Monday, January 9, 2017

Release Blitz & Review: Forever Dublin - Brittney Sahin

Forever Dublin
by Brittney Sahin
Published: January 9, 2017
Genre: Contemporary, Romance, Sports Romance

Billionaire businessman by day, fighter by night. 

Adam McGregor hasn't stepped inside the Octagon in five years. He hasn't so much as gone near a fighting ring, and yet the memories of his past haunt him every day. But when Adam's best friend gets in trouble with a Dublin crime boss, he drags Adam back into the world of underground fighting. Adam must break all the promises he's made; he must do the one thing he vowed never to do again. Fight.

Anna Drake is relieved to leave her small hometown in Kentucky behind and get a fresh start with an overseas internship in Dublin. What she doesn't expect is to bump into a strange man in her new apartment during her first night there. A man who, it turns out, also owns the company that she's joined as an intern. As they are thrust together more and more, Anna discovers that Adam's a man with secrets and a dark past--a past that seems to be reaching for her.

Although Anna can sense how dangerous Adam is, she can't seem to resist him. And while Adam fights his feelings, longing to keep Anna safe, neither of them can see that their only hope for survival is each other.
Coming soon to Apple, B&N, and Kobo

Review
5 Stars

"And, by the way, I'm no one special. Don't go pinning your hopes on me, Anna. I'm not the saint you're painting me out to be."
Not even close.

Adam left his old life behind five years ago, accepting that the office life and suits are what he's got to do to have his family. When he's pulled back into the world of underground fighting he doesn't expect to stick around, just to get his friend out and go, but that's until he meets Anna Drake, the innocent intern he wants to protect and show the best side of himself to. He knows he's no good for her, especially after he finds a rush back inside the ring, but she won't leave his mind. He knows he's doing the right thing by protecting her, but the more time they spend together the more the secrets begin to pile up and their romance may just go up in smoke if he gives in to the call of violence.

"I'm trying to look after her, Adam," he called after me, and that stopped me in my tracks. "Especially if you're fighting again. If you're going down, don't bring her down with ya."

I love a good book with a male character that's a fighter, I have since high school, so it was of no surprise how much I liked Adam MacGregor. He's got all the qualities you want in a fighter; passion, drive, and Irish good looks to go with it all. More than that though, he's got all the qualities of a perfect book boyfriend, with his success, looks, and desperate need to care for the woman he's fallen head over heels for. I loved that he was this wealthy, intimidating man that was won over by a charming young American, that she changed his entire outlook. Anna Drake is all of us at 24, by far the most relatable character Brittney has ever written, and I'm a big fan of all her characters. She's a young woman in a big world, fighting her past, learning herself, and discovering true romance and love doesn't always follow the fairy tale stories. Both characters have pasts to deal with and as they face them together the character growth is astounding, as is the steamy chemistry they share.

Right now, all I wanted were those arms, his strong and safe arms, wrapped around me. I needed something to calm the swell of fear that was brewing inside me.

Some of the story line is cliche, some of the moments are over-the-top, but I read books to live a different life and let me tell you, I totally have a fantasy of being Anna now. Adam and Anna find in one another a dream of a future, something both had brushed off after their pasts had taken their confidence and unmarred view of life away. Their pasts had left them with scars that others couldn't see, but Brittney portrayed perfectly with her emotional writing. I loved that in discovering one another they also discovered their desire to overcome the past. From the business world to the underground fighting world, Anna and Adam find hope in one another. It's a story you won't be able to put down, come to life through Brittney Sahin's descriptive writing, even down to the Irish brogue that Adam boasts that you'll be able to hear in your head as you read.

He was dangerous because he could turn my heart to dust.

I say it every time, but Brittney has outdone herself with Forever Dublin. The Forever series is not to be missed, but especially not this one. The writing is outstanding, the story line intriguing, and the characters the kind you connect with and fall for. Once I started reading, I could not stop.

Excerpt: Ch 5, Anna's POV


I can do this. I forced myself to chat with the other interns and learn their names. There were two who stood out to me immediately. Kate, of course, because she’d been the first to say hi. I had discovered she was from New York, which was about as foreign to me as Ireland. The other was Narisa, who was also super nice. She had just arrived from Thailand.

“Wow, look at you all. What a lively group!” a female voice—Irish—floated through the room.

I turned to see who was speaking as the rest of the interns silenced.

“Well, let’s get you to the conference room. You are jam packed in here.” The woman had black hair cut in a pixie style and deep blue eyes that glowed behind hip, red-framed glasses. And she was tall—Amazonian tall.

“My name’s Bella, by the way,” she said while glancing over her shoulder as she led the way through the door in the middle of the frosted glass wall. On the other side was a large room filled with cubicles, and I wondered why all of them were empty. Did everyone arrive at eight on the dot?

“Mr. McGregor likes to keep things a bit more relaxed here,” Bella said before stopping outside a door and facing us. “We don’t schedule meetings before nine, and workers are encouraged to build a schedule that works well for them.” She smiled at us and propped her hands on her hips. “Which is why we had you come in early, so he could focus on you guys without interruptions.”

“We’re meeting the owner?” Kate asked, her eyes sparkling with excitement.

“One of the McGregor sons, in fact,” Bella said, waving her hand in the air toward someone and grinning.

“Good morning, Bella.” The deep voice moved slow across the room, and my knees almost buckled. “Good morning, everyone.”

I shut my eyes for a moment, unable to turn, unwilling to verify the voice. But that wouldn’t change the facts. The initials from Adam’s wallet yesterday flashed to my mind. That third letter was M. Adam Freaking McGregor. Although I was pretty sure the ‘F’ stood for something different.

When I opened my eyes, Adam was standing next to Bella, his hands casually tucked in his gray slacks. He wasn’t wearing a blazer, but over his black dress shirt and black tie was a buttoned gray vest.

He cocked his head to the side and a smile teased his lips for a brief moment when our eyes met. Why the hell did he not tell me yesterday? Did he think it’d be amusing to see the look on my face today?

And did he normally make an appearance with the interns, or was he purposefully doing it just to get a rise out of me? Oh God. His gaze shifted to the stain on my blouse, and his eyes crinkled at the edges before he looked away.

Jeez. I’d seen him half naked.

My body became hot, and I tightened my grip on my purse strap as I lowered my head, staring down at the floor.

“Are you coming?”

I looked up, blinking a few times in confusion as I stared into Adam’s intense blue eyes. I glanced over his shoulder to where everyone had gathered inside the conference room. I hadn’t even heard them walk by me.

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