Flow, the prequel to GRIP, by Kennedy Ryan is now live and TOTALLY FREE!
And GRIP, the riveting full-length conclusion, is LIVE!
ENTER THE GIVEAWAY on Kennedy's Page! www.facebook.com/KennedyRyanAuthor
"The story reads like a movie . . powerful and intoxicating ... and sinfully sexy. GRIP has everything—dynamic characters, soulful plot, and a lesson at the end that will change the way you look at life. One of my favorite reads this year. Maybe ever. 5 massive, gripping stars from me!" -- Adriana Lock, USA Today Bestselling Author
NOW LIVE!
Book Description:
Resisting an irresistible force wears you down and turns you out. I know. I’ve been doing it for years. I may not have a musical gift of my own, but I’ve got a nose for talent and an eye for the extraordinary. And Marlon James – Grip to his fans – is nothing short of extraordinary. Years ago, we strung together a few magical nights, but I keep those memories in a locked drawer and I’ve thrown away the key. All that’s left is friendship and work. He’s on the verge of unimaginable fame, all his dreams poised to come true. I manage his career, but I can’t seem to manage my heart. It’s wild, reckless, disobedient. And it remembers all the things I want to forget.
Buy Links:
Amazon UK: http://amzn.to/2mw6jvB
Amazon US: http://amzn.to/2lqOz49
Check out the playlist on iTunes: http://apple.co/2lWI9ur
Check out the playlist on Spotify: http://bit.ly/2lWrHdS
JOIN THE SPOILER ROOM AFTER YOU FINISH! http://bit.ly/2m8xEqf
Our Review:
Reviewed by Donna ~ 4.5 stars
***ARC received for an honest review***
“You alone are my dream…And I alone am yours.”
Kennedy Ryan never fails to touch my soul with her books and this one is no different. This book does contain a message and a strong one at that but also delivers on that emotional character connection that I constantly crave and a romance that battles against the odds, whether it be stigma, prejudices, old hat opinions or just their own insecurities. While racism does feature fairly heavily throughout this book, it is a topic that was bound to come up when you have a mixed raced couple. I give kudos to Kennedy Ryan because she delivered this delicate topic with class and humour as no stone was unturned and both sides of the coin are shown in all their unapologetic glory. It is this raw honesty and totally unbiased opinion that makes reading this book like a life lesson as well as recounting unfortunate acts that are still way too prevalent in society today, but the underlying hope of the author radiated through her words and ultimately to the reader.
Grip continues on from the FREE Prequel, Flow and catches up with them eight years later, that one week that Grip and Bristol spent together should just be a distant memory, when in actuality it was far from it. Neither of these characters had moved on, both keep their feelings to themselves and both needed their heads bashed together. Grip is not very good at hiding his emotions or feelings but Bristol was one tough cookie, damn that woman infuriated me beyond belief. But this is the ANGST that Kennedy Ryan delivers with ease and it is this ANGST that seriously drove me bat shit crazy, so much so I wanted to give Bristol and slap and say, WAKE THE FUCK UP!!!
“The Bedouin prince doesn’t want me anymore, and all that’s left is this dry, barren desert. It’s nothing but dust and sand.”
Bristol is weighed down with insecurities and the haunting memory of her parent’s failure of a marriage and their piss poor attempt at being parents, she is seriously jaded and she mistakenly believes that she is her mother’s clone, when in reality she is far from it. When Bristol loves, she loves hard and fierce and is extremely protective. When it comes to work, she is as fierce as they come and boardroom battles are a walk in the park, but when it comes to herself and her love life, she is weak, feels undeserving and as such feels it is better to never have loved than to have lost. Bristol is well aware of the connection she has to Grip but she fights it all the way, she knows that Grip has the power to decimate her and she won’t be a victim.
“If I break your heart, I break mine.”
Grip is the most patient man on the planet. I mean he hasn’t gone without, let’s not get silly, but he has been waiting in the wings, biding his time in the hope that Bristol comes to her senses and sees what everyone else around her sees. Grip was seriously besotted with Bristol, he loved her hard and unreciprocated love is a bitch, even worse is unreciprocated love when you know they love you back and are just too stubborn to give in.
