*~*Love, In English by Karina Halle – Excerpt, Review & Giveaway!*~*

Genre:   New Adult, Contemporary Romance, Standalone

He’s thirty-eight. I’m twenty-three.

He speaks Spanish. I speak English.

He lives in Spain. I live in Canada.

He dresses in thousand-dollar suits. I’m covered in tattoos.

He’s married and has a five-year old daughter.

I’m single and can’t commit to anyone or anything.

Until now.

Because when they say you can’t choose who you fall in love with, boy ain’t that the f*#king truth.

To a restless dreamer like Vera Miles, it sounded like the experience of a lifetime. Instead of spending her summer interning for her astronomy major, she would fly to Spain where she’d spend a few weeks teaching conversational English to businessmen and women, all while enjoying free room and board at an isolated resort. But while Vera expected to get a tan, meet new people and stuff herself with wine and paella, she never expected to fall in love.

Mateo is unlike anyone Vera has ever known, let alone anyone she’s usually attracted to. While Vera is a pierced and tatted free spirit with a love for music and freedom, Mateo Casales is a successful businessman from Madrid, all sharp suits and cocky Latino charm. Yet, as the weeks go on, the two grow increasingly close and their relationship changes from purely platonic to something…more.

Something that makes Vera feel alive for the first time.

Something that can never, ever be.

Or so she thinks.

Claudia shrugged and pulled down at her yellow tee. “Not my problem. Eduardo is nice but Ricardo is really nice.”

“How did it happen?” I asked, kinda wanting the sordid details.

She was coy. “The way it usually happens.”

“Did you make the first move?”

Another shrug. “Why not?”

I swear, a shrug and a “why not?” were the Spaniards’ go-to answer for everything.

“Well, then I guess it seems safe—and a little boring now—to tell you that I have a crush on someone.”

Her brows quirked up. “Other than Mateo?”

“What?”

“You are sleeping with Mateo, no?”

“WHAT?!”

“No?”

“No!” I exclaimed, appalled. “Why does everyone keep thinking that?”

“Because you are always together,” she said simply. She took a sip of wine. “The attraction is very obvious. So, I figured you must be sleeping together.”

“He’s married!”

“Yes, but you are not.”

I shook my head adamantly. “It’s wrong. I don’t want to be the other woman. I’ve seen my dad go for the other woman, and I can’t put Mateo’s daughter through that,” I said. “Or his wife,” I quickly added.

“That doesn’t mean that you can’t have feelings for anyone else.”

“Yes, it does mean that.”

“Maybe you are meant to be together.”

“We’re not! There isn’t even a together. We’re just friends. I haven’t done anything about it, and so far my feelings are totally one-sided.”

Claudia got up off the couch and brought a pack of cigarettes out of her front jean pocket. “If you think it is on the one side, you have not seen the way he looks at you.”

She walked over to her small patio table and pulled out a chair. I got up and stormed after her, my nerves dancing excitedly.

“What do you mean, the way he looks at me?” I asked, lowering my voice in case there were people around listening. I felt like bouncing off the walls.

She slid the ashtray toward her as I sat down. “You do not see it. But I do. I think everyone does. He looks at you like…like you’re his favorite food.”

“Favorite food?”

She lit her cigarette. “Yes. You’re like his favorite food in the whole world. He wants to have you, eat you, devour you. He thinks about you all the time, craves you. But he cannot have you for one reason or another. Perhaps you upset his stomach. Maybe he is on a diet, yes? All he wants is a taste, but he cannot even have that. That is how he looks at you.”

I sat there, stunned, as some of her smoke blew in my face. That’s how Mateo looked at me? Like he wanted to eat me? I was pretty sure that’s how I looked at him. Just last night I was contemplating nibbling on his earlobes.

“And yes,” she said, leaning closer to me, a small smile on her lips, “that is also how you look at him.” Great, a mind reader. “But you are more subtle about it. You try not to let everyone know. But, we know.”

“There is nothing to know,” I reminded her, poking the table with my finger for emphasis. “We are not sleeping together. He is married. I have a crush. That is it. The end of the story.”

“A crush?” she questioned. “Vera, I think you’re in love with him.”

No fucking way. Not love. That did not happen with me, not ever and not now.

“You can’t fall in love in a week,” I told her heatedly.

“You can fall in love in a second,” she said with a snap of her fingers. “The heart has no regard for time.”

With that sobering thought, Claudia told me about her ex-boyfriend and how they fell in love at first sight then took the conversation back to Ricardo and their exploits. I envied her so badly right then and there. She could fawn over Ricardo, kiss him, fuck him, and no one would ever bat an eye. It was okay for them to be together. It wasn’t forbidden.

