A gritty New Adult drama about a young woman’s self-destructive quest to find purpose, self-worth, and love in a broken world.
My name is Elise Duchamp. I’m twenty-three years old and I’m known as the town whore.
No, not the kind who exchanges sexual favors for money. The other kind. The kind who gives it all away for free, whenever and however she likes. I am that girl. The one everyone whispers about and the one none of the girls seem to like, because all of their boyfriends either want to sleep with me or already have. Promiscuity is my thing—the kind that slowly, violently turns my insides black, but gives me something I need.
All things considered, I’m not completely reckless. I’m safe, and contrary to popular opinion, I do have a heart. I live in a world of careless choices, and with those choices come careless people. I cannot judge them, because I am one of them. I too bow down to the altar of the self-serving. I am not a good friend. I am not and never could be anyone’s girlfriend. I’m convinced any goodness in me shriveled up and died long ago.
But I am a replacement. That is something I know how to be, and this is a story of the lengths I’d go to in order to keep it that way.
4 Fantastic Stars
Review by Jen Hagen
Elise appeared to have the perfect adolescent life. She was an only child of a wealthy father,
her mother was beautiful and took care of Elise and her husband with pride, but
behind closed doors the perfect family was just a façade. It was hard living up to her father’s
expectations and the poisonous venom came freely from his mouth. This venom helped turn Elise into the person
that she is a today…
“That’s all you
are, you slut – a replacement. Sloppy
seconds and an in-between quickie for every guy in this town who’s looking to
fill a hole.”
Elise knows this is true about her and she doesn’t take
it personally. Elisa now lives a simple
life without the help of money from her family.
She has been forced to be on her own for several years and give up
everything that once defined who she was.
Elise is very difficult to get to know.
She has no friends and doesn’t want anybody to get too personal with
her. She is fully aware of what people
know about her and say about her. A new
friendship was developing and she wasn’t comfortable with that, so Elise took
it upon herself to make certain that they saw her for what she really was, even
if it meant more than friendship was destroyed.
“Why do you ruin
people?”
Ryder is the new
maintenance man at her building. Ryder
is a free spirit, lives in a tent, and sees the
good in everybody. He seems to
have a lumberjack swagger about him. He
loves flannel. Elise and Ryder go on a
couple “dates” and Elise thinks she has Ryder fooled, that he doesn’t know what
kind of an evil person she is. Even if
Ryder does know, he doesn’t care as long as she is with him.
“We all have a
past, Elise. Sometimes we don’t like
where the road takes us; sometimes it leads us exactly where we need to
be. I don’t regret my past, and I don’t give
a damn about yours. All I care about is
this.”
Ryder is open with his feelings and he has made it
crystal clear that he wants more with Elise, but he needs her to be with only
him. That doesn’t seem like a lot to ask
but it’s not in Elise to give herself as a whole to anybody. She can’t automatically go from what she was
before Ryder to being a new person who gives herself to one person only. She still has her ways to fall back on when
things turn difficult.
The last 20% of the book became fast paced and had me
sitting on the edge of my seat. There’s
a twist in it that I have never, ever read regarding a scorned lover (and I’ve
read a lot!). And of course there’s
heartbreak included.
“You said you’d
never just drive away. Is that still
true?”
A muscle along his
jawline pops and he leans forward, planting a kiss on my temple. “Sometimes you have to just drive away.”
In Elise’s time of need, Ryder is there for her and she
realizes her feelings are more than lust but is it too late for them? Ryder is definitely a man who will grab onto
your heart and you will feel his gentle soul pulling you in and cheering for
him.
Amazon
Nook
a Rafflecopter giveaway
No comments:
Post a Comment