Release Day Blitz: Ruthless by Lexi Blake

 

The first in a sexy contemporary romance series featuring the Lawless siblings—from New York Times bestselling author Lexi Blake.
 
The Lawless siblings are bound by vengeance. Riley, Drew, Brandon, and Mia believe the CEO of StratCast orchestrated their parents’ murder twenty years ago to steal their father’s software program. And there’s only one way Riley can find some solid evidence...
 
Heir to the StratCast legacy, Ellie Stratton hires a new attorney to handle a delicate business matter—and she’s shocked by her attraction to him. Over the course of a few weeks, Riley becomes her lover, her friend, her everything. But when her life is threatened, Ellie discovers that Riley is more obsessed with settling an old score than in the love she thought they were building. And Riley must choose between a revenge he’s prepared for all his life and the woman he’s sure he can’t live without...

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EARLY REVIEWS FOR RUTHLESS:

“Smart, savvy, clever, and always entertaining. That’s true of Riley Lawless, the hero in Ruthless, and likewise for his creator, Lexi Blake. Both are way ahead of the pack.” ~ New York Times bestselling author Steve Berry 

"I love Lexi Blake. Read Ruthless and see why.” ~ New York Times bestselling author Lee Child 

"With Ruthless, Lexi Blake has set up shop on the intersection of Suspenseful and Sexy, and I never want to leave." ~ Laurelin Paige, New York Times bestselling author 

"Ruthless is full of suspense, hot sex, and swoon worthy characters -- a must read!" ~ New York Times bestselling author Jennifer Probst 

“Why did you do that?” 

It was the first time she’d spoken without being prompted. “Do what?” 

Her face flushed the sweetest pink. The color went all the way down that sexy V-neck. Her breasts flushed as well as her face, and it made his damn dick tighten. “Kiss me. Why did you kiss me like that?” 

Oh, so many reasons, but he gave her the most compelling one. “I wanted to.” 

The minute she’d opened the door and he’d seen her standing there looking anxious, he’d known how to calm her down. All he’d had to do was put his hands on her and some odd connection flared between the two of them. She hadn’t fought him. He could have gone on kissing her. He’d been the one to pull away. 

It was like the minute he walked in, he was the only thing that existed for her. It made him feel ten feet tall, but it also made him want to please her. 

It was an unsettling sensation. 

Her hands came up, fingers on the sides of the table. “You know what I’m asking. You knew I wasn’t alone. Why did you pretend to be my boyfriend?” 

It was easy to see she’d wanted him to wait for her at the restaurant so as to avoid him meeting her sister and ex. When she’d opened the door, he’d immediately known something was wrong. He’d gotten a glimpse of her sister and known Ellie had likely needed a hand. It had to be tough on a woman’s ego to lose even a pathetic excuse of a husband to a younger sister. 

“You were alone with your sister who slept with your husband. Excuse me. Ex-husband.” 

She shook her head. “At the time, we were definitely married. How did you know he was my ex-husband?” 

“He took half your net wealth. I’m your lawyer. At this level, a good lawyer is less legal counsel and more war consultant. I can’t properly perform my duties if I don’t know everything about you, including the fact that you tend to have terrible taste in men.” 

She frowned. “I haven’t had a ton of boyfriends. I’m not sure what my taste is.” 

He really wanted to understand why she’d married that obvious prick. “What attracted you to him? Because from where I was standing, he looked like a dickwad desperate to be twenty-one again.” 

She bit into her bottom lip, her eyes glancing away from him. “He wasn’t always like that. I actually met him when he was twenty-one. He was far more mature then.” 

He liked her candor. “You were in college?” 

“Last year of undergrad. We dated for two years and then it seemed like it was time to get married. We’d moved back here to Manhattan so I could take my place at StratCast. I thought he was going to go to grad school, but he decided on a different path.” 

“What path was that?” 

A single brow rose over her right eye. “You don’t know?” 

Of course he knew. He knew everything. “Are you referring to your ex-husband’s penchant for swinging for the fences? When it comes to investments, that is.” 

It was what he liked to call “idiots who funded ridiculous ideas.” They never wanted a simple profit out of their money. They wanted millions and really fucking fast. They swung for the grand slam when all they needed to do was get on base. 

It took a true genius to take a single idea and make millions off it. Drew had. 

Her shoulders straightened. “He wanted the easy solution. A get-rich-quick scheme. He wasn’t that way at first. At one point he was very intellectual. It’s what attracted me to him. He was curious about the world and liked to discuss everything from politics to social justice to movies we saw. He changed. I didn’t. In some ways, I blame getting involved with me for what happened to him. He got around my father and real wealth and wanted some of his own. When I met him, he wanted to be a professor. He wanted to teach.” 

At least he’d gotten her this far. She was talking. Now he needed to get those shoulders down from around her earlobes. For one moment, for that moment when he’d drawn her into his arms and pressed his mouth to hers, she’d relaxed against him, given over to him. Her body had softened and she’d leaned into him, and if he’d pressed her, he didn’t know what would have happened. She might have continued kissing him, forgetting all about the other people in the room. He could have cupped her breast, her ass. Put his hands anywhere he liked. 

She hadn’t given a damn that they hadn’t been alone. All she’d cared about was him.   

             

NY Times and USA Today bestselling author Lexi Blake lives in North Texas with her husband, three kids, and the laziest rescue dog in the world. She began writing at a young age, concentrating on plays and journalism. It wasn’t until she started writing romance and urban fantasy that she found the stories of her heart. She likes to find humor in the strangest places and believes in happy endings no matter how odd the couple, threesome, or foursome may seem.

