Release Blitz/Review Tour/Giveaway: Blow: Kim Karr
BLOW(Tainted Love #1)Kim Karr
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Release date 9/20/15
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2 fatal sides.
1 epic love.
7 days to survive.
They met in the face of danger. They weren’t looking for love. They both knew better. But they couldn’t stay away, and they fell hard.
He is heart-stopping handsome, fearless—and haunted by deadly ties.
She is breathtakingly beautiful, determined—and in harm’s way.
They should have parted. They didn't. They never should have fucked. They did. And now time is running out. One hundred sixty eight hours. That’s all that remains. While Logan McPherson fights to save them, Elle Sterling is forced to make a choice that could change everything.
When torn between right and wrong, tainted love doesn’t have a chance...or does it?
**Book 1 in The Tainted Love Duet**
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This book starts out in a suspenseful, intense prologue and then pushes right into a story with mysteries, secrets, danger and intrigue. I went in totally blind and was literally trying to guess some of the hidden aspects and surprises from the beginning. Some I got right and others not so much. But it was exciting, interesting, and pulled me right in.
Logan McPherson is magnetic, charming, protective, and has different sides to him. He is mix of a good, refined, successful man and a bad boy with street smarts. He straddles two worlds and they are about to collide.
Elle Sterling is smart, strong, resourceful, but has vulnerabilities, insecurities and fears due to her past. She has unwittingly become mixed up in a world that is dangerous, but is unaware how involved she really is and how high the stakes are.
Both have things they are hiding and keep their secrets locked down tight. Both don't do relationships or attachments. Both seem to be on opposite sides of an existing conflict already in play.
But Elle finds herself in need of protection and Logan strongly feels the need to help watch over her. But even though he wants to help, his mere presence in her life also adds to the danger. But the more time they spend together, the stronger the pull becomes. They help fill in the parts of themselves they thought were broken. They both make each other feel alive and can't resist their scorching chemistry and their need for each other is greater than their need for self protection. They have no choice but to trust each other or they could both end up dead. But they both have secrets that have significantly marked them that they are wary to reveal and do so only as needed.
Logan and Elle are mixed up in a world of secrets, lies, danger, and espionage. It is a race to find answers and solutions to keep themselves safe and minimize collateral damage. There are many players and antagonists, complications, and threats. And the closer they get personally, the bigger the risk is for the other and those that they care about.
Two people who should not be together find they can't resist. But when all is said and done, which one of them will pay? Can they stop the threats or will someone get hurt?
Kim Karr totally took me on a wild ride with Blow. This was fast-paced, captivating, steamy, and romantic read overlapped with a gritty background of danger, suspense, and intrigue. It was told in dual points of view with some flashbacks to help us understand how significantly their pasts affected them. I really liked Logan and Elle. They were both complicated and flawed characters, but had such a dynamic and electric chemistry and connection between them. You could feel their need and attraction, but they also had such big hearts and strong feelings that they had never really given to a relationship before. But they were stuck in a dark and dire situation that induced fear, guilt, and sense of impending doom. There were so many layers to this story that built on one another and intermingled in various ways. It was full of surprises and twists that kept me guessing. The action kept me gripping my kindle harder and flipping pages as the climax neared. And even though this story does give us some resolution, Elle and Logan's challenges are not quite over and the story will continue in Crush. I can't wait for more.
I was gifted a beta copy of this title in exchange for an honest review.
Elle wants answers. Her sister has been missing for over 3 months with no clues to her whereabouts. With a cross country move and a new boutique, Elle just wants to find her sister and start anew.
Logan McPherson straddles the straight laced world of lawyers and money on one side of his family, and the blurred lines and questionable means of the Irish mob on the other side. Balancing the two sides of himself and his family is not an easy feat, and he feels the pull to keep his grandfather happy at the law firm and keep his father from sinking deeper into the mob’s clutches.
I loved these two and the challenges they face. Balancing her new boutique and the deadline looming, Elle can’t help but lean on Logan’s strength and knowledge about the way the darker side of the city operated. As he did his best to keep her protected and safe, she did her best to maintain the secrets she knew and learn the ones she didn’t.
Together they were what they other needed but had no idea they were looking for. But I can’t help but wonder what they still face. Because this is not the end of their story.
As the secrets twisted and wrapped tighter around Elle and Logan I couldn’t help but be pulled into the story right with them. There was a lot going on, with her sister, mysterious threats, and danger pressing in from whatever or wherever Elle’s sister had disappeared to.
The secrets, family histories, and curiosity had me turning pages without effort. Elle and Logan’s story flowed in such a way that I was surprised to note I had reached the end. Even more surprising was the direction the cliff left readers hanging. My predictions as I read had me believing that the cliff would be pointing one direction, but what happened was very different than I was expecting. I finished feeling off-balance and confused about what might happen in Crush, and I can’t wait to get my hands on it to see where the story will go next.
I was gifted a copy in exchange for an honest review.
Prologue
Four Months Before
Logan
Mile after mile, I ran. Faster, feet pounding against the broken asphalt, breath crystalizing in the air. I’d been fleeing along the edge of the road for what seemed like eternity. Trucks zoomed past me, taillights fading in the distance, and still there were no sirens.
The moon slipped behind a cloud and left me moving blindly. Finally, a whistle filled the darkness. It was what I’d been waiting for.
Let’s see how bad they want this.
