Blog Tour + Review: When Ashes Fall by Marni Mann
When Ashes Fall, an all-new standalone contemporary romance from best-selling author Marni Mann.
It’s been said that you can’t love two men at the same time.
You can’t split your heart, soul, and body in half.
But I’m here to tell you, you can.
Dylan Cole is like ice, sharp and unpredictable, the thunder inside a tumultuous storm.
Smith Reid is warmth, soft and gentle, perfect like a sunny day.
Both are mine.
But I can have only one.
There are two sides to this tale.
I'm here to tell you mine.
If you think this story is about a cheater, you couldn’t be more wrong.
Download your copy today!
Amazon: https://amzn.to/2FeUO9w
Amazon Worldwide: http://mybook.to/WhenAshesFallMM
Apple Books: https://goo.gl/Bq4rkX
Nook: https://goo.gl/h6VMj8
Kobo: https://goo.gl/aXMkJW
Excerpt:
Alix and I were standing outside Quincy Market,
holding our to-go boxes of chocolate cake, opened, with several forkfuls
missing from each piece. I’d asked about her shift, which had started at
midnight, and she was telling me about one of the calls she had been on. It
involved an elderly couple, married for sixty-seven years. The husband had
fallen down a short flight of stairs. Alix believed he had fractured his hip.
She stared at the cake as she spoke. And I gazed
at her, checking out the way she speared off another bite. How she stuck the
fork between her lips.
How the utensil came out of her mouth clean.
It was incredibly sexy.
So was she.
She didn’t even have to try. It came natural to
her.
As natural as her looks.
A beauty that went so deep, she didn’t need
makeup to enhance it.
She didn’t wear much of it anyway. There wasn’t
anything on her lips, no color on her lids, just thick lashes and some pink on
her cheeks.
She had no idea how gorgeous she was.
If I told her, I was sure she wouldn’t believe
me.
Alix’s confidence came when she talked about her
job.
I could tell how much she loved it by the passion
in her voice, by the way she described how she’d helped the old man.
What she did was something I hadn’t been able to
visualize at first. Now that I’d spent more time with her, it was all I could
see.
Damn it, I wanted to touch her.
I’d kept my hands off of her while she was eating
the gyro and fries.
But I didn’t want to wait any longer.
Once she swallowed the mouthful, I said, “Alix …”
I needed her eyes on me to see the way she would
look at me, how she would respond to the sound of my voice.
That would determine if I could reach for her
right now or if I’d have to wait.
Her stare slowly lifted and landed on mine.
Shyness was peeking through her expression.
Still, every sign was there—the desire in her
glare, the increased breathing, the way her tongue was swiping across her lips.
It wasn’t frosting she was licking off because there wasn’t any there.
I dropped the small box of cake on the ground.
She didn’t watch it fall, but when she heard the sound, I saw the hunger in her
grow.
I took a step.
He did, too, in the opposite direction at the
same time she dropped her cake.
She said nothing as I continued to move toward
her, backing her up to the side of the building until her body was pressed
against it.
As I stood inches away, I lifted my hands to the
top of her head where they pushed into the brick. “You can stop me.”
Her voice was soft, not weak, as she looked up at
me and said, “I’m not sure I can.”
**ARC provided in exchange for an honest review**
When I started
this book I was confused at first, because I couldn't figure out what was going
on. Which was good, because I like unpredictable books that keep me guessing.
This book has short chapters that go back and forth from present time to
flashbacks, which I sometimes like and sometimes end up hating in books.
However, it was nicely done in When Ashes Fall, and because of the length of
the chapters I didn't mind it that much. But this also had a bit of a downside
to it. I was kind of being pulled back and forth the whole time, and I didn't
know how to feel about certain characters. In addition the overall length of
the book didn't give me enough time to fully connect to and with the
characters, because it felt like two stories being fit into one. And it just
wasn't long enough, because when I started to feel something, I was already at
the end of the book. I really wish the book was longer, I don't think either of
the main characters had enough time to grow and heal in this book. They just
started to making steps towards the right direction just before the book ended.
"But
we always hope for sunny days. Those are the easiest, the safest, the ones with
the least amount of concerns."
About Marni:
Best-selling Author Marni Mann knew she was going to be a
writer since middle school. While other girls her age were daydreaming about teenage
pop stars, Mann was fantasizing about penning her first novel. She crafts sexy,
titillating stories that weave together her love of darkness, mystery, passion,
and human emotion. A New Englander at heart, she now lives in Sarasota, Florida
with her husband and their two dogs who subsequently have been characters in
her books. When she’s not nose deep in her laptop working on her next novel,
she’s scouring for chocolate, sipping wine, traveling to new locations, and
devouring fabulous books.
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