New Adult Contemporary Romance
Released June 2, 2014
About This Book
Fall to You is the second book in the Here and Now series. It is not a stand-alone and is intended to be read following Lost in Me. Hanna’s story concludes in book three, All for This.
Torn between two men…
When I woke up after the accident, I couldn’t remember anything from the last year—including my relationship with Max Hallowell or anything about Nate Crane. Now my memories are returning, but instead of answering my questions, they’re leaving me with more.
The man who broke my heart and wants to be my future…
Max is all I ever wanted, and now he wants to marry me. He’ll do everything he can to fill my life with love, family, and security. I need those things now more than ever. But can I trust him?
The man who stole my heart and wants to let me go…
Nate never made me promises, and I never asked him to. I’d been on the rebound, looking for a distraction, and he made me feel beautiful and wanted when I needed to feel those things most. He says he has to let me go, but what if I can’t let go of him?
With every revelation and every passing day, I feel more like Alice down the rabbit hole. I’m falling. Who will catch me?
Amazon US: http://amzn.to/1pKuSQP
Amazon UK: http://amzn.to/1knBgg9
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Review
This is one awesome series! Lexi Ryan is an amazing storyteller who understood exactly what her readers needed in Book 2 of the Here and Now Series. Lost in Me ended with many unanswered questions, and Lexi uncovers a lot of the missing pieces in Fall to You. Switching between before and after Hanna’s accident, readers get three different perspectives in order to understand how everything played out between Hanna, Max, and Nate and where things will head now that some of the truths are revealed.
Because readers are given the internal thoughts of Max, we begin to understand that everything is not quite as cut and dry as Hanna thinks it is in terms of it all being a charade. I’ll admit; I didn’t like Max at all in Book 1. When the deception came out, it ruined Hanna and had her fixated on her appearance, which further fed into her insecurities. But Max redeems himself in Book 2, and readers can’t help but feel for him when we learn the truth about just how real he wants it to be. Is he completely off the hook for his actions? Absolutely not, but my Team Nate status took a bit of a hit because of the things he says and does throughout Fall to You.
Nate allows Hanna a sense of freedom she’s never felt. He helps her to see herself as who she truly is not who she thinks she is. Hanna eases the darkness for Nate and offers him a way to escape the pain of his past, but he still won’t give himself fully to her because his number one priority has always been his son, and he doesn’t know how to blend his two worlds together without someone suffering in the end. But every time he tries to say goodbye to Hanna for real, he can’t give her up, which further complicates this love triangle because Hanna loves them both, and in a way, I think she needs them both, just in different ways.
Heading into Book 3, there are still a few questions that remain unanswered, and there’s no way to tell if Hanna or readers will ever learn those truths. What I do know is that Hanna has a difficult decision to make, and, at this point, there’s no clear cut winner. When it’s all said and done, someone is going to be the odd man out, and it’s going to hurt like hell to experience it through their eyes.
Fall to You is an amazing sequel. The main characters are even more developed, which provides readers further insights into their hearts and their minds. The back and forth between past and present works extremely well because we need to understand all that happened before the accident to help define the events that are occurring after it. I’m sure Book 3 is going to leave us even more perplexed before key facts are learned, but that’s exactly what keeps readers’ interest. Whether you’re Team Nate or Team Max, All for This is going to be one interesting read!
A complimentary copy was provided by the author in exchange for an honest review.
5 poison apples
Excerpt (the sexy, NC17 excerpt)
Three Months before Hanna’s Accident
He pushes one dress strap off my shoulder and tugs on the fabric until one lace-covered breast is exposed.
He groans softly. “Your bra matches your panties.”
“What happened to those?”
With a boyish grin, he produces them from the pocket of his jeans. I take them and hold them up. They’re ruined. Torn at both hips. And I’m not the slightest bit upset about it.
I prop my hands on my hips in a pretend pout. “Now what am I going to put on after our shower?”
“If I have my way? Not a damn thing.”
Dropping his head, he puts his mouth to my breast and sucks me through the lace. The sensation is too much—the wet heat of his tongue, the rough texture of the lace, the painful pleasure of his rough mouth. I cry out, and the sound echoes against the walls.
