In A Heartbeat by Liz King Blog Tour stop review

Synopsis:
For the past eight years I haven't been living, just ... Existing.

The pain, the guilt, and the shame I carry have been locked away deep inside me for so long that it's impenetrable, until him. Until Connor Reeves.

With a sexy smile and seductive eyes the bad boy rocker walked right into my life without warning, and now the walls I built that hid all of my grief for so long are now crumbling at my feet.

Now I am left wondering if it's possible that just as life can cause pain, it can also heal wounds in a heartbeat.

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EXCERPT:

I run my fingers through his soft, dark hair. Taking a deep breath, I reply, “Connor, I know you didn’t know what you were doing. I wish you’d tell me what’s bothering you.” I reach down to tilt his face up to mine. “I love you, and I want to be there for you, but you can’t go off on me like that.”

Connor tightens his arms around my waist, pulling me towards the edge of my chair. “I can’t talk about it. Not now. I just need to make sure we’re okay. I need you, Sweetness.” He surges up on his knees, his mouth colliding with mine. I taste want, need and raw desire in his kiss. I can feel Connor pouring all of his apologies into this kiss.

I pull back from his lips to catch my breath. Connor looks deep into my eyes, pleading searching, asking. I don’t have a second to respond before his mouth is on mine again. His tongue exploring my mouth, licking, flicking, probing. I moan into his mouth as he pulls me off the chair and down into his lap. I am now straddling Connor, sitting on his bent knees. My mind doesn’t process the fact that we are in fact in the break room of my workplace. I let myself get pulled into Connor’s kiss. I kiss him back with all the built up tension that I have felt since I ran out of the apartment last night. I fist my hands in Connor’s shirt, holding him to me as I grind against the hard ridge that is forming behind the zipper of his jeans. I feel Connor’s hands slip underneath my scrub top at my back, inciting a fire along my skin.

Just as Connor starts to finger the hook of my bra, the break room door opens, making me remember where I am. “Jesus!” Michelle screams, leaving just as quickly as she entered, slamming the door closed behind her.

*********SANDIE'S REVIEW********

I am reeling, I am mad, I am sad, I am happy, I cried even at one point. This book had me all over the place. Liz King's debut novel had me pondering and squealing. 

We begin the book with a 14yr old Lynae who gets raped by her date. She becomes withdrawn and feels as though it was her fault. Which leads us up to now, a nurse that doesn't really go out much. Has a best friend named Sly, he would do anything for her. She also has her 2 girlfriends Gabbi and Michelle. Nae as they call her isn't very social so they keep trying to take her out to party to no avail until finally she reluctantly agrees, meeting Connor. Lead singer of Shameful Regret. He's a rocker, he's pierced with tatts. Typical bad boy. What neither of them saw coming is that they would fall in love with one another. 

I liked the premise of the story. I enjoyed the banter between Sly and Nae. Nae and the band memebrs, Nae and her friends. I liked that Connor helped heal Lynae, that he brought her security. She was able to open up for the first time and let her walls down, accept her past and learn to move forward. I enjoyed that her friends were her supporters and there to help with anything they could. Sly is like the best guy friend ever and I would find myself smiling, he just seems like a great guy and the character was built up well.

I am honest and I have to be otherwise there is no point in being a reviewer right? Okay so the parts that had me cringing were the parts where hands were laid on lynae no, no he didn't beat her get that out of your head. Just drunk and holding on to tight, but for me red flags go up. I am a survivor of domestic abuse so this was how things slowly progressed, with him being drunk being a little too rough then apologizing profusely. I got that he had a rough past but I couldn't get past this. I just couldn't. Then towards the end scene, GAH! no, nope I was done. I couldn't see him past being an asshole. Apa or not I couldn't stop cringing and wanting to take her away form this douchenozzle. For me it hit hard. Way too hard, I couldn't see past it no matter how nice he seems. It seemed like the author wanted to make the male lead a broken character but for me, it's never ok, in real life or in fiction, for a man to put his hands on a woman. Even trying to hold her back, it's not okay. Or yelling and degrading a woman. I feel like the author could have made the character broken, but without holding her arm or yelling at her. He could have walked away and yelled to the sky. For me, it just brought up memories of what happened to me personally and I could no longer connect with the male lead and made me cringe for the protagonist.

I am tethering on the rating because I know the author didn't mean for the male lead to come off as he did, so I'm between 3.5 and 4 hearts.

Author Bio:

Liz King is a wife, nurse and romance book blogger. In A Heartbeat is her debut novel. She lives in South Carolina with her family. Reading is a passion of hers, and writing is always something she wanted to do. Liz is addicted to gummy bears and coffee, even though her family and friends don’t think she needs caffeine to add to her already energetic personality. She’s obsessed with the 1980’s and loves to sing even though she can’t carry a tune. Liz loves college football and hiking in the Blue Ridge Mountains and the Great Smoky Mountains with her husband.

www.facebook.com/authorlizking

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7182350.Liz_King

Playlist:
Lips Of An Angel - Hinder
Take My Breath Away - Berlin
Alone - Heart
Crawling - Linkin Park
Colorblind - The Counting Crows
I'll Stand By You - Pretenders
Love Me Tender - Elvis
Everything - Lifehouse
Broken - Lifehouse

Purchase Links:
AMAZON
AMAZON UK
BARNES AND NOBLE
iTUNES
KOBO