The Hopeless Romantics Book blog are pleased to be a part of the Blog Tour for Karina Halle's "The Lie."
Amazon.com: http://amzn.to/1PRpuuq
Amazon UK: http://amzn.to/20ZqCzM
Synopsis:
Their love led to a lie
Their truth led to the end
Brigs McGregor is crawling out from the ashes. After losing his wife and son in a car accident and his job from his subsequent downward spiral, he's finally moving forward, getting a prestigious teaching position at the University of London and a new life in the city. Slowly, but surely, he's pushing past the guilt and putting his tragic past behind him.
Until he sees her.
Natasha Trudeau once loved a man so much she thought she'd die without him. But their love was wrong, doomed from the start, and when their world crashed around them, Natasha was nearly buried in the rubble. It took years of moving on to forget him, and now that she's in London, she's ready to start again.
Until she sees him.
Because some loves are too dangerous to ever indulge.
And some loves are far too powerful to ignore.
Their love just might be the life and the death of them.
Review: Surj
Those McGregor boys are seriously going to be the death of me and I think Brigs' story is the one to send me over the edge. Wow, I knew this book was going to be something different. I had an idea it would be emotional from the hints we got in "The Play" but honestly, nothing could have prepared me for the rollercoaster of emotions I went through when reading this one. The prologue was the mother of all ball busters that had my heart in my mouth and my pulse soaring. The heart break, the tragedy and the devastation right from the outset was a clear indication that this was not going to be a "beautiful walk in the park" kinda read. Hell no, Karina Halle was going to make me work for a HEA with this one and work I did.
Our love was wrong. A lie we told ourselves. And it cost us the world. As much as it
stung to hear it, as much as it made me lose myself, it was well deserved.
With us, the truth didn't just hurt. It killed.
This author knows how to write subject matters that are controversial. She knows how to give us story lines that will have us questioning our moral integrity and she gives us situations that will (at times) leave us feeling uncomfortable but the way I see it, life isn't always sunshine and rainbows and love, well love can be the most complicated and confusing of them all. The thing about love is that it isn't as clear cut as most would like it to be. It isn't black and white. Love isn't always forever. Sometimes it just fizzles out and sometimes, well sometimes it gets grey and murky and muddy and people get hurt. We are hopeless romantics at heart and it's in our very nature to believe in those fairytale romances but Karina Halle definitely pulls us out of our comfort zone with this one and throws us into the deep end. Brigs and Natasha's story was one that was realistic and believable and more often than not, soul destroying but when you get a story like that, it sucks you in and you can't help but travel that rocky road with the characters, hoping and praying for light at the end of a very dark tunnel.
But love plays you like the ultimate fool. Love is a trickster, a joker, a master of the s
leight of hand. She makes you look one way, and only one way, while she
makes the rest of the world disappear. eventually you'll raise your head
from the one you love, look around and wonder what the fuck just happened.
Brigs and Natasha's journey was definitely one that was bittersweet. There's was a love affair that was doomed from the start. They had so much going against them. They risked losing so much and in the end, when all was said and done, each of them got burned in the most tragic of ways and lost it all, including each other. How could my heart not ache for each of these characters. Chapters told from the past gave me an insight into ho the couple met. Was it fate or destiny or was it each of them filling a void in the others life, I couldn't decide. But the more I got to know each of the characters as individuals and the more I saw of their connection, I knew they belonged together.
"The human heart isn't meant to be caged by someone who doesn't feed it."
Chapters from the present gave me two people trying to get through each day, barely surviving. Each of them eaten up by guilt and haunted by ghosts of the past. So many times I found myself conflicted, confused and ultimately questioning, what would I do in their shoes?
Brigs' character was one I just wanted to wrap up in cotton wool and protect from his demons. The lie he was keeping was a burden that was impossible to shake. I wanted him to move on, to get on with his life but I wasn't sure that would be possible. And Natasha, having been crushed by the past, she had finally found the strength to move forward in her life but it was easier said than done. Every day was a struggle and every day it was like her past was hot on her heels. Would she ever escape it's clutches? I wanted Brigs and Natalie to be the glue that would put each other back together but honestly, there were moments I thought it would take much more than that to heal these two.
"Tell me that meant something to you."
"It meant everything."
"The Lie" was a book that swept me away in a story of guilt, shame and blame. It's a story that gnawed away at my conscience and had me questioning what was right and wrong. This was a book that was unique and confrontational, addressing subject matters not for the faint hearted but this author did such an amazing job when writing Brigs and Natasha's story that you couldn't help but fly the flag for them.
Another job well done Karina Halle. I rated "The Lie" ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
... Love shouldn't be ignored. Or shunned. Or buried. If you're lucky enough to feel it,
you need to indulge it. Give it songs. Let it course through your heart and soul, unfiltered.
And I fucking feel it.
Excerpt:
Without even thinking, I end up in Natasha’s neighborhood, on her street. I pull the car over and stare at her building. I can drive off. I can go blow off some steam with Lachlan. I can drive and scream and wish to god that things were different.
But I don’t want to do it alone.
I get out of the car and head to her flat.
