Blurb:
'THANK YOU Arianne Richmonde for offering me the
opportunity to read this EXCELLLENT series. I have found myself another must
read author and can hardly wait to read Arianne's next book and see what she
has in store for her fans!'
--- Swept Away by Romance
Documentary producer, Pearl Robinson, is a
beautiful and smart 40-year-old divorcee but has not had a date for over two
years. When she meets AlexandreChevalier, a young French, Internet
success story, she's stunned by his charm, beauty and sophistication, and
startled by her strong feelings and desire for a man fifteen years her
junior.
His looks, wealth and worldwide triumph with his
social media site, HookedUp, means this powerful billionaire can get any woman
he chooses, but there is something about Pearl he finds irresistible...
The couple begins a passionate affair and Pearl's body is awakened in ways she never imagined possible. She is consumed by him and his magical touch. But jealous family members, Pearl's insecurities and other external forces are threatening to pull them apart.
The couple begins a passionate affair and Pearl's body is awakened in ways she never imagined possible. She is consumed by him and his magical touch. But jealous family members, Pearl's insecurities and other external forces are threatening to pull them apart.
This three-book series, Forty Shades of
Pearl, Shadows of Pearl and Shimmers
of Pearl follow the couple's tumultuous and heart-rending
relationship.
Will Pearl's shadowy past and Alexandre's
dark secrets meld them together as one, or split them apart once and for all?
Excerpt:
WHEN PEARL AND ALEXANDRE
FIRST MEET.
It’s both a comforting and disconcerting fact that
there’s a franchise coffee shop on practically every corner of NYC. You don’t
have to go far to feed your addiction. I shuffle through the door, now back in
my sneakers – New York City sidewalks do not favor high heels for any period of
time. You can tell how long someone has been living in New York by their
footwear. Comfort first. Heels are for visitors. Or women from New Jersey.
I stand in line and ponder over the rich choice I am presented with. A wave of guilt washes over me as I mentally tot up the money I’ve spent on superfluous coffee breaks over the years – money needed by charities, for water wells somewhere, for a child’s education. Stop! Life isn’t fair. Yum, Mocha Cookie Delight...coffee blended with mocha sauce, vanilla syrup, chocolaty chips, milk and ice. Or a Vanilla Cappuccino - coffee flavored with vanilla and blended with milk and ice – and fewer calories.
A man’s voice interrupts my chocolaty train of thought.
“So how did you enjoy the conference?” His accent is foreign, his voice deep and melodic.
I look up, feeling now dwarfed in my flat sneakers, petite against his tall, solid frame. The first thing I notice, at eye level, is the definition of his pec muscles underneath his sun-faded, pale blue T-shirt. He’s tanned; I see he has a name tag just like mine from the InterWorld conference, which reads: Alexandre Chevalier. My gaze rises higher and I observe a pair of penetrating peridot-green eyes rimmed with dark lashes, friendly yet intense, looking down at me. His hair is dark, his face unmistakably European - yes, dare I say it, he even looks French, the profile of his nose strong, the jaw defined. He’s so handsome I feel a frisson shoot up my spine. He’s smiling at me. My stomach flips. I’m speechless with surprise.
“Your name tag,” he clarifies. “Were you at that conference around the corner?”
“Yes, I was.” I can’t say any more. I feel like a teenager. My mind is doing acrobatics, trying to figure out why his presence makes no sense at all. This man must have borrowed the tag of the real Alexandre Chevalier. Why?
He’s at the front of the line, now, talking in French to another woman. She looks familiar. I feel an inexplicable pang of jealousy. Absurd! I don’t even know him. Get a grip! But then realize−
“I’ll pay for whatever this lady’s having too,” he tells the woman serving behind the counter, and he pulls out a wad of notes. I notice a stash of hundred dollar bills which he is trying to surreptitiously stuff back into his jeans’ pocket, without drawing attention to himself.
He turns back to me and looks at my name tag. “For Pearl,” he adds, rolling his tongue around the R of Pearl.
My name suddenly sounds beautiful, not like a pseudonym a hooker might use, which is what I was relentlessly teased for in high school.
“Pearl,” he says again. “What a beautiful name. I’ve never heard that before. As a name, I mean.”
“Well, my parents were kind of hippies. Thanks for the compliment, though. I’ll have a....a...um, I’ll have a vanilla cappuccino, please. You really don’t have to do that - buy me my drink, I mean.”
