SOARING by Kristen Ashley ~Review, Giveaway & Excerpt~
American
heiress Amelia Hathaway needs to start anew.
Her husband cheated on her, and when everything she wanted in life slipped
through her fingers, she fell apart. When she did, she took another heart
wrenching hit as she lost the respect of her children.
When her ex took her family from California to live in the small town of
Magdalene in Maine, Amelia decided it was time to sort herself out. In order to
do that and win her children back, she moves to Cliff Blue, an architectural
masterpiece on the rocky coast of Magdalene.
Her boxes aren’t even unpacked when she meets Mickey Donovan, a man who lives
across the street, a man so beautiful Amelia takes one look at Mickey and knows
she wants everything from him.
The problem is, she finds out swiftly that he’s friendly, he’s kind, but he
doesn’t want everything back.
Amelia struggles to right past wrongs in her life at the same time find out who
she wants to be. She also struggles with her attraction to the handsome
firefighter who lives across the street.
But Amelia will face a surprise when her friendly neighbor becomes
not-so-friendly. As Amelia and Mickey go head to head, Amelia must focus on
winning back the hearts of her children.
She soon discovers she also must focus on winning the heart of a handsome
firefighter who understands down to his soul the beautiful heiress who lives
across the street is used to a life he cannot provide.
This
is like diving into a warm pool, welcoming and all consuming in its comforting
perfection. It feels like a throwback to Kristen Ashley’s earlier books. Long,
sweeping, and enthralling. Gah! I know I’m gushing, but I just can’t help
myself. The all-consuming alpha male is KA’s masterpiece. She knows how to
write it and she never fails to up her game with the men she creates. Mickey
has been added to my short list of book boyfriends for sure.
Soaring is all about a woman
that took a ride on the crazy train and is working her way back into
redemption. It was a refreshing to read a book where the heroine is flawed.
Amelia Hathaway was broken by a man and decided that being petty, bitter, and
using any opportunity to lash out was the way to go. Even at the expense of her
kids. She has moved to this small town of Magdalene to try and restore her relationship
with her kids and get herself together. Taking a good hard look in the mirror
is a difficult thing to do, and taking ownership for bad decisions can be even
harder. Amelia will take her hits and learn to be better.
Mickey
Donovan is a single dad who makes sure his kids always come first. He is the
kind of guy that will have you swooning. He’s a door opening, chivalrous, sexy,
swaggering, hard working, straight-talking piece of alpha male goodness! (Is it
hot in here?)
From
friends, to avoidance, to kinda-sorta enemies, to ‘OMG need you now!’ is the
best way to describe these two. I loved every moment Amelia and Mickey were
together.
Ultimately,
for me, this was Amelia’s story. I was tearing up over and over again with her.
The feelings of being alone, undeserving and of embarrassment is heartbreaking.
There is just something so moving about watching a person’s emotional growth
and self discovery. The poignancy of Amelia’s need to create her own space is
beautiful and powerful.
A
Soaring 5 star read for the second installment in the Magdalene series.
T~
Keep reading for an excerpt of Soaring and enter the giveaway!
“Hello, Boston Stone,” I greeted because I had
no idea what else to say.
“You are?” he
asked as I put the bags to the ground and touched the button on the trunk that
would open it keyless.
As it glided open,
I opened my mouth, doing it uncertain if I’d share my name or continue to try
to brush him off, but I didn’t have the chance to decide.
I heard the word,
“Babe,” growled from behind me.
I turned and saw Mickey
stalking our way.
Not sauntering.
Not simply
walking.
Stalking.
And he didn’t look
happy.
“Mickey,” I called
tentatively as a greeting, uncertain at his demeanor.
I hadn’t seen him
since he hadn’t seen me (I hoped) at the movies.
He was in his
firefighter-not-fighting-a-fire uniform of blue khakis and tee. His eyes were
moving up and down my body. He still was unbelievably beautiful (that
uniform…seriously).
He didn’t greet me
back.
When he stopped,
his gaze cut to Boston Stone and it went flinty.
“You need
somethin’?” he asked incomprehensibly inhospitably.
“I was just
helping this lovely lady with her groceries,” Stone responded.
“I got it,” Mickey
stated flatly and then he got it. As in, he carefully pulled me back, grabbed
the bags I was perfectly capable of picking up myself and placed them in my
trunk.
He then went for
the bag Stone was carrying, caught hold, but Stone didn’t let go.
“I can put it in
the trunk myself, Donovan,” Stone clipped.
So they knew each
other.
“As I said, I got
it, Stone,” Mickey clipped back.
Yes, they knew
each other.
The handles
flattened as they both kept hold and pulled.
“Please!” I
exclaimed. “We already had a wine incident. The sidewalk of Magdalene has been
anointed with one red, let’s not anoint Cross Street with four.”
Mickey instantly
let go and stepped back, running into me but he didn’t apologize or move away.
He stayed close,
the back of his left side touching the front of my right.
It was at that
point I noticed Mickey gave off a lot of heat.
Stone put the bag
in my trunk, shut it and turned slowly to Mickey and me.
But he had eyes on
Mickey.
“Are you two
seeing each other?”
“That’s your
business how?” Mickey asked as reply.
“It’s my business
because, if you’re not, I’d like to request you leave so I can ask her to
dinner,” Stone returned.
My head jerked as
my body locked in shock.
“That’s not gonna
happen,” Mickey growled.
