Carry Me Home Release Day by Lia Riley

Hey folks! I'm so glad it's Tuesday because a new novella from the Off The Map series (one of my fave new adult series) is out today! Carry Me Home is a brilliant addition to the other three books (Upside Down, Sideswiped and Inside Out). While the previous books take place Down Under, this one is set on home turf in sunny California. 

So please take a moment to read this lovely excerpt and then enter the giveaway for your own ebook copy courtesy of Grand Central Publishing. Good luck!

~ Bel

CARRY ME HOME by Lia Riley (May 5, 2015; Forever Yours Novella; $0.99)

Love doesn't have to be perfect to be true...

Years ago, Tanner Green loved Sunny Letman. She was meant to be his first kiss, first love, firsteverything. Then their world spun upside-down and out of control. Free-spirited Sunny doesn't do commitment. Sure, guys are great for a night or a week, but shealways leaves first. That is, until professional skateboarder and town golden boy, Tanner Green, unexpectedly walks back into her life.

Despite their broken history, a fragile and undeniably electric connection still holds them together. Now Tanner has to convince Sunny that even though love isn't always perfect, it's worth sticking around for. . .

BUY LINKS:

Amazon     I     B&N     I     iBooks

EXCERPT:

Tanner is in the shower when I let myself inside. There’s a wooden rocking chair in the corner. I walk over, sit and close my eyes. He’s naked, soapy, skin flushed from the hot spray. I could join him. He wants me. The space between my legs throbs to the beat of my heart. What’s set in motion between us isn’t going to stop. 

I rock, straighten my backbone and focus my attentions. Imagine each breath spiraling through the open door, to the sky, leaving the atmosphere. A quiet prayer. Please. Please don’t let me fuck this up. My hands grip the rocking chair sides hard, hands that ache to touch his wet skin.

The water turns off and he’s out, rubbing a towel over his body. 

I’m going for it, can’t help myself.

I tried my best to be my own island. 

Turns out my best isn’t nearly good enough. 

The door opens and he stands, backlit in a tight white t-shirt and  pair of low slung jeans. His mop of hair is wet, slicked back from his striking face.

“Good, you’re back,” he says. “I didn’t like you out there alone.” 

“I was fine, nothing scary outside.” 

He frowns, catching my double meaning. “I decided to sleep in the back of my car.”

“No, it’s fine.”

“I don’t mind.”

Of course he doesn’t. He’d sleep on bare concrete if he thought it would be easier for me. 

“I get it.” He backs toward the door. “Tonight’s been extreme. You want space. I’ll go--”

“Stop.” I’m in the darkest corner, in this rocking chair throne, the Queen of the Shadows. There’s a great mystery at work. How can my heart be chained to this guy and still feel free?

A bead of water drops from his thick hair and falls to his shoulder. Then another. Tiny wet patches appear on his shirt each time one makes impact. The way he watches me, his gaze writes a secret poem on my skin. “Tell me you don’t want me,” he says. “Say you’re not interested and nothing will happen.”

I want to curl in a ball. Instead, I stand up.

 “Sunny,” he whispers, and it’s hard to know if he intends my name as a question or an answer. Funny, the way it sounds like both.

My lids flutter closed of their own volition as he closes the distance. He’s tall enough that when he bends, his face buries into the top of my head. He inhales as if I’m a secret flower. I wish I only ever bloomed for him. A stupid notion. This moment would be perfect if it wasn’t us. If we were other people. 

I hook my fingers into his belt loops and do an uncharacteristic fumble, aim too high and brush his stomach instead. His abdominal muscles flex and there’s my cue to explore. I can’t help but inch under the cotton, trace the thick muscles that make up his defined V-line. My nails gently cut to the top of his jeans. His groan vibrates into my skull. 

He’s slipping,  less careful with every ragged breath. His skin heats under my fingertips. There’s no choice. There’s never been with him. 

I rock into him, hard, and his mouth explodes on mine like a wet, hot grenade. He bites my lower lip and even though I’m scared, I’m not scared of him anymore.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

After studying at the University of Montana-Missoula, Lia Riley scoured the world armed only with a backpack, overconfidence and a terrible sense of direction. When not torturing heroes (because c'mon, who doesn't love a good tortured hero?), Lia herds unruly chickens, camps, beach combs, daydreams about as-of-yet unwritten books, wades through a mile-high TBR pile and schemes yet another trip. She and her family live mostly in Northern California.

