When Stacey Abrams isn’t fighting for voting rights, teaching us about public policy, meeting with world leaders, or just being awesome, she’s working on a book. And yes, there may be some that you haven’t even discovered just yet. Enter Selena Montgomery, Arbams’s romantic suspense alter ego who will absolutely take over your TBR after you finish reading this.
Yes, that’s right, Stacey Abrams has some sizzling books that are totally perfect for the end of summer, and Cosmopolitan has your first look at a special re-release of The Art of Desire. The book, which was originally published in 2001 is getting a whole new look as it comes out on hardcover for the first time, including a fresh cover that is absolutely stunning.
And if that wasn’t enough to get you excited, Berkley‘s official description of the book will certainly make you run to your local bookshop to pick this up ASAP:
More From Cosmopolitan
Trouble comes in threes…
One doomed love affair after another has made lovely Alex Walton swear off men. Now, she’s determined to try something that maybe she can succeed at: a writing career. Little does she know that a chance meeting with a strikingly handsome stranger, a mysterious obelisk, and a lost kingdom will change her life forever. As Alex is about to discover, truth can be stranger—and far more dangerous—than fiction.
…but true love comes only once.
After three years inside a terrorist organization, Phillip Turman is trying to rebuild his life. His first assignment is to pick up Alex Walton, the maid of honor for his best friend’s wedding, at the airport. His second is to deal with his instant attraction to her. But his third may be the toughest: to keep Alex out of danger as his past—and her need to know about it—threaten to destroy their future.
But of course, this re-release calls for a special something. Well, you can also check out an exclusive excerpt below and it proves just why you are going to want to pre-order The Art of Desire and even pick up a couple more of her previous books in the process (including some new ones she’s written under her own name).
An Excerpt From The Art of Desire
By Stacey Abrams writing as Selena Montgomery
Phillip started after her, and then stopped. He rubbed a long-fingered hand over the day’s growth of beard on his chin. Staring at the astonishing woman bathed in sunlight, he shook his head in bemusement. When Adam described Alex Walton as intriguing, Phillip hadn’t realized the full import of the term. She was beautiful and witty and unconventional, to say the least. How else could he explain an innocent conversation about the wedding, which had somehow morphed into a declaration of abstinence? A declaration he was tempted to challenge.
Alex stirred him. That dramatic face, the slightly voluptuous form, and a low husky voice that jangled nerve endings. But he had enough on his plate to worry about without acting on a preternatural desire to cover those bee-stung lips with his own.
Like how in the hell she’d bewitched him in less than twenty minutes, his mind countered.
Searching for the cold logic that was a much a part of him as the detailed plans, Phillip forced himself to consider why any interest in Raleigh’s odd maid of honor would have to remain here in Atlanta. First of all, he would be on a flight back to D.C. in a week. Common sense told him no good could come of anything started five hundred miles away.
Besides, he barely knew the woman. Despite the blood-pressure-raising package, Alex Walton was obviously a few crackers shy of a full box.
There was also the uneasy feeling he had of being followed. In D.C., he’d checked for tails, and even found himself scanning the highway for too familiar cars here in Atlanta. He’d been trained to worry, to rely on a heightened sense of suspicion. His last conversation with Atlas teased him, as though he should have heard something but didn’t.
He would deliver her to the Walton homestead in the Cascades, and then retire to Adam’s for the evening. There, he’d run through scenarios with Raleigh and Adam, to ensure the security of their wedding. But first, Alex had some explaining to do. A male moratorium? Phillip hesitated for a moment longer then headed through the doors. “Alex!”
She slowed, waiting for him to catch up. Falling in step beside her, he furrowed his brow. Although she pasted on a wan smile, Phillip noted that it did not reach those exotic brown pools she called eyes. “What were you talking about? What in the world is a male moratorium?”
If anything, her plastered-on smile grew more strained. “Sort of like a romance cease-fire,” Alex stated, as though the comparison explained everything.
Now he was confused. As they crossed through the milling traffic, Phillip echoed her latest cryptic comment. “Romance cease-fire?”
Alex set her hat precariously on her mass of hair, ignoring the question. The first balmy breeze rushed past, she inhaled deeply. Until that moment, she hadn’t realized how much she missed Atlanta. She was home. Neither Damon nor any of his predecessors would dim her pleasure at being back with her family.
Phillip negotiated the ramp leading to deck escalators. “Romance cease-fire,” he repeated.
