Love Unexpectedly #3
By: Lauren Layne
Releasing
February 14, 2017
Loveswept
Loveswept
Over the course of one wild road trip,
feuding childhood sweethearts get a second chance at love in this charming
rom-com—a standalone novel from the New York Times bestselling
author of Blurred
Lines and Good Girl.
When Lucy Hawkins receives a job offer in San Francisco, she can’t wait to spread her wings and leave her small Virginia hometown behind. Her close-knit family supports her as best they can, by handing over the keys to a station wagon that’s seen better days. The catch? The cross-country trip comes with a traveling companion: her older brother’s best friend, aka the guy who took Lucy’s virginity hours before breaking her heart.
After spending the past four years and every last dime caring for his sick father, Reece Sullivan will do just about anything to break free of the painful memories—even if it means a two-week road trip with the one girl who’s ever made it past his carefully guarded exterior. But after long days of bickering in the car turn into steamy nights in secluded motel rooms, Reece learns that, when it comes to Lucy, their story is far from over. And this time, they just might have a shot at a happy ending.

So we are back with a short romance from Lauren Layne; and I have to say that the author has out done herself on this story.
The loved Reese's character and I have to admit, that my heart 100% broke, when you find out all the losses in his life. But what actually broke my heart and quite frankly reduced me to tears, was when he realized letting Lucy go was a mistake and saw her outside the library! OMG!! It was truly a ugly cry moment. Lucy's character I found it a little tougher to like; I found her whiney and childish and a couple of times I wanted to yell at her to grow up! But I do have to remember this is a New Adult book, and not my normal sub-genre I tend to read.
Now, when it comes to the writing and plot, you can tell it's a Lauren Layne book. It's beautifully written, with a heartwarming plot, that basically leaves you spellbound.
I give Love Story 4 stars!
The loved Reese's character and I have to admit, that my heart 100% broke, when you find out all the losses in his life. But what actually broke my heart and quite frankly reduced me to tears, was when he realized letting Lucy go was a mistake and saw her outside the library! OMG!! It was truly a ugly cry moment. Lucy's character I found it a little tougher to like; I found her whiney and childish and a couple of times I wanted to yell at her to grow up! But I do have to remember this is a New Adult book, and not my normal sub-genre I tend to read.
Now, when it comes to the writing and plot, you can tell it's a Lauren Layne book. It's beautifully written, with a heartwarming plot, that basically leaves you spellbound.
I give Love Story 4 stars!
“Spock, we’re giving you
Horny!” my mom blurts out, apparently fed up with my denseness.
Her utterance is too much
for my siblings to handle and they both burst out laughing, retreating into the
kitchen to rejoin the party where there’s wine.
Oh what I wouldn’t give
for wine right now.
“I, um . . . you’re giving
me the car?” I ask.
“Because yours broke
down,” my dad explains, walking forward to thump Horny’s dented hood.
“And this one’s . . . not
broken down?” I ask skeptically.
Look, it’s not that I’m
not grateful. My parents are trying to give me a car, I appreciate the
sweetness of the gesture, it’s just . . .
Here’s the thing about
Horny: he barely
got us three kids through high school. I mean, Horny is the car that sputtered
and shook making it the 3.2 miles to Jefferson High, no matter who was behind
the wheel.
I’m even going to come all
the way clean here and say that early on in my freshmen year, I was embarrassed
showing up in Horny. Then I realized I was lucky to have a car at all, and well
. . . I dunno, I guess Horny became a part of us Hawkins kids’ charm, because
the station wagon was practically an institution from Craig’s high school reign
all the way through Brandi’s.
But poor Horny quit
working years ago. Much to Brandi’s chagrin, he gave up the ghost a mere two
months before her high school graduation, and I spent the last bit of her
senior year being picked up by my parents.
“He’s going to take you to
California,” Dad says, giving the car another thump.
“Really?” I step forward
and run a tentative finger along the familiar panel. He’s had a bath, so at
least that’s something. “Because last I knew, he wouldn’t even make it out of
the garage.”
“Yeah, well, we neglected
him for a while, but he’s right as rain now,” Dad says, puffing out his chest
as though Horny’s a fourth child.
“Like, as in he actually
starts?”
“Purrs like a kitten,” my
mom says with an emphatic nod, even though I know she doesn’t even like cats.
“We didn’t believe it, but we took him to church on Sunday and there were no
issues.”
I literally
bite my tongue to keep from pointing out that this is hardly a feat. Sacred
Presbyterian is 0.8 miles away from the house.
“You took Horny into a
shop?” I ask, starting to warm to the idea of having a car again. I’m a little
touched, actually. Money is tight for my parents. Dad’s a PE teacher, and Mom
gives a mean winery tour, but the gig’s never paid much.
“Not exactly, it was more
of a bartering situation,” Mom says.
“Yeah?” I say, going
around to the driver’s seat, already giddy with the prospect of telling Oscar
I’ll be able to come see him in Miami after all, even if I won’t exactly be
riding in style.
“Reece agreed to fix him
up.”
I’m lowering myself into
the car as my dad says this, but I reverse so quickly I hit my head. My skull
doesn’t even register the pain, because I’m too busy registering the hurt in my
heart at the familiar name.
“I’m sorry, what?”
“Reece,” my mom says,
giving me a bemused look. “He’s always been handy with cars.”
“He fixed up the car in
exchange for what?”
And then I feel—I actually
feel—the air change around me
as the side door to the garage opens, and a new presence sucks all the air out
of the space.
I don’t turn around. I
don’t move. But I feel his eyes on me. Over me.
“Reece is headed out to
California too,” my oblivious mother chatters on. “It worked out perfectly
actually. Now you two can ride together, and your dad and I don’t have to worry
about you alone in the middle of nowhere with a twenty-something-year-old car.
They think the car is
going to be the problem here? It’s not the car that’s toxic to me. It’s him.
Reece Sullivan. My
brother’s best friend. My parents’ “other son.”
Slowly I force myself to turn,
and even though I’m prepped, the force of that ice-blue gaze still does
something dangerous to me.
He winks, quick and cocky,
and I suck in a breath, and I have to wonder . . .
I wonder if my parents
would feel differently about their little plan if they knew that their
makeshift mechanic is the same guy that popped my cherry six years earlier
under their very roof.
And
then broke my heart twenty-four hours later.
A former e-commerce and web
marketing manager from Seattle, Lauren relocated to New York City in 2011 to
pursue a full-time writing career.
She lives in midtown Manhattan with
her high-school sweetheart, where she writes smart romantic comedies with just
enough sexy-times to make your mother blush. In LL's ideal world, every
stiletto-wearing, Kate Spade wielding woman would carry a Kindle stocked with
Lauren Layne books.
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