CONNECT WITH LIA: 

Website     I     Facebook     I     Twitter     I     Goodreads

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Saving June by Hannah Harrington

* * * * *

Available November 29, 2011

"If she'd waited less than two weeks, she'd be June who died in June.  But I guess my sister didn't think of that.

When Harper Scott's sister, June, takes her own life a week before her high school graduation, sixteen year-old Harper is devastated.  Everyone is sorry, but no one can explain why.

When her divorcing parents decide to split up her sister's ashes, she decides to take matters into her own hands.  She'll steal the urn and drive cross-country with her best friend, Laney, to the one place June always dreamed of going -- California.

Enter Jake Tolan.  He's a boy with a bad attitude and a classic rock-obsession ... and an unknown connection to June.  So when he insists on joining them, Harper's just desperate enough to let him.  With his alternately charming and infuriating demeanor, and his belief that music can see you through anything, he might be exactly what she needs.  Except ... Jake's keeping a secret that has the power to turn Harper's life upside down -- again."

Saving June is a stunning debut from Hannah Harrington who tenderly balances the gravity of suicide by injecting moments of humor.  

I was immediately captivated from the first few words that Harper Scott uttered. She's a straightforward person who says what she means and doesn’t sugarcoat things.  She’s at a loss for how to process her sister's death.  A few things compound the situation – June didn’t leave behind a note, their parents had just recently finalized their divorce and they’re emotionally useless. 

Harper is heavy with guilt and anger that she had no inkling about what was happening with her sister.  They had drifted apart in recent years with their differences becoming more apparent.  June was the golden child, seemingly happy and successful at whatever she did.  Harper accepted that she could never live up to her and never sought to emulate her.  This is where I find that she's a breath of fresh air. There’s no mystery surrounding why she behaves as rebelliously as she does.  She's the polar opposite of what June was.  Where June was the more polite, thoughtful daughter, Harper is the abrasive one.

In going through June’s room, Harper comes across a couple of things that puzzle her.  First, June had originally been planning on going to college in California but that fell through.  So Harper is baffled when she finds a post card of California with June’s handwriting on the back suggesting that she was heading out there anyway.   Second, there was a mix CD in the car that June was listening to when she died.  The content of the mix CD was a surprise because it wasn’t exactly June’s taste in music, at least as far as Harper was aware of.  The stark realization that she genuinely didn't know who her sister was really hits her hard. 

As reparation for their lack of closeness when she was alive, Harper decides to fulfill June’s dream of going to California by taking her ashes out there.  She’s accompanied on this trip by her best friend Laney and the mysterious Jake who has a connection to June that Harper is determined to solve. 

Most of the book takes place with them on the road and I have to say that there were times when I literally laughed out loud.  Harper’s dry humor and self-analysis can be very insightful and amusing.  I loved the road trip! Harper’s best friend Laney is fun and thankfully not the annoying kind of best friend.  She’s doing her best to be there for Harper even though she’s not entirely sure what she should do.  While she has her own issues to deal with, it’s clear that Harper is a very important person in her life and she’s there at her side no matter what.

But my favorite dynamic is between Harper and Jake.  They easily rub each other the wrong way but they also refuse to back down from each other.  Jake is a music geek, a very good-looking music geek, and it’s music that plays a pivotal role in this book.  He introduces the girls to a wide array and happily relates the stories behind the bands or the songs. Surprisingly, music provides the much-needed catharsis for Harper to navigate through her confusion and guilt.  And even more startling to her, she finds herself drawn to Jake as she learns to deal with moving on.

Saving June is such a poignant story about how each person deals with tragedy in their lives and learning to accept the different ways they come to terms with it.  It’s also about how unlikely people help one another recognize themselves and offer a different perspective.  Harper's own self-revelation is bittersweet yet also a reason to rejoice.  The characters are so tangible that I believe readers will find something in each one that resonates with them.  And as someone who has always felt like Jake does about music, I’m so impressed with how effortlessly Hannah Harrington entwines it with the story, particularly in one chapter when the recounting of an old Eric Clapton song evoked such heartbreak that I did shed a few tears.  

I give Saving June our highest rating.  I thoroughly enjoyed everything about it and I was actually reluctant to pick up another book so soon because it left such an indelible mark on me.  It’s strange - considering what it's about that you'd think I'd be left feeling somber.  Instead, it left me feeling joyful and I can't help but smile every time I think about it.  Every once in a while you come across something that just blows you away and Saving June is that for me.  It's easily one of my favorites of the year! 

~ Bel