In Pieces (Something More #2) by Danielle Pearl-Review, Interview, Excerpt & Giveaway Tour
IN PIECES
Something More #2
by Danielle Pearl
Release Date: October 10, 2017
Genre: adult, contemporary, romance
Amazon.com / Amazon.ca / B&N / KOBO / ibooks / Google Play / BAM/ Indiebound /
ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date October 10,2 017
Three years ago she was left in pieces . . . Most college freshmen love the newfound freedom of living on campus, but none of them craves it like Beth Caplan. One ill-fated night when she was fifteen left her locked in a posh prison of private tutors. It’s for the best, everyone said, and maybe it was. But after years of hard work and healing, the one person who never thought of her as broken could be the one to break her all over again. And Beth can’t seem to stay away now any more than she could all those years ago. As soon as David March learned his best friend’s little sister was enrolling at his school, he promised to look after her, and promised himself he’d keep a safe distance. But the sweet little girl he’d grown up with has transformed into a gorgeous young woman, and she’s attracting attention from people she shouldn’t-like the ex who nearly destroyed her and a strange new student with a disturbing habit of showing up wherever Beth goes. But for David, the most troubling discovery is realizing that he doesn’t just want Beth to be safe. He wants her to be his.
••••••••••••
REVIEW: There are many types of love. There is regular mutual love, unrequited love, young love, and the ever popular forbidden love. The “fun” of loving someone you shouldn’t love because of whatever circumstance the romance will complicate. The forbidden/taboo love was definitely the case for David and Beth. Beth is the little sister of David’s long time best pal, Sammy; therefore making Beth off limits to David. Despite Beth being off limits, the attraction David has for her is very much there. In Pieces is a fun story about two people who are very attracted to each other tip toe around each other while fighting the constant attraction to each other.
I really enjoyed Beth and David as a couple. While the instant fireworks or love at first sight romances are great reads, the romances that grow slowly over time can be quite endearing to read. Another thing I really enjoyed was reading the flashbacks from their pasts whether it was Beth having a bad day in Jewish school and David cheering her up to their families going on vacation together and David sneaking Beth into a club she wanted to go to. They have history and good memories together before they got together. Throughout the book, the attraction and sexual tension was very tangible. With Sammy between them, both of them leashed their feelings for each other too long that it took a drunken night for both of them to admit their feelings and acting on those feelings. Despite the drunkenness, their first love scene was explosive considering all the pent up sexual tension. Physical love aside, they did complement each other nicely. While both of them had their demons to deal with, reading about them helping each other through it was some deep stuff.
While the book was mainly about the romance, there are great elements within the book. Yes the beginning was slow to start but there is good pay off in the end. Loose ends are tied and there is closure. There is also a twist in the end that surprises you that someone was not a bad guy after all. While David feels like a mystery throughout the beginning to middle of the book, it’s refreshing to get to know David that even though he comes off as the laid back, party frat boy; he has so much more going on for him than meets the eye. The character development in Beth is outstanding. She is able to dig into herself to have a backbone, courage and will to prove to everyone she is not broken and weak to face huge issues.
I heavily enjoyed the book and I look forward to read more on the series to get to know the other characters as I enjoyed them just as much as well.
Copy supplied for review
Reviewed by Xtina.
TRC: We would like to start with some background information. Would you please tell us something about yourself?
Danielle: My name is Danielle Pearl, and I was actually named after Danielle Steel (quite the coincidence, huh?). I grew up in New York, and have been writing ever since I could hold a pencil. I write new adult fiction and I’m known for writing angsty, sexy stories with deep messages. It’s been said that I thrive on the heartache of my characters and the tears of my readers… muahahaha!!
*Psst… You can learn more about me and my books at daniellepearl.com 🙂
TRC: Who or what influenced your career in writing?
Danielle: Honestly, every book I’ve ever read has influenced my writing/career in one way or another, but I have to give credit here to my all-time fav, Colleen Hoover. Hopeless is one of the books that helped inspire to me write the Something More series, and there’s no question she helped forge the platform for indie romance authors everywhere. #Cohortforlife
TRC: What challenges or difficulties have you encountered writing and publishing your stories?
Danielle: Writing always has tons of ups and downs. In today’s market, authors have to put as much if not more effort into marketing ourselves and our books as we do writing them. I love engaging with readers, but I loathe hawking myself to readers like something of a pimp, so it can be a bit of a struggle. Fortunately I’ve gotten to know some incredible readers that make this whole journey more than worth it. If you want to join my private reader group on Facebook, you can do it here:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/PearlGirlsReaderGroup/
TRC: Would you please tell us something about the premise of IN PIECES and the SOMETHING MORE series? How many books do you have planned for the series.
Danielle: In Pieces follows Beth Caplan, the younger sister of Sam Caplan (the hero from Normal ReCap, and Okay). She’s had a tough adolescence, having had to overcome issues no teenage girl should have to, but as In Pieces opens, she’s more than ready to begin her adult life at college. The only problem is she’s on campus with Sam’s oldest friend, David March, and he’s acting more like a bodyguard than a friend. Beth has crushed on David for as long as she could remember, and as old demons rear their ugly heads and an unexpected danger arises, Beth and David end up too close for comfort. And it. Is. Explosive. I guess you’ll have to read it to find out.
