Erika Kelly is one of my favorite romance authors - her stories have this perfect combination of steam and substance. MINE FOR NOW is definitely one you can't miss. Check out my review & an excerpt from the book.
Mine For Now (Wild Love #1), by Erika Kelly
Publish Date: October 4, 2016
Publisher: EK Publishing
Format: ARC, provided by the author and Inkslinger PR
Genre: new adult contemporary romance
To Buy: Amazon | Barnes & Noble
Rating: 5 STARS
(Synopsis) She’s had enough drama in her life.
Nicole O’Donnell is more than ready for the fresh start college offers. After a lifetime of trying to help her alcoholic mom and ex-boyfriend get sober, she’s finally learned her lesson: people don’t change. They certainly don’t change for her.
He can never leave his drama behind.
Thanks to his mom’s substance abuse issues, Dylan McCaffrey’s persona non grata in his hometown of Gun Powder, Colorado. So when he scores a free ride to the top university in the country, he’s determined to make something of this fresh start. But his mom has always relied on him, and she’s not handling his absence well at all. If he can just keep up his grades, pay her bills, and come home every break, he might be able to pull off this opportunity.
True love won’t be denied.
No matter how determined they are to steer clear of each other, their combustible connection explodes, especially when Nicole offers Dylan the one thing he can’t bear—hope. Once he has a taste of it—and the irresistible force of her—there’s no going back.
But when he falls too deeply, when he loses sight of his priorities, he might just lose it all.
Some of you may be familiar with Erika Kelly because of her Rock Star Romance series. It's how I discovered this author and fell in love with her writing and characters. Mine For Now was a little different from what I've come to expect from Erika. Make no mistake - the heat and the heart are most definitely still there. I was just unprepared for how many times my heart broke for both of the main characters - how many times I was brought to tears because of their situations. Turns out, Erika Kelly is a master at bringing out some serious feels.
Nicole O'Donnell is an absolutely incredible heroine. She is unbelievably strong and determined and loyal. She went through some horrible times when living with her alcoholic mother and dating an alcoholic boyfriend. She's decided she's done with that and is ready to focus on herself and her future. Rock on, Nicole! She didn't want the distraction of a boyfriend, but seriously. How could she resist Dylan McCaffrey, the boy who lives across the hall?
Dylan is also strong, determined and loyal, but unlike Nicole, he's being pulled in so many different directions because he hasn't yet reached the place where he makes himself his number one priority. He's a protector and a caretaker, so he feels the need to put his own desires to the side in order to make sure those he loves are well cared for. It's extra hard when his mother is a raging alcoholic and his ex is a manipulative witch. Nicole is everything he wants for his future, but his past keeps sucking him back, and Dylan has no idea how to break free of the cycle.
Nicole has the gift of experience. She already has broken the cycle, and as she gets to know Dylan she sees what his perceived obligation to his mother is doing to him. She knows what it's doing to her - it's preventing her from being with Dylan wholly and completely. And he is what she wants more than anything. So she tries and tries and tries to help him. But, the overarching theme of Mine For Now is that in order for help to come to you, you have to be ready to receive it freely. Dylan is poised in a place in his life to have everything he's ever wanted. But, he has to take it.
"Every single one of us is in the exact same place - the starting point. And you get to build from here. You get to decide what and who you become. This is the one time in your life when you can finally break free of all the labels. Dylan, you can be whatever you want. Starting now."
Dylan broke my heart over and over again. This poor boy is on the cusp of everything. He's 18, a freshman in college on a full ride scholarship, free from his white trash neighborhood, and has met the girl of his dreams. I waffled back and forth constantly between wanting to shake some sense into him and wanting to tackle hug him. He has all these things going for him, and yet, he constantly allows his past and the toxic people in his life to get in the way. And in doing so, he hurts Nicole. Seriously, this book killed me in all the best ways.
Even though this book is technically new adult, as our main characters are only 18, it is crazy hot. The sexual tension simmers for awhile between Dylan and Nicole, and when it finally explodes, it's so, so satisfying.
Mine For Now was an incredible start to this new series, and I can't wait to read more.
Every time he closed his eyes he saw her. He saw her in his bed, those long eyelashes fanning in perfect arcs on her creamy skin. Or on his lap, straddling him, her face taut with sexual tension. Or, worse, he imagined her on her back, hair spread all over the pillow, breasts bouncing as he slammed into her. Jesus, he ached just thinking about it.
He had to stop this. He had better control over his emotions than this—how else would he have survived this long?
What was happening to him? That first night, when he’d brought her into his bed—he’d felt it then. This connection, this bond. He hadn’t even known her—but he’d felt her. Inside, he’d felt her. When had she become essential to him?
Oh, shit. That was bad. Very bad. No one could ever be essential to him.
What she’d said tonight—about recreating Gun Powder. He had done that.
He’d hated his life back home. The town itself was beautiful, but it was filled with his big, extended family—family that wanted nothing to do with him. They’d given him a choice—him or his mom. Of course, he’d chosen his mom. But that had narrowed his social life to the guys who weren’t going anywhere.
Or maybe he’d chosen those guys because he thought they’d understand his life a little better.
And, yeah, he guessed he had done the same thing here.
But he couldn’t stop thinking about what James had said about what he wanted deep down. He’d never been allowed to think about what he wanted. For him, it was about survival. Nothing else.
And yet, he had worked his ass off to get into a top school. Why? Like James said, if he planned on going back to Gun Powder, why bother with the expense and hassle of Wilmington?
Hope rose in him, a force so strong he couldn’t ignore it. He came here because he wanted more. Nicole.
He did have something deep down. And that something was a someone.
Holy shit. Adrenaline crashed his system.
Nicole was his deep down. She was his home, his heart.
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2 comments:
Thank you so much! ~Jessica, InkSlinger PR
True love won't be denied means to me that know matter what obstacles we have to overcome if it's true love it's meant to be. Thank you
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