Book: Heels of Love
Author: Phoenix RayneTrilogy: From Love to Loathe, Book #1Genre: Contemporary RomancePublisher: G Street Chronicles
Synopsis:When Cricket Hooper moves to Seattle she only has a couple of goals—find a job and an apartment near her friend Chelle, and basically to live a quiet, normal life. However, it isn't long before life becomes far from normal.
When a mysterious man helps get her car out of the mud after she makes a wrong turn, she finds herself in his thrall. He wines and dines her, quite literally, and before Cricket can stop it, things are steamy and serious…very serious.
Cricket is thrown aback when Jyme turns out to be more than a simple fisherman, but then she isn't telling all of her story either.
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Excerpt:
I woke to an alarm but it wasn't my alarm. I sat up, looked around, and realized it was the hotel's fire alarm going off. I jumped up, ran to Cinnamon’s room, and swung the door open. She was knocked out on her bed half dressed; I shook the shit out of her, and she started yelling.
“What the hell is that noise?”
I ran down to Sugar's room, and she was butt naked and so was her company. I screamed at the both of them to get up. They both jumped up disoriented. I ran back to my room. I put my stilettos I'd had on earlier in my big purse and slid into my house shoes. I ran back down the hall, passing Sugar and her company. I ran back into Cinnamon's room, and she was wide-awake at her safe in her closet getting money out. I had forgotten about my safe, so I ran back to my room. I put the code in and yanked the door open; I pulled out the small stack of money and reached in deeper. I got the plastic bag that was balled up in the corner and shoved everything in my purse. I reached deeper, found the last item in the safe, and slid it on my ring finger. I slammed the door and took off towards the living room. Cinnamon was waiting at the door; we clasped hands and ran for the stairs. The hotel was in an uproar. We made it down to the lobby, but it was so congested with customers trying to leave the casino.
“Basement,” I yelled to Cinnamon. We took the employee stairs and ran down the long concrete hall. There were about a dozen people in front of us, but we finally made it through the door. When we got outside, the back lawn was crammed with people rushing towards the front of the building. Cinnamon and I still held on to each other’s hands. We made it to the front of the building, and everyone was frantic. I pulled out my cell phone to call Sugar, but someone pushed me so hard I dropped the phone. I let go of Cinnamon's hand to retrieve my fallen phone. I found it and stood up straight; a man in all black with a white ski mask stood right in front of me. Before I could even prepare a good scream, someone covered my mouth with a wet bandana, and then I was out. I woke up to soft kisses all over my face, and then I stretched wide. I was sleeping well and I kept my eyes shut. Someone was happy to see me. I have had this dream so many times, and I enjoyed every single one of them.
“Hi there,” I breathed.
“Hi.”
“Where’ve you been?”
“Looking for you.”
“I’ve been right here the whole time.”
“What?”
“You used to come and see me all the time, and then you stopped.” I told him. I kissed his neck and pulled him closer.
“I’ve missed you so much.”
“Cricket?” He said my name in an odd way.
“What’s wrong? Do you have to go now? Please, Jyme, just stay a little longer.”
“Cricket,”
“Shh, just hold me real tight before you go.” There was a knock at the door, and I freaked.
“NO…PLEASE…JYME, DON’T LET HIM HURT ME. HE HITS ME SO HARD. PLEASE DON’T LEAVE ME PLEASE.” I screamed at the top of lungs through tears.
Someone knocked again, louder this time.
“Wait a minute,” Jyme yelling. I clung to him and wrapped my arms around him tighter. I cried into his chest, and my eyes started stinging.
“Cricket, I’m right here, and I won’t let anybody hurt you, I swear.”
“But he’s at the door, and he’ll beat it down. He’s done it before,” I said frantically.
“Shh, Babe. Are you afraid of me?” he asked softly.
“No.”I assured him. “Then open your eyes and look at me” I slowly opened my eyes and blinked several times through piercing pain. Then, I saw him, and I slid my fingers through his jet-black hair.
“Oh it’s you!”
“It’s me,” he chuckled
“You know, you with hair; you’ve never come to see me.”
“Cricket, you're really here, and I’m really here with you. I’m not sure what you’re talking about right now. But I’m not going anywhere, and neither are you.”
“Huh” I asked him. I couldn’t help it but I pinched myself. I felt the pain but I didn’t wake up. There was another knock at the door, and Jyme got up from the bed. I really saw him this time. His hair was loose and shoulder length. He wore jeans and a t-shirt, and his feet were bare. I looked around and recognized everything. We were in our room, and nothing had changed. The bedding was the same, and so was the furniture. I looked out the window, and there were the boats all in the water.
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MY REVIEW:
Heels of Love by Phoenix Rayne is a 2013 G Street Chronicles publication. I was provided a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Cricket has been engaged three times, but never made it to the alter. In an attempt to put the past behind her she moves to Seattle near her close friend, Chelle. On her way, she takes a wrong turn and winds up stuck in the mud. A very attractive guy named Jyme helps her out . Although she is initially suspicious of him, he goes out of his way to prove himself to her. This guy wants to go from zero to a hundred in a few seconds. He is serious as can be about Cricket. He begins to chip away at her armor until Cricket begins to want him back. However, there is trouble in paradise. Lots of trouble...
Jyme is a Native American with some lofty goals for himself but no way to really work them out. So, he makes some pretty bad decisions. To top it off, he is suffering from a break up that really has him internalizing some serious anger issues. Cricket has also had some trouble in her past, but she never started having panic attacks until she started seeing Jyme. This escalates to the point where I started to have major doubts that Jyme was the right person for Cricket. His character is one of those over the top domineering alpha male types and he can do some physical damage and that has me a little concerned. Cricket readily forgave him after a brief cooling off period, but I still felt uneasy about that.
The book is really fast paced and has a lot of twist and turns and a major revelation about Cricket's past that you won't see coming. The book is maybe just a little bit too fast paced and things happen so fast it's hard to digest one thing before we were off on another major drama.
On the positive side, Cricket has a wonderful down to earth personality and is comfortable in her own skin, and downright hilarious, especially in the first quarter of the book. There were some other rather funny moments in regards to Jyme's "package" that will have either drooling or cringing.
As for the secondary characters, I loved Cricket's friends, did not really care for Jyme's family, although his mother sort of redeemed herself. We will have wait for the second book to find out the resolution for the way things ended in this first installment. There is a bit of a cliffhanger at the end so be prepared for that, and take heart the second book is on it's way!
I think I will settle on a C+/B- on this one mainly due to the rushed feeling I had reading the book and the personality of Jyme bordered on abuse and it made me feel uncomfortable and I don't know if we should trust men that are that intense. However, I am going to keep an open mind and see what happens in the next book before I decide if I want to continue with the series.
About the author:Phoenix Rayne
Phoenix Rayne was born in Federal Way Washington in a small community. Currently she resides in Nashville Tennessee where she is a student as well as a full time author… Phoenix is a published author that has several novels under her belt that she has penned with G-Street Chronicles. When not writing you can find her in a shoe store shopping or catching a good movie.
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