Blog Tour/Release Launch/Giveaway: Come To Me Recklessly: A.L. Jackson

by - Tuesday, April 07, 2015


Come to Me Recklessly
A.L. Jackson
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His heart was turned off…

Until she turned him on…

Christopher Moore gave up on the idea of love years ago. Now, his life is an endless string of parties and an even longer string of girls. Enjoying the physical perks with none of the emotional mess, hes convinced everyone that hes satisfied—everyone but himself. 

Samantha Schultz has moved on with her life. Finishing her student teaching and living with her boyfriend, shes deluded herself into believing shes content. But there is one boy she never forgot—her first love—and she keeps the memory of him locked up tight. She will never allow any man to break her the way Christopher did.

When Christopher's sister and her family move into a new neighborhood, Christopher is completely unprepared to find Samantha living at the end of the street. Memories and unspent desires send them on collision course of sex, lies, and lust. But when guilt and fear send Samantha running, Christopher will have to fight for what has always been his.


By the waist, he lifted me, pinning me to the wall with the hard planes of his body. I could do nothing but wrap my legs around his hips. He rocked against me, the friction of his jeans igniting that fire, the threat of Ben fueling those flames. He buried his face in my neck as if he didn’t want to see, his bite aggressive as he turned to nip at my jaw, at my chin, moving to my lips. "Told you I wouldn't let you go. Not ever again."

His frenzied voice ached with regret.

"Never," I told him, grinding myself on his erection that was pressed tight between my thighs. I felt desperate to erase the distance Ben had tried to wedge between us.

Christopher seemed even more fractured over it, unable to fathom the idea of what Ben had tried to force on me.

“I just got you back and he’s trying to take you away.”

“I’m here…I’m here.”

“Here,” he said as if a demand, tearing at my clothes, overwrought as he rushed to palm every inch of exposed skin. My shoulders were pressed to the wall, my chest heaving with harsh breaths. He pushed up my shirt and dragged off the cups of my bra. My breasts felt heavy and full as he looked on them with a stuttered groan. He splayed his hands across my back, dragging me forward, and his mouth was there, drawing my nipple into his hot mouth, sucking hard before he turned to the other.

I bucked, my hands fists in his hair.

He wrapped an arm low around my waist, his body leaving mine for a fraction of a second, and without setting me down, he dragged my shorts and panties from my legs. Fumbling, he pushed his jeans and underwear down around his thighs.

Without warning, he thrust into me.

I cried out from the perfect invasion.

No condom.

No heed.

Christopher took me completely.

Recklessl
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We already know Aly's brother and Jared's best friend, Christopher Moore from Come to Me Quietly and Come to Me Softly. He is closed-off, a playboy, and he drinks too much. But when he loves, he loves hard and is protective. His family knows that side of him, but he has only shared that with one girl from his past, but she left him broken and resentful. 

Samantha Schultz is equally as damaged as Christopher over their shared past. She was left shattered, untrusting, and grasping for something to hold onto. She has achieved some of her goals but is living in a life that she is not sure really fits her anymore.

When Samantha is reconnected with her old friends, Aly and Jared, she knows she is playing with fire. She is smart enough to know that rekindling a friendship with his sister will eventually lead her to come face to face with Christopher again. But she just cannot seem to resist Aly and Jared's charms and the forbidden thought of seeing him again.

They are two people broken by a series of events and one relationship. Both see it differently. Both feel wronged and have never really gotten over it. Both have tried to move on in their own ways. She latched onto love and safety that was promised to her and he shut down and  tried to find solace in as many women and bottles as he could while remaining unconnected. But the deep scars from their relationship still run deep and neither really had closure or moved on fully from their past. 

And now that they're back in the same vicinity again, it's bringing all of that pain back to light. Neither of them have the full picture of what happened in their past and both are left with hurt, anger, and resentment. But at the same time it makes them realize how unfulfilling their current lives are and remembering what the spark, passion, and power of real love is. But can they face their past and try to heal and move forward ?

Christopher is an adoring big brother and uncle and he has the capacity to love. He's just turned it off in regards to the opposite sex relationships. He's not going to risk getting hurt again so he just keeps it casual and takes what he needs. And if that doesn't work he finds other ways to cope.

Samantha has built a life with someone else. Ben was waiting in the wings to try to heal her broken heart and she has tried her best to move on with him, but there are problems with their relationship that just inherently can't be fixed and one of them is he is just not Christopher. But she has all sorts of mixed up feelings about her current situation and Christopher's reappearance in her life just magnifies them. 
But she is also enjoying spending time with her old friends Aly and Jared, but with them also comes Christopher. And Christopher has always been her kryptonite and he is hard to resist.

It is obvious these two have unfinished business and strong feelings. Unfortunately at times they are strong negative feelings due to their past pain, loss, and perceived betrayal. Their story of their teen years  is gradually revealed and is interwoven into their story of reconnection in the present. So there is some mystery about what really broke them apart and left them so angry and hurt. 

