review || SURF & SURRENDER { book blitz }

Surf & Surrender by Riley Edgewood
Publisher: Amazon Digital (2/23/2015)
Series: Summer Love Series, book 2
Genres: Contemporary, New Adult, Romance
Source: Xpresso Book Tours
Purchase links || amazon | bn || add to goodreads

Rating: ★★★★1/2











She wants to forget he ever existed. He’d never give up her memory.

Quinn Westwood is completely over Sawyer Carson. He broke her heart years ago and disappeared from her life without a word. So yeah. She’s over him. Never even thinks of him. In fact, she’s spending her college summer break surfing and lifeguarding in the Outer Banks, while nursing a bruised heart from a different relationship gone wrong. She doesn’t have room in her mind or heart for Sawyer—until she runs into him at a beach bonfire and the sparks that fly between them are way hotter than the flames heating the sand.

Sawyer never got over Quinn. The only thing stronger than what he feels for her is the secret keeping them apart, but sharing it would destroy more than just his life—it’d ruin hers, as well. Still, he can’t seem to keep away from her, can’t seem to keep his hands off of her soft, tempting skin. Especially since she has even less self-control when it comes to reigniting the physical side of what made them perfect together.

But secrets have a way of slipping out, and when Sawyer’s is revealed it threatens to shatter everyone involved. He’ll have to face walking away a second time, and Quinn will have to decide if fighting for him is worth it when the fallout could affect more than just her heart, but also those of the people she loves most.

Surf & Surrender is the second book in Riley Edgewood’s Summer Love series, but can be read as a stand-alone novel.

about Riley || Riley lives in the DC area and spends most of her time with her characters, playing with her toddler and husband, and pretending she knows how to be an adult. Former dancer. Current writer. Lifelong lover of accessories, books, and the beach. And cats. Can't forget the kitties. Of which she has two.

You can also find her online:
rileyedgewood.com
twitter.com/rileyedgewood
facebook.com/rileyedgewoodauthor

{ excerpt } .

QUINN

Whatever Danny's response was, it's drowned out by the sound of glass shattering and a loud shriek. We all turn toward the bonfire as a girl with long brown hair sprints in our direction, laughing as she passes us.

And behind her?

Sawyer Carson.

Shock is an iron collar tightening around my neck.

No. It's Novocain, making my face completely numb.

I recognize his stance before my gaze even gets to his face, and the sudden understanding of his shape is an electric cannonball slamming into my chest, where it sits still for a moment, ticking, ticking… The enormity of it is too heavy to leave room for breath.

Then we catch eyes, and the damn thing explodes in my veins.

The entirety of me buzzes. Under my skin. Vibrations. Jolts. They hurt.

They burn.

They thrill.

* 3 Things More Shocking Than Seeing Sawyer Again *

1. A strike of lightning.

2. A live electrical appliance dropped in water.

3. Nothing. Sawyer's face in front of me is the third most shocking thing there is.

It even beats out a defibrillator.

Though if my heart doesn't start beating again soon, I may need one.

* * * * * *

He's changed. Where he used to be lanky, he's toned. His skin looks like honey in the backlit glow of the fire, and his eyes are such a bright green, I can see their color even in the dark.

There's a tension in his posture, some dark thing coiled under his skin, barely kept in check. And whatever it is, it's all about me. He still hasn't looked away.

He's sexy as hell.

But I can't just stand here studying him. I need to move. To act. To do something.

For instance, breathe. I need to breathe.

So I do. 

{ playlist } .

{ review } .

My first experience with Riley Edgewood was book one of the serial, Rock & Release. I liked the book, but was not thrilled with the fact it was a serial. Never finished the review, but stated that I think I would have liked it better had I had the chance to read the entire serial in one sitting.

Well I'm getting that opportunity, so be prepared for the review soon(-ish).

That said, I liked the way Riley wrote, so when this book popped up on my radar, I knew that I'd want to read it. While I'm very much a contemporary/military romance reader, I like to change it up with new adult here and there. It's refreshing, typically. And this one? I just loved to pieces.

Four years ago, Quinn sat waiting... waiting... waiting... for Sawyer to meet her at the beach.

And he never came.

She later learned that he and his family had left town.

She was heartbroken.

Quinn is a note keeper, and one of the first notes we read of hers is the difference between a bruised heart and a broken heart; she's just gotten over a relationship and has deemed that one a bruised heart, because what Sawyer had done to her certainly broke it.

When Quinn realizes the Carsons are back in town, she's not entirely sure what to do with that information. They were her second family; heck, if she's honest with herself, Sawyer's family was her first family. They were more her family than her own mother. 

She first sees Jess, Sawyer's little brother (who's not so little anymore) and the hurt and despair that boy shows Quinn is heart wrenching. But still, as a reader you're left wondering what happened that was so bad, that Jess now hates Quinn?

Have to give Sawyer credit... he tries to stay away from Quinn. He wants her but knows that it's for his family's sake that he stays away. He's managed to do just that for two months, but just one glance at her and he's done. After all, he's been in love with the girl for ever. Even when he was away, he kept a piece of himself for her... knowing that he'd likely never give it to her. The others just never added up to what he wanted and needed.

I loved every part of watching these two fall back into each other. There were struggles along the way. More heartbreak for these two young loves. 

But the moment I gain the ability to find something funny, I also gain the ability to remember that this was my last time with Sawyer. I suddenly hate my body for feeling the pleasure still riding through it when the rest of the world seems so bleak.

"This sucks." I lean my forehead against the wall, closing my eyes.

"I'm sorry."

"I am, too."

"Quinn."

I don't respond.

"Quinn."

I can't.

"Look at me," he says, his voice a complete mess. "Quinn, turn around."

Just the heartbreak in his words... Both are struggling but understand that family needs to come first. 

But with those struggles and heartbreak brings the sense that what these two have will last, that the two of them are family. 

{ giveaway } .

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