Too Hot To Handle
Romancing the Clarksons, #1
Tessa Bailey
Forever
May 17, 2016
When rescue looks like a whole lot of trouble…
The road trip was definitely a bad idea. Having already flambéed her culinary career beyond recognition, Rita Clarkson is now stranded in God-Knows-Where, New Mexico, with a busted-ass car and her three temperamental siblings, who she hasn't seen in years. When rescue shows up—six-feet-plus of hot, charming sex on a motorcycle—Rita's pretty certain she's gone from the frying pan right into the fire…
Jasper Ellis has a bad boy reputation in this town, and he loathes it. The moment he sees Rita, though, Jasper knows he's about to be sorely tempted. There's something real between them. Something raw. And Jasper has only a few days to show Rita that he isn't just for tonight—he's forever.
My Thoughts:
I do enjoy Tessa Bailey's writing. It tends to be loaded with a pretty good story with some hot scenes. Anyway, in Tessa's new series we meet the Clarkson's family and they are not the tightest family. They actually make the dysfunctional families look somewhat normal. However, they decided to pull together to do one more thing to fulfill their mother's last dying wish. By the way, it's a crazy one, which is to go to Coney Island beach and jump in together on New Year's Day. Yeah, crazy I know. This is the start of road trip that is bound to go wrong. I mean these siblings barely talk to one another and they are stuck in a car with them. A road trip is hard even with people you like. So, this trip is bound to be an interesting one. We meet Belmont, Rita, Aaron, and Peggy. Of course their first day of the trip they end up stuck in Hurley, New Mexico.
I liked Too Hot to Handle. It's a great premise. You have this family who isn't really in touch with one another and decided to do one last quest together to fulfill mother's dying wish. It's more than that it's more about drawing them closer together. They had separate so much that they didn't know one another. On top of it, Rita meets the manwhore of Hurley, Jasper. Actually, Jasper is a reformed manwhore, but the stigma still lives on. I like that he wanted to be something different with Rita. He only had a couple of days to win her over. He's such a cutie. He truly tries to be good, but old habits die hard. Rita even didn't help the situation, because she wanted to be in his bed. They struggle a little. However, this time in Hurley did give them all a chance to get to know one another again.
When I was reading Too Hot to Handle it made me think this could be a great plot to a movie. It does have growth between Clarkson siblings, but we also find someone for Rita. Overall, I thought it was a pretty good start to the series. I love the sappy ending to this story, but now I wonder what is going to happen along the road. Aaron is hiding something and I NEED TO KNOW. The wait is going to kill me, but at least Rita is happy and they will meet up in a few weeks in Coney Island beach. In need of a new series, with a highly dysfunctional family, you might give Clarkson a try and start with Too Hot to Handle.
Copy provided by Forever Romance via NetGalley.
Excerpt:
Rita and Belmont were sitting silently on the
sidewalk, staring at the decimated restaurant, when a sleek, white Mercedes
with the license plate VOTE4AC pulled up along the curb, eliciting a sigh from
them both. Rita shoved a hand through her dyed black hair and straightened her
weary spine. Preparing. Bolstering. While Belmont’s modus operandi was to hang
back, take a situation’s measure and then approach with caution, her younger
brother Aaron liked to make a damn entrance, right down to the way he exited
the driver’s side. Like a Broadway actor entering from stage left into a
dramatic scene, aware that eyes would swing his direction. His gray suit
boasted not a single wrinkle, black shoes polished to a shine. His golden boy
smile had made him a media sensation, but for once, it was nowhere to be seen
as he approached Rita and Belmont.
Aaron shoved his hands into his pants pockets. “Fuck.
Right?”
“Yep,” Rita said, swallowing hard.
Her politician brother did a scan of the dire scene,
brain working overtime behind golden brown eyes inherited by all the Clarksons.
