Book Description:
It seems the things worth keeping are often the hardest to hold...
KAI
I had two things in life that mattered. My mother and my music.
Mama was taken from me too soon, and now music is all I have left. It’s the thing that’s pushed me right out of backwoods Georgia into Los Angeles, where the line between fantasy and reality shimmers and blurs. I’m finally making my way, making my mark. I can’t afford to fall for one of music's brightest stars. Not now. Music is all I have left, and I’m holding on tight with both hands. I won’t let go, not even for Rhyson Gray.
RHYSON
I had one thing in my life that mattered – music. The only constant, it’s taken me to heights most people only dream about; a gift dropped in my lap at birth. I thought it was enough. I thought it was everything until I met Kai. Now she’s all I think about, like a song I can't get out of my head. If I have to chase her, if I have to give up everything - I will. And once she's mine, I won't let go.
KAI
I had two things in life that mattered. My mother and my music.
Mama was taken from me too soon, and now music is all I have left. It’s the thing that’s pushed me right out of backwoods Georgia into Los Angeles, where the line between fantasy and reality shimmers and blurs. I’m finally making my way, making my mark. I can’t afford to fall for one of music's brightest stars. Not now. Music is all I have left, and I’m holding on tight with both hands. I won’t let go, not even for Rhyson Gray.
RHYSON
I had one thing in my life that mattered – music. The only constant, it’s taken me to heights most people only dream about; a gift dropped in my lap at birth. I thought it was enough. I thought it was everything until I met Kai. Now she’s all I think about, like a song I can't get out of my head. If I have to chase her, if I have to give up everything - I will. And once she's mine, I won't let go.
Add it to Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25905605-my-soul-to-keep
Buy Links:
Amazon UK: http://amzn.to/1NxycZB
Amazon US: http://amzn.to/1O9ApNt
Excerpt:
I shouldn’t have come. All the things I felt and fought, the things I suspected he felt too, he just spewed all over me. And as much as I want to be, I’m not sure I’m ready. I’ll never forget seeing my Mama in bed for days after Daddy left. And even though she got up, I suspect a part of her never left that bed, but just stayed there, waiting. We had to leave the house where she grew up and where I spent my first years, because Daddy left us with nowhere to go. Mama learned to stand on her two feet, and I’ve done the same. I just didn’t count on Rhyson sweeping me off of them.
“We’re obviously on different pages about this.” I pull my hands free and turn to leave, but he steps in front of me, blocking my grand exit. “Let’s talk later.”
“Enough talking.”
The heat of his body grabs me before his hands do. He traps my chin between two fingers, taking my mouth in a paradox of rough and tender. I want to move. To slide away from his body pressing me into the pool table. But I can’t. Not with his hand caressing my back. Not with his tongue in my mouth. Not with his erection pressing into my stomach. I can’t. I won’t. I have been denying myself this, and I’m so damn hungry. My mouth opens under his, ravenous and wet and hot. His groan vibrates against my lips.
“Yes. Good God, yes, Pep.” His words slip down my throat.
I strain up on tiptoes, clawing my fingers into his dark hair, forcing him closer. He lifts me onto the pool table, planting himself between my knees. His fingers skim my bare thigh, working up my leg until he reaches a damp patch of silk. He pushes my panties aside, rubbing his hand into the wet flesh there before sliding one long finger and then another inside of me. I rock into these fingers which have awed millions with their skill. They own me. I’m the instrument in his hands. He’s playing me. Plucking at me. Strumming me.
He tugs at the wide neck of my sweater until it falls away from my shoulder, slipping his hand in and cupping my naked breast. He brushes his fingers over my nipple, and I lose my mind and every inhibition. My head flops back and I stretch my legs wider, offering him anything he wants.
“Are you kidding me?” His question burns the vulnerable curve of my neck as he drags his lips to my shoulder. “You come here wearing no bra and think I won’t…”
He abandons the words, his dark, untidy head disappearing under my sweater, and before I have time to regain even millimeters of sanity, my nipple is in his mouth and he’s suckling me. Not gentle. Not soft. My breasts are so small, he almost eats me whole. Every draw, every suck, every bite sends a power surge to my core until my knees hold his hips in a desperate grip, and my nails rake across the flat surface of the pool table behind me.
His mouth at my breast. His fingers inside me. His clean scent surrounding me. I have nowhere to hide anymore. I am exposed. I want to spread myself wide open for him. That voice that has been telling me I can’t rely on him. I can’t trust him. I can’t need him—that voice is stunned into silence by his thorough possession of my body, by the inferno between my legs, blazing a hole right through my soul and scorching my heart.