Before I realize what he’s doing with his hands, my dress falls away, puddling at my ankles and leaving me standing there in nothing but my bra and my strappy heels. He slowly drags his mouth from my breast, and my nipple puckers harder in the cool air as Nate steps back to take me in.
This is the part I hate. Men’s assessing eyes on all my imperfections—the stretch marks at my breasts, the extra fat around my stomach, the cellulite on my ass and at the tops of my thighs. There’s nothing sexy about any of these parts of me. And there’s nothing that turns me off more than the disappointment in men’s eyes when they get me naked. It wasn’t like that with Max. But then again, I’ve never let him see me naked—not entirely. And by the time he saw me semi-nude, he was already in love with me.
Or you thought he was.
I focus on Nate and will myself to stop thinking about Max. I won’t let my broken heart ruin this night. This isn’t about love or men who make you feel whole. This is about sex and pleasure and—
Nate lifts his eyes back to mine, and what I see there brings my overactive brain to a screeching halt. Not disappointment. No. The heat in his eyes is undeniable. And it’s for me.
“You couldn’t be more perfect, Hanna.”
I look down, confused. Has someone else’s body magically replaced mine, because…? It’s true that I’ve toned up a bit in these last months while working out with Max, lost maybe ten pounds, but I still don’t have anything near the bodies my sisters have. I’m still the size-sixteen embarrassment I’ve been since adolescence.
Nate tilts my chin up with his thumb. He cocks his head as he studies me. “You really don’t know, do you? Our conversation earlier wasn’t just an act. You have no idea how gorgeous you are.”
I want to shrug it off, but he’s looking at me so intently, I know he expects an answer. “I’ve never been with a guy who was…into big girls.”
He grunts. “Is that what you think this is? Some sort of fetish?”
I shrug and drop my gaze to his throat.
“Hanna, I’m not ‘into big girls,’ as you put it. I like women. Beautiful women. Women who have curves.” He steps forward and twists the front clasp on my bra until it releases. The straps slide off my shoulders, and the bra falls to the floor. “I like breasts,” he murmurs, cupping mine in his hands and brushing his thumbs over my nipples.
I shudder at his touch, that knot of pleasure tightening between my legs.
He steps closer, and my breasts press against his chest. He slides his hands around my back and down until they’re cupping my butt. “And I’m not ashamed to say, I’m a bit of an ass man.” He squeezes. “Fabulous to look at and something to fill my hands when I’m fucking you from behind.”
My breath catches at the image. Fucking me from behind. No doubt he wouldn’t be talking to me like that if he had any idea how inexperienced I am.
“Nate—”
The sight of him dropping to his knees cuts me off. “And this.” He presses his mouth against the curve of my belly. “I’ve been with women who have flat stomachs and women who are soft here. Beauty comes in different shapes, colors, and sizes. There’s no cookie cutter for sexy.”
At the gentle pressure on the inside of my thighs, I widen my stance instinctively, bracing myself on the counter as the most intimate part of me is exposed to him. I shudder as he takes two fingers and traces some invisible line from just below my pubic bone to my center.
“This,” he murmurs. He lifts his gaze to mine and touches his fingers to his lips for a moment. “How turned on you get when I touch you? When I talk to you? It’s is the sexiest fucking thing in world.”
Fall to You Playlist
New Politics—Tonight You’re Perfect
Snow Patrol—Chasing Cars
Sarah McLachlan—Angel
Christina Perri—Human
Brooke Fraser—You Can Close Your Eyes
Ed Sheeran—Kiss Me
Coldplay—Magic
Ed Sheeran—Lego House
John Legend—All of Me
Alicia Keys and Adam Levine—Wild Horses
About the Author
Once a college English professor, I now write full time. I live in rural Indiana, where, when I’m not writing, I get to hang out with my husband and two kids–a six-year-old boy and a two-year-old hellion, er, girl. Not surprisingly, reading and writing remain my favorite activities, though both come in bits and pieces these days, not the big hunks of time I enjoyed before I had children. When I’m feeling virtuous, I like to go running (I use that word liberally. I’m really, really slow) or do yoga. Don’t worry, I’m always careful to balance out such activities with a hearty serving of ice cream or a chocolate martini.
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