Falling Fast
Falling Fast #1
By: Tina Wainscott
Releasing June 16, 2015
Loveswept
Fans of Jasinda Wilder and Colleen Hoover will adore this emotional new small-town romance—a smoldering tale of first love and long-awaited redemption from USA Today bestselling author Tina Wainscott.
Raleigh West works in an auto shop day and night, trying to put his broken past out of mind. It’s been seven years since the fiery crash that landed his teenage sweetheart in the hospital . . . and him in jail. In an instant, he lost everything: his passion for racing, his hope of escaping his father’s shameful legacy, and the only girl he ever loved. Raleigh hasn’t seen her since that awful night. Never got a chance to apologize. And never forgave himself, either.
When brave, beautiful Mia Wentworth returns to the Florida coast for the first time in what seems like forever, it’s not to see Raleigh. Even so, the moment she arrives she can feel his presence like a gust of wind that gives her goose bumps. Opening her heart to him again seems impossible. But staying away? That might be harder still. Lucky for them both, Mia’s never been the kind of woman to take the easy way out.
My Review
I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Yay second chance romance!!!!! Who doesn't love a good "we are older and wiser and huge idiots for letting the past rip us apart" story. Of course it's not always as simple as that and this book is a doozy.
Raleigh and Mia spent a wonderful summer together. As a child Mia was diagnosed with cancer and fought it for 7 years. The summer she met Raleigh she in remission. She intentionally didn't tell him about it because she didn't want Raleigh to treat her any differently. Unfortunately for the both of them, that summer ended when a car accident put them in the hospital. They were both badly injured and then Raleigh ended up going to jail as well. The accident happened during a drag race and despite the fact that it wasn't his fault, he was the one who got punished.
It is now seven years later and Mia returns to bury her grandmother. Raleigh is out of jail and working on buying the garage he now works at. Their reunion is less than stellar, but mostly because Mia's parents blame Raleigh for the accident and try to keep Mia away from him. Sure Mia is a healthy adult and can make her own choices, but her parents don't see it that way.
At the reading of her grandmother's will everyone gets quite a shock. She left her house to Mia AND Raleigh. They are to fix it up, sell it and then split the money. Sounds easy enough right? And she even comes right out and says that this isn't a ploy to get them back together and I couldn't help but laugh.
As Mia and Raleigh start to fix the house, they start spending time together. They find out that Mia's parents had been preventing the two of them from reconnecting. They both had been living on the notion that they just didn't want to see one another and they couldn't have been more wrong. They start to grow close and they just cannot deny the fact that they both still have feelings for each other.
I loved Mia and Raleigh's relationship. Even when they were young they just clicked and seemed to understand one another. But I find their current relationship so much more interesting. They have so many obstacles to get over throughout the course of this book, the biggest being themselves. Raleigh doesn't feel worthy of a second chance with Mia. As much as she tells him the accident wasn't his fault, Raleigh still blames himself. He knows that Mia struggled in her recovery and she had to do it without him by her side. They met when they were young, but the love they felt for each other was as real as it gets. And now that they are older and wiser, they can make things work.
There was a whole secondary story line involving Raleigh's father. I'm not really sure that it was needed, but late in the book it did help prove a point that Mia was committed to Raleigh and was willing to stand by him no matter what. I loved that Mia stood by him when things got super complicated. Nothing says "I love you" like "I don't care if you might go back to jail, I'm not going anywhere." Intrigued yet?
I look forward to the future books in this series. For the most part, this book was a light read. There was some drama, but enough to take away from the story. I believe the next book is about Raleigh's friend Pax who I really liked in this book. He has an interesting story and can't wait to learn more about him as well as maybe checking in with Mia and Raleigh to see how they are doing.
EXCERPT
Raleigh
looked up, and his eyes softened in a way she knew, and felt, right down to her
bones. He didn’t smile, but he stood, his body tensing as he took in her
approach. Friendly or hostile? He was no doubt trying to figure it out. She
tried to smile, to let him know that she wasn’t here to yell at him, but her
face felt frozen. Paralyzed. Hell, was she going to freeze up again?
She
tried to utter a greeting, but her dry throat prevented the words from emerging.
She waved instead.
Raleigh
stepped out from behind the stone, coming toward her. His eyes hungrily roamed
over her, skipping from her face down her body, then quickly back again. Not
lustily but as if sating a deep thirst. And there, beneath the question in his
eyes, lay a hint of a smile. Suddenly she was transported back to that first
time she’d gone into the garage just to see him. To ask him more about the
races. He’d looked both pleased and surprised.
“Mia,”
he said, her name loaded with more than she could interpret.
For
a moment, she forgot about the scars that would be visible in the bright
sunlight. She forgot to breathe. “Raleigh,” she said. She thought she was
smiling, but it might look more like a grimace. Gawd, get
hold of yourself. You’re just here to let him know you don’t hate him. “I—”
“Mia!
We have to go!” Her mother’s voice pounded harshly from behind her.
Mia
turned, spotting her mother duck-walking over in spiked heels that kept sinking
into the earth, hands fisted at her sides. She turned back to Raleigh. “I just
wanted to say . . . I don’t —”
“Mia,”
her mother ground out.
“Blame
you,” Mia managed, and quickly walked toward her mother, not wanting her
anywhere near Raleigh. He would probably think she was still that timid
seventeen-year-old who was afraid her parents would find out that she was
sneaking out at night. But she wanted to protect him from all the angry,
imprudent things that would gush from her mother’s mouth.
“What
are you doing?” she hissed as Mia hooked her arm through hers and spun her back
toward the casket.
“It’s
called closure, Mother. The last time we spoke, he’d called to see how I was
doing, and I hung up on him.”
“Well,
he deserved it,” she shot back, flicking a glance backward.
Mia
fought not to do the same. She didn’t want to see what expression he might
have. Disgust. Sympathy. Regret. Or, even worse, just dismissal. “No, he
didn’t.”
“She
was talking to him,” her mother said when they reached her father. “She went to him.”
Mia
met her father’s curious and disconcerted expression. “I just wanted him to
know I wasn’t angry at him.” Though, dammit, she hadn’t gotten that part out.
“Why
do you care what he thinks?” her father asked in his low, emotionless voice.
“Or do you care?” her mother asked. “You’re
not still—”
“Of
course not.” Even uttering the words in love was
preposterous. Mia couldn’t help herself, glancing
toward Raleigh. He was kneeling in front of the stone again, but his eyes were
on her. “It was just a summer romance. Teenage hormones.”
They
seemed gratified by that last declaration, even though it sounded hollow to her
ears. “We should go,” her father said, nodding toward the people now milling by
the limousine.
Once
they reached it, she shot one more look toward Raleigh. She wanted to believe
her recent declaration, but she felt exactly like that girl who had fallen fast
and hard for the boy who’d made her a woman.
USA Today bestselling author Tina Wainscott has always loved the combination of romance and suspense, because nothing complements falling in love better than being hunted down. The author of more than thirty novels and novellas, Wainscott creates characters with baggage, past hurts, and vulnerabilities. They go through hell, find love, and, at the end, find peace in who they are and everything they’ve gone through. And isn’t that what everyone wants?
Thank you for hosting FALLING FAST!
ReplyDeleteThank you for hosting and for the fabulous review, Kimmy!
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