Blog Tour - With Every Breath by Lia Riley + Giveaway

Title: With Every Breath

Author: Lia Riley

Publisher: Forever

Release Date: December 29, 2015

Source: ARC from Publisher/Wordsmith Publicity

Buy the Book: Amazon / B&N / iBooks / Kobo / Google Play

BREATHE DEEP…AND JUMP IN

At the ends of the earth, Patagonia is a land where ambition trumps reason and the savage summit of La Abuja lures the most determined climbers. It’s also the last spot a “play-it-safe girl” like Auden Woods expects to find herself. But she’ll lace up her brand-new hiking boots and do whatever is takes to secure a dream job at an adventure magazine…even if it kills her. And it just might. When disaster strikes, her only chance at survival comes in the form of the surliest, sexiest mountaineer ever to come out of Scotland.

After a climbing accident cost him his brother, professional mountaineer Rhys MacAskill is at the end of his rope. Redemption is not in his future. That is, until a terrifying storm blows a budding journalist into his tent and it’s up to him to make sure they both survive until morning. Despite the demons weighing on him, Rhys can’t resist the temptation of the charming American and one wild night just isn’t enough. 

Auden and Rhys soon learn there are no shortcuts as they navigate their way between life, death, and atonement, and discover something they never expected—love.

Lia Riley has easily become one of my go-to authors when it comes to NA and contemporary romance. I always get really excited when I find out that she has a new book coming out, and I jump right into reading it the first chance I get. And it was no different with her latest, With Every Breath.

Auden Woods is determined to put her journalism degree to good use and land her dream job at an adventure magazine. The only problem is that Auden isn’t exactly the adventure and outdoors type. She’s someone who plays it safe and because of severe asthma, has never gone too far from home. But now, Auden is determined to wander out of her comfort zone, traveling to Patagonia on her own to talk to climbers getting ready to climb La Aguja. When the trip doesn’t go quite as planned, Auden crosses paths with Rhys MacAskill, a Scottish mountaineer who sees this climb as his redemption after his last climb cost him his brother. Rhys will stop at nothing to be the first to reach the summit of La Aguja. But what he didn’t anticipate, was Auden barging in to his life and making him rethink everything he thought he knew. Both were looking for something in Patagonia, but what they didn’t expect to find there was love.

In the past year, Lia Riley has totally become one of my go-to authors when it comes to romance and NA books. I mean, between October 2014 and now I’ve read seven books and two novellas written by her. So it really shouldn’t come as much of a surprise when I say that I was excited when she first announced her latest, With Every Breath. Not only is this book NA romance, but it also involves travel and it basically had my name written all over it. So basically, I was in when it comes to With Every Breath. And for me, Lia Riley once again delivered. I got sucked into the story, I connected with the characters and I just wanted to keep reading. In fact, I might have stayed up way past my bedtime to read even though I had to be at work the next morning. But as tired as I was the next day, I didn’t regret my decision to just keep reading until the end. And, not gonna lie, With Every Breath totally made me want to go hiking in Patagonia. Never really thought about it before reading this book, but now this is a thing that I want to do. So be warned, this book may give you a slight (or major) case of wanderlust. With Every Breath simply reaffirmed that I will read just about anything that Lia Riley writes because her stories just suck me in and usually result in me falling a little bit in love with fictional characters (but really, that’s not exactly anything new).

When I first started reading, it didn’t take too long for me to connect with Auden. Much like her, I very much tend to be someone who plays it safe, not necessarily doing all that much to go out of my comfort zone. So I definitely understood that side of Auden’s personality, and I even admired her for actually going out on this trip to hike by herself in Patagonia. As much as With Every Breath made me want to go hike in Patagonia, I don’t think I would actually decide to do so on a whim and just take off and go for it the way Auden did. Though if I had someone like Rhys with me, I might reconsider. Because, holy brooding, hot, Scottish guy. Rhys MacAskill is gruff and surly and not exactly the most welcoming or warmest of person. But when you crack his shell, he is something else entirely. And I hardly blame Auden for falling for him as fast as she did. Because I’m not sure I would have put up much resistance if I had been in her shoes. But for real though, I more than liked Rhys, even if sometimes I kinda wanted to (lovingly) hit him in the back of the head for being a stubborn idiot. But at the end of the day, I liked what they brought out in each other and enjoyed reading their story and seeing them come together.

