Release Day Blitz: The Simple Life: Tara Sivec
The Simple Life
Tara Sivec
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Release Date October 19, 2018
*A standalone romantic comedy with a lot of heart*
Brooklyn Manning thought her life was perfect in every way, until it crumbled down around her and turned into a dumpster fire. With her pride wounded and her tail tucked between her legs, she leaves New York and goes back to her tiny hometown of White Timber, Montana.
No more twenty-four-hour taco trucks, no more shopping at the best designer stores within walking distance, no more giving taxi drivers the finger when they angrily honk at her. She didn’t think it could get any worse. But then Clint Hastings walked into the room and insulted her.
Her arch nemesis from high school is no longer a nerdy computer whiz, masturbating to pictures in PC World magazine in his free time (allegedly). He’s grown up to be a hot-as-hell cowboy, and she has no other choice but to be a smart ass right back to him. After all, it’s what they do. It’s what they’ve always done, and twelve years apart hasn’t changed anything.
Only this time, getting under each other’s skin is a hell of a lot more fun than it used to be.
Brooklyn Manning has been loving her New York life for over a decade and going to the best parties, meeting all the stars, wearing the latest fashions, and getting paid to write about it...until her whole life implodes in one night. Now she has left the glitz and glam behind and is home in White Timber, Montana to help her father. But that brings her face to face with all of her past mistakes and all the people that know all about them. She is outspoken, cynical, sarcastic, and even antagonistic...and feels her life has gone to crap.
It does not take long for her to come in contact with her arch nemesis from High School, Clint Hastings. They thrived on taunting, teasing, and making each other's lives difficult. But despite all the years, there are still some deep seated unresolved feelings under all the negativity. Clint is no longer the khaki wearing computer nerd, but a hot, sexy, cowboy dad and business owner. And they fall right back into their snarky banter and caustic wit.
But they are about to start spending more and more time together...and they will probably start getting under each other's skin again. The one thing about being around each other again is that they make each other feel alive. Hate, lust, like, love, and regret are all strong emotions. And these two are volatile in more ways than one. But they are also conflicted, confused, and fearful about a future.
He has built his life in White Timber. And she always wanted to leave and live a big, grand life. Is he enough to make her want to stay this time?
It does not take long for her to come in contact with her arch nemesis from High School, Clint Hastings. They thrived on taunting, teasing, and making each other's lives difficult. But despite all the years, there are still some deep seated unresolved feelings under all the negativity. Clint is no longer the khaki wearing computer nerd, but a hot, sexy, cowboy dad and business owner. And they fall right back into their snarky banter and caustic wit.
But they are about to start spending more and more time together...and they will probably start getting under each other's skin again. The one thing about being around each other again is that they make each other feel alive. Hate, lust, like, love, and regret are all strong emotions. And these two are volatile in more ways than one. But they are also conflicted, confused, and fearful about a future.
He has built his life in White Timber. And she always wanted to leave and live a big, grand life. Is he enough to make her want to stay this time?
This is old school Tara Sivec where you are laughing so hard at the things coming out of the characters' mouths and the spectacles they create. It is a fast-paced, hilarious, feisty, heartfelt, small town, enemies-to-lovers, second chance romance. I enjoyed getting both of their points of view. Clint was such a likable hero with so many sides to him. Even when he was broody and bossy, I loved him. And Brooklyn was so unfiltered and vibrant. They were one helluva pair. The side characters added more humor and fun. His kids were freakin crazy and adorable. I loved the setting of the pumpkin farm and all its Fall-spiration (even though I am a total anti-pumpkin spice lover) and the small town full of nosy townsfolk. It is just that kind of book that makes you smile and swoon.
Brooklyn Manning isn’t excited about the prospect of returning home to White Timber, Montana but is left with few choices after her big city life implodes. Home was the place Brooklyn left as soon as possible, preferring the glitz and glam of the big city with current fashion and celebrity run ins the focus of her daily life.
Clint Hastings didn’t leave his family’s farm for long, returning to raise his kids in his childhood home. He may not have planned to do it all on his own, but he was making it work. In a small town, it was only a matter of time before they ran into each other, and that prospect is sped along with a job opportunity to help Brooklyn get back on her feet.
