Friday, 16 January 2015

Review & Excerpt: Heart Grow Fonder by Cristy Rey



Heart Grow Fonder

Cristy Rey

Adult Romance

Goodreads

Wrong place. Wrong time. Right people.

Jessie Bravo knows what’s wrong with her life; she just doesn’t know what to do about it. Eleven years ago, she saved Tyler Cantrell from getting his ass kicked by gay-bashing high school jocks. Since, they’ve been the closest of friends. Years later, Jessie circled the drain of chronic depression, spiraling out of control, and it was Tyler’s turn to save her. Who knew her best friend would become a Hollywood A-lister? Though Jessie credits Tyler for keeping her together, living in the shadow of her best friend’s celebrity isn’t all it’s cut out to be. It’s up to Jessie to figure out what she has to do to be happy: get better or get lost.

Stardom is on the horizon for British television actor Boyd Kerrington. He’s starring opposite Tyler Cantrell in an American feature film sure to blow his career out the water. For all the years he’s focused on his career, however, he’s settled in his personal life. That is, until he meets Tyler’s best friend, Jessie. Jessie is refreshingly cool, passionate, and compelling…but she’s also complicated. Worse yet, she’s not interested in remaining in the celebrity stratosphere, even for her lifelong friend.





 It was… to meet you.  

“What was that?” Tyler said in a hoarse whisper.
Wide-eyed, his face shimmered as if he’d been doused with glitter under a blinding white spotlight. Dumbstruck, Jessie remained staring into the gaping hole of the universe where Boyd Kerrington sat only seconds earlier.
“That was…” Jessie struggled to get out even those two words, and she couldn’t think of another to follow them.
That was Boyd Fucking Kerrington. It was Boyd who’d stopped her world spinning on its axis for a suspended series of seconds that, for all she knew, could have lasted a whole year. She’d acted a brat and he’d thought it funny. When she realized she was embarrassing herself in front of Boyd, she stopped dead in her tracks and swallowed her pride, painfully.
Then their eyes met. She’d looked at him dead in the eyes a million times, but those instances had all been through the television. Sure, those eyes were the same—icy blue like a frozen-over lake in the dead of winter—but they weren’t Astor Welles’s eyes this time; they were something altogether new and different. For the first time in weeks, she felt something other than a vacuum of nothingness.
While he looked away, returning to his breakfast, Jessie watched him, for the first time free of the veneer his character. But he avoided her gaze, keeping his attention, instead, on Tyler.
Layers of stage makeup and all the smart hairstyling of Astor Welles peeled away to reveal a real human being with complicated expressions and a wealth of idiosyncrasies. Despite his severe, angular features, Boyd’s manner was approachable, even a little bit sweet. His voice was the same, but the cadence wasn’t. Astor Welles cut through steel with a crisp arrogant timbre as much as with his cheekbones’ daring angles. Boyd Kerrington wasn’t as clipped.
Sensing she was doing nothing to benefit her friend’s morning with him, Jessie excused herself.
“I have some writing to do,” she said, standing and stepping toward the sliding glass door.
Though she expected Boyd would relax a little at her departure, he reared to face her with an unmistakable tinge of remorse. She bit into her lip and reiterated her need to get to work. Boyd nodded shortly, his handsomely sloppy curls lifting in the breeze for a second before settling down again. Tyler said something that sounded like “Good idea,” but that melded with the white noise of Vancouver.
“It was… to meet you.” Red with embarrassment, she tucked into the suite and shuffled into her bedroom, slamming the door behind her.
With no one watching her, she banged her head against the door. Boyd Kerrington was currently sitting on the balcony of her suite, talking with Tyler over cigarettes and a king’s brunch feast. Rather than join them, Jessie relegated herself to the bed. She curled up beneath the comforter, fully clothed, and stared into the oblivion of her private bathroom.

 


A beautiful, heart-rending and thought provoking story of two people who meet at the wrong time in their lives. This poignant story will tug at your heart, especially if like myself you have first hand experience of someone burdened with the daily demands life places on us. But out of despair comes light and also hope, that broken pieces will mend sufficiently to move forward in life again.

Tackling a heavy duty subject like depression is never going to be easy within the realms of a romantic tale, but the author has done a wonderful job of making emotions raw and very real. It is impossible not to get sucked into the heart of the plot and empathise with the protagonists. All characters are multi-faceted, believable, relatable and likable. We get to hear the voices of both Jessie and Boyd as they both deal with their problems and to understand how it all impacts on themselves and those that surround them – questioning whether current lifestyles and demands are work risking personal happiness and contentment.

I've purposely not included any book blurb within the review because I don't want to add more than is revealed within the synopsis. Proof is very much in the reading, so be prepared to go on a deeply emotional journey. I heartily recommend this amazing book.
I love it when an author engages their readers in such a way that when they have finished telling the story, it triggers your imagination to take over. Heart Grow Fonder is such a book and thanks to Cristy Rey it will stay with me for a very long time.

4½ Stars

***ace received in exchange for an honest review***


About Cristy Rey 

Cristy Rey is the author of the romantic urban fantasy Incarnate series. Taking Back Sunday, Trail of Dead, and the prequel novelette, Edge of Seventeen, were released in 2014. The third full-length installment, Wolf Parade, will be released in 2015. She also writes and publishes unconventional romantic women’s fiction. Weeping Angels and her second, Heart Grow Fonder are available now.
Cristy lives in Miami, FL where she is a reader and writer most of the time, and a knitter much less of the time than she was six months before she took up writing again. She writes the books that she likes to read. She describes her writing style as riot grrrl Jane Austen sprinkled with a little magic. There’s always a killer soundtrack running in the background of her novels – all you need to do is turn to the playlist to know what’s up.



