review || TOUCH & GO

Touch & Go by Mira Lyn Kelly

Publisher: Loveswept (2/17/2015)
Series: Dare to Love, book 2
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Source: Tasty Book Tours/NetGalley
Purchase links || amazon || add to goodreads

Rating: ★★★★★






Vivacious and successful, Ava Meyers is living her dream life, except for one thing: Ever since childhood, she’s been in love with her best friend . . . and she’s never admitted it. Back then, Sam Farrow was a damaged young man with a tough past. Now he’s supremely confident, super-sexy, and totally untouchable—until the night when Sam pretends to be Ava’s boyfriend to save her from some unwanted attention. In a moment of weakness, Ava finds out that a long friendship is no match for blistering sexual chemistry.

After years of denying his own feelings, Sam finds that one amazing night with Ava isn’t enough to chase away all the pent-up fantasies. So he proposes they spend a few weeks driving each other wild, exhausting their every desire, and then return to their perfect platonic relationship like nothing ever happened. But Sam’s plan has one fatal flaw: the part where they give each other up. Because the more they let go of their inhibitions, the more they’re tempted to never go back.

{ review } .

I like love that this newest Dare to Love book starts with Ava trying to get her best friend's fiance to be her arm candy for a mixer. You see, in book 1, you learn that Ava and Maggie make a pact to go on a date every month. Maggie once goes out with Ava's brother, as a pity date more or less, and the reaction to the like-brother to like-sister kiss was flipping comical. Eventually, Maggie ended up taking up Apartment 3 for a date, and it was all history from there (there may have been some withheld cookies, though). Now that Maggie's happily engaged to Apartment 3, Ava has to uphold her part of the bargain.

First off, let me just repeat from the last DARE TO LOVE review err, blurb --

I love Apartment 3, err.... Tyler Wells (Apartment 3 works just as well, though). And I loved Tyler and Maggie's book.

Withheld cookies?

Sassy.

Stair rendezvous...?

Sassy times ten.

Tons of sass in that book.

So we're brought to Ava's story. Ava and Sam are best friends, and can't imagine it going anywhere but there. But sometimes what you're missing is right beneath your nose...

Sam doesn't realize how much he loves Ava, or relies on her, until things start to get hot and heavy (thank you, creepy Steven, for freaking Ava out enough to drag Sam along with her to the shin-dig), and then cold real fast. They both figure they love each other as friends, and sometimes crossing over that line can be disastrous...

...but sometimes it can be the best damn decision of your life... so long as you're not pretending to not be hurt when the other covers up emotions -- which is something both Ava and Sam do well: save face to the max.

Sam and Ava... If there's one thing these two learn in TOUCH & GO, it's that sometimes you lose things you didn't realize you had. And sometimes you need to step up and realize that what you do have is so much more than you give it credit for.

While I can't say too much about it, my favorite scene is probably when Sam walks into Ava's emptying apartments and realizes, in it's finality, what Ava truly means to him. No one said he wasn't a bit slow...

Like I said... I love Tyler and Maggie. I knew that I'd like Ava and Sam, mainly because Ava is spunky and I do love my spunky heroine, but I was slightly surprised to find that I loved Sam and Ava as much, if not just a teensy eensy itsy bit more, than I love Tyler and Maggie. Do not get me wrong, I swooned and loved the little Tyler and Maggie scenes, but I was completely focused on Ava and Sam -- and when Ava's brother gets his lovelife in check, I'm sure I'll be eagerly anticipating sneak peeks in on the life of Ava and Sam, as well.

"Jesus Ava, that blush is going to be the end of me. I shouldn't be able to make you do it. I shouldn't know I can."

My gosh, the man does heart-clenching to the extreme...