After having read With Every Breath, I can say that Lia Riley will continue to be one of my go-to authors for all things NA and romance. Just like with all her other stories, I got sucked into this one and I loved the characters. And as a bonus, it gave me a major case of wanderlust.

Giveaway!

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Mini Review - Into My Arms by Lia Riley

Title: Into My Arms (Off the Map #3.2)

Author: Lia Riley

Publisher: Forever Yours

Release Date: September 8, 2015

Source: ARC from Publisher

Buy the Book: Amazon / B&N / Indigo

“You’re here because I want to touch you.”

Beth Jacobs spends her days slogging away in a corporate “fish bowl,” as a hard-working assistant for one of North America’s youngest dot-com billionaires. Aleksander “Z” Zavtra is the definition of dark and dangerous with a sexy Eastern European snarl. He’s also ruthless. Curt. Exacting. An infuriating man she loves to hate. While Beth hardly sees him, it’s as if he’s always watching her…

Z doesn’t do romance. But he never expected to be captivated by a whip-smart, fiery assistant who just so happens to share an uncanny resemblance to the beautiful face that haunts his dreams. He craves Beth. He wants to stroke her skin, to feel her heat beneath him. And what Z wants, he gets. And for one weekend, the lines between employer and employee are blurred as Z and Beth give themselves completely to the dark pleasures they’ve both been dreaming about.

I have mixed feelings as far as novellas are concerned. But every so often, there are some that come along where I feel like they actually add something to the overall story they are a part of. When that’s the case, I’m all for those novellas, and that’s what I got with Lia Riley’s Into My Arms.

Beth Jacobs knows very little about the man who signs her paycheques. They might exchange hundreds of instant messages a day, but all Beth really knows is the same thing the world knows about Aleksander “Z” Zavtra, the Eastern European billionaire at the head of Zavtra Tech. Z has always kept to himself. But he can’t get Beth out of his assistant, not just because his assistant is smart and beautiful, but because she looks just like girl who haunts his memories. When Z decides that Beth is who he wants, Beth will find herself crossing all the lines she never considered crossing before.

Late last year, I absolutely devoured Lia Riley’s Off the Map series, and in the year since, I’ve read every book she has published. I’ve just become a little addicted to her brand of romance. So earlier this year, I read the first novella for the Off the Map series and really enjoyed finding out more about Sunny and Tanner. And when I was done, I was looking forward to Into My Arms and finding out more about Beth and Z, Talia’s other best friend and Bran’s old boarding school roommate, respectively. I’m a curious person by nature so I always finding out more about characters that were sort of in the periphery in other parts of the story. I wanted to know more about Beth since she was someone else who was really affected by Talia’s sister’s death. And I wanted to find out more about Z just because he was always so mysterious. But Bran liked him, so there had to be something there. And I definitely got my answers. There was a whole lot more going on with Z than I could have ever imagined. And I kinda wanted to punch Beth’s parents for what they did to her. For that matter, I pretty much wanted to beat up Z’s dad because that guy seemed like a serious ass. And though I wasn’t entirely sure what to make of the romance considering the way it started, U was happy with the way it all came together by the end of the novella. It wouldn’t necessarily be something I would go for normally, but for Beth and Z, it worked.

Into My Arms was just the glimpse I was looking for when it came to finding out more about Beth and Z. But my ultimate struggle with novellas is that I can’t help but wish the story were longer. I would have totally read a full length book about Beth and Z.

Right Wrong Guy by Lia Riley

Title: Right Wrong Guy (Brightwater #2)

Author: Lia Riley

Publisher: Avon Impulse

Release Date: August 4, 2015

Source: ARC from Publisher

Buy the Book: Amazon / B&N / Indigo

Sometimes two wrongs can make a right…

Bad boy wrangler, Archer Kane, lives fast and loose. Words like responsibility and commitment send him running in the opposite direction. Until a wild Vegas weekend puts him on a collision course with Eden Bancroft-Kew, a New York heiress running away from her blackmailing fiancé…the morning of her wedding.

Eden has never understood the big attraction to cowboys. Give her a guy in a tailored suit any day of the week. But now all she can think about is Mr. Rugged Handsome, six-feet of sinfully sexy country charm with a pair of green eyes that keeps her tossing and turning all night long.

