SYNOPSIS:
“How did you even get here?”
I blink at him, confused by his question. “We live
here.”
“You live here, in these woods?”
When Kaiden
stumbles across Serena Scott while hunting in Sorrow Woods he thinks all of his
birthdays have come at once. Finally, the girl that’s haunted and intrigued him
and his parents for the last fourteen years is standing in front of him.
And she’s alive.
Serena should have
known that he would shatter her life into a thousand pieces. It wasn't because
of the gun, or the tattoos that snaked around his arm, but because he was the
first boy that she’d ever set eyes on.
He wasn’t just any
boy either; he was Kaiden Matthews.
He was dark,
dangerous and strangely alluring.
And he was
beautiful.
Serena’s life as
she knows it is destroyed after Kaiden drops his bombshell. As the consequences
of his actions begin to penetrate through into her life she vows to stay away
from him, and while she might have been in his past, she refuses to be his
future.
Kaiden
knows that in order for either of them to salvage anything from the mess he’s
made he needs to make sure the secrets of his past stay hidden, but as they
start to rebuild their lives they find themselves stuck in a whirlwind of
secrets and confessions that could threaten to break their already fragile
relationship.
PURCHASE
LINKS:
Amazon US: http://amzn.to/1gH4xEk
EXCERPT:
Kaiden
FOUR HOURS LATER, when the sun is at its highest in the sky
and all of my bodily fluids have been sweated out of me, I find myself hiking
up a mountain behind Serena, while trying not to constantly stare at her toned
ass. The trees are scarce up here now, and I still have no idea where it is
that we’re going.
After breakfast, I spent an hour telling Elodie and Serena where in the
world we live and about the different ways people go about their days. I still
can’t believe that they have no idea how normal people live. What sort of person keeps children hidden
away like this?
“We’re here,” says Elodie, interrupting my thoughts. She pulls all of
her clothes off until she’s standing in nothing but her faded grey panties.
I look around and see nothing but the valley below us and the sky above
us. “What do you mean we’re here? I thought we were going to the lake?” I ask,
confused.
Serena smiles and peels her black sundress over her head. I wasn’t
expecting her to do that, which is why I don’t avert my eyes. Underneath her
black, strappy dress, she is wearing a tiny black crop top and a pair of black
panties. She pulls off her shoes and stands stock still, staring at me.
“You’re not going into the water like that are you?” she asks, not
answering my questions.
My eyes are travelling all over her body. I can’t believe the way it
looks, as if she goes to the gym every single day. It’s not manly muscle but
slender, womanly curves and defined muscles that stare back at me. I look down
at my clothes and shrug. I pull my jeans and socks off, peeling my t-shirt off
over my head. I leave my boxers on.
“Are you going to tell me where this lake is?” I ask again.
Serena wraps her fingers around my wrist and pulls me across the rocky
ground until we’re at the very top of the mountain. I step forward and see a
huge body of water below me. I look back at Serena and feel my heart jump into
my throat when I see Elodie sprinting past us, launching herself off the side
of the mountain. Serena laughs.
“You’re not too scared to jump into a little lake, are you?” she teases.
I shake my head but don’t look at her. I’m too busy watching Elodie
plummet through the sky before slicing through the water. I don’t breathe for
the entire four seconds that Elodie is under the water, not until her head bobs
up and I see her hand waving at us.
“Come on, wimpy boy.”
I turn back around and watch as Serena does exactly the same as Elodie,
except instead of just jumping, she dives cleanly through the air. She’s only
under the water for two seconds before she bursts back through the surface and
grins at me. I don’t know how far the drop is, but it’s more than I’ve ever
jumped before.
Still, I can’t stay here so I take four steps back and run as fast as my
body will carry me off the edge. The warm air whips across my skin as I drop
through the sky. The water is getting closer and closer to my feet. I can’t
remember what to do. Do I point my toes? Yes, I must or else I’ll break my
feet. Should my arms be close to my side? I have just enough time to make
myself as streamlined as possible before I feel the coolness of water on the
tip of my toes.
My whole body plunges into the freezing cold water, stealing my breath
away. I kick hard until my head surfaces, and then I pant and cough the breath
back in my lungs. The shock of going from boiling hot to freezing cold is too
much. My chest aches and my eyes sting.
“There he is,” says Serena, laughing as she swims up to me. “Are you
alright?”
I nod and cough. “I think so,” I rasp.
“He’s not like us,” says Elodie with a grin. “He’s not used to it.”
Serena treads water directly in front of me. The water drips off her
hair and down her face. I want to touch her and see what her skin feels like in
the water. Before I can reach out to her, she kicks out and swims away from me.
I shake my head, sending droplets of water flying out around me. I
shouldn’t be thinking about her like that anyway. I keep forgetting that I’m
supposed to hate her. I rub my face with my hands and spin around to see where
they’re swimming to, but I can’t see anything except water.
