*~*In Her Wake by K.A. Tucker Release Day Launch – Excerpt, Review & Giveaway*~*

 

Title:   In Her Wake (Ten Tiny Breaths Book #0.5)

Author:    K.A. Tucker

Genre:   Contemporary Romance

Release Date:   September 1, 2014

Cole Reynolds had it all. And then one night he makes a bad choice… and loses everything.

When a drunken night out at a Michigan State college party results in the death of six people, Cole must come to terms with his part in the tragedy. Normally, he’d be able to lean on his best friends. The best friends that have been in his life since he could barely walk. Only, they’re gone. Worse, there’s the shattered body of a sixteen-year-old girl lying somewhere in a hospital bed, her entire life ripped from her because of a case of beer and a set of keys.

Everyone assures him that they know it wasn’t intentional and yet he can’t ignore the weight of their gazes, the whispers behind his back. The all-consuming guilt he feels every time he thinks of that girl who won’t so much as allow him near her hospital room to apologize. As the months go by and the shame and loneliness festers, Cole begins to lose his grip of what once was important-college, his girlfriend, his future. His life. It’s not until Cole hits rock-bottom that he can begin to see another way out of his personal hell: forgiveness.

And there’s only one person who can give that to him…

 

BIGGEST EEEP EVER!!!!  I LOVE Trent SO freaking much! This is a prequel novella to Ten Tiny Breaths and it’s entirely from Trent’s POV!

I am over the moon in love with the Ten Tiny Breaths series.  If you haven’t read them yet, I cannot say enough good things about them. 

 

Check out my review for Ten Tiny Breaths and interview with Trent and K.A. Tucker!

Title:   Ten Tiny Breaths  (Ten Tiny Breaths Book #1)

Author:    K.A. Tucker

Genre:   Contemporary Romance

 

Kacey Cleary’s whole life imploded four years ago in a drunk-driving accident. Now she’s working hard to bury the pieces left behind—all but one. Her little sister, Livie. Kacey can swallow the constant disapproval from her born-again aunt Darla over her self-destructive lifestyle; she can stop herself from going kick-boxer crazy on Uncle Raymond when he loses the girls’ college funds at a blackjack table. She just needs to keep it together until Livie is no longer a minor, and then they can get the hell out of Grand Rapids, Michigan.

But when Uncle Raymond slides into bed next to Livie one night, Kacey decides it’s time to run. Armed with two bus tickets and dreams of living near the coast, Kacey and Livie start their new lives in a Miami apartment complex, complete with a grumpy landlord, a pervert upstairs, and a neighbor with a stage name perfectly matched to her chosen “profession.” But Kacey’s not worried. She can handle all of them. What she can’t handle is Trent Emerson in apartment 1D.

Kacey doesn’t want to feel. She doesn’t. It’s safer that way. For everyone. But sexy Trent finds a way into her numb heart, reigniting her ability to love again. She starts to believe that maybe she can leave the past where it belongs and start over. Maybe she’s not beyond repair.

But Kacey isn’t the only one who’s broken. Seemingly perfect Trent has an unforgiveable past of his own; one that, when discovered, will shatter Kacey’s newly constructed life and send her back into suffocating darkness.

 

Want to read my review and interview with Ashton & Livie?

Or even better…want to get in Ashton’s head and read an Alternate POV? 🙂

 

Title:   One Tiny Lie  (Ten Tiny Breaths Book #2)

Author:    K.A. Tucker

Genre:   Contemporary Romance

Livie has always been the stable one of the two Cleary sisters, handling her parents’ tragic death and Kacey’s self-destructive phase with strength and maturity. But underneath that exterior is a little girl hanging onto the last words her father ever spoke to her. “Make me proud,” he had said. She promised she would…and she’s done her best over the past seven years with every choice, with every word, with every action.

Livie walks into Princeton with a solid plan, and she’s dead set on delivering on it: Rock her classes, set herself up for medical school, and meet a good, respectable guy that she’s going to someday marry. What isn’t part of her plan are Jell-O shots, a lovable, party animal roommate she can’t say ‘no’ to, and Ashton, the gorgeous captain of the men’s rowing team. Definitely him. He’s an arrogant ass who makes Livie’s usually non-existent temper flare and everything she doesn’t want in a guy. Worse, he’s best friends and roommates with Connor, who happens to fits Livie’s criteria perfectly. So why does she keep thinking about Ashton?

As Livie finds herself facing mediocre grades, career aspirations she no longer thinks she can handle, and feelings for Ashton that she shouldn’t have, she’s forced to let go of her last promise to her father and, with it, the only identity that she knows.