Archer might be the wrong guy for a woman like her, but she’s not right in thinking he’ll walk away without fighting for her heart. And maybe, just maybe, two wrongs can make a right.

Reading books by authors who cross genres and age groups always makes it interesting. Sometimes, I love one but don’t think so highly of the other. But then there are others whose stories I love no mater what. Right Wrong Guy has officially confirmed that I will be reading anything and everything Lia Riley writes.

Everyone in Brightwater knows that if they are looking for a good time, Archer Kane is the person to go to. Archer has spent most of his life staying as far away from responsibility and commitment as possible. But things suddenly change when a weekend in Vegas puts Eden Bancroft-Kew in his path. From the moment he meets Eden, Archer feels a connection to her, and he finds himself wanting all those things he’s spent so much running away from. There’s only one problem. Eden just ran away from a life of being married to someone she doesn’t love, and the last thing she wants is to jump into another relationship. Even though Archer seems all wrong for her, he might end up being just the right person for Eden.

Last year, I read Lia Riley’s Off the Map NA series and I absolutely loved it. The story sucked me in, and after finishing the final book, I was convinced that I would read pretty much anything that she wrote. I wanted more of her stories and her brand of romance. But the thing about her Brightwater series is that it’s not something I typically read. As much as I love my romance, I tend to stick to YA and NA romance, very rarely venturing out into the more “traditional” contemporary romance. But I gave the first book in Lia Riley’s Brightwater series a shot and I don’t regret it in the least. In fact, by the time I finished reading it, I was dying for Right Wrong Guy. And when I got my hands on Right Wrong Guy, I absolutely devoured it. The story totally sucked me in. Right from the start, I bought into the potential for romance between Archer and Edie, and when it blossomed into an actual romance, I was all for it. I couldn’t get enough. I just kept turning the pages (well, hitting the page turn button on my Kindle) because I just had to see how it would all turn out. I mean, I knew that there was going to be a happy ending, but I didn’t know how it was all going to play out. I mean, Archer and Edie were clearly made for each other.

When reading the first book in the Brightwater series, Last First Kiss, I had gotten glimpses of both Archer and Edie and I was curious about them. I wanted to know what their backstory was. I wanted to know how Edie had landed in Brightwater, I wanted to see if there was more to Archer than his womanizing ways. I loved finding out more about both of them in Right Wrong Guy. I really enjoyed seeing Edie find herself and discover what she actually wanted out of her life, see her transition from Eden Bancroft-Kew to Edie Banks. And as for Archer, I just knew that there had to be more going on with him. And I was happy to see that I wasn’t wrong about him. It took no time at all for me to pretty much fall in love with him. And if I didn’t have a thing for cowboys before, there is no doubt that I do now. I also liked to that I got to see glimpses of Annie and Sawyer again since I loved them so much in the first book. Now I’ve just become majorly curious about Wilder, the third Kane brother. I can’t wait to find out more about him.

I loved Lia Riley’s Right Wrong Guy. It was a romance that hit all the right notes for me. I’ve loved getting to know the town and the people of Brightwater. And I can’t wait to find out more about the third Kane brother in Best Worst Mistake.

Mini Reviews - Dirty Thoughts by Megan Erickson & Last First Kiss by Lia Riley

Title: Dirty Thoughts (Mechanics of Love #1)

Author: Megan Erickson

Publisher: Avon Impulse

Release Date: June 16, 2015

Source: Purchased

Buy the Book: Amazon / Book Depository / Indigo

Some things are sexier the second time around.

Cal Payton has gruff and grumbly down to an art…all the better for keeping people away. And it usually works. Until Jenna MacMillan—his biggest mistake—walks into Payton and Sons mechanic shop all grown up, looking like sunshine, and inspiring more than a few dirty thoughts.

Jenna was sure she was long over the boy she’d once loved with reckless abandon, but one look at the steel-eyed Cal Payton has her falling apart all over again. Ten years may have passed, but the pull is stronger than ever…and this Cal is all man.

Cal may have no intention of letting Janna in, but she’s always been his light, and it’s getting harder to stay all alone in the dark. When a surprise from the past changes everything, Cal and Jenna must decide if their connection should be left alone or if it’s exactly what they need for the future of their dreams.

