THRIVE by Aly Martinez
Amazon: http://amzn.to/2rlqfaZ
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iTunes Audio: http://bit.ly/ThriveApp
When I was nineteen years old, I was faced with a choice that changed my life.
Keep the safety of what I already knew or risk losing everything with the young, hotheaded soldier who stole my heart.
I chose the wrong man, and for seventeen years, I paid in tears, blood, and shattered dreams for that decision.
Now, there’s a man in my house, holding a gun to my head on the order of my ex-husband—given from his prison cell.
That hotheaded soldier I was too afraid to choose? He’s now a six-foot-three wall of muscle who works at the country’s most premier bodyguard agency. I’ve always wanted him, but now, I’ve never needed him more.
It’s the call I’m terrified to make.
I’m sure he still hates me… Even though I’ve never stopped loving him.
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Review by Jen Hagen
I remember reading Ms. Martinez’s very first book, and she settled into my mind as an author to always keep an eye out for. Fifteen books later and I still have my eye on her. She continues to write story after story that is full of depth and emotion. She leaves no aspect of the story untouched and fills it in with detail and character development. She has become one of my favorite authors.
I knew I would like this book from just the description—a cheating relationship is my go-to angst. What I didn’t expect was the raw emotion I would be able to experience strictly through words. Plus there was suspense!
We first meet Mira, Lark and Kurt when they are young adults. Kurt and Mira are the actual couple, but Lark and Mira are the soul mates who steal the secret times together. Lark is so certain that when it comes down to the choice that Mira will choose him…. WRONG! Seventeen years later we meet up with the damage incurred from that one decision that changed 3 lives. Okay, really only 2 because one is a scum bag who doesn’t care about anybody but himself and was set on the road to destruction already.
Lark is now 40 years old and a divorced parent who works for the Guardian Protection Agency which was founded by a character from the author’s previous books. It’s always fun to sneak a peek into characters that you have learned so much about, but yet at the same time if you have never read the previous books you won’t be lost.
Mira is in trouble. Her dirt bag husband has managed to steal everything from her and she has nothing, but a gun-wielding kidnapper barging into her house. She is forced to call Lark for protection. He is not very happy to hear her voice, but yet he still can’t deny the pull between them. He tries his hardest to push her away, but after 17 years the chemistry between them is as strong as ever.
With Mira, gravity seemed lighter. Smiles came faster. Every breath was easier than the last.
Lark has so many questions, but the greatest and most complicated is “why didn’t you choose me?”
My heart broke every time he would think about the choice that left him out of the happy life he wanted for them 17 years ago.
“Baby, I withered for you. I burned at the stake day after day, knowing he didn’t love you. Knowing you’d chosen him. Knowing there was not one god***n thing I could do to make you change your mind. Hating you was the only way I survived.”
The story is told in dual points of view, but it was Lark’s that had me highlighting every thought and word. His emotion is palpable.
“I’m really struggling with all of this. I have hated you for so long. For choosing him. For breaking me.”
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AUTHOR BIO:
Originally from Savannah, Georgia, USA Today bestselling author Aly Martinez now lives in South Carolina with her four young children.
Never one to take herself too seriously, she enjoys cheap wine, mystery leggings, and baked feta. It should be known, however, that she hates pizza and ice cream, almost as much as writing her bio in the third person.
She passes what little free time she has reading anything and everything she can get her hands on, preferably with a super-sized tumbler of wine by her side.
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