I gulped the rest of the wine and left her apartment, heading back to reception to meet Cristina for my next one-on-one, my mind and heart and hormones all over the place. Lo and behold, Mateo was walking up the path toward me.

He was on the phone, smiling.

His shirt was off and slung over his shoulder, exposing his bare chest, abs, and arms.

Holy fuck.

For a moment, I was sure that time had stopped. Or maybe ever single nerve, cell, vein, bone, muscle in my body just slowed as I took him all in.

From his thick-veined forearms to his sculpted shoulders and broad chest peppered with neatly-trimmed chest hair, to his six-pack abs, he had, by far, the best body I’d ever seen on a man. He kept himself in fine-ass shape, looking more like a young athlete than anything else. He and David Beckham had more in common than I thought, although David’s skin tone wasn’t as mesmerizing. Mateo’s color was amazing, just beautiful, this dark, golden bronze that covered him everywhere. I wanted so badly to just touch him, to lick the sheen of sweat off his skin. I bet he tasted like victory.

And to think this was the man that Claudia said wanted to taste me.

I really, really wanted to believe her.

Meanwhile, I was just standing there like I was melting into a puddle of myself. I clamped my mouth shut as he walked past and I heard him say into the phone, “No, mi tesorito, it was easy, I didn’t injure myself.” He was beaming, talking about the game, to his wife. To his tesorito. And he called their relationship complicated? This was complicated.

He winked at me in acknowledgement, his smile becoming broader. I tried to smile back but it wouldn’t come. I just stared at him, feeling stupid, foolish, and strangely rejected. In a perfect world I may have been his favorite food, but it still wasn’t what he got served every day. I turned around and walked down the hill, my heart feeling like a pincushion.

“Vera!” I heard him call out from behind. I stopped and nervously glanced over my shoulder. He was holding the phone’s receiver to his chest, grinning at me. “I need to ask you your question.”

“What?” I asked, hoping it was quick.

“Who is your favorite Spaniard here?”

Seriously?

And yet I couldn’t lie to him.

“You,” I said, more to myself than to him. Then I turned around and walked away as quickly as I could.

Love, In English by Karina Halle

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

*ARC Given to Blog for Honest Review*

5++++ “Estrella” “buzzzz” “The heart has no regard for time.” “Don’t give up on us.” Kisses

Holy fuck….my mind has been blown…

I’m never short for words…if anything, I have too many of them but with this book and my feelings and emotions, I don’t know if I’ll be able to get them all out and make any kind of sense.  I l-o-v-e-d this book.  I was already super excited to read it from the blurb, excerpts and teasers that I had read…but seriously, I really had no idea.  Holy-sexual-tensions-and-out-of-control-emotions Batman – I just got taken for the ride of my life.

Vera Elizabeth Miles…I fuckin love her.  She is so just…unapologetic…she is who she is and while she’s not perfect, I think she’s pretty fucking kick ass.  She’s a 23 year old with aspirations to be an astronomer, 11 tattoo’s and random piercings…topped off with an attitude filled with fire, spunk and sass.  Now package all that up in a younger/curvier version of Nicole Kidman and ta-da…you’ve got Vera.  I loved her freedom…her personality…she was not made to fit a certain mold and I truly liked that about her.  She’s never really felt like she belonged…she had family and friends who cared for her and loved her but there was always something missing.  Don’t get me wrong…she has friends and she’s really close with her brother Josh but…it’s not the same.  Maybe that’s because of her parents divorce…maybe it’s because she’s not like her sister Mercy…or maybe it’s because where she grew up and called home wasn’t where she belonged.  Who knows…but after flying half way across the country and spending 30 days with people who she truly connected with…she found home…happiness…and love.

   ‘“How many do you have?”
“Ten,” I said off the bat.  “No, wait.  Eleven.”  I had gotten one from my favorite artist on Main Street right before I left Vancouver for London.  I turned over the inside of my right arm, the ink still vibrant.  It was yet another constellation, this one of the archer, or the symbol for Sagittarius.  I was actually an Aquarius, but I loved the stars that made up the bow, the idea of shooting for something.  Instead of plain stars like so many of my tats were, I incorporated skulls into them.  My arm looked like skeletons flying through space.  I was super proud of it.
“So many stars,” he commented, his eyes lingering all over my body.
“I study astronomy.”
His eyes widened.  “You’re joking?  You study?  In school?”
And here we go – I couldn’t possibly have eleven tattoos, multiple earrings, a nose ring and a tongue ring, and go to university, earning a science degree.  I heard it all the damn time, I just thought Europe was more progressive in that area, too.  I guess you could find morons in every country.’    

