Book Description:
Liam wasn’t supposed to be my happily ever after.
He wasn’t even on my radar.
He was my husband’s best friend—forbidden.
But my husband is dead and I’m alone. I ache for him and I reach for Liam.
One night with Liam changed everything. Now I have to decide if I truly love him or if he’s just the consolation prize.
Find this on Goodreads here: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23270403-consolation
Excerpt:
Natalie
“Oh, Chloe, if you’d like to come out, please wait until your Daddy gets back,” I insist, holding my belly as another Braxton Hicks contraction hits. I grip the dresser and try to breathe through it. It seems like they’re coming more frequently.
Once it passes, I try to finish what I came in here for. Aaron is away, but I want the nursery done so we can enjoy the next few weeks once he returns. I walk around what will be her room, putting a few more of the pretty pink dresses in the drawers. Aaron and I have fought about the vast array of pink things that are now strewn around the house—he hates it, I love it.
He insisted we paint her room in camouflage. Brown, green, and black camouflage for a girl? No. I almost sent myself into labor with that argument. I got home and he and Mark were drawing it out on the walls. I launched various household items at Mark while throwing him out of the house. My husband found out shortly after how much he could suffer by my hands. I may not be a SEAL, but you don’t mess with me either. In the end, I won with purple walls and the sheer netting around her white crib.
“Daddy’s going to love this room, Chloe. I can’t wait to see his face when he sees the pretty butterflies.” Needing to take another break, I sit in the rocking chair and rub my stomach. It soothes me knowing she’s in there. I can protect her—it’s my job. I love being pregnant and it’s a miracle we were able to conceive her. I’ve already told Aaron I want to try for another one as soon as she’s born. I close my eyes and sink, allowing the world to fade away.
I imagine holding her in my arms, sitting here in this chair, soothing and kissing her. I picture Aaron with her asleep on his chest as she gets to hear his heartbeat. She’ll own his world and have him wrapped around her finger.
Knock, knock, knock.
I hear the door, but it takes me a few seconds to get out of the chair.
KNOCK, KNOCK, KNOCK.
They bang louder this time.
“Coming!” I yell at the door. Jeez, give me a second.
Waddling to the door takes me a minute since I’m the size of a whale.
I open the door and see Mark Dixon, Aaron’s boss and close friend. He works at Cole Security Forces with Aaron and served with him for years. His head is hanging low and when he looks up, his eyes are full of sorrow.
“What’s wrong?”
“Lee,” he chokes on the one syllable of my name. The one Aaron uses. Something is definitely not right.
“What happened?” I ask again as I begin to shake.
Tears fill his eyes and I know. I know my life is never going to be the same. I know everything I’ve ever feared is about to come true because Mark doesn’t cry. Mark wouldn’t be at my door if something weren’t really, really wrong. “It’s Aaron.”
My heart stops beating and the world I live in ceases to exist. “Don’t,” I beg with tears blurring my vision and my breath accelerating.
This can’t be happening.
“Please, don’t, Mark. Please,” I beg him again, because once he says it…but I know it’s futile. It doesn’t matter because he can’t stop it. It’s already happened.
“Natalie, I’m so sorry.”
The dreaded words that every military wife fears. Only I wasn’t supposed to have to worry about this anymore. We were done. We got out. I wasn’t supposed to ever fear this again.
Please, God, don’t take him from me. Please!
“But, I’m p-pregnant. I’m having a baby,” I stammer as if that will somehow make none of this real. “He said he’d be back. He said he…” I trail off as it becomes difficult to breathe. My hand flies to my mouth to stifle the scream about to escape. Everything goes colorless.
“It was an IED. I’m sorry,” Mark says as his eyes glimmer with unshed tears.
I fall.
But he’s there, cradling me in his arms. “I’m so fucking sorry.”
“No. No. No.” Mark holds me as I sob clutching my stomach. “You’re lying,” I hiss, tearing myself out of his embrace.
“I wish I were,” he says as I struggle to get up.
“It was a mistake. He’s having a baby. He said it was a simple in and out!” I scream and throw my hands against his chest. “You’re lying!” I scream, even knowing it’s not a lie.
“I’m sorry.”
“Stop saying you’re sorry!” My sorrow turns to hatred. I hate him. I hate everyone in this moment. I hate Aaron and everyone who was there. I hate this house and everything in it. I hate the air that he no longer breathes. Hate consumes me. Hate smothers me. “Get out!” I yell and push against his chest. “Get the fuck out of my house! Aaron will be back in a few days and then we’re going to get ready for our daughter to be born.”
“Please,” Mark beseeches and I refuse to look at him.
This isn’t happening because Aaron’s alive.
He’s not dead. How dare Mark lie to me.
