Dissonance by Drew Elyse
Published August 25, 2014
The first
time Logan ever saw Charlotte, she was staring up into the rain.
Logan is
searching for direction when his new roommate makes that entrance. With a body
of pure sin, giant bright eyes, and the voice of an angel, she has his
attention immediately. But everything about Charlotte is also screaming
"hands off."
Charlotte is
hiding. She made a life of pretending, and she is happy to keep it that way.
Physically and emotionally scarred by the secrets of her past, the last thing
she needs is a gorgeous roommate asking all the wrong questions. Their mutual
attraction and devotion to music may be too strong to keep him at arms length,
though.
Can they find
a way to resolve the dissonance between them?
“Dance with
me,” he repeated.
I nearly
dropped when he asked. Even following him through the crowd, I was unsure if it
was a good idea to dance with someone who turned my heart into a jackhammer.
But, with my hand secured in his and determination radiating off of him, there
was no going back.
When we made
it onto the dance floor, the crowd had thickened and Eli and Alex were no
longer in our sights. A stranger bumped into me, sending me staggering backward
a few steps and tugging my hand free from Logan’s. He was on me again almost
instantaneously, pulling me to his chest to steady me. I looked up at him,
breathless from the proximity of our bodies, feeling his toned chest and
abdomen beneath his t-shirt. They were even more alluring pressed against me
than they had been that afternoon in the living room.
“You okay?”
he asked, leaning in close so that I could hear. Chills shot down my exposed
arms and neck from the warmth of his breath. I couldn’t form words. I could only
nod and try to keep my face from looking like a deer about to be struck by an
18-wheeler.
Pulling back
just enough so that he could see my face, he smiled. It was the same knowing
smile that I’d seen from him before, the one that seemed at once charming and
almost disgustingly cocky. If there was one thing I did not want, it was for
the arrogant man with his arms around me to know the effect he was having on
me. Silently coaching myself, I regulated my breathing and turned around. With
my back pressed against his front, I began to move to the pulsing rhythm
echoing through the club.
If Logan was
at all surprised by my sudden command of the situation, he managed to not let
on. His hands immediately went to my hips and pulled me tightly against him.
Even once I was pressed so close that I could feel every muscle of his toned
core move and flex behind me, the pressure of his fingertips against my
gyrating hips did not let up. He was holding me there, giving me no room to
pull myself away.
There was no
need to hold me. When Logan began to move, his pelvis rocking sensually against
my backside, I was so enthralled that I doubt I could have gotten my body to
pull away from his. I never would have expected Logan to be able to dance the
way he did, with a sensual power over me that was far more intoxicating than
the rum we’d been shooting.
Song after
song bled together but neither of us made any move to pull away. The thought
never even crossed my mind until the music slowed. The constant pressure of his
hands had never let up – although it had traveled around the curves of my hips
and waist – until that moment. When those deft hands slackened their grip, I
assumed he wanted to stop, so I started to pull away.
I was wrong.
He caught my
hand and turned me back to face him. I expected to see the same arrogantly
dashing smile, but instead his face looked serious and pleading. I allowed him
to pull me into his arms again. I placed my right hand against his chest, which
was overly warm, and I felt the fluttering heartbeat under my palm that matched
my own. He took my left hand up to his neck. The thin layer of sweat on his
skin made me want to run my tongue along his neck. The sensual response my body
had to him was wholly unnerving. I had never felt such raw desire for anyone.
Given my history, I could hardly ignore the way that Logan ignited my blood,
even if I wanted to.
This was no
middle school, arm length slow dance. Moving with the deep beat, Logan let his
body, which was touching mine from chest to knee, lead. His eyes were locked on
mine, his irises reflecting back the colors of the changing lights around us.
His hands moved from resting on my hips and slowly skimmed up my back. When his
rough fingertips touched the slightly damp skin of my arms, a shock ran through
me, just as it had when he touched my hand in the car. He continued a soft,
tickling path up the length of my arms, pushing my right hand up to encircle
his neck.
As distracted
as I was by his hypnotic touch, I did not realize that his hand had reached my
wrist until I felt his thumb graze the scar. I froze. I kept the raised, red
line hidden beneath a thick layer of make-up, but there was no disguising the
raised edge from his touch. I never let anyone get close to the spot, let alone
actually touch it as Logan had. How it slipped my mind, I didn’t know. It was
impossible to forget it now, as his fingers traced the line down the center of
my arm.
I couldn’t
look up at Logan, couldn’t stand to see the confusion, or pity, or judgment
that would have settled into his expression. I had to get away from him.
Yanking my arm from his hold, I muttered a feeble apology as I rushed away.
"Most people hated Seattle because of the constant wet weather, but it was what I looked forward to the most. I loved the rain."
Dissonance is the debut novel by Drew Elyse
and I have to say she knocked it out of the
park as a brand new author. This book was gritty, heartfelt, extremely
emotional and heartwarming all at the same time. The emotions of each
character could be felt through the words on the page and they gripped
me in a way that made me often feel like I was in the room with them. I
give this book 4.5 rainy stars and I cannot wait for the next book in
the series!
Charlotte
moves from Chicago to Seattle to be closer to her brother Eli and her
best friend Alex after an unfortunate situation that left her in
emotional
turmoil. In order to try and alleviate her brother from incessantly
worrying, she agrees to move in with his best friend Logan and start a
life in Seattle. Closed off from the world Charlotte has a love of
music that the reader finds out only rivals the one that Logan has.
Logan is a hot tattoo heir to a lucrative business by day and a
musician by night. He hasn't had a relationship as long as Eli has
known him, preferring to have girls on speed dial for "booty-calls".
Logan doesn't understand the pull that he has toward Charlotte from the
moment he sees her standing in the rain and Charlotte has a level of
comfort and ease with Logan that an extreme few people ever see from
her. A match made in heaven??
Logan
slowly begins to change his womanizing ways for Charlotte, knowing that
he has to tread lightly and slowly into a relationship with her because
she appears so fragile. Her panic attacks and the way she is closed
off at someone uttering a single word, leads Logan to believe that there
something pretty significant happened to her that Eli hasn't divulged
to him. Charlotte slowly opens up to Logan, much to the surprise of
Alex, who has lived through a similar circumstance and was only saved by
the love she found with Eli. The small tidbits of information that
Charlotte reveal to Logan throughout the beginning of the book has the
reader entertaining all sorts of possibilities as to what happened
that made her so