Tuesday, May 14, 2013

Until I Break by M. Leighton {Review}

Genre: Erotic/Adult Contemporary
Publication Date: May 14th 2013
Publisher: Self Published
Format: Bound ARC Provided By Author
Pages: 328 (subject to change)


"I’m intrigued. Tempted beyond what I’ve ever been before. To know her, to open her up. To break her." In love, sometimes what you fear most is exactly what you need. Laura Drake is an author. She writes bestselling paranormal romances that continue to top the charts. She is sharp. She is confident. She is in control. And she doesn’t exist. Samantha Jansen is the woman behind the wig, the woman most of the world doesn’t know exists. She is shy. She is insecure. She is nothing like her main character or her alter ego. She is scarred—deeply scarred—by a past she can’t let go of and a present she can’t make peace with. Samantha’s dreams are consumed by one man, the broken hero from her books. Mason Strait is both her wildest fantasy and her most terrifying nightmare. When Samantha meets Alec Brand, a corporate consultant, it is as though Mason has come to life. Alec is handsome to a fault, as elegant as he is arrogant, and more intense than any man has a right to be. Samantha is soon sucked into a world that mirrors the fiction she writes. Just like her main character, Daire Kirby, Samantha finds herself unable to resist the forbidden lure of Alec. And just like Daire, she also finds that she is faced with taking a chance on a man who could either set her free or destroy her. The scale tilts toward destruction when Samantha finds out that Alec is as much a work of fiction as Mason. And he has scars of his own, scars that could ruin them both. **This book may be read as a stand-alone, as the story of Alec and Samantha comes to a conclusion in this book*













Until I Break is a book about an author who writes using a pen name and has a public persona that she uses to keep her true identity hidden. But it's not just her identity that she's hiding but her past as well. Samantha Jansen is broken. She has deep scars that only she can see. Her sister Chris arranges therapy sessions for her with a psychiatrist, Dr.B., or Dr. Ruth as Sam thinks of her. Sam is able to keep her identity unknown still because the sessions are online but also because the Doctor knows she's treating her under her assumed name. In their first session we learn quickly just how screwed up Sam's childhood was. Her mother was an escort and worked from home. Sam had take care of herself and her mother most of the time. She was finally taken from the home and put with a foster family when she was a teenager. 

She was fortunate to be placed with loving foster parents and her foster sister Chris. Chris is the only person who knows about Sam's past and present difficulties with men and she is forever trying to encourage her to move on and find happiness. I love the banter between the sisters. Chris pushes Sam to find a real man instead of just the happiness she gets from the character Mason Straight that she writes in her books.

Dressed as her alter ego, Laura Drake, Sam can only imagine that someone is playing a trick on her when a man that fits her character Mason to perfection walks in to her book event.



Her real life Mason makes his way through the crowd at her televised Q&A. Sam is shocked and speechless as the man asks several questions about her and her books. Her publicist steps in and the man introduces himself as Alec Brand. Though he's done his homework on the author Laura Drake, he's intrigued and curious to get to know the woman who seemed to be different from what he was expecting.

Samantha and Chris run in to Alec while out having coffee. But of course Alec doesn't know the real Sam but he's drawn to her. He's drawn women who appear to be innocent and naive, like me, that he can teach a thing or two about pleasure. Thanks to her pushy little sister, Sam makes plans to take Alec as her date to a fund raiser her family will be attending. Now we start to learn a little about the demons Alec is hiding. I swear I was beginning to think he was going to turn out to be a vampire like the characters in Samantha's books. He's mysterious and talks about fighting his urges and desires. I was thinking 'oh my gosh, he's going to turn out to be a vampire who's trying to resist killing humans for their blood'. It could happen, right? No worries, blood is not what he craves. But he does have a very dark "predilection". Not gonna lie, I had to look that word up to make sure I knew what it meant.

Samantha continues with her online therapy until she has an opportunity to meet with the good Doctor in person while she's traveling for a book event.  You won't see the twist coming. Even my blog partner Hootie didn't see it coming and she always guesses stuff like this. Things went well on her date with Alec Brand. Though he comes off as very arrogant, I love that he's direct when he says what he thinks and what he wants from Samantha. I'm not one for the dominating thing but if Alec Brand talked naughty to me like in this story I'm pretty sure I'd follow every command. He's not even real and he was making me squirm just reading the things he said.



It's hard to explain without spoiling a few important developments. Samantha and Alec decide to try to help each other to move on from their pasts but not without some really difficult bumps in the road.  Trust me you will never look at a glass of lemonade  the same way. Alec's attitude is so arrogant but truthfully he doesn't feel worthy of love. He pushes those emotions away. But Samantha pushes back and helps him finally admit that he loves her. She's determined to prove they are perfect together and can make it work.  What will happen next?  Wells that's for me to know and for you to find out =)

Here's a couple of pics that represent a few scenes in the book.



















About the Author
I was born and raised in the United States, and I’ve lived in several of the fabulous fifty. Though I currently live in the deep South, I spent much of my childhood up North and hope to return there one day. A few other things about me: I believe that sometimes you have to look really, REALLY hard to find the good in people, but it's there. I believe that I'm shrinking (I swear five years ago I was two inches taller). I believe my husband is quite possibly one of the most amazing men in the entire world (I can't be sure because I haven't met all of them). I believe coffee and chocolate, when combined, could be the basis for world peace. I believe that Jesus rocks and communism doesn’t. I believe that white makes me look fat and black collects lint. I believe summer's too hot, winter's too cold and fall was made for football. I like dogs better than cats and the first movie in a trilogy is invariably the best. But most of all, I believe that love conquers all.













3 comments:

  1. What a great book! So glad you enjoyed it, Gloria. Love those pictures!

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  2. I really like the "Got me all wet" pick and the middle pic of the guys, and the horse one. YUM. Glad you liked this Glo!

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  3. Great review! I just loved this book.

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