They both were stuck and needed to change in their present. They both needed a spark and something to live life fully for. And even when their newly formed bond was tenuous at best, they became a catalyst for change in their current lives that they had not found on their own. They also had to deal with outside influences that affected them both in the past and present, as well as their own demons and pain, trust issues, fears, and mistakes.

Sometimes they could be volatile and intense. But they could also be passionate, sweet, and have an easygoing rapport. They were two people that were deeply connected, but had a lot of baggage to wade through. They both made mistakes and could have communication issues. I will admit that I wanted to shake them both a few times throughout the story. I
t was convoluted and messy situation and they did not always make the right choices.


I loved getting more with the other characters from this series especially his sister Aly, Jared and little Ella. Also their brother Augustyn, Aly's crazy friend Megan and Jared's sister Courtney. Samantha's brother, Stewart totally grabbed my heart. What a wonderful, special young man. He made me smile so much while also added to the depth of feeling for the story. Some of Jared's past from the previous books bleeds into Christopher's story(but it can be read as a stand-alone since it is explained). Underlying the romance in this book is also the illustration of the importance of a strong foundation and support of family of friends. There were also some antagonists that I wanted to throttle that completely inspired dislike. 

I love this series. A.L Jackson never fails to pull me in, grab my heart, wring out many emotions, and keep me invested. It was told in both Samantha and Christopher's points of view in present and in flashbacks. I have been waiting for Christopher's story and I feel she did him justice. He was a complicated man and she managed to beak down his layers and expose his innermost heart and mind. He was a good guy with some bad boy tendencies, but I really liked him (even when I sometimes wanted to put tape over his mouth to stop him from putting his foot in it).

This was another emotional, heartbreaking, complex story of young love, loss, second chances, healing and hope. It was not an easy path and was sometimes raw and intense, but it was also an intriguing, moving, and engaging one. I would love to see a book for the youngest Moore sibling Augustyn. 

I was gifted a copy in exchange for an honest review.

When Christopher Moore and Samantha Schultz run into each other after seven years apart, the pain of their history hits both of them square in the face, and each question everything they have been doing since their high school breakup. 

As the events of the past come out in flashback scenes, it becomes clear that each saw the events surrounding their breakup in completely different terms. And each held on to the pain that was inflicted by the other, even as it blows up in their present. 

I wasn’t crazy about that fact that Samantha is in a relationship with another man nearly the entire duration of the book. Yes, that relationship is obviously not where her heart is, and revelations happen that make her current boyfriend look horrible for his choices and actions, BUT it is hard to look past the fact that she was still in that relationship. 

But as Ben was gone for much of the storyline, it was easy to forget she had a boyfriend and fall in love with the chemistry between Samantha and Christopher. And what could have been between them if things had played out differently when they were sixteen. 

I loved the roles Aly and Jared played in this entire story. They were the friends Samantha needed at some pretty hard times, and were also there to support Christopher in exactly the same way. They adopted Samantha into the family even before the past had begun to be dealt with.

And Samantha’s brother, Stewart, may have been my favorite side character I’ve read in a very long time. His scenes made Samantha stop and think, reconsider, and reflect. And ultimately offered her the pushes she needed to see what was in front of her. (And he both made me laugh and cry, every single time he was on the page.)

This was such a wild, crazy, sweet ride. Young love. Once in a lifetime love. Two people with opposite reputations. Years of hurt and pain between them. While it may not be my favorite of the author’s works, it told this couple’s story perfectly. And my hang-ups have nothing to do with the writing or the individuals, but simply my feelings about books with cheating. So in some ways, my high rating can be seen as an extra compliment, because it takes a lot for me to overlook or look past a storyline with cheating, even if it leads to a happy ending for the main characters. 

I was gifted a copy in exchange for an honest review.


Do you have one of those authors who are an automatic buy? That is A.L. Jackson for me. She is an ultimate favorite of mine; if Amy’s name is on it, you bet your bottom dollar I am reading it. There is no question, in my mind; she is an absolute story telling genius. The worlds she creates wrap you up and hook you along for one hell of an angsty, emotional journey, which is why it utterly kills me to say that Come to Me Recklessly did not work for me. 

Just an FYI, Sam has a boyfriend throughout the book. Granted said boyfriend is a scumbag of epic proportions; nevertheless, he is still her live-in boyfriend. I honestly could not wrap my mind around why she did not leave him to begin with. Cheating does not usually bother me depending on the situation, but this time around it did. I could not justify her staying with that douche bag, especially while she was trying to figure out things with Chris.

Sadly, this duo's dynamic did not jive for me. They were just so angst ridden, which Amy’s well known for, but this time around, the characters did not captivate me. I did not find anything special about their connection or chemistry for me to connect with. Which is surprising, I have never left an A.L. Jackson book without tons of feels and love for at least one of the characters. I love me some angst. In fact, I thrive off it. With these two, there was nothing exceptional for me to feel, other than frustration over their loooooong bout of fight and flight. The harder I tried to connect to their characters the more frustrated I became. 

