Release Week Launch/Reviews: Spinning Out: Lexi Ryan
Spinning Out (The Blackhawk Boys #1)Lexi Ryan
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Expected May 3, 2016
Once, the only thing that mattered to me was football—training, playing, and earning my place on the best team at every level. I had it all, and I threw it away with a semester of drugs, alcohol, and pissing off anyone who tried to stop me. Now I’m suspended from the team, on house arrest, and forced to spend a semester at home to get my shit together. The cherry on my fuckup sundae? Sleeping in the room next to mine is my best friend’s girl, Mia Mendez—the only woman I’ve ever loved and a reminder of everything I regret.
I’m not sure if having Mia so close will be heaven or hell. She’s off-limits—and not just because she’s working for my dad. Her heart belongs to someone else. But since the accident that killed her brother and changed everything, she walks around like a zombie, shutting out her friends and ignoring her dreams. We’re both broken, numb, and stuck in limbo.
Until I break my own rules and touch her.
Until she saves me from my nightmares by climbing into my bed.
Until the only thing I want more than having Mia for myself is to protect her from the truth.
I can’t rewrite the past, but I refuse to leave her heart in the hands of fate. For this girl, I’d climb into the sky and rearrange the stars.
SPINNING OUT is a sexy, emotional novel of 100,000 words. It is first in the Blackhawk Boys, a series of standalone novels.
A Note from the Author, Lexi Ryan:
I’m thrilled to finally share more information about SPINNING OUT with you. I’ve been mentally writing this book for three years and first put pen to paper in April of 2014. I remember because I was on deadline and instead of writing the book I was supposed to be writing, I was in Arrow’s head and falling in love hard and fast, my heart aching with every word.
I started. I stopped. I rewrote. I cut—words, not flesh, but in significance it felt the same. The cutting and rewriting were an exercise in control over a story that didn’t want to be controlled.
I said, “It's too sad, too dark.” I wrote something else. It called me back. Again and again, I returned. I worried I wasn't good enough, knew the story was too important for me to fail. But it was also too important for me to ignore. I wrote seven other books between the day I started SPINNING OUT and the day I finally wrote THE END.
I had to fight to tell this story. Fight my insecurities, fight my internal editor, fight my own preconceived notion of what a romance novel needs to be and how it needs to be told.
Some books are harder to write than others. Some books drain everything we have and leave us wishing we had more to give. SPINNING OUT was one of those, and my journey through that first draft left me feeling like an unprepared surgeon, the pieces of the book waiting for me to stitch them together like a broken, bloody but still-beating heart.
Some books have to break the rules. Others have to break the author. This one did both.
Arrow and Mia are two people affected deeply by one tragic night and still trying to cope. They have both been in a numb and grief filled state. She basically has quit living and has been hiding from her previous life and throwing herself into her job. He spun out and ruined his football season, ended up in rehab, and is now on house arrest. The same house where Mia is now working for his family. And being back in close quarters brings their mixed feelings and regrets back to the forefront and spurs strong reactions with each other and begins to breathe life back into them.Their story is layered and gradually revealed in dual points of view and organized between "After" and "Before". So we see the after effects and then go back and see how the situations built up and this process goes back and forth throughout, but is clearly defined and easy to follow. The story unravels of a girl with two choices for love. It builds the mystery and their connections more with the author organizing it this way and definitely keeps it intriguing.
Mia has struggled all her life due to her family situation and it has only become worse since the incident. She fluctuates between sad, angry, guilty, and disappointed. She is loyal, kind, and is trying her best to do the right thing, but it sometimes makes her seem like she is living in her own suspended reality.
Arrow is a complex young man. He is from a privileged family, yet lacks true support and is under constant pressure. His life has careened out of control. He is internalizing so many feelings: extreme guilt, anger, longing, and feelings of being unworthy. And he is harboring some secrets that are tearing him apart and causing him to punish himself.
Their personal past and present are complicated and full of misunderstandings, missed opportunities, and choices that had consequences. It is a story of lives ruined and lost, paths changed, heartbreak, betrayal, but also love and friendship. It explores different types of love between that which is deemed safe, comfortable, and easily trusted versus the reckless, passionate, and often unstable kind. Their past family dynamics and different economic classes add further complications. There are many layers to the story that are slowly unraveled as the story progresses that kept me interested and intrigued. I truly felt for the characters and all they endured. They had so much weighing them down.
Can these characters face their truths, overcome the past, and find a way to move on?
The side characters added drama, humor, support, and at times reinforced doubts. There were several antagonists creating tension. There was mystery about who was truly responsible for the tragedy. Mia seeks answers and justice, but will she really want to know the truth if she finds it? There were surprises and twists. It was emotional, heartbreaking, passionate, and tragic, but there were also times of humor and sweetness intermixed. This is the beginning of a new series and the next two books are about two of the side characters introduced and I am interested to see how their stories play out.