The next book in the Something More series, In Flames, will follow a character we meet in In Pieces, and it will be another intense read, for sure!
TRC: What was your hardest scene –ever-to write?
Danielle: The hardest scene I’ve ever written was when I killed off one of my favorite, beloved characters. I don’t want to give anything away, but this character wasn’t initially intended to die…until the story called for it. I’m still in mourning.
Beth startles when she notices me, and she stops walking, so I make up the distance still between us. She looks adorable as all hell in those tight jeans and loose racerback tank top. Her bra shows at her sides and I’m equally turned on and annoyed by it. She never did have any kind of self-awareness. At least not when it comes to how goddamned attractive she is. And it bugs me that every guy that’s passed her today has caught a glimpse of that black lace.
I shove my hand through my hair. “Beth,” I sigh.
I wait for her to go off on me again, but she doesn’t. She just kind of looks up at me, her resentment a palpable thing. I can’t stand to see her look at me like that. But what makes my lungs burn is knowing that I deserve her resentment. She has no idea how much. Fuck, I hope to God she never will. Especially not now that she’s come so far—that she’s doing so well. Well enough to tell me off in public, at my own party, anyway.
But not tonight, it seems, and when she still doesn’t say anything at all, I make my attempt. “Look, I’m sorry, okay? I thought I was protecting you.”
“I don’t need protection,” she counters.
I nod. “I know. I just thought…Falco being around would give you an excuse to hide away in your dorm, and I wanted you to experience…”
“Experience what, David?”
I shrug. “I don’t know. Fucking life, I guess.”
Beth looks down at her shoes. I hate that she won’t even look at me. “Okay, whatever,” she murmurs.
“Whatever?” I repeat incredulously. Here I am, apologizing—something I’m not exactly fucking known for—and all she has to say is whatever?
“Yeah. Whatever. I get it. It just sucks, you know?”
I take a much-needed deep breath. “I know, Bea.”
At last her eyes meet mine, hostility finally gone. I take the opportunity to retrieve my new peace offering from my back pocket. Well, not new. My worn and weathered copy of Hamlet, riddled with years’ worth of my own highlights and notes, its pages filled with more of my own words than those of the author himself. I hope it will help in her Shakespeare class. If nothing else, it will give her an invasive insight into who I am and how I think, just like all the other books I’ve given her over the years, and I wonder if she realizes just how personal it is.
She takes it, her thin brows pinched together in confused awe. “This is your copy,” she breathes.
Suddenly I feel too vulnerable, uncomfortably exposed. “Thought it could help in your class,” I half-lie. Because it’s more than that, and I suspect she knows it.
Her pretty pink lips twist into a small smile, her cheeks going even rounder than usual, and it hits me right in the chest. Not for the first time I tell myself the affection I feel for her is strictly familial. More lies.
“Thanks.”
I smile. “You eat dinner yet?”
She shrugs. “I was gonna heat a cup of noodles and study.”
Cup of fucking noodles? “Fuck that. Come to the Stu-U. Let’s get some real food.”
Beth rolls her eyes. “Fine. But just some quick food, okay? I really need to study.”
“There are more things in heaven and earth, Bea,” I smirk at her, and she sets free a short giggle. There it is.
I take her girly-ass backpack and slip it over my shoulder, giving her no choice but to follow me. But as soon as I turn around, my eyes catch on that same guy, just as he’s averting his gaze. Only this time he wasn’t looking at me. He was looking at Beth; I’m sure of it. Rage rushes through my veins, and I grit my teeth. I don’t know who the fuck this guy is, but there’s something off about him, and there’s absolutely nothing good about Beth drawing his attention.
My jaw clenches. I slip my arm protectively around her shoulders, despite just having been scolded for being overprotective. “Beth, in two seconds, I want you to subtly glance to your left, between buildings B and C, okay?”
Her brows pinch together again. She looks so damned cute when she does that. She doesn’t wait the two seconds, and her “subtle glance” is more of a full-on stare. “Glance,” I whisper-growl. I wait until she’s facing forward again, and then start leading her from the quad. “Did you see that guy?” I ask her.
She nods hesitantly.
“Do you know him?”
“Yeah. I mean, no. He’s in my Abnormal Psych class. And I saw him last night.”
“Saw him doing what?”
“The same thing. Standing around smoking cigarettes like a fucking creep.”
“I think he was looking at you,” I admit.
“And that.”
So this isn’t the first time that guy’s been staring at Beth. Unease swirls in my gut. “Stay away from him,” I warn her.
“Do you know him?” she asks uncertainly.
“No. But I don’t like the way he was looking at you.”
Of course, I’ve never liked the way any guys have looked at her.
Danielle Pearl is the bestselling author of the Something More series. She lives in New Jersey with her three delicious children and ever-supportive husband, who—luckily—doesn’t mind sharing her with an array of fictional men. She did a brief stint at Boston University and worked in marketing before publishing her debut novel, Normal. She writes mature Young Adult and New Adult contemporary romance. Danielle enjoys coffee, wine, and cupcakes, and not in moderation
Website: http://bit.ly/2dx0B8a
Facebook: Facebook.com/daniellepearlauthor
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