Pro quarterback, Ethan
Christopher thought he had found his home when he met rock musician, Mia
Devereux. She was the welcomed distraction in his football-focused
life.
Things may not have been perfect. Their individual careers made being together difficult. Her touring. His away schedule. As her success grew, they spent more extended periods apart.
But at the end of the day, he knew he wanted to spend the rest of his life with her. Only her.
When Mia met Ethan, she felt a connection unlike any she’d ever felt. She gave him more of herself than she thought was even possible.
But she knew it wasn’t enough. There was a lot she didn’t share, couldn’t give him.
An event two decades in her past made sure of that.
Those demons that she’d so carefully tucked away wanted out. As Mia struggled with the stress of touring and being apart from Ethan, her defenses weakened, allowing the demons to fight their way to the surface, leaving her in a vulnerable place. A place where bad choices were made.
Choices that both of them will regret.
Can Mia and Ethan's love survive her past? Or will if fall apart under the weight of her choices?
Things may not have been perfect. Their individual careers made being together difficult. Her touring. His away schedule. As her success grew, they spent more extended periods apart.
But at the end of the day, he knew he wanted to spend the rest of his life with her. Only her.
When Mia met Ethan, she felt a connection unlike any she’d ever felt. She gave him more of herself than she thought was even possible.
But she knew it wasn’t enough. There was a lot she didn’t share, couldn’t give him.
An event two decades in her past made sure of that.
Those demons that she’d so carefully tucked away wanted out. As Mia struggled with the stress of touring and being apart from Ethan, her defenses weakened, allowing the demons to fight their way to the surface, leaving her in a vulnerable place. A place where bad choices were made.
Choices that both of them will regret.
Can Mia and Ethan's love survive her past? Or will if fall apart under the weight of her choices?
I love a good sports romance. What I love even more is when a story
transcends its genre and becomes so much more.
This book is definitely more.
Ethan is a pro football player and Mia is the lead singer of
a band. They are introduced through Mia’s friend Luke and there’s an instant
attraction. Then that attraction turns
into…more. They begin to feel for each
other a way that neither has ever felt before.
The problem is, they are both at the precipice of big things in their
respective careers, which means trying to build a relationship on extended
periods apart. But, they persevere
because they love each other. Ethan
knows that Mia is the one, but what he doesn’t know is that Mia is keeping a
big part of herself from him. It’s self-preservation, but it also may mean the
end to something really beautiful for them both.
This is a book that grabs you from the beginning and doesn’t
let go. You feel the attraction, desire
and connection between Mia and Ethan, and that’s the cornerstone of what made
this story work so well for me. The
characters were very realistic for me.
So realistic that there were many moments I would have liked to slap or
choke them. But, that’s what drives a
story like this, bad decisions based off of past wounds that you have a hard
time blaming the character for. It
works.
I will warn you that this book does end in a
cliffhanger. I will say that this is a
book that needed a follow up, but that doesn’t mean I’m happy about being left
hanging. Dammit.
Overall, I did really enjoy this book. It’s basically what I want every book of this
genre to be when I sit down to read it.
Engaging and frustrating and enjoyable to read. 4.5 stars.
Amazon US || Amazon UK || Amazon AU ||
Barnes & Noble || Kobo
With a few people ahead of her, Mia’s
anticipation was high as she walked through the gate, dragging her wheeled carry-on
behind her and her backpack over her shoulder. In mere moments, she would lay
her eyes on Ethan, feel his arms around her, breathe in his—
She stumbled as the wheel on her
carry-on caught on a lump in the carpet. Annoyed, Mia turned around to right her
luggage. When she looked up again, she spotted Ethan and her heart filled with
joy at the sight of him as did her eyes.
She stopped mid-step and began to
cry. It wasn’t dainty, quiet tears. Nope, it was more like big elephant tears
and some not-so-attractive sobs. Her heart was going to explode any minute, she
was sure of it. She had never been so happy to see anybody in her life.
He grinned and made his way through
the crowd to her. Letting her backpack fall to the ground, she hurried to her
fiancé, throwing her arms around his neck.
Ten weeks without holding him.
He wrapped his strong arms around her
waist and lifted her in the air, hugging her so tight she thought she might pee
her pants.
“Hi, suga,” he whispered against her
ear, his warm breath sending shivers down her neck and straight down her back.
“Hi,” she replied, kissing his smooth
cheek. His arms around her felt so good. She had missed that, how they made her
feel safe. Home.
