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March 11, 2014 8:57 am
Title: Ridge (Wild #2)
Author: Adriane Leigh
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Release Date: March 3, 2014
Synopsis
Sometimes doing the wrong thing feels so right…
I’m a player. I’m an asshole. I’m someone you should stay away from.
I have demons.
I’ve made mistakes.
And the biggest can’t be taken back.
I’ve gone to hell and back in twenty-nine years and I’m only now coming to terms with moving forward, righting my wrongs, and making amends. Except not everyone deserves forgiveness. Sometimes the damage done is beyond repair.
Everyday is exactly the same. I focus on the pain, in the quest to feel and forget, but I remember everything. When I close my eyes the darkness encroaches and some days it feels like the things that kill me are the things that make me feel alive.
*Ridge, like Wild, is a standalone.
Reading Wild first will provide some back story, but is not required to read Ridge
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Review
***ARC was provided by author in exchange for an honest review***
Ridge Wild is tragically flawed. He’s definitely not your typical hero; in fact, I’m not sure if he fits the criteria of a hero. Due to a horrific incident as a teen, he’s consumed with guilt. For most of his adult life, he has lived on the edge of darkness…sometimes even plummeting into the abyss. Ridge has an addictive personality, and when he loses control of his life, his past addictions call to him, seducing him to give in and succumb to what will make him not feel or think about the past or his indiscretions. Drugs, alcohol, and sex are his top addictions of choice, but Ridge’s ultimate addiction is Mia. She’s the one addiction that actually helps him cope with all of the other ones, but his guilt over betraying his brother won’t allow him to stay with her.
Ridge’s choice to leave Mia and basically destroy both of them in the process leads him down a very dark and destructive path where innocent people get caught in the crossfire. The longer Ridge stays away from Mia, the easier it gets for the darkness to consume him. Every day, every hour, every minute, Ridge gets lost in his own head, and if he doesn’t do something soon, there will be no going back. But how does a man whose perception of himself is far worse than anyone else’s find absolution? Is it possible for someone who’s played the villain all of his life to finally become the hero…the man who can save not only himself, but the only woman he has ever loved? The road to redemption is not an easy one, but if Ridge ever wants to regain his control and his life, he’ll have to do whatever it takes, even if it means giving into the one thing that shouldn’t be his – Mia.
Even after I finished reading, I didn’t know how to feel about Ridge. At face value, Ridge is a despicable human being…he sleeps with his brother’s fiancée, uses woman after woman, abuses alcohol, and is downright nasty most of the time. But too many people make the mistake of judging others on a surface level. Looking deeper, people would see a lost and wounded soul…someone who has never felt good enough his whole life. Ridge has always been a taker but that’s because there was no one there to give anything to him until Mia. Boy, their relationship seems so messed up, but they’re the only ones who truly understand and fill each other’s needs. Adriane Leigh does a tremendous job of illustrating that there’s hope for redemption for even the people who don’t seem to have any redeeming qualities…who seem hell-bent on not only destroying their own lives but those closest to them as well. She writes Ridge in such a way that readers can’t help but feel for him and hope that he sees that life is what he makes it.
Ridge is a gritty and raw look into a man who is one step away from self destructing. The text is definitely not all hearts and flowers; in fact, those don’t even exist in Ridge’s world, but the story is exactly how it should be written because there’s nothing sensitive or romantic about him. He’s intense, pushy, and domineering. He takes what he wants and only gives what he wants when he wants to without exception. Ridge can pretend to be someone else, but he’ll never be happy, and fortunately, by the end of the book, he understands that in order to live, he only needs one of his addictions – Mia.
4 poison apples
Excerpt
“Come here.” I pulled her into my arms. She shook and trembled, without saying a word. I stroked her back, down her long hair and sucked in the heady scent of her damp skin clinging to me.
“I brought food. It’s going to be all right, My,” I murmured against her cheek before I glanced down to see a river of red streaking the tile grout.
Jesus Christ what was happening?
“Mia.” I swallowed and pulled at her hand, the one clenched in a tight fist. “Fuck Mia, give me your hand.” I pried her fingers open to find a razor blade cutting into her palm.
“I tried not to, I didn’t want to, but I’m losing it.” She sobbed and dropped the razor from her hand. It fell in her lap, bright red marring the fluffy white towel wrapped around her.
My hands shook as I looked around for something to wrap her hand in. I had to stop the bleeding. I didn’t know anything about this. Was it too deep? Did she need stitches? Fuck, maybe I should call an ambulance.
“Jesus, Mia, you should have called me.” I pulled my shirt over my head and wrapped it around her open palm, pressing to stop the bleeding.
“I was just holding the razor so tight, I didn’t even realize that it cut me.”
“I know, baby.” I rained kisses across her forehead.
A soft sob escaped her throat.
“If it happens again, call me. Talk to me. Take it out on me, baby. I’m here for you. I know this is so fucking hard but you’re not alone, I’m here, My.”
She licked her lips and her deep green eyes turned up to me. Silent tears fell as I held her cut hand in my own.
“Christ, come here.” I heaved her into my arms and carried her out the door and laid her on the bed.
“Listen to me. I’m taking you somewhere tomorrow. Therapy, whatever you need. Take the time off work, you went back too soon, I shouldn’t have left you alone, fuck.” I was rambling, but I was terrified. I’d never seen her like this. Despondent, empty, numb. Jesus Christ, my beautiful, fiery girl was numb.
“Losing her, it just brought me back. After Josh killed himself, they disappeared. They were there, but they weren’t.”
“I know, baby. I know.” I rocked her across my lap on the bed.
“Let me be strong for you. Let me take the pain away. Remember what we used to do, baby? The pain, the pleasure? I’ll be that for you, again. Take it out on me.”
Her eyes held mine, passion surged before she straddled my waist, wrapped her fingers in my hair and pressed her lips to me in a punishing kiss.
Wild (Wild #1)
Amazon US | Amazon UK | Barnes & Noble
About the Author
Adriane Leigh was born and raised in a snowbank in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and now lives amongst the sand dunes of the Lake Michigan lakeshore.
She graduated with a Literature degree but never particularly enjoyed reading Shakespeare or Chaucer.
Adriane is married to a tall, dark and handsome guy, plays mama to two sweet baby girls, and is a voracious reader and knitter.
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Giveaway
Coming Soon
Slade (Wild #3)
Behind every beautiful thing, there is some kind of pain…
Always overlooked. Always just there. That’s what Dillon was to me.
Until one night.
In one night she flipped my world on its axis and there’s no going back. But she has secrets, and secrets fester like an open wound. They color the past and forecast the future, but I’m determined to open her up; free her from her memories so she can live in the light and have the life she deserves.
It’s just too bad that she wants nothing to do with me. But I’m nothing if not persistent and I’m not a man that gives up without a fight. I’ve had a taste and there’s no walking away.
I just have to convince her that I’m not what she fears, I’m what she wants.
Slade, like Wild and Ridge, is a standalone.
Reading Wild and Ridge first will provide some back story, but is not required to read Slade.
Posted by Rebecca
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