Synopsis:
I've
lived most of my life in darkness, beneath the shadows of secrets and
addictions. The last thing I ever wanted to do was hurt the only girl I'd ever
loved—the one who brought me into the light. In my entire life I'd made one
promise—a promise I'd intended to keep. I've broken that promise and now I have
to live with the fallout. Dixie Lark hates me, and I have to tell her that I
love her. I also have to tell her a truth that might destroy us forever.
Can
she love me, even if she can't forgive me?
Learning
to move on . . .
Gavin
Garrison broke his promise to my brother and he broke my heart in the process.I
may never love anyone the way I've loved him, but at least I won't spend my
life wondering "what if." We had our one night and he walked away.
I'm beginning to move on, but my brother's wedding and a battle of the bands
are about to throw us together again.
Our band is
getting a second chance, but I don't know if I can give him one. How do you
hand your heart back to the person who set it on fire once already?
****EXCERPT****
****EXCERPT****
His mouth is so close, he’s so
close. He seems taller or something, and even though I know the likelihood of
that is ridiculous, I don’t remember ever feeling so very aware of his
presence. Or maybe I just blocked it all out. But here, now, in the room with
him, everything is coming back.
All of it.
Every single second we spent connected on a physical level. His
mouth on me, his lips, his tongue, his body inside of mine.
“You’re good at this,” I say, barely able to get my voice to go
above a whisper.
“I’ve had a lot of practice.”
I don’t know if he means with first aid, which is likely since
he’s had to perform CPR on his mom more times than I can count, or seduction,
which I also happen to know he’s well versed in. Either way, I am in danger of
losing my grip on my ability to remain up- right.
It’s as if my brain has been doing me a favor for the past few
months, allowing me to focus on being pissed at him instead of . . . this. But
clearly my brain has left the building and I am completely on my own. This is
dangerous.
I am weak.
I want him.
I need him.
Screw it.
“There,” he says gently, lowering my dress back down over my
I want him.
I need him.
Screw it.
“There,” he says gently, lowering my dress back down over my
thighs. “That might help a little but you should still—”
My mouth captures his midsentence. His lips are slightly moist and even fuller than I remembered. I tense and a dull ache hits hard
My mouth captures his midsentence. His lips are slightly moist and even fuller than I remembered. I tense and a dull ache hits hard
as my heart drops a few inches in preparation of being rejected.
Much to my surprise, Gavin doesn’t stop me. He doesn’t reject me. He
doesn’t spew some bull about my brother or our friendship or seeing anyone else
or anything.
He only makes one sound—a soft, pained groan. His hands grip the
skin just beneath my ass and he lifts me onto the counter. The dress is tight
but I manage to part my thighs far enough to accom- modate his broad figure
between them.
My fingers press into his back, urging him closer even though
it’s not exactly possible. I try to catch his tongue but he’s sweeping it
deeply inside, then pulling back to suck on my lips. A muffled moan escapes my
mouth and slides into his.
“You taste like whiskey, Bluebird.” He chuckles lightly, then
cuts off any chance I had of verbalizing a response by slipping his fingers
between my legs and into the waistband of my panties.
“I’ve come a long way since strawberry ice cream.”
I'm sitting here writing this review after reading that epilogue with tears in my eyes. I have tears because this book, this storyline, this family, has touched me so deeply. The epilogue has rocked my heart to its core. There is something so insanely profound having it written from his point of view and in regards to how he FELT. What it felt to be loved like that. Maybe it's because I have a child. Maybe it's because I'm adopted by my step dad. Maybe it's because Caisey Quinn really is just that talented of a writer she can pull the feels right out of you.
When Leaving Amarillo ended I was so upset with that ending. I was pissed at Gavin, heartbroken for Dixie and disappointed in Dallas. And I feel like in this final installment in the series, everything has come full circle. And not to quote Dixie and Gavin too much, but everything seemed to play out exactly as it was meant to. It was so flawless and perfect.
SHE’S EVERYTHING I EVER WANTED AND THE ONE THING I WAS never supposed to have. Now she’s all I can think about. The scent of her, the taste of her, the feel of her.
