Sunday, June 22, 2014

Blog Tour Review and Giveaway: Come Sundown by Chelsea Landon

 
Title: Come Sundown
Author: Chelsea Landon
Release Date: May 27, 2014

Erin Evans is the kind of girl no guy wants to be in a relationship with. She’s controlling and never backs down when she thinks she’s right. Knowing this, and rightfully fearing her last few years in her twenties will be like the last five, she looks for some adventure. That’s when her best friend convinces her to go on vacation with her to the Bahamas. On the land of white sand, coconut rum, and a cloudless sky, what she never expects is to meet Tyler Weston, a local bartender with a sweet tongue for the pretty girls. He’s tattooed, entertaining, and living the dream in paradise as he sets her drinks and her world on fire. As the moon lights the city, Erin unexpectedly becomes infatuated with Tyler and his bartending skills when he offers her the challenge of trying his Black Magic drink her first night on Paradise Island.</ span> Hoping to get some more alone time with Tyler, she sets out on a mission to try every drink on the menu while on vacation. And after one night and one Black Magic drink, both of which she can barely remember, results into two weeks of exciting possibilities she never saw coming. Can Erin put aside her cynical side and let the dirty-mouthed bartender show her what island life and love are really like?

I had never been on a jet ski before, and after ten minutes of skimming over the gentle waves, I wasn’t sure I ever would again. Tyler thought it was hilarious to dump me off the back when I thought I saw a shark.
True, it wasn’t a shark, but a dolphin.
“Even the sharks won’t hurt you,” he said, still laughing as I clung to his back, fearing for my life.
“The fuck you say,” I wailed, refusing to even look at the playful dolphin nudging the side of the jet ski. “Where I come from, sharks bite.”
Tyler ignored me and reached down, running his hand over the dolphin’s nose. “He’s just curious about you.”
I wasn’t so sure about that but when we got to the swimming pigs, I had another momentary freak-out.
“Holy Jesus, are those pigs?” I was practically standing on the jet ski trying to distance myself from them.
Tyler looked up at me as he treaded water with them. “What do they look like?”
“Pigs.”
“Well I suppose they’re pigs then.” He rubbed the top of a gray and black one’s head.
“Jump in.” He gave a nod with his head, the pigs all around him now, like they were old friends.
I gave him a horrified look. “No. Pigs shouldn’t swim.”
“Says who?”
“Me. I say that.”
“Don’t be a pussy. It’s a fucking pig. He ain’t gonna bite.”
“He won’t?”
Tyler wouldn’t lie to me, would he?
“No.” He looked at me and his eyes darkened. “I might.”
Pigs apparently don’t bite. Well at least they didn’t bite me. They sniffed me and invaded my space, but no biting.
Being out in the water this way offered some sights you wouldn’t usually see on the beach. I saw pigs swimming, tasted a fresh pineapple, went through a secret canyon, kissed under another waterfall, and ran my hands over a stingray.
“I can’t believe how blue the water is,” I said, my chin resting on Tyler’s shoulder when we stopped about a half mile from the beach.
“It’s the way the light reflects off the water that gives it that clear blue appearance.”
My favorite part, maybe the most memorable?
I was straddling Tyler on his sun-drenched jet ski, when his palm met my breast over my bikini and I knew where it was heading again. His thumb grazed my nipple, his other hand brushing over my sun-sizzling skin until it was wrapped around my neck and pulling my kiss to his. My lashes fluttered closed. His lips were so soft and tender, pouring emotion and sweet desperation into his touch...something you wouldn’t think someone having just a short-lived island romance would do.
The kiss deepened as he gathered me up drawing me into his chest. My legs fell to the sides and squeezed, rubbing against his hardness. Shivers shot through my entire body at the contact. “You’re addicted, aren’t you?” he asked, his lips at my ear.
I moaned and he grunted at the contact, his hand moving to wrap around my waist, grinding me into him once again. “I am.” I kissed him again, slow and deep. “Are you?”
As the jet ski rocked in gentle movements, his hands untied my bikini strings, lifting me slightly so my bottoms were fisted in his hand at my hip. He lifted me again, his hands fumbling between us. His eyes found mine, shades of blue revealing a sweet sadness. “I’m obsessed,” he murmured, the warm glow from the waters dancing against his skin as sunlight reflected off each ripple.


