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Release Event and Reviews: Something Real: Lexi Ryan

by - Wednesday, March 04, 2015



Something Real(Reckless and Real #2)
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Released March 3, 2015
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After everything blew up on Christmas, Liz walked away from me, and I let her. She said she needed space and a chance to pursue her dreams. But we both knew she was running from the mess she made. Now the political campaign she used as an excuse to leave is bringing us back together and I’m proving to her what she really needs—not just the hot nights, greedy hands, and undeniable physical chemistry. What she really needs is something real. What she really needs…is me.

Sam

Security had better not have let one of those asshole journalists from downstairs up to my floor. I swear, those soul suckers would do anything to get a new detail to add to their nothing stories. I open the door without removing the chain and feel as if I’ve been punched in the gut when I see the woman on the other side.
Liz is worrying her lower lip between her teeth and watching down the hall. Is she looking for Sabrina or trying to make sure no one sees her coming to my room? My insides twist at the sight of her—an internal tug-of-war between conflicting emotions. I want to pull her into my room and kiss her until she can’t see straight, touch her until she promises never to leave me again, and at the same time, I want to demand that she go back to her room because having her close makes me hope for things I can’t have.
I remove the chain and tug her inside by the arm before closing the door behind her.
“No one saw me,” she says, her eyes locked on the floor. “I made sure.”
I saw you,” I growl. It’s painful to be this close—to breathe her air, to smell her perfume. I never knew how much it could hurt to want and be denied.
She swallows and avoids my eyes. “Is she here?”
“What do you want, Liz?”
She lifts her head and stares at me. “Is she here?”
“Sabrina’s on her way to meet her mom in South Dakota for a campaign stop.”
Her gaze dips to my bare chest and back up. “I’m surprised they didn’t ask you to go with them.”
“They did. I declined.” I sound like a fucking dickhead, and I make myself take two steps back so I don’t do something equally dickish. Like kiss her until she melts in my arms and forgets about the other guy, until we both forget that this is hopeless.
“I’m sorry that video was leaked. You didn’t deserve that invasion of your privacy.”
She has red lipstick on, and it matches her shoes. Ever since I saw her tonight, I’ve been picturing her on her knees in nothing but those shoes, those red lips stretched around my cock. I can’t help myself, and I skim my thumb over her bottom lip.
The second I touch her, she draws in a ragged breath. “You came to my apartment yesterday.”
“I did.”
“Why?”
I trail my thumb down her neck and over the red strap of her dress. “Probably for the same reason you came here tonight.”
“To talk about Sabrina?”
“You knocked on my door in the middle of the night to talk about Sabrina?” I follow the strap down and graze my fingers across her cleavage. “Is this about her, or is it about you and me?”
“There is no you and me,” she says. “We both know that.”
“There’s so much you and me, there’s no air left when we share a room. There’s always you and me.”
“Even when you’re making sex tapes with someone else?”
“And even when you’re keeping warm in another man’s arms.”
Something Real Playlist

From Lexi: 
Because I so frequently have to switch gears at the drop of a hat—from Mom to writer, from the business side of writing to drafting an intensely emotional scene—I rely on music to quickly plant me in the zone for any given book. Every time I start to write a book, I create a playlist that makes me think of the characters and I listen to it and add to it as I write. Here’s what I was listening to while I was writing Something Real. I hope you like it!

Amnesia—5 Seconds of Summer
Over You—Ingrid Michaelson (feat. A Great Big World)
How Long Will I Love You—Ellie Goulding
You Ruin Me—The Veronicas
Don’t—Ed Sheeran
All You Had to Do Was Stay—Taylor Swift
Changed by You—Between the Trees
Thinking Out Loud—Ed Sheeran
Crazy in Love—Sofia Karlberg
Love Me Like You Do—Ellie Goulding


We have already seen Sam and Lizzy already going through some challenges. The prologue of this one starts right after the big revelation at the end of Something Reckless. Then this story shifts forward as they try to pick up the pieces. Oh the drama, separation, miscommunication, hurt, and angst. Neither of them cope very well. Lizzy runs and throws herself into work and isolates herself. Sam has a few issues to deal with but also is spending quality time with a bottle.  And just as these two miserable souls are thinking they should do something about it, they are hit with a new challenge.

Now they are thrust in the middle of a messy situation and in the spotlight. There are underlying political agendas, lies, manipulation, blackmail, and betrayal. But also love, lust, and passion between them that won't die. It is hard to tell who to trust. And they get swept all up in it again just as they are trying to come to terms with what they really want and need to be happy. But this new situation is one that might be the biggest challenge of all.

During this series I never doubted Sam and Lizzy's true feelings and connection. They had really good chemistry and they were definitely compatible in the bedroom, but I also always felt the underlying closeness and deep feelings they had for each other. But their happiness always seemed to be ruined by outside influences. It seemed like every time they were about to get to a happy place , something else would happen to pull them apart. But they also did have some conflicts that were exacerbated due to their own personality traits. Sam had a tendency to overreact, want control, could be stubborn, jealous, and unapologetic. But he also had his own set of insecurities and trust issues.  But some of Sam's issues also came from his need to protect people and he would try to do "the right thing" but sometimes that ended up being the wrong thing for him and Lizzy. She was smart, sassy, and strong, but also insecure and tended to be a runner. And they were both so strong-willed that they hesitated to the be the one to make the first move at fixing situations.

