Paperback Release Blitz, Review & Giveaway: Kristen Ashley's "Kaleidoscope (Colorado Mountains # 6)."

The Hopeless Romantics Book Blog are pleased to be a part of the Paperback Release Blitz, Review & Giveaway for Kristen Ashley's "Kaleidoscope (Colorado Mountains # 6)."

Amazon.com: http://amzn.to/1nObiDh

Amazon UK: http://amzn.to/1n8JcPX

Synopsis:

When old friends become new lovers...anything can happen.

Sexy, gifted, and loyal, PI Jacob Decker is a tall, cool drink of perfection who had Emmanuelle Holmes at "hello." His relationship with Emme's best friend kept them apart for years, but things have changed. Now that a case has brought him to Gnaw Bone, Colorado, the road is wide open for Emme and Deck to explore something hotter and deeper than Emme dreamed possible. So why is she sabotaging the best thing that's ever happened to her? 

It isn't easy to catch Deck off guard, but Emme does just that when she walks back into his life after nine long years. The curvy brunette had her charms back in the day, but now she's a bona fide knockout . . . and she wants to rekindle their friendship. Deck, however, wants more. Emme's always been the one; she excites Deck's body and mind like no other woman can. But a dark chapter from Emme's past overshadows their future together. Now only Deck can help her turn the page-if she'll let him . . .

Review: Surj Harvey

I love Kristen Ashley's novels... they're like a comfort blanket for me. Even when I'm in a major book funk, I know the minute I pick up one of the lovely lady's stories, they'll wrap themselves around me, consuming me, giving me  everything I love in a good book. Yes her books may be formulaic but hey, that's what I love about them. I get the hottest of hot alpha males, a feisty female, drama, action, suspense, romance of the best kind and sex of the toe curling sort. "Kaleidoscope" was no exception thank god. 

Deck and Emme's story was brilliant. I loved the transition from friends to lovers because these two just fit. As I got to know each of them as individuals and as I saw them together, they were perfect for one another. There had always been a connection there... fourteen years worth of a connection but Deck had his head up his ass chasing another bit of tail (Emme's best friend Elsbeth). Unfortunately he was blinded and couldn't see what was right under his very nose... a woman who was not only beautiful but who he had connected with on an emotional level and who stimulated him mentally. What more could you ask for? Unfortunately the path he chose to pursue only lead to a whole heap of heart break! Fast forward nine years and low and behold, Deck and Emme's paths crossed yet again... that chemistry still bubbling under the surface but I saw their friendship taking a precedence. Trust me though, when they did get it on, it was in true Kristen Ashley style. That woman knows how to write a toe curling, thigh squeezing, heat rising, panty dropping sex scene and I got it all in this book!!! I kid you not, you will not be disappointed!!! 

"She threw away something good. I know you know that, Jacob, 

because it was you she threw away so I don't want to bring it up and hurt you but I... 
well,I knew why. And like I said, I don't like stupid people."

I couldn't help but like Emme's character. She was straight down the line.. called a spade a spade. She was genuine and loyal but cross her or cross those she loved and you were no longer welcome in the circle of trust!!! She was definitely a strong woman with a mind of her own... fiercely independent but she'd had her own lot of troubles during their time apart. This had changed her. As I progressed through the book, I couldn't help but sense that I was missing something with her character.... I couldn't put my finger on it but something was just not quite right... little things she said or did rang alarm bells in my head. And when Deck suddenly started feeling it, I knew I wasn't going crazy. Unfortunately, our gut instincts were proved right:

...hearing his words ringing in my ears, I felt nothing. Nothing but shear terror. 

Oh crap was what came to mind when I read those words!!! This told me things were about to go south ... bring on the mystery, suspense and angst by the bucket load!!! Yup in "Kaleidoscope," it wasn't the kidnappings and gun battles that brought the action and drama as such, it was Emme and her past and that just got me. I read pages and pages of words that wrapped themselves around my heart, squeezing tightly because her story wasn't pretty and unfortunately what she was hiding from the world and not admitting to herself was just awful and it was consuming her life. 

"You're damaged," he declared.

"I'm not," I forced out. But I was thinking I was.

