Beyond What is Given
Series: Flight & Glory #3
Author: Rebecca Yarros
Genre: New Adult, Contemporary Romance
Release Date: September 28, 2015
Entangled Embrace
Lt. Grayson Masters is focused on graduating the Apache helicopter course, and the last thing he needs is his gorgeous new roommate Samantha Fitzgerald distracting him. While her smart mouth and free spirit are irresistibly irritating, he can’t deny their off-the-charts chemistry, no matter how hard he tries.
Having just been expelled from college, Sam has no business digging for Grayson’s secrets while she’s hiding her own, but that doesn’t stop her from trying to tear down his walls. Each barrier she busts through drops one of her own, though, and she’s not prepared for the truth: another woman laid claim to Grayson’s heart long ago.
Falling in love is something neither Grayson nor Sam can afford, and when that line is crossed and secrets are exposed, they’ll learn that sometimes it’s the answered prayers that will put you through hell.
I shrieked as the mixer whirred a shrill pitchand batter exploded, hitting the walls, the cabinets, my face…everything. I sputtered as some landed in my mouth, and slammed my hand against the lever to turn it off.
This was going to be a bitch to clean up.
“Are you okay?” Grayson ran in, hair damp from the shower. His eyes widened as he took in the state of his precious kitchen. “You weren’t kidding about the mess.”
“Oh this?” I smiled. “It’s a new aeration technique. I totally meant to do this.” My awesome excuse died as a glob of brownie mix fell off the tip of my nose.
“Is that so?” he asked, walking over to me slowly, consuming my vision. My breath hitched as he swiped his finger across my cheek, and then licked the brownie mix off the digit. Holy hot. “Hmm… I think there’s something to be said for this method. Maybe a little more air in the batter?”
My mouth popped open. “Are you making fun of me?”
He smirked, which must have had a direct link to my panties, because they unanimously voted to drop. Now. There was sexy, and there was Grayson’s tongue sweeping across his lower lip, which was a step beyond hedonistic. His eyes took on a mischievous glint but kept the same signature intensity that held me captive, unable to look anywhere else as he lowered his face toward mine. What…what was he
doing?
Do you even care? Nope. Not one bit.
“Maybe another taste to be sure?” he asked, his voice low as his lips skimmed across my jawline. “Mmm. Definitely more.” Shivers coursed down my body. Holy shit. His mouth was actually on me, and I was awake.
He flipped the switch on the mixer and chocolate flew.
“You did not!” I let my knees buckle so I slipped to the floor, leaving Grayson to be splattered by the flying confection.
“I most certainly did!” He lifted me up like I weighed nothing, and batter smacked the back of my tank top. “Man, you’re slippery.” He mock-dropped me.
I yelped, locking my ankles around his waist and my hands around his neck. He turned off the mixer and chuckled low in his throat. “You can laugh?” I asked, yanking my head back to look at him.
“I have been known to on occasion,” he answered, that stupid, crazy-sexy smirk in play despite the chocolate on his cheeks and forehead. How the hell could someone look so hot while literally dripping brownie batter?
“I like it,” I admitted.
His smirk disappeared, and his grip tightened on my bare thighs as his gaze dropped to my lips. They parted as if he’d freaking asked them to. We weren’t just stepping out of the friend-zone here, we were on a damn missile into let- me-jump-you-ville.
“I do, too,” he whispered.
Orbit. That was the word for it. She was the Earth, full of life, raging rivers, erupting volcanoes, mysterious oceans, and breathtaking views. I was a satellite in her orbit, witnessing from a distance while she bloomed.
Rebecca Yarros and her Flight & Glory series has been on my radar for a while. In my usual way of doing things backasswards, when I got the chance to read Beyond What Is Given, I jumped on it, even before I read the previous books. With that said, I never found myself lost and had no problems getting into the story. BUT, I do wish I read the previous two books simply because I completely adored those characters in this book and found myself curious about their story. So I plan on going back and reading the previous books immediately.
I love a book that will tug at my heart strings and really make me feel; truly capture my interest in not just the romance but both the characters’ individual growth. Considering the baggage both Sam and Grayson carried around, I certainly didn’t expect anything less than I got, even if it was incredibly frustrating at times.
