Coming Apart at the Seams by Jenna Sutton – Review & Giveaway

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Description:
Love can take some time to break in…

Teagan O’Brien, heiress to the Riley O’Brien & Co. denim empire, is anything but a spoiled rich girl. She’s worked hard to secure her place in the family business and can hold her own, in and out of the office. Only one man has ever been able to get under her skin—sexy football star Nick Priest. Years ago they crossed the line from friends to lovers, but he left her heartbroken. Since then, she’s been determined to keep him at arm’s length—no matter how tempting he looks in his jeans…

Nick has fortune, fame, and looks that make most women hot and bothered. But he doesn’t have the woman he really wants. He knows he screwed up when he walked away from Teagan, and now that he has a second chance, he’ll do whatever it takes to win her over—no matter how tongue-tied he gets…

 

 

Review:

Coming Apart at the Seams by Jenna Sutton is the 2^nd book in her Riley O’ Brien & Co. series. Teagan O’Brien is our heroine in this book; she played a big part in the first book. Teagan is now fully working for Riley O’Brien, and to her dismay, she finds out that Nick, the man she loved and lost was coming to work for the firm.

Nick Priest is a famous pro football player, who is best friends with Quinn and Cal (Teagan’s brothers), and he is also a heartrob. Nick knows he hurt Teagan years before, but he is determined win her back; all he wants is a second chance. But even if their chemistry is scorching and she can’t resist him sexually, Teagan hates him now. Nick also doesn’t talk a lot, as he has a stuttering problem, which he tries to hide. Teagan never really notices it, as Nick seems to be a one word man.

The story then flips to the past, when Teagan was in law school in Boston, and Nick is traded to the Boston team. Nick always considered Teagan his best friends younger sister, and when he sees her again, she is all grown up. He finds himself visiting Teagan often, just being friends. Teagan has a crush on the gorgeous and sexy Nick, but understands they are just friends, and they enjoy each other’s company. Their friendship was very nicely done, even though you can see that Nick is having a hard time not being turned on by the luscious Teagan. We do hear his private thoughts, which he is desperately trying to control, as he does not want to lose her friendship, not to mention all the O’Brien family members.

Then one night, both give in to their lustful feelings, with Nick leaving in the middle of the night. Teagan realizes she loves Nick, but after a week or two passes without hearing from him, she goes to see him. What Nick tells her breaks her heart, and shortly thereafter, when she tries to contact him as a friend, he does not answer her calls. Why did Nick turn her away? Will Teagan ever forgive him for breaking her heart?

What follows returns to the present, where Nick is doing everything in his power to make Teagan let him explain, and forgive him. She refuses to listen to him, and does her best to be able to work with him and still ignore that she still has feelings for him.

This was a very good, fun story, and a sweet romance. I did think too much time was spent in the past, and as much as I loved Nick, I was not thrilled with his actions at times (Sex is not the only answer to win Teagan back). I loved Teagan in the first book, and continued in this one. It was great to spend time with the O’Briens again. I look forward to the next book in this series, which is expected to be Cal’s story.

Reviewed by Barb

Copy provided by Publisher

 

Communication is the Secret Ingredient
By Jenna Sutton

It’s no secret that communication is secret ingredient to long and happy relationships, especially romantic relationships. Decades of research proves that couples who communicate well are happier and stay together longer.

But just because we know how important communication is doesn’t mean we’re good at it. The health and longevity of a relationship is based on effectively communicating thoughts and feelings in ways that our partners can understand and digest.

Here’s a question for you: Do you consider yourself a good communicator? Better yet, does your romantic partner think you are?

A few years ago, Terri Orbuch, a psychologist and author of Finding Love Again: 6 Simple Steps to a New and Happy Relationship, conducted a massive study while she was at the University of Michigan’s Institute for Social Research. The study, funded by the National Institutes of Health, surveyed divorced men and women, asking them what contributed to the break up and what they would change in their future relationships.

The study found that communication style was the number one thing the study participants would change. More than 40 percent said they would communicate differently (I’m curious about the percentage who said they wished their partner communicated differently).

I find the whole concept of communication intriguing, primarily because we all communicate differently and there are different forms of communication. Verbal communication, which involves both talking and listening, is the most common, yet some people are better at expressing themselves verbally than others.

Most of us consider the ability to speak as a given. We learn to talk when we’re babies, and hopefully, as we grow older, our vocabularies expand, and we learn to speak with purpose.

For most of us, the challenge isn’t talking, but talking too much. The opposite is true for Nick Priest, the hero of my new romance, Coming Apart at the Seams. Nick has a speech impediment that makes talking difficult—a severe stutter that no amount of speech therapy can cure.

Nick’s stutter impacts every aspect of his life, from his career choice to his personal relationships. As a wide receiver in the NFL, he relies on his body to do get the job done. His ability to run, jump, and catch a ball is what makes him successful.

But when it comes to personal relationships, Nick has a hard time connecting with people. Teagan O’Brien, the heroine of Coming Apart at the Seams, is the exception. She gets him in a way that other people don’t, and they’ve known each other for a long time because she’s his best friend’s little sister.

Here’s how Nick describes their communication style: “They had established a weird conversational rhythm he’d never experienced with anyone else. He could say one word, and she’d fill in the blanks, making it easy for him to communicate with her.”

Inevitably, Nick and Teagan cross the line from friends to lovers, and he breaks her heart. But when he finally realizes how badly he messed up, persuading Teagan to give him a second chance isn’t easy because she’s stopped listening. She doesn’t “hear” him anymore.

Nick has to figure out a way to let Teagan know how he feels. Fortunately, talking isn’t the only way to communicate—there’s also non-verbal communication like kissing and touching. And he’s really, really good at those things!

How would you rate your non-verbal communication skills? I think mine are quite excellent. For example, tapping my foot to communicate my annoyance is very effective, with my husband, at least. This habit, excuse me, this skill, is one that Teagan and I share.

Coming Apart at the Seams is the second book in the Riley O’Brien & Co. series, following my debut novel, All the Right Places. If you’re looking for a book that features deep friendship, intense passion, sizzling sex scenes, life-altering mistakes, and second chances, I hope you’ll read Coming Apart at the Seams. Visit my website at jennasutton.com to read an excerpt.

 

Jenna Sutton spent most of her career as an award-winning journalist covering business-related topics including healthcare, commercial real estate, retail, and technology. Nowadays she writes about hot, lovable guys and the smart, sexy women who make them crazy. It’s the culmination of a lifelong dream, and she feels so lucky to be able to do it.

Jenna has a Bachelor’s degree in Journalism from Texas Christian University and a Master’s degree in Integrated Marketing Communications from Northwestern University. She and her husband live in Texas in a 103-year-old house affectionately known as “the money pit”.

You can learn more about Jenna at the following links:
website / Facebook / Twitter / Goodreads




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