"Broken," he went on. 

"I'm not," I repeated on a wheeze even though I was thinking I was that too.

"And I'm going to piece the parts back together, Emme."

Another KA hero I fell hard for. Words like these melted me because Deck... well he wore his heart on his sleeve. When he finally had Emme, he wasn't going to let her go. He could see something had changed her, that something wasn't quite right and he was going to figure it out if it killed him. He was persistent I'll give him that. Even when she pushed back, he just kept on going (big sigh!!!).  I just love a man who fights for his woman!!! Despite being all alpha and protective, Deck wasn't as bossy as some of the other KA men. He was willing to compromise, look at things from Emme's POV and discuss. And the main thing that stuck out was... he was kind... 100% genuinely kind and some of the things he did gave me butterflies. Keeping the kaleidoscope all those years, helping her with the house and the ending in the epilogue just left me in awe!!! Unfortunately my husband bore the brunt of that one as I proceeded to tell him what Deck had done. I got an eye roll!!! "It's fiction," he replied. That's when he got an eye roll in return!!! They'll never understand!!!! 

"Emme, I'm lying in bed lookin' at your kaleidoscope sittin' on my nightstand, 

knowing you've been with me every day even when I didn't realise it. 

Which means you mean something to me and not a little something."

Again, I was re-acquainted  with the rest of the Colorado Mountain crew which I loved but I never got my regular visit to The Rooster!!! I missed it because a visit to that place usually ends in words or a fight!!! 

The pace in "Kaleidoscope" was much slower than what I'm used to with a KA book but to be honest, that was OK with me because the main focus was the relationship between Deck and Emme. Yes their was an under current of sub plots, but despite Kristen lighting those fuses right at the start of the book, there were no huge explosions keeping me on the edge of my seat. At 86%, I thought I might see the start of something but no... someone put the fuse out!!! Like I said, it was OK though because there was enough meat on the bone with the rest of the story to keep me reading. 

"You smiled at me, shook my hand and said something to make me laugh. You were so 
beautiful. You were so nice. I took one look at you and it felt like I'd been asleep for 
decades and seeing you, feeling your big strong hand wrap around mine, woke me up."

On a side note, I do have to mention the dialogue/ monologue used in Kristen's books... I absolutely love it. It's so direct and to the point, especially when the men talk. It's like there's a gruffness, a whole heap of alpha... even a sexiness to it... it's difficult to describe until you read her books but for me, it's a uniqueness which fills me with warmth. Disconnect, reconnect, discuss... trust me you'll love the way those words are used!!! 

All in all, another brilliant read. Will there be any more in this series? I truly hope so. I rated "Kaleidoscope" ❤️❤️❤️❤️

Excerpt:

I looked out my office window, down to the yard, my eyes to the bustling activity, and I did this tapping my phone on my desk.

I should be working but I wasn’t thinking about work.

I was thinking about Jacob.

More precisely, I was thinking about calling Jacob, had an overwhelming urge to do so.

I was also trying not to do so because I had a boyfriend, even though he was a boyfriend I wasn’t all that sure about. He was sweet, he was into me, but he was just… off.

Then again, I didn’t have a lot of experience so what did I know?

Additionally, after my dinner with Jacob last night, within an hour, I’d called him after ten at night and now it was only eleven thirty the next day.

I didn’t want him to think I was psycho, and calling him would imply psycho behavior. Further, when I called him last night, I’d asked him to dinner, which was dinner two nights in a row with a woman he hadn’t seen in nine years, a woman with a boyfriend, and that was semi-psycho.

Okay, maybe it was totally psycho.

I didn’t want Jacob to think I was psycho.

Ever.

But I wanted to hear his voice. I wanted to connect with him on the phone. I’d missed him and I liked having him back. I liked it a great deal.

I also missed him a great deal.

And I needed to ask him something. Further, he was the only one I could ask.

I looked from the yard to my phone. My mind telling my thumb not to do it, my thumb not listening, I found Jacob’s contact and hit go.

I put it to my ear.

“I’m a psycho,” I whispered and luckily finished whispering two seconds before Jacob’s voice sounded.