I knock on her door, wondering if she’s even in, if she might still be sleeping. It’s still early on a Saturday and we don’t see each other on the weekends without it being work related, such as seeing a classic film at the cinema. I hadn’t planned to talk to her until Monday, her last week of work as my research assistant before going back to London.
My heart pinches at that thought.
She’s leaving me.
What the hell am I doing?
But then the door opens slowly and she’s staring at me with wide eyes, her hair piled on top of her head in a messy bun, a fluffy robe around her body.
“Sorry,” I say quickly, immediately feeling bad. “Did I wake you up?”
She yawns. “Kind of, but I should be getting up anyway. What’s, um, up?”
I rub my lips together. “I…I wanted to know if you wanted to go for a drive?”
“Where?”
I shrug. “I don’t know. Far away. But not too far. I have to be back by twelve-thirty for Hamish.”
“What time is it now?”
“Eight-thirty.”
She rolls her eyes. “And you were wondering if you woke me up. I should still be sleeping for at least another two hours.”
I nod, embarrassed at my enthusiasm. I’m being inappropriate. “I should go.”
I turn around, but she reaches out and grabs my arm, holding tight. “No, don’t,” she says. “I want to go with you. Just give me five minutes, okay?”
I turn to look at her and she’s flashing me a persuasive smile.
“I’ll be in the car,” I tell her.
Somehow she’s true to her word. In five minutes she’s jogging down the steps of her building, dressed in jeans and a tank top that shows off the tawny warmth of her summer tan. She hasn’t touched her hair at all; it’s still up in that bedhead bun, and there isn’t a bit of makeup on her. She doesn’t need it. She looks joyful. She looks absolutely beautiful.
“You’re fast,” I tell her as she slips into the passenger seat.
She giddily drums her hands across the dash and beams at me. “I’m fast when I want to be. I love this car. Where are we going again? Oh right, somewhere far away. Can we get coffee first? I’m dying.”
I can’t help but grin at her as I turn the key. The car starts on the first turn. She’s my good luck charm. “You don’t seem like you need coffee.”
“I always need coffee,” she says emphatically. “You know this. So where to?”
“I honestly don’t know. You pick.”
“Do you have a map?”
“Of Scotland?”
“Yeah.”
I nod at the glove compartment. “In there.”
She opens it and it falls open with a clunk. She takes out an old faded road map and starts looking it over.
“Anything strike your eye?”
“I’m looking for Loch Ness.”
“That’s too far.”
“Okay, is there like another lake with a swamp monster?”
“Nearly all the lochs are in the Highlands.”
“Arrrrrrrrrr in the Highlands,” she says playfully, imitating my accent.
“Okay, maybe no coffee for you.”
“Don’t be cruel, Professor Blue Eyes.” She goes back to studying the map but the mention of my nickname makes a small fire build inside me. And not one of anger.
She points on the map. “Here. Balmoral.”
“That’s where the Queen lives.”
“I know. I want to say hello.”
“It’s a two-hour drive,” I point out.
“Well, then we better get cracking,” she says. “The Queen is expecting us.”
She’s definitely full of spirit today. It seems to latch onto me and I ingest it like a tonic. She’s erasing all the humiliation and pain from the morning.
We head out of the city, taking the A-90 to the M-90 and speed north. After we get her some coffee and we share a couple of sausage rolls for breakfast, I warn her that we literally will see the estate and have to head back. But she doesn’t mind.
And honestly, neither do I. I crank the old radio on the car to pick up an oldies station playing a special on Otis Redding. The day is warm and gorgeous, and even though we’re going fast, our windows are down, enjoying the wind and the sun on our skin.
About an hour into our drive, Natasha turns to me and says, “Tell me the truth. Why did you come to get me this morning?”
“Was it that unusual?” I ask without looking at her.
“Yes,” she says. “The last time you came to my house without me knowing…”
“Back then I was following up on an email. I wanted to know if you were all right,” I tell her before she can tell me anything else about that night.
“And now I want to know if you’re all right,” she says gently.
I glance at her. There’s a softness in her eyes that undoes me. I grip the wheel hard, conscious of my every movement and how they might appear to her. A good man, after the night she kissed me, the night I kissed her right back, would have never been alone with her again.
But I’m not a good man.
I’m a man who is slowly but surely falling in the wrong direction.
Author Bio:
With her USA Today Bestselling The Artists Trilogy published by Grand Central Publishing, numerous foreign publication deals, and self-publishing success with her Experiment in Terror series, Vancouver-born Karina Halle is a true example of the term "Hybrid Author." Though her books showcase her love of all things dark, sexy and edgy, she's a closet romantic at heart and strives to give her characters a HEA...whenever possible.
Karina holds a screenwriting degree from Vancouver Film School and a Bachelor of Journalism from TRU. Her travel writing, music reviews/interviews and photography have appeared in publications such as Consequence of Sound, Mxdwn and GoNomad Travel Guides. She currently lives on an island on the coast of British Columbia where she’s preparing for the zombie apocalypse with her fiancé and rescue pup.
Twitter: https://twitter.com/MetalBlonde
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