Blog Tour Review & Giveaway: Pulled – A. L. Jackson

Melanie Winters and Daniel Montgomery shared a love most only dream of, a love they believed bonded them together for life.

When their world is shattered by the tragic loss of their daughter, overwhelming grief and misguided guilt distorts the truth, and their relationship ends in uncertainty and unanswered questions.

For nine years, they drift through life, each unable to forget the one who holds the strings to their heart. In an attempt to escape the pain of her past, Melanie finds herself trapped in a loveless marriage, while Daniel loses himself in a career that means nothing without Melanie by his side.

Now, when their lives again intersect, neither can deny the connection they felt so long ago. But will the power that drew them together be enough to heal the wounds from their past, and will they have the courage to overcome the insecurities and fears that threaten to keep them apart?

Pulled is a story of attraction and separation, of destiny and duty, of a love so strong it refuses to give up even when all others have.

Series:
Release Date: June 2nd 2014
Publisher: A.L. Jackson Books Inc
Source: InkSlinger PR
Reviewer: Shannon
Rating:

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Reviewer’s Thoughts

A.L. Jackson can write a story that will pull at every single emotion I have.  Doesn’t matter what the story is, it happens every single time.  PULLED was one of those stories that just breaks your heart from the very beginning.  With two characters so significantly broken, I couldn’t help but be broken with them as their story unfolded.  Told in alternating POVs, from both the past and the present, we learn that love doesn’t lesson when you separate yourself from your soul mate.

Melanie and Daniel were high school sweethearts who were inseparable from the moment they met.  They were determined to build a future together, despite a two year age difference that separated them while he was in college.  When tragedy strikes the young couple, they are pulled apart by parents who think they know better.  That separation destroys a little something in each of them and they are left bumping along for the next nine years.  Fate plays it hand then, bringing these two back together, but not without some serious roadblocks.  But they both learn that what pulled them apart when they were teens is exactly what pulls them together now, just when they need it.

Melanie and Daniel break your heart.  From Melanie trapped in a marriage of convenience to Daniel only having one night stands, you long for them to find the people they were when they were together.  And when they finally do see if each for the first time (again) it’s as if the cloak of  despair and emotional isolation they’d been living with was removed.  For Daniel, he immediately wanted to reclaim what was his…no matter the cost.  Melanie’s situation did require a bit of finesse, of which Daniel’s bursting in and practically screaming “mine” wasn’t going to work.  But despite that, you could see that for both Melanie and Daniel it was as if a huge piece of themselves has returned home.  At that point, you could tell that no matter what they had to go through it was going to be completely worth it to them.

I loved the emotions A. L. Jackson evoked with this story.  I felt every hint of desperation, despair and joy along with the characters.  And not matter how hard it was to read this story, I longed for just one more minute with Melanie and Daniel as they go their happily ever after.  If you haven’t picked up an A. L. Jackson book before, this is a great one to start with.

Praise for PULLED

“Okay, this one did it for me in a big way. I’m an angst-lover. And by that I mean, I’m a Thoughtless, Beautiful Disaster, Love Unscripted, Slammed, Fifty Shades of Everything, kind of reader. But there’s gotta be an HEA. And not a half-done HEA but a real yeah-this-story-has-been-agonizing-but-look-it-was-all-worth-it HEA. So, that said, I earnestly recommend this book. If you’re like me, you’ll like this. Enjoy!” LitJunkie

I stared down the hallway. Both fear and longing consumed me. I willed myself to walk, but every footstep was heavy, dragging with what I feared I would soon be regret. I stalled outside his door, my heart listening to his. I could feel it pounding, drawing me forward.

I didn’t even knock. I turned the knob and pushed the door open. My feet locked in place when I saw him. Daniel. I blinked several times as I took him in. He was leaning over, bracing himself with his palms flat on his desk. He must have realized that it was me just before I opened the door. His head was cocked, his hazel eyes wide.

I couldn’t move. I felt as if I were caught in time and the second hand was unable to tick on.

Finally he rose, cautious and slow. His eyes were fierce and desperate, a fire that I’d never seen before burning behind them. My feet moved of their own accord and my arm dropped from the door. Silently it closed behind me. Everything in the room was still except for the energy roaring between us.

“Melanie,” he called to me, a whisper directly to my heart, pumping it with life. I was mesmerized as he wet his dry lips. His shoulders were held rigid, his chest trembling with his staggered breaths. I felt it all—his longing, his desire, his hunger. And I knew he could feel mine. Quivering under his intense stare, my muscles twitched in anticipation. My knees went weak when I saw him snap, undecided no more.

I could barely register the movement before he rounded his desk, and his lips crashed against mine. His hands sank into my hair, pulling my body roughly against his.

It felt as if my body had burst into flames with his sudden touch. Everything about him was overpowering, consuming, dominating. Rough and gentle at the same time.

I pressed into him, my chest against his, our hearts beating in rhythm. Digging my fingers into his neck, I struggled to get closer. We were desperate as we clung to each other. We needed to feel, to heal the scars disfiguring our hearts, to erase some of the hurt. His hands rushed with need, twisted through my curls, down my back, and then into my hair again. His kiss was forceful—too intense—ice and fire and sweet—all Daniel. I breathed him in, touched him, memorized the way he smelled, the way he felt.

His hair was so soft between my fingers. A shiver traveled down his spine.

With a sudden slant of his head, he swept his tongue across my lip. I opened to him, drawing him in. There was no teasing or testing. Aggressively, he moved his mouth with mine, sucking in my bottom lip at the same time he bit at it. Rough. Hard. Perfect. He pushed me back against the door, his body flush with mine. A moan escaped my mouth.

Oh, how I had missed this body.

I ran my hands over his shoulders and down his arms, his muscles firm under my touch. His lips were incessant, his tongue hot and wet.

Fisting a hand in my hair, he pulled it tight, exposing my neck. His movements slowed as he licked down the sensitive skin, seeking out the spot behind my ear he knew would ruin me. He sucked, tugging with his lips, lingering at the delicate hollow below my jaw. I drew in a ragged breath, and my emotions caught up with me. He remembered.

He kissed his way back up, found my mouth again. Fingertips caressed and massaged the back of my neck, the skin afire with his touch.

When he grabbed the back of my knee and hooked my leg over his hip, I gasped.  His palm traveled up the exposed flesh of my thigh, his thumb rubbing circles, coaxing, persuading, demanding a reaction. I pushed back into him, my body deprived of his for far too long.

“Melanie, my love,” he whispered, the words vibrating against my lips.

“Daniel,” I breathed into his mouth.

He pulled back, hooded eyes flaming in their intensity as they sought mine. I couldn’t look away as I peered deep into his soul. The love I found there was never ending, but shrouded in vast regret, grief imprinted on his heart. He ran his nose along my cheek, murmuring in my ear, this time the words dripping in sadness. “Only you.”

Those words resonated in the air, and as much as I knew he wanted to convince himself that they were true, they weren’t.

The weight of what I was doing crushed me. Thoughts of his wife and child lay heavy on my heart, and I remembered how we had gotten here in the first place. He hadn’t chosen me. He didn’t want me.

With trembling hands, I shook my head, trying to keep my insecurities from pouring out. It was impossible. The feelings of complete rejection I’d swallowed down and harbored for all these years came bubbling to the surface and spilled over, erupted as  tears rushing down my face.

“You didn’t want me.”

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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Website:  http://www.aljacksonauthor.com/

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