We're celebrating the release of FALLING DEEP by Diana Gardin! Check out the excerpt and giveaway below!
Title: FALLING DEEP
Author: Diana Gardin
Age: New Adult
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Publisher: Grand Central/Forever Yours
Scheduled to release: April 7, 2015
Amazon: http://amzn.to/1BJ18aj
iTunes: http://apple.co/1OsfGp3
Kobo: http://bit.ly/19LuK1d
Reed Hopewell is a lot of things to a lot of people . . .
To his parents, he's the son who needs to get serious. To his friends, he's the player they all want to be. And to his fans, he's the hottest rocker in Charleston. But never has Reed been anyone's hero-until the night he finds Hope.
Hope Dawson can count the number of men she trusts on one hand. Definitely not the guys she goes out with or the stepfather who treats her like property. She'd be out of his house tomorrow if not for the need to protect her little sister. But when things at home go from bad to worse, Hope has to act fast-and Reed is the only person she can turn to . . .
FALLING DEEP EXCERPTS (Please choose ONE to include in your
posts.)
Excerpt
#1
Prologue
How It All Ended…
She bit down hard on her bottom lip, the soft trickle of blood
pooling in her mouth a welcome distraction from the terrible ache beginning to
build in her chest.
She could see the darkness as it crept into his eyes. It was the
shrouded darkness she had been so attracted to when she first laid eyes on him
under the hot stage lights. The hard pallor that let her know despite his
glossy appearance and the obvious presence of prosperity in his life, he had
clawed his way out of a long dark tunnel of pain similar to her own. She had
been drawn to him because she hoped if he could get out, then maybe she could,
too. Maybe he could pull her to the end of her very own darkness.
Then she’d made the mistake of getting to know him. She learned
that he wasn’t full of darkness, that he was full of the brightest light she’d
ever dared to dream of. And when that light was directed at her, she’d
completely fallen victim to his goodness and the shine that made him Reed.
But that hope was gone now, that flame had been extinguished,
and in its place stood the bleak certainty that no matter how hard she wished,
no matter how hard she wanted it, she was never going to be able to escape this
life that karma had gifted her.
And Reed Hopewell wasn’t going to be her savior, after all.
Excerpt
#2
As Sam walked away, Reed stepped closer to Hope, like an
invisible string pulled him.
“Why what?” she asked, her voice shaking slightly.
“Why are you out here? What does that guy in there think about
the fact that you’re outside with me right now?”
Her forehead wrinkled in confusion, which might have been the
cutest thing he’d ever witnessed. He watched it in fascination as the wrinkles
smoothed out and then appeared again as her thoughts whirred around her head.
“What guy? Why are you out here? You seemed upset when you left.
Did I do something?”
Reed, still focused on the facets of her face, missed the
question. “I’m sorry, what?”
“I mean…I know we didn’t get a chance to talk the other week,
but I wanted to tell you…I appreciate what you did for me. You didn’t have to.
You could have kept walking, and then…well, then Tyler probably would have hurt
me.” She shook visibly. “So, uh…thank you, Reed.”
His name rolling off of her tongue like pure silk pulled him
another involuntary step closer to her. Those hazel eyes held only a hint of
green tonight, and they nearly sparkled in the lemony light of the streetlamp.
Her lips pursed slightly as she watched him, and he could tell that although
she was sincere, she hated the fact that she needed to be thanking him at all.
She was fierce, and he liked it. Oh, he liked that a hell of a
lot.
And as he read all of that in her eyes, they suddenly softened,
as if she knew what he saw there. And another step brought him closer still,
until they were only inches apart.
Excerpt
#3
Her sharp intake of breath gave her away, as cool and collected
as she tried to remain. He hadn’t kissed her today, and he’d had a million
chances. Was that about to change?
As if reading her mind, he continued to close the gap between
them with slow, deliberate steps. His eyes were melded to hers the entire way,
and when he reached her, he dropped to his knees in front of her. Without
breaking his stare, he slowly placed his hands on her thighs, just resting his
palms on top of her legs as he gazed up at her.
“I have a promise to keep,” he said. His voice barely registered
as a whisper, and the blue of his eyes was so intense and deep that she thought
she might be staring into the ocean’s depths.
She nodded numbly. “You said you were going to make sure that I
never called one of your kisses ‘nice’ again.”
“That’s right,” he murmured, and he slid his hands up her legs
until they were cupping her hips and sliding her forward on the leather seat.
“I did say that. Did you think I forgot?”
Hope’s mouth was steadily going dry as she continued to hold
Reed’s stare. “No. I just thought you didn’t want to.”
He laughed softly. “No, beautiful. That wasn’t it. I was just
trying to read the moment, and it never seemed like you wanted it bad enough.”
Her eyes widened as she took him in. This gorgeous man, with the
face of some kind of devious angel and what she was sure was a body to match,
was kneeling before her like she was a goddess. Her vision blurred a bit as his
fingers grazed the bare skin of her sides where her skin was exposed above her
shorts.
He continued to hold her gaze; he tilted his head slightly, as
if trying to read her expression. Then she realized he was waiting for a green
light, just as he had the first night he kissed her.
“I want it,” she whispered. God
help me.
Excerpt
#4
The tingling was now radiating through her legs, causing them to
wobble slightly. Reed stared so intently into her eyes it was getting difficult
to draw in the already stifling air around her. Dammit! If those eyes weren’t so piercing then maybe I could think straight.
“I don’t want a caveman in my life,” she finally said. “I’ve met
plenty of those. Actually lived with a few. It never works out well, in the
end.”
“I see,” he murmured, entering her space. He twisted around so
that he could place his hands on either side of her, bracing himself against
the bar as he stared down. His dark eyebrows rose slightly, and one tendril of
dark hair drifted down over his forehead. “And what part of their caveman
behavior turned you off the most? Was it the fact that they’d do anything to
protect you? Was it the fact that they’d beat anyone’s ass who decided it was
worth it to touch you? Was it that they put you and your safety first, above
everything else?”
Now the air was entirely gone. His words had sucked the life out
of the too-thin oxygen around her, and she was suffocating. Her feet were
slipping on what felt like thin ice beneath her, and she was drowning in the
blue depths of his gaze.
“No,” she whispered.
“Hmm?” he asked, unblinking. “What was that?”
She closed her eyes, and the pressure of his finger on her chin
forced her to open them again. To meet his stare head-on without relief. “I
said no. None of that was
what those men did for my mother…or me.”
He continued to stare at her. “So, when you say caveman, you
aren’t referring to me. That was them. And this is us. Got it?”
She attempted to take a breath again, and failed. She just
nodded.
Reed smiled, just a slight quirk of his full lips that had her
nibbling on her lower one to keep from leaning forward. “Say you get it. So we
won’t have any misunderstandings about where I’m coming from.”
Her knees knocked together. One of Reed’s hands left the bar to
wrap securely around her waist, effectively keeping her from collapsing into a
puddle on the floor.
“I understand,” she whispered, unable to look away.
GIVEAWAY:
(3) FALLING DEEP ebooks, (1) Signed copy, (1) Nelson Island swag pack and a $10 Amazon gift card
Link: http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/4a501259504/?
About the author:
Diana is the author of the YA novel COLORBLIND, and the NA Contemporary Romance novels OUT OF THE ASHES, SETTLING ASHES, AND WANTING FOREVER. All are available for purchase now. Diana is a Virginia girl living In South Carolina, and her beloved home in the South is the backdrop for all of her novels. She adores writing about Southern girls and boys finding their way in and out of love. She’s married to the love of her life, and they have two fabulous/crazy children under the age of five.
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