
Some time later I saw the very first Zorro movie with Antonio Banderas, and a few years after that, the second one (which I firmly believe is far superior to the first, despite the poor box office—there’s a far greater romance story in the second one, and there’s a scene at the end, when Zorro is unmasked, that breaks my heart every time).
It’s fair to say that I had been exposed to the most romantic aspects of Latin America via some of the most influential movies of the decade(s)…and some of the sexiest Latino men alive. (Although, Banderas is actually Spanish, but Spain is the motherland of all things Latin American, so I’ll go with the vibe.)
It was inevitable that I would end up writing my own sexy, Latin-America-based series, after that.
The Vistaria Affair was that series. It started life as an erotic romance thriller, then became a three-book series, before the erotic romance publisher, Ellora’s Cave, and I parted ways. Even then, I spent more time writing about the romances and the revolution in my fictional Latin American country than I did describing the hot and sweaty sex that EC used to demand.
For that reason, when I got the rights to the first three books back from EC, I rewrote them to make them “normal” romantic suspense, and finally, after many years, got to finish the series.
The very last book of the series was released in December 2018—I can’t believe how fast that year has gone by. And now I can release the full series boxed set, which becomes available today.
If you like a touch of exotic Latin in your military heroes, you’ll love this series.
The entire six book military thriller romance series in one boxed set.
Military-style romantic suspense with a twist; The Latin American island nation of Vistaria and its people suffer through a revolution and its ugly aftermath, while the nation’s heroes work to save those they love from the chaos.
1.0: Vistaria Has Fallen
2.0: Prisoner of War
3.0: Hostage Crisis
4.0: Freedom Fighters
5.0: Casualties of War
6.0: V-Day
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Praise for the Vistaria Has Fallen series:
Heart pounding. High tension. Adrenaline rushing.
I felt like I was running right beside them, out of breath, waiting for time to run out.
Loved, loved, loved this book and the entire series.
Once again Tracy Cooper Posey proves that she is a master of all genres – thrillers, revolution, war, politics, romance. Bravo!!!
The action and suspense was super high and almost non-stop. This series would make fantastic movies!
I loved to read about past characters fiercely defending what’s theirs still. I don’t know how to put the end without spoilers so I won’t. I just have a warm feeling inside.
I highly recommend this book to those who love realistic storytelling filled with thrills, suspense, action, danger and of course love. War doesn’t end love, it intensifies it.
Wow! This entire series has been a wild ride.
It is action-packed, passion-filled story.
There is heroism, romance, action, and suspense – all brilliantly laid out by Cooper-Posey, piece by piece. The plot twists are fantastic!
I would highly recommend this book (and the entire series, as a matter of fact), to anyone who wants to enjoy an adventure in a world far removed from our own – where honor still exists, broken people still find love, and good rises above evil.
Romance and suspense all in one series. Best books I have read in years.
The Vistaria Affair is available at all bookstores only for a short while. It will be pulled from all non-Amazon stores in a few weeks, and subscribed to Kindle Unlimited, so if you buy your books at Apple or Kobo–or me!–then don’t wait!
Cheers,
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Love your background story; it gives us, your fans, a great look at that amazing writing talent of yours.
Thank you, Dina!
t.