I received this book for free for a Blog Tour in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Faded Perfection by Cassandra Giovanni Also by this author: Flawed Perfection, In Between Seasons, Finding Perfection
Series: Beautifully Flawed, #2
Also in this series: Flawed Perfection, Finding Perfection
Published by Show N'ot Tell Publishing on 14th June 2016
Genres: Romance
Pages: 352
Format: eARC
Source: for a Blog Tour
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Seconds.
That’s all it takes to have everything ripped away from you.
No one knows this better than Adam Beckerson and River Ahlers.
Each is fighting a losing battle with the death of Bobby and the fallout it causes. Adam loses a brother; River her best friend.
And while Adam finds himself fading into the bottom of a bottle, River finds the only thing she can do is run away from everything– including Adam.
Sometimes when you lose everything, you lose yourself. The important part is finding your way back again.
Thank you to Jena for letting me take part in this tour. I LOVED the first book in this series, Flawed Perfection (currently free) and I have been desperately waiting 2 years for the sequel, which did not disappoint. If you have NOT read the first book please do not read on as it WILL contain spoilers for book one.
After her best friend Bobby Beckerson dies in a car accident River doesn’t only lose a best friend but a part of herself. Struggling with her own grief she doesn’t know how to help her boyfriend, Adam, Bobby’s brother. Adam turns to drink to numb the pain while River turns to work.
Unable to help each other the pair start to question if they should really be together. I’m going to leave the story there because I don’t want to ruin anything.
I spent the first 50% of this book blubbing. I felt all of River’s emotions as she tried to deal with her grief of losing Bobby and I had to let the tears our.
I spent the rest of the book egging River on. Wanting her to take control of her life. To break through the storm and come out better and stronger than before.
This book is beautifully written. It flows from paragraph to paragraph, chapter to chapter with like a river to the sea the pace is perfect.
I can’t wait to see what happens next and I really hope I don’t have to wait too long for it.
Excerpt
West’s lips parted, but he seemed at a loss for words. “You can’t not have friends– you’re so–“
“Nice, but driven and being driven tends to drive people away. In college I drove away all my friends by the end…except…” My voice faded, and I swallowed, glancing out at the dimly lit yard.
West reached across the table and put his hand over mine. “The tattoo?”
I bit my lip nodding.
He squeezed my hand and leaned back, his thumb drawing soft circles over my skin. “What about family? In my experience, they’re kind of hard to drive away.”
I scoffed, shaking my head as I looked down at our hands. “I see my dad once a week– he comes up on Saturdays, and we spend the day watching TV, having dinner and talking.”
“That sounds nice–so why do you seem so angry about it?” West’s voice was soft, his words said slowly, as if he was afraid to insult me.
I fought the urge to stand up and sit in his lap–to be in the warmth his smile sent me– to be wrapped in his natural happiness.
“My dad comes secretly. My mom and I… I’m not on good terms with her. I guess we were never on good terms but last year on Thanksgiving she crossed a line and I haven’t been able to get passed it,” I said, and my eyes moved up his hand to his arm spiraling with color –waves, koi fish, lotus and cherry blossoms. Mom would die if she saw him. If I was skanky, he was an absolute man-slut.
Jesse did say he’s a womanizer. And you’re a man-eater.
“Doesn’t agree with your choices?” West asked as he lifted his wine up to his thin, very kissable lips.
My chest rose as I nodded.
“Well, let’s say you’d probably go into shock if you met my family– blue collar, nose in the air, house on the vineyard people. Very un-tattooed.”
“And how do they take to–” I signaled to his arm and collarbone, my pulse hitching as he winked at me.
“You haven’t even seen them all,” he replied, and his eyes locked on mine, devious in their twinkle as if he knew I wanted to know where the others were. As if to say it’s only a matter of time.
I swallowed hard, looking down at my pasta.
“Let’s just say they got used to it…and my mom tries to think of it as art–my dad tries to think of it as proving I have a high pain tolerance and a talent with my hands.”
My eyes shot up at that, and he leaned back laughing. My face burned, and my mind raced to places it should definitely not be.
“Do you now?” I managed to stutter.
Flirt. You’re such a damn flirt.
I wasn’t sure if I was chastising him or myself in my head–or worse, neither.
He reached across the table and flipped my arm, running his fingertips up to the tattoo he gave me and traced its outline. The tingling started from somewhere other than my arm, and I bit hard on my cheek as he sat back, wiggling his eyebrows.
“Yeah,” I said as I leaned forward and grabbed my glass of wine. “You’re talented alright.”
About Cassandra Giovanni
Cassandra doesn’t remember a time when she wasn’t writing. In fact, the first time she was published was when she was seven years old and won a contest to be published in an American Girl Doll novel. Since then Cassandra has written more novels than she can count and put just as many in the circular bin. Her personal goal with her writing is to show the reader the character’s stories through their dialogue and actions instead of just telling the reader what is happening. In 2012 she became a published Young Adult author, releasing In Between Seasons (The Fall, #1) and the Amazon bestselling thriller, Walking in the Shadows. In 2013 she branched out by using her artistic illustrating talents to publish her first Children’s novel, The Adventures of Skippy Von Flippy: Tales of Friendship (Skippy Tales, #1). Cassandra released her first New Adult novel, Love Exactly, which became an Amazon Bestseller overnight in June of 2013. She’s currently working on her new New Adult Contemporary Romance, Beautifully Flawed. The first novel in the series, Flawed Perfection is scheduled to be published on March 7, 2014.
Besides being a writer, Cassandra is a professional photographer known for her automotive, nature and architectural shots. She is the owner of Gio Design Studios Photography and Gio Design Studios Publication Marketing . She is currently studying to receive a degree in Marketing. Cassandra is happily married to the man of her dreams and they live in the rolling hills of New England with the other loves of her life their dogs, Bubski and Kanga.
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