We are so excited to be a stop on the Blog Tour for AL Jackson's recent release "Come to Me Quietly". It's no secert that AL is one of my favorite authors and I always look forward to her releases. This one definitely doesn't disappoint. See below all the book & author info and links, my review, and excerpt and then enter the rafflecopter for your chance to win some awesome prizes. Good Luck & Happy Reading!
Title: Come To Me Quietly (The Closer to You Series,
Book 1)
Author: A.L. Jackson
Release Date: January 7, 2014
Genre: New Adult Romance
Blog Tour hosted by:
Shh Moms Reading, Literary Mania Reviews, and Brandee’s Book Endings
Rating: 5 Star *****
Blurb:
From the acclaimed
bestselling author of Lost to You and
When We Collide comes a new adult novel of one woman’s
obsession: a man who’s as passionate as he is elusive—and as tempting as he is
trouble…
Aleena Moore is haunted by Jared Holt. It’s been six years
since she’s seen her brother’s best friend, the self-destructive bad boy she
secretly loved in high school. As the years pass, she knows it’s time to move
on. Time to decide between a practical nursing degree and her true dream as an
artist. Time to get over Jared and give another guy a chance…
Just when she opens her heart to her friend Gabe, Aly
returns home to find Jared sleeping on her couch. The teenage boy she loved has
grown into a man she can’t resist. Covered in tattoos and lost in rage, he’s
begging to be saved from his demons—the memories of the day he destroyed his
family. As the two reconnect, their passion is hot enough to torch Aly’s
judgment. But can she risk her future for a man who lives on the edge of
destruction?
My Review:
Jared is a tortured soul. A broken man who’s memory and
dreams are filled with demons from his past… hurt, shame, regret, and grief. Guilt.
Guilt is powerful. Guilt can destroy you and rot you from the inside out. Jared
wears his guilt on his body like a coat. A constant reminder that he is not
worthy of happiness or love.
Returning back to the place where it all went down has to be
a mistake. The scene of the crime that crushed his family and his future. A
place where only pain lives… but yet that is exactly where he finds
himself. Why? What is there for him
here??
Aly… Jared doesn’t even know that his soul seeks her.
Being thrust back into the world that was… Jared ends up on
the couch of his childhood best friend and into and odd dance of playing house
with Christopher and Aly. Aly the little girl that trailed behind them as
children. The annoying little sister that he had always protected and promised
never to leave behind. She wasn’t a little girl anymore. She was a beautiful,
sexy, young woman who looked at him like he still mattered. Like he was worth
something. He knew it wasn’t true… just an illusion… and he tried to stay away
from her. He ruined everything he touched and he didn’t want to ruin her. But
he couldn’t help himself.
Can he walk away again? Can he leave her behind to save her
from his horrors or can she save him…
This story is going to break your heart. Break it. Then it’s
going to break it some more. I knew I was in for a roller coaster. AL Jackson
always takes me there. No one writes beautifully
broken characters like she does. Jared and Aly are both broken. Both have lived
with the consequences of careless acts that happened when they were just kids.
Both have been living in the hurt and pain from the past. But that’s not all
you get… you get pain, you get passion, you get love, you get happiness, you
get fear and you get hope. Hope is the prominent theme here. A promise that as
long as you are still breathing
there is hope. You just have to be brave enough to take hold of it.
Excerpt:
With her voice, I shoved off the images, turned and gently smiled at her, ignoring the guy whose gaze burned into the back of my head with outright hate.
Instead I focused on her words that sounded so damned cute, like they used to when we’d run ahead of ourselves to find the best spot at the park. We used to get so close that we’d feel the fireworks rumble through our bodies, and we had to dodge the little pieces of paper ashes that flitted down from the sky.
She led me to a lounger that sat out in the open on the grass. She pushed at my side and grinned. “Take a seat.”
Quirking a brow, I smirked at her, but did as I was told. I sat sideways on it with my feet on the ground. Aly settled to the grass, and instinctively my knees parted to make room for her. Nestling between my legs, she shifted a bit to rest her head on the inside of my thigh. Then she released a breathy sigh as if this was the only place she wanted to be, murmuring, “I’m so glad you’re here, Jared.”
Desire coursed over every inch of my skin and pooled in my stomach. There was nothing I could do to stop it, the way I hardened at her slightest touch, at the soft sound that fell from her mouth, at the smell of her hair that had become permanently ingrained in my mind.