Sam essentially ran away from her home in Colorado after a mistake cost her everything; a mistake that still continues to haunt her today. Moving in with 3 male roommates to a different town, she’s hoping for a fresh start. But then she meets Grayson, her new roommate that’s less than thrilled to see her since he was expecting a guy Sam. Grayson is temperamental, broody, too gorgeous for his own good, and hiding scars that may run much deeper than Sam ever imagined.
Grayson’s secret begins to come to light little by little, and you soon realized that the baggage that this man carries may be too much for even self-assured Sam. But you also can’t help but fall for him completely. The push and pull dynamic between them grabbed me from the beginning. Grayson clearly wants Sam, but he knows he can’t have her. His secret prevent him from giving himself fully even when Sam is quickly falling for him.
As much as I love angst in my books, and the angst here was thick. At the same time, I prefer the angst to come from the couple and not added from outside influences. What am I talking about? Grayson’s family. Sweet mother of all that’s holy but the last time I hated a hero’s sister this much I was reading an Abbi Glines book. I absolutely HATED Parker. And the further the book progressed, the more strongly I began to hate her. And that only got so much worse when the whole truth was revealed. In addition to her sticking her nose into Grayson’s business there was also his father. All of it combined with the already heavy subject of Grayson’s secret and Sam’s past and it was almost too much. Don’t get me wrong, the author did make it work, but for me it was just a little too much.
I loved the romance between Sam and Grayson, even if it was filled with enough bumps and turns to make for a hell of a rollercoaster ride. I’ve been thinking on my rating for a few days now and what I can definitely say is that I loved the writing and I truly enjoyed the story as a whole, minus a few minor quibbles (Parker being the biggest). Ultimately I liked how everything was dealt with in the end, and I absolutely adored the ending for the couple. While it may have been bumpy, it was all wrapped together without being too cliche or predictable and that’s always a plus for me. Rebecca Yarros is definitely now an author I will gladly read in the future.
Rebecca Yarros is a hopeless romantic and lover of all things chocolate, coffee, and Paleo. In addition to being a mom, military wife, and blogger, she can never choose between Young Adult and New Adult fiction, so she writes both. She’s a graduate of Troy University, where she studied European history and English, but still holds out hope for an acceptance letter to Hogwarts. Her blog, The Only Girl Among Boys, has been voted the Top Military Mom Blog the last two years, and celebrates the complex issues surrounding the military life she adores.
When she’s not writing, she’s tying on hockey skates for her kids, or sneaking in some guitar time. She is madly in love with her army-aviator husband of eleven years, and they’re currently stationed in Upstate NY with their gaggle of rambunctious kiddos and snoring English Bulldog, but she would always rather be home in Colorado.
Dear Cari Quinn,
Me likey.
For those of you that still are not clear; what we have is a GFY AND a sizzling hot MMF menage. You with me now? Mkay then.
Well, well, well, Miss Jagger, where HAVE you been all my pervy life? Because let me tell you, I like the way you do alphas. You give good manwhore. Good manwhore, indeed. And the best part? It’s not just smutty fluff, you actually weave a great story in. So you’ve got yourself a new fan in this 
If you haven’t read the first book, I’m proof that you’d still enjoy this as a standalone. However, it is clear that I missed out on some backstory to the rest of the guys, but the author does a fantastic job with details so I never felt lost. I love a sassy heroine and Savannah was no wilting wallflower. The woman gives as good as she gets.
Oh yeah. The sparks fly.
Since the very first book, this is what it’s all been leading up to; the dramatic conclusion to the Capital Confessions series and boy was is a doozy. I had some ideas about where it may all lead and some I was correct on while some caught me completely unawares. Falling For Danger was action packed, sexy, and filled with enough twists and turns to keep your reading well into the night…which is exactly what I did.
Kate Reynolds lost her soul mate four years ago when her fiancé and childhood sweetheart, Matt, died on a Special Forces mission in Afghanistan. Her life changed irrevocably since that day and all she’s been living and breathing the past four years is her determination to get down to the truth of what truly happened to cause his death. Everything she’s been doing has been with hat goal in mind; her Capital Confessions stint, her CIA job, and her determination to bring her corrupt senator of a father down along with his secrets. As much as I hated what Kate did in 
The highly anticipated conclusion to an addicting series is here and boy did it end with a bang. Pun most definitely intended. You know what I love? When a series is perfectly wrapped up with a great conclusion without being cheesy and that’s exactly what I loved about the third and final volume of A Desperate Man. We first met Evan in 
Evan and Reagan have been through quite a lot through the series, all of it leading up to the huge bomb of a reveal that these devious authors dropped on us at the end of volume two. And Volume three picks up right where that left off; in the aftermath of Reagan’s…lie…and leaving both of them to deal with the ever growing passion that continues to brew between them, even if it may be slightly clouded by snark and barbs every now and then.