I fumble about in my ‘handbag’ - although it seems more like an overnight bag - and try to locate my wallet. I’m not used to strangers buying me drinks. My fingers can’t seem to find my wallet, anyway. I often fantasize about inventing an inside handbag light that switches on automatically whenever you open it – I’d make millions – they’d be sold at supermarket checkouts nationwide. My bag is pitch dark inside, I can see nothing.
“And what’s your name?” I ask, still not believing that this man before me is Alexandre Chevalier, the twenty-four year-old nerd in the hoodie, as he appeared in the online photo. This Alexandre is sophisticated – looks way older than that. Even though he’s just in T-shirt and jeans, he’s stylish. Very Alpha Male - yet oozing je ne sais quoi. I could describe him as ‘beautiful’ but he is so much more than that. There is an aura surrounding him of power and sexuality yet blended with an unassuming sort of friendliness as if his good looks are accidental somehow.
He laughs. His teeth flash white and are almost, but not quite - perfect. An almost perfect, ever so slightly, crooked smile - disconcertingly sexy. “Very funny,” he replies tapping his long fingers on his Alexandre Chevalier name tag. “Oh, this is my sister, Sophie.”
The Sophie sounds like Soffy. His accent is disarming me. I think of those classic, 1960’s French films - Alain Delon movies - yes, he does have that air about him - a young Alain Delon - mixed with the raw, untamed sex-appeal of Jean Paul Belmondo in his prime – What was that film? Ah yes, ÀBout de Souffle - Breathlesswas its translation. That’s how I feel now…
Breathless.
I stand in line and ponder over the rich choice I am presented with. A wave of guilt washes over me as I mentally tot up the money I’ve spent on superfluous coffee breaks over the years – money needed by charities, for water wells somewhere, for a child’s education. Stop! Life isn’t fair. Yum, Mocha Cookie Delight...coffee blended with mocha sauce, vanilla syrup, chocolaty chips, milk and ice. Or a Vanilla Cappuccino - coffee flavored with vanilla and blended with milk and ice – and fewer calories.
A man’s voice interrupts my chocolaty train of thought.
“So how did you enjoy the conference?” His accent is foreign, his voice deep and melodic.
I look up, feeling now dwarfed in my flat sneakers, petite against his tall, solid frame. The first thing I notice, at eye level, is the definition of his pec muscles underneath his sun-faded, pale blue T-shirt. He’s tanned; I see he has a name tag just like mine from the InterWorld conference, which reads: Alexandre Chevalier. My gaze rises higher and I observe a pair of penetrating peridot-green eyes rimmed with dark lashes, friendly yet intense, looking down at me. His hair is dark, his face unmistakably European - yes, dare I say it, he even looks French, the profile of his nose strong, the jaw defined. He’s so handsome I feel a frisson shoot up my spine. He’s smiling at me. My stomach flips. I’m speechless with surprise.
“Your name tag,” he clarifies. “Were you at that conference around the corner?”
“Yes, I was.” I can’t say any more. I feel like a teenager. My mind is doing acrobatics, trying to figure out why his presence makes no sense at all. This man must have borrowed the tag of the real Alexandre Chevalier. Why?
He’s at the front of the line, now, talking in French to another woman. She looks familiar. I feel an inexplicable pang of jealousy. Absurd! I don’t even know him. Get a grip! But then realize−
“I’ll pay for whatever this lady’s having too,” he tells the woman serving behind the counter, and he pulls out a wad of notes. I notice a stash of hundred dollar bills which he is trying to surreptitiously stuff back into his jeans’ pocket, without drawing attention to himself.
He turns back to me and looks at my name tag. “For Pearl,” he adds, rolling his tongue around the R of Pearl.
My name suddenly sounds beautiful, not like a pseudonym a hooker might use, which is what I was relentlessly teased for in high school.
“Pearl,” he says again. “What a beautiful name. I’ve never heard that before. As a name, I mean.”
“Well, my parents were kind of hippies. Thanks for the compliment, though. I’ll have a....a...um, I’ll have a vanilla cappuccino, please. You really don’t have to do that - buy me my drink, I mean.”
I fumble about in my ‘handbag’ - although it seems more like an overnight bag - and try to locate my wallet. I’m not used to strangers buying me drinks. My fingers can’t seem to find my wallet, anyway. I often fantasize about inventing an inside handbag light that switches on automatically whenever you open it – I’d make millions – they’d be sold at supermarket checkouts nationwide. My bag is pitch dark inside, I can see nothing.
