Release Day Launch & Review: Crash into Me by Tracy Wolff

Hello readers! Crash into Me by Tracy Wolff was a hot romance with plenty of sexually charged tension, just the kind that I love, so I'm thrilled to be part of the Release Day Launch!  You'll find my review, as well as an excerpt to tempt you below! 

Crash into Me by Tracy Wolff

Publication Date: October 14th 2013 by Entangled Brazen

Purchase Links: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo | iTunes

About the Book:

She’s totally off limits, but this rocker wants a taste…

Jamison Matthews has lusted after Ryder Montgomery since she was a preteen. But now that Ryder and her brother's band, Shaken Dirty, has made it huge, she's just one of many pining for the brooding lead singer. Too bad Ryder still sees her as a little sister. Not that it matters. Her brother would never allow it, and the last thing Jamison wants is to be another notch on a rock star's bed post. Even if it's Ryder's.

Ryder doesn't deserve happiness. After his fame destroyed his last girlfriend, he swore he'd never fall in love again. So when Jamison, the girl he's been in danger of loving for years, joins the band on the road, he'll do anything to deny the sparks between them--even after one hot night together. But Jamison is determined to show Ryder that he's worthy of love--her love--and that she's all grown up and ready to play.

My Thoughts:

Crash into Me was a fast, sexy, addictive read! Unrequited love is one of my all-time favorite romances, and this one did not disappoint.

Jamison has crushed on her brother, Jared’s best friend, Ryder for ten long years.  Unfortunately, this just stuck her in the “off-limits” category, but her heart didn’t get the memo.  She’s witnessed their garage band turn into the mega popular Shaken Dirty; been there every step of the way, yet her feelings for Ryder have never changed.  Now that Ryder has millions of women at his beck and call, Jamison feels her love is a fantasy that will never be fulfilled.  Even if Ryder did find her attractive, she knows his bedroom door is a revolving one, and she doesn’t care to be just one of the many in the line-up.  Poor Jamison!

Ryder has always put Jamison in the “no-way” column. She’s sweet, gorgeous, too good for the likes of him, and Jared would kill him if he ever tried.  She deserves more than the one-night (or hour) stand that he treats all women to.  When Jamison goes on tour with them, the insane amount of chemistry and the long-time connection he’s had with her can’t be ignored, and soon his resolve is crumbling!  Yes!!  

I just love it when long-time love finally gets noticed and returned!  Jamison is all kinds of sweet and cares so much for everyone in the band, but Ryder is the one who stole her heart long ago. The longing she had crushed my heart!!  She tries to fight off her feelings, tries to protect herself, but the heart wants what the heart wants!  I loved that she knew these boys for so long:

“I grew up with the whole group of you. I saw you screw up with girls, crash your cars, get grounded. Hell, I saw both of you cry over guitar lessons and G.I. Joe dolls. And now you’re all grown up, bad-ass rockers who can have anything and anyone they desire. Whoop-de-do.”

The long-time connection made Ryder and Jamison’s romance all the more meaningful, and believable. I always worry about rocker romances because I feel like they have so many opportunities that it’s hard to believe they’d stick to one girl.  But the fact that these two had a connection for so long made me feel this was an exception.

Crash into Me wasn’t just a sweet romance, it was a fiery one! Whoa, talk about some steam! 

…he wanted to control her. To drive her beyond reason, beyond boundaries, beyond sanity until she wanted him like he wanted her. Until she need him like she needed her next breath…the way he was finding that he needed her.

Oh my, Ryder!

I love it when there’s tension and build-up because it makes the payoff all the more sweet!  Ryder and Jamison’s attraction was palpable, combustible, and boy did it ignite!

Crash into Me was an addictive read, one you could easily burn through in an afternoon.  This is part of a series, but Ryder and Jamison’s story comes to a satisfying and sweet conclusion.  I can’t wait to get my hands on the next in the series, and I’m anxious to find out which rocker it centers on.

4 Suns

A copy was provided by Entangled publishing in exchange for an honest review. Thank you! 

Excerpt

            Onstage, the band launched into “Awake,” one of the power ballads that had made them famous. The crowd screamed their approval and so did she. Totally not her typical modus operandi, but she couldn’t help it. Something about listening to Ryder croon the darkly haunting lyrics had her knees trembling and her heart beating much too quickly. If she closed her eyes, she could do what all the other women in the audience were doing and pretend that he was singing straight to her.

            So much better than remembering he’d written these heartfelt words for another woman. For Carrie, who had killed herself and broken his heart so many years before. Her own heart ached at the thought. For him. Always for him. At twenty-nine, Ryder had already been through more darkness and despair than any one person should have to handle.

            “Awake” finally came to a close, the last note hanging in the air for long, tension-fueled seconds. Then the band fell silent and the audience did the same, as if they were all holding their breaths. Ryder lowered his guitar, shuffled, and stamped his feet once, twice. It was a familiar gesture, one years of experience had taught her was his way of shaking off excess emotion. Again her heart twisted. It devastated her that more than ten years after the fact he was still eaten up by what had happened. Still determined to bury it under a bunch of layers that not only insulated him from his pain but also hid the real Ryder so deep inside the public Ryder that she wondered sometimes if he even existed anymore. Or if the boy who had held her while she cried, who had let her whisper her pre-adolescent fears without ever making fun of her, had disappeared forever.

            She searched for him in that one endless moment.

            Looked for him in the obsidian eyes that arrowed to the heart of the crowd even as they barricaded his own emotions.

            Combed through her own memories and expectations in an effort to see Ryder as he really was instead of how he portrayed himself.

            And when his eyes—his crazy, beautiful eyes—met hers, she found him. Seconds passed, long, intense seconds where she lost the ability to hear or breathe or even think. All she could do was look into Ryder’s eyes, at the feral heat boiling up and out of them, and want.

            She smiled at him, waved. He snarled back. But it wasn’t a leave-me-alone snarl. No, definitely not. It was his I-want-to-fuck-you-up-against-a-wall snarl—she knew it well, had seen it directed at a lot of women through the years—and her knees gave way when she realized that this time, finally, it was directed at her. It didn’t matter that there was no sign of recognition in his eyes, no knowledge that the woman he was looking at like that was actually her. Jamison. For one moment, he wanted her the way she’d always wanted him.

            It was more than enough.

About the Author: 

Tracy Wolff collects books, English degrees and lipsticks and has been known to forget where—and sometimes who—she is when immersed in a great novel. At six she wrote her first short story—something with a rainbow and a prince—and at seven she forayed into the wonderful world of girls lit with her first Judy Blume novel. By ten she’d read everything in the young adult and classics sections of her local bookstore, so in desperation her mom started her on romance novels. And from the first page of the first book, Tracy knew she’d found her life-long love. Now an English professor at her local community college, she writes romances that run the gamut from contemporary to paranormal to erotic suspense.

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