I was gifted a copy in exchange for an honest review.
Mia Mendez has been a walking zombie since the accident that claimed the life of her brother and changed her boyfriend’s life completely. She is holding it together, but only barely. Working for a family her father hates, she is doing everything she can to keep a roof over her head, and her tuition money covered.
Arrow Woodison is under house arrest after spinning his life out of control. He is not happy to learn his stepmother has hired Mia to nanny for his little sister, especially since he has always wished she had chosen him instead of his best friend.
The accident that ties them together, that changed everything, haunts both of them for different reasons. This is not always a happy story; it is filled with grief, guilt, and a search for understanding. But the pull these two have always felt for each other may be just what they need to move past that horrible night.
The alternating points of view between Arrow and Mia, and alternating timelines between before and after kept the suspense and tensions high throughout the book. Even when I thought I knew what was going on, I was surprised be a new detail that left me questioning once again.
The side characters made for a great start to a new series. Arrow’s teammates and friends should make for interesting stories of their own in the future, especially as we learn more and more about them.
Spinning Out had me constantly questioning a moral compass that was spinning just as fast as the story. Characters I liked were making questionable decisions and keeping ambiguous secrets.
Arrow Woodison is under house arrest after spinning his life out of control. He is not happy to learn his stepmother has hired Mia to nanny for his little sister, especially since he has always wished she had chosen him instead of his best friend.
The accident that ties them together, that changed everything, haunts both of them for different reasons. This is not always a happy story; it is filled with grief, guilt, and a search for understanding. But the pull these two have always felt for each other may be just what they need to move past that horrible night.
The alternating points of view between Arrow and Mia, and alternating timelines between before and after kept the suspense and tensions high throughout the book. Even when I thought I knew what was going on, I was surprised be a new detail that left me questioning once again.
The side characters made for a great start to a new series. Arrow’s teammates and friends should make for interesting stories of their own in the future, especially as we learn more and more about them.
Spinning Out had me constantly questioning a moral compass that was spinning just as fast as the story. Characters I liked were making questionable decisions and keeping ambiguous secrets.
There was such a range to this story, definitely more than I was expecting. I went from loving the characters to uncomfortable about their choices, to surprised and back to loving them again. I wasn’t sure I’d make it back to loving them based on what I was seeing through the story, and there were times I was wondering what exactly I had gotten myself into. The twists and turns were unexpected and had me constantly questioning what was going on, and the title was definitely appropriate for what the characters are going through.
I was gifted a copy in exchange for an honest review.
Mia
I wake to a thump and sit up in bed. It’s three in the morning and my room is dark, but there’s more thumping. Someone’s kicking the wall between my room and Arrow’s.
My heart clenches as I picture him on the other side having wild sex with some girl. Maybe some old fuck buddy came over after I went to bed. Hell, for all I know it’s Gwen visiting her stepson’s bed.
I dismiss the idea as quickly as it comes. Arrow can’t tolerate Gwen, and he may have changed, but he’s never been one to fuck girls he can’t tolerate.
There’s another thump, then I hear Arrow’s voice. “No. Don’t.” Rough, choked words. And more thrashing. “Why?”
I throw off the covers and run to his room, opening the door without a thought.
I don’t know what I expected to find. Arrow is sleeping alone, tangled in his covers.
Frozen, I stare at him. Moonlight spills in through the open curtains and casts shadows across his face. Sweat glistens on his forehead, and his face twists in a grimace.
I step closer. I could touch him, but I shouldn’t. “Arrow?”
He kicks. His arm flies out and hits the wall.
“Arrow,” I repeat, louder this time.
He grabs my hand at the wrist and flies upright in bed as his eyes pop open. He’s breathing hard, and anguish is all over his face. For a minute, I feel like I can see inside him—all the terrified, vulnerable parts he hides from the world. I can see inside him and I know exactly what I’m looking at, because my dreams make me feel the same way.
“What are you doing here?” he asks in a low whisper. The anger from earlier is gone from his voice.
“You were having a nightmare.”
His eyes rake over me—greedy, hungry, desperate. “What? No red lace nightie? Or do you save that for my dad? Like mother, like daughter?”
I gasp before I can stop myself. Why doesn’t he just punch me? His fist to my face would hurt less than those words.
I yank my hand away, spin on my heel, and walk toward the hall. As I reach for the knob, he’s behind me. He slams his palm against the door, and it closes with a violent thunk. “I’m sorry,” he whispers behind me, his breath on my neck. “I’m sorry I said that.”
I keep my gaze on his hand. Arrow has the best hands. Big, strong, beautiful. And the first time they touched me . . .