Mateo Cassalles…is it sad, weird or creepy that I can hear his accent in my head?  Mateo is officially my oldest BBF but that in no way, shape or form diminishes his sex appeal.  This man oozes confidence…he doesn’t even have to try…and whether dressed in a suit and tie or jeans and tennis shoes…he brings me to my knees.  It’s interesting because Mateo is not overly dramatic or romantic all the time…he just is…it’s like part of his DNA.  The things he does and says are just naturally amazing and I couldn’t help but fall in love with him.  He’s alpha but not in an over the top way (it’s a Spanish thing…he’s just innately primal and it’s fucking hot)…he’s sweet, kind and caring….he’s funny and every time he said the word ‘ buzzzzz’ he made me smile.  He’s an amazing father…a successful businessman and a hot shot former athlete…*sigh* and he’s ruined me possibly forever.  He’s also complex…Mateo internalizes a lot and I both loved and hated that, but it’s all a part of his character.  I loved his strength…even not being in his head you could feel him trying to resist Vera…and God bless him, he did try…but they were like magnets…just drawn to each other.

    ‘“Ice breaker?” Mateo said to me.  The sun broke through a few high clouds and bathed his face in light, showcasing his eyes.  I could see that brown was an understated way of describing their color; they gleamed like a dark teakwood deck on a sailing ship.  They went rich and layered and oh so deep.
I needed to look away, but I didn’t.  I brushed an unruly hair behind my ears and shrugged.  “You know, like getting to know you.”
“But I already know you,” he said with an easy smile.  “Why do I have to know anyone else?”
My heart did a funny little flip.  Damn his accent.  And eyes.  And everything.’    

I think what I liked most about Vera and Mateo was their love was not fast or impetuous…it was slowly built over long conversations and days of them getting to know each other.  They denied what the felt…held back from doing what they ‘shouldn’t’ for so long that it became all that I craved…even seeing them in a purely platonic setting…with the group at Las Palabras or just having a meal, interacting – that’s all it took for me to get my fix.  Now granted…once that bridge had been crossed and they were finally giving into those feelings…I was done for.  Their passion and longing…their chemistry and sensuality…holy Jesus…there was nothing better.  I felt complete.  All they ever wanted was to be happy…and when they are together…there is no denying how happy they make each other.

     ‘“Ugly?” Mateo said in fervent disbelief.  “No.  You are terribly beautiful, Vera.  So beautiful that it hurts.  You would outshine her like the star you are.”
Whoa.
I felt as if lava had been poured down my spine.
I slowly lifted my eyes to meet his and was taken aback by what I saw in them.  The last four days I’d felt this thing building between us, always so subtle and so hard to place my finger on.  Even calling me beautiful was just a complement, albeit a wonderful one.  At least, it would have been.  Now there was something in his eyes that I’d only seen hints of before.  Now, his gaze, his brows, those strong, wide cheekbones, they smoldered with what could only be described as lust.
Lusty Mateo.  This was a new side of him.
The most dangerous side of all.
Because I was certain I’d been nothing but Lusty Vera from the moment I saw him.  Never acting, always thinking, always feeling.  I did not need the temptation from him to make what we had – which was just friendship – into something more.
And yet the carnal way he was just looking at me, it seemed inevitable.’  

Okay…so I’ve admitted to the fact that I figure books out – sometimes consciously, sometimes subconsciously….for 95% of this book – there was absolutely nothing I wanted to figure out.  I just held on for one hell of a rollercoaster and Ms. Halle delivered in spades.  But at the very end…the last 50 pages, when I was reading through blurred vision with snot running down my face and just begging for relief…I was absolutely certain that I was not going to get the HEA I wanted.  I had a glimmer of hope, a thought that maybe I might be right…but it was slowly drifting off into the distance, never to be seen or heard from again along with my soul…I was already writing a letter to Karina in which I would detail how she destroyed my spirit and I was trying to calculate what the postage would be if I included my bruised and battered heart that had been split into tiny pieces…because there is and was no way around the pain.  But then I was saved…I was right…but kudos to Karina for making me a sobbing mess before she brought me back from the brink.

