Title: A Little Too Much (A Little Too Far #2)
Author: Lisa Desrochers
Genre: New Adult Contemporary Romance
Release Date: November 12, 2013
Publisher: William Morrow Impulse
In the follow-up to Lisa Desrochers’ explosive New Adult novel A Little too Far, Alessandro Moretti must face the life he escaped and the girl he loved and left behind.
Twenty-two year old Hilary McIntyre would like nothing more than to forget her past. As a teenager abandoned to the system, she faced some pretty dark times. But now that’s all behind her. Hilary has her life on track, and there’s no way she’ll head back down that road again.
Until Alessandro Moretti—the one person who can make her remember—shows up on her doorstep. He’s even more devastatingly gorgeous than before, and he’s much too close for comfort. Worse, he sees right through the walls she’s built over these last eight years, right into her heart and the secrets she’s guarding.
As Hilary finds herself falling back into love with the man who, as a boy both saved and destroyed her, she must decide. Past or future? Truth or lies?
Have you read A Little Too Far, the first book in the series? I LOVED it! Check out my review here. Even better it’s only .99 cents right now! And…A Little Too Much is only $1.99…A Little Too Hot is only $2.99! Such a great deal on the whole series!
Title: A Little Too Far (A Little Too Far #1)
By: Lisa Desrochers
Genre: New Adult Contemporary Romance
Release Date: September 17th, 2013
Publisher: William Morrow Impulse
Have you ever gone just a little too far?
Lexie Banks has.
Yep. She just had mind-blowing sex with her stepbrother. In her defense, she was on the rebound, and it’s more of a my-dad-happened-to-marry-a-woman-with-a-super-hot-son situation. But still, he’s been her best friend and confidant for better part of the last few years…and is so off limits. It’s a good thing she’s leaving in two days for a year abroad in Rome. But even thousands of miles away, Lexie can’t seem to escape trouble. Raised Catholic, she goes to Confession in hopes of alleviating some of her guilt…and maybe not burning in hell. Instead, she stumbles out of the confessional right into Alessandro Moretti, a young and very easy on the eyes deacon…only eight months away from becoming a priest. Lexie and Alessandro grow closer, and when Alessandro’s signals start changing despite his vow of celibacy, she doesn’t know what to think. She’s torn between falling in love with the man she shouldn’t want and the man she can’t have. And she isn’t sure how she can live with herself either way.
Title: A Little Too Hot (A Little Too Far #3)
By: Lisa Desrochers
Genre: New Adult Contemporary Romance
Release Date: January 21, 2014
Publisher: William Morrow Impulse
“Every page is deliciously breathtaking, wickedly sexy and sensational. A LITTLE TOO HOT is wonderfully unique and a LOT HOT! I am a HUGE Lisa Desrochers fan.”
— Katy Evans, New York Times bestselling author of REAL“Lisa is brilliant at creating sizzling sexual tension and impossible circumstances that make the reader hold their breath all the way to happy ever after.”
— Jay Crownover, New York Times bestselling author of RULEFrom USA Today bestselling author Lisa Desrochers, comes the third book in her sizzling New Adult series.
If you play with fire…
Tossed out of college and cut off by her parents, Samantha West is in pretty dire straits. So when her rocker best friend hooks her up with a job dancing at a gentlemen’s club, who is she to turn it down? Plus, there are rules to dancing at Benny’s: No touching, keep your clothes on at all times, and never get closer than three feet. Unfortunately for Sam, her first private client makes her want to break every single one of them.
Harrison Yates is scorching hot, but he’s got a past that involves being left at the altar not too long ago. Sam is determined to make him forget about his ex, but when she makes her move, it flings her life into a spiral of chaos she never saw coming.
Because Harrison Yates isn’t who he seems to be. And his secret will probably get her killed.
Want to get a taste of A Little Too Much? Keep reading!
I hold my breath and wait for him to let me go. Finally, he takes a shuddering breath and steps back, clearing his throat. I watch as he reaches over the back of the couch and comes out with a throw pillow. He stands in front of me with it bunched in his hands. “Again.”
I get myself balanced and snap a punch into the center of the pillow.
“Now with the left. Same thing.”
I try with my left and it feels slower and clumsier. “Guess I’ll have to hope he doesn’t grab me by the right arm, huh?”
“You’re right-handed, so using the left will take some practice, but it’s the same thing. Solid base, tight core, and snap.”
I try again with my left and it feels a little less awkward.
“Now stagger your stance,” he says, stepping closer and drawing my left foot forward with a scorching hand on my thigh, just below the hip. I fight to keep my breathing even. “As you snap, stay over your base of support, but step quickly from your back foot to your front foot.” His fingertips stroke up my leg as he releases me, causing my breath to catch. He holds the pillow again. “That will put some momentum behind the punch.”
