Blog Tour, Review & Giveaway: Before You by Lisa Cardiff

 

 

Aubrey Keaton has never had a supportive family. Luckily, she has Camden…

Her childhood friend. Her savior. Her boyfriend.

Even after Camden leaves their hometown to chase his dream to be a musician, Aubrey can’t imagine her life without Camden and his family.

Before starting a job search for her own dream job, Aubrey decides to visit Camden in California for a month. But when she arrives, something unexpected happens…she meets Jax Carmichael, the lead singer in Camden’s band.

Jax Carmichael doesn’t have time for a relationship…much less love.

Even if Aubrey is irresistible, she’s a complication he doesn’t want or need. He has spent the last few years building Chasing Ruin, and the band is on the verge of being signed. Pursuing Aubrey could destroy his band, and he’s worked too hard to be successful without his family’s money, or connections, to let that happen.

Aubrey feels an attraction to Jax like something she’s never experienced before.

Confused, she tries to resist, but when her relationship with Cam begins to unravel, she realizes that Jax might just be the one thing she needs.

                                         

"... I only want to love you. Today. Tomorrow, and every day after that." Jax

Before You was enjoyable! Who doesn't love a sexy rocker! It was told in a third person narrative and it took a bit of getting used to because most books that I read these days are written in the 1st person. The two main characters are Jax and Aubrey (Bre).

From the moment Jax saw her across the bar, he couldn't take his eyes off of her. When he begins to talk to her, he is even more intrigued and more determined to make her his next conquest, but he soon finds out that she is Cam's, his band mate, long time girlfriend. And Cam has worked too hard to get the band where they are, so close to being signed with a record label, that putting a girl between them is just not an option.

... she was undeniably beautiful and not in the obnoxious, overly surgically enhanced way. Her skin glowed, her almond shaped amber eyes tilted upwards with an impish glint, and her smile fascinated him. He had never seen anyone whose entire face lit up like that. From the minute he first glimpsed that smile all he could think was that he wanted to be the person who put that smile there every day. - Jax

Bre is visiting her high school sweetheart and childhood best friend Cam in LA for a month. Cam in in LA trying to get his music career off the ground by being a part of Jax's band. She see's Jax performing and she can't take her eyes off of him.

Jax either started pulling her toward him or she started leaning toward him, she wasn’t sure which. The way his thumb delicately stroked her wrist scattered her alcohol-soaked wits, and it took her a few seconds to remember to breathe. Bre stared at his mouth; completely fascinated by the sensual curve of his lips and she just barely resisted the urge to wet her own lips in anticipation. With his mouth only inches from hers, he whispered, “You can’t look at me like that, Bre. I’m trying to be good. I know you’re Cam’s girl and the band’s important to me, but there’s only so much I can resist, and when you look at me like that I want to ignore all the reasons why kissing you is a really bad idea.”

The more you read the more you see that Cam is a complete asshat. He treats Bre terribly and takes her for granted at every turn. Although Jax and Cam are friends, he cannot resist the pull of Bre. He tries to keep his distance from her but when Cam can't bother to be with Bre when she needs him most, he sends Jax in his place never thinking that Bre would ever think of leaving him.

Oh how I love a good love triangle! But the third person narrative makes it harder to get emotionally involved, but it did make my heart quiver a bit at times. I wanted to punch Cam in the nuts for being such an arse. And I wanted to shake Bre for letting him neglect her the way he did. He doesn't, and didn't deserve her.

Theoretically, she knew there were plenty things about Cam she loved, his wavy blond hair, his love of music, his blue eyes that sparkled when he was excited, his smell, so familiar she equated it to security, but the list was admittedly becoming more superficial the longer they dated. In fact, she couldn’t remember what she liked about the two of them together, as a couple. When she reflected on their relationship, the best memories of the two of them were as kids or their senior year in high school. Since then, everything felt almost forced, held together by the fragile threads of a shared history.

Once you get used to the writing style, this is a really enjoyable book and I will be looking forward to reading more form this author. 

 

Jax either started pulling her toward him or she started leaning toward him, she wasn’t sure which. The way his thumb delicately stroked her wrist scattered her alcohol-soaked wits, and it took her a few seconds to remember to breathe. Bre stared at his mouth; completely fascinated by the sensual curve of his lips and she just barely resisted the urge to wet her own lips in anticipation. With his mouth only inches from hers, he whispered, “You can’t look at me like that, Bre. I’m trying to be good. I know you’re Cam’s girl and the band’s important to me, but there’s only so much I can resist, and when you look at me like that I want to ignore all the reasons why kissing you is a really bad idea.” Unable to speak, she closed her eyes, trying to regain her senses, but it was hard when she could feel his heated gaze and his warm bourbon breath tickling her face. She knew the rational thing to do was push him away, but she didn’t want to. His lips brushed hers, moving slowly, causing a tingling sensation that she suspected wasn’t a figment of her imagination. “Hmmm...” she murmured, draping her arms carelessly over his shoulders, breathing in the smell of him, wanting to be closer to him, wanting more of him, wanting to forget everything but him. As he wrapped his arms around her waist, his tongue caressed hers once, then twice, and then his fingers began tracing the skin on her thigh just below her hemline at an indecently slow pace. Just as he started lowering her to the floor, inching his body between her legs, she heard laughter outside the still open door. Bre’s eyes popped open. “Jax always hides out in his room when he gets in his moods.” Bre froze, recognizing Katie’s shrill voice. “Maybe he knows where Bre is. I haven’t seen her for over three hours.” “Probably not, you know how Jax is with his personal space.” Bre’s eyes blinked in confusion. Then, suddenly she scrambled backwards and onto her feet, nearly tripping over the almost empty bottle of bourbon. “It’s Cam,” she mouthed to Jax, bracing her hands on the footboard of his bed, completely shaken, but oddly disappointed by the loss of contact with him.

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After spending years practicing law and running a real estate development company with her husband, Lisa decided to pursue her dream of becoming a writer and she must confess that inventing characters is so much more fun than writing contracts and legal briefs. A native of Colorado, she lives with her husband and three children in Denver. When she isn’t managing the chaos of raising three children and owning her own business, she can be found reading or writing a book.    

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