Fighting ToBreathe
Series: Shooting Stars #1
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Release Date: July 6, 2015
Lea Lamb and Austin Wolf were young when they fell in love. They never imagined the future could hold anything other than together-forever.
When Lea’s father dies in a tragic fishing accident, she’s crushed under the weight of her grief and catches a glimpse of another type of future, one she knows she’s not strong enough to face.
Austin is angry. For the past fifteen years, he’s believed the woman he loved with every ounce of his soul left him without so much as a backwards glance.
When Lea unexpectedly returns to their hometown, all the years of heartache inside Austin bubbles to the surface and presents itself as blinding rage.
Faced with the truth about the past, a newly discovered secret, these former lovers will learn that if they want to have any chance at the future they’d given up on all those years ago, they will have to rescue one another from drowning in pain so debilitating it will leave them both fighting to breathe.
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“CAN WE STOP by the liquor store on the way to dinner?” Mom asks from the passenger seat of my car.
“Should you be drinking?” I frown then turn onto the main road—well, really the only road in town.
“What’s it going to do, kill me?” she jokes, making me inhale a sharp breath. “Honey,” she says quietly, and I look at her briefly, wondering how the hell she can be so casual about this. “I’m dying. When it will happen, only the good Lord knows, but it is happening, and there is nothing you or I can do about it. I have made my peace with it, and I want you to do the same.” She reaches over to pat my thigh.
“Make peace with it?” I repeat, shaking my head in disbelief.
“Yes, make peace with it. If you think about it, I’m lucky. I know I’m going to die. I know that sooner rather than later God is going to come take me home, and when he does, I will be ready. I will have had a chance to say goodbye to the people I care about and right any wrongs I’ve caused. I’m lucky, honey.”
“What about me?” I wring my hands on the steering wheel, feeling my chest get tight as I fight back tears.
“I love you, honey. I loved you before you were even a sparkle in my eye, and I will always be with you. I know this isn’t easy for you. I know there are going to be a lot of tears shed, but we’re lucky, honey.”
I press my lips together to keep from saying something I might regret. I’m not lucky; in fact, I’m unlucky to the tenth power. How many people have I lost, how many people do I have to loose before it’s enough.
“Oh look! Sheryl!” She yells, pulling me from my thoughts as she reaches over, pressing the horn on my steering wheel while her other hand shoots across me so she can wave out my window. Looking to where she’s waving my heart begins to beat wildly
against my ribcage when I see not Sheryl, but Austin walking into one of the many bars that litter Main Street, only it’s not just Austin—it’s him and a woman with her arm wrapped around the back of his waist as he holds the door open for her.
Even from the distance separating us, my lungs compress at the beauty that is him. The years have been good to him. His hair is still shaggy, only now a little lighter; his face is tan and covered in a beard that makes his crystal blue eyes stand out even more. My eyes travel from his face to his torso, which is covered in a dark green thermal that shows off the muscles of his arms, chest, and tapered waist, then down to his denim-covered thighs. When my gaze sweeps back up, his eyes are on me, and I see them crinkle in confusion then realization that soon turns into anger.
“You missed the liquor store,” my mom complains as I speed up.
I wanted her fifteen years ago, and I still fucking want her now. There isn’t a single part of me that doesn’t know she’s my future…
What’s better than a second chance romance? A second chance romance with an Aurora Rose Alpha. *swoon* There’s a reason she’s my go-to author for pure guilty pleasure read, and this book was the perfect fix. At just under 200 pages, it’s on the shorter side, and easily read in one sitting (which I did since I couldn’t put it down). Surprisingly in those short pages Aurora managed to give the readers a true heartfelt romance. It made me cry, it made me swoon, it made me pant. It was that perfect weekend afternoon read that will leave a smile on your face.
Fifteen years ago Lea and Austin were high school sweethearts that were planning on spending the rest of their lives together. But then the tragic death of her father leaves Lea shattered and she runs; from her life, from her town, and from Austin. Now she’s recently divorced and back to her childhood town to take care of her dying mother, but coming to terms with her past isn’t quite so easy when the boy that stole her heart those years ago is now the man that still makes it pound.
To say that Austin isn’t happy to see Lea again is definitely an understatement. When she left, she took what was left of his heart along with her. He’s bitter, angry, and the fact that she still draws him in like she did all those years ago doesn’t make it easier.
Now if you know me then you know that I love me my angry lust thing, so of course I gobbled this all up like a starved maniac. It was utterly delicious. Underneath Austin’s anger there was always this undercurrent of lust that practice crackled with electricity.
Even though I wanted to hate Lea for the way she walked away from everything those years ago, it was hard to do with the person she grew into. Surprisingly, she was a very endearing character if not a little broken. Though I gotta say, I did love the way that Austin began to build her back up piece by piece.
Fighting to Breathe was just one of those extremely satisfying and swoony second chance romances that I love to read about. While it may not have been that all encompassing 5 star read, it was a solid 4. Aurora introduced several secondary characters that I’m already curious to read about (especially Ben, even if he already got his HEA). This is definitely a series that is going to my auto-buy list and one I highly recommend to all fans of this author.
Aurora Rose Reynolds is a navy brat who’s husband served in the United States Navy. She has lived all over the country but now resides in New York City with her Husband and pet fish. She’s married to an alpha male that loves her as much as the men in her books love their women. He gives her over the top inspiration everyday. In her free time she reads, writes and enjoys going to the movies with her husband and cookie. She also enjoys taking mini weekend vacations to nowhere, or spends time at home with friends and family. Last but not least she appreciates everyday and admires it’s beauty.
