The Day He Kissed Her (Bad Boys of Crystal Lake #3) by Juliana Stone-review and giveaway

The Day He Kissed Her (Bad Boys of Crystal Lake #3) by Juliana Stone-review and giveaway

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The Day He Kissed Her
Bad Boys of Crystal Lake #3
by Juliana Stone
Genre: contemporary, adult, romance, erotic
Release Date: April 1, 2014

The Day He Kissed Her
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THE DAY HE KISSED HER (Bad Boys of Crystal Lake #3) by Juliana Stone

About the book: Release Date April 1, 2014

He can’t wait to leave…

Mac Draper finally has everything he’s always wanted: An amazing career. A New York City apartment. He’s this close to being free of his past forever. But a mind-blowing encounter with the sexy yet tough-as-nails Lily St. Clare has him delaying his plans to put Crystal Lake in his rearview mirror for good.

She’s finally found a place to stay…

For Lily St. Clare the charming small town of Crystal Lake is her haven – a place she can hide from her famous, back-stabbing family. It’s as close to happy as she’s ever been. Until an unforgettable night with tall, dark and tortured Mac Draper gives her a glimpse of what true happiness feels like.

Lily can’t help but melt a little under the sizzling heat of Mac’s touch. But Mac’s scars run deep, and Lily’s afraid she may be falling for the one man who can never return her feelings…

••••••••••••••••••••••••

REVIEW: THE DAY HE KISSED HER is the third instalment in Juliana Stone’s adult, contemporary, erotic Bad Boys of Crystal Lake series focusing on a tight knit group of family and friends-Jake & Jesse Edwards, Cain Black and MacKenzie Draper. This is MacKenzie and Lily’s storyline. Keeping everyone at arm’s length, Mac has finally met a woman he can love, but the past is ugly and Mac fears that he may be more like his father than he ever thought. Lily is Jake Edwards best friend and she has been welcomed into the family as one of their own.

The storyline follows Mac and Lily who had previously met several months earlier. After a night of drunken sex, each go their separate ways only to meet again, at the Edward’s Memorial Day celebration. Believing she was nothing more than a one-night stand, Lily desperately attempts to hide but Mac remembers everything about Lily and that special night. Hoping for a do-over, Mac pursues Lily until they become lovers-but nothing more. Mac doesn’t do relationships or love and, he is more than willing to let Lily know exactly where he stands.

The relationship between Mac and Lily rekindles an attraction to one another that neither has experience before. But Mac’s family history has shrouded his heart and his soul in a dark and dangerous curtain where he hides a multitude of emotional and physical scars that have left him incapable of love. He believes he is not worthy and when the past begins to resurface in the next generation of family, Mac begins to pulls away from the only woman he has ever loved.

THE DAY HE KISSED HER is a storyline that focuses on a family history of abuse and neglect: a family whereby the parents enable one another’s sins and where the children are left unprotected from the monster who is supposed to love and protect. This is a story where history begins to repeat itself and where one man refuses to give up on the people that he loves. But sometimes, in the end, you have to walk away when the person who was supposed to protect you, looks the other way, and does nothing to save themselves.

Juliana Stone pulls the reader into an intense storyline of heartbreak and betrayal; love and letting go; acceptance and moving on. Julian writes a story that is emotional and heartbreaking; a story that may be all too familiar to many readers; but a story that ends with a HEA.

Copy supplied by the publisher through Netgalley.

