Wednesday 6 June 2018

Blog Tour & Review ~ Confessions: Julien (Confessions #2) by Ella Frank

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Confessions: Julien, book two in the steamy contemporary MMM Confessions Series from Ella Frank, is available NOW!

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Book Description:

People are complex.

Love a double-edged sword.

And when it comes to a broken heart, there are no rules, only time…

For the past eight years, Julien Thornton has been living with a secret. One that only a handful of people know about.

To the outside world, he has it all.

A thriving career. A loving husband. And a face that the American public fell for by the millions, on a reality show that inadvertently saved his life.

But behind the shine of celebrity, behind the easygoing nature, a crippling truth fills Julien with pain and self-loathing. It’s a truth that he fights to overcome daily with the help of his husband, Joel Priestley, and now their boyfriend, Robbie Bianchi.

But unlike Priest, Robbie doesn’t know what he’s helping Julien to fight. He doesn’t know what Julien did all those years ago. And with the anniversary of his sister’s death fast approaching, the time for explanations is running out.

And thus the question: will the princess be able to forgive the prick as the priest once did? 

Only time will tell.

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Buy Links:

Download today or read FREE in Kindle Unlimited!


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Our Review:

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


“Two is always better than one. And three? Three is even better.”


OMG, Ella Frank brings her ‘A’ game with Julien’s story. After Confessions: Robbie, the dynamic between these three was electric but the voltage certainly increases throughout Julien. Their connection becomes more profound as dark clouds from their past are re-told, dealt with and dissipated and the trust that these three have between them only amplified their connection on a soul level as well as physical. The Prick, the Priest and the Princess have one hell of a story and as Ella Frank navigates us readers through their trials and tribulations the connection you will have to these characters only exacerbates to the point you feel everything, experience everything, it is the emotional content that was the height of this book for me.


“You’re everywhere, ma petite poulette. Everywhere, but nowhere at all…”


On the outside, our French Chef a.k.a The Prick a.k.a. Julien is confident and arrogant. He has worked hard for his success and he revels in the plaudits and all that comes with it. But after reading Robbie, we knew that there was more to the man and that he harboured a lot of guilt that he struggled to balance. We knew that his life had been rough, he had been through the mill and it was The Priest that had saved him. In Julien, we get his back story in all its glory and at times it isn’t pretty. While his guilt is self-imposed I understood why he felt it was his fault, even though no-one else did, except his parents. Ostracised by those that should have loved him, all Julien had was Priest, and now was complete with their Princess.


“It takes strength to forgive. To walk away and forget is the easy way. The coward’s way.”


The dynamic between Julien, Joel and Robbie really comes into its own and it is in this book that you really see each role each person plays in their relationship. Although Joel and Julien are perfect together, there are some things that Joel just cannot give Julien that Julien needs and Robbie slips into that gap perfectly and vice versa. These three are already perfectly homogenized and I cannot wait to see what is to come for these three. With Priest’s skeletons about to make their appearance in the next book, once again, it is not going to be easy.


“Somewhere in these past few months, I lost my mind over you, Robert Bianchi. It’s only now that my heart’s beginning to catch up.”


Ella Frank knows how to write steam and these three literally burn up the pages. My kindle definitely needed freezer time. The scenes between them though, I found profound, such was the intensity and the emotion that Ella Frank poured into every one of them. It wasn’t just physical, not by a long shot. The affection, the chemistry, the banter, our dead panning Priest, all brought something to the overall story; how they bounce off one and other, how Robbie’s light and humour is just what they needed, how Robbie completes their perfect trifecta.


“There is strength in numbers. Those on the outside protecting the one within. That is us. One. Two. Three.”


I cannot wait for Priest’s book, our seemingly closed off, emotionless lawyer has already shown what is underneath, waiting to come out and Julien and Robbie are definitely the ones to let it out. With those glimpses of the real Joel and a little understanding of his past, this series is going to end with a bang and I’ll be willingly devouring it morsel by morsel. This is Ella Frank at her very best, I cannot say how much I have loved both books, and I can’t believe I am going to say this, but I may even love these guys more than Logan and Tate and that is saying something.


Excerpt:

Chapter One

CONFESSION
Those who are meant to be yours
will always find you.