I absolutely love Megan Erickson’s New Adult books and Make It Right continues to be one of my favourites. One of the reasons for that was the Payton brothers. There seemed to be so much more going on with them than met the eye. So a spin-off series about them? I was all over that. Which led me to read Dirty Thoughts all in one sitting.

When I read Make It Right last year, I was totally charmed by the Payton brothers, so matter how gruff they came across. They just seemed like they had their own story to tell and that that would be a story that I would enjoy reading very much. So when Megan Erickson announced that she was writing a spin-off series about Max’s older brothers I was ecstatic. I was so excited to read Dirty Thoughts and find out more about Cal. And Cal and Jenna made for some fantastic company on the flight I was on at the time. I got drawn in to the story, by the fact that these two people seemed to have a lot of unresolved history. And for a good chunk of the book, wanting to find out what that history was is what kept me reading. I’m a curious person, what can I say? And once that was revealed, I had just grown attached to Cal and Jenna and to the idea of a relationship between them. I was rooting for them so much, but there always seemed to be something that got in their way. But beyond the romance, one of the things I loved about Dirty Thoughts was seeing all the family dynamics that were at play in the story, both for Cal and for Jenna. I’m a sucker for satires with sibling relationships and I definitely got that here and I loved it.

I loved Megan Erickson’s Dirty Thoughts and I can’t wait to read more about the Payton family and their garage. As it is, I needed Brent’s story, Dirty Talk, like yesterday. September can’t come soon enough!

Title: Last First Kiss (Brightwater #1)

Author: Lia Riley

Publisher: Avon Impulse

Release Date: June 23, 2015

Source: Purchased 

Buy the Book: Amazon / Book Depository / Indigo

A kiss is only the beginning…

Pinterest Perfect. Or so Annie Carson’s life appears on her popular blog. Reality is…messier. Especially when it lands her back in one-cow town, Brightwater, California, and back in the path of the gorgeous six-foot-four reason she left. Sawyer Kane may fill out those wranglers, but she won’t be distracted from her task. Annie just needs the summer to spruce up and sell her family’s farm so she and her young son can start a new life in the big city. Simple, easy, perfect.

Sawyer has always regretted letting the first girl he loved slip away. He won’t make the same mistake twice, but can he convince beautiful, wary Annie to trust her heart again when she’s been given every reason not to? And as a single kiss turns to so much more, can Annie give up her idea of perfect for a forever that’s blissfully real.

I really enjoyed Lia Riley’s Off the Map NA series so I was looking forward to reading more from her. So even though most of the romance I read tends to be YA or NA, I was still curious about her Brightwater series. I mean, it has cowboys, how could I say no to that? And after reading Last First Kiss, I am completely sold on this series.

As much as I’ve always been hesitant to read contemporary romance that wasn’t YA or NA in the past, I should just stop because I seem to enjoy every traditional contemporary romance I read. Let’s be real, if the story has kissing and adorable romance, I will read it. So since it had both those elements Lia Riley’s Last First Kiss was a great read for me. I loved the fact that Annie and Sawyer had a history and that that history was affecting their present relationship. I loved the way Sawyer treated Annie compared to how everyone else in their small town treated her. And I loved how despite all that, Annie didn’t let other people dictate who she was, well at least she didn’t in person, sometimes she kind of put up a front on her blog. And there was just adorableness all over the place when Annie and Sawyer were together. It should go without saying that I was absolutely rooting for them. As much I loved the romance in Last First Kiss, there person who totally stole the show for me was Atticus, Annie’s five-year-old son. He was absolutely adorable and I loved him. And from what I saw while I was reading, I’m not the only one whose heart he stole. It was just hard to resist him and all his sweet little kid charm. I dare you not to completely love Atticus. Hopefully there are small glimpses of him in future books.

If you hadn’t guessed it, I loved Lia Riley’s Last First Kiss. There was romance, there was an adorable child, there was laughter and there were moments that pulled at my heartstrings. What was there not to love? I can’t wait to reading the next one, Right Wrong Guy.

