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Thursday, January 23, 2014

***Blog Tour Stop and Giveaway*** Come to me Quietly (Closer to You #1) by A. L. Jackson


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

From the acclaimed bestselling author of Lost to You and When We Collidecomes 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-destructivebad 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?



Lesley's Review:

This book is a fantastic read for those that love the angst. It's for those that love those forbidden romances. The ones that hurt so good. Those that love the desperately broken men that everyone should run from. But there are those like Aly, who would arguethat they need to be loved too.  To be fixed. However, the age old question arises, Can love conquer all? Is love enough to bring you through.  Maybe it doesn't need to conquer. It just needs to lend its strength. Love gives you something to fight for. This book has all that and more. I enjoyed it thoroughly.

“One look at him told me he was still haunted…broken. All those marks covering his body, screaming out about how miserable he was inside.”

Aly and Jared's story happens in the present with bits of the past woven in to deepen and explain the story. One day she comes home to find that her brother has run into his long lost best friend and her childhood crush. Aly has never forgotten the broody mysterious Jared. She has been obsessed with him since she was a young girl. It all comes rushing back to her heart. Their story goes deeper than even Jared knows.  Aly feels as though it’s an unrequited love. No matter what he feels, she misses her childhood friend. Spending time in the quiet of night, bit by bit the walls start to crack.

“Hearts have a way of finding their way home.”

Jared feels as though he destroys everything he touches. Turning the light into the dark. Tainting things that are Innocent. He’s hurting. Truly, you can see that he has a big heart. Past indiscretions have skewed people’s perception of him. So much so that he believes that he is no good for anyone. But Aly has never seen him that way. She sees the damaged misunderstood boy from next door, who treated her with affection. He took care of her and always looked out for her. Until it all went horribly wrong. Nobody understands his demons. The burdens he carries. The darkness he feels he should drown in.

Now these two fight the horrors of the past from destroying the present. Sometimes the fear of being happy is too much. Feeling more than hatred and sorrow is scary for those that have dwelled in the misery for years. When life drags you down you can’t find the will to live in the present.  Not feeling and not dealing, is easier. You can’t fight for someone who won’t fight for themselves.

“I left knowing I could NEVER forget you,but praying somehow that you could forget me.”

Heartbreak. Despair. Revelations. Hope.  It’s all here in this book. Aly and Jared’s story kind of grips you and swallows whole. The heart pangs for these two are very real. I just wanted to take Jared and wrap him in love emitting bubble wrap, after I glued the cracks together.  However, Aly loved him just as he was. Just as he loved her. I can’t think of a single thing I would change in this story. It ended perfectly. The depth was there every part of the way. 4.5 Stars …

Buy Links:
Amazon ~ B&N ~ iTunes ~ Kobo

Excerpt:
Slowly she began to approach, and I sank further back into the chair the closer she came, my knee bouncing harder as she timidly inched up in front of me. Her movements were slow, hypnotizing, and I couldn’t stop myself from watching those legs. My eyes darted to her hands. She was rubbing her thumbs over her fingertips as if she were searching for some kind of friction or maybe looking for confidence.  My gaze flicked up to meet her face. A color I didn’t understand had darkened her eyes. There was no looking away as she crossed the room, and my head continued to tilt back, locked on her, lost in this place where I knew I absolutely shouldn’t fucking be.
She stopped just a breadth from me.
My hands dropped slack, dangled at my sides.
Everything became heavy. My fingers twitched, and I had to force the air in and out of my lungs.
I swore I could actually hear Aly’s heart beating as she hovered in hesitation an inch away. She blinked hard, squirmed before she looked at me with determination. “Jared, I don’t want you to leave.”
“Aly. . .I. . .” What was I supposed to say? Because I didn’t want to leave either.
I had to.
Erasing the last of the space between us, Aly allowed the front of her legs to touch my knees, and she groaned as if the contact seared her. She wavered, before she reached out to run the back of her hand down my face, testing me. Tempting me.
I stopped breathing altogether when she slowly straddled my lap and murmured close to my ear, “Please. . .don’t leave me.”
Fuck.
This was bad, really fucking bad. And I knew I should push her away, make her stop because what she was doing was only bringing us a little closer to the edge. She held onto the chair behind me, her warm body pressed into mine. There was no chance she wasn’t feeling just how much I wanted her.
“What are you doing, Aly?” My hands went to her slender hips with the intention of edging her off my lap. Instead my fingers dug into the soft skin.
A shudder sped up my spine when she trembled above me.
Wetting my lips, I tried to move her back, but only managed to brush up against her further. Her expression was severe but soft, her movements shaky but sure. She searched my face, her eyes burning a path as she left me utterly exposed. And I could smell her, and the memory of the way she tasted, the way she felt, overwhelmed every last one of my senses. She didn’t even have to move, and she was already touching me everywhere.
She swallowed, then spoke. “Did you want to kiss me last night?”
“Last night was a mistake, Aly. I—”
Her hands went to my face, and she held me there, forcing me to look up at her. 
“I didn’t ask you if it was a mistake. I asked if you wanted to.”
A frustrated sound worked its way free of my throat, and I shifted again, which only brought her closer. Right then I knew there was not a fucking thing I could do because nothing else mattered in the world except for the way she felt pressed up tight against me.  My fingers dug further into her hips, and we were nose to nose, Aly’s hands firm on my face. I realized we were moving, our bodies subtly rocking.
I groaned. “I’ve wanted to kiss you every single second of every single day since the moment I opened my eyes to find you standing over me, Aly.

 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, andIf 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.


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)

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