Ethan put her down and cupped her
face with his strong hands, placing his lips on hers. She didn’t realize how
much she’d missed the taste of him.
Ten weeks without kissing him.
It was no wonder that the kiss
quickly increased in urgency. This wasn’t just a hello kiss. It was an ‘I want
to possess you’ kind of kiss. As soon as he could get them out of there, she’d
let him do just that. Possess her.
Mia put her hands on his wonderfully
strong chest and lightly pushed away, her eyes darting across his handsome face
before smiling up at him. “So, we’ve got like seven hours until I have to be
back here. What do we want to do? Back to my place?”
“Hell no! That wastes time getting
there. So I, uh, got us a room at one of the hotels near the airport.”
Her smile grew wider. God, she loved
the mind of this man! “Seriously? You and I—together?”
He chuckled quietly. “Yeah, we’ll be
like two virgins.”
“Haha! No, I don’t think so,” she
said, rising on her tip toes to steal another kiss from those fabulous lips.
“Let’s go!”
She picked up her discarded backpack
and he took her carry-on from her and, with his free hand, he laced his fingers
through hers and gave her a squeeze. For these next few hours, she would not be
leaving his touch. No absolute way.
“Where is the hotel?” she asked,
looking up at him. Even though she just saw him on Skype yesterday, he looked
different to her. Maybe it was the three dimension thing throwing her off.
“They said walking distance from the
airport.”
Mia couldn’t stop smiling. She knew
this was just for a few hours but she needed this so badly. She was starting to
sink fast and needed him to help keep her afloat. She had held it together for
so long that when she found out it’d be over two months before seeing him
again, she had snapped. She didn’t know how to cope anymore so she reached out
for her go-to remedies—alcohol and drugs. It had been so long since Mia had
felt the need to take them. Hopefully this time with him will be what she
needed to get back on the straight and narrow.
They quickly made their way from the
airport to the hotel, checked in and, with hurried steps, made their way to
their sanctuary for the next several hours. Mia was surprised by an attack of
nerves as he opened the door for her. She’d had sex with him hundreds of times.
He was her fiancé, the man with whom she would spend the rest of her life. How
could she be nervous? If she was being honest, she wondered if things would be
different and if they were, would he like it—would she?
She went inside the room and busied
herself with taking care of her bag and her jacket. She stayed there and took a
deep breath to center herself, to try to rid herself of these stupid nerves.
Ethan stood behind her and snaked his
arms around her waist, enveloping her in the warmth of his body. Mia leaned
back into him, her head against his chest. “Hey, beautiful,” he whispered
before brushing his lips against her cheek.
She turned in his arms and placed her
hands on either side of his face. She gazed briefly into his amber eyes before
pressing her mouth to his warm and wonderfully sweet lips. She couldn’t imagine
if she would have had to wait until March for that kiss.
Putting a large hand to her back,
Ethan drew her even closer to him. Mia smiled against his mouth when she felt
the hardness of his erection between them. She glanced up and loved the
eagerness she saw in his eyes.
Suddenly, she was lifted in the air.
A surprised shout escaped from her when she landed on the soft bed. Mia looked
up to find him peeling off his sweater and shirt. She stared longingly at his
lean muscular chest that looked so much better in person. She couldn’t wait to
touch him, taste him.
Mia gasped as Ethan quickly undid and
stripped her of her jeans. Her pulse quickened as he removed his pants. That
got her into gear. She sat up and clumsily took off her shirt and tank top and
when they were off, he stood at the foot of the bed, his honey-colored eyes
drinking her up. “You coming?”
He let out a boisterous chuckle. “Not
for awhile, suga,” he said, making his way onto the bed.
During the day, Ryleigh is an
analyst, but even then, she’s writing, sneakily crafting scenes on post-it
notes. She's been told she's a bit of a geek...some say nerd. She'll agree to
it all. She loves music. It's been a force in her life for as long as she can
remember. Her love of Star Wars and superheroes has probably been going on just
as long...see, this is where the geek/nerd thing comes into play. But, most of
all, Ryleigh loves the written word. She's been writing for a long time. Her
first story came to her during one of her history classes. She wrote it in the
margins of her notebook in teeny tiny letters so no one knew that she was
writing a book instead of taking notes on 16th Century Europe. She currently
lives in Chicago, Illinois, with her husband and son, along with her Siberian
Husky, Mick Jagger, and her cat, Winston Churchill.
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