Welcome to my stop on Jennifer Armentrout's blog tour for her final (*wipes tear*) Wait For You book, FIRE IN YOU. Read on for my review, check out the awesome excerpt from the book, and then enter the giveaway!
Fire in You (Wait For You #6), by Jennifer L. Armentrout
Publish Date: November 28, 2016
Publisher: self-published
Format: e-ARC, provided by the author and Inkslinger PR
Genre: new adult contemporary romance
To Buy: Amazon | Barnes & Noble
Rating: 5 STARS
(Synopsis) Jillian Lima’s whole world was destroyed in a span of a few hours. The same night her childhood love, Brock ‘the Beast’ Mitchell, broke her heart, her life was irrevocably altered by the hand of a stranger with a gun. It takes six years to slowly glue together the shattered pieces of her life, but Jillian is finally ready to stop existing in a past full of pain and regret. She takes a job at her father’s martial arts Academy and she’s going out on her first date since a failed relationship that was more yuck than yum. Jillian is determined to start living.
She just never expected Brock to be a part of her life again. But he’s firmly back in her life before she knows it, and not only is he older, he’s impossibly more handsome, more teasing and more everything. And when he sees Jillian, he’s no longer capable of thinking of her as the little girl who was his shadow growing up or the daughter of the man who gave him a second chance at life. He sees the woman who’d always been there for him, the one person who believed in him no matter what.
Brock knows she’s the one he should’ve made his, and what begins as a tentative friendship quickly turns to red-hot chemistry that sparks a flame that burns brighter than lust. Falling for Brock again risks more than her heart, because when the past sorrow-filled and guilt-ridden past resurfaces, and a web of lies threatens to rip them apart, the fallout could lay waste to everything they’ve fought to build together, and destroy the dreams of those they care most about.
I feel like I've been waiting years for this book. I fell in love with Jennifer Armentrout's Wait For You series immediately after reading the first book three years ago. I'm so sad to say goodbye to all these characters, but I'm so glad that Brock and Jillian's story was saved for the end. It all worked out perfectly. When Brock and Jillian were first introduced, Jillian was obviously still pretty young and not ready for Brock. But, six years has passed, which not only gave Jillian time to grow up, but it gave the rest of the couples we've fallen in love with to move through their lives and come to a comfortable and happy place.
But those six years have been life changing for more than all the previous couples. Jillian is no longer the sweet daughter of the Lima Academy owner, chasing after Brock Mitchell with puppy dog eyes. Brock's blatant rejection, followed by a devastating attack have dimmed her light and driven her away. But, Jillian has come home to help run her father's MMA academy - to help Brock run it.
The events of six years earlier are told a little bit at a time with the help of Jillian's flashbacks. It's obvious that the attack has had long-lasting effects on her, given some of her physical limitations now. But, what really struck me hard was Brock's rejection. Any girl who has ever loved a guy and not had him love her back - and even gone so far as to choose someone else and flaunt her in front of you - knows what I'm talking about. The hurt is incredible. Incredible enough to remove yourself from the other person's presence for, oh say, six years.
But, old habits, and old crushes, die hard. When Brock and Jillian are together in the same room again, the sexual chemistry is there, only this time, it's felt on both sides. It's also obvious that things have changed with Brock in the past six years as well. He's had time to think on his life and the people in it. He also has had a lot of time to let his guilt over what happened to Jillian fester and grow. And now he's amazed at how drastically Jillian has changed from who she was when she used to pine over him.
For once, Brock is doing the chasing, and I loved every second of that. It's a place he's not used to being in, but he messed up with Jillian once, and he's determined not to repeat past mistakes. Getting her to trust his intentions and actions this time around proves to be challenging, though.
I've bee dying for Brock's and Jillian's story every since they were introduced, and Jennifer Armentrout didn't disappoint. It was sexy and so emotional and worth every minute I waited for it. Not only was Brock and Jillian's story incredibly gratifying, but catching up with every one of the previous couples who've met and fallen in love in this series was amazing. It's the only way to end a series, and it was perfect.
Holy crap, this was like worse than a nightmare.
I had two options at this point.
Option one included me grabbing my purse, walking out of the office, whopping Brock over the head with the thing, and then driving straight to the unemployment office and then on to an epic job search. That option scared me, because hello, being jobless was not exactly a smart move, but having to see Brock five days a week also wasn’t a smart move. And his hard head would probably damage my purse.
Walking out of here meant no more wet food at all for Rhage.
Or new purses for me.
Option two required that I gain some lady balls and deal with the cards dealt, and I’d obviously done that before, to some extent. I was standing here today, and even though my life hadn’t panned out exactly like I’d expected it, I was a walking miracle. Dealing with Brock was by no means the hardest thing I’d had to stare down. I was finally where I felt like I needed to be.
I was finally starting to live outside the pages of my favorite books.
Brock had chased me out of my home, away from my family and friends, and out of my family business.
No, I told myself. That wasn’t exactly true. I made the decision to run from my home, away from my family and friends, and from my family legacy. That was all me.
Choosing to stay meant Fancy Feast for Rhage, a new purse or two for me eventually, and a job that would actually mean something to me.
But this option, staying here and working for Brock, terrified me. Not just because it truly forced me to move on from the mess that was our past, but also because it would inevitably require that I actually face it.
Obviously, I admittedly had a habit of not doing that.
There was a third option, I realized. I could stay and do this job while looking for a new one if being around Brock was just…well, too much.
Squaring my shoulders, I decided I was going to exist somewhere between option two and three and I walked around my desk and to the door, joining Brock.
“What?” I asked, my tone sharper than I intended.
One eyebrow arched. “Watching you in there, it seemed like you were deciding between toppling the desk and breaking a window or walking out here and staying, working for your family like you always wanted to.”
I sucked in an unsteady breath, split between wondering if I was as transparent as a glass door and being extremely uncomfortable with the reminder of how well Brock knew me.
“So,” he said, dipping his head slightly as he stepped in. He was so close I could feel the heat from his body. “What did you decide, Jillian?”
Her dreams of becoming an author started in algebra class, where she spent most of her time writing short stories….which explains her dismal grades in math. Jennifer writes young adult paranormal, science fiction, fantasy, and contemporary romance. She is published with Spencer Hill Press, Entangled Teen and Brazen, Disney/Hyperion and Harlequin Teen. Her book Obsidian has been optioned for a major motion picture and her Covenant Series has been optioned for TV. Jennifer has won numerous awards, including the 2013 Reviewers Choice Award for Wait for You, the 2015 Editor’s Pick for Fall With Me, and the 2014/2015 Moerser-Jugendbuch- Jury award for Obsidian. Her young adult romantic suspense novel DON’T LOOK BACK was a 2014 nominated Best in Young Adult Fiction by YALSA.
She also writes Adult and New Adult contemporary and paranormal romance under the name J. Lynn. She is published by Entangled Brazen and HarperCollins.
Links:
Website: https://jenniferlarmentrout.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JenniferLArmentrout
Twitter: https://twitter.com/jlarmentrout
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4476934.Jennifer_L_Armentrout
Website: https://jenniferlarmentrout.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JenniferLArmentrout
Twitter: https://twitter.com/jlarmentrout
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4476934.Jennifer_L_Armentrout
1 comment:
Thank you so much! ~Jessica, InkSlinger PR
Post a Comment