FACEBOOK / TWITTER / WEBSITE / AMAZON AUTHOR PAGE

 

 

 

Ruthless Blog Tour: Review + Giveaway

Ruthless
Author: Carolyn Lee Adams
Genre: YA Mystery/Thriller
Release Date: July 14, 2015
Publisher: Simon Pulse

Rating: 4.5 Stars!

Synopsis:

A spine-tingling debut about the ultimate game of cat-and-mouse in reverse as a teen struggles to retain hope—and her sanity—while on the run from a cunning and determined killer.

Ruth Carver has always competed like her life depends on it. Ambitious. Tough. Maybe even mean. It’s no wonder people call her Ruthless.

When she wakes up with a concussion in the bed of a moving pickup trick, she realizes she has been entered into a contest she can’t afford to lose.

At a remote, rotting cabin deep in the Blue Ridge Mountains, Ruth’s blindfold comes off and she comes face-to-face with her captor. A man who believes his mission is to punish bad girls like Ruth. A man who has done this six times before.

The other girls were never heard from again, but Ruth won’t go down easy. She escapes into the wilderness, but her hunter is close at her heels. That’s when the real battle begins. That’s when Ruth must decides just how far she’ll go in order to survive.

Back home, they called her Ruthless. They had no idea just how right they were.

Ruthless is a fast-paced and gripping young adult thriller that will suck the reader inside of its story and not let go until the very end. The story follows Ruth Carver as she wakes to find herself with a bad concussion and shoved in the bed of a moving truck. She has no idea what happened, where she is, or where she's going. When the truck finally stops and Ruth is able to take off the blindfold she's been wearing, she discovers that she's been abducted and taken to an old cabin deep in the Blue Ridge Mountains. The man who abducted Ruth is convinced that it's his mission to punish selfish, bad girls like Ruth - and she definitely isn't his first victim. There were six other girls before her - all younger than her and never heard from again after being taken by this man. Ruth knows without a doubt that she must escape the cabin and the man if she has any chance of surviving. Using her inner strength and determination - traits that have earned her the nickname "Ruthless" back home - she decides that she's not going down without a fight. She will do whatever it takes to beat this guy at his own sick game. She's going to win and then bring him to justice for what he did to her and those other girls who were never found. But first she has to survive alone in the deep forests of the mountains until she can find help - all while being hunted by a crazy man who knows these woods like the back of his hand. Will Ruth be able to survive in the forest until she finds help? Or will it come down to a more personal fight - one that will end with only one of them walking out of there alive?

I absolutely love thrillers - they're by far one of my favorite genres. Being such a huge fan, I believe that there aren't enough good YA thrillers out there. After reading the description of this book, I knew that I had to read it. I went in with pretty high hopes that it would be worthy of the genre label - which, thankfully, wasn't an issue at all. Almost all of the aspects of the book were incredibly well done. The characters all had distinct personalities and weaknesses, especially our heroine - Ruth - and the man who abducts her. These two characters were very complex and they both developed nicely throughout the story. We get to know them both on a personal level - we learn what makes them tick and how they came to be the way they are now. The story was told in first person point of view from Ruth's perspective, which I think was absolutely perfect for the book. By getting such an inside look at Ruth's personality, along with her fears, doubts, inner thoughts, emotions, and memories - among several other things - I was able to really connect with her from the very beginning of the book. By the time I had finished reading, I felt like I had gone through every experience right alongside her - or that she had told me personally what she had gone through. By using the first person POV, the author was able to make Ruth incredibly realistic and easy to identify with.

 Throughout the book, there are sections of flashbacks. These are written from the past, as memories, and alternate between Ruth's life as well as the killer's. It's through these small peeks into their lives that allows the reader to get to know them better and to see how certain circumstances and events have helped shape them into the people they've become in the present day - when the story itself takes place. I think this was a fantastic addition to the story in many ways and it also gave a new depth to both the characters and the story line itself that couldn't have been achieved any other way.

The plot was pretty straightforward - just from reading the description, you get the overall gist of the book. It's a thrilling story by itself, but when you add in the detailed imagery and vivid descriptions along with all of the twists and turns the plot takes - you get something truly remarkable. I was hooked from the beginning paragraphs and didn't come up for air until I had finished reading the entire book - which actually wasn't that long because I was compulsively reading as fast as I could to see what was going to happen next. I loved the attention to detail the author gave to every single part of the book - from the characters, their personalities and backgrounds, to the setting as well as the plot line itself. Every aspect of the novel fit perfectly together to create a gripping thriller that breathes some much needed fresh air into the genre. I highly recommend this book to fans of the genre, as well as to readers who enjoy mysteries, suspense and realistic, gritty contemporary fiction. If you are a fan of YA thrillers - you need to get your hands on this book! I promise you won't be left disappointed!

Follow the Ruthless by Carolyn Lee Adams Blog Tour and don't miss anything! Click on the banner to see the tour schedule.

Carolyn Lee Adams is originally from the Seattle area, breeding ground of serial killers and those who write about them. She attended USC Film School and graduated with a BFA in screenwriting. RUTHLESS (Simon Pulse, Summer 2015) is her first novel. When she isn't exploring the dark side of human nature in her writing, you'll find her on stage as a stand-up comedian. Because those things go together.

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