When I look back and compare Chris and Samantha to Christian and Liz, they unfortunately fall flat. Christian and Liz were FULL of angst, but Christian and his little girl drew me so far into the story I was beyond wrapped up in them. It didn’t matter how much hate I had for Liz, they gave me all kinds of sweet moments that allowed me to experience a myriad of emotions while walking through that land mine of angst. All I felt for Chris and Sam was exasperation. Samantha was a huge runner. We would get a tiny bit of peace and happiness and her indecisiveness would have her running for those damn hills again. 

While I did not enjoy them much as a couple, I did really like them as individuals. I loved seeing their interactions with family and friends, Samantha especially. She was amazing with her brother. The moments between her and Stewart made my heart ache; those were the tender and sweet examples I was looking for between her and Chris. With Stewart, Sam and Chris showed us completely different individuals. If I had to pick my favorite character (outside of Jared) it would most definitely have been Stewart. He was an AMAZING secondary character!! 

Chris and Sam’s issues grew throughout the book due to their lack of MAJOR communication. The fact that they did not talk about anything of importance (meaning them, the current boyfriend, and their past) KILLED ME. If they had just communicated a little bit I think my love or lack thereof for this book would have been much different. Due to this and the lack of chemistry, I felt as though there wasn’t anything to grasp on to other than a whole hell of a lot of angst, cheating, and tension. And all of those eventually became overwhelming. This couple failed to provide me with enough good, happy peaceful moments to balance it all out. Even at 81% there was still no real fulfillment to grasp onto. Come to Me Recklessly had me missing that perfect blend of tension and swoon worthy moments Amy’s characters have never failed to provide. Without that blend, Chris and Sam’s relationship stressed me out and left me feeling overly antsy and wrapped with up with my own anxiety. 

It wasn’t until the last 15% when I felt the emotion I had been waiting to feel regarding these two the entire book. I even got a little teary eyed. I am glad I decided to hang in there and finish the story; Chris and Sam, in the end, finally had me invested in their ever after. 

Outside of Chris and Samantha, one of the things I did really enjoy was getting to spend some time with Jared and Aly again. I loved getting a glimpse of them in a much better place. It made their HEA that much sweeter!

Thank you, PENGUIN GROUP Berkley, NAL / Signet Romance, DAW, for the complimentary copy of Come to Me Recklessly.
Come to ME Quietly
Come to Me Quietly (Book 1)
Add to Goodreads
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Our 5 to 5.5 star reviews

Aleena Moore is content with her life. She has goals and dreams and an easy smile. She also has a secret she holds locked inside. Jared Holt believes he doesn’t deserve to love or be loved. He destroys everything he touches. Haunted by the mistake that shattered his life, he’s fled from the memory of that pain. Jared doesn’t know why he’s compelled to return, but finds himself drawn back to the place where it all began. The exact place where it ended. When he runs into his childhood best friend, Aleena’s older brother Christopher, he agrees to share Christopher and Aleena’s apartment while he looks for a place of his own. Aleena is no longer the little girl Jared remembers from his past and evokes feelings in him he never wanted to feel again. Terrified of destroying her, he fights to keep her away. But her touch is something he can’t resist—the touch that sealed his fate. Their pasts are intertwined and their futures uncertain. The only truths they know are the secrets they whisper in the night.
ComeToMeSoftlyCover.Final
Come To Me Softly (Book 2)

A second chance at life…
A second chance at love…

Jared Holt never thought he deserved either—until he found both in the arms of Aly Moore. Aly has loved Jared for as long as she can remember, and she’s more than ready for the future they’re making together. But Jared can’t help remembering his own family. And he’ll never forgive himself for what happened to them. How can he allow himself the very happiness he once destroyed? To live a life worthy of Aly, Jared knows he has to stop running and finally put his past to rest. But when he decides to face his demons head on, he encounters more than he bargained for: a dangerous mix of jealousy, lies, and dishonest intentions. When those intentions threaten Aly, Jared loses all control, giving into the rage that earned him his bad boy reputation years before. And he’ll fight to protect her no matter what it costs…even if he destroys himself in the process.    
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A.L. Jackson is the New York Times bestselling author of Take This Regret and Lost to You, as well as other contemporary romance titles, including PulledWhen We Collide, If Forever Comes, and Come to Me Quietly.

She first found a love for writing during her days as a young mother and college student.  She filled the journals she carried with short stories and poems used as an emotional outlet for the difficulties and joys she found in day-to-day life.

Years later, she shared a short story she’d been working on with her two closest friends and, with their encouragement, this story became her first full length novel. A.L. now spends her days writing in Southern Arizona where she lives with her husband and three children.

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