I am so in love with K.A. Tucker's Ten Tiny Breaths series. FIVE WAYS TO FALL is the final book in the series, so this blog tour, organized by Inkslinger PR, is bitter sweet for me. Read on for my review and an excerpt from Five Ways to Fall. Don't forget to check out the other stops on the tour after entering the giveaway for a Kindle Fire!
Published June 24, 2013
Publisher: Atria Books
Format: e-book, provided by the publisher and Atria Books
Genre: new adult contemporary romance
To Buy: Amazon * Barnes & Noble
Rating: 4 STARS
(From Goodreads) Purple-haired, sharp-tongued Reese MacKay knows all about making the wrong choice; she’s made plenty of them in her twenty-odd-years. So when her impulsive, short-lived marriage ends in heartbreak, she decides it’s time for a change. She moves to Miami with the intention of hitting reset on her irresponsible life, and she does quite well…aside from an epically humiliating one-night stand in Cancun with a hot blond bouncer named Ben. Thank God she can get on a plane and leave that mistake behind her.
Football scholarship and frat parties with hot chicks? Part of charmer Ben Morris’s plan. Blown knee that kills any hope of a professional football career? So not part of the plan. Luckily Ben has brains to go with his knockout looks and magnetism. After three long years of balancing law school with his job as a bouncer at Penny’s Palace, he’s ready to lead a more mature life—until his first day of work, when he finds himself in the office of that crazy, hot chick he met in Cancun. The one he hasn’t stopped thinking about.
If Ben truly were a smart guy, he’d stay clear of Reese. She’s the boss’s stepdaughter and it’s been made very clear that office romances are grounds for dismissal. Plus, rumor has it she’s trouble. The only problem is, he likes trouble, especially when it’s so good-looking…
Like I mentioned, Five Ways to Fall is the final book in the Ten Tiny Breaths series. This is playboy Ben's book, and one I've been looking forward to for some time now. I just knew he had a story behind his man whoring ways. Ben's always been a bit of an enigma. When Kacey first got a job at Penny's back in Ten Tiny Breaths, Ben was one of the bouncers by night while he toiled away at law school by day. He had a thing for Kacey at first, but when she started dating Trent, Ben got over it quickly with the assistance of Mercy and Hannah. *snicker*
Now, Ben is a real lawyer and has secured his first job at a law firm. By chance, it's the same firm that Reese works at as a paralegal - Reese, the girl he had an awful near-one-night-stand with in Cancun a few months before. Reese, the first girl he hasn't been able to put out of his mind in... well, ever. And, now not only do they work together, but she happens to be the boss' step-daughter.
Reese is trying to recover from a failed marriage and a lot of wild living. She was never supposed to see Ben again, and now she has to see him every day. For awhile they have this amazingly awesome love/hate thing going on. Reese is horribly embarrassed by what happened between them in Mexico and that Ben won't let her forget about it. But, then when she decides to use him to get back at her evil, cheating ex, they forge a sort of partnership.
Both Ben and Reese are fun and free-spirited, so they really are perfectly suited for each other. Their snark and banter back and forth was hysterical and the perfect kind of foreplay for them. I absolutely loved these two together. This isn't the usual squishy, emo love story. Neither Ben nor Reese are the type to spout sonnets or flowery lovey dovey words. They get off on speeding around on dune buggies, playing paint ball and chugging beers. It was a very refreshing change.
That doesn't mean that the hallmarks of a good new adult book aren't present. Ben's backstory is truly sad, and unexpected. Reese's life was equally tragic and her relationship with her awful mother is completely unhealthy. Of course, this gives Ben and Reese some common ground and something to start a meaningful relationship on. That and hot sex. That always helps.
I loved the slow build of their relationship. It took Ben and Reese awhile to actually come together in a meaningful way. They seem to become good friends first, helping each other out of some sticky situations. Ben helps Reese get over her ex, and Reese helps Ben on his parents' citrus farm. And, in return, they reform their wild ways (at least with the opposite sex) and focus on each other.
I'm so sad to see this series come to an end, but based on the characters that K.A. Tucker has created in her Ten Tiny Breaths series, I can't wait to see what she comes up with next.
Read on for an excerpt from Five Ways to Fall...
Excerpt
Reese
The first forkful of pie is sliding into my mouth when my phone comes alive with the sound of minions singing the banana song.
“Happy Monday,” I mutter into the phone.
“I hate numbers.”
“It’s a good thing you won’t be dealing with them on a daily basis for the next forty years, then.” Lina finished her undergrad degree last spring and passed her CPA exam with flying colors. Now she’s working at a small accounting firm down the street to collect a year of experience before she can apply for her license.
“What are you doing?” she asks.
“Hiding from karma at Bayside.”
“Don’t drink the coffee,” she warns.
“Too late,” I mutter, swirling the last bit of the toxic substance in my mug. Every time I come here, I order a cup to go with my chocolate pecan pie. It’s habit, I guess. There’s no other explanation. The coffee is weak, it has a salty aftertaste, and there’s always a weird film at the bottom of the cup. No one with taste buds would like this crap.
With a heavy sigh, I divulge the horror of my day.
“So Mason is friends with your botched exorcism,” she states flatly. I can always count on Lina to lay it out like it is. No beating around the bush. No softening the blow. “What did the guy say to you?”
“That I owe him a new shirt.”
She snorts. “Well, he’s got you there.”
“Thanks.”
“Maybe I’ll take a break and swing by. We can mock people together,” Lina offers. Another plus to this job: having my best friend only four blocks away from me.
“Don’t bother. I’ve been here for two hours. I actually have to go back to the office. The law bot dumped three new cases on my desk today.”
“Fine. Do you want to come over for dinner sometime this week? Nicki’s cooking.”
“Does it involve turkey bacon?”
“All unconventional meats have been banned.” Since Lina owns the small two-bedroom-plus-den condo that they moved into, she is well within her power to stop Nicki from inflicting others with her strange dietary preferences.
“Then I’m in.”
“Okay, good.” There’s a pause, and then Lina sighs. “Look, there’s something I need to tell you.”
“Well, this doesn’t sound promising.” I shove a large piece of pie in my mouth.
“It all depends on whether you want your best friend, the one who sticks up for you, has lied to the police for you, has gone along with all of your harebrained ideas, to be happy.”
“You’ve never lied to the police for me.”
“Senior year. The bottle of vodka in the trunk when we got pulled over.”
“Fine. One time,” I heave with exasperation. “What has that earned you today?”
“Well, I’ve started seeing someone that you may not . . .”
Lina’s voice blurs as I watch a ginger-haired woman flounce through the patio, her purse swinging on her arm, as happy as any home-wrecking husband thief could possibly be.
“Oh my God!” Chunks of piecrust get sucked down my throat with my gasp, stirring up a cough that I struggle to suppress. “It’s her!” I hiss.
About the Author
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