  ‘But Mateo was passion.  He was now full of the life we both sought after all these years.
He placed his forehead against mine, nose against nose, and closed his eyes.   “You bring light into my life.  When you leave, there will only be a black hole inside of me.  You’ll take my heart with you.”  His breath deepened and he looked into my eyes.  “Vera, I am in love with you.”
Now I felt like I was drifting in space. I couldn’t do anything but float on his words.
He brushed my hair off my face.  “I love you.”  He then kissed my forehead, long and warm and sweet.  I wanted to overdose on that moment when my chest grew wings.
But I couldn’t.  I found my breath again, my voice.  “You can’t,” I croaked.  “You don’t know me.”
He smiled.  “I know you.”
“There hasn’t been enough time.”
“I don’t care about time,”he said confidently.  “When I know something, I know it.  Now, I know what love is.  And I love you.  And I cannot imagine going back to the life I had before, because that was no life at all.  That was just existing.  That was just chasing down the next day so I could feel it pass under me.”  He placed his large hand over my heart.  “You made me stop chasing the days.  You made me hold onto them.”’      

This book is not cut and dry…black and white…right or wrong – it’s fucking messy, emotional, difficult and painful…but that’s what love can be sometimes!  None of the decisions Vera or Mateo had to make were anywhere close to fucking easy…but loving each other was the easiest thing they could ever do.  It was effortless and beautiful and breathtaking…as natural as breathing.  The emotional rollercoaster I went on while reading this was of epic proportions…I felt their turmoil…and I was torn because I was both proud and sad at the choices Vera was making.  While I applauded her for being strong and being the ‘better woman’…I simultaneously wanted her to be weak and give in to her feelings.  I seriously felt bi-polar at times!  I’m all for being moral and ethical, I don’t want it to come off as it seeming like I’m a proponent for cheating – but in this situation when two people are so lonely and unhappy…and being together fills them with joy and makes them complete…I can see how easily lines can get crossed.  I completely understood her rationalizations but…it’s Mateo!!!  I wanted her to give in…I wanted them to have a chance, I was begging for it at times because I knew how great they would be together.

     ‘“Vera,” he said sharply.  He pulled back and peered intently into my eyes, commanding me to listen to him.  “Do you know why I love you?”
I tried to think and in my frazzled state, came up with nothing.  “I have no idea.”
“I love you because you are you.  You’re a little bit crazy, and I find that more interesting that being normal.  You’re passionate and I find that more fascinating than being calm.  You’re curious and adventurous and sexual and you’re full of life and you make me want to be a better man, to live louder, to bend and break all of the damn rules.”  He kissed me hard and I was so shocked by his words, I didn’t have time to reciprocate before he broke away.’  

Karina Halle is a genius with words…I love her writing style – it’s so different.  She’s witty and sarcastic while still being emotional and poetic…her descriptions painted a beautiful picture without being over the top and flowery.  Her words just flow…it’s just perfection…my eye never jumped off the page.  I have always taken my highlighting very seriously…I never hesitate, if something inspires me, I want to remember it forever.  Good grief I have so many highlights, selecting my quotes for review was…painful.  And also I noticed a trend of not just lines or paragraphs…but pages of dialogue and content that I just could picture playing out before my very eyes…it pierced my heart with how beautiful and breathtaking and emotional it all was.  Karina built such an exquisite tension with Mateo and Vera…I was tortured and loving every second of it!  The entire book is from Vera’s POV and I lived and breathed her words…I was there with her every step of the way emotionally and it felt like physically.  I actually really enjoyed being in Vera’s head…she’s dry and hilarious and beneath the tattoo’s is a really caring, sweet girl…I feel like she’s one of those girls that very few really ‘get’ and understand…and who woulda thought a 38 year old former soccer player would be the one to understand her the best.

    “Vera,” he went on, now a tear rolling down his cheek.  I looked away, unable to handle the sight of Mateo crying.  “Vera you are my star.  I love you.  I love you more than I’ve ever loved anyone.  I know this isn’t easy, I know you’re hurting and that I am doing things that hurt or don’t make sense to you.  But you must believe me that together we can get through this.  It is just a bump in the road, if we just hang on, just hang on we can make it out alive, with each other hearts intact.  We will be stronger.”  He wiped angrily at his eyes and swallowed hart.  “Please don’t leave.  Please don’t let this be the end of us.  Please just give us, give me another chance.  You are my universe and I have nothing if I don’t have you in my life.  Please, Vera, I love you like I love the stars, like I love the sky, like I love this earth.  I can’t do this without you.  I can’t.  You are my starshine.”  

Love, In English is a completely compelling, all encompassing romance that blew me into another solar system.  Fabulous characters, fantastic story line and absolute page-turner…my heart overflows with how much I love this book.  Beyond amazing…by far and away one of my favorite books that I’ve read this year.

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