Reviewed by Sandy

excerpt

Mackenzie Draper woke up with a throbbing head, a dry mouth, and an ache in his neck that hurt like hell.
Vague memories of the Coach House, his buddies Cain and Jake, some loud, crazy band, and a bottle of tequila floated in his mind.
Or maybe it was two bottles of tequila.
Not that it mattered. Mac was sporting the worst hangover ever, and even though it had nothing to do with Crystal Lake—-and everything to do with his weakness for tequila—-his first thought was that he shouldn’t have come home.
Things never went well when he came back to Crystal Lake, and after all this time—-and with his bastard father in jail—-it was still hard.
With a groan, Mac rolled out of bed and wondered why the hell he did it.
It was late morning, Friday of the Memorial Day long weekend, and Mac had arrived home the night before, hence the catching up with his buddies and the endless shots of tequila.
Damn. He knew better. Tequila always knocked him on his ass.
His nose wrinkled. He smelled like a brewery and was still in his clothes from the night before—-he was pretty damn sure he looked like crap. Mac stumbled down the hall, wincing and cursing when he stubbed his toe on an uneven floorboard.
He ran fingers over the two–day–old stubble on his chin, rolled his shoulders, and groaned. The muscles were tight, but then again, everything was tight and sore.
With a scowl, he glanced back toward his room. Damn mattress. He was used to sleeping on the king–sized dream at his place in New York City, not the IKEA crap from his teen years.
“Shit,” he murmured, wincing again as his neck creaked. There was a time when the floor between the Edwards twins’ beds had been good enough for him. Hell, he’d spent many a night sleeping there when things got out of hand at home.
God, is this what it felt like to be old?
The family homestead was a modest bungalow with three bedrooms, a kitchen, a small dining room, and a TV room finishing off the main floor. The place hadn’t seen a fresh coat of paint in years, and the wallpaper in the hall was curling in the corners. The roof needed done and if the windows weren’t replaced soon, the frames would rot.
It was a mess, and he doubted the additional three bedrooms in the basement or the small recreational room was faring any better.
When he was a kid, he spent most of his time down there—-anything to avoid his father, or rather, his father’s fists. Back then, the house had seemed so damn small—-so damn suffocating—-it was hard to believe that anything could grow or thrive inside the four walls
that made up the Draper residence. No wonder he escaped as much as he could. Hanging with the Edwards twins and
Cain Black had been his salvation. He glanced around the house, feeling as tired as it looked. With only his mother puttering about, the place seemed empty and quiet. Too quiet.
Mac needed noise, the hustle and bustle of the city, the sounds of people, music, and cabs.
He needed noise to shut out the quiet moments, because when it was quiet, it was way too easy to think and remember. And Mac didn’t want to remember.
He wasn’t alone in that sentiment. His five siblings were gone. They’d all left as soon as they could, and other than his younger sister, Becca, he was the only one who came home to visit. The long distance thing seemed to work for everyone else.
Mac paused and leaned against the door frame that led to the kitchen, watching his mother roll out dough. She wore simple clothes—-a white cotton blouse, with faded blue and red roses, tucked into plain white shorts that fell exactly one inch above the knee. The colors had faded, but they were clean and pressed, with no creases.
Her long hair, as blond as Mac’s and showing no sign of gray, was knotted loosely at her nape. She was petite—-trim—-and from this angle, she looked exactly like the mother he remembered from his youth. It wasn’t until she glanced up and he caught sight of the sadness in her eyes, the wrinkles of worry etched into her brow, that he saw her age.
Age and heartache that had been put there by his father.
Just thinking of Ben Draper made Mac’s gut clench, and it took some effort for him to ease out of the anger that ate at him. He breathed in and out, nice and easylike, and managed a half–assed smile for his mother.
She smiled back, but it quickly faded when her eyes narrowed and she pursed her lips. She continued to roll her dough.
“Late night, Mackenzie?” There was disapproval in her voice and, dammit, even after all this time—-he was thirty–five for Christ’s sake—-he felt like that kid who’d just got caught with his hand in the cookie jar.
Her husband was a mean drunk, and he got that she didn’t like Mac overindulging, but still…it was kind of ironic that she would call him out for having a bit too much tequila when she never said a word to Ben.
Mind you, if she did, she’d see the back of Ben’s hand, but there must have been a point in their relationship when she could have stopped him.
Heat swirled in his gut as a bunch of memories ran through him and none of them were good. Jesus, he needed to shut this shit down right now. There was no point in
rehashing the past. He shoved it all aside and crossed to the fridge, grabbing a carton of juice.
“Is that for the Edwardses’?” he asked.
He poured himself a large glass and turned around to lean against the kitchen counter, his gaze on his mother as she methodically kneaded the dough.
“Yes. I’m making a raspberry pie for you to take when you go.”
He waited a few seconds. He’d spent every Friday before Memorial Day at the Edwardses’ for their annual friends and family barbecue. He always asked his mother to join him.
“So, you’re not coming with me.” It was a statement, because he already knew the answer.
She continued kneading the dough, her movements slow and precise. “No, honey. I’ve got more baking to do for the church bazaar, and I promised Mrs. Linden that I’d help her clean her house.” She glanced up, though her smile didn’t quite reach her eyes. “She’s getting on and needs an extra set of hands. I’ve been helping her out ever since Maggie left town.”
Mackenzie knew better than to press the issue. His mother wouldn’t come.
Once, long before he was born, Lila McCann had run in the same social circles as the Edwardses. In fact, she’d dated Steven Edwards briefly…then Ben Draper had come into the picture and Lila’s life took a turn.
A wrong turn. A wrong fucking U–turn away from anything good that she’d ever had.
Her parents had stood by her—-even when she’d become pregnant with Mac’s older brother, Benjamin Jr.—-and had footed the bill for an extravagant wedding. His grandparents had died in a car accident about a month before Benjamin was born, and Mac had never met them.
His great–grandmother, however, was a bright light in an otherwise bleak childhood. It was only because of Grams that any of the kids went to college, and it was only because of Grams that the roof over their head stayed in their hands and not the bank’s. His great–grandmother was nearing her ninetieth year and still right as rain.
He didn’t want to consider what would have happened to the Draper kids if not for her.

 

about the author

Juliana stoneJuliana Stone’s love of the written word and 80s rock, have inspired her in more ways than one. She writes contemporary romance, paranormal romance and will debut a young adult novel in 2014. She spends her days navigating a busy life that includes, a husband, kids, a dog and a cat.

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giveaway

Sourcebooks Publishing is offering a paper copy of THE DAY HE KISSED HER by Juliana Stone to one (1) lucky commenter at The Reading Cafe.

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6. Giveaway runs from April 1 to April 4, 2014

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