*Grabby Hands* Release & Review - Run To You by Rachel Lacey

Tuesday, September 06, 2016

Grabby Hands Release & Review - Run To You by Rachel Lacey

Title: Run to You

(Risking It All #1)

Author: Rachel Lacey

Publication Date: August 30th, 2016

Publisher: Forever

ONE LITTLE LIE. A WHOLE LOTTA TROUBLE.

Moments after meeting the most gorgeous guy ever, Gabby Winters promptly gets stung by a zillion yellow jackets and falls-not gracefully-into a stream. Yup, Ethan Hunter is trouble with a capital "hot," and Gabby definitely needs to keep her distance. Except in the small town of Haven, there's nowhere to hide from Ethan's sexy, infectious grin . . . and all the residents are conspiring against her.

At the center of the town's matchmaking is Ethan's grandmother, who's convinced their relationship is a done deal. Rather than break her heart, Gabby and Ethan find themselves cornered into pretending to be falling in love. The problem: there's serious sizzling attraction between them. And if this charade continues, they won't fool just the entire town - they might fool themselves too . . .

Goodreads

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When Ethan awoke, sunlight was streaming through his window, and based on the tent in his sheets, Gabby was still on his mind. He closed his eyes and started counting backward from fifty, his morning tradition to relieve the pressure so that he could leave the bedroom without being indecent in front of Gram.

His dick was just starting to relax when his phone pinged with an incoming text. Welcoming the distraction, he reached over and grabbed it off the nightstand.

The text was from Gabby. Thinking about you this morning and hoping that problem we talked about hasn’t gotten too hard to handle.

She’d inserted a little winking emoticon at the end, followed by a sunrise and a tree. Morning wood. And yep, that problem had just gotten really hard again.

Killing me. He texted back.

That bad, huh?

Oh yeah, it was bad. Getting worse by the second.

I’d be happy to help you with it if you want to stop by… This was followed by several colorful hearts.

His poor cock ached at the thought. But… No can do. Gotta take Gram to an appointment.

Oh. Bummer.

No kidding. Gotta go. Chatting with you is not helping the issue.

He thrust his phone back onto the bedside table and lay there, concentrating on the sounds of Gram moving around in the kitchen until his dick finally accepted defeat. Then he went down the hall and took a long, cold shower.

Rachel Lacey is a contemporary romance author and semi-reformed travel junkie. She's been climbed by a monkey on a mountain in Japan, gone scuba diving on the Great Barrier Reef, and camped out overnight in New York City for a chance to be an extra in a movie. These days, the majority of her adventures take place on the pages of the books she writes. She lives in warm and sunny North Carolina with her husband, son, and a variety of rescue pets.

Author Links: Website | Facebook | Twitter | GoodReads

4 “Sweet and hot small town romance” Stars

ARC via NetGalley.

Thank you, Forever!

I read a book by Rachel Lacey a while ago (maybe last year, I’m not sure), and I loved it. Guess what? It happened again.

Just like she did with “Unleashed”, Ms. Lacey gave me exactly what I needed with “Run to You”: sweet and hot small town romance with a likable MC, a trouble but swoon-worthy LI, a romance with great chemistry and a dog. Yep, because dogs are important, and Ms. Lacey seem to love them just as much as I do.

Come meet Gabby Winters, the MC who’ll steal your heart because she is a super nice person who just wants to get over a bad relationship but hiding in a the house she rented in a small town. Gabby is that girl-next-door-but-not-really kind of adorable protagonist whom you just can’t help but like. She’s genuinely nice, which I’m starting to think all Rachel Lacey’s protagonists are. This is not a critique, you guys, because writing likable characters is much more difficult than people give writers credit for. Sure sometimes I want to read about girls/women who are a bit unlikable because they’re bold and out-there and all of that, but that’s usually not what I’m looking for when I get my hands on a small-town romance book. The fact that Rachel Lacey can deliver exactly the kind of protagonist readers want from this category/genre is something worth noticing.

Another thing this author is really good at is writing soft-alpha LIs. “Is soft-alpha even a thing?” You’re probably asking right now. Well, it is. It’s that guy who’s got a little bit of a caveman in him, maybe a short temper or a tendency to want things done a certain way, but he doesn’t place high in the “Jericho Barrons” scale, you know? He’s a bit softer. I love alpha-alpha, only-alpha and soft-alpha; and I loved how “Run to You” brought me Ethan, a man who knew what he wanted in bed (yummy) and out of it, and had a short temper to go with it without coming across as a the-jerk-I-love-to-hate (or hate-to-love).

Gabby and Ethan meet when they’re both in need of each other. His grandmother is dying and she wants to see him happy before she passes away, and Gabby’s ex-boyfriend is stalking her, so she needs to show him she’s moved on so he can do the same. Cue to one of my favorite romance tropes: fake relationship.

Of course the attraction between Gabby and Ethan has you licking your Kindle and coming back for more (metaphorically, you guys!), so the fake relationship turns real soon enough. When I mean soon enough it means: not too early and not too late. The pacing was just as it needed to me, and I read this in one sitting.

I loved, loved everything about this couple. Loved, loved how Ethan inserted Gabby in his life without pushing her. How Gabby started to care for his grandmother, help his friends, make friends of her own.

Grandmother, by the way, was a great character. She won me over pretty quickly and I might’ve teared up a few times when she was concerned. Ethan’s love for her was beautiful. Just beautiful. And of course that made him even more likable.

I also enjoyed the business idea Ethan and his two friends came up with. It was refreshing and smart. Getting to know Mark and Ryan a little bit was also a plus, because I’m already anxious to read about Ryan’s relationship with Emma (apparently it’ll feature another favorite trope: brother’s BFF) and Mark’s relationship with the spa-lady (a little bit of a second chance romance, plus Mark, who was dark and broody and just my kind of LI).

Overall, this was a great, great Sunday read and I’m so happy I got the chance to read another book from Ms. Lacey. It seems like Rachel Lacy is going to join Kelly Eadon in my list of go-to authors for sweet and hot romance novels.