I snap my right arm out, shifting onto my left leg as I do it, and my fist makes a solid-sounding thud into the pillow and pushes Alessandro back a half step.
He tips his head at me and his eyes flare. “You’re a natural. I want you in my ring.”
At the image of Alessandro, sweaty in a boxing ring, my heart skips. “Better be careful what you wish for.”
There’s something sexily cynical in his smile as he holds the pillow up. “Again.”
After half an hour, I finally feel like I have it to where I might actually do some damage to something other than my fist if it was to connect with someone.
“You’re a quick learner,” he tells me, handing me the throw pillow. He gestures to the couch. “Relax. I’ll start dinner.”
I toss the pillow on the couch and follow him to the kitchen, where he ducks into the fridge and comes out with two boneless chicken breasts. He pulls down a cutting board from where two are stacked on end against the fridge and proceeds to pound the crap out of the chicken with a mallet.
“There has to be something I can do to help.”
He opens the fridge again and comes out with a bundle of asparagus, which he sets on the counter. “If you insist, you can wash and trim these.”
I wash the asparagus and snap off the ends, then stack it and the two cockroaches on a plate next to the stove as Alessandro drops a cube of butter in a cast-iron skillet, where it sizzles. He rubs salt and pepper into the chicken, then flours it.
“Anything else I can do?” I ask as he drops the chicken breasts into the skillet and browns them.
“Sit and drink your wine,” he says with a wave of his arm at the couch.
I go into the main room, taking my wine with me, and sink into the sofa. I take a long sip. “Are you trying to get me drunk?”
He turns and flashes me that smile again. “Are you questioning my motives?”
“Maybe.” My heart is pounding. Why am I flirting?
I’m sipping my wine a few minutes later when he picks up the plate of asparagus and starts dumping the spears into the skillet. He stops and smiles over his shoulder at me as he picks out the cockroaches. “Touché.”
I smile sweetly back at him.
He turns to the stove and I sip my wine again, but whatever he just poured in the pot smells good, drawing me off the couch and back into the kitchen. “What are you making? I ask, looking into the skillet.
“It’s a traditional Italian chicken dish.”
“What’s in there?”
“So far, just chicken, artichoke hearts, asparagus, cream, chicken broth, and wine.” He picks a jar off the rack over the stove and when he shakes it into the pot, I smell oregano.
He moves around the kitchen like a pro as he prepares the pasta and spoons the sauce over it.
“Is wine okay for dinner, or would you like something else?” he asks as he takes our plates to the small table near the window on the kitchen side of the room.
“Wine is good, but I need a refill,” I say, holding up my empty glass.
He grabs my glass as he sweeps past on his way back to the kitchen. “Have a seat. I’ll be right there.”
I slide into one of the chairs at the table and pick up my fork. I know enough about manners not to start before Alessandro’s back, but that doesn’t keep me from dipping the tines of my fork in the sauce and tasting it.
“Holy Christ, that’s good.”
Alessandro picks up our glasses and moves back to the table. “I’m glad you approve.” He lowers himself into the seat across from me and nods at my plate, indicating I should go ahead. He doesn’t have to tell me twice.
I cut off a hunk of chicken and cram it in my mouth. “Oh, God,” I moan. “Who taught you to do this?”
“My grandmother.”
“Well, the woman deserves a medal.”
I dig back into my food, but just as I cut through a stalk of asparagus, an antenna flips out of my sauce. “Shit!” I scream, dropping my fork with a clank.
But then I hear Alessandro chuckling. He’s staring at me out from under his long, dark lashes, and in that look, I see the boy he was so long ago.
“You son of a bitch!” I say, but I’m laughing. How did I not see this coming? “I warned you.”
I grab the bug out of my sauce and charge at him, but he leaps out of his chair, laughing. “You warned me about cockroaches in your tea. I didn’t put the cockroach in your tea.”
“Close enough.”
He moves around to the front of the couch, but what he doesn’t expect is the direct, take-no-prisoners attack. I leap over the back of the couch and take him down, tackling him onto the throw pillows at the end and cramming the bug in his face.
And then I realize where I am: lying on top of Alessandro on a couch.
We’re leaving, Hilary.
Everything stops. Me. Him. Time.
I’m plunged backward in time to the rec room. Creed sang “My Sacrifice” from the radio and it was just us, which meant I could do this. I could touch him. He was on the couch in his T-shirt and jeans, and I was on top of him. He was kissing me, but he stopped.
“We’re leaving, Hilary.”
I shake the memory away, my heart beating in my throat.
Please. Don’t.
I climb off him and just stand here for a second, not sure if I should go.
Alessandro pulls himself up and looks at me a moment with wide eyes. His whole body is tense, his shoulders stiff and his hands bunched into fists at his sides.
