From NYT & USA Today bestselling author comes a new Bleeding Stars stand-alone novel…
She is his strength and he is her weakness. And this time he won’t let her go. Edie Evans is gorgeous. Sexy. Kind. She’s also the definition of off-limits. But that didn't stop me from sneaking into her room to comfort her at night. But guys like me? We destroy everything, so it should have been no surprise when I destroyed us, too. The night I sent her running, I thought I’d never see her again. Until I saw her standing like a vision in the crowd. Austin Stone is dangerous. Alluring. Tempting. He broke my heart and I refused to give him the chance to do it again. It’s been years since I’ve seen him, and now I can’t do anything but stare at the gorgeous, tattooed man playing onstage. I should run. I know I should. But like a fool, I run straight back to him. Our desire is overpowering. Our need unrelenting. She is my hope. He is my weakness. We should have known a passion this intense would burn us right into the ground.
“Shit,” I hissed, bracing myself against the spray of the icy shards pelting from the shower head. I sucked in a breath, released it between clenched teeth, and forced myself fully under it. Head dropped and chest heaving as rivers of ice-cold water slicked down my shoulders and back. But it did nothing to lessen the need. Gave me no sanity or pacification. Because all I could think about was the girl on the other side of the door. My girl. In my bed. Wearing just her panties and my shirt. An angel I wanted to dirty. I always had. Love was messy like that. All of my restraint scattered. I gripped my cock. Squeezed the base. My mouth dropped open at the pressure of my hand against my rigid length. A fool thinking it might be enough. Shit. God, I was a bastard, but there was nothing I could do before I was giving in, leaning forward and bracketing my forearm above my head to hold my weight. Water pounded down on my head and back while I pounded my fist against my dick. Trying to keep silent when all I wanted was to moan, teeth digging into my bottom lip as I pictured the girl spread out for me. My breaths were coming short. Panted and hard. I gave into imagining the sounds she would make when I finally got to bury myself in her body. A soft, soft gasp. I slowed, trying to convince myself that throaty sound was all in my mind. Just another part of this fantasy. Until I heard the small thump against the wall. Shit. I mashed my eyes closed, like it might hide me. Conceal the depravity of my actions after I’d just been comforting her hours before. Heart thrashing, I turned and moved far enough to peek out the small section where the fabric shower curtain hadn’t been drawn fully closed. It was just a little sliver that left me exposed. But it was enough. When I peered out, I was looking right at my girl pressed up against the wall. She stared right back at me. And I wanted to be horrified, my mind scrambling to conjure every weak apology I could summon. Ready to fucking grovel to keep her from turning and running once again. Because that’s exactly what I expected her to do. But her expression…her expression clutched me in the center of the chest and sent what little brain function I had left stampeding south. Red, lush lips were parted, her hand pressed to her hollow of her throat, pupils dilated so big that her hooded, cerulean eyes appeared black. Needy breaths were coming at me from that sweet mouth like a goddamned freight train. Desire swelled in the confines of the too-tight room. Alive. She pressed deeper into the wall as if it might support her weakened knees. Head rocked back. Thighs squeezing together. Motherfuck. My hand shot to the shower wall to steady myself. “Warning you, Edie, you need to get out of here. Right now.”
My Review
Emotional. Surprising. Raw. Passionate.
From the first word of the prologue, I was pulled into Ms. Jackson's world with her unique poetic prose. Emotion rolled off the page and wrapped me up in the fabric of her characters lives. Austin and Edie's story was both heartbreaking and yet uplifting at the same time. Their struggles and reconnection made me believe in fate and the never ending possibility of true love.
Austin, the brother of Baz the lead singer of Sunder, has suffered great tragedy in his life. He's been drifting in a sea of pain and regret for almost as long as he can remember. Finally deciding that he needs to go his own way for a while to find himself, three years pass before he knows it. He hasn't seen his brother or his friends in that long and has yet to find the peace he's long sought. Traveling and playing music in local dive bars, he runs into the last person he ever expected to see again: Edie. Before he left, he built a bond with Edie that seemed unbreakable-until he broke it, her and himself. Seeing a second chance to reconnect with the one person that understood him is a tall order, but he's determined to bridge that gap.
Edie thought she found a kindred soul in Austin. After an event in her life sent her spiraling, finding Austin seemed to be the light at the end of her dark tunnel. But just when she thought things could be good again, he goes and does the unthinkable. Running seems to her only option. Years later, after trying to bury her feelings, seeing him up on stage out of the blue is a dagger to the walls protecting her heart. As they reconnect, all those feelings come rushing back. Yet trust is a fragile thing, and she doesn't know if she has it.
I have been waiting for Austin's book since book 1 of the Bleeding Stars series. I was even a bit bummed that Lyric came first if I'm being honest. But now that I've read Austin's story, it makes perfect sense. He wasn't ready then. As his story unfolded I was pulled into the depth of his brokenness and realized that it all happened exactly as it was supposed to. His soul was shattered a long time and the mistakes he made along the way, created the splinted man he is now. But Edie was the balm he needed to work out his demons. Watching him wade through his past had me clutching my chest in agony and unabashed shock at some of the revelations. I thought I knew him, but my knowledge only scratched the surface.
Edie was a strong and resilient heroine who suffered in a way that broke me a little. The flashbacks to how her and Austin met took me on a journey I wasn't expecting but proved perfect for these two. Their connection was instantaneous and I loved the purity of it. Their story was quiet. It didn't have the more sensational conflicts that Baz or Lyric's story had, but there was a powerful intensity to their story that wound it's way around these characters. It made their stories real and it made them important.
A.L. Jackson is one of my favorite authors for a reason. Her writing. Her characters. Her story telling. Wait wasn't what I expect but it was perfect the way it was. I love these boy and am now even more anxious for Ash's story and finding that Zee's story may be the story I love the most in the end.
Reviewed by Paige
★★☆ 5 "I'll Wait for You Forever" Stars ☆★★
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A.L. Jackson is the New York Times & USA Today Bestselling author of contemporary romance. She writes emotional, sexy, heart-filled stories about boys who usually like to be a little bit bad. Her bestselling series include THE REGRET SERIES, CLOSER TO YOU, as well as the newest BLEEDING STARS novels. Watch for the next installments, WAIT and STAY, coming in 2016. If she’s not writing, you can find her hanging out by the pool with her family, sipping cocktails with her friends, or of course with her nose buried in a book. Be sure not to miss new releases and sales from A.L. Jackson - Sign up to receive her newsletter http://bit.ly/NewsFromALJackson or text “jackson” to 96000 to receive short but sweet updates on all the important news.
Connect with A.L. Jackson online:www.aljacksonauthor.com Snapchat: aljacksonauthor
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