Title: Crushed
Series: Redemption #2
Author: Lauren Layne
Publisher: Flirt
Release
Date: April 14, 2015
Lauren Layne’s latest novel about the healing power of redemption tells the story of a crush gone wickedly wrong, proving that what you want isn’t always what you need.
Growing up in New York, Michael St. Claire never expected to spend his twenties wearing cowboy boots. But that was before he learned about his real father, a total stranger with a family in Cedar Grove, Texas. Once in the Lone Star State, Michael meets Kristin Bellamy, who is exquisitely refined and everything Michael always thought he wanted in a woman. The only problem is that Kristin is dating Michael’s new half brother, Devon.
Kristin’s mouthy, curvy sister Chloe has always been in love with Devon Patterson. So when Michael offers to help Chloe break up Devon and Kristin, Chloe agrees to a deal that seems too good to be true. Before long, Chloe finally gets her man, only to make a startling discovery: She no longer wants the guy she had to fight for—she wants the one who stood by her side. After all he and Chloe have been through, Michael swears he’s damaged goods. Can Chloe convince him that love is worth the risk?
Crushed by Lauren Layne is a book about finding yourself in the least likely of places while looking for a redemption that you thought you wanted but discovered that you didn't really need. This story is amazing, filled with intrigue, love lost and found, and discovering that you can break out of the mold of who you are and still be the same person on the inside. This book was a 4 star read for me and I would highly recommend it to others.
Michael St. Claire has hung up his designer suits and the boardroom for tennis whites and the heat of the Texas sun in the summer time. He has one goal, get close to Kristin Bellamy so that he can in turn get close to her long-time boyfriend who also happens to be Michael's half brother; a discovery that was revealed to him purely by accident. Kristin is the type of girl that can get any guy she wants and she knows it, so Michael thinks that it is in the bag, that is until he meets her sarcastic, quirky, slightly larger younger sister Chloe. Once Chloe brings a smile to Michael's face all the while making fun of herself while eating chocolate, he knows that he was after the wrong sister and changes his entire approach. He befriends Chloe under the pretense of training her to help her become a healthier version of herself.
Chloe has loved Devon for as long as she can remember, for as long as he has been her sister's boyfriend. Although they were always very close friends, he never gave her the second look that she yearned for, a looked that scream passion, not younger sister. With Michael helping her to shed a couple of the pounds she has gained, eat a little healthier, she hopes that she can finally get Devon to really look at her, with the love-sick eyes that she always has when she looks at him. Michael claims that he can help her get Devon, by making him jealous enough to open his eyes to what has always been right in front of him.
Michael never intended to fall for Chloe, or to consider her a friend when he yearned to be alone in plotting how to approach his real father. Chloe barged into his heart with her larger than life attitude and wouldn't stop pushing him until he confessed to the real reason he was in Texas. Chloe saw Michael as the first real friend she has had in a long time, and a summer that should have been filled with reading out by the pool soon became so much more for her. Could she put her feelings for Devon aside and see them for what they truly were, a childhood crush and open her heart to someone new? Or would she turn into everything that she wasn't just to be with him? You will have to read to find out.
Prior to her writing career, USA Today bestselling author Lauren Layne worked in e-commerce and web marketing. She wore cute shoes and actual outfits, like an adult. Then she was like, nope, changed into her pajamas, and started writing romance novels for Penguin Random House and Grand Central Publishing. Lauren believes in sarcasm, weekday happy hours, and happily-ever-afters, the latter of which she writes full-time from her Manhattan apartment.