I squeeze my eyes shut at the unwelcome memory, and shrug. “I need this job,” I say slowly. “Your stepmother has made it clear that she’ll fire me if we can’t get along, and we both know your dad will fire me if you ask him to. But please don’t. Please don’t screw it up for me.”
“Mia,” he says softly, and I feel him step closer, the heat of his body against my back. The rough pads of his fingertips brush the hair from my neck, then his breath, hot and sweet, tickles against that tender skin.
I’m frozen, divided between the wish for his kiss and the fear of it. “I’m sorry,” I whisper. Hot tears roll down my cheeks, and I don’t know what I’m apologizing for. For taking this job? For going with Brogan that night when Arrow asked me not to? For entering his life to begin with?
Yes. All of that. More. “I’m so sorry.”
He drops one hand from the door and the other from my neck. My body grows cool as he steps away.
“Stop apologizing,” he says.
I turn the knob and head to my room. I don’t look back.
I wake to a thump and sit up in bed. It’s three in the morning and my room is dark, but there’s more thumping. Someone’s kicking the wall between my room and Arrow’s.
My heart clenches as I picture him on the other side having wild sex with some girl. Maybe some old fuck buddy came over after I went to bed. Hell, for all I know it’s Gwen visiting her stepson’s bed.
I dismiss the idea as quickly as it comes. Arrow can’t tolerate Gwen, and he may have changed, but he’s never been one to fuck girls he can’t tolerate.
There’s another thump, then I hear Arrow’s voice. “No. Don’t.” Rough, choked words. And more thrashing. “Why?”
I throw off the covers and run to his room, opening the door without a thought.
I don’t know what I expected to find. Arrow is sleeping alone, tangled in his covers.
Frozen, I stare at him. Moonlight spills in through the open curtains and casts shadows across his face. Sweat glistens on his forehead, and his face twists in a grimace.
I step closer. I could touch him, but I shouldn’t. “Arrow?”
He kicks. His arm flies out and hits the wall.
“Arrow,” I repeat, louder this time.
He grabs my hand at the wrist and flies upright in bed as his eyes pop open. He’s breathing hard, and anguish is all over his face. For a minute, I feel like I can see inside him—all the terrified, vulnerable parts he hides from the world. I can see inside him and I know exactly what I’m looking at, because my dreams make me feel the same way.
“What are you doing here?” he asks in a low whisper. The anger from earlier is gone from his voice.
“You were having a nightmare.”
His eyes rake over me—greedy, hungry, desperate. “What? No red lace nightie? Or do you save that for my dad? Like mother, like daughter?”
I gasp before I can stop myself. Why doesn’t he just punch me? His fist to my face would hurt less than those words.
I yank my hand away, spin on my heel, and walk toward the hall. As I reach for the knob, he’s behind me. He slams his palm against the door, and it closes with a violent thunk. “I’m sorry,” he whispers behind me, his breath on my neck. “I’m sorry I said that.”
I keep my gaze on his hand. Arrow has the best hands. Big, strong, beautiful. And the first time they touched me . . .
I squeeze my eyes shut at the unwelcome memory, and shrug. “I need this job,” I say slowly. “Your stepmother has made it clear that she’ll fire me if we can’t get along, and we both know your dad will fire me if you ask him to. But please don’t. Please don’t screw it up for me.”
“Mia,” he says softly, and I feel him step closer, the heat of his body against my back. The rough pads of his fingertips brush the hair from my neck, then his breath, hot and sweet, tickles against that tender skin.
I’m frozen, divided between the wish for his kiss and the fear of it. “I’m sorry,” I whisper. Hot tears roll down my cheeks, and I don’t know what I’m apologizing for. For taking this job? For going with Brogan that night when Arrow asked me not to? For entering his life to begin with?
Yes. All of that. More. “I’m so sorry.”
He drops one hand from the door and the other from my neck. My body grows cool as he steps away.
“Stop apologizing,” he says.
I turn the knob and head to my room. I don’t look back.
THE BLACKHAWK BOYS, an edgy, sexy sports romance series from New York Times bestseller Lexi Ryan. Football. Secrets. Lies. Passion. These boys don’t play fair. Which Blackhawk Boy will steal your heart?
Book 1 - SPINNING OUT - Coming May 3rd (Arrow's story)
Book 2 - RUSHING IN - Coming mid-2016 (Christopher's story)
Book 3 - GOING UNDER - Coming late 2016 (Sebastian's story)
New York Times and USA Today bestselling romance novelist Lexi Ryan is a former college English professor turned fulltime writer. She lives in rural Indiana with her husband and two children. When not writing, she can be found enjoying yoga, reading copiously, hanging out with her family, and thanking her lucky stars.
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