 

 

Title:   Four Seconds to Lose  (Ten Tiny Breaths Book #3) 

Author:    K.A. Tucker 

Genre:   Contemporary Romance

 

Owning a strip club isn’t the fantasy most guys expect it to be. With long hours, a staff with enough issues to keep a psych ward in business, and the police regularly on his case, twenty-nine year old Cain is starting to second guess his unspoken mission to save the women he employs. And then blond, brown-eyed Charlie Rourke walks through his door, and things get really complicated. Cain abides by a strict “no sleeping with the staff” rule. But being around Charlie challenges Cain’s self-control…and it’s been a long time since any woman has done that.

Twenty-two-year old Charlie Rourke needs a lot of money, really fast, in order to vanish before it’s too late. Taking her clothes off for men makes her stomach curl but Charlie tells herself that at least she’s putting her acting and dancing skills to good use. And though her fellow dancers seem eager to nab their sexy, sophisticated, and genuinely caring boss, she’s not interested. After all, Charlie Rourke doesn’t really exist—and the girl pretending to be her doesn’t need to complicate her life with romance.

 Unfortunately, Charlie soon discovers that developing feelings for Cain is inevitable, that those feelings may not be unrequited—but losing him when he finds out what she’s involved with will be more painful than any other sentence awaiting her.

 

You can check out my review of Five Ways To Fall here!

Title:   Five Ways To Fall  (Ten Tiny Breaths Book #4)

Author:    K.A. Tucker

Genre:   Contemporary Romance

Release Date:   June 24, 2014

Sometimes you can’t change—and sometimes you just don’t want to. Discover Ben’s side of the story in this fourth novel by the beloved, top-selling indie author of Ten Tiny Breaths, One Tiny Lie, and Four Seconds to Lose.

Purple-haired, sharp-tongued Reese MacKay knows all about making the wrong choice; she’s made plenty of them in her twenty-odd-years. So when her impulsive, short-lived marriage ends in heartbreak, she decides it’s time for a change. She moves to Miami with the intention of hitting reset on her irresponsible life, and she does quite well…aside from an epically humiliating one-night stand in Cancun with a hot blond bouncer named Ben. Thank God she can get on a plane and leave that mistake behind her.

Football scholarship and frat parties with hot chicks? Part of charmer Ben Morris’s plan. Blown knee that kills any hope of a professional football career? So not part of the plan. Luckily Ben has brains to go with his knockout looks and magnetism. After three long years of balancing law school with his job as a bouncer at Penny’s Palace, he’s ready to lead a more mature life—until his first day of work, when he finds himself in the office of that crazy, hot chick he met in Cancun. The one he hasn’t stopped thinking about.

If Ben truly were a smart guy, he’d stay clear of Reese. She’s the boss’s stepdaughter and it’s been made very clear that office romances are grounds for dismissal. Plus, rumor has it she’s trouble. The only problem is, he likes trouble, especially when it’s so good-looking…

 

 

 

That’s how I spot her.

There’s no doubt that it’s her; I’ve memorized her face.

Leaning against a wall on the opposite side, her lips wrapped around a clear bottle filled with clear liquor, her fiery red hair a wild mane against the stark white wall, a tight black T-shirt showing off toned arms. She’s in no rush to part with that bottle, guzzling back a good portion before she hands it off to someone, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand.

Her eyes at half-mast.

She’s wasted.

My heart starts racing. What the hell is Kacey Cleary doing here? By my calculation, she’s probably finishing her last year of high school, having lost at least half a year while recovering.

I tug my cap down even farther, though I doubt she can see two feet in front of her.

Shit. What if she does recognize me? How would she react? Does she know my real name? What I look like? I can’t say for sure that my face wasn’t printed in a newspaper somewhere. She could have Googled my name and found a dozen game shots with me in them. I have my helmet on in most of them, but you can find a profile picture of me easily enough if you’re looking.

I don’t know that she was, though. I wonder if Kacey Cleary gives a fuck about anything anymore. Her Facebook account is inactive. She hasn’t posted a single word and the well-wishes have dwindled, as everyone moves on.

I do know that she shouldn’t be at a party in this state. I’ve heard of bad things happening when girls get that drunk. Especially when they don’t care.

But what do I do?

A blonde stumbles into my chest with two beers in hand. “Hey, do you go here? What’s your name?” She’s tipping her head back way farther than necessary to look up at me, telling me she’s trying to flirt but is too drunk to do it right.

I smile down at her anyway. She’s a good cover. I can stand right here and watch Kacey. “I’m Trent, and I used to go here.”

“Really? When’d you graduate?”

From the corner of my eye, I see Kacey shift from the wall and begin climbing the stairs, her arm hooked around the railing to help her. Two guys following her.

 

In Her Wake by K.A. Tucker

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

*ARC Given to Blog for Honest Review*

4 “Cole Reynolds” “Sasha” “Derek” Kisses

I don’t know what I was expecting from In Her Wake but…I don’t think that was it. And I mean that in the best way possible.  I absolutely loved Ten Tiny Breaths and I’ve loved the other stories that have come after it…but this one is completely different.  It’s Trents story told straight from his heart.  In Her Wake is technically a prequel, because the events happen before TTB…but I would highly recommend reading it after TTB…you can read it either way, but it means a lot more if you read TTB first, IMO.

Cole Reynolds…that’s who we get to meet in the beginning.  The care free guy who is in college with his best friends…playing football…enjoying life.    We get to meet Sasha and Derek…the guys he has known all his life and who are as close to him as brothers…they’re like the three musketeers, it’s a really endearing bro-mance that I was quick to fall in love with. We get a brief glimpse at who he was…what he was like…it’s like a sneak peak into something that wasn’t meant to be…it’s more heartbreaking than you think.  And in the span of one bad decision it’s all gone.

     ‘If only they hadn’t stopped for pizza.
If only I had remained at home to study.
If only I had stayed sober like I was supposed to.
If only I hadn’t handed Sasha the keys.
I leave the apartment, drowning in a sea of “if only’s.”’    

I know the story…from another perspective.  I know it from the victims…the people who did nothing wrong and yet suffered the consequences.  I know the people who had the pick up the pieces…heal…and live without their parents…their boyfriend and best friend.  I know the pain that both Kacey and Livie dealt with and overcame…and if I thought that was rough…I was so naïve…I had no idea.  There is a whole different side of pain in reading this story from Cole’s POV…and if I thought it hurt dealing with it from Kacey and Livie, it was excruciating.  It’s easy to try and blame the person who was at fault, to try and give you heart some kind of peace or closure over what is by all accounts a horrible accident…however, knowing the other half of the story makes it ten times harder.  In a situation like this…there is no easy way, it all hurts.

     ‘I stare out the window at the overcast sky, trying to dull the pounding ache between my eyes with thoughts of a red-haired girl.  Wondering how she is.
Wondering if she feels like I do right now, like she’ll never be free of that night.  She must feel it.  She’s the only one who possibly could.
Maybe it’s time I found out.’  

Cole absolutely demolished my heart…I already loved him more than words from TTB but getting his POV on the accident and what happened after it was so eye opening.  Not only of losing his best friends, but what happened to their families and his family after the accident…the guilt…the depression…the memories…all of it hurt so much.  I felt like I got to meet and get to know a different person…it’s the same guy but hearing his thoughts and emotions on all he suffered through was just…different.  Cole’s heart and mind will never be the same after that accident…it forever changed him and I understood that transformation better.  Cole may have been the one in the car that night but Trent is the one who was meant to live through it.

     ‘I don’t remember what it’s like to not feel this toxic mixture anymore – pain and sadness and guilt that eats away at my insides, leaving me hollow and wishing that I’d just lay my head on my pillow one night and never have to lift it off again.’    

It’s really easy to look at what Cole does with Kacey and think he’s some crazy stalker dude but really…he had no one else who truly understood him after that accident.  No one else lost as much as he did…no one else suffered as much as he did…except for Kacey, she’s the only other person who can really get what he’s going through.  That accident took not only an emotional toll on him, it was mental and physical too.  He lost more than just his best friends after the accident…he lost a piece of himself.  It’s hard to know what to do with yourself when everything you’ve known for almost your entire life is just…gone, in the blink of an eye.

     ‘I can almost hear the note that sits in my back pocket answering me, giving me courage.  The courage that I will need if I want to make her smile again.  Because it’s all I want to do.
To make her smile again.’  

This is not a happy book…it’s a book for clarity and closure.  I shed many tears, but I feel so much closer to Trent.  In Her Wake was a way for me to get a deeper understanding and appreciation of a book boyfriend that I’ve loved for over a year…and I’m happy I got it, just makes me miss him more now!

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Born in small-town Ontario, Kathleen published her first book at the age of six with the help of her elementary school librarian and a box of crayons. She is a voracious reader and the farthest thing from a genre-snob, loving everything from High Fantasy to Chick Lit. Kathleen currently resides in a quaint small town outside of Toronto with her husband, two beautiful girls, and an exhausting brood of four-legged creatures.