But it never loses the spark either 😉
She was a temptation that he should be struggling to resist, yet every beat of his pulse told him that she’d be worth the sin.
Joya’s Chasing Love has been easily one of my favorite Brazen series this year. The last time I enjoyed a series this much was when I read Elle Kennedy’s After Hours series. It’s deliciously sexy with fantastic characters, smoking hot sex, and a fun story to wrap everything around. I eagerly anticipate each release and to say that I’ve been dying to finally get my hands on Ryder’s books would be a mild understatement. It’s always those quiet, good ole’ boys that have that yummy dirty side to them so I knew that Ryder would not disappoint. And boy he sure as hell didn’t!
For Ryder the only thing more precious to him besides his reputation is his control. He’s only lost control once and it it almost cost him everything. When his friends set him up on a blind date and a case of mistaken identity lead him to have the hottest sex of his life with a dark haired beauty that shatters his control, the last thing he expects is to see her the next morning working in his sister’s diner.
I loved seeing all of my favorite couples from the previous books but Whitney and Ryder definitely stole the show. Their chemistry was positively combustible. I loved both these characters and I definitely loved them together. Whitney was so much fun and she wasn’t afraid to push Ryder’s buttons even when he was too stubborn to do anything about it. But ultimately his control would always snap and the result was something that never failed to get my ovaries going…
If you haven’t read this series yet, I’m not sure what you’re thinking. You NEED to. Trust me. Your ovaries will thank me. Chasing Mr. Wrong was another fantastic addition to what’s quickly becoming my ultimate guilty pleasure series. I love it! And I simply cannot wait for more.
When I first read 
Have you ever read a romance novel and it was like a movie reel in your head? Like you could actually imagine the actors playing out every line? Picture the town and it’s residents exactly as they’re being described? Actually notice absolutely every single minute detail inside your mind? That’s what Hollywood Dirt was for me. At times I felt like I was reading a movie script more so than a book. At first I thought that maybe that’s not really a good thing since it was a slower pace than what I’m used to. But after taking some time to think about it, I can say that it was refreshingly different. If you’ve read any of the other books by this author, Hollywood Dirt is nothing like them. There’s no crazy twists, it’s certainly not as erotic as her other books have been, and it’s not evocative. It’s a light, feel good, pure contemporary romance about a country girl and a hollywood star. An unlikely one, but still a romance that will capture your heart.
Cole is coming off of a bitter divorce and putting everything he has into the movie that he’s now bankrolling. When he comes to the small southern town and meets Summer, he knows there’s no one better suited to play the main role of Ida than her. Summer is hoping to take the money she earns from the movie and finally put the town she grew up in and the memory of her mistakes made in it 3 years ago behind her. But when she begins to see the man beneath the hollywood layers, she sees there’s much more to Cole than first meets the eye and she begins to fall for him.
Fans of Alessandra’s Innocence series will get a VERY big surprise in this book in the form of Brad DeLuca. He plays a fairly big secondary role and man oh man but I loved his unexpected cameo. He’s still as intense and overpowering as ever and it only added to the enjoyment of it. But for me, it was always all about Cole. There was just something so endearing and…real…about him.
Honestly, I struggled a little going into it simply because it wasn’t quite what I had expected. It’s slow paced, but the pace was perfect for the book and the story. Upon thinking about it, it really was perfectly suited for this story. It was different but lovely. If you’re looking for a light and feel good contemporary romance, this is a book you should definitely try. Alessandra Torre is an incredibly talented writer, and this book shows how multi-faceted she is. She can pull off different genres and it truly translates. Each of her books has been different in their own right, and this one is no different. While different from the rest, I think that’s what I enjoyed the most about it. There was nothing crazy, no silly drama or overdrawn angst. Just two imperfect characters finding a perfect love together.
Can you get a highly satisfying and enjoyable steamy romance in just a short 120 pages? In the case of this book; also-fucking-lutely. There’s a reason I’ve read practically every book in Lorelei’s backlist and this book is the perfect example why. It’s wonderfully smutty but with a great story and fantastic characters. I love this author’s dirty talking cowboys, and Wynton Grant was utter perfection.
