review || COME TO ME RECKLESSLY { blog tour }

Come to Me Recklessly by A.L. Jackson

Publisher: here (here)
Series: Closer To You, book 3 
Genre: New Adult
Source: InkSlinger PR
Purchase links || amazon | bn | ibooks | kobo || add to goodreads

Rating: : ★★★★★






His heart was turned off…

Until she turned him on…

Christopher Moore gave up on the idea of love years ago. Now, his life is an endless string of parties and an even longer string of girls. Enjoying the physical perks with none of the emotional mess, hes convinced everyone that hes satisfied—everyone but himself.

Samantha Schultz has moved on with her life. Finishing her student teaching and living with her boyfriend, shes deluded herself into believing shes content. But there is one boy she never forgot—her first love—and she keeps the memory of him locked up tight. She will never allow any man to break her the way Christopher did.

When Christopher's sister and her family move into a new neighborhood, Christopher is completely unprepared to find Samantha living at the end of the street. Memories and unspent desires send them on collision course of sex, lies, and lust. But when guilt and fear send Samantha running, Christopher will have to fight for what has always been his.

about A. L. Jackson || A.L. Jackson is the New York Times bestselling author of Take This Regret and Lost to You, as well as other contemporary romance titles, including If Forever Comes, Pulled and When We Collide, as well as the New Adult Romance Come To Me Quietly due out January 7, 2014. 

She first found a love for writing during her days as a young mother and college student. She filled the journals she carried with short stories and poems used as an emotional outlet for the difficulties and joys she found in day-to-day life.

Years later, she shared a short story she’d been working on with her two closest friends and, with their encouragement, this story became her first full length novel. A.L. now spends her days writing in Southern Arizona where she lives with her husband and three children. Her favorite pastime is spending time with the ones she loves. 

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{ excerpt } .

And I knew I should run. Flee. Because I’d never been in greater danger than I was at that moment. His gorgeous face shifted from one dark expression to the next, his hair untamed, wild, as wild as the green eyes cutting me through as he jumped from the truck.

“Are you crazy?” I demanded against the wind, pounding my fist at my side, this man a raging contradiction.

Bitter laughter seeped from him while he glared across at me. “Crazy?”

Five excruciating seconds passed as we stood there, the storm gaining strength, gaining speed, beating at our senses. Before Christopher broke.

He closed the space in four long strides. Demanding fingers dove into my hair, pulling me flush against his body.

All defenses evaporated the second his mouth found mine. This wasn’t a sweet kiss. It was rough and angry, his tongue commanding. His teeth bit and nipped. Those flames licked and jumped, fueling the fire that years ago he had lit, and my tongue fought back, fighting a war I knew I’d lose.

Frantic, his hands roamed, cupping my neck, sliding down my shoulders and arms, thumbs flicking across my breasts. My nipples hardened, and a moan raced up my throat. Christopher groaned and swallowed it down then he gripped me by the hips. 

He slammed my back up against hard, hot metal. Pinned to his truck, I gasped, his body towering, consuming, devouring me the exact way I knew he would. His erection strained against his tight, tight jeans, pressing between my thighs, pressing into my stomach. My body trembled with the idea of setting him free, the idea of what he’d feel like pulsing inside of me, taking me right here, in the dark against his truck.

He closed his mouth over my bottom lip, sucking it hard, a direct tether to my sex that clenched, begging for more.

“Fuck.” The word reverberated like a moan from deep within his chest, the urgency in his touch finally tugging at my common sense that had gone numb with the assault of his mouth.

And he felt familiar and right and totally, incredibly wrong, this man I didn’t even know, because I never really had.


He rocked against me, and all those little pleasured places inside of me cried out in tortured relief as my spine grated painfully against metal. My legs tightened their hold on his waist, my hands just as desperate to feel and remember as my heart. But another part of me  screamed to stop. To remember. 

{ review } .

This was the first CLOSER TO YOU story I read, and let me just tell you how much I loved it.

Don't get me wrong, I am 100% convinced that reading books 1 and 2 will be great, too -- the glimpses we get of Aly and Jared's relationship just begs you to read their story -- but just having Samantha and Christopher's story in my fingertips? My goodness, I'm in love.

This is a story about redemption. This is a story about forgiveness, and trust, and growing up.

As teenagers, Christopher and Samantha fell in love. The problem? She was the preacher's daughter, and he the bad boy from the wrong side of town. Surely you know where this is going.

These two had grand plans for one another; their only roadblock was her parents. Stephen and Sally had their own plans for their daughter, and those included four years her senior, his whole life mapped ahead of him, Ben -- a guy that hated Christopher (but no worries, Christopher returned the sentiment).

When her parents found out about her and Christopher, they did all they could to pull them apart. Watching the demise of this teenaged love was heartbreaking -- neither Samantha nor Christopher came out of that year at 100%. Christopher's world started to fall apart and the one person who could help keep him together, was being kept away. But in losing Samantha, he was also losing a quiet friendship with her little brother.

Through the years, Christopher manages to keep going by not feeling. He goes through the motions, he sleeps and drinks his way through weekends, but he keeps a tight lid on his emotions. When his best friend and sister have a baby, his closed off self starts to seep through, but only in pieces.

In an act of coincidence (which Samantha, Aly, nor I believe in), Samantha runs into Aly and Jared, and their little peanut, at a Target, in a town that isn't where they grew up. They learn they're practically neighbors. In need of a new friend, Aly asks Samantha to coffee.

As if the years weren't there, they begin to reminisce. When Samantha ends up at Aly and Jared's house, and Christopher sees her... Well, everything explodes.

Feelings Christopher has kept so locked up for years try to find their way out, and rather than be cordial toward her, he's downright assholic (I maybe made that word up, but it works).

Watching these two sort through their hurts and learn to trust one another again was a pleasure. Neither ever fell away from the other, it just would take time to trust and love again. They learn a little more about one another and finally get answers from those many years ago. It took time, it took trust, it took honesty, but they got there.

A breeze blew through, and I felt it deep [...] just a smile, and the world was a better place.

And I could hear him whispering for me to take care of her.

Not because she needed it.

Not because she was weak or naive.

But because she deserved to be loved in the same way she loved.

With everything.

Extra little notes for y'all.

I loved that Stewart wanted to see Samantha happy (that's a loaded statement, just you wait and see). I loved that Stewart was always pro-Christopher.

I thought that Ben was the biggest asshole of all assholes. He was selfish and a prick. When Samantha's world started to go right, he wanted to hold her back. When things were about her and her family, he made them about him. And through all of the years... let's just say, Damn you, Ben, it was your fault.

I loved that Samantha gradually faced her fears and learned to live and love despite them. I loved that Christopher only wanted her to be happy; he knew when to step in and hug her, but he also knew when it wasn't his place to make things about him and her, and allowed her the space she needed.

I'm curious if we will be seeing anything more from this series. I will say this, though... this is one family/friend unit that I would indeed enjoy seeing at least a Christmas novella out of ;)

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