Wednesday 25 February 2015

Blog Tour ~ Review, Excerpt & Giveaway ~ A Stone In The Sea (Bleeding Stars, #1) by AL Jackson


Book Description: 

He wanted nothing at all…

Until he found she had everything to give…

Sunder lead singer and guitarist Sebastian Stone has everything—fans, fame, and fortune. He also has a heart full of bitterness and a reputation for a short-fused temper. But an outward reputation rarely reveals the true man inside. Facing assault charges after trying to protect his younger brother, Sebastian is sent to Savannah, Georgia to lie low until the dust settles in L.A.

Shea Bentley is beautiful, kind, and hiding from the very lifestyle Sebastian has always embraced.

When the mysterious, tattooed stranger begins hanging out at the bar where she works, Shea is quick to recognize he is nothing but trouble, but she's helpless to the way her body lights up every time his intense gray eyes tangle with hers.

They both soon find themselves drowning in a sea of desire and passion that won’t let them up for air.

Sebastian knows firsthand secrets never die, and he’s not the only one who’s hiding them.

Loving someone always comes with a price. But will it be Shea’s past that costs them everything?


Excerpt:

I froze when I felt the presence behind me. The song slowly blinked out, the last note lingering in the dense air, before I slowly looked over my shoulder to find Shea. Thoughtful eyes met mine in all their warmth—covering me, pulling me in, dragging me under.
“You play,” she said, a statement rather than a question.
“A little,” I said with a shrug.
She scoffed. “I would hardly classify that as a little.” She shuffled toward me, barefoot, and still wearing that robe. “You have a beautiful voice,” she whispered, and again it took on that reverent tone, like she was recognizing something inside me I didn’t see.
She ran her fingers up the back of my neck and into my hair, and I lifted my head to it and tried not to moan like a girl when she pressed her hot mouth to my Adam’s apple, kissing me there like the temptress she was.
“Such a beautiful, beautiful voice for a beautiful, beautiful man.” The words vibrated against my throat.
“Shea.” My response was hoarse, uttered toward the ceiling as she kissed up and down my throat. With her daughter’s innocent face running like a reel through my mind, I searched inside myself for some kind of resolve. For courage. For a speck of integrity. “I should go. I shouldn’t be here. I shouldn’t have stayed. Shouldn’t have come back.”
Never should have come in the first place.
“You’re exactly where I want you to be,” she coaxed against my skin.
“Shea.” It was a plea for one of us to find reason.
“Please,” she whispered, hands sinking into my shoulders.
Weak.
Weak.
Weak.
That’s what she made me.
Groaning, I gave, because she already had me, and I swiveled a fraction, grabbed her by the hips, and pulled her onto my lap. She was quick to straddle me, a smile taking over her face as I palmed her ass, all those waves of shiny soft hair falling down around us.
“It’s hardly fair, you know,” she said.
“What’s not fair?”
“You…looking the way you do. Then you turn around and have a voice like that? Singing and playing that way?” She pulled back with a grin. “Tell me you don’t play guitar. You know what they say, a man with a guitar automatically becomes ten times sexier than any other guy in the room.”
I curbed a snort.
Didn’t I know it.
And that was exactly the shit I’d come to hate.
“Pair that with this face and this body…” she continued, purely playful.
Any other girl started talking like that and I’d have tossed her from my lap.
Instead, I kneaded my fingers deeper into the flesh of her ass, rocking her into my cock that was at the ready and begging for more.
Shivers rolled through her. “…and I would say you’re irresistible, Sebastian Stone.”
“Is that all you want me for…my body?” I teased, running my hands up her back, eliciting a pleasured whimper from her.
Fingertips played across my chest, and her expression turned vulnerable, that storm collecting speed. “Yeah. I do want this body.” Those fingers fluttered up to my jaw. “And I want this face.”
Eyes not leaving mine, she slowly leaned down and kissed me over my heart. “Most of all, I want this,” she murmured, hiding nothing, laying herself bare.

