His inspiration. His torment. And his temptation...
Jasmine Taveras is the reason Sarge Purcell grabbed his six-string and bailed the hell out of New Jersey four years ago. She's the fuel for every song he's ever written-each one laced with bitter, hard-edged, hungry lust. Now, with his hugely successful band is on temporary hiatus, Sarge is determined to prove to Jasmine that this "kid" turned into every inch the man she's always needed...
Men are slim pickings for a single factory girl in Hook, New Jersey...until tall, broad-shouldered hotness walks-or ratherstorms-into Jasmine's life. Sarge's return shouldn't affect her this way. He's her best friend's much younger kid brother, and the kind of rough, gritty, sexiness Jasmine has no right to taste for herself. Even if he lets her.
But lust is a blinding, insatiable force. And when it crashes, it will take both Sarge and Jasmine down with it...
My Review
Maybe it's because I am a single lady of a certain age or maybe it's because I am a fan of Tessa's, but I was REALLY excited to read this book. Younger guy, older lady. Rock star, blue collar worker. Tough Jersey guy, tough Jersey girl. And the start of a new series. I. AM. IN.
Sarge has always had feelings for Jasmine, but he was her best friend's younger brother. And not by just like 3 or 4 years. There is 7 year difference between them and it's been 4 long years since the last time she saw him. Luckily for her, he comes back into her life in a very unexpected way:
Poor Carmine never saw it coming. To be fair, neither did Jasmine. One second, she was gearing up to knee Carmine in the family jewels and the next? He was on the dingy floor with an even bigger man straddling his neck, taking a punch to the face that gave even a pissed-off Jasmine sympathy pains. She couldn’t see her rescuer’s face, but through her haze of shock, she had one simple yet dominant thought.
Hello Shoulders.
While everyone in the bar seemed to swell closer, repositioning themselves to get a better look at Shoulders with cell phone cameras at the ready, Jasmine’s jaw hit the floor in utter astonishment. Nuh-uh. No way in Hook was this giant enforcer with Tarzan body parts the kid she used to babysit. When he’d left Jersey, he’d been eighteen. Tall, sure. Handsome, yeah, okay. But growth spurts the likes of this weren’t possible, were they? She’d seen him on TV, of course. But television-size and life-size were two very different things, apparently, because Sarge had been remodeled from a one-story colonial into a big brick mansion.
Jasmine slid her grip around his elbow, noticing his muscles go taut, but too curious to analyze that reaction. She turned him around to face her and couldn’t stop the words poised on her tongue from stage diving. “Hol-y, hol-y shit.”
Sarge Purcell had turned into a man while he’d been gone.And turn into a man he did. And now that he is home, he wants Jasmine. Sarge might be a bit over the top with his tactics with her, but I honestly think he thought that was the ONLY way he was going to get through to her. His methods work at first, but the feelings of "How could this ever work?" are never far from Jasmine's mind. Sarge did everything he could to let her know that he was all in when it came to her, but she let those doubts get in the way. I actually felt terribly for him and the ending of the book brought me to tears, which was quite a feat considering I was trying to cool off most of the book.
My only caveat is this (and only because I know some readers find this off putting): On a scale of 1 to 10, the dirty talk in this book is at a 30. I lost count of how many times Sarge's words made me blush. I spend a lot of time reading on the subway and this was a book that I made sure I only read at home. I mean just look at the teaser below. ;-)
This is a great start to what I think will be another fantastic Tessa Bailey series.
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