Thursday 6 October 2016

Blog Tour, Review & Excerpt ~ Down Shift (Driven #8) by K Bromberg


Meet Zander & Getty in DOWN SHIFT - 
the newest stand alone in the Driven Series by K. Bromberg!


Book Description:

The New York Times bestselling Driven series continues with a story about finding love where you least expect it... 

Behind the wheel, racing champion Zander Donavan is at the top of his game. But after too much excess in his personal life, he’s forced to step away. He needs to accomplish something all on his own—outside of his famous father, Colton Donavan’s, shadow. 

Getty Caster is running away from the abuse that clouds her past. She thinks she’s found the perfect escape—until she discovers a stranger in the beachside cottage she’d been promised. He’s undeniably sexy, but she’s there to heal. Alone. 

Before long though, fighting with each other turns into fighting their attraction. And giving into desire sets off a chain reaction that has their pasts colliding. With an unexpected love on the line, can they overcome the fallout to build a future?


Buy Links:



Our Review:

Reviewed by Donna ~ 5 stars
***ARC received for an honest review***


“…the invisible scars are the ones that cut the deepest and stay with you the longest.”


To say that Zander’s book was highly anticipated would be a huge understatement, I was itching to read this one. Zander had stolen my heart throughout the Driven series as a child but now as a man he could certainly hold his own and stand on his own two feet. Throughout the series we have had little snippets of what he went through as a child and now as his past comes back to haunt him he has got another battle to fight once again.


“Blood. Scissors. Band-Aids. But first, self-preservation.”


Zander is now following in Colton’s footsteps and is now “The Golden Boy” of Indy, it seems he is a natural and is flying through the ranks when something from his past causes him to spiral into a pit of despair and self-destruction. His drunken antics, unreliability and a showdown with Colton causes him to seemingly lose everything that he has worked so hard for. Underneath the guilt, hurt and pain though is a man with a heart of gold and a propensity to love like no other. Needing solace and a time for reflection to work through his demons Zander ends up on an island, but definitely got more than he bargained for.


“I just need a minute…”


Getty is a woman on the run from her past. A past of affluence and social standing and a pawn in her father’s mission to grease palms, merge companies and monopolise the industry in which he was already a success. This merger of “assets” caused nothing but pain and anguish for Getty and finally enough was enough. Getty found her back bone and her fight for freedom meant that she had to hide to avoid any chance of being found and dragged back to a life that would have destroyed her. Her new life on an island, quiet, off the grid and under the radar was working well, until she got a roommate she never wanted nor liked.


“He doesn’t think she’s a disaster. In fact, she’s quite the opposite. She’s beautifully scarred, gorgeously flawed, irresistibly captivating.”


With an unconventional first meet Zander and Getty don’t exactly have the best start and we definitely have a little hate in the first instance. But Zander has charm and even though Getty is one tough nut to crack even she isn’t impervious to Zander’s beguiling ways.


“And that your kiss tastes like an aged whiskey: something I want to sip slowly, feel on my lips, savor on my tongue, and take my time with before I get drunk on it.”


These two were two halves of a whole, two broken souls with heartache in common. K Bromberg delivered once again with her trademark emotive writing as she masterfully draws you into Zander and Getty’s lives, through the pain of their past, their unlikely friendship and that eventual realisation that “more” isn’t that bad and something they both richly deserved.


“Love. Love fiercely. Love purely. Love blindly if you want, but never let love turn black. If it turns black, walk away and never look back.”


This book had everything, off the charts chemistry, fantastic dialogue, enough heat to combust a kindle, some spine tingling swoon worthy moments but most of all it was heart felt, it was honest and it was stunningly beautiful. For those that have read this series in its entirety we have seen Colton’s own metamorphosis but Colton as a father will never get old. Colton’s scenes with his own father in the past has brought me to tears and now in role reversal with Zander the tears fell freely once again. Once again K Bromberg delivered, an unputdownable read with many smiles and laughs, just an all-round feel good read.


“Just remember, more hearts break from words left unspoken than from saying too much.”


Excerpt:

“You don’t know anything about me.” My voice is slight but strong, my need to assert myself front and center despite his calling me on the carpet.

