Making the Match (River Rain 4) by Kristen Ashley-review & excerpt tour
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ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date September 20, 2022
Decades ago, tennis superstar Tom Pierce and “It Girl” Mika Stowe met at a party.
Mika fell in love. Tom was already in love with his wife. As badly as Tom wanted Mika as a friend, Mika knew it would hurt too much to be attracted to this amazing man and never be able to have him.
They parted ways for what they thought would be forever, only to reconnect just once, when unspeakable tragedy darkens Mika’s life.
Years later, the impossible happens.
A time comes when they’re both unattached.
But now Tom has made a terrible mistake. A mistake so damaging to the ones he loves, he feels he’ll never be redeemed.
Mika has never forgotten how far and how fast she fell when she met him, but Tom’s transgression is holding her distant from reaching out.
There are matchmakers in their midst, however.
And when the plot has been unleashed to make that match, Tom and Mika are thrown into an international intrigue that pits them against a Goliath of the sports industry.
Now they face a massive battle at the same time they’re navigating friendship, attraction, love, family, grief, redemption, two very different lives lived on two opposite sides of a continent and a box full of kittens
•••••
REVIEW MAKING THE MATCH is the fourth instalment in Kristen Ashley’s contemporary, adult RIVER RAIN romance series. This is forty eight year old, multi-media artist Mika Stowe, and former professional tennis player turned doctor Tom Pierce’s story line. MAKING THE MATCH can be read as a stand alone but for back story and cohesion, I recommend reading the series in order as there is an ongoing premise throughout.
WARNING: Due to the nature of the story line premise there may be triggers for more sensitive readers.
Told from first person (Mika) and several third persons perspectives including Tom, using present day and memories from the past, following several intersecting paths, MAKING THE MATCH follows the second chance relationship , of a sorts, between forty eight year old, multi-media artist Mika Stowe, and former professional tennis player turned doctor Tom Pierce. Years earlier Mika Stowe fell in love with a married man but Tom Pierce wasn’t about to stray from the woman he loved. Life and everything it had to offer including birth of children and the death of a lover, betrayal and divorce, secrets and lies would ultimately forge a history ; dual paths that would collide when a mysterious package is delivered to our story line heroine, a package that reveals the destructive nature of power and control but Mika struggles with what she believes to be a betrayal by the man she once loved, a betrayal directed at someone else. As Mika and Tom begin to rebuild their friendship, a blending of families reveals heart break and the pain of disappointment, and miscommunication when the past comes looking for forgiveness and acceptance. What ensues is the rebuilding friendship and relationship between Mika and Tom, and the potential fall-out as Tom battles with the guilt of betrayal, a battle he has imposed, all on his own.
Meanwhile, the world of professional tennis is about to face the fall-out of the ‘me too’ movement, when several women come forward accusing past players, coaches and sponsors of sexual harassment and blackmail.
The relationship between Mika and Tom is a friends to lovers that struggled in the face of timing, other relationships, perception and loss. Tom’s divorce from the woman he once loved revealed a different side to family and relationships, wherein blame is often the proverbial two-way street but gossip and the media don’t tell the whole story, a story misinterpreted by our story line heroine. Mika has suffered in the face of tragedy and loss but, once again, life goes on, pushing forward, until there is often no longer a place to push forward to. 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, energetic and broken secondary and supporting characters including Tom’s children, each of whom is struggling within the family dynamic: Chloe Pierce and Judge Oakley (Chasing Serenity 2) , Matt, Sasha; Tom’s former wife Gen and her husband Duncan (After the Climb 1) ; Mika’s eighteen year old daughter Cadence; friends, family, business partners and exes.
MAKING THE MATCH is a detailed, complex and dramatic tale of betrayal, second chances, acceptance and love. The premise is impassioned and captivating; the romance is seductive and fated; the characters are determined, edgy and moving forward.
Reading Order and Previous reviews
After the Climb
Chasing Serenity
Taking the Leap
Copy supplied for review
Reviewed by Sandy
Suddenly, Tom felt like he’d been punched in the chest, his breath not coming easy.
Dragging some in, he turned and saw Mika standing there.
She was wearing a kaftan dress with a low V at the neck, draping sleeves and a string through an empire waist that gathered the material. The print on a black background was mostly reds, oranges and pinks with bright accents of green and blue and turquoise. She had some flat, embroidered mules on her feet. And her still-golden hair was up in a messy knot on top of her head.
Even though she was dressed like she was hanging around the house, she wore makeup. Mostly neutral but with black cat’s-eye, drawing focus to her eyes and the startling sea-blue color of the iris. She had some delicate chain bracelets at her wrists and a number of piercings in her ears, with studs or small hoops running up the shell, and dangling beads coming from the lobe.
She looked the picture of what a poet, photographer, novelist, filmmaker would look like. An easy style that was not unique, but she made it that way.
She was also still one of the most attractive women he’d ever laid eyes on.
In fact, he’d go so far as saying she was in the top two, vying for number one.
“Tom,” she greeted.
“Mika,” he replied, and then was surprised yet again in his short visit to her home.He saw a soft pink rise in her cheeks, the kind a woman got when she felt nervous or didn’t know what to do with flattery, something he hadn’t offered, unless she caught it in his gaze.
She looked to her daughter and ordered, “Scram, kid.”
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Kristen Ashley was born in Gary, Indiana, USA. She nearly killed her mother and herself making it into the world, seeing as she had the umbilical cord wrapped around her neck (already attempting to accessorise and she hadn’t taken her first breath!).
Kristen grew up in Brownsburg, Indiana but has lived in Denver, Colorado and the West Country of England. Thus she has been blessed to have friends and family around the globe. Her posse is loopy (to say the least) but loopy is good when you want to write.
Kristen was raised in a house with a large and multi-generational family. They lived on a very small farm in a small town in the heartland and existed amongst the strains of Glenn Miller, The Everly Brothers, REO Speedwagon and Whitesnake (and the wardrobes that matched).
Needless to say, growing up in a house full of music, clothes and love was a good way to grow up.
And as she keeps growing up, it keeps getting better.