Our Review:

**ARC Received for honest review**

Reviewed by Donna ~ 4 Stars

“I never needed anyone to love me until I needed you.”

All I can say is Sebastian Stone!! I do love a damaged guy, whether it be emotionally, physically or mentally, there is something about that vulnerability that just makes me love them all the more. You want them to come good, you want them happy and you just want to mother them and tell them that everything will be okay. It also helps when they are in a band and are devilishly good looking!!

Sebastian Stone (Baz) is the bad boy rocker, or so we are lead to believe, he is haunted and guilt infested but underneath all that, there was a heart of gold, not stone. He has a temper that ignites quicker than a match and sometimes when you are in the public eye day in day out, it has repercussions. Nothing lights his fuse quicker than someone that hurts his family or friends and for Baz this causes problems as he has many endearing qualities and being fiercely loyal and protective is his best one. The love and loyalty he shows to his younger brother was heart-warming and at the end of the day he was the only blood family that Baz needed. The rest of his “family” comprises of his band mates and these were a close knit bunch. They had each other’s backs and stood proud as a united front.

“My fucked-up family that consisted of a bunch of guys who were just as messed up as me.”

As Baz finds out to his own detriment using ones fists is not the ideal way to settle a score, especially within the music industry and so while the dust settles and the lawyers duke it out Baz and the band are sent away to get away from all the media and just have a time out. This is a time for reflection for Baz as he sits and ponders what the hell is going in his life.

Baz finds a little bar that has live music in the evenings, he just wanted somewhere to have a drink and have some alone time. It is here that he meets a waitress called Shea, this waitress has no idea who he is but he cannot help himself, she is alluring and all the more tempting because he can just be Baz with her, not Sebastian Stone, front man of Sunder.

Shea is hiding too, she has more than her fair share of secrets too and a relationship is something that she just isn’t looking for. There is something about Baz though that has her all a quiver and she cannot help but do something that she has not done for years, she lets him in. 

“And each time, he slipped a little deeper into my bones.”

Both Baz and Shea fight their feelings but it seems resistance is futile, neither were looking for love but it seems that cupid has just come up and smacked them in the face. Two broken souls together, could they be just what each other needs or will their pasts come back to haunt them?  Will Sebastian's past be the one that could destroy them or will it be Shea's?

“I don’t remember how to breathe without you.”

I loved this book; I read it in one sitting and couldn’t put it down. I fell for Baz in a big way, he puts himself out there, something that he has never done before and I could literally feel his fear, his anguish and his guilt. He literally laid himself bare and you couldn’t help but fall in love with him. He was hurting so bad and was in a really bad place until he met Shea.

AL Jackson draws you into their story with flawless writing and you can help but be swept away with her words. This is a story that draws out every emotion and you cannot help but feel everything that these characters go through. Life is never smooth and you know that they have a bumpy road ahead but this is new for both of them and you cannot help but will them along. This is an emotional read, from the depths of raw pain and guilt to the highs of passion you will be put through the mill, but you will savour and appreciate every word you have read.

“…but you changed all that. You gave me hope. Something good to hang on to, and I’m not ever going to let it go.”

I cannot wait to see what happens to these two going forward, bring on the next book, I need it NOW!!


Buy Links:


About the Author: 

A.L. Jackson is the New York Times bestselling author of Take This Regret and Lost to You, as well as other contemporary romance titles, including Come to Me Quietly, Come to Me Softly, Pulled, When We Collide, and If Forever Comes.

She first found a love for writing during her days as a young mother and college student. She filled the journals she carried with short stories and poems used as an emotional outlet for the difficulties and joys she found in day-to-day life.

Years later, she shared a short story she’d been working on with her two closest friends and, with their encouragement, this story became her first full length novel. A.L. now spends her days writing in Southern Arizona where she lives with her husband and three children. Her favorite pastime is spending time with the ones she loves.

To stay up to date with important news on A.L. Jackson, including new releases, sales, and exclusive specials and excerpts, text “jackson” to 96000 to subscribe! 


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