DISCREET (Discreet #1) by Nicole French-Review tour
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ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date October 4, 2018
Fitz Baker was the world’s biggest sex symbol. Until he disappeared.
Fed up with the trappings of fame, he traded his world of Hollywood for a quiet life on Newman Lake. He was perfectly happy living as an island. Until he met her.
Returning home with nothing but a failed music career, all Maggie Sharp wants is to rebuild her life. A life that doesn’t involve the surly, arrogant stranger now living across the lake.
Still, there’s something about Will…something familiar. Something Maggie can’t quite put her finger on…
She only wanted the spotlight.
He gave up his life to escape it.
The real question is if they can remain discreet.
•••••••••••
REVIEW: DISCREET is the first instalment in Nicole French’s contemporary, adult DISCREET erotic, romance duet focusing on recluse Will Baker, and musician/singer Maggie Sharp aka Lily Pad.
Told from first person point of view (Maggie Sharp) DISCREET follows the building relationship between recluse Will Baker, and musician/singer Maggie Sharp aka Lily Pad. One year earlier Maggie Sharp’s life spiralled out of control when the man that she loved destroyed her life. Fast forward to present day wherein our heroine has returned to her hometown of Newman Lake, Idaho in an attempt to stay one-step ahead of the man who ruined it all. With a mother whose reputation is tattered and torn, our heroine steps in to fix the family-owned B&B in an attempt to provide some stability to their lives. What Maggie never expected was to meet her future, and ultimately her past, in the guise of recluse ‘mountain man’ Will Baker, a man who stirs something deep inside our story line heroine. What ensues is the building relationship and romance between Will and Maggie, and the fall-out as secrets and lies are about to be revealed, and in the process destroy them both.
Four years earlier famed Hollywood actor Fitzwilliam ‘Fitz’ Baker disappeared without a trace in a suspected boating accident off the coast of Maine. Fast forward to present day wherein our hero, in hiding and seclusion, keeps to himself on Newman Lake, until the fateful day chance and a pothole found Maggie Sharp injured with nowhere to go. Trying to hide from his past, Will Baker keeps secret his true identity, in an effort to live without the paparazzi and media beating at his door. Maggie Sharp knows success is ultimately followed by failure but, combine that with an abusive ex who continues to taunt, Maggie is desperate to remain one-step ahead before everything comes crashing back down.
The relationship between Maggie and Will is tempestuous. Will suffers severe anxiety and refuses to venture forth where anyone may recognize our story line hero. Maggie is desperate to help the man she believes is keeping secrets but she never expected those secrets to bring forth her own heartbreaking and painful past. The $ex scenes are intimate, erotic and seductive without the use of over the top, sexually graphic language and text.
The secondary and supporting players include the small-minded and racist townies who continue to rip at Maggie’s already fragile heart. We are introduced to Lucas Forster who is helping Maggie repair the B&B but Lucas is a man with ulterior motives, one of which is hoping for a shot at our story line heroine. Eloise Sharp, Maggie’s long-suffering, alcoholic mother, remains fixated on the past, a fixation that keeps Eloise at the bottom of a bottle, at the local bar.
DISCREET is a story of secrets and lies, betrayal and trust. The premise is intriguing; the characters are broken, embittered and impassioned; the slow building romance is provocative and hot. DISCREET ends on a cliff-hanger, you have been warned.
Copy supplied for review
Reviewed by Sandy
“I don’t like feeling like this,” Will said.
I sucked a breath through my teeth. “Feeling like what?”
“Like this.” He took a step toward me, and I fought not to step backward. Will had a quiet authority about him, and in the shadows of the moon, his shoulders seemed to broaden, his legs seemed to lengthen. He seemed larger than life.
When he had me backed up against the porch railing, he raised a hand, floating his fingers around my jaw, over my cheeks, but never actually touching me. I arched toward his hand. I couldn’t help it. But he hovered, never making contact.
“You make me feel…” Will started. “Out of control.”
I couldn’t move. “Oh?”
“Like I actually have to care about what someone else thinks. Like I’m not alone anymore.” He paused. His eyes opened wide, following the path of his fingers as they took hold of a strand of hair in my ponytail and twirled. “And for the first time in a very long time, I feel like I don’t want to be.”
He tugged lightly on the strand, and I felt the slight pinch like an arrow through my body, shooting down my arms and legs, and coming to throb in that place no man had been for so, so long. I bit my lip. Will’s eyes dilated.
“Tell the truth, Lil. What do you want?”
You. The word echoed distantly, like a bell tolling from miles away. I didn’t understand it. I was broken. A mess. What should I want with this man? We had a connection, sure, but overall, he was nothing but trouble. He was grouchy. A loner. Clearly had serious social and emotional control issues.
And yet. There was no denying that something was here. Since we met, it certainly felt at times as if the universe itself was tilting on its axis, trying to knock me into him. Breakdown after breakdown. Meeting after meeting. And now…
I tipped my chin up so I could look directly at him, drawn like one of the moths circling the porch light. Winging through the dark, ready to dive into his golden inferno.
“I don’t want Lucas,” I said quietly, drifting my gaze up and down his naked torso. A sheen of sweat glimmered in the moonlight, which also made the shadows of his muscles—the square pectorals, the solid rack of abs, the lickable V that dipped beneath his shorts—that much more evident.
Will followed my gaze, and his hand dropped. He stepped between my legs, and his unique scents engulfed me. Working all afternoon only made them that much stronger—the scent of pine trees, lake water, and man swallowed me with a heady rush that made me shake slightly. And it was then, only then, that he finally touched me. My waist was encircled by his wide palms, so broad that his fingers nearly touched on either side. It was relatively innocent, but the intent was clear. Just like last night, he held me still; I couldn’t move unless he wanted me to. For that moment, I was his.
When I looked back up, his eyes were fixed on my lips. Unconsciously, I licked the lower one. His pupils dilated even more.
“Lil,” he whispered as he leaned a little closer.
“What are you waiting for?” I murmured. Now I was the one staring at his mouth—so soft and full under his newly trimmed beard.
I panted. Will swore.
“Fuck it,” he growled. “I don’t fucking know.”
Sometimes you don’t know you wanted something until you have it. Sometimes you don’t know you need something until it’s there.
His mouth found mine in a fury, one that surprised me for about a half second before. The hands at my waist gripped so tightly, I almost couldn’t breathe, and I felt like I was strangled—not for lack of oxygen, but for lack of him. Will’s lips made me feel like I was breathing for the first time; like I’d been under water my entire life, and he was the air I’d never known I needed.
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Nicole French is a East Coast/West Coast hybrid creature, Springsteen fanatic, hopeless romantic, and total bookworm. When not writing fiction or teaching writing classes, she is hanging out with her family, playing soccer with the rest of the thirty-plus crowd in Seattle, or going on dates with her husband. In her spare time, she likes to go running with her dog, Greta, or practice the piano, but never seems to do either one of these things as much as she should.
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