Tuesday, December 17, 2013

Twosome Twosday: Until You by Penelope Douglas Blog Tour and Giveaway


Title: Until You

Series: A Fall Away Novel, Book #1.5
Author: Penelope Douglas
Genre: New Adult Contemporary Romance
Release Date: December 5, 2013
Tour Organized by: As the Pages Turn


Purchase Links
Amazon  |  Amazon UK  |  B&N
iTunes: Coming Soon




SYNOPSIS

***This novel contains graphic sexual content and harsh language. It is only 
appropriate for adult readers age 18+. 

Have you ever been so angry that hitting things felt good? Or so numb that you 
actually felt high? The past few years have been like that for me. Traveling between 
fury and indifference with no stops in between.

Some people hate me for it, while others are scared of me. But none of them can 
hurt me, because I don't care about anything or anyone.

Except Tatum.

I love her so much that I hate her. We used to be friends, but I found out that I 
couldn't trust her or anyone else.

So I hurt her. I pushed her away.

But I still need her. The sight of her centers me, and I can pool all of my anger into 
her. Engaging her, challenging her, bullying her...they are my food, my air, and the 
last part of me that feels anything human.

But she left. She went to France for a year, and came back a different girl.

Now, when I push, she pushes back.

Heather's Review
"you're mine, and I'm yours" Smooches!

I felt the ache in my throat as I looked at her, her face twisted up in sadness and I knew she had every right not to forgive me.  But I knew she would.  Maybe that’s the thing I’d been missing about love.  You don’t withhold it or partition it out when it’s deserved.  You can’t control it like that.

Jared's head is a beautiful, chaotic mess.  And I loved every minute of it.


I feel like I am the last person on the planet to read Bully.  I heard how great it was but blogging kind of has a way of keeping you extremely busy and not having time for much else.  So, we joined the Until You tour and now I “had” to read it.  WHY?!?!?! did I wait so long?  I loved, loved, loved it! 


Until You is the BEST alternate POV book I have read.  I am NOT a fan of alternate POV books.  Those of you who follow us and regularly keep up with our reviews probably know this about me by now.  I do not like to reread the same thing, with a few new thoughts from the male POV.  It bores me.  Until You kept me engaged.  Getting into Jared’s head just added so much to what was already a great story.  I thought I understood him in Bully, when really we hadn't even touched on the surface.


Penelope writes a fantastic male POV.  I don’t know many sappy, poetic, hot guys.  Let’s face it… the majority are jerks.  You have to dig deep to find the good guy.  Jared is a grade-A asshole and while his skills in the bedroom are leagues above anything I would imagine any high-school boy to have, everything else about him was so believable.  I felt him hard in this book. 


In Until You, we get a closer look at Jared’s relationship with his POS father, deadbeat mother, and his brother.  There is also a special bond between Jared and Tate’s father that moved me to tears.  We get to relive that day at the pond through Jared’s head and get a better grip on why he turned on Tate all those years ago. 

That's the thing about change.  It can be gradual.  Slow and almost unnoticeable.  Or it can be sudden, and you don't even know how you could've been any other way.  Becoming hard at heart isn't an intersection in your brain where you have a choice to turn left or right.  It's coming to a dead end, and you just keep going over the cliff, unable to stop the inevitable, because the truth is you just don't want to.

When Jared finally decides to give up on this hatred of Tate, he still has a lot going on in his life.  He has a lot to atone for… a future to plan for.  I was overwhelmed for him.

Usually my brain was like a warehouse.  Take one box, open it, deal with it, and put it away before I deal with another box.  Now all the boxes were open at the same time.

Until You goes just a little further than Bully and the ending is… WOW!  Just when I thought I couldn’t possibly love Jared more…

“I can’t change the past, Tate.  I wish I could, because I’d go back and relive every day that I existed without you, and I’d make sure that you smiled.”  My eyes burned with regret, and I saw the pools in her beautiful blues, too.  “Every minute of my future belongs to you….I’ll do anything to be good for you, Tate.”

Until You is a MUST READ.  You will not be rereading the same story again.  This book will give you so much more than Bully.  Being in the male POV and hanging out with Jared this time around, we get to know Madoc and Jax better as well. I am in love with these characters and can’t wait to devour their stories!  Job well done Mrs. Douglas!