“That’s where you’re wrong, Socks. I might not know where you’re from or why I ruffled your feathers today, but I know you’re stronger than you give yourself credit for. Whatever it is that you ran from back home, you did it. You got out and are making it on your own. That takes guts and you deserve mad props for that. I know you like things messy and are goddamn cute when you’re tipsy. I know you’re stubborn as hell and gorgeous as fuck. And that your kiss tastes like an aged whiskey: something I want to sip slowly, feel on my lips, savor on my tongue, and take my time with before I get drunk on it.” With a lift of his eyebrows and a nod of his head, he walks past me, leaving me with my mouth agape and eyes wide.

I can’t move. Just stand staring at the door in front of me as I try to process what he just said, what he meant by it, and yet there’s no use because we just had a whole one-sided conversation and that need to banter with him is gone. Lost to the tingling in my lower belly and the wild spinning of my thoughts.

“Oh, and, Getty?” Zander calls out to me from the kitchen, refusing to continue until I turn to face him, standing there unabashedly shirtless. “If you ever call me pretty again, we’re gonna have a real problem. I guarantee you there is nothing pretty about me.”

I almost smile at the fact that out of all of the crappy things I said to him, that is the one that bugged him the most.

“You are kind of pretty, though,” I murmur, unable to resist goading him further, needing to try to get us back on an even playing field. Because hell if right now I don’t feel like I’m on the low end of the teeter-totter.

His immediate response? A snort to signify that his chiseled abs and the tall, dark, and handsome thing he’s got going on are nothing more than average.

“Last warning, Socks.” His eyes flash with mirth. And what looks like desire.

An unexpected part of me—the one who usually hides and doesn’t ever take a chance—wants to say it again. Just to see what he’d do if I did.

“So damn pretty.” I don’t know who’s more shocked at my comment, him or me, but we stand there for a moment, gazes locked, unspoken words warring across the distance between us.

He walks toward me with a predatory gleam in his eyes and a salacious smirk on his lips that catches me off guard. “I know I said you were brave, Getty, but now you’re just playing with matches.”

I draw in a long inhale as he steps right in front of me. I can’t look at him. My nerve is suddenly gone. Outside, rain pelts the roof. The constant drip into the bucket in the hallway serves as a metronome to this anticipatory silence we are dancing in. The goose bumps on his chest are the only thing I can focus on.

When his thumb and forefinger direct my chin up so I’m forced to meet his eyes, every part of me hums from his touch. From the want of something I don’t quite understand myself and couldn’t ever put into words. Our eyes meet—his intense, mine searching for answers that aren’t his to give—before his gaze flicks down to my mouth and then back up again.

“Not yet, Getty.” He closes his eyes for a beat, and I see what I think is restraint reflected in his grimace, before a ghost of a smile spreads on his lips. “I don’t think you’re ready to light this fire just yet.”
  


Want more K. Bromberg?

Sweet Cheeks releases on November 14th 

Pre-order on iBooks Here: http://apple.co/2dsJdmh

About the Author:


New York Times Bestselling author K. Bromberg writes contemporary novels that contain a mixture of sweet, emotional, a whole lot of sexy and a little bit of real. She likes to write strong heroines and damaged heroes who we love to hate and hate to love.

She’s a mixture of most of her female characters: sassy, intelligent, stubborn, reserved, outgoing, driven, emotional, strong, and wears her heart on her sleeve. All of which she displays daily with her husband and three children where they live in Southern California.

On a whim, K. Bromberg decided to try her hand at this writing thing. Since then she has written The Driven Series (Driven, Fueled, Crashed, Raced, Aced), the standalone Driven Novels (Slow Burn, Sweet Ache, Hard Beat, and Down Shift (Releasing 10/4/16)), and a short story titled UnRaveled. She is currently finishing up Sweet Cheeks a standalone novel out at the end of 2016.

Her plans for 2017 include a sports romance duet (The Player (#1) and The Catch (#2)) and the Everyday Heroes series (Cuffed (#1), Combust (#2), and Cockpit (#3). She’s also writing a novella for the 1,001 Dark Night series that will be out in February 2017.
She loves to hear from her readers so make sure you check her out on social media.


No comments:

Post a Comment