Title: SCARED OF EXPOSURE (Scared, #3)
Author: Jacqueline Abrahams
Release Date: December 7, 2015
Genre: New Adult Contemporary Romance
Blurb
There are fairy tales, you know the ones, which end in happily ever after. Where the princess rides off into the sunset safely pinned to a majestic white horse by her gallant knight. Yes, there are fairy tales.
And then there's us. New York is my fresh start, my third in as many years. A fresh start; with no assholes in my near future. That's right, you guessed it, two in as many years, assholes that left me with a very strict aversion to romance. Then I met a guy, a guy who would force me to stay, not to run. A guy who I first encountered fucking someone else in a hallway. He was everything I wanted, and everything I didn't. He was beautiful, and beautifully frightening. And I was the princess that would mend his scars, erase them one by one, until he was whole again. Or so I thought. Yes, ours is a fairy tale, but not one that you might expect...
Excerpt
“So here we are,” I say. “In the same setting as the one where I fell in love with you. And this time, if you tell me to let you go, I will. No questions asked. I will fucking die on the inside, but I promised to kill anyone that ever hurt you, and if that anyone is me, then I’ll deserve it.” Mirelle looks up at me for the first time since I arrived. Her eyes shine in the afternoon sun, tears glistening at their corners. “I dream of you, every night. I miss you too, every day. It’s like there’s a piece of me mourning you—and us—every fucking day. And I can’t get past it. I tried, Chayse. My God, why are you so goddamn perfect for me?” I raise a hand to wipe the tears that fall from her eyes. “I’m not perfect. I’m insanely in love with you. I desperately need you. I completely want you. I’m hopelessly exposed. So I’m desperate, insane, and exposed—but not perfect.” “I’ll never really be happy anywhere else. You’ve ruined me for mankind,” she laughs. “Good,” I laugh back, enjoying the sound of her happiness. “I don’t like the idea of the rest of mankind getting anywhere near you.” “How about you?” she teases. “Do you like the idea of getting anywhere near me?” “Not yet,” I say with feigned seriousness. “First, we get back to basics.” “What?” Mirelle questions me, confused. Holding out a hand, I introduce myself. “My name is Chayse. I’m a youth counselor. I live in a walk up in Brooklyn. I have a prison record. I’m an orphan. I like sunsets and the Maldives and fucking outdoors.” Mirelle laughs and turns to face me. “Okay, I’ll play. My name is Mirelle. I am a graphic designer. I live in a multi-million dollar apartment in almost the center of New York. I’m a Sagittarius, and an orphan. I also like the Maldives, and I’m not opposed to fucking outdoors.” Mirelle moves to kneel in between my outstretched legs. “There’s only one problem,” I reply softly. She looks at me curiously. “See, I fell for this girl about a year ago, and I can’t get her out of my mind. I mean, if I could, I would love her and live inside of her for the rest of my life.” “She sounds special,” Mirelle breathes. “She is. She’s undoubtedly the love of my life. The only person in the world my dick goes hard for. It’s a shame, really,” I tease. She swats at me before I pull her in, laying us both on the warm sand, my body covering hers, lips seconds away from making contact. “So I forgot to mention earlier that I’m also scarred and damaged, and reckless when it comes to her,” I say gently. “She knows,” Mirelle replies. “She knows everything that you are. And believe me, she loves you, too.” With a strength I didn’t know she had, Mirelle flips us over and straddles me. “I don’t see a problem,” she grins. “Everything about you seems to be working fine.” She knows that the rock solid hard-on grazing her thighs has missed her, too. Our lips meet in the slowest of kisses, searching and exploring the other, remembering that they have finally found their way home. My hands fist her hair, as hers grip the back of my neck. Our mouths are now fused together greedily, like a hunt for blessed oxygen. “I knew this would happen,” she says quietly. “What?” I ask, playing with a strand of her hair. Such a simple thing to do, but something that I had missed so much. “I knew that the minute I saw you, there would nothing I could do to stay away from you.”
My Review
I love how Jacqueline can interweave her stories. She takes characters I think I already know and turns them all around so that I'm consistently being introduced to new aspects of people I've come to love. Mirelle is Emily's sister (from book 2). Chayse is Tyler and Blake's cousin (from book 2). Both are fighting their own demons they try to keep hidden, but find that maybe they can expose them to each other.