Mini Review - Carry Me Home by Lia Riley

Title: Carry Me Home (Off the Map #3.1)

Author: Lia Riley

Publisher: Forever

Release Date: May 5, 2015

Source: ARC from Publisher

Buy the Book: Amazon / B&N / Kobo

Love doesn’t have to be perfect to be true…

Years ago, Tanner Green loved Sunny Letman. She was meant to be his first kiss, his first love, first everything. Then their world spun upside-down and out of control.

Free-spirited Sunny doesn’t do commitment. Sure, guys are great for a night or a week, but she always leaves first. That is, until professional skateboarder and town golden boy, Tanner Green, unexpectedly walks back into her life.

Despite their broken history, a fragile and undeniably electric connection still holds them together. Now Tanner has to convince Sunny that even though love isn’t always perfect, it’s worth sticking around for…

I’m not usually a fan of novellas. Many times, I feel like it’s just a way for publishers to get even more of my money. But there are times when I really enjoy novellas and actually look forward to reading them. And that was the case with Lia Riley’s Carry Me Home.

Tanner and Sunny have a history. When they were kids, they were supposed to be each other’s first everything. But things never turn out the way they are supposed to. After everything fell apart, Sunny and Tanner grew apart, but they never forgot about that time they shared. Now, Sunny doesn’t get attached to anyone. She’s seen what getting attached to men has done to her mother, and the last thing she wants is to be like that woman. But when Tanner walks back into her life, Sunny can’t help but feel connected to him. They share a history, after all. And unlike her, Tanner is more than willing to stick around. He just has to convince Sunny that getting attached doesn’t always end in disaster.

I really enjoyed the three main books in Lia Riley’s Off the Map series, but all three books were very much focused on Bran and Talia’s story. And there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that because I really loved reading their story. But the whole time I was reading, I couldn’t help but be curious about some of the other people that were mentioned, whether they were Talia’s friends or Bran’s friends and family. I can’t help it. I’m just a curious person who wants to know all there is to know about everyone. That’s why I’m so drawn to companion novels, but that’s not really the point here. I was curious about other people featured in the Off the Map world so I was happy to find out that Lia Riley was writing novellas about Talia’s two best friends. Carry Me Home was the first of those and I pretty much devoured it. I wanted to know all about Sunny and Tanner and their shared past. I wanted to know why Tanner behaved the way he did with Talia after Talia’s sister, who also happened to be his girlfriend, died. And I wanted to find out more about why Sunny was so afraid of commitment. I’m just a curious person, it is what it is. So all that to say I loved reading about Sunny and Tanner, finding out more about them and seeing them find a way to go back to being those two kids who were supposed to be all of each other’s firsts. And though their romance was off to a bit of a rocky start, I loved the way it all came together and I was happy with where it went.

Carry Me Home was a great for helping me satisfy my curiosity about some of the other characters in the Off the Map world. But as I often do with novellas, I couldn’t help but want the story to be longer. I got hooked on Sunny and Tanner and I wanted more. But I was still more than satisfied with what I got.

Off the Map series by Lia Riley

Title: Upside Down (Off the Map #1)

Author: Lia Riley

Publisher: Forever

Release Date: August 5, 2104

Source: Purchased

Buy the Book: Amazon / B&N / Indigo

If Never Get Lost, You’ll Never Be Found

Twenty-one-year-old Natlia Stolfi is saying goodbye to the past—and turning her life upside down with a trip to the land down under. For the next six months, she’ll act like a carefree exchange student, not a girl sinking under the weight of painful memories. Everything is going according to plan until she meets a brooding surfer with hypnotic green eyes and the troubling ability to see straight through her act.

Bran Lockhart is having the worst year on record. After the girl of his dreams turned into a nightmare, he moved back home to Melbourne to piece his life together. Yet no amount of disappointment could blind him to the pretty California girl who gets past all his defenses. He’s never wanted anyone the way the wants Talia. But when Bran gets a stark reminder of why he stopped believing in love, he and Talia must decide if what they have is once in a lifetime…or if they were meant to live a world apart.

Title: Sideswiped (Off the Map #2)

Author: Lia Riley

Publisher: Forever

Release Date: October 7, 2014

Source: Purchased

Buy the Book: Amazon / B&N / Indigo

It was only meant to last the summer…

Tahlia Stolfi has seen more than her share of loss in her twenty-one years. But then fate brought her Bran Lockhart, and her dark world was suddenly and spectacularly illuminated. SO if being with Bran means leaving her colorless NorCal life for rugged and wild Australia, then that’s what she’ll do. But as much as Talia longs to give herself over completely to a new beginning, the fears of her past are still lurking in the shadows. 