Selene's Review


4.5 "There is freedom in the fall" Smooches!


Until You is the second book in the Fall Away Series.  It is an alternate point of view of Bully, told from Jared’s perspective. 

And it is amazing.

Jared and Tate were once best friends.  As next door neighbors they grew up together and were inseparable over the years.  After the summer Jared spent with his father, he returned a different boy with a different attitude towards Tate.  He spent the next several years bullying her, doing horrible things to humiliate and hurt her.  But then after the year Tate spent studying abroad, she returned a different girl with a different attitude towards Jared.  She was ready to fight back.

I think I am the minority when I say I didn’t love Bully.  I liked it but I struggled to connect with Jared and understand his reasons for bullying Tate.  I had a huge disconnect and I think that kept me from loving the book.

Until You, however …. WOW!  Male POV done right!  Jared retains his man card when he tells his side of the story (c’mon … you know it doesn’t always happen).  We see his fears, his insecurities, his doubt, his horrific past, his love for Tate … we see his vulnerability.  And it works.  He’s still bad ass Jared who happens to be in madly in love with Tate and has absolutely no idea how to handle it.

She was looking at me like I was nothing.  Like I wasn’t the focus of her life when she was the focus of everything in mine.

And while Jared manages to hold on to his man card despite all these revelations, I had a really hard time holding my heart together.  It broke for Jared …. that awful summer he spent with his dad, the horror he lived through.  Until You helped me understand the WHY behind him being so awful towards Tate and I really needed that for this story to work.  While his mother would not be winning any “Mother of the Year” awards, his father was just evil scum.  During Jared’s summer with him, he both physically and mentally abused Jared and his half-brother Jax and even when Jared was forced to visit his father weekly in prison the psychological abuse continued.  

I keep telling you, Jared, you have no power.  Not really.  It may seem like you’re the one in control, because you’re out there and I’ in here, but I’m the one that haunts you.  Not the other way around.”

I completely understand why Jared needs to have power over the one thing he can’t control … his love for Tate.

Right at that moment, I wanted everything from Tate.  Everything.  Her anger and passion, her hate and lust, her body and soul.
I wanted control of it all.

And, honestly, I am amazed Jared had the capacity to turn it all around and make his love for Tate a positive thing.  I think that’s one of the things I loved most about this book.  When he finally opens his heart to her, it’s all or nothing with Jared.  Once he fights his demons, his capacity to love her seems limitless.

“I can’t change the past, Tate.  I wish I could, because I’d go back and relive every day that I existed without you, and I’d make sure that you smiled.”  My eyes burned with regret, and I saw the pools in her beautiful blues, too.  “Every minute of my future belongs to you….I’ll do anything to be good for you, Tate.”

Not only did I love getting in Jared’s head, I loved reading the story from Jared’s point of view.  So much goes on that we had no clue about because Tate didn't experience it in Bully.  If you are worried about Until You rehashing the same story as Bully, you have absolutely nothing to worry about.


We have Madoc’s story to look forward to.  Rival (Fall Away #2) will be out this summer and Native (Fall Away #3), Jax’s story, will be out late next year.  Penelope promises to give us more of Jared and Tate in these books and I for one can’t wait!


AUTHOR BIO

Penelope Douglas is a writer and teacher in Las Vegas. Born in Dubuque, Iowa, she 
is the oldest of five children. Penelope attended the University of Northern Iowa, 
earning a Bachelor's degree in Public Administration, because her father told her to 
"just get the degree!" She then earned a Masters of Science in Education at Loyola 
University in New Orleans, because she hated Public Administration. One night, she 
got tipsy and told the bouncer at the bar where she worked that his son was hot, 
and three years later they were married. To the son, not the bouncer. They have 
spawn, but just one. A daughter named Aydan. Penelope loves sweets, the show 
Sons of Anarchy, and she shops at Target almost daily.


