Blog Tour: THRIVE: Aly Martinez

by - Friday, January 19, 2018

Aly Martinez
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Release Date January 18, 2018


When I was nineteen years old, I was faced with a choice that changed my life.

Keep the safety of what I already knew or risk losing everything with the young, hotheaded soldier who stole my heart.

I chose the wrong man, and for seventeen years, I paid in tears, blood, and shattered dreams for that decision.

Now, there’s a man in my house, holding a gun to my head on the order of my ex-husband—given from his prison cell. 

That hotheaded soldier I was too afraid to choose? He’s now a six-foot-three wall of muscle who works at the country’s most premier bodyguard agency. I’ve always wanted him, but now, I’ve never needed him more.

It’s the call I’m terrified to make. 

I’m sure he still hates me… Even though I’ve never stopped loving him.


 
Seventeen years ago, Mira York made a choice between two men...two best friends. She chose with her head and not her heart and has paid the price ever since. She has been trying to start a new life the past few years as est as she can, but her situation is not easy. And all of a sudden it goes from hard to desperate and she needs help. And she can only think of one man with the skills and resources to assist her. 

Jeremy Lark has come a long way from his Army days where he was poor, young, reckless, and totally besotted and destroyed by his best friend's girl. He forced himself to move on. He works in security, got the big house, the kids, and a now ex-wife. But he's broody, serious, bitter, and closed off. Hearing Mira's voice all these years later shocks him. But even his anger and hurt can't overcome his protective nature. 

And soon he and his team find themselves mixed up in her collapsing world where she and those she cares about are not safe and there are money and lives on the line. But how did a hard working, intelligent woman get mixed up in such a treacherous mess? And how will his team be able to extricate her safely?

While spending time together will they be able to rekindle their friendship or will they be pulled back in with their strong chemistry and unresolved feelings? They fuss, fight, spark, and can bring out the worst and best in each other. Due to their history, everything is magnified and intense. Her snit fits and his Dr. Hyde personality and bossy tendencies were fun to watch.

I liked Lark especially when we got to see his more vulnerable and insecure sides and how loved his kids so sweetly and honestly. He was protective, possessive, demanding, but also caring and loving. Mira was tenacious and had been through so much. She just wanted stability and love in her life. They both just wanted to be enough for someone, and to be accepted and truly loved. They spent a long time in their lives just existing instead of truly thriving. 

This is a second chance romance that is full of twists, suspense, tension, and action. It's got humor, emotion, steam, and drama. There are a lot of layers, possible antagonists, and challenges to face.  It is told in dual points of view past and present, but flows well. I was totally rooting for them to get together and for the guys to save the day. 

It brings back all of the Guardian Protection crew and people in their network including couples we know like Leo and Sarah and Jude and Rhion. This group's interpersonal dynamics can be funny, adversarial, taunting, and supportive.  There are so many men to choose from, but  I am particularly attached to Aidan Johnson and am hoping he gets a book soon. 

I was gifted a copy by the author
Jeremy Lark and Mira York lost touch 17 years ago when Mira chose his best friend and Jeremy joined the Army. But they didn’t go their separate ways without leaving marks on the other in the form of emotional scars. Now, Mira needs help finding her way out of a mess created by her ex, and the only person she knows who might be able to help is Jeremy.

These two were a beautiful disaster. Their chemistry was off the charts when they were young, and they find that not much has changed in that respect in the present. But neither is the same person they once were, and the changes could mean everything.

It says a lot about the characters that Aly writes that even though they frustrated me to no end, I grew to love these two in the present. Mia still made silly decisions that didn’t always take into account the threats over her, but by the time I reached the end of the book I was rooting for them to figure things out.

I loved Lark with his girls. His devotion to them and keeping things civil with his ex for their sakes was the first thing I fell in love with him in the present. Especially since he was so shaken by Mira’s arrival, it took a while for him to open up when his girls weren’t present.

This book returns to the Guardian Security World. I enjoyed seeing Rhion and Jude, as well as Leo and Sarah, but it did take me a little bit to settle back into the world. Once I had sorted who was who and how they were all connected I was reminded how much I loved this group of people when I met them in Singe. 

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

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She was my nightmare. Every time I closed my eyes, I watched her fall into that inferno. Over and over, I failed to save her.

I hadn’t been able to reach her, and the guilt only burned hotter over time. Four years later, I was the unreachable one.
Heroes aren’t always saints. Sometimes, we’re nothing more than jaded sinners driven by sleepless nights and hearts full of darkness.

And then I met her. She was a dreamer who managed to soothe my scars and heal my wounds.

But, as the flames closed in around us, I feared I wasn’t the right man to save her. That is until I realized she was the one woman I’d burn the world down to protect.




Originally from Savannah, Georgia, USA Today bestselling author Aly Martinez now lives in South Carolina with her four young children. 

Never one to take herself too seriously, she enjoys cheap wine, mystery leggings, and baked feta. It should be known, however, that she hates pizza and ice cream, almost as much as writing her bio in the third person.  

She passes what little free time she has reading anything and everything she can get her hands on, preferably with a super-sized tumbler of wine by her side.    

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