At First Hate (Coastal Chronicles 2) by K.A. Linde-Review tour

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ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date September 7, 2021.

Derek Ballentine and I have always been on opposite sides of everything.

I went to a public Savannah high school. He went to a private Catholic school. I went to Duke on scholarship. He went to UNC as a legacy. When we both end up at Harvard for graduate school and we’re finally on a level playing field, I think it’s all going to change.

I was wrong.

The only thing that changed was ending up in his bed.

Now my grandma has passed away, and Derek is the attorney helping the people trying to steal her legacy. I’ll do anything to stop that from happening. Even take on my lifetime enemy.

I hate him at first sight…but I also want him at first hate.

••••••

REVIEW:AT FIRST HATE is the second instalment in KA Linde’s contemporary, young adult to new adult to adult COASTAL CHRONICLES erotic, romance series focusing on a group of friends from Savannah Georgia. This is Derek Ballantine, and Marley Nelson’s story line. AT FIRST HATE can be read as a stand alone without any difficulty. Any important information from the previous story line is revealed where necessary. The events of AT FIRST HATE cross over with and run parallel to the events of book one HOLD THE FOREVERS.

Told from first person perspective (Marley Nelson) with a chapter by Derek Ballantine using present day and memories from the past, divided into 5 timelines, AT FIRST HATE covers approximately sixteen years in the life of Derek Ballantine and Marley Nelson. Attending opposing high schools in Savannah Georgia, Marley met Derek at a high school football game, and from the outset our couple’s on again, off again sixteen year relationship was fraught with betrayal, rumors and lies, trepidation, and one-night stands. Fast forward to present day wherein, Marley’s beloved grandmother has passed away, and the now thirty something attorney Derek Ballantine has been hired by Marley’s dysfunctional and absentee mother in an effort to claim her children’s inheritance. Along with her twin brother Maddox, Marley was raised by her grandmother from the age of two, only ever having contact with her mother when she needed money. With Derek’s return for Marley’s grandmother’s funeral, our heroine realizes betrayal by the man she once loved, continues in the aftermath of her grandmother’s death. What ensues is the acrimonious back and forth relationship between Marley and Derek, and the numerous fall-outs as every separation and reconciliation is met with trepidation, and reminders of past betrayals.

Derek Ballentine attended a private Catholic school, and Marley was often made to feel less than worthy but sixteen years of back and forth, up and down, love and hate culminate in the ultimate betrayal upon her grandmother’s death. Marley Nelson had fallen in love with our story line hero but love is often one sided, and Marley was left to pick up the pieces of her broken heart. Derek now a successful attorney, and Marley with a doctorate in neuroscience, our couple forged ahead with their school and careers, only to come together every few years, to rekindle a romance that was inevitably doomed to fail. The $ex scenes are intimate and passionate without the use of over the top, sexually graphic language and text.

There is a large ensemble cast of colorful and dynamic secondary and supporting characters most of whom we met in HOLD THE FOREVERS. We are introduced to Marley’s embittered mother Hannah, and her beloved Gran.

AT FIRST HATE is a story of family dysfunction, betrayal and vengeance, secrets and lies, issues of trust, friendships, relationships and love. The premise is complex, entertaining and captivating; the romance is seductive but struggles in the face of uncertainty and perceived betrayal, struggles and time apart.

Click HERE for Sandy’s review of book one HOLD THE FOREVERS

Copy supplied for review

Reviewed by Sandy

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K.A. Linde is the USA Today bestselling author of the Avoiding Series, Wrights, and more than thirty other novels. She has a Masters degree in political science from the University of Georgia, was the head campaign worker for the 2012 presidential campaign at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and served as the head coach of the Duke University dance team. She loves reading fantasy novels, binge-watching Supernatural, traveling, and dancing in her spare time.

She currently lives in Lubbock, Texas, with her husband and two super-adorable puppies.