Finding the Right Girl
by Violet Duke
Blurb
From the New York
Times & USA Today bestselling
author who brought you the Nice Girl to Love trilogy, comes a Nice GUY to Love spin-off…
Brian Sullivan has been in love twice in his lifetime. He lost his first love to early-onset
Huntington’s, and he lost the other more recently…to his brother. And somehow, his heart has managed to
heal itself after both. Amazingly,
without therapy. That doesn’t mean
he hasn’t gotten more wary along the way, however. In fact, he’s been thinking lately that maybe his brother’s
now retired nothing-but-flings rule isn’t such a bad idea. Unfortunately, being the nice guy
poster boy and all, Brian isn’t exactly versed in the fine art of flings. So he looks to the outrageously ‘unique,’
provokingly button-pushing Tessa
Daniels for a crash course.
There’s absolutely no way he’s falling in love with this one…right?
Tessa has no idea what she was thinking telling Brian that
she was some sort of fling expert.
She’s never been flung before and she sure as heck doesn’t know where or
how to begin flinging a guy like Brian.
It was a temporary lapse in sanity, really—no doubt because of the can’t-help-but-fall-for-him
brain fuzz that hits her whenever he’s around. Not only does the man have her being more herself than she’s
ever been in her life, but he’s the only person she knows who seems to have as
many demons and skeletons in the closet as she does. What’s more, he’s got her thinking of the one thing she
stopped letting herself even hope for years ago.
A happily ever after.
Excerpt
“Babe we can’t,” he somehow
managed to punch out. Voice
gravelly, he drew his hands back to safer territory and said roughly, “You're
hurting and your emotions have gone through the wringer tonight. I can't take advantage of you like
that.”
And yet still, he couldn’t bear
to let her go completely.
“Then don't,” she replied
simply, arms twining around his shoulders. “Let me take advantage of you.”
Jerking back to put some
head-clearing distance between them was about as painful as ripping off his own
skin.
“Sweetheart, why don’t we just
hang out tonight? We can sit and
talk more about those dickheads we ran into tonight if it’ll help, or we could
just watch a movie…anything you want to do.”
He quickly snatched her
wandering hands as they traveled down his lats and started tugging at the hem
of his t-shirt. “Anything except
that,” he groaned. “Work with me
here, woman.” Raggedly, he put his
forehead against hers and counted to ten to try and find the tattered remains
of his restraint.
The thought almost made him
laugh. Who was he kidding? He had no restraint when it came to
Tessa. By the fifth second, his
lips had already found their way back to hers.
And goddammit if her whole body
didn’t just tremble right there in
his arms.
She was just so mind-wreckingly
responsive. As usual, without even
trying, she was driving him batshit crazy.
Tapping into a reserve even he
didn’t know he had, he broke off the kiss and took another step away from
her.
Then he watched in sad disbelief
as her expression became completely shuttered a half an instant later—closing
him out behind the walls of a now ten-story castle and a moat filled with
fire-breathing piranhas.
The lightning quick response
time of her defenses was a punch to his gut, a tragic reminder of how much
she’d been through, how hard she’d had to fight to not let it all destroy her.
“Look Brian, if you don't want
to, you can just tell me you know.
I just thought we had something and we could have a great night
exploring it. But hey, I’m a big girl;
you don't have to make excuses to let me down easy...”
He gave her a look that said he
wondered about her IQ before grabbing her hand and dragging it over the zipper
of his jeans. “Does that feel like
I don't want to?”
Her eyes widened, and her grip
closed tight around him.
Bourbon soaked shards of glass
went hissing down his throat. “For
chrissakes, stop.” The blood supply in his brain was
dipping down to a dangerous low.
And the damn temptress was
clearly all torn up about it. He
glared at the smile she was biting back.
“I’m glad you find this so amusing.”
“It’s not amusement, it’s
relief. Here I was thinking it was
just me getting affected with my perpetually wet panties around you and all.”
A seriously pained groan escaped
him then. “To preserve my
sanity—and your panties—don’t use the word wet in any more sentences tonight.”
She sighed. “I really don't know why you're making
such a big deal out of this. It’s
just sex. I’m not looking for anything
serious. You heard Gavin earlier
this evening. Being the ‘good
girl’ was never exactly my thing.”
She brushed up against the hardening ridge tenting his jeans to drive
home her point.
With a muttered curse, he
clamped one arm around her waist and tangled his free hand in her hair. “Sweetheart, this thing between us is a big deal,” he said roughly, tugging
gently on her hair and nearly losing it when she arched her back in
response. Her fitted tee was so
paper-frickin’-thin. One sharp
yank was all it’d take to rip it right down the middle.
Jesus
Christ, he needed to find some control.
“Whether this thing between us
lasts one night or ten, when, and yes I said when we have sex, I’ll make damn
sure that every single second of it seeps into your bones, burns into your
memory, and turns into a relentless craving that makes you forget all the
assholes from your past.” He ran
his lips along the thrumming pulse at her throat.
“And if I’m really lucky,
it’ll also help ruin you for all other men completely.”
*~*Review*~*
I really enjoyed this book, it was sweet yet heartbreaking and oh so hopeful! I haven't read any other books from Violet, this is my first. I will say I felt like I was missing information and it was frustrating knowing there are other books before this serries relating to this series and I haven't read them.
I kept reading though completely hooked after the first chapter, Brian sounded super sweet and hot! I enjoyed Tessa very much and her struggle to breakout of what to her is the unfortunate norm. It was hard to read about Abby and Connor and not really know what happened, Abby was mentioned just as someone that Brian liked as more than friends, but then now doesn't. A bit more background would have been great, for those who haven't read the other books.
I loved the added parts about Jilly and Skylar and hope to read more about them in a future book, I need to know what happens!
I will definitely read more of Violet's books in the future, they are wonderful lighthearted romance mixed with very heavy issues and potential heartbreak. Very good, I give it 5 bright stars.
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Author Bio
New York Times & USA Today bestselling author
Violet Duke is a former professor of English Education who is ecstatic to now
be on the other side of the page writing wickedly fun contemporary romance
novels. When she's not arguing with her story characters or feeding her
book-a-day reading addiction, she enjoys tackling reno projects with her power
tools while trying pretty much anything without reading the directions first
and cooking 'special edition' dishes that laugh in the face of recipes. Violet
lives in Hawaii with her two cute kids and similarly adorable husband.
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