“It’s rare and real and you just keep spitting on it. You just keep ignoring it. Ignoring me. And I’m so fucking over it.”
Grip and Bristol were connected on every level, they had the chemistry but as I said in my Flow review “A soul deep connection that wasn’t expected, was so unlikely and yet stood the test of the time. Two polar opposites on the outside, yet on the inside two people that were inherently similar. Two people who could shoot the shit for hours and feel like only seconds had passed. Everything was effortless for these two, but as with anything, life always gets in the way.” From intelligent conversation, to witty banter, to pouring your heart out, the words that Kennedy Ryan bled onto the pages was poetic. The song lyrics resonate, you feel every word and with every scene where these two are present that spark, that connection just pulls you in. I was hypnotised by this couple and the longer they were apart, the more pissed off I got. But it is that feeling of despair that pulls this book along, the angst that Kennedy Ryan seems to deliver so effortlessly and without a care for the reader, an incredible build up and boy does she make you wait. Kennedy Ryan was my emotional sadist and I bet she was laughing as she typed every word.
I loved this book and this couple will go down as one of my all-time favourites. No matter the frustration, the sheer despair I felt for Grip, for a relationship to survive this, this emotional roller coaster you know they will stand the test of time. I look forward to catching up with these two in their nineties, on their rockers on the porch moaning about their arthritis and the poor state of the economy.
Excerpt:
Grip leans into me, pushing
back my hair and rolling his still-icy beer bottle over my neck. I swallow, but
don’t dare look at him, hoping he’ll drop it, but he doesn’t.
“When you grow up on the streets, you don’t just
develop a sixth sense.” He captures a lock of my hair and tests it between his
fingers. “You have six, seven, eight, nine of ’em, because those instincts
could be the difference between death or life. My mom and Jade have so many
senses they almost know what you’re thinking before you think it. And even
though I’ve never told her, Jade only had to be in the room with us for a hot
minute to know I want you.”
I clench my eyes closed and pull in a stuttering
breath, trapping my bottom lip between my teeth.
“Don’t do this, Grip.”
“Jade’s right,” he continues as if I hadn’t spoken,
hadn’t asked him to stop. “My mom would flip if I brought a white girl home. If
I brought you home. Maybe it is bigoted and ancient, but that’s just her. You
know better than most that we don’t get to choose our family, but we still
gotta love them.”
I don’t respond to that. He knows how contentious
things have been between my brother and my parents. Beyond the headlines
everyone else has seen, he knows how hard I’ve worked to reconcile them. I
moved to LA to help Rhyson with his career, yes, but also to bridge the
country-wide chasm between the two factions of my family.
“Like you, I’d do anything for my family.” He comes
in an inch closer, caressing under my chin and tilting it up with his index
finger. “But if you’d ever give me a shot, I wouldn’t give a fuck what anyone
thought. I’d take you home to my mama.”
I’m a little too high and a lot too horny for this
conversation, for the stone-hard thigh pressing against me, for the heat coming
off his body and smothering my resistance. I try to sit up, hoping it will
clear my head so I can make my escape, but his hand presses gently into my
chest, just above the swell of my breasts, compelling me back into the cushion.
His lips hover over mine, and I will him to kiss me because I’ll make the first
move if he doesn’t. After years of not moving, I have no idea how I’ll explain
that once the smoke clears.
Sometimes at night after the chaos dies, I think
about our first kiss at the top of a Ferris wheel. Just like then, his lips
start soft, brushing mine like wings in sweet sweeps, coaxing me open and
delving into me. Sampling me, he groans into my mouth and chases my tongue. The
rough palm of his hand cups my face, angling me so he can dive deeper. He
doesn’t come up for air, but keeps kissing me so deeply I can’t breathe. He
tastes so good, I’ll choose him over air as long as I can. Why is it never like
this with anyone else? I want it to be so bad, but it never is.