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Excerpt & Review: Call Sign Karma by Jamie Rae



Love in the no-fly zone…

Distraught over the loss of her brother in a fighter jet accident, Tinklee Pinkerton decides to follow in his footsteps and prove the tragedy wasn’t his fault. But when she’s chosen as the first woman to fly the Air Force’s F-35, her plan for a life that revolves around work is thrown off course by a handsome, mysterious stranger…

Thanks to Locke’s seductive British accent, sweet nature, and one too many beers, Tink is soon inspired to throw caution to the wind and herself into his arms. She thinks maybe love can heal after all—until she discovers Locke is her superior officer. Tink has no problem risking her life in the air, but with everything on the line, is she brave enough to risk her heart on the ground?


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Tinklee Pinkerton! Not normally a name you'd associate with a trained fighter pilot, but with a Mom who likes to sprinkle her world with her own brand of pixie dust, it is very normal indeed. “Tink” was born to follow in the footsteps of her father and brother and always knew from an early age she wanted to fly . Now at the age of twenty-two, “Tink” is about to embark on the next chapter of her career and learn to fly a JSF – the same jet fighter than she believed was responsible for her brothers death.
“Tink” is a feisty, hot-headed and independent young woman trying to forge a career in a mans' world. She's nobody's fool but underneath her tough exterior, she's has insecurities and doubts like everyone else. Her main nagging doubt is about the beloved JSF and she wants to prove that despite her father's belief, her adored big brother wasn't killed due to his own error but because of an electrical fault in the cock-pit.

Locke, What was there not too like about him? - nothing! I just love how the author nailed his British accent making his background authentic and believable. Locke wasn't expecting an “act first, ask questions later” first impression from the beautiful blonde woman on the beach near his home. Neither did he expect their chemistry to read off the scale either. After a night of passion, he leaves to begin a new work placement, unbeknown that the nameless woman that rocked his world only hours earlier would be one of his new students.

I loved how the two protagonists complemented one another. Tinklee is impulsive, a loose cannon and sometimes her own worse enemy, whereas Locke is a cool, steadfast guy - the voice of reason. Humour is in bountiful supply courtesy of the banter between the guys in the squadron. And lets not forget both sets of parents' who provided every reason possible for their off-spring to rebel against them. All of this wrapped up in a military setting which the author has gone to great detail to create an authentic backdrop to the drama. Call Sign Karma is the fabulous début novel from Jamie Rae, and I'm look forward to reading more from her in the future.

5 Stars

***arc received courtesy of the publisher via NetGalley***


I twirled my pencil around on the desk and tried to keep from dozing off. My stomach growled desperately in need of food. My lack of sleep and too many beers was catching up with me. The pencil spun off the table and hit the floor. I bent down to pick it up when I noticed my boot string tied to the table. What were we in, kindergarten? Stupid fighter guys. They were all the same. I pulled on the lace, but it was knotted.
The door opened and two sets of boots came into the room. One was the Director of Operations, Major Rex, or T-Rex. I recognized his voice without looking up. His scruffy tone was one that a person wouldn’t forget. I’d spoken to him on the phone during the selection process.
I tugged on the knot, but it was too tight. I wiggled the tip of the pencil into the tangled mess. I didn’t want to cut the stupid lace. Freaking boys.
“The Joint Strike Fighter will not only be flown by our guys, but some Allied Forces are joining the fight as well. Flight Lieutenant Sinclair has flown over five hundred hours in the Eurofighter and two hundred hours in the F-35. He has flown in combat with RAF Corningsby and has an extraordinary record with the Brits,” T-Rex said as I continued to work on freeing my damn boot. “We are fortunate to have him here and look forward to his expertise. Flight Lieutenant Sinclair. Call sign, Duke.”
I tugged on my string almost freeing the knot so I could sit back up and see. I gave it another jerk.
“Thank you Major Rex. It’s awesome to be here,” said a male voice laced with a British accent.
A too familiar British accent. It couldn’t be the toe-curling, heart-flipping, cause-me-to-lose-all-good-sense, British freaking accent.
My heart skipped a beat or twenty.
“No,” I mouthed silently to myself as my eyes widened. It couldn’t be....
I lifted my head up to see if my ears had deceived me, prepared to drop and army crawl the hell out of here.
I sucked back a breath and instinctively jerked up. My head cracked on the bottom of the table. Shooting stars clouded my visions.
“Holy shit,” I muttered and grabbed for my head.
Through the haze, I could see well enough to recognize my perfect stranger standing in Flight Lieutenant Sinclair’s boots. All six-foot-two of him. Hot, gorgeous, and neatly packaged in a well-fitted flight suit.
I needed to get out of here. Now. He was staring directly at me, ghastly white and shell-shocked. I knew the feeling.
I gulped and jumped to my feet, forgetting that my foot was still tied to the table.
“Shit!” I cursed and fell backwards.
My head cracked against the ground. I lay flat on my back with my eyes closed, head pounding, foot tied to a desk and very vivid images of my instructor, naked in my bed. The calendar was right. It was doomsday.


Jamie is an avid reader and loves discovering stories with a great hook, though she will not eat, sleep, or speak until she reaches the end. The Harry Potter years weren't pretty!! Convinced that her Hogwarts letter was lost in the mail, she keeps a watchful eye for owls hoping her children will have better luck!

 In her other life, Jamie Rae is an orthodontist, and literary agent. She keeps her heart overflowing with love as a mother of three and has perfected the art of nomadic living as a military spouse and Air Force veteran. Jamie has a passion for critters of all shapes and sizes and you can often find her sneaking them into her own home or volunteering for rescues.





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