How can you read that and not expect to find your next book boyfriend. It's so epic.
“Gav. I need. I need . . .” I can’t breathe. All I am is need. “I know what you need, sweetness. I have every intention of giving it to you.” “Yes, please,” I plead shamelessly.
And sexy. Caisey Quinn nails sexy it seems almost without even trying.
If you can't tell i adored this book. I think Caisey has done an exceptional job with it. It's equal parts heartbreaking, emotional, gut wrenching, loving, sexy, beautiful and amazing. Just really some of her best work.
PURCHASE LINKS:
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | iTunes | Kobo
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Caisey Quinn lives in
Nashville, Tennessee and is the bestselling author of the Kylie Ryans series
and several other New Adult Romance titles. Her Neon Dreams series about a
country rock crossover band paying their dues in life and in love on their
rocky road to fame is now available from Avon/William Morrow.
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A NOTE FROM CAISEY QUINN
When
I look back on the year it took to write this series, it feels like a blur. A beautiful,
bright, neon lit blur. I have to confess that I didn’t know exactly how the
Neon Dreams series would end when I began writing it. I knew the band would
finally make it big. I knew that they would never want to share their backstory
but that it would be a story worth telling. What I didn’t know was how real
their hearts and souls would become to me. While Liam may not be Dixie and
Gavin’s biological son, I did learn this year that family truly does come in
the form of people who love and support you in both the best and worst of times
and that it’s not always comprised of people who are related by blood or
marriage. Liam was born from that discovery.
When
Dallas went on the road and Dixie stayed behind, some people were outright
angry. I was. At both of them. I was confused about why this felt right. I
didn’t know Liam existed yet. I didn’t know he was going to be wandering by an
old house in the backside of Amarillo alone and afraid. I didn’t realize that
Dixie had to be there giving piano lessons to other kiddos so that Liam would
hear and be drawn to her.
Everyone
was exactly where they needed to be—even when I hadn’t yet realized it.
So
my first big thank you is for you, for those of you who read this series and
allowed me to figure it out as I went. For each of you who leaves a review
somewhere—anywhere—and tells a friend to read it, thank you times two. Times
ten. Times infinity, as my daughter says.
My
second thank you is to my editor, Amanda, who didn’t tell me to take a hike
when Liam entered the picture and it meant a rewrite of the second half of the
book and that I wouldn’t make my initial deadline. I love you. I thank God for
you, for your always having my back and for allowing me to write the story I
believed in, the way that I needed to write it.
Thank
you to my agent, Kevan, for also not dropping the crazy lady who said “So . . .
my life is a mess and I need this book to go a different way and I am going to
hunker down into the bat cave until I get it right.” Promise not to do that
again . . . at least not on purpose.
To
the members of CQ’s Road Crew and the Backwoods Belles, you ladies have been my
family this year. You have been my light in the darkness, pulling me out of one
of the toughest and most devastating situations I’ve ever been in. I literally
don’t know if I could do my job without your unconditional love and support.
Scratch that. I couldn’t. I know I couldn’t. Same goes for the bloggers who
share, review, post, and rant and rave about all the book things. I love y’all.
To the moon and back and around again.
To
the amazing authors I am blessed to call colleagues and friends, thank you. I
don’t know what I did to deserve you, to even get to know you much less read
your work and have my books read and loved on by you, but I’m glad I did
it—whatever it was!
Lastly,
to anyone who supports music and musicians in general, thank you for existing.
Music matters. The epilogue from Liam is very much nonfiction in my world, and
I have someone I love dearly that I believe was saved by music. You know that
feeling you get when you hear that song—that one that causes you to step off
the treadmill or pull the car over or freeze in place and hold your breath and
strain to hear because it reaches that deep, dark, hidden place where your
secrets dwell—it’s a real, tangible thing, that feeling. It connects
us—especially when we are positive no one else in the entire world could
possibly understand what we’re going through. And let’s face it, life is better
with a soundtrack.
Thank
you to every single person who had a hand in helping this series about a
small-town ragtag band become more than I ever dreamed it could be.
Thank
you for making my dreams come true.
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