He releases my lips to scatter kisses down my neck.
My back arches, and my nipples go tight. He knows that’s my spot. After all
this time, he still knows. My neck is so incredibly sensitive, a gateway to the
rest of my body.
“You taste exactly the same.” His words come on a
labored breath in my ear. “Do you know how long it’s been since I kissed you?”
Eight years.
“Eight years.” He shakes his head, eyes riveting mine
in light lent by candles and the moon. “And you taste exactly the same.”
PREQUEL ~ FLOW (FREE!!)
GRAB IT NOW FOR FREE!
Book Description:
In 8 years, Marlon James will be one of the brightest rising stars in the music industry. Bristol Gray will be his tough, no-nonsense manager. But when they first meet, she’s a college student finding her way in the world, and he’s an artist determined to make his way in it. From completely different worlds, all the things that should separate them only draw them closer. It’s a beautiful beginning, but where will the story end?
FLOW is the prequel chronicling the week of magical days and nights
that will haunt Grip & Bristol for years to come.
GRIP is the full-length conclusion of their story available NOW here: http://kennedyryanwrites.com/grip/
Buy Links:
Amazon UK: http://amzn.to/2lfPMKy
Amazon US: http://amzn.to/2lLMuCd
iBooks: http://apple.co/2mkAG88
Nook: http://bit.ly/2lNxZyo
Kobo: http://bit.ly/2lvKqOQ
Available on WATTPAD: http://w.tt/2kUo8Yk
"Ryan continues her streak of amazingly accessible and authentic romantic fiction. Grip is a bold and unapologetic look at interracial romance and does not shy away from any of the ideals and prejudices that most of us are too polite to acknowledge - head on- amidst one of the sexiest, and most provocative true love romances Ryan has penned to date. Break out the fans folks, Grip is aptly titled and sure to make you need a grip! -- Sheena, Smexy Books
Our Review:
Reviewed by Donna ~ 4.5 stars
***ARC received for an honest review***
“There are a million reasons why we should stop. But right now, I can only think of the one reason not to stop. Because I don’t want to.”
Flow is the FREE prequel to Grip that is to be released on the 2nd March. In Flow we are treated to the very beginning of where it all began for Grip and Bristol. A soul deep connection that wasn’t expected, was so unlikely and yet stood the test of the time. Two polar opposites on the outside, yet on the inside two people that were inherently similar. Two people who could shoot the shit for hours and feel like only seconds had passed. Everything was effortless for these two, but as with anything, life always gets in the way.
Grips reputation precedes him and it isn’t pretty, but men of his age were all the same, playing the field and sowing their wild oats. It takes meeting “the one” to tame them, but people rarely believe a leopard can change its spots, especially when “the one” turns out to be your best friends sister.
Bristol is Rhyson’s sister and since he emancipated from their parents they have not seen each other and rarely communicated. Bristol is now of the age where she wants her brother back, they are twins and she will do anything to repair the damage that their parents caused. Bristol misses him, but she knows that it will take time and she goes above and beyond to make him see that she is genuine, but maybe sending his best mate to pick her up from the airport was not the best idea.
“I don’t care what color a girl is. I like the color of smart, the shade of funny, and sexy is my favorite hue.”
Grip and Bristol just clicked from the moment they met and our “bad boy rapper” is brought to his knees. Grip has never clicked with a woman like this and while everything tells him not to, he just cannot help himself. If all this emotion, chemistry and connection is the culmination of a week in each others company I cannot wait for the combustion of these two when they finally go for it. What a start from Kennedy Ryan, I need Grip like yesterday!!
About the Author:
Kennedy loves to write about herself in third person. She loves Diet Coke…though she’s always trying to quit. She adores her husband…who she’ll never quit. She loves her son, who is the most special boy on the planet. And she’s devoted to supporting and serving families living with Autism. And she writes love stories! For updates, new releases, giveaways and other adventures, subscribe to her newsletter: https://app.mailerlite.com/webforms/landing/j9u8i3
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