The escalator reached the upper level and they left the step in unison. Shaking off her misery, Alex tucked her arm in his and replied, “You know, ‘Abandon all hope, ye who enter in.’ In this case, it’s for all unsuspecting men who dare to flirt. I feel I should warn you as well, not that you’ve flirted with me. And not to suggest that you might, but I believe in fair warnings to all men of age. Then again, there was the way you were staring at my legs in the airport.”
Phillip opened his mouth to speak, but Alex continued unabated. “I, my dear Phillip, have an uncanny ability to find the break the heart of every attractive man I meet, or at least bludgeon it with mild pet peeves that transform themselves into unconquerable flaws. I lure them in and when no one is looking, certainly not I, I convert previously ideal men into the masses of imperfection. I can transform affection for opera into a character flaw of mammoth proportions. And what I can do with a harmless comment on Sartre versus de Beauvoir has yet to be explained, but it did cause Franklin to drop out of his Ph.D. program. And, if you dare doubt my persnickety prowess, I have statistics.”
Dumbfounded, Phillip halted on the walkway and stared at Alex. Statistics? Moratorium? And when did she see him staring at her legs? Not that anyone could blame him.
They were almost as long as her sentences. “Has anyone ever pointed out your tendency to—”
“Run on and on?” The mega-watt grin returned with a disarming hint of self-deprecation.
“A bit, yes.”
“Ah, but otherwise, I’m a perfect companion. I like ESPN, have an excellent jump shot and I don’t require much in the way of daily maintenance. But with the definite tendency to talk too much.”
Definitely a couple of crackers shy, Phillip decided. And still smarting from a recent break-up. He didn’t grow up with sisters, but Phillip understood human nature. A bad break-up transformed into a suspension of romantic interest. Sounded familiar, he acknowledged. After Lorei, he’d shut down, refusing any relationships with women beyond the most basic. His partners were aware of the rules—no ties, no commitments. Occasionally, someone would try to develop more and Phillip ended the liaison without hesitation.
One look at Alex told him she didn’t want to talk about her aborted love affair, and Phillip understood protecting sore wounds. Besides, how was a man supposed to keep up with that mouth and a serious conversation at the same time? he challenged himself.
Taking her lead, he changed the subject. “I was going to say your ability to pack quite a lot into a single breath. Do you do this often?” Phillip asked as he steered her towards the waiting car.
“Do what?” At his cocked brow, she nodded in understanding. “Oh, the rambling? I’m famous for it. Didn’t Adam or Raleigh warn you?”
No, Adam didn’t warn him. “Adam said that you were ‘intriguing.’”
“Damned by faint praise,” Alex laughed in delight, and Phillip felt his stomach tighten. The husky sound slid over his skin and into his bones.
“He didn’t mean it that way,” Phillip corrected, ignoring the sweet pain of desire.
“Praise, in any form, is greatly appreciated.” She mocked both of them with a curtsy. The abbreviated shorts rode dangerously high up her thighs, but she made no move to tug them back down, to Phillip’s eternal gratitude.
Man, she was adorable. And a walking contradiction. The gorgeous face and the sex-siren laugh were completely at odds with the scattered conversation and the vulnerability of that last soliloquy. And she still lived in Atlanta, Phillip reminded himself.
Phillip reigned himself in abruptly. Alex was not a candidate for a short romance or a long-distance relationship. He’d known her less than an hour, and what he did know wasn’t exactly awe-inspiring. Lust-inducing, maybe. But he had grown beyond the days where he thought only with his hormones. At thirty-five, the idea of settling down appealed to him on several levels, despite his protestations to his father. In his most private dreams, he longed for what Adam and Raleigh had found together. What he’d missed while trapped undercover. A place that felt right, felt special. Someone to miss him and welcome him home. He was mortally tired of being alone. But Alex Walton was not the answer.
Excerpted from THE ART OF DESIRE by Stacey Abrams writing as Selena Montgomery, published by Berkley, an imprint of Penguin Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House, LLC. Copyright ©2002 and 2023 by Stacey Y Abrams.
The Art of Desire, by Stacey Abrams writing as Selena Montgomery, will be released on September 5, 2023. To preorder the book, click on the retailer of your choice:
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Entertainment Editor
Tamara Fuentes is the current Entertainment Editor at Cosmopolitan, where she covers TV, movies, books, celebrities, and more. She can often be found in front of a screen fangirling about something new. Before joining Cosmopolitan, she was the entertainment editor over at Seventeen. She is also a member of the Television Critics Association and the Latino Entertainment Journalists Association. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram.