*~*Sweet Forty-Two by Andrea Randall Blog Tour – Reivew & Giveaway*~*

 

Title:   Sweet Forty-Two  (Book #3, November Blue Series)

Author:   Andrea Randall

Genre:   Contemporary Romance

Release Date:   December 11, 2013

Sweet Forty-Two is the third book in the November Blue Series – have you read Ten Days of Perfect and Reckless Abandon yet?  You can check out My Review for Ten Days of Perfect here and My Review for Reckless Abandon here.  Even better, they’re both on sale for $0.99 right now!

 

This is the first book in the November Blue series.

Scars from her first love and the reckless lifestyle of her parents force Ember Harris to chart a new course. She favors practicality over spontaneity and rules over a broken heart.

An encounter with a musician at a local pub forces Ember into making a decision to let go or hold on for dear life as passions are unlocked and deceptions revealed.

 

 

 

This is the second book in the November Blue series.

November Harris is lost. After a failed romance with musician Bo Cavanaugh, Ember is left struggling to regain her true self. The problem is, Bo won’t go away and Ember’s stance is firm—she doesn’t want him back.

Adrian Turner, Ember’s ex-boyfriend-turned confidant, is patient with her heartbreak, but he can’t hold back his own feelings forever.

As she sorts through her past, in an effort to plan a solid future, Ember will find that sometimes even the best laid plans bow to the soul’s desire for reckless abandon.

 

 

 

Sweet Forty-Two by Andrea Randall

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

*ARC Given to Blog for Honest Review*

4 “cupcake” “Alice in Wonderland” Kisses

Phew…well, that was an intense rollercoaster. I feel…raw. Like every drop of sadness has been rung out of my body and laid bare. And the sad thing is, I knew what I was getting myself into and I still asked for more. Why? Because I absolutely love these characters to bits and pieces. So…even though it meant more hurt and pain, probably more than I was expecting (who am I kidding, it was way worse than I expected)…I toughed it out because I knew that above all, their story is worth it. And it was. So before you continue reading my insane ramblings…you must know that Sweet Forty-Two is the third book in the November Blue series… Ten Days of Perfect and Reckless Abandon are the first two books that focus on Ember and Bo and where you meet Regan. This is a series that must be read in order…so if you read Sweet Forty-Two first…it will ruin everything! Don’t do it…please. 🙂

Regan Kane…my poor broken hearted fiddle player. I cannot think of Regan and not smile. He just has that quality about him. Everything about him exudes this comfort and I’m inexplicably drawn to his character. I love that he’s tall…I love that he plays the violin…I love that he has wild copper hair and beautiful hazel eyes and an Irish accent that sneaks out every now and then. I love him for his kind and caring heart…for everyone. Even despite the fact that he has been through an insurmountable amount of heartache. And just when I want it to get better for him…and it seems like it might, the bombs keep coming. Emotional, unforeseeable, uncontrollable bombs. In the form of a letter from the girl he loved and the secrets of the girl he could love.

‘She was scrambling my sense of reality with one stone-blue gaze. One smile. One laugh.’

Georgia Rose Hall…oh boy G, what am I going to do with this girl. There was something about Georgia that at first rubbed me the wrong way. I wasn’t feeling her. There is a lot about Georgia that is different…she runs to the beat of her own drum and normally I don’t mind that, but I think it was all the riddles and missing pieces that made me cautious. Obviously, once I got the whole story and it all clicked, I loved Georgia. Immensely. She’s strong and brave, has an incredible ability to love, but she doesn’t share that with many people. Actually…you can count the number of people she loves and truly trusts on one hand. But Georgia’s reasons for the way she acts are extremely logical and have everything to do with the way she was raised and the way she see’s her future. And her future just got smacked upside the head by a 6’+ redhead. 🙂

“Well, you see,” Georgia got toe-to-toe with me and lifted up on hers so she could whisper in my ear, “I’m never sure what I’m going to be from one minute to another.”
I placed my hands on her shoulders, holding her at arm’s length. “You speak in riddles.”
“Do I? Maybe you hear in riddles.”

Regan and Georgia…wow…so saying they don’t have it easy is putting it mildly. There are secrets upon secrets…upon layers upon riddles upon a mountain of emotions that sent me into a tailspin. I don’t think after about 40% that there was one chapter that went by that I didn’t cry. It might only be a few tears or it might be an ugly cry…but this book gutted my soul. And most of that had to do with another very important character in this book. Rae. I lovedRae and I can remember being destroyed with what happened to her. So part of Sweet Forty-Two is reliving all of that pain. And then some. And then that damn letter just makes it worse. Worse in a good and bad way…but if that means opening up old wounds to get to the positive stuff, then it is what it is, and in the end it was good. In fact, it was better than good.

‘“What do you want?”
You.
“I…I don’t…what do you mean?”
“I think you want to kiss me again.”
I nodded. I’d completely lost any sense I had. He reached for my hands. His were clammy but strong. I let them hold mine.
“But for some reason, you don’t want to kiss me again right now, right? Not yet?”
It was like he was singing me a lullaby as he reached up and stroked my cheek with his thumb.
I nodded again, undone were my defenses against him getting inside my head. He’d found an underground tunnel, the bastard. Probably through my tongue.’

I remember thinking, as I was reading a particularly difficult part, that I wondered if it was ever going to be over. If the sadness was ever going to give way to something happy for both of them, because it just felt like it was never going to end. If you want a happy, easy, sing-songy book where the couple falls madly in love and they never really deal with the difficult stuff…then keep on moving. Because the difficult stuff is here to stay…and you don’t get a break from it until the very end. It’s worth it to know that Andrea didn’t skim over the core of what makes these character who they are, she dug in and saw it through…saw both of them through their issues, their struggles and brought them to the other side. I really appreciated that…even though it made me cry. But I do have to say I missed the happy stuff. Not that there isn’t anything good or happy in this book but it’s…limited. The stuff that they’re dealing with isn’t sunshine and roses, so I get it…but man, after all that heartbreak and effort these two put into getting to the end result…they deserve bucket loads of happiness…gallons of it…truck loads…an infinite lifetime of joy and glee.

‘Life is an endless ocean of tears, happy and sad, and it’s our job to smile in their wake.’

There are two things that play a huge part in the make up of these characters and the intricacies that are ingrained in them. For Regan…it’s music. It’s why he’s moved to CA with Ember and Bo…to play with the Six…to move forward with his life and career, doing what he loves and what he is passionate about. And after going through the pain of losing Rae, I was so happy that he had something that could bring him peace and joy. And once again (even though this was another ugly cry moment) I love how he used music in what he did to…communicate with Rae. And that’s all I can say about that. For Georgia…it’s Alice in Wonderland. The riddles…the chapter titles (btw loved that!)…the bakery…I can’t really say too much else without spoiling it, but there is no way I could imagine Georgia’s character without thinking of Alice in Wonderland. And I will never think of Alice in Wonderland the same way again… I love in every book the moment when the title makes sense – when it finally hits me and I’m like OMG! That’s awesome! The moment it happened with Sweet Forty-Two…it’s a good thing I was sitting down because I was a big bucket of mush. I thought it was original and unique and so special to the characters – really struck my heart.

‘“Why are you such an optimist?”
At my question, he just shrugged and said, There’s not good reason to be anything but.
He chose happiness the way people choose to put on clothes in the morning.’

Above all else, the thing I love most about series books is seeing my original characters…and Bo and Ember did not disappoint me in the least. Even though the focus of Sweet Forty-Two is obviously Regan and Georgia, things weren’t all sunshine and roses with Bo and Ember and I did like the parts that they played, not only with their own story line but with Regan and Georgia as well. I enjoyed the differences between Georgia and Ember’s characters and seeing that…relationship go thru it’s different…stages if you will. Of course I couldn’t get enough of Regan’s friendships with both Bo and Ember…as if I couldn’t love those two more, the way they were there for Regan and supported him after what happened with Rae, even though they are still going through their own stuff too…they’re just amazing. And I so very badly need a CJ book it’s like out of this world ridiculous. CJ is Regan’s cousin and they are like…ying and yang. What CJ lacks, Regan makes up for…and what Regan is missing CJ over compensates for. And yet they’re related…very interesting. But CJ is an amazing character…hilarious…devious…a man-whore – do I need to keep going, tell me this dude doesn’t need a book!?

‘I cut her off. “I believed in you from the second I laid eyes on you, Georgia. There was never anything unvelieavable about you. Well,” I laughed, “it was all a big unvelievable, but you know what I mean. You’re real. Raw and jagged. Confusing and curious and…nonsense. And, I believe every single bit of it.”’

I’m so insanely happy to know there is more to come with Ember and Bo…I cannot wait for Marrying Ember and Bo & Ember  – which, the latter is coincidently being released on my wedding anniversary…hmm…I think it’s a good sign. While I know they are happy and everything is good…I will always, always, always want more. So bring it on. And speaking of more….the ending for Sweet Forty-Two was…good. Happy. But not complete. There were, in my opinion, a few lose ends and I don’t think this is the end for Regan and Georgia. At least…I hope not. I need more happy for them after all the sad that they have had to go through.

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Andrea is a 2005 graduate of Cornell University and does not currently use her degree in Development Sociology. She does, however, use her people skills and love for writing every day. She and her partner, Charles Sheehan-Miles, live and write together in Massachusetts.