And there were so many different people with their own agendas and motivations that were causing dissension in Sam and Lizzie's lives. It was truly a tangled web. But for all of the people that were against them, they also had a big group of supporters in New Hope as well. All of Lizzie's sisters and their spouses are a tight group that will stand together but will also be very honest in their opinions. Nix, Max, Cally, and Will rounded out their tight knit group of friends. 

They have had a rocky road with lots of outside interference. Can they finally break away from it and just find a way to be happy together?
These two people definitely went on a roller coaster and ups and downs that covered a period of years. They had separations, miscommunication, hurt feelings, guilt, and situations that just got out of control. But all along I wanted to see them find a way to make it work. It was told in both points of view so we could understand their feelings and fears. There were definitely some twists and surprises throughout the series and this installment was no different. Some things definitely snuck up on me. I enjoyed the changing dynamics of the characters and how some story lines intertwined. There were several antagonists that I really disliked. And there were some others that did some questionable things, but I could tell had some good in them too. This was another engaging, sexy, emotional installment in the New Hope world. I loved touching base with all of the characters that we've come to know and love. Lexi Ryan teased a little bit with Nix and Max and I can't wait to see more of them in Playing with Fire. 


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


“With some people, love becomes your air, like the oxygen that you can’t live without. You need it, and once you find it, you’ll do anything to keep it.”

Sam and Liz left things in a very rough place at the end of Something Reckless and when I started reading Something Real I was gutted watching the results of the fallout from the revelations at the end of Reckless, but there is so much to love about this final piece of Sam and Liz’s story.

Sam finds himself backed into a corner as a media frenzy breaks out relating to Sabrina Guy. In order to protect those close to him, he agrees to play along, but his agreement keeps getting deeper as the tables are continually turned and the hits keep on coming. 

Meanwhile, Liz is working on the Christine Guy’s campaign for President but doesn’t feel nearly as needed as she did when she was writing speeches for Sam’s father. She is lonely, misses home, and hates the way things have changed since she left New Hope. 

But neither Sam nor Liz have forgotten the feelings they felt for each other, even as they wonder how they can move past the whole Riverrat fiasco and revelation. And as events unfold, it appears there are even more things keeping them apart.

I loved all the twists and turns this story took. For not being a suspense novel, there were plenty of cover-ups and surprises tucked throughout the plot. The alternating points of view means that at any given time, readers know more than either individual character making this a page turner from start to finish. 

Though Liz spends much of the book working in Indianapolis, the city is close enough to New Hope that she returns home to visit with her sisters and girlfriends as often as she can, and when she needs them they drop everything to be there for her. Hints are dropped as to the next installment of the New Hope stories, and I can’t wait to see what is in store for that next couple! 

I was gifted a copy in exchange for an honest review.
Something Wild (Reckless and Real Prequel novella#1)

**The free prequel to the Reckless and Real Series and will also be included in Something Reckless.** 

Samuel Bradshaw is a man with a reputation—the kind of reputation that should have me running the other way. Instead, it has me searching for the shortest distance to his bed. I won’t be the starry-eyed girl who thinks she can change a man like Sam, and despite what he thinks, forever is not what I need. I need SOMETHING WILD.

Something Reckless (Reckless and Real #1)
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He talks dirty to me, but I don’t know his name.

He wants to tie me up, but I don’t know his face.

He turns me on, but I couldn’t point him out in a crowd.

I’ve fallen for an anonymous stranger, and tonight the anonymity ends. Tonight I want more than typed secrets and texted promises. I want something reckless. Heat. Passion. The thrill of being entirely possessed.

Because I suspect this anonymous stranger isn’t a stranger at all.

Lizzy Thompson met riverrat69 online through Something Real, a service promising to deliver meaningful relationships by forbidding its users to share names or photos until they’ve reached a certain benchmark. She was looking for love. He was researching an investment. They hit it off. Talked and flirted, hid behind screen names and cartoon avatars.

Now they’re breaking the rules and meeting in person. But Liz is prepared. She’s picked up hints and followed clues.

She’s ninety-percent convinced she’s discovered the identity of her dirty-talking online friend.

She wonders if her ex-lover Sam Bradshaw knows her identity too.

When she rolls the dice on one reckless night, her chance at something real could crumble.
 sale will run through 3/14/15

Lexi Ryan Website | Facebook | Twitter
Once a college English professor, I now write full time. I live in rural Indiana, where, when I’m not writing, I get to hang out with my husband and two kids--a six-year-old boy and a two-year-old hellion, er, girl. Not surprisingly, reading and writing remain my favorite activities, though both come in bits and pieces these days, not the big hunks of time I en- joyed before I had children. When I’m feeling virtuous, I like to go running (I use that word liberally. I’m really, really slow) or do yoga. Don’t worry, I’m always careful to balance out such activities with a hearty serving of ice cream or a chocolate martini.


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