“Where are we going?” I ask, trying to keep up with them. I’ve never met
anyone else in my life that can swim or run as fast as these two.
“To land,” says Serena. “Keep up, wimpy boy.”
I wish she wouldn’t call me that. She wouldn’t think I was a wimpy boy
if she knew all of the horrible shit I’ve done over the years. My parents
certainly wouldn’t call me a wimpy boy. I think about my Dad and what he would
say if he could see me now. I smile as I think about the look on his face.
MY WATCH TELLS me that we’ve been swimming for over two
hours. I think back to my swim sessions at school when I used to be able to
swim a mile in an hour. Despite the fact that I’m going faster than ever
before, Serena is still miles ahead of me. I can feel my muscles aching, even
though I’ve had years of soccer and track training. No wonder Serena has a body
like an athlete.
When we finally arrive on land, we walk for ten minutes until we find a
pool of water that Serena says we can drink from. I flop down and gulp it as if
it’ll run out. When my belly is full and I can’t physically drink any more, I
lie down on top of the dry grass, staring at the water that’s sparkling against
Serena’s skin. She turns her head, snaps her sizzling green eyes onto me, and
smiles. And in that instant, I can’t help but think that she’s slowly starting
to melt my cold, hard heart.
My Review
This book is unlike anything I have ever read. Serena lives in the woods with her sister
Elodie and their mother. They have never
met anyone else and live a very rustic life.
Kaiden was supposed to hunting with his father and his father’s friends. He gets separated from the group and finds
the girls running in the woods. They don’t
know what to think of Kaiden as they have never seen a boy before. He fallows them back to see where they
live. He knows as soon as he sees Serena
that she is the person who has haunted his family and his parent’s close
friends. Serena was taken from her
parents when she was 2 and half and has no clue. Kaiden comes back and stays with them for a
few days while the girls “mother” is gone to the city to get supplies. Kaiden tells the police that he has found
Serena. They raid the house in the woods
and take the girls to the hospital so they can reconnect with their real
families. Serena is so mad at
Kaiden. How could he lie and pretend to
be her friend and then do this to her.
Her whole life has been a lie and she feels betrayed by everyone. Kaiden has never felt the way he does about
Serena about anyone else before. When he
is around her he is just himself. He doesn’t
have to pretend to be something or someone else. She accepts him the way he is and he gets a
fresh slate with her. He is the bad boy;
he gets in fights and doesn’t always do the right thing. In fact telling the police he found Serena is
the only good thing he has done in his life.
Serena gets butterflies in her stomach and feels so strong when she is
around Kaiden. Will they be able to get
over everything that has happened? Will
Serena adjust to a normal life? This
book was an emotional rollercoaster. So
much happens during the book. I felt so
bad for Serena. Her life is ripped apart
when she learns that she was kidnapped as a child. She has read lots of books so she knows
somethings. But reading about something
and doing it is two different things.
Kaiden just wanted to do the right thing. However meshing the way he acts around Serena
and the way everyone else expects him to act is hard. He loves the way he is when he is around
Serena but how does he go about changing so that he is like that all the
time. He friends and family are used to
him acting a certain way. Serena’s
parents are trying to get to know her again.
They aren’t sure how hard to push certain things and how to act around
her really. Then there is the woman who
kidnapped her and Elodie. She is still
out there. Will she try to take her
again? Would Serena go with
willing? I really liked this book. The ending took me by total surprise and
think I stopped breathing at one point.
Reading about everything Serena has to go through and how she stays
strong is amazing. Kaiden realizes how
stupid somethings he has done are and how is doesn’t like the person he is when
he isn’t with Serena is great. He wants
to be this better person all the time.
This person she deserves. I will
be looking for other books by Beckie Stevenson to read. This book is amazing and inspiring. It’s wonderfully written. The characters have depth. I felt like I was pulled in and had to keep
reading.
AUTHOR BIO:
Beckie's
real name is Rebecca, but she get’s called (and answers to) any of the
following…Beckie, Bek, Becca, Rebecca, Pip, Pippy or Stevo.
Beckie
is the author of 'Sorrow Woods,' the 'Existing' series and 'Noah and Me.'
She
is due to publish more YA, NA and Adult novels in 2015/16.
She
lives in Staffordshire, England, with her partner and two children.
Beckie
likes putting music on in the house and dancing around like a mad woman.
When
she isn’t playing with her children, doing housework, dancing around the house
like a mad woman, walking, cycling, reading or writing, then she can be found
working in an investment bank. Or sleeping.
AUTHOR MEDIA
LINKS:
Twitter:
@BeckieStevenson
Facebook:
www.facebook.com/BeckieStevensonAuthor
Instagram:
BeckieStevo
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