We are so excited to participate in the Blog Tour for "Everything I've Never Had" by Lynetta Halat. I am really excited about this book. Celeste is one of my favorite MCs. Check out all the book info, blurb, excerpts, author info, and review below then be sure to enter both the rafflecopter giveaways for your chance to win one of the following: Kindle Paperwhite, $25 Amazon or B&N Gift Card, 5 Signed Paperbacks of Everything I’ve Never Had, 10 ebooks of Everything I’ve Never Had. Good Luck & Happy Reading
Celeste Hebert has always appeared to have it all, but there are many things she's never had, been forbidden from having.
One night. One song. One kiss. The perfect trifecta to unleash the floodgates of a forbidden attraction between the widow and her husband’s bad boy cousin, Adrian.
Celeste endeavors to rebury the feelings that surface after this one night since her powerful family despises him. Kindred spirits, best of friends they attempt to douse their attraction; however, Adrian always seems to know exactly how to push her buttons and may prove too much to resist.
Having defied his family by making his way on his own terms, Adrian struggles to regain their acceptance. When he meets his cousin’s wife and wants her for his own, he feels he’s finally lived down to the title—black sheep. But, when his cousin dies unexpectedly, Adrian fights his attraction and swears to honor them both by helping her raise her boys.
Finding himself enveloped in a cocoon of love and acceptance, Adrian knows it’s more than just physical attraction. However, unforeseen events threaten to destroy those he now holds dear and his newfound peace.
Will the ties that bind them be their undoing?
My Review:
FINALLY! Finally a love story for ADULTS. That’s right… Celeste is a beautiful, vibrant, sexy 37 year-old widow and mother of three! Imagine that for a minute. This age and situation is rarely MC material in books. It’s usually reserved for the mother or wise confidant or boss in most romantic reads. I was so thrilled to see her juggling her boys, her friends, her domineering family and still going to concerts, having girl’s nights, and garnering the interest of lots of attractive men. Old Maid??? I don’t think so!
Celeste has been dealt a raw deal. She is the daughter of an “ahem” affluent lawyer who isn’t quite on the up & up. She has been told what to do and who to love her entire life. Now that she has lost her husband, Tripp, to cancer, they are back at it again. They want her to marry her late husband’s snake of a brother… WHAT? Talk about screwed up. He is a drunk and an entitled, violent asshole. Oh those Herberts are something else. The only ones worth anything are Celeste’s baby brother Louis and her husband’s cousin Adrian.
Let’s talk about Adrian for a minute shall we. Oh Adrian. The rocker/ex-Marine who wrestles with 8 year-olds and holds your hair back when you eat bad pizza. OMG could he get any hotter? Seriously... Yum. He is kind of the black sheep of the Herbert clan by way of his exercised father but he and Tripp were close and had a mutual respect, so when Celeste needs help after Tripp’s death, Adrian steps in… and Celeste falls hard. How could she not? He is great with her boys, fiercely protective and he is there for her in every way. They try really really hard to fight their attraction. Both know that the Herberts would never allow them to be together. Couple that with Celeste’s worry over their 7 year age difference (yes he is 7 years her junior… SO WHAT if he was 37 and she 30 who would care… it’s hardly cougar territory) and his desire to have children of his own and you have real life hurdles to overcome people.
This story is about living… living after loss… living after war… living after the age of 30. It will surprise you a little too. You think it’s a story about overcoming an insane family dynamic and age issues and then the writer throws you a curveball and it become about surviving the emotional scars from what you have been through in life and about being strong enough to help each other heal and not giving up on the people you love. I can’t say enough about this book. It is exceptional and I read it in one night. I was fully enthralled by Celeste’s and Adrian’s journey.
Excerpt:
Adrian runs his hands up my arms and shoulders until they grasp both sides of my neck to tilt my head back so that I'm staring straight into his arctic blue eyes. I immediately start trembling, and it's not with fear. "Celeste, I'm begging you not to leave here looking like that. You look gorgeous, babe, but I can't sit here all night wondering who's hitting on you, who's imagining moving that scrap of fabric over to get a glimpse at what is..."
"What is what?" I breathe heavily.
"What is underneath it all." His brow wrinkles, and I feel his hands tighten their pleasurably painful grip. "What is underneath it all?"
"Just me, Adrian, just me," I breathe. "That's all."
"So everything then. Just like I thought." He removes one of his hands to run it up the back of my thigh. My eyes widen and I swallow hard.
"That's not a good idea," I whisper. His hand wraps all the way around my thigh, his fingertips coming to rest along the crease of my left cheek. My thigh pulses with fire.
"Why not?" His fingertips tease back and forth a little. Even though it’s a light touch, it feels like his calloused fingertips mark me.
"Why not? Look at us. We can't even have a civil conversation for everything that has passed between us, and you want to further complicate it. What you're doing will further complicate matters."
His hand stills. He exhales loudly and lets his head drop on my chest. "You do this to me. I don't act like this. That day in the park, watching you cross and uncross your legs. Throwing your hair over your shoulder. Laughing without a care in the world. Cheering me on like it was your favorite thing to do! It killed me. Killed me. I've never wanted a woman the way I want you. Never."
His words rain down on me like fiery drops of lust. I close my eyes and rewrite that memory. I thought he was just being an ass, but his unexpected anger was because he was yearning for me. I bite my lip, open my eyes, and shake my head. "It's just because you can't have me, Adrian. I'm nothing special."
"Oh, baby, you have no idea." He runs his nose up my throat, scenting me as he goes. I lean my neck back, giving him more access even as my brain screams at me to run—not walk—out of this room. But when he says, "You're everything to me." My head falls back even further and my eyes close again as I feel him slant his head and attack my chin, throat, and neck with closed-mouth kisses. I hear myself moan and give myself one more little jolt to try to spare myself from this delicious torment that will only end in frustration.
About the Author:
For as long as she can remember, Lynetta Halat has lived to read and has written countless stories and plays since she was a young girl. A teacher by day and an avid reader and closet writer by night, she has always dreamt of penning books that people could connect with and remember; and her first novel, Every Rose, was the perfect catalyst to launch her into the world of publishing. Her love of the English language prompted her to attain her master's degree in English from Old Dominion University in Virginia. A self-proclaimed "Coast Girl," she lives in Mississippi with her adorable husband, two amazing sons, and two loveable dogs. She is currently at work on her third book.
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