“He’ll be back. He wouldn’t leave me. He promised.” Aaron wouldn’t lie to me. He never does. When he left for missions, he would always say goodbye like it could be our last. But this time he kissed the tip of my nose and said, “Now don’t have that baby until I get back.”
“Can I call someone? Your mom?”
“No, you can’t call anyone because he’s not dead! Go get him, Mark! Go get my husband and bring him home.” I step back pointing my finger at him. “You all promised. He promised.” I clutch my stomach as a sharp pain radiates, but it’s nothing compared to the agony sitting on my chest. Tears flow relentlessly as I struggle against his hold. “He promised.”
“I know he did,” Mark says as he holds my head against his chest.
“He lied.”
My life is gone.
My heart is dead.
I’m a widow at twenty-seven.
Book Trailer:
Our Review:
**ARC received for honest review**
Review by Donna ~ 4 Stars
“My life is gone. My heart is dead. I’m a widow at twenty-seven.”
As I have come to expect from Corinne Michaels Consolation is emotional, but for the first time in one of her books I didn’t cry. I did have the lump in my throat, the tears were on the verge but they didn’t spill. Consolation is a book about grief, learning to live, learning to love and believing that it is ok to be loved once again. This is the first book of a duet and Conviction is out in two months and I cannot wait for it’s release.
Natalie has appeared in Corinne’s other books and you may remember her as a grieving widow. This duet starts with Natalie after her husband has died and with Natalie learning how to deal with being a widow and also becoming a mum. Natalie thought her life had ended once her husband had died but being heavily pregnant was probably her saving grace. Natalie had to pull herself together to get through the birth and becoming a single parent. Her daughter gave her the strength she needed to live but inside she was still a shell of the person she was before. Her friends were all worried about her and that was when Liam came onto the scene.
Liam was her husbands best friend. He had known Natalie a long time and with a lot of perseverance he managed to get Natalie back on the straight and narrow. He made her deal with things that she never wanted to do, but they were things that needed to be done for her to move on. With her daughter, Ara, being her main focus and with Liam’s constant presence Natalie begins to turn corners and make head way in the mess that she once deemed her life.
“He’s tall and steadfast, commanding and alluring. Every part of him screams danger, yet I see inside his heart.”
I absolutely loved Liam, for someone that was king of the one-nighters, the way he was around Natalie and Ara had my heart melting and me swooning. It takes that one person to make you re-evaluate how you live your life and Natalie was that person for Liam. Natalie made him be a better person, even though he was pretty darn perfect to begin with. He put his own life on hold to make sure that Natalie and Ara were ok, that was all he lived for and despite the push, pull, push, pull situations he constantly found himself, he never gave up. He was patient, he was understanding and he gave Natalie time.
While spending so much time in each others company it soon becomes apparent the lines of friendship are getting blurred. Both of them try to deal with the internal battles that they deem to be a problem. Liam was Aaron’s best friend, guy code dictates that you don’t go there, but Aaron is dead, does guy code still count? Natalie believes that she should still be in a permanent state of grief, but being in Liam’s company draws her out. She cannot help but be happy around him and now it is her turn to really think and contemplate life without Aaron and a new life with Liam.
“She needs to decide if it’s me she wants. I sure has hell won’t be the consolation prize.”
I have to say I loved both these characters, this was by no means Liam swooping in to save the day and to save Natalie, these two both saved each other. Liam was merely surviving, living day to day, he had no roots, no ties, he hadn’t met that special someone that would make him deviate from singledom but Natalie and Ara gave him new perspective, a new life. The way he took them both into his heart was beautiful and he needed this as much as Natalie.
“She looks at me like I’m saving her. I wish she knew how much she was saving me.”
As with the course of love, it never runs smooth, things from the past come to light, drama happens and now we are left wondering what the hell!! Thank god we only have two months to wait because I need the rest of their story. One thing that Corinne does well is leave you with that need of wanting more…and I desperately want more. I loved this book.
“…but I’m fighting a damn ghost.”
Buy Links:
Amazon US: http://amzn.to/19dh9j6
Amazon UK: http://amzn.to/1NMQOI1
iBooks : http://bit.ly/16nXT0k
Barnes & Noble : http://bit.ly/1E9Krf4
Kobo : http://bit.ly/1GHHL6G
About The Author:
Corinne Michaels is an emotional, witty, sarcastic, and fun loving mom of two beautiful children. She’s happily married to the man of her dreams and is a former Navy wife. After spending months away from her husband while he was deployed, reading and writing was her escape from the loneliness.Both her maternal and paternal grandmothers were librarians, which only intensified her love of reading. After years of writing short stories, she couldn’t ignore the call to finish her debut novel, Beloved. Her alpha Navy SEALs are broken, beautiful, and will steal your heart.
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