Bran Lockhart knows that living without the beautiful girl who stole his heart will be torment, so he’ll take whatever time with her he can. But even thought she has packed up her life in California and is back in his arms for the time being, she can’t stay forever. And the remaining time they have together is ticking by way too fast. Though fate seems determined to tear them apart, they won’t give up without a fight—because while time may have limits, their love is infinite…

Title: Inside Out (Off the Map #3)

Author: Lia Riley

Publisher: Forever

Release Date: December 2, 2014

Source: Purchased

Buy the Book: Amazon / B&N / Indigo

The Off the Map series comes to a stunning conclusion

When Talia first moved from California to Australia to study abroad, she never dreamed she’d find the love of her life. Bran understands her like no one ever has before. And despite the numerous challenges they’ve faced, they’ve’ always managed to figure out how to stay together. But this time they’ll face their toughest hurdle yet. Is their love strong enough to keep them together?

Most New Adult series I’ve read are series in the sense that they are a series of companion novels (also, how many times can I use the word “series” in one sentence?). But Lia Riley’s Off the Map series was different. All three books, Upside Down, Sideswiped and Inside Out, are all part of one large story. And I loved reading that story.

When she decided to run away to Australia for six months as part of a study abroad program, Talia never thought she would do much beyond study and discover Melbourne. After all, she’s still trying to find a way back to herself after her older sister’s death. As she starts to put her life back together in a new place, Talia meets Bran Lockhart. And Bran sees straight through to everything she’s been trying so hard to hide. But Bran has his own baggage to deal with. After losing who he thought was the girl of his dreams, Bran is forced to move back home to Australia and move on with his life. But even though he swore he wouldn’t get attached to anyone that way again, he can’t seem to stay away from Talia. Together Talia and Bran will have to decide whether they want to be together or let geography force them apart.

Like I said earlier in this review, most of the NA series that I’ve read have been made up of companion novels all set in the same world, but focusing on different characters so that people who were secondary characters in one book end up the main characters in another. But Lia Riley’s Off the Map series wasn’t like that. All three books are about Bran and Talia and everything that seems to stand in the way of them being together. And as much as I am a strong supporter of companion novels and standalone books, I actually really liked getting to spend all this time with Bran and Talia. It didn’t feel like their story was dragged out or got too convoluted partway through. It was just their story, and their story needed three books to be told. And honestly, it could have been another book or two longer and I still would have read them. Lia Riley found a way to completely draw me into these characters’ story, making me feel like I was a part of it with them (or maybe that’s just me wanting to go to Australia, which is also entirely possible). But that’s all to say that because I believed in Talia and in Bran, I didn’t ever feel like their story was too drawn out. I was happy to see everything they went through, even if it wasn’t always pleasant, because it made them stronger and ultimately led them to where they ended up. And I was MORE THAN happy with the conclusion of their story.

Tahlia definitely hadn’t had it easy. Between her sister’s sudden death and her mom basically abandoning her family, things weren’t exactly going great for her. So I could see why she would want to run away to Australia for a few months. Hell, I don’t have half the stuff she did going on in my life and I’d hop on a plane to Australia without any second thoughts. So yeah, I got why she wanted to escape her life. For a while though, I wasn’t sure that she was doing the right thing by running away from it all. But in running away, she somehow found a way to deal with everything that was going on. And in large part, that’s because of Bran. And Bran, well he had his own set of baggage to deal with and it wasn’t exactly light baggage either. But, even if it took him a while to see it, he was good for Talia and Talia was good for him. Individually, I don’t know that Bran and Talia would have found their way as easily, but together they just worked. I just wished that there hadn’t been so many obstacles standing in their way. But then that wouldn’t have made as compelling a story, so there’s that. When it comes down to it though, I really loved Bran and Talia, both as individuals and together. And that’s all that really matters.

I really enjoyed reading all three books in Lia Riley’s Off the Map series. Each one had it’s own merits and I don’t know that I would be able to pick a favourite out of them all. If you’re looking for a New Adult read that digs a little deeper, then definitely check out the first book in the series, Upside Down.