Playlist:
Our Review:
Reviewed by Donna ~ 5 stars
***ARC received for an honest review***
“Am I worth the risk?”
I absolutely loved this book, sometimes you just start reading and you connect and that is what happened when I started reading My Soul to Keep. I had never read Kennedy Ryan before and I can honestly say that it won’t be my last. I love finding new to me authors, or even better new to anyone authors but it was the cover that attracted me to this one, not normally a fan of faces on covers but the girl spoke to me, so I read.
“He was a flare of light that illuminated everything around me and showed my just how dull my existence had become.”
This book covered a multitude of my favourites, I love the music industry, I worked in it for a few years and it still remains a favourite of mine to read about and brings back some fantastic memories. Friends to lovers another one of my favourites, I love it when you get the “getting to know you” stage, where the characters actually take the time to learn everything about each other and it helps with that character connection ten-fold and I crave character connection. I love my angst, and this book had it in spades…tears galore but perfectly balanced with everything in between.
“Watching you guys trying to be friends is like watching porn with no penetration. Really hot, but no climax.”
Kai Pearson was a woman that had put her life on hold caring for her terminally ill mother. Her mother was her world and her death hit her hard but now she had to make her mother proud and chase her dreams…finally. She was an extremely talented singer and dancer and was highly motivated. She had to make up the time she had lost and she works hard at it. She wants to succeed on her own merits, she wants to get noticed and nothing, especially a man would detract her from her end goals.
“That song was how I felt. I loved it because I was so lost…because sometimes I still am.”
Rhyson was a child prodigy, he was a master on the piano, he was a talented musician, singer and song writer and was now in a band. His band was like no other as it was a fusion of all his talents and they were insanely popular. Rhyson keeps women at arm’s length…until he meets the insanely stubborn Kai.
“Without realizing it, I’ve started playing Tchaikovsky’s Romance in F Minor. Even my subconscious wants to seduce her.”
I loved the slow build in this book, sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t but for me, their story was insanely addictive. Kennedy Ryan draws you into these characters by highlighting their strengths and their weaknesses, she exposes their vulnerabilities as well as their talents and draws you in to a connection so mesmerising that you cannot stop reading…at least I couldn’t. Kai’s initial constant knock backs and Rhyson’s determination was a pleasure to read and even funnier seeing him friend zoned. But it is this friendship that is the crux and back bone of their relationship. This friendship was their foundation and their stark honesty with each other was refreshing. Neither trust easily and have a very small circle of confidantes and these two told each other everything. It was a relationship borne from all the right ingredients, but even a chef can muck it up…
“I want to hold her so close our heartbeats syncopate.”
This book is about a woman that is desperate to succeed and a man who has been there and is doing it and knows all the pit-falls and will do anything he can to protect her. This book is about a fantastic friendship, sizzling chemistry and that all intoxicating push and pull of emotions, that do they, don’t they? That first love, the learning of the complexities of a relationship, the pressure of success and those dreaded paparazzi, it is all encompassing and super emotional.
“The thought of being without her strips away all my bravado. She has no idea how much power she has over me. I’m the famous one. The rich one. The one who has nothing left to prove, but she holds every card. Especially the ones with the hearts.”
Kennedy Ryan’s writing style really resonated with my romantic reader heart, her lyrical writing captivated me from the start and didn’t let me go until the very end and I am desperate for more. I absolutely loved this book, loved the characters and even the side characters that all had their parts to play and while this is definitely Kai and Rhyson’s tale they all added depth to the overall story. I seriously need book two, like RIGHT NOW!!
“And there, with only our hearts as witnesses, our bodies make a vow that our souls will keep.”
Giveaway:
About the Author:
I just can't write about myself in third person for one more bio! I'm a wife, a mom, a writer, an advocate for families living with autism. That's me in a nutshell. Crack the nut, and you'll find a Southern girl gone Southern California who loves pizza and Diet Coke, and wishes she got to watch a lot more television. You can usually catch me up too late, on social media too much, or FINALLY putting a dent in my ever-growing To Be Read list!
Connect with Kennedy:
Facebook / Amazon/ Twitter/Newsletter / Goodreads / Instagram
Direct Links:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KennedyRyanAuthor?ref=hl
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Kennedy-Ryan/e/B00HBHK09Q/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_1
Twitter: https://twitter.com/kennedyrwrites
Newsletter: http://eepurl.com/R8sCz
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7429243.Kennedy_Ryan
Instagram: https://instagram.com/kennedyryan1/
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