Meet River &
Marley in this emotionally twisted – unconventional stand alone by Lisa DeJong
Break Even is NOW
AVAILABLE!
My story isn’t a love story … not
the typical kind anyway.
As a lawyer, I’m used to
discovery, but I never saw this one coming.
Every day, River gives me ten
reasons to stay away, and then eleven reasons why I can’t. Our relationship was
to remain strictly business, or at least I tried.
Four years of marriage, and
everything with Cole has changed. I never knew two people who lived together
could be so distant. But I’m not ready to give up on him.
One man wants to break me.
The other is just trying to get
even.
Both are lying to me.
***This is a standalone
contemporary romance (though a little unconventional and twisted!)
River
sets a tray down on the counter, startling me. “You do that a lot?”
“Do
what?” I ask, relieved to distract myself from the pressure of the situation.
“Bite
your lip.”
“I
was just thinking,” I admit, resisting the pull the ocean has on me.
He
cups my face in his hands. “Don’t let yourself ruin this weekend by
overthinking anything. It’s ours, and I’m not willing to give it up yet.”
I
open my mouth to speak, but he kisses me instead. The picture within the clear
blue water fades. River kisses me until I’m blind of my worries and guilt.
Whoever said an ocean is better than a river has never met my River.
“Better?”
he asks as he pulls away.
“Much.”
I watch as he sits on the edge of the tub and turns the water off. When I first
met him, I saw him differently. His compassion was veiled by arrogance. If
River Holtz wanted, he could make a woman happy for more than a night.
He motions me over to where he sits.
I
lift myself from the counter, slowly walking to him. When I’m close enough, he
reaches for me, pulling me against his rock hard body. His chin rests on my
chest as he looks up at me. “You’re mine until tomorrow morning. Don’t forget
that.”
I
comb my fingers through his hair. “I haven’t. And, I also haven’t forgotten
that after I leave here tomorrow, we’re nothing.”
“Not
true,” he says, kissing between my breasts. “I’ll always be the guy you wish
you could have again. The one you’ll compare everyone else to.”
**************************
About the
Author:
Lisa
De Jong is a wife, mother and full-time number cruncher who lives in the
Midwest. Her writing journey involved insane amounts of coffee and many nights
of very little sleep but she wouldn’t change a thing. She also enjoys reading,
football and music.
GIVEAWAY
THANK YOU!
I normally try to avoid spoilers on the book that I am reviewing but I have to advice you in this case that within the lines here you might find spoilers on other books I used for comparison so be careful.
The moment “Break Even” by Lisa De Jong appeared on my Kindle I directly felt compelled to read it. I am not even sure if it was the cover, the blurb or a mixture of both that lured me in.
And I have to admit I was surprised…
After a few chapters I thought I had it all figured out.
When I (as usual) discussed my currently reading “object” with my co-blogger – I was using my usual comparisons… listening you would have heard stuff like “Jodi Ellen Malpas-ish” when I referred to parts like “lines” or “I beg to differ” . Once I even dared to say – that there was a slight difference between River and Gideon Cross – and that difference would be that River did NOT kill Cole.
OH BOY was I WRONG … (not on the NOT killing subject no that is true) Because …well – shortly after I was so “I figured it all out” THAT specific chapter happened
And it occurred to me that not only one of the biggest differences to all the other books was that Marley was married.
No- this author was really clever to weave a net of all those obvious clichés to distract the reader from what was going to happen. And it worked … oh yes it so worked …
This book was well on it’s way to get an extra “glimmer” to its 5 Stars (the glimmer I prepared when I redesigned our blog last month and I was waiting on that first special book to use it) BUT then – when I finally finished I came to a very sobering conclusion that really only occurred to me at the end.
The dialogues were perfect
The writing wonderful
The Plot was –well- “surprising”
Here we would have reached the 4 star level in my own voting system
The extra glimmer would have been that really interesting “turn of events” …
But counting I noticed that my 5ths star … which is the most emotional one – was missing and reconsidering everything I was very surprised to find out that while really almost everything was perfect – I did not feel it – I am embarrassed honestly because this book would have deserved it.
And I am not sure where I went wrong I was so caught up in the events that it was only in the epilogue that I noticed there were no real feelings from me involved in the story.
Don’t get me wrong – this is a 5 star read DEFINITVLY – I am just rambling because I wanted it to be my first 5Star+++