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It’s been one year, a month, 3 days, 2 hrs and 58 minutes since I read 
Carly may only be 18 years old, but this is no blushing ingenue. The girl is tough as nails and doesn’t exactly shy away from male attention. She craves the men’s lusty looks like a drug. But one night, she allows her flirtation to temp the wrong man and gets thrown head first into something she has no hope of escaping…not without Gio’s protection.
Carly and Gio together were absolutely magnetic. But there’s so much more going on in this book than just the budding romance between them. There’s the mob, there’s Gio’s revenge for what he lost, there’s the lingering effects of what happened with Mia in 
Aly Martines has quickly become one of my go-to favorite authors to read. I stalk her new releases incessantly and would pre-order without even batting an eye lash. I love her books that much. She writes some of my favorite broken heroes and heroines that melt their hearts and mend their broken pieces. 
The end of Fighting Silence finds Flint jumping in front of a bullet for Eliza and losing his ability to walk after getting shot in his back. Angry at the world, resentful, and drowning in his jealousy of his brother’s woman that he knows will never be his is slowly chipping away at him. His answer is to leave it all behind and to move as far away from them as possible in order to start anew. This is when Ash Mabie walks into his life.
Just a few short lines into this book and I was perfectly hooked and I knew I head another winner from Roni Loren on my hands. I’ve been a huge fan of this author since first discovering her Loving On The Edge series years ago. But I have to admit, not one of her other characters had intrigued me quite as much as Pike did when I first met him in 
I knew his heroine will have to be something very special to catch his eye and boy was she. I knew I’d love Oakley from just the first chapter. Not often you meet a heroine that’s preparing cupcakes for her daughter while engaging in dirty talk as a sex line operator as her day job. I couldn’t help but giggle as she described the mundane experience of her “night job” while thinking about her chores. The woman had sass a mile long too.
Pike is a bad boy you’ll fall for right away. There’s always this undercurrent of vulnerability to him that flashes behind his devil-may-care attitude. When all the pieces of his past begin to click together, your heart will absolutely break for him and everything that he’s been through. While Pike thinks that all he wants is between Oakley’s thighs, he soon begins to realize that what he wants most of all is inside her heart. Oakley is not so easy with her turnaround, however. Her history with men and especially men in the music business is one that left some deep rooted scars. But that doesn’t mean she doesn’t soon find herself falling deeper and deeper under Pike’s appeal.
This book was a little bit different from the rest of the series in where The Ranch wasn’t a large part of the sex, if at all. Pike may be a rockstar in bed and out, but he’s not a man that recognizes himself as a Dom or anything else. He likes what he likes and he doesn’t label it. He likes a bite of pain in his sex and he likes a little bondage, but he’s not above letting the woman take control either. While he’s definitely NOT vanilla, the romance between him and Oakley didn’t have a very big BDSM element. So if you’re a reader that doesn’t enjoy much BDSM, you’d definitely enjoy this book.
I don’t think there was anything I didn’t enjoy about this book. It was sizzling hot and with a fantastic story that was perfectly paced. The sex was scorching but it never took away from the romance, only added to it. It’s not often you find an author that finds that perfect balance of erotic but without overwhelming it with sex.
It’s been over a week since I read Toxic and it’s taken me this long to be able to sum my feelings and clear my head enough to rate it. If I can describe this book for you in one word, it would be exhausting. I was absolutely emotionally spent when I finished it. I spent a good 40% of it feeling like I want to rip my hair out. And this is coming from a self-professed angst whore, mind you.
But then here’s the thing; I liked it. Even though the constant back and forth between Phoebe and Jeremy left me feeling like they’re going to give me whiplash, I still liked it and gobbled it up like the angst starved junky that I am. Was it delicious? Heck no! I thought I may choke on it. But god help me, I still liked it. My favorite trope is the second chance romance and Toxic delivers it in spades.
While both Phoebe and Jeremy know they may be toxic together, they can’t stay away from each other. Their chemistry practically crackles in electricity. There’s one thing that’s certain, Kim Karr can write some scorching sex scenes. But the lies between them are like poison that won’t leave. Much as they try to purge it from their relationship it remains that one toxic factor that brews the way for mistrust and mistakes. I think it would be safe to say that neither of these characters are perfect, far from it in fact. These two fuck up so many times it made me want to throttle them and chuck my kindle at the wall. It was rage inducing.
There’s a wealth of secondary characters that were introduced that added to the story in a very significant way. Maybe that’s what helped dilute the angst between Jeremy and Phoebe? It made the book evolve like a movie in front of my eyes and it made me really connect to the characters’ lives. I’m not sure I’d be able to say the same thing if this happened in any other book, but in this one it just worked.
If you’re looking for a book that will enrage you and enrapture you all in one, Toxic is that. It’s a make you want to rip your hair out while still rooting for the characters kind of second chance romance. It was far from perfect, but yet it worked. It may not be for everyone, but if you’re a reader that enjoys your angst in rage inducing proportions while getting an unforgettable second chance romance, Toxic is definitely a must read.
Joke, your story to tell when you wanna tell it. Your story to keep if you don’t ever wanna tell. Thought you had secrets. Way you’re holding’ back with this girl, think I’m wrong. You don’t have secrets. You got demons.
Cade,” she moaned.