“You okay?” he answered.

He kept asking that mostly, I figured, because I kept calling when I didn’t need to so he probably thought something was wrong.

Or that I was a psycho.

“I need to know if you don’t eat anything,” I lied.

Actually, it wasn’t a lie. Although I remembered a lot about Jacob (most everything, in all honesty), I couldn’t recall if there was something specific he didn’t like to eat.

I could recall how beautiful he was, how tall he was, how strong he was. I could recall how smart he was and how funny he was. I could recall how cool he was with me. I could also recall how much I missed him. But I couldn’t recall if he didn’t like chicken.

But that wasn’t the only thing I needed to know. I needed to know something else too.

Much like last night, when he didn’t make me feel like a psycho, in fact, the opposite and sounded like he was happy to hear from me and would be willing to talk all night, he again sounded like me psychotically calling him yet again in a precursor to stalker way was no big deal.

“I don’t eat it, I’ll pick it off.”

“You can’t pick it off if I cook with it in it or if the mainstay of dinner on the whole is what you don’t eat,” I informed him.

“You makin’ Indian food?” he asked.

“No. Don’t you like Indian food?” I asked back.

“Love it,” he answered.

“Then why’d you ask if I was making Indian food?”

“ ’Cause I hoped you were.”

I burst out laughing.

No, Jacob definitely didn’t make me feel like I was being a psycho.

When I quit laughing, I told him, “Sorry, honey, I don’t know how to make Indian food.”

“Shame,” he muttered, a smile in his deep, attractive voice, and if I was on an infrared scanner, specific parts of me would have shown up hotter.

You have a boyfriend, Emme! I told myself.

For a while, I answered myself.

Jacob is also your ex–best friend’s ex-boyfriend, Emme! I reminded myself.

So? I asked myself.

I shoved those thought aside, thoughts that, if anyone knew I was talking to myself in my head might prove I was indeed a psycho, and pointed out to Jacob, “You haven’t actually answered the question.”

“I’ll eat what you cook, Emme. Cook what you like.”

He was such a nice guy.

He always was.

Nice. Tall (very tall). Handsome (unbelievably handsome). Smart (so damned smart). Funny. Interesting. Gentlemanly. And a repeat of nice because it was worth a repeat since he was just that nice.

I liked all that about him. I liked that he wore his dark hair way too long. I liked that sometimes a thick hank of it fell over his forehead and into his eye. I liked that he was who he was and didn’t wear designer jeans or put gel in his hair. I liked that, even considering he was extortionately intelligent, in fact, a genius, he never made anyone feel less than him because they weren’t as smart. I liked that he never acted superior or arrogant and with all that was him, looks, body, brains, he was one person who could. And I liked that he liked to do what he liked to do, he did what he liked to do and wouldn’t get pushed into doing something he didn’t want.

Like Elsbeth tried to do.

He’d lost her to that and he’d accepted it. I knew it killed. He’d loved her to distraction. But he refused to be the man she wanted him to be and instead was the man he was.

She should have seen she had it all even if he didn’t make bucketloads of money and thus couldn’t give her the life she was used to getting from her daddy. Country clubs, tennis lessons, vacations in villas in Italy and beaches in Thailand, fabulous homes kept by maids and fabulous meals cooked by cooks.

She didn’t see all she had.

Stupid.

About the author:

Kristen Ashley grew up in Brownsburg, Indiana, and has lived in Denver, Colorado, and the West Country of England. Thus she has been blessed to have friends and family around the globe. Her posse is loopy (to say the least) but loopy is good when you want to write.

Kristen was raised in a house with a large and multigenerational family. They lived on a very small farm in a small town in the heartland, and Kristen grew up listening to the strains of Glenn Miller, The Everly Brothers, REO Speedwagon, and Whitesnake. Needless to say, growing up in a house full of music and love was a good way to grow up. And as she keeps growing up, it keeps getting better.

Social Media Links:

Website: http://kristenashley.net/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Kristen-Ashley/83283039199

Twitter: https://twitter.com/KristenAshley68

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/2958084.Kristen_Ashley

Giveaway: Signed set of Kristen Ashley's Colorado Mountain Series

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