AUTHOR CONTACT INFO

Website: http://www.penelopedouglasauthor.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PenelopeDouglasAuthor
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7139136.Penelope_Douglas
Twitter: https://twitter.com/PenDouglas
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/penelopedouglas/



TOUR WIDE GIVEAWAY

Penelope is offering up (1) Kindle Paperwhite, (5) $50 gift cards to either Amazon or 
B&N, (5) Prize packs (bookmarks, rack cards, a custom key chain and signed copies 
of Bully and Until You) or (10) eBook copies of Bully up for grabs. The giveaways are
open internationally. Giveaway ends at 11:59 PM CST 12/23/2013.


RAFFLECOPTER TOUR WIDE GIVEAWAY



Monday, December 16, 2013

Surrender To Me Release Day Blitz

Synopsis: 
Rebecca Chase has never been interested in dating, and definitely not in relationships. She only had two goals in life, to get her college degree and to get the hell away from her house. When she meets Lucas everything that she thought she had wanted was now turned upside down.

Lucas Masterson has it all money, fame, and his dream job of being in the music industry. He knows that most people are just out for themselves and will use him as much as they can. When he meets Becca he realizes that he never really knew what he wanted. He thinks that she is the most amazing person he has ever met, but can he balance her and his crazy life?

Can two people who come from completely different worlds make it work? Can Becca let Lucas in before it’s too late? Will the people trying to tear them apart succeed?

Get ready to get lost in this crazy romantic adventure and surrender yourself to Lucas and Becca.


**Surrender To Me is for mature audiences only—strong language, and explicit sexual content are apparent.**


Buy Links: 
 Amazon 

Excerpt:
When we walk into the store, I can honestly say I have never dreaded shopping more.  I know he was right when he said I would need new clothes for his functions, but I hate that he’s buying them for me.  In all honesty, I can’t get them myself, but I’ve been independent for so long that it feels like a foreign concept to actually have someone wanting to take care of me.
Once we arrive at the women’s section, I head straight for the clearance rack like I always do.  Luke comes up behind me and spins me around to look at him.  “What are you doing?”
I look at him with confusion.  “Looking for clothes to wear when I’m out with you.  Isn’t that what this whole shopping thing is all about?”
“Why in the clearance section, Becca?  I’m not sure if you heard me the first time; I don’t care how much it is, you don’t need search through the leftovers.”
“And I told you that this all makes me really uncomfortable.  I’m letting you buy me the clothes but I would rather they not cost a fortune.  I don’t want you spending tons of money on me, Luke; that’s not why I’m with you.”
He groans in frustration and then narrows his eyes at me.  “This is not ‘Pretty Woman’ and you are not a prostitute, but you will let me buy you some damn clothes.  Now get away from the fucking clearance rack before I buy the entire store.”
I walk away from it and head toward the rest of the racks with my tail between my legs.  Over the next half hour I gather a mixture of dresses, skirts, and shirts and then make my way to the dressing room.  Luke hasn’t said a word to me since the argument and I have no idea how to break the silence.
I’m slipping out of the third dress I’d brought in with me when the curtain to the dressing room is pulled open.  I yelp in surprise and turn around to see Luke standing in the doorway.  “What are you doing in here?” I whisper.
He moves toward me without saying a word, closing the curtain as he makes his way into the tiny room.  He backs me against the wall and we’re so close that his breath on my neck is causing me to break out in goose bumps.
“I know you aren’t used to people taking care of you, but you’d better get used to it with me.  I take care of what’s mine, and you, Rebecca Chase, are mine.” 


Author Bio: 
Ashley Piscitelli lives in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania with her husband, two kids, and two dogs. On top a writing career, she is a full-time student and a full-time mom. She loves spending time with her kids, although she has to hide the computer from them when she is writing! She love being active and being outdoors, especially if it involves any kind of shopping.
She has always been passionate about writing. She loves to read romance books and feels like being able to lose yourself in a book is one of the more exciting aspects. The books she loves to read and write will be ones that make you feel for the characters. Ashley believes that you should have an opinion on every character in a book whether you love them, hate them, or think they are up to something.
She also believes that the most important critic is your reader, so she loves to hear from the readers. She want her fans to be open & talk to her about what they want for the characters in the story, and what they would like to see happen.

Please visit Ashley’s facebook page at: 

You can also email me her thoughts or questions at:

You can also follow her on twitter at: 
 
AshPiscAuthor