My body stayed
locked in shock but that didn’t mean my eyes didn’t fly to Mickey’s stony-faced
profile in more shock.
“So you are seeing each other,” Stone remarked.
“Again, not your
business,” Mickey bit out.
Stone’s expression
turned shrewd. “And that’s something that would lead me to believe that the
beautiful woman standing behind you is free to go to dinner with me.”
“You forget
English?” Mickey asked. “I already answered that too.”
I butted in, “I
think I can speak for myself, Mickey.”
He moved nothing
but his head (though his torso shifted an inch) so he could look down at me.
His eyes were
communicating again.
This time they
were communicating the fact that he really
didn’t like Boston Stone.
Considering what I
knew of Mickey, this would be something that, along with my own natural
aversion to Mr. Stone, would have made me decline the man’s invitation.
Unfortunately,
Mickey added words to his look so this didn’t happen.
“You’re not goin’
out with this guy.”
Was he being
serious?
He couldn’t tell
me what to do. He wasn’t my father, my brother or my lover.
Heck, he barely
knew me!
All he knew about
me was that he didn’t want me. I was his…“attractive” neighbor who he now did
not even walk over to beg recipes from (okay, so Aisling didn’t know of any
other recipes I had, but whatever).
He didn’t even
return my email!
And he was off
with beautiful, statuesque redheads, smiling at them, taking them to movies.
He couldn’t tell
me who I could and could not see.
“I’m not?” I
snapped.
“No,” he turned
fully to me, an ominous fully. “You are not,” he enunciated each word clearly.
“Sorry?” I asked
sarcastically. “When did you become my big brother?”
He was still
enunciating clearly, and dangerously, when he stated, “I absolutely am not your big brother.”
“No, you’re not,”
I retorted, tossing my hair, which I hoped was shining in the sun. And with my
hair toss, I further hoped my fabulous highlights caught the rays and gleamed.
“You’re my neighbor. And if I want to go out with someone, you can’t say boo to
the contrary.”
“This guy is an
asshole,” he bit off, jerking his thumb at Boston Stone.
I felt my eyes get
big and I got up on my toes, leaning into him, hissing, “That’s insufferably rude, Mickey Donovan.”
“It isn’t rude if
it’s the truth.”
“You may think so
but you don’t say it in front of the
man in question.”
“You do if he’s as
big of an asshole as this asshole is,” Mickey shot back.
My eyes got wider
and I leaned closer. “Stop being nasty!” I demanded.
“You been in town,
what?” he asked then answered with another question he didn’t expect a reply
to. “A coupla months? I lived here my whole life and trust me, I’m savin’ you
from a load of misery, this guy gets interested in you,” he returned.
I rocked down to
my stilettos. “I am a big girl,
Mickey. All grown up and everything. I do think I can make such decisions for
myself.”
“You do, and
they’re not what I’m tellin’ you to do, you’d be wrong.”
I glared at him.
Then I pushed
right past him, hand lifted and got in the space of Boston Stone.
“Boston,” I said
as he took my hand, grinning arrogantly and more than a little obnoxiously at
me. “A belated nice to meet you. I’m Amelia Hathaway.”
His hand tightened
in mine as he murmured, “Amelia.”
I pulled my hand
from his, asking, “Do you know Cliff Blue?”
“Of course,” he
replied, inclining his head in a pompous way that actually was kind of creepy.
“I live there,” I
announced, doing another hair toss and powering beyond the creepy. “And I have
plans this evening but I’m free tomorrow. Are you?”
“I wasn’t,” he
replied. “But I’ll be making a phone call and I will be.”
“Excellent,” I
decreed. “Seven?” I went on to ask.
“I’d be
delighted,” he said softly, his eyes dancing with humor and I could see that
too was relatively malicious.
I didn’t care.
I’d go out with
him once, just to stick it to Mickey.
Then I’d be done
with Boston Stone.
And anyway, I had
about seven new outfits that would be perfect
for a date and I knew this even though I hadn’t been on a date in two decades.
“I’ll see you
then,” I said.
“You will,
Amelia.” He dipped his chin to me. “Looking forward to it.”
“And me,” I
replied.
He gave me another
arrogant grin then transferred it to Mickey.
“Donovan,” he
murmured.
Mickey didn’t
reply.
Stone looked back
to me. “Until tomorrow, Amelia.”
“Yes, Boston. And
please, feel free to call me Amy.”
Mickey grunted.
Boston smiled
before he turned and sauntered away.
I whirled on
Mickey and tipped my head to the side. “See? All grown up and able to make
decisions for myself.”
“What I see is a
pattern here,” he retorted unpleasantly.
“Oh?” I asked with
mock interest. “Do tell.”
Then Mickey told.
“First time I laid
eyes on you, your ex was up in your face, cursing at you, threatening you,
shouting right at you and acting like a total fucking dick. It’s obvious he’s
rich and up his own ass and didn’t give a shit you were alone, and because of
that, you probably felt unsafe. It was just as obvious you were lettin’ him use
you as his punching bag. Even if no woman deserves the way he was speakin’ to
you, he just kept right on punching. Now, you know that guy you just made a
date with is a total asshole and you made that date anyway. So that’s your
pattern. You open yourself up for assholes to shit all over you. And if that’s
the way you like it, baby, then no way in fuck
I’m gonna get in there to show you there’s another way.”
Before I could retort, he turned on his boot
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