Thursday, August 13, 2015

book blast || IGNITING ASH { review } by M.A. Stacie


Limitless Publishing | August 4, 2015 | New Adult Romance
★★★★

SOURCE: TASTY BOOK TOURS

After a terrible start in life, Asher Harris picks himself up and manages to carve out a fairly decent future. Content with living alone in his bookshop, he shies away from relationships and keeps trust to a minimum.

Emma Carnes hasn’t seen Asher in years, though she’s never forgotten him. Their one interaction as teenagers became pivotal to them both. It gave her a career.

It saved his life.

Emma saw things about Asher that nobody else did. When she urged him to escape a perilous situation, it turned her toward her purpose in life…and saved Asher. Intrigued by the strong man he’s become, she gently persuades him to open up, but finds his emotional walls hard to climb. She also hopes for his help with a troubled teen, Gabe Dearing, who reminds her very much of Asher himself.

Their relationship and ties to Gabe threaten to reveal things someone wants to keep hidden…

Someone is watching Emma, trying to figure out what she knows, and she soon senses something isn’t right. When the bookshop is vandalized and Gabe disappears, only to return bloody, broken, and refusing to say what happened, Asher and Emma search for the truth as their passion intensifies.

The danger mounts, and Emma and Ash struggle to keep what they’ve fought so hard to gain.

But can he save Emma as she saved him so long ago?

Or will a dark and violent history repeat itself and destroy them all?


{ about m.a. stacie } .

M. A. Stacie is never without a book or her eReader. A voracious reader, with a love of sexy, yet angst ridden novels, she loves getting lost in new worlds. Her need to write did not grip her until after her second son was born, when her previous rambles became fully fledged stories.

She describes herself as one huge contradiction, and though not the most conventional of hobbies, she counts getting new tattoos as one of hers. Along with running, knitting, and listening to loud music. However, she is yet to work out how to do them all at the same time.

M. A. Stacie lives in the UK with her husband and three sons.

{ excerpt } .

She squealed when he grasped her waist and picked her up. His actions came as a shock, his strength too. Her protest hovered on the tip of her tongue, though she never actually said anything. His serious expression and determined strides were enough to keep her mouth closed.

Until he crushed his lips to hers. At that point she knew where it was heading, understood what he meant when he’d shouted. He was sick of holding back. Asher was taking what he wanted and ignoring any possible consequences.

Emma clung to him, their kisses growing deeper and more forceful as he carried her to his bedroom. She kept hold of him as he sat on the edge of his bed, moving her so that she straddled his lap. They’d been here before, only this time the air was electrified, sparks bursting from their touches. He wasn’t going to deny them this time. She could sense from his heated kisses and desperate touches that he was all in.

She blinked, her head spinning when he grabbed her loose T-shirt and pulled it over her head.

He tossed it, not caring to look where it landed. Asher drank her in, his chocolate eyes melting as they perused her chest.

A fire ignited low in her belly, her blood burning through her veins. She’d experienced lust before, however this with Asher was laced with something else. Something deeper.

Slowly, too slowly, he stroked a single finger over the swell of her breast. Her nipples tightened as she silently begged for him to cup them. Her will was enough, because those amazing fingers dipped under the lace of her bra before palming her breast. His eyes never left hers. His touch grew firmer, more demanding. “More,” she whispered. “Asher, more.”

He kissed her long and hard. At the same time she began unbuttoning his shirt, her fingers fumbling so much Asher ended up finishing the job for her. He didn’t stop with his shirt. After rolling her onto his bed, he stood and shucked off his jeans, sliding them down his legs before kicking them across the room. “No more barriers,” he rasped and pulled his underwear off too. His scars were exposed to her, the skin pink and puckered near his navel. There really were no barriers.

Still expecting him to back out, Emma held a bit of herself back. The rejection would sting a little less if she did. However, that became difficult when he hovered over her, pressing his body against hers. His eyes were hooded, and she could feel the heavy thump of his heart when she touched his chest. Hers was as rapid, the thrill of possibility surging in every cell. The connection with Asher was strong, very strong, and much more consuming than anything she’d ever felt before.

{ review } .

One of the first things I noticed when beginning IGNITING ASH was that each chapter starts with a character's name -- Asher or Emma. That typically goes on to mean the chapter will be told in that person's voice, in first person. At least, this is how it's typically done.

Not so with IGNITING ASH. While yes, that chapter is done in the voice of that particular character, it is also done in third person -- something that I thought was kind of different, kind of neat, yet drove me just a bit batty.

I loved Asher (side note? If and when my books get written, one of my leading LADY'S name is Asher. I know it's a guy name and I'm not sure that I've ever seen that particular male name crossed over, but I've always loved it for a female). I loved that he blended in with the shadows and prefered to be there. He didn't want to shine light on his home life, and when he finally got out of it, didn't want his past to meld with his present so he stayed away from anyone that could possibly do that. Asher learns trust throughout this story -- his distrust of individuals and of what life gives him is heartbreaking. He looks at things twice and then again sideways and still doesn't believe that it could possibly true.

But beyond my love for Asher, is my love for Emma. While she wasn't vocal about it, she always saw him. She lended him a pencil, saw him in the cold and offered him help. She didn't draw attention to his cuts, bruises, scrapes, scars. She saw them, but she let Asher open up as he would -- which, as teens, he didn't, but she still didn't push. Asher's life is what drove Emma to go into her career path as an adult -- the drive and desire to help teens such as Asher had been, and Emma's interactions with him that winter night are what literally saved Asher's life.

When they randomly meet again some years later, Asher's first instinct was to run -- but Emma's always seen him and she wants to be his friend.

I've never heard of a lock-and-key party (perhaps it's an English thing). While it seemed like the "popular kids'" party in high school, I kind of felt that the idea was a tad juvenile for people in their twenties -- if you want to hook up at a party, you don't need a matching key to a girl's padlock... However, both Asher and Emma ended up at this party as adults because their friends dragged them -- friends that I hope to see have their own stories someday (hmm, M.A. Stacie??).

The synopsis of the story lead me to feel there would be more of suspensful feel for the story and while that aspect was there, it wasn't quite as profound and in your face as I'd have liked it to be. Regardless, those scenes help drive the reader to understand Asher, and his relationships.

I enjoyed this story and look forward to reading more from M.A. Stacie.

{ giveaway } .



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