I smooth my hair back. “I—sorry. I should go.”
He rubs his forehead, then looks at me. “You haven’t eaten yet. Come back to the table.”
We stand here staring at each other for another tense minute, then settle back into our seats.
“I’m sorry,” he says as he fishes the other cockroach out of his food. “It was stupid of me.”
But seeing him sitting there, sucking sauce off a rubber cockroach, is more than I can take. I crack up.
He smiles, unsure, but so soft and so beautiful. “We’re okay?”
“We’re okay.” As I say it, I realize I want it to be true. I want to spend time with him—get to know him again. I want to know what happened to him after he left New York. I need to know how he felt back then—and even now.
I need these things for my sanity. It’s just closure.
I’m not totally playing with fire.
A Little Too Much by Lisa Desrochers
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
*ARC Given to Blog for Honest Review*
4.5 “butterflies” “Irish” “cockroach” “coffee table” “ghosts” “Oh Henry!” “Salomé” Kisses
I fell in love with two things when I read A Little Too Far…Lisa Desrochers writing and Alessandro Moretti. Well I am back in lovey dovey land because I got a two-fer on A Little Too Much and I am over the moon for this book. A Little Too Much could be read as a stand alone but you get to know Alessandro in A Little Too Far and I think it made ALTM better for me knowing how it all began.
Hillary McIntyre…oh my…this girl. What can I say about Hillary…she is strong…and she is brave…but boy is she guarded. Like…I get it, some people need walls to exist…but there are walls and then there are fortresses that are ten feet thick with reinforced steel…Hillary has the latter. But every inch of her walls is 100% justified. I got Hillary and I really liked her…walls and all. She’s exotically beautiful, an interesting blend of her Irish mother and African American father…she makes me think of one of those distinct beauties that you don’t see often. She has never had it easy…her career has been a struggle…her relationships have been more about convenience then love…she has very few friends…I would almost feel bad for her except this is the way she has chosen it to be, and honestly, I think she prefers it that way. She decided to shut down years ago because it was easier to live this way then to live with the reality and the pain. She never knew her father…she was neglected and abandoned by her mother…everyone she has ever loved or ever should have loved her has left her…and all of them, with the exception of her sister Mallory never came back for her. Actually…make that two exceptions…
‘Just like in Shakespeare, when you fall head over heels in love with someone you don’t even know, it’s never going to end well. Love killed Juliet when she was thirteen. I made it all the way to fourteen before it nearly killed me.’
Alessandro Moretti…well what Hillary has in walls, Alessandro has in guilt. I knew that coming from ALTF…but I guess I just wasn’t aware of the level of his guilt. He takes every negative thing that he could have possibly done in his life and puts the full weight of it on his shoulders – whether it belongs there or not. While that is admirable in it’s own right, it is by far no way to live and every moment of this book I was waiting for Alessandro’s chance to finally break free of this remorse that was plaguing him. Alessandro is in the same boat as Hillary…he’s not had an easy life…his father was killed on 9/11…his mother has basically lost touch with reality…his brother went down a dangerous path that led to his death and Alessandro is left to pick up the pieces. I really liked Alessandro in ALTF but I knew he wasn’t right for Lexie…but I love what he took from his relationship with Lexie. Seeing him ‘post-almost-priesthood’ was…fun. Not that Alessandro was strictly business in ALTF but I felt like I got to see a whole new side of him…as well as also getting a glimpse at his past. And…for the record, all the hotness that is Alessandro Moretti should never be confined to a man of the cloth (strike me down for saying it!)…tall, dark and handsome with a boxers body (long, lean and muscular arms – that both Hillary and I seem to have a fascination for) and don’t even get me started on those grey eyes. Just…yummy!
‘I remember how everything changed for me with Alessandro. He was the first person in years who seemed to really care about me. He never hurt me. He kissed me on the mouth and he touched me so gently. He was sweet and tender…and I started to trust him. Then I started to need him.
And then he left.’
Hillary and Alessandro – so much pain…so much history…so much to overcome. So much that I wondered if it was ever going to happen. This is not a wham-bam-thank-you-ma’am kind of book. Alessandro and Hillary have a lot to overcome and most of it is not easy, some of it is not pleasant but watching them go through it is what is awesome. Their relationship progresses from tentative and guarded to friends to friends who remember those feelings they used to have for each other to friends that are really trying to hold back on those feeling for each other to…well…I can’t give everything away – but trust me, it gets better. It doesn’t help that Hillary ‘technically’ has a boyfriend…if you want to call the guy that she shares an apartment and has sex with a boyfriend because….that’s about all she shares with him. I usually fall in love with a couple when I get to see all of those swoony moments…the hand holding, the kisses, the dates…Hillary and Alessandro did all that…but as friends…and I think I loved that almost more than if they had been a couple. They had a standing Thursday date (which I freaking adored) and it wasn’t like the hand holding/kisses were of a romantic nature…they were just signs of affection…a deep love for the other person, it’s hard to explain but trust me, it’s different. Plus the dates…so cute…original…unique…not like anything I’ve ever heard about before and the different spins that were put on them – like the rubber cockroaches (that became a ‘thing’) and the horribly ugly and heavy coffee table that was carted all over Manhattan (it’s hilarious…trust me on this).
