Lena Diaz, Author of FINAL EXIT, Explains What “EXIT” Is (plus a giveaway!)

Just what is “EXIT”? The simple answer is that it’s an acronym that stands for “EXtreme International Tours”. EXIT Inc. is a company that matches tour guides and vacation packages with people who want extreme, fun, and dangerous outdoor experiences all over the world. This can range from riding fiver rapids and ziplining across deep canyons to climbing Mount Everest or some other equally exciting but dangerous endeavor. All under the protection of an experienced and capable guide. But is that really what EXIT is about?

Of course not.

The tour company part of EXIT Inc. is just a front, a cover for its real mission as a clandestine government organization. Many of the tour guides at EXIT are really agents, called Enforcers, who take on the dirty jobs that other alphabet agencies can’t, or won’t, tackle—including assassinations. The Enforcers take out the bad guys before the bad guys can hurt more people.

Or, at least, that’s what it’s supposed to be about.

What the heroes in the EXIT books quickly discover is that there is far more to EXIT than even they knew. There’s a conspiracy, that may go all the way to the top. Enforcers are being tricked, used for someone’s personal gain. As a result, some of the people being “taken out” by Enforcers may not be bad guys after all.

Each of the EXIT novels (there are three in all, with FINAL EXIT being the last) focuses on a different Enforcer, and a dilemma each of them has to resolve. Meanwhile, the series itself has an overarching thread through all of the books, showing what happens to EXIT Inc. as its Enforcers begin to realize they are being used. FINAL EXIT is the explosive conclusion when readers finally find out what happens to the company and those who are behind it.

Yes, the books are most enjoyable when read in order as a series. However, each one is also stand-alone, following a specific problem that the hero and heroine have to tackle together while they fall in love. It’s always my goal to make each of my books a fully satisfying read regardless of whether you’ve read any of the others in the series.

The first two books, EXIT Strategy and No EXIT, feature heroes who are Enforcers. In FINAL EXIT, it’s the heroine who’s the Enforcer. How cool is that? I loved writing a super-strong female character who was smart, fierce, and willing to fight to the death for the people she cared about. And who better to pair her with as the love interest than a by-the-book FBI agent who was her polar opposite? Bailey and Kade were a super-fun couple to write. Forced to work together against EXIT, they have to overcome their mutual distrust of each other in order to survive. And along the way, of course (after all, it is a romance), they fall in love. And they live happily ever after!