“WE MEET again, Mr. Thornton.”
A shiver of awareness raced up Julien Thornton’s spine as he stood in the jail cell of a downtown L.A. police station where he’d been thrown around an hour ago for public intoxication.
He didn’t need to turn to know who was on the opposite side of those steel bars. That voice was the one he’d been hoping to hear when he’d made his “one call” and left a message after a generic voicemail. That voice? It had been on his mind since the last time he’d heard it, nearly two weeks earlier when he’d met—and attempted to steal the car of—a man who called himself Priest.
Julien pivoted on his heels, and when he did, he realized that he’d grossly underestimated the impact that Joel Priestley had had on him the first time around.
Oui, he hadn’t been able to stop thinking about him, that was true, and oui, he might’ve purposely provoked the police officer tonight hoping he’d end up needing a lawyer. But Dieu, he’d forgotten the way Priest made his body respond. Like an inferno was licking through his veins.
With auburn hair, stormy eyes, and a presence that Julien gravitated toward like a magnetic force, he didn’t think anything could prepare a person for the powerful energy Priest exuded. Not to mention that cool, judgmental stare of his.
But Julien had no one to blame for that judgment but himself. Maybe if they didn’t always meet at the end of one of his week-long benders, he could have the upper hand with this man for once. And wouldn’t that be délicieux, he thought, as he looked at the lawyer who’d dropped him home two weeks before, instead of at the police station like he’d originally threatened.
Priest was as put together now, at three in the morning, as he had been that afternoon in the alley. Suited up in a tailored navy number that framed his broad shoulders and emphasized the rich color of his hair, he looked sharp, controlled, and dangerous to Julien’s already unstable state of mind as he stood there sizing him up with an unreadable expression.
“I’m curious,” Priest finally said, as he clasped his hands behind his back and took a step closer to the cell where Julien had spent most of the night sobering up. “Did you not understand me the last time we spoke?”
Julien clenched his jaw and wondered if Priest realized how condescending he sounded when he spoke—or just how much it turned Julien on. “Non. I understood just fine.”
“Then what part of ‘I won’t be so lenient next time’ made you think that calling me to bail you out of here was a good idea?”
Julien was still trying to work that out himself, but thought it might have something to do with the fact that he was drawn to this man. There was something about Priest that made him feel alive, when all he’d felt for months now was dead inside.
When Julien didn’t respond, Priest cocked his head, studying him closely, the disapproval rolling off him in waves. “Are you that hard up for a date that this was the only way you could think to get one?”
Putain, the man was arrogant. But for reasons Julien couldn’t explain, that seemed to make him all the more appealing. “You’re the one who gave me your card the last time we met. Perhaps it’s you who are hard up for a date, monsieur. Giving your number out to—”
“Criminals?” Priest frowned. “No. That’s called smart business acumen, considering I’m a criminal attorney.”
Julien scoffed. “I’m hardly a criminal.”
“Really?” Priest said, and took his time examining the six-by-eight space Julien currently stood in. He then leaned forward and said in a lowered voice, “Your current situation tells a different kind of story.”
Despite his “current situation,” and the reason he’d gotten himself into it, Julien felt his lips curve, and he realized exactly why he was drawn to Priest. He possessed the one thing that Julien had been looking for—the ability to take his mind off the black hole his life had become. “Maybe it’s le destin.”
“And what does that mean? Destiny?” Priest straightened and brought his arm around to check the time. “I doubt destiny has anything to do with it. A more likely scenario is that I was your only option.”
“Even if that’s true,” Julien said as he wrapped his fingers around the bars, “you came anyway.”
“As I said before, it’s my job.”
“At three in the morning?”
“At any hour of the morning,” Priest said, and then looked down the hallway that was devoid of anything other than dreary off-white tiles and horribly bright fluorescent lighting. “I’m going to go and see if I can get you out, and then you and I are going to have a talk.”
Something about the way Priest said you and I made Julien’s pulse race, and as Priest went to walk away, Julien whispered, “J’ai vraiment hâte,” and the ever-so-serious lawyer stopped in his tracks and looked back.
This time when those eyes roamed over Julien, his breath caught. There was nothing cool about that stare now. There was heat, interest, and an intensity that made Julien’s fingers tighten around the bars before Priest cut the connection and walked away.
Julien watched him go until he disappeared around the end of the hall, and then he released his breath on a rush. Merde. He’d never been so attracted to someone in all his life, and as he stood there waiting for Priest to save him yet again, Julien knew he needed to stop what he was thinking.
There was no way in hell he deserved someone like that. Non, no way at all. That didn’t, however, stop him from counting down the minutes until Priest returned to him…


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Start the series with Confessions: Robbie today!


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About the Author:


Ella Frank is the USA Today Bestselling author of the Temptation series, including Try, Take, and Trust and is the co-author of the fan-favorite contemporary romance, Sex Addict. Her Exquisite series has been praised as “scorching hot!” and “enticingly sexy!” Some of her favorite authors include Tiffany Reisz, Kresley Cole, Riley Hart, J.R. Ward, Erika Wilde, Gena Showalter, and Carly Phillips.

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Mailing List: www.bit.ly/1hEYtgn

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