“And what’s your name?” I ask, still not believing that this man before me is Alexandre Chevalier, the twenty-four year-old nerd in the hoodie, as he appeared in the online photo. This Alexandre is sophisticated – looks way older than that. Even though he’s just in T-shirt and jeans, he’s stylish. Very Alpha Male - yet oozing je ne sais quoi. I could describe him as ‘beautiful’ but he is so much more than that. There is an aura surrounding him of power and sexuality yet blended with an unassuming sort of friendliness as if his good looks are accidental somehow.
He laughs. His teeth flash white and are almost, but not quite - perfect. An almost perfect, ever so slightly, crooked smile - disconcertingly sexy. “Very funny,” he replies tapping his long fingers on his Alexandre Chevalier name tag. “Oh, this is my sister, Sophie.”
The Sophie sounds like Soffy. His accent is disarming me. I think of those classic, 1960’s French films - Alain Delon movies - yes, he does have that air about him - a young Alain Delon - mixed with the raw, untamed sex-appeal of Jean Paul Belmondo in his prime – What was that film? Ah yes, ÀBout de Souffle - Breathlesswas its translation. That’s how I feel now…
Breathless.
Jenn's Review:
What an awesome, sexy, funny, heartbreaking, gripping story!
Do you want to know what I loved about it? Well for one, the heroine is older
than me!! I love all kinds of stories but the fact that Pearl is 40 years old, well;
it made me love her all the more. Second, Alexandre is one sexy Frenchman! His
character was strong and once he figured out what he wanted, he would stop at
nothing to have it. There is so much that I loved about this story but I’m
ready to talk about the book!
Pearl’s company, Haslit Films, makes documentaries and she
wants to interview a brother and sister, Alexandre Chevalier and Sophie Dumas.
Problem is, they are very private and never grant interviews. Hoping she will
get her chance at a conference she is attending. Bad luck is on her side at the
moment, because she missed their seminar and they have already left. Missing
that chance, her boss decides to forget the whole thing and they will come up
with a new idea. Problem solved, Pearl heads across the street for a coffee
before she heads back to the office.
Pearl and Alexandre see each other for the first time at the
coffee shop and while getting to know each other a bit, she keeps her secret of
the requests for an interview. It’s not happening now anyway, why ruin the
moment.
They have their first date and days go by and she hears
nothing from Alexandre. But soon, everything is going to change. They begin an incredible
affair but she has so many doubts about herself. He decides he needs to help
her get past those doubts. And he does an incredible job of it too!
Every moment the two of them are together, to put it simply,
is HOT! Neither of them can get enough and now that Pearl is coming out her
shell, haha, she has become obsessed with Alexandre. And what happens when
Sophie and Alexandre find out that Pearl had been trying to get an interview
with them. Well, it’s not pretty and I was a nervous wreck! I could feel the
anger and disappointment rolling off Alexandre. As well as the heartache from
Pearl. He doesn’t let her try to explain, feeling used and too angry to listen;
he leaves her where she is sitting.
Luckily there is so much more to happen in the story and
Arianne does a beautiful job of pulling you deeper into their lives. I am so
relieved this was released as a trilogy. Even though there will be a
cliffhanger somewhere within the book, luckily, you don’t have to wait on
another part to be released. We are whisked away to France, England and places
in between. The twists and turns we are given left me in pieces or angry enough
to want to throw my kindle. Other times, it was so sweet or incredibly sexy
that I didn’t think I’d be able to get enough. I found it very hard to put it
down. The Pearl Trilogy is a definite page turner and absolutely loved the way
it ended. I gave this beautiful erotic romance 4.75 stars and I am very much
looking forward what Arianne Richmonde releases in the future!!
Author Bio:
Arianne
Richmonde is an American writer and artist who was raised in both the US and
Europe. She is the author of Forty Shades of Pearl, Shadows of Pearl and
Shimmers of Pearl, all full length novels in The Pearl Trilogy. She has also
written Glass- an erotic short story. She is currently writing a new novel, a
suspense.
She lives with her husband and furry
family in France.
Links:
Purchase Link:
Paperback at Create Space: https://www.createspace.com/4237397
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The amazing ladies at The Book Enthusiast are hosting the blog tour and you can follow this link to take a look at all the stops!
http://thebookenthusiast.net/the-pearl-trilogy-blog-tour-schedule/
The amazing ladies at The Book Enthusiast are hosting the blog tour and you can follow this link to take a look at all the stops!
http://thebookenthusiast.net/the-pearl-trilogy-blog-tour-schedule/
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