Blog Tour and Giveaway: Perfect Regret: A. Meredith Walters

by Reviews by Tammy and Kim - Sunday, September 15, 2013

Perfect Regret(Bad Rep#2)
Add to Goodreads Buy Amazon/B&N

Riley Walker makes all the right decisions and knows exactly where her life is headed.

Riley Walker does not make mistakes.

Riley Walker certainly doesn’t make spontaneous decisions.

But then Riley Walker gets dumped.

Spectacularly, gut-wrenching, stomp all over her heart dumped. And she is feeling more than a little angry. And a whole lot bitter. And suddenly the girl who has always done everything right feels like doing something completely wrong.

Garrett Bellows, lead guitarist for the local band, Generation Rejects, is going through life without a plan. Trying not to think past the next gig or the next party, he has worked hard to not become too attached to anyone or anything. So he is shocked to find himself drawn to the snarky girl with a chip on her shoulder. She pisses him off and puts him down. He knows she’s nothing more than a self-entitled college brat who thinks she’s better than the townie boy without a future.

Alcohol and a hefty dose of lust leads to a night both Riley and Garrett immediately regret. Her embarrassment, his pride and the weight of rumors and misconceptions convince Riley and Garrett that their one-time indiscretion will never be repeated. Particularly when their harshest critics are each other.

But how do you reconcile a head that wants to let go with a heart that keeps holding on?

And what happens when your biggest regret begins to seem almost perfect?

Bad Rep(book #1)
Add to Goodreads Buy Amazon/B&N

Kim's review

"Who gives a damn about their reputation? Oh, that would be me! Especially since mine had gone straight to hell in the span of thirty minutes".

Maysie Ardin is soaking up the summer before her junior year of college, shopping, hanging by the pool and shopping some more. But when her black belt in spending lands her in trouble with her parents, she is forced to take a second job at a local bar to dig herself out of a deep financial pit.

She thought she’d be miserable. But then Maysie didn’t count on Jordan Levitt, the hot, pierced and tattooed, drum playing bartender who also happens to be very interested in her. And the feelings are totally mutual.

It had the makings of the perfect romantic set up. Boy meets girl. Boy likes girl. Boy has girlfriend? Okay, maybe not.

But attraction is a hard thing to ignore and soon Jordan and Maysie find themselves in the middle of a gossip induced firestorm. Maysie has to learn whether she can set aside her fear of public disapproval in order to be with the one she wants. Or will she let the opinions of others dictate her life and her heart?

EXCERPT #5:

Garrett swept his mouth along the curve of my jaw. “My heart isn’t strong enough to survive you, Riley. You won’t just bend it, you have the power to shatter it to pieces,” he said quietly and with enough feeling to bring me low.

I pulled my head to the side, not able to look at him. “I don’t want to shatter your heart, Garrett. But I’m not sure I can promise that I won’t. I don’t know what happens from here. What all this means,” I told him honestly, knowing he deserved no less.

Garrett pulled my face back around so that I looked at him again. “Handle it with care, please. Because I want to give it to you. Completely,” he murmured, placing my hand on his chest.

My eyes hazed over with unshed tears and I felt way too emotional. I didn’t know what to do with all of these feelings. I felt choked up and downright sick to my stomach by the implications of his testament.

I had a feeling Garrett Bellows might actually love me. And that was a huge complication that I couldn’t face right now.

I started to pull away, ready to shut this down when Garrett held me firm. “Don’t you dare run away from this,” he said harshly. And then his mouth was on mine. Rough and unapologetically brutal. And given the emotional wreckage of my current situation, I needed this.

I threw myself into kissing him. Into touching him. Into immersing myself in him.

Your touch is toxicYour heart's a mess
Which is why you'll always be
My perfect regret

Riley is Maysie's roomie we met in Bad Rep. She has gone from happy in a relationship to depressed and wallowing in self pity and bad love songs. Her boyfriend of one year, Damien has now dumped her and sent her reeling.

So, yeah, I've been in mourning. Not just for a year of my life wasted. But also the death of my dignity. Because it was currently taking a long vacation with my self-respect. And I'm pretty sure my confidence and backbone had stashed away in their luggage.

Feeling lost and very drunk, she shares one night with Garrett, the guitarist for Generation Rejects who is her complete opposite. She thinks he is a pot smoking, partying, rock music playing, womanizing loser. She is a good student, has goals, and has her life planned out. They normally fight whenever they are together anyway, and now she has an even bigger chip on her shoulder and he wants to knock it off. Their interactions are snarky and scathing. Their views of each other are harsh and they claim to not even like each other.

Through difficult situations and pain, there are glimpses of what lies beneath and what they could be together. Their chemistry is hot, their feelings are intense and conflicted, and it takes awhile to dig into their layers to see beyond the sarcastic armor into the vulnerable people underneath.

"We've found something in each other that we want. Hell if I understand why. Out of all the fish in the sea, I had to hook you. One giant, snarly toothed piranha ready to bite my fingers off.'

"You and me, on paper we're all wrong. But that's okay, because the reality is we just work. I don't know why. But we do..."

This book was full of angst, denial, avoidance, pain and confusion. I seriously wanted to duck tape Riley's mouth shut at times or smack sense into her. She really hid behind the barbs and sarcasm and I hated how she cut Garrett down. Garrett did his share of verbal sparring and avoidance too, but the way she got his hopes up and then would break him just ripped my heart out. I loved the vulnerable, damaged, Garrett that just wanted to love her, be accepted, and be loved. Riley had a long road to figuring out what was really important in life. She had such preconceived ideas that she rebuffed anything different. Their path together was difficult, challenging, and heart breaking. But both characters changed and showed growth during the process.

Blessed are the hearts that can bend; they shall never be broken.

I have to admit that the first book, Bad Rep, drove me nuts since it was so negative and I was not a fan of Maysie at all. But in this one, I liked her. I realized I am now attached to her and the other characters. I was glad to see the continued story of Maysie and Jordan. Maysie really has matured and she did a great job handling Riley considering in the first book she was the one in the roller coaster of angst and depression. I really like her and Jordan together now. And enjoyed more with his band Generation Rejects. I hope we get more of this series with maybe Gracie (who had a big part in this book), Mitch, Cole, and Vivian. There are more stories to tell brewing under the surface.

This was well written, fast paced, funny, emotional, dramatic, and romantic. I love A. Meredith Walter's writing style and how complicated her characters are. This was a great follow up to Bad Rep. I actually enjoyed this one more.

Thanks to A. Meredith Walters for providing me with an arc in exchange for an honest review.

A. Meredith Walters Facebook/Blog/Twitter/Goodreads

The New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of Contemporary and Paranormal romance including The Find You in the Dark series, Bad Rep and its upcoming sequel.

A. Meredith spent ten years as a counselor for at risk teens and children. First working at a Domestic Violence/Sexual Assault program and then later a program for children with severe emotional and mental health issues. Her former clients and their stories continue to influence every aspect of her writing.

When not writing (or being tortured with all manner of beauty products at the hand of her very imaginative and extremely girly 6 year old daughter), she is eating chocolate, watching reality television that could rot your brain and reading a smutty novel or two.