MEANT TO BE (The Callahans #4) by Monica Murphy-Review & Excerpt tour
MEANT TO BE
The Callahans #4 : Eli and Ava #2
by Monica Murphy
Release Date: October 22, 2020
Genre: young adult, romance
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ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date October 22, 2020
Ava Callahan.
Love of my life.
Wrecker of my soul.
I would have sworn on anything that what we shared was real.
But she broke my trust. And then my heart. I don’t think I can piece it back together without her, but I’m sure gonna try.
I’m better off on my own, anyways, right? Who needs girls when you have football?
If only I believed that. Look, when you need someone in your life, you don’t want to let her go. And I can’t let go of Ava. I love her. She loves me. Nothing can convince me otherwise. It’s as simple as that. I know no matter what, this girl belongs to me. We may have issues, but we’re meant to be. So I’ll do whatever it takes to get her back.
Even if I have to fight dirty.
••••••••
REVIEW: MEANT TO BE is the fourth instalment in Monica Murphy’s contemporary, young adult THE CALLAHANS erotic, romance series focusing on the second generation of the Callahan family; and the second half of sixteen year old, Ava Callahan and seventeen year old, Eli Bennett’s story. MEANT TO BE should not be read as a stand alone as it picks up immediately after the events and cliff hanger of ADDICTED TO HIM (The Callahans #3).
NOTE: MEANT TO BE is a young adult story line ( characters under eighteen years of age) with adult sexual situations that may not be suitable for more younger readers.
Told from dual first person perspectives (Ava and Eli) MEANT TO BE follows in the aftermath of what Eli Bennett believes is a betrayal by the young woman with whom he has fallen in love. Eli’s family life is a mess but he never expected the world to be witness to their embarrassing fall-out. Blaming Ava sends our heroine down a rabbit hole of disbelief pushing Ava to discover the who and how of what happened and why. As Ava and Eli’s relationship is threatened by outside sources, Eli’s acrimonious relationship with Ava’s brother Jake continues to fester and draw ire from family and friends. What ensues is the continuing and building romance and relationship between Eli and Ava, and the potential fall-out as issues of jealousy, family dynamics, and competition between opposing football teams both on and off the field, threaten Eli and Ava’s tenuous hold on their already struggling relationship.
Ava Callahan has it all but believes herself to be the black sheep in a family of successful athletes and stars. The requisite mean girls push our heroine over the edge, and Ava finds herself on the outside looking in when she has finally had enough. Her relationship with Eli is fodder between friends and enemies, and in this Ava’s brother Jake struggles with his sister’s love for a boy he doesn’t deem worthy but all is not well in the Bennett household, and the fall-out begins to affect the young man Ava loves.
The relationship between Ava and Eli is one of the forbidden. Ava’s parents are not thrilled with Eli’s reputation, a reputation fuelled by her brother’s hatred and distrust of a young man whose family life is spiralling out of control. Eli’s reputation both on and off the football field has followed our young hero into his relationship with Ava Callahan, and in this Eli tries to prove he is worthy of Ava’s love. The $ex scenes are intimate, passionate and intense, without the use of over the top, sexually graphic language and text.
There is a large ensemble cast of colorful energetic and charismatic secondary and supporting characters including Fable and Drew Callahan, Owen and Chelsea McGuire (One Week Girlfriend series): Jake and Hannah (Falling For Her #2), Autumn and Ash (Close to Me #1); Ava’s best friend Ellie; Jake’s ex-girlfriend Cami, and rival football players Diego, Wyatt, Jackson and Caleb. The requisite mean-girls continue to be all up in Ava’s face.
MEANT TO BE is a story of family, friendships, and relationships; a story of rivalry and competition, of heart break and love. MEANT TO BE is a young adult story line with all of the requisite YA plot points including mean girls, jealousy, sex, drugs, drinking and fights. The premise is captivating : the romance is tender and seductive; the characters are young and struggling to come into their own.
Reading Order and Previous Reviews
Close To Me
Falling for Her
Addicted to Him
Copy supplied for review
Reviewed by Sandy
Can you die from a broken heart? Not asking for a friend.
The street is empty. Eli is long gone. I clutch my phone in my hand so tight, my fingers cramp up. He won’t respond to my texts or my calls. He’s ghosting me.
Pain radiates from my chest, a constant, throbbing reminder that Eli just destroyed me with a few choice words. He doesn’t believe me. Worse, he doesn’t trust me. I never told my brother about his parents. I don’t know who did. Eli may have hinted at things and flat out told me his mother drank too much, but he never talked about his dad cheating. And why would I tell Jake any of that?
There’s no way I ever would.
So who did?
I make my way to the backyard to find my entire family is gone. Glancing toward the kitchen windows, I see they’re inside. Waiting for me. My parents and Jake, who’s sitting on a barstool at the counter with a glower on his freshly abused face. It serves him right that Eli got a few punches in. I don’t even feel bad that it happened, though I suppose I should.
Mom catches my gaze and raises her brows, the look on her face plainly telling me, get in here.
If I could turn around and run away, I would. I’d run and run and run until I was out of breath and so, so far, no one could find me again.
But I don’t move. I definitely don’t go inside. Not yet. Dad says something to Mom, and I can tell they’re having a minor argument. About me? I wonder if she told Dad about our little secret. How she knew about Eli and I dating.
My gaze sweeps over the scene of the crime, AKA the spot where Jake and Eli fought. The moonlight catches on something on the ground, making it glint and I kneel down, reaching toward the shiny piece. My fingertips touch cool metal and I grasp it between my fingers.
A gold #1 pendant. Eli’s. I feel around for the chain, almost desperately, on my hands and knees, but I don’t see it. I wonder if he knows he lost it. I’m sure he’ll be upset. He loves this necklace and the fact that his father gave it to him.
But would he want to know I have it?
Maybe.
Maybe that’ll be my one way to reach out to him. I have something he wants.
Unfortunately, from the way everything just went down, it’s not me.
“Ava!” I lift my head to find my mother standing in the open doorway of the kitchen, her expression somber. “Come inside. Now.”
Rising to my feet, I clutch the pendant in my palm and march toward my punishment. I hang my head as I enter the kitchen, not wanting to look at any of them. Especially Jake. His anger radiates off of him, all of it aimed straight at me. Mom closes the door but, otherwise, says nothing. Neither does Jake. Or Dad.
It’s a very uncomfortable silence full of thick tension that seems to last ten minutes, but is probably more like thirty seconds before my dad can’t take it any longer.
“Ava.” His tone is firm, yet gentle. He’s mad, but he doesn’t want to show it. “Tell me what Eli Bennett was doing at our house at this time of night.”
Jake snorts. “What do you think—”
“Enough,” Dad says, silencing my big brother.
This gives me immense satisfaction. Lifting my head, I meet my father’s gaze head on. “We’re together. Well…we were.”
Monica Murphy is the New York Times, USA Today and #1 international bestselling author of the One Week Girlfriend series, the Billionaire Bachelors and The Rules series. Her books have been translated in almost a dozen languages and has sold over one million copies worldwide. She is both self-published and published by Random House/Bantam and Harper Collins/Avon. She writes new adult, young adult and contemporary romance.
She is a wife and a mother of three who lives in central California on fourteen acres in the middle of nowhere along with their one dog and too many cats. A self-confessed workaholic, when she’s not writing, she’s reading or hanging out with her husband and kids. She’s a firm believer in happy endings, though she will admit to putting her characters through angst-filled moments before they finally get that hard won HEA.
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