Night fell further, collected across the sky, and the darkness deepened the silence of the cocoon Aly and I found ourselves in. The heat had ebbed the slightest bit, the warmth of the day beginning to dissipate into the inky dome overhead.
Most in the yard had quieted and taken their spots to watch the sky, anticipating the show that was about to begin. Everyone else bled into obscurity, and in that instant, it was just the two of us.
Aly jumped with the first boom. It rumbled along the surface of the ground, vibrating below us, and a long whistle cracked before color exploded in the sky just in the distance.
Quietly she gasped, the way she’d done what seemed like a million times before. A perfect memory of her as a child suddenly overtook my mind. The tips of her delicate fingers fluttered up to her mouth as she watched in awe.
I was powerless to do anything but thread my fingers through her hair, to anchor myself to her, even if it was only for this moment. Even though I’d been the one to cut myself from her, right then it felt impossible to let go.
Reds and blues and whites streamed from the sky, lit up the darkness above, increased in intensity, then fell before the next wave erupted in an electrifying thrill.
Blood thundered through my veins. It’d been so long since I’d felt this close to someone. Part of me fought it, knew I should push her away. The dominate part of me just wanted to stay, even if it was for a little while. I’d been alone for so long. Was it wrong to take away these memories, something to hold onto when I seeped back into nothingness?
Shifting her weight, Aly sank deeper into me. Her body burned into mine, her head pressed into my thigh. She tilted her head back and looked up at me with wistful eyes, watched me with kindness, with a yearning for the way things had been in the past, with ideas of what could never be.
I stared down at her.
And I knew it was wrong, that I was only making things worse, prolonging the inevitable, but right then I just didn’t care.
A pensive smile kissed her mouth, before she turned back to the show above. She snuggled closer, her shoulder dipping down under my leg so her neck was nestled against my thigh. Her hand skimmed over my knee and down my leg before she firmly wrapped her arm around my calf. Her hand tightened there, and my fingers found their way to the nape of her neck, twisting in the fine hairs and tickling her skin. A small whimper escaped her mouth as I massaged my fingers over the base of her scalp, ran them up to the back of her ears and down again.
As if this wasn’t agonizing, having what I wanted most in my hands and knowing she was completely out of reach.
Untouchable.
But right then she was mine. So I gave in, took a little more, leaned forward and buried my nose in the fucking delicious coconut in her hair. Breathed in the life and the goodness and everything that was Aly.
I wanted to remember.
Her fingers curled into my leg, begging just as desperately as my body begged for hers, and I felt strung up, strung out. I ached and needed and felt as if I was going to lose my mind.
Fireworks filled the sky, this constant barrage that illuminated the night. I felt them more than saw them as they knit with the shocking intensity radiating from Aly, a feeling that sped through my veins faster than any high I’d ever experienced. Overhead the finale came to life, pounded through my system, set my skin on fire.
I tightened my hold on her, my nose behind her ear, wanted to take it all.
“Aly,” whispered from my mouth.
About the Author:
A.L.
Jackson is the New York Times bestselling author of Take This Regret and Lost to
You, as well as other contemporary romance titles, including Pulled, When We Collide, and If
Forever Comes.
She
first found a love for writing during her days as a young mother and college
student. She filled the journals she
carried with short stories and poems used as an emotional outlet for the
difficulties and joys she found in day-to-day life.
Years
later, she shared a short story she’d been working on with her two closest
friends and, with their encouragement, this story became her first full length
novel. A.L. now spends her days writing in Southern Arizona where she lives
with her husband and three children.
Amazon
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Come To Me
Quietly Book Trailer
Look for Come
to Me Softly, book two in the Closer To You Series, coming July 1, 2014
Be sure to enter the COME TO ME QUIETLY
Blog Tour Giveaway!!
Grand Prize: A.L. Jackson Complete Signed Paperback
Collection (all six titles) + Come To Me Quietly Poster and swag
Second Prize: Come To Me Quietly Collection, which includes
a signed copy of Come To Me Quietly, a Come To Me Quietly poster, keychain, and
custom bookmark
Third Prize: A.L. Jackson Fun Pack stuffed full of A.L.
Jackson book swag
Fourth Prize: Audiobook Gift Set from Audible.com of
The Regret Series (Lost To You, Take This Regret & If Forever Comes)
a Rafflecopter giveaway
And don’t miss the DAILY blog tour giveaways on A.L.
Jackson’s Facebook accounts! All kinds of fun stuff will be given away ~
ebooks, gift cards, and much more! EVERY DAY from January 7th –
February 7th!!
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