Book Review: Say You Still Love Me, by K.A. Tucker

My intelligent, mature self keeps telling me to let it go. That's what we had thirteen years ago. We were teenagers then. Stupid kids, really. We're adults now, and complete strangers. If Kyle wants to keep it that way ... fine.

Except he was the first boy I ever loved—my first in many ways—and he crushed my heart. How can he keep treating me like I mean nothing to him?

I have to stop thinking about the mischievous, playful guy from Camp Wawa. The one who was chasing and charming me from the moment he first laid eyes on me. The one who grabbed my attention from forty feet away and seized my heart not long after.

Clearly, that guy is long gone.

I'm a huge K.A. Tucker fan, so I was excited to get my hands on this one early. The book moves between Camp Wawa, 2006, and the present (2019 or so), and I really liked how we got to see Piper and Kyle's romance, both past and present.

Official synopsis:

The bestselling author of The Simple Wild and Keep Her Safe and “master of steamy romance” (Kirkus Reviews) delivers a sizzling novel about an ambitious and high-powered executive who reconnects with her first love: the boy who broke her heart.

Life is a mixed bag for Piper Calloway.

On the one hand, she’s a twenty-nine-year-old VP at her dad’s multibillion-dollar real estate development firm, and living the high single life with her two best friends in a swanky downtown penthouse. On the other hand, she’s considered a pair of sexy legs in a male-dominated world and constantly has to prove her worth. Plus she’s stuck seeing her narcissistic ex-fiancé—a fellow VP—on the other side of her glass office wall every day.

Things get exponentially more complicated for Piper when she runs into Kyle Miller—the handsome new security guard at Calloway Group, and coincidentally the first love of her life.

The guy she hasn’t seen or heard from since they were summer camp counselors together. The guy from the wrong side of the tracks. The guy who apparently doesn’t even remember her name.

Piper may be a high-powered businesswoman now, but she soon realizes that her schoolgirl crush is still alive and strong, and crippling her concentration. What’s more, despite Kyle’s distant attitude, she’s convinced their reunion isn’t at all coincidental, and that his feelings for her still run deep. And she’s determined to make him admit to them, no matter the consequences.

The "camp romance" trope has been done before, but this time there's a little bit of a twist; both Piper and Kyle were counselors at the camp, not campers. 

Piper Calloway is mostly content with her life; she's not dating anyone at the moment, as she broke off her engagement to David, a coworker who is also a jerk, but she's a workaholic and is working her way up the company ladder at her father's company.

Until she runs into Kyle, the building's newest security guard ... who was also the first love of her life.

It was interesting to see the dynamics in Piper and Kyle's friendship and, later, relationship. I really liked how the author moved between 2006 and 2019, and showed how they originally met at camp and how her father did not want her to have anything to do with him, since he was from the "wrong side of the tracks." We learn later that he actually took some actions to ensure that Piper wouldn't hear from Kyle again, which Piper didn't know about until present-day.

Overall, I'd recommend this one for fans of K.A. Tucker or for anyone that likes a good coming-of-age love story.

4 stars out of 5.

{click here to purchase}

*Disclosure: I participated in a blog tour of this book, for reviewing purposes. The opinions expressed here, however, are my own.

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Book Review and GIVEAWAY: The Simple Wild, by K.A Tucker {ends 8/13}

November 15, 1993
Anchorage, Alaska

He settles those sharp gray eyes on me, the ones that ensnared me four years ago. If I'd had any idea how much heartache the ruggedly handsome man who sat down next to me at a bar and ordered a bottle of Budweiser would cause ... "So, I guess I'll see you when you're ready to come home." There's a rare touch of hoarseness to his voice, and it nearly breaks my resolve.

But I hang onto that one word to give me strength: "home."

That's just it: Alaska will never feel like my home. Either he truly doesn't see that or he simply doesn't want to.

I swallow against the painful ball in my throat. "Calla, say goodbye to your daddy."

"Bye-bye, Da-da." She scrunches her mitten-clad hand and gives him a toothy grin.

Obliviously happy as her mother's heart breaks.

I'm a huge K.A. Tucker fan, so I had a feeling I would like this book too. To be honest, I had completely forgotten that I signed up for this book tour for it ... so I started reading the book last Monday, and I finished it Tuesday night—which for me, nowadays, is a super quick turnaround, and shows how much I enjoyed this novel.

Official synopsis:

Calla Fletcher wasn't even two when her mother took her and fled the Alaskan wild, unable to handle the isolation of the extreme, rural lifestyle, leaving behind Calla’s father, Wren Fletcher, in the process. Calla never looked back, and at twenty-six, a busy life in Toronto is all she knows. But when Calla learns that Wren’s days may be numbered, she knows that it’s time to make the long trip back to the remote frontier town where she was born.

She braves the roaming wildlife, the odd daylight hours, the exorbitant prices, and even the occasional—dear God—outhouse, all for the chance to connect with her father: a man who, despite his many faults, she can’t help but care for. While she struggles to adjust to this rugged environment, Jonah—the unkempt, obnoxious, and proud Alaskan pilot who helps keep her father’s charter plane company operational—can’t imagine calling anywhere else home. And he’s clearly waiting with one hand on the throttle to fly this city girl back to where she belongs, convinced that she’s too pampered to handle the wild.