‘It’s amazing how a person can convince themselves of almost anything. Even when that anything could cost them everything.’
Every now and then I experience a book that throws something at me completely from left field…it can either has a positive effect or a negative effect….ALTM did this and I mother-freaking-loved it! 69% people…with seven little words, I was left with my jaw was gaping wide open! Shocker! Big time shocker…either that or I was just so sucked into everything else the possibility just didn’t even occur to me. Either way…one word sums ups my thoughts…AWESOME! Make that two…Brilliant! There was enough still left to keep me wondering but this just added that extra little layer of OMG-ness (yes…OMG-ness is a thing, and if it isn’t, I just made it a thing) to keep me biting my nails until all the truth came out. And yes…at 69% there was still a lot of truth to come out. Another shocker…I cried. I didn’t expect to. And we’re not talking bawl my eyes out tears but there are some very emotional parts…one involving Hillary and Mallory’s mom and while I didn’t particularly care for their mother, it was a very emotional scene.
‘He hesitates before reaching for me and pulling me to his shoulder. I try to find the strength to push him away. But I can’t. I’ve wanted to be right here, in Alessandro’s arms, for so long. I dreamed of these arms after he left. I dreamed he’d come back and hold me and everything would be okay.
And now he’s here.’
Lisa’s writing style is so detailed and fluid it makes my head spin. She made me fall in love with Rome when I read ALTF and she absolutely took me into the heart of NY with ALTM. I can’t even begin to tell you, it’s like the location becomes a character in itself. The way she describes things is so vivid and clear I feel like I am there and experiencing the sights and sounds with the characters. Another thing I appreciate about Lisa’s writing…she writes a very complete story. It’s never rushed, the pace is excellent…every possible plot point is covered – even the ones I never even thought about until it I read it. It got to a point where I craved her style…it wasn’t forced or over the top…it was just right and I loved how thought out, thorough and meticulous it was…something that is sometimes lacking in a lot of the books I read…I really appreciate it. It’s the little things that at the last click of my kindle I’m just wow’d by…because it doesn’t hit you fully until the very end.
‘I smile against his chest.
He must feel it, because he kisses the crown of my hair. “What has you so happy?”
“Would you ever have imagined back then that we’d end up like this?”
He cups my cheek and lifts my face so those beautiful eyes are gazing down into mine. “I imagined it every day.”’
Oh sweet Jesus can I talk about how much I loved the ending? Like…we spend the entire book waiting for that moment for Hillary to drop her walls and everything to be happy and glorious and while there are happy and glorious parts throughout the book, the ending just takes the cake. Like…I wanted to sing the hallelujah chorus or something. It was magical and uplifting and very Hillary and Alessandro. Just…exactly what I could have ever hoped and wanted for them. I feel at peace every time I read one of Lisa’s books…and I have a feeling A Little Too Hot will not disappoint! So…off I go to read it. 🙂
Lisa Desrochers lives in northern California with her husband, two very busy daughters, and Shini the tarantula. If you’d told her five years ago she’d write a book, she’d have laughed in your face. As it turns out, she’d owe you an apology. Writing has become an addiction for Lisa and A Little Too Far, courtesy of HarperCollins, is her first novel for adults. She is also the author of the young adult Personal Demons trilogy from Macmillan. When she’s not writing, she’s reading, and she adores stories that take her to new places, and then take her by surprise.
I’ve grabbed the first two books! I am excited to read this series!
Awesome giveaway! Can’t wait to read this series!! 🙂
I adore Alessandro!
A-MAZ-ING Blog! I haven’t read these yet but really REALLY want to 🙂
Really looking forward to reading this book.
I already read this book and loved it!
Love the teasers 🙂 Can’t wait to read A Little Too Hot
These look real steamy, can’t wait to read them. Thanks for the chance
The teasers make me want to go out and buy the book. Thanks for sharing it with all of us..
Love the teasers, thanks!
I truly enjoy your blog. This book looks like a really good read. cannot wait.
I always enjoy myself when I visit this blog.
I really liked the first book so this one is on the TBR list
Love the teasers. Would love to read these books!!!
Love them I am definitely reading this series
Great teasers! This series has moved up in the ranks on my TBR! Thanks for the giveaway 🙂