As the sparks fly between them, can Clint convince Brooklyn that there is enough excitement in the simple life in Montana?
I loved the banter between these two. From the remembrances of their high school pranks to the barbs they throw at each other in the present, these two are quick thinking, quick witted, well matched verbal partners. Even through their verbal sparring, you can sense the feelings developing as they work to maintain the status quo in their relationship, fighting to keep the tension from tipping from annoyance into sexual.
This had so many pieces I love in a story -- sexy, single dad; independent woman; small town; enemies with sparks; and great humor. This felt like the Tara Sivec I fell in love with, where I was constantly laughing at the characters’ antics and verbal battles, loving every moment of the characters’ inner monologues and outer diatribes. The humor is perfect and the side characters add their own streak of fun to the story.
I received this book for free from the author in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
A few seconds later, the man I saw riding the horse out front walks into the room with his cowboy hat-covered head tipped down low so I can’t see his face, carrying Mia in his arms.
Oh, screw you, ovaries!
No, I still don’t like children, but come on! Seeing a hot, manly cowboy wearing tight jeans, with his cowboy boots thumping across the floor, and carrying a kid in his arms would make anyone weak. Too bad he’s Nicole’s husband. Damn. I should have paid better attention to her Facebook photos. Lucky, lucky girl.
And then he lifts his head and our eyes meet.
Wait just one damn minute. This isn’t possible. There’s no fucking way.
“You!” I shout, my eyes bugging out of my head.
“What the hell is she doing here?” he growls, setting Mia down on the ground.
My only source of happiness right now is that Mia presses her face to his jean clad leg and wipes her nose back and forth against the material, leaving a trail of snot behind.
Clint Hastings. Nicole’s older brother and my arch nemesis growing up.
Whatever. I know I’m not a superhero in a comic book, but this guy has been the bane of my existence since the day I met him when I was in kindergarten, he was in second grade, and he threw a rock at my head. I kicked him in his tiny nuggets first, since he told me I couldn’t play baseball with him and his friends because I was a girl, but that’s not the point. If this were a comic book and we were meeting in a dark alley, I’d be holding my fists above my head next to a talk bubble that says So, we meet again. Tonight I will get my revenge and you will die by my iron fists! WHAM! BAM! KAPOW!
I cannot believe I was checking out his ass when I got here. There’s got to be a bottle of bleach somewhere in this kitchen I can pour into my eyes.
“What am I doing here? What are you doing here? Aren’t you supposed to be off in Silicon Valley becoming the next Mark Zuckerberg?” I ask, making sure my eyes stay above his neck and aren’t tempted to head south and see if those tiny nuggets hugged in his tight jeans grew in size since the last time I threw my foot into them.
Which would have been his senior year of high school, right here in this very kitchen, at his graduation party when he asked me if I bought the dress I was wearing in the toddler section.
It was a LBD! It was supposed to be tight and tiny, goddammit!
And seriously, what is he doing here? Last I heard through the high school grapevine, after he graduated from UCLA, he became a hotshot software developer at some huge company in Los Angeles and hadn’t been back home in years. Not that I ever asked. Or cared. You know, just idle chitchat after one too many glasses of wine and a friend request on Facebook from someone we went to high school with.
“Awww, have you been keeping tabs on me all these years, fancy pants? I knew you always had a thing for me.” Clint smirks.
“In your dreams. You smell like horse shit.”
“You look like horse shit,” he fires back, that stupid grin never leaving his face.
Tara Sivec
Tara Sivec is a USA Today best-selling author, wife, mother, chauffeur, maid, short-order cook, baby-sitter, and sarcasm expert. She lives in Ohio with her husband and two children and looks forward to the day when they all three of them become adults and move out.
After working in the brokerage business for fourteen years, Tara decided to pick up a pen and write instead of shoving it in her eye out of boredom. Her novel Seduction and Snacks won first place in the Indie Romance Convention Reader's Choice Awards 2013 for Best Indie First Book and she was voted as Best Author in the Indie Romance Convention Reader's Choice Awards for 2014.
In her spare time, Tara loves to dream about all of the baking she'll do and naps she'll take when she ever gets spare time.
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