Mirelle has had a rough couple of years. She leaves home to surprise her long time boyfriend/best friend at college. But when she gets there, he's cheating on her leaving her devastated. Trying to make the best of it, she enrolls in classes but after six months, she's out of money and can't stand seeing her ex all the time. Going back home isn't want she wants but she's hoping her sister Emily will help her out. Only when she gets there, Emily is gone and she has no idea where she went. Determined to make her own way and to get out of the little town that now only holds sad memories, she takes a one way bus to Vegas. But getting to Vegas was only half the battle. She now finds herself working as stripper until she can save money to find Emily. But when a client leaves her broken at her front steps, she knows she needs to get out now.
Chayse is seemingly a lighthearted go with the flow kind of guy. But his party boy persona is a veil that covers his real guilt and desperation. Having just gotten out of jail for killing his girlfriend, he finds out that he actually had nothing to do with the accident that has left him a guilty, drunk, debilitated mess. It was actually his cousin Blake. Finding this out sends hims spiraling once again and sleeping with every willing female that will have him hasn't been helping either. The real problem starts when his therapist he's been sleeping with won't prescribe anymore anxiety meds until he stops drinking. But he can't stop drinking because then his nightmares become worse.
Two people so scared and scared to open themselves up meet and begin a friendship that is both platonic yet deeper than anything either has felt before. With witty banter, off the charts steam, and enough emotion to fill a broken heart, Chayse and Mirelle find that maybe they can fill the cracks in each other's lives.
This series is filled with angst, emotion and so many broken book friends that it's addicting. Scared of Exposure is no different. Mirelle and Chayse were two broken puzzle pieces that just seemed to fit. Of course they had their trials, but watching them find their version of a fairy tale was sweet.
Reviewed by Paige
★★☆ 3.5 "Unexpected Fairy Tale" Stars ☆★★
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Infinite Fear - A Novella (Scared #0.5)
Spending his days drunk and his nights high, priding himself on his perfection of the one night stand, Jackson Jones has hit rock bottom. He is caught in a vicious cycle, spiraling downwards, at war with a formidable opponent: himself. Life for Jackson wasn't always like this. At eighteen, he thought he had it all: a beautiful girlfriend who he loved, good friends, and even better grades that would help him get into any college he chose. But one event changed everything, and now his bright future has all but disappeared completely. With some help from an old friend and a sexy, mysterious woman, will Jackson be able to find the closure he needs to move on from his past and reclaim his future? Can he shut his demons out, for good? Or will he remain stuck in a cycle of Infinite Fear?
Scared of Beautiful (Scared #1)
Maia wants to be free. Free from the social obligations, free from the money, free from the control that her privileged upbringing has taken from her life. And at college, she wants to be unseen, unheard, unnoticed.
Jackson's life has been less than perfect since his high school girlfriend took the back door out of his life, permanently. After years of subscribing to an existence of less than gentlemanly behaviour, he decides to man up and go to college, promising to be done with random hook ups and female drama. They had it all worked out, each one had a plan. At least they did...until they met. Together they run from everything; from life, from happiness, from each other. They are two people both so scared; of heartbreak, of repeating past mistakes, of trusting someone else. Two people simply scared of beautiful.
Scared of Forever (Scared, #2)
Every lie, no matter how small, has some degree of truth.
Five months after moving to New York City, Emily is engaged to Blake Carson, future doctor and the man who she believes to be the love of her life. Until she starts to realize that the foundation upon which she’s building her future is based on a series of Blake’s self-serving lies. Blake can’t let her go. He can’t continue to deceive Emily, either. But Blake’s biggest problem is that he has to maintain the life he has become accustomed to, at any cost. And that means keeping his overbearing mother happy, and keeping Emily ignorant. Tyler Carson left New York City two years ago, happy to leave behind all of the Carson family drama. Until he comes home and meets Emily. Falling in love with his brother’s fiancée was easy. Protecting her from his family was necessary. Leaving her was almost impossible, knowing that he was breaking her heart, and his own. Finding solace in her friendship with Tyler, Emily is forced to face the reality that Blake is not the man she thought he was. But neither is Tyler, the friend who gave her the clarity she needed, and then left her alone to pick up the shattered pieces of her life. Heartbroken and deserted, Emily has had enough of the Carson brothers. But sometimes, love is not that which sends us soaring, but that which keeps us grounded. Can Emily ever bring herself to love another Carson completely?
About the Author
Jacqueline Abrahams is the author alter ego for an ordinary mum to three children (two human and one canine) and wife to one husband. Born in South Africa, she now calls Sydney, Australia her home. A collector all things books and bookish, she in an avid reader and has a tiny obsession with filling bookshelves. When she's not preoccupied wearing her aspiring author or mummy hat, she is working her way towards completing a degree in Primary and Secondary Teaching (with an English major of course!)
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