I spun in the opposite direction and spotted the familiar red and blue lights. With a quick jump, I vaulted over the damaged guardrail and found myself tumbling down a steep ravine.
Landing on my stomach, blood dripped from my nose, and the taste of rust flooded my mouth. I didn’t take the time to wipe it away. I had to keep moving. I’d started this game and I was going to finish it.
Quickly, I leapt to my feet and began to run again. When a sharp burning and throbbing pulsated in my right ankle, I knew my speed would be impaired. I must have twisted it in the fall. With everything I had, I tried to ignore the pain.
Adrenaline pumped through my bloodstream, making my heart race and giving me the strength I needed. I was no longer on the pavement and my terrain was harder to navigate. Trees, broken branches, and the sickening smell of the stagnant river surrounded me. I pushed onward.
It could have been worse—at least there wasn’t any ice.
Still, it was fucking freezing out here. Snow fell around me. Chilled to the bone, I tugged my hat farther down over my ears.
I didn’t stop, though—I had to keep going.
When my eyes were streaming from the cold and my leg muscles began to seize up, I knew my body needed a break. I’d find cover and play the wait-and-see game.
The dilapidated abandoned warehouse a few yards away seemed like my best choice. The hinges were rusted and appeared broken, but when I yanked on the door, it wouldn’t open.
With a sigh, I stomped my salt-stained shoes in the slush I was standing in and looked around.
No sign of them, yet.
They’d be here soon enough.
My lungs burned as I bent over with my hands on my thighs in an attempt to catch my breath.
Poised to move in any direction, I thought about my decision to bait them.
Smart?
Stupid?
I couldn’t believe the game of cat and mouse I had entered into—with the Boston Police Department nonetheless.
But I’d had enough. They’d been following me around for almost a week. Their more-than-obvious tail was bordering on harassment. Pushed to the limit, today I’d decided it was time to find out what it was all about. I was going to force their move. I left my vehicle and took off. They were tracking me, but what they were waiting for to approach me, I had no idea. At this point I had two choices—approach them or keep going. Since I didn’t want to make it easy, I kept running.
Time seemed to be at a standstill as I looked around again. I knew they were close. Yet, as I searched my surroundings, there were no signs of life; everything around me was dark except for the golden glow from the cables of the Zakim Bridge.
The bridge.
I couldn’t believe I’d ended up on the West End. That was more than a slight hike from the tip of the South End, where I’d started all this.
What time was it anyway?
Before I could look at my watch—the one my grandfather had given me, the one worth more than most of the houses in the surrounding area, the pretentious Patek Philippe with an authentic enamel dial and custom-made rubber watchband, the one almost a match for his own—a yellow beam of light shined down on me.
I guess the BPD finally decided to make their move.
A heavily Boston-accented voice carried through the wind. “Put your hands in the air where we can see them.”
“Fuck me. Really? You’re going to arrest me? For what?” My gaze scoured the area until they came into sight.
There were three of them and one of me. I didn’t plan to keep running. I didn’t need to, but even if I wanted to, there was nowhere to go. The riverbank was on one side and they were on the other. The trio moved closer and drew their weapons. I responded with equanimity and raised my palms. Still, not a single one of them lowered a gun. Step by step, they moved toward me. When they were about five feet away, I decided to help them out and face them, but before I could, the tallest figure lunged for me.
He pinned me to the wall. “I just wanted to talk. I wasn’t going to arrest you until you assaulted me. But thanks for giving me a reason.”
“I was putting my hands behind my back, asshole,” I grunted.
“Right,” he snickered.
Nostrils flaring, the fatter one grabbed me by my collar and yanked me to him. “Stop resisting.”
What the fuck?
A quick punch to the gut and a kick to my leg had me belly down in a matter of seconds.
Most men would have been scared shitless, but not me. I grew up living in two very different worlds, the only similarity being power and greed. To look at me, you wouldn’t believe I was capable of doing the things I had done. Born with a silver spoon in my mouth, I was the grandson of one of the wealthiest men in New York City.
It wasn’t my trust fund background that anyone had to worry about, though. I was also the grandson of the former head of Boston’s Blue Hill Gang—a piece of me I had tried to renounce. That I wanted to escape. But my family ties kept me bound. The Irish Mob might have changed since my father’s father ran things, but there were some things that never changed.
I’d been raised in both worlds and these cops knew it. They were counting on the Blue Hill Gang part of me to greet them.
Well fuck them very much—but that’s not what they were going to get.
The dramatic conclusion to Logan and Elle's duet:
CRUSH
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Kim Karr is a New York Times, USA Today and Wall Street Journal Bestselling author.
She grew up in Rochester, NY and now lives in Florida with her husband and four kids. She's always had a love for reading books and writing. Being an English major in college, she wanted to teach at the college level but that was not to be. She went on to receive an MBA and became a project manager until quitting to raise her family. Kim currently works part-time with her husband and recently decided to embrace one of her biggest passions--writing.
Kim wears a lot of hats! Writer, book-lover, wife, soccer-mom, taxi driver, and the all around go-to person of her family. However, she always finds time to read. One of her favorite family outings was taking her kids when they were little to the bookstore or the library. Today, Kim's oldest child is seventeen and no longer goes with her on these, now rare and infrequent, outings. She finds that she doesn't need to go on them anymore because she has the greatest device ever invented--a Kindle.
Kim likes to believe in soul mates, kindred spirits, true friends, and Happily-Ever-Afters. She loves to drink champagne, listen to music, and hopes to always stay young at heart.
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