Except Belmont, whose eyes were a deep blue, on account of him having a
different father. A fact that Rita forgot most of the time, since Belmont had
been there—an unmovable presence—since the day she was born. Aaron had come
later. The second coming.
“Are you all right?” Aaron asked her abruptly, a
suspicious twinkle in his gaze. “You must have been in there a while with the
smoke. The soot around your eyes—”
“Hilarious, dickhead.” Her heavy, black eye makeup
and general fuck off appearance were
a constant source of amusement for her clean-cut younger brother. “You have a
funny way of showing concern.”
“Thank you. What do I need to handle?” Aaron adjusted
the starched, white collar of his shirt. “Did you make a statement yet or
anything?”
Rita allowed the steel to leach from her spine. “I’ve
been kind of busy just sitting here.”
“Right.” Aaron feigned surprise at finding Belmont on
the sidewalk with them. “Jesus. I thought you were a statue.”
“Ha.”
“You smell like the ocean.”
“You smell like the blood of tax payers,” Belmont
returned.
“Well.” Rita finally found enough presence of mind to
yank the smoky apron over her head, chucking it into the street. “I think I
just remembered why we haven’t hung out since Mom died.”
Truthfully, even before that rainy afternoon, the
time they’d spent together as a family had felt mandatory. Organized by their
mother and fled from in almost comical haste.
“Oh. My. God.”
At the sound of their youngest sibling, Peggy’s,
voice, all three of them cursed beneath their breath. Let the family reunion officially begin. It wasn’t that they didn’t
love their baby sister. And in many ways, Peggy, a personal shopper to San
Diego’s elite, was still a baby at twenty-five. Her big coke-bottle curls and
cheerleader appearance guaranteed she got away with just about everything.
Including neglecting to pay her cab driver, if the irritated-looking man
following her with a receipt clutched in his fist was any indication.
“How did this happen?” Peggy hiccupped, playing with
the string of engagement rings dangling from her neck, as Belmont wordlessly
paid the cab driver. “I just had dinner here two weeks ago. Everything seemed fine.”
Rita battled the compulsion to lay down on the
sidewalk in the fetal position. Oh God. Her
mother had bequeathed her an award-winning restaurant and she’d burned it down.
On Rita’s first day back.
Aaron was busy scrolling through his phone, the
screen’s glow illuminating his perfectly tousled dark blond hair. “Look at the
bright side, Rita. Now you can pursue your dream of being a Hot Topic register
girl.”
Rita barely had the strength to flip him the bird.
“Jump up my ass.”
When Peggy approached, Rita couldn’t look her in the
eye, so she focused on her younger sister’s toes, peeking out of strappy silver
sandals. “Hey. I’m glad you’re okay.”
Rita’s throat went tight. “Thanks, Peggy.”
“I’m sorry about the restaurant, too. I know how much
you loved it. How much Mom loved it.” Her youngest sibling nodded and cast a
discreet glance over her shoulder, turning back with a charming half smile. A
smile responsible for four marriage proposals over the past three years. “Mom
probably would have wanted me to talk to those firefighters, though. Am I
right?”
Rita groaned up at the sky.
Meet the
fucking Clarksons.
Purchase Links
AUTHOR INFORMATION
Tessa Bailey is originally from Carlsbad, California. The day after high school graduation, she packed her yearbook, ripped jeans, and laptop, and drove cross-country to New York City in under four days. Her most valuable life experiences were learned thereafter while waitressing at K-Dees, a Manhattan pub owned by her uncle. Inside those four walls, she met her husband, best friend, and discovered the magic of classic rock, managing to put herself through Kingsborough Community College and the English program at Pace University at the same time. Several stunted attempts to enter the work force as a journalist followed, but romance writing continued to demand her attention.
She now lives in Long Island, New York with her husband and daughter. Although she is severely sleep-deprived, she is incredibly happy to be living her dream of writing about people falling in love.
ABOUT FOREVER
No comments:
Post a Comment