1. Blurred Lines – Robin Thicke
2. Talk Dirty – Jason Derulo
3. Short Change Hero – The Heavy
4. Cruise – Florida Georgia Line
5. When The Lights Go Out – The Black Keys
6. Radioactive – Kings of Leon
7. Toes – Zac Brown Band
8. Won’t Let Go – Black Stone Cherry
9. Ordinary World – Duran Duran
10. I Love A Rainy Night – Eddie Rabbitt
11. Drink You Away – Justin Timberlake
12. Freaks – French Montana
13. Almost Lover – Jasmine Thompson
14. Dancin’ Away With My Heart – Lady Antebellum</ span>
15. Dust to Dust – The Civil Wars
16. Happiness – The Fray
17. Am I Wrong – Nico & Vinz



5 Tequila Sunrise Stars for Chelsea Landon's Come Sundown!!!!

"When life sucks, I have an answer for that. Drinking.  It's why they made that shit. I guarantee it."
After a bad break-up where Erin was told that she was "controlling, dictating, & callous"  the logical answer was a trip to the Bahamas with her best friend and her best friend's fiance.  Erin was looking for a good time, a one night stand that would get her mind off of everything going on, or not going on at home.  What she never expected to do was become a carefree, fun loving, open-minded girl who fell in love in a matter of days with an island boy.

Erin goes to an off the resort beach bar on her first night in paradise alone, and sets her sights on the hottie bartender who she immediately nick-names "island boy".  After drinking more then her body weight in alcohol, trying practically ever drink that Tyler has on the menu, she takes him back to her room for an amazing night of fun, no strings attached sex.  Or so she thought.  A girl who had an innate need to control every aspect of her life, down to scheduling sex with her ex-boyfriend, she lets loose for the first time in forever and commits to having fun on vacation.

Tyler is a local, working in his father's bar and living with his two friends, Nathan and Jared.  Erin notices that there is something hiding behind his bright eyes and alluring smile, thinking that maybe he is just what she needs to let go of a little of the control that she seems to so desperately need.  Tyler takes her on adventures, never telling her where they are going and Erin enjoys every minute that she spends with him, not wanting any of their time to end.  She sits at the end of the bar each night, trying his fruity drinks and engaging in many conversations wtih Tyler, never about anything serious, but feeling comfortable all the same.  He shows her that sharks do not in fact bite, that riding on a jet-ski is exillerating, the when helmut diving you can discover there is such a thing as a swimming pig and that going to the places that the locals frequent is much more fun then staying on the resort.

Tyler tells Erin that he can be anything that she needs him to be, but what does Tyler want to be?  He seems to conform to the ideal that he believes Erin has of him in her mind, just a vacation fling, nothing more nothing less.  But is that what Erin really feels or is that what she convinces herself that she feels.  It's toward the end of her time in the Bahamas, when Erin pushes Tyler away on purpose by leaving the bar with Jackson, that she realizes that maybe the feelings that she has when she is with Tyler or more than a passing thing.

" Sometimes it's easier to listen to your heart and ignore the warnings that you gut may give you.  But then, there's this one chance, this one moment where you know that you could possibly be letting the most amazing part of your life go."

Every girl dreams of being on a tropical island with a gorgeous guy that you fall in love with Come Sundown,  but Chelsea Landon weaves a story that is so much more than that.  This is a story about coming to terms with who you are and who you want to be, with accepting that the past does not define you and you can be forgiven even after death.  A story about taking chances that you would have never considered, even if they are totally scary.

"The thing I realized is that for things to go right, some things have to go wrong before you understand the difference.  I knew the difference."

  This is a MUST READ for all!!  I cannot WAIT to read the next book, I need to know about Nathan and Natalie's story!
 
Something Worth Saving - Released Feb 1, 2014
It was one night, one fate and something tragic destroying something beautiful. Heavy sheets of smoke curling and rolling together constricting my visions of this life I had. You see that there? That wrenching pain in your gut knowing not everything as it seems? Look closer. That nervous energy you now have, stumbling over words you can’t say, a voice muffled under a mask, a moaning plea to be saved, slurred words on the tip of your tongue, there’s the something tragic. When I have nothing left to give, nothing left to say, it’s him that brings me back to the moment, in the arms of my firefighter, the warmth of his heart and body, struggling to save his family.

Just Enough - Coming Aug 2014
I want out of this town. I want to leave and never look back. He doesn’t knock when he comes in, he never needs to. He knows, as well as I do, my door is always open, waiting. I crave him. I do. He knows this, I think, I know, and I believe he craves me too. Why else would he come back? It’s his determination and his will that gets me. That determination keeps me waiting for him in a dreary bay. I’ve always heard my friends say they wanted the rich guy to take them out of this small town that seems to hold us all captive. Lincoln wasn’t that guy. At first look, he’s a fisherman, married to the sea and weighted by her waves.Who is he to me? He’s someone who gives just enough. He shows me a different way of thinking. A way to give more than just enough.



A stay-at-home mom, Chelsea spends her days drinking entirely too much caffeine, baking sugar-sweet treats she never eats, playing on Pinterest, and jotting down notes for her novels. A dreamer at heart, she’s been creating happily-ever-afters. She’s a lover, a writer, a dreamer, would rather type than speak, wants to remember everything, loves lots of ice in her drinks, and is slightly introverted.

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