Jonah is probably right, but Calla is determined to prove him wrong. Soon, she finds herself forming an unexpected bond with the burly pilot. As his undercurrent of disapproval dwindles, it’s replaced by friendship—or perhaps something deeper? But Calla is not in Alaska to stay and Jonah will never leave. It would be foolish of her to kindle a romance, to take the same path her parents tried—and failed at—years ago. It’s a simple truth that turns out to be not so simple after all.

I've never been to Alaska, and now I want to visit, although maybe somewhere like Anchorage versus a more rural town like Bangor (which isn't a real town, but the author has said it's based on Barrow, Alaska).

Calla goes to Alaska to visit her father, whom she hasn't seen since she was about two years old, and whom she hasn't talked to on the phone since she was 12. Her father is dying of cancer and this might be her last time to see him. Calla, her mother, and her stepfather currently live in Toronto, where Calla enjoys all of the perks of city life - weekly manicures and hair blowouts, going out to the clubs with her friends, etc. So Bangor, Alaska is quite an eye-opener for her.

She soon meets Jonah, whom she dubs the "angry yeti," and later (unsurprisingly) falls for him, thus starting a narrative close to the one her mother had with her father—Canadian city girl falls for an Alaskan "sky cowboy" (pilot).

I really liked the chemistry between Jonah and Calla here—their back-and-forth banter was fun to read. Obviously Calla is in town for a not-so-happy purpose (her father is dying of lung cancer), but Jonah proves to be an interesting distraction ... and later a sad one, when she realizes she won't be staying in Alaska forever.

I'd recommend this book to fans of K.A. Tucker's other works, and/or for people who like a good YA (or New Adult, really) love story, with a dash of "real life" thrown in, too.

The Simple Wild will be in stores and online tomorrow, August 7, 2018.
4.5 stars out of 5.

{click here to purchase}

*Disclosure: I received an e-copy of this book for reviewing purposes. The opinions expressed here, however, are my own.

GIVEAWAY:

One of my lucky readers will win a copy of The Simple Wild!

Enter via the widget below. Giveaway will end on Monday, August 13th, at 11:59pm EST, and winner will be notified via email the next day, and have 24 hours to respond, or an alternate winner will be chosen.

U.S. residents only, please.

Good luck!

The Simple Wild, by K.A. Tucker

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Book Review: Keep Her Safe, by K.A. Tucker

Prologue
Corporal Jackie Marshall
June 1997

"Hey ..." Abe lowers his voice to a whisper. "I wonder, how honest do you think these narc guys are?"

"Honest enough. Why?"

"His chocolate-brown eyes roll over the bundles of cash. "Wouldn't it be easy for one of those to go missing?"

It's a question you don't pose, especially not while you're in uniform and standing in front of a pile of drugs. "Pretty dang easy, I'll bet."

I am a big fan of K.A. Tucker's books, so when the opportunity came to join the book tour for this one, I was excited to join it in exchange for an e-copy of the novel. The novel clocks in at 448 pages, so it did take me a bit to finish it, but overall, it's a good read.

Official synopsis:

Making a Murderer meets Scandal in this story of police corruption, family secrets, and illicit affairs from bestselling author K.A. Tucker, celebrated for her “propulsive plot twists and searing seduction” (USA TODAY).

Noah Marshall has known a privileged and comfortable life thanks to his mother, the highly decorated chief of the Austin Police Department. But all that changes the night she reveals a skeleton that's been rattling in her closet for years, and succumbs to the guilt of destroying an innocent family's life. Reeling with grief, Noah is forced to carry the burden of this shocking secret.

Gracie Richards wasn't born in a trailer park, but after fourteen years of learning how to survive in The Hollow, it's all she knows anymore. At least here people don't care that her dad was a corrupt Austin cop, murdered in a drug deal gone wrong. Here, she and her mother are just another family struggling to survive...until a man who clearly doesn't belong shows up on her doorstep.

Despite their differences, Noah and Gracie are searching for answers to the same questions, and together, they set out to uncover the truth about the Austin Police Department's dark and messy past. But the scandal that emerges is bigger than they bargained for, and goes far higher up than they ever imagined.

Complex, gritty, sexy, and thrilling, Keep Her Safe solidifies K.A. Tucker's reputation as one of today's most talented new voices in romantic suspense.

This novel has a few twists, some of which I foresaw and some of which I did not. I really liked that included a few different POVs—we hear from Gracie and also from Noah, and the novel also goes from past to present, so we hear from Abraham (Gracie's dad, who died under suspicious circumstances) and Jackie, Noah's mom. The novel also spans two states: it starts off in Austin, Texas, and later, a grown-up Noah drives to Arizona to go find Gracie and give her something important.

I was definitely invested in the characters in this book—the author does a great job at fleshing each of them out. The book starts with a rather surprising event, and then leaves it up to Noah and Gracie to figure out exactly what happened, both with the event and with the events that transpired in 2003, when Gracie's dad died during a drug bust.

I'd recommend this book for anyone that likes mystery or suspense novels, or anyone who is a fan of K.A. Tucker's previous work.

4 stars out of 5.
{click here to purchase}

*Disclosure: I received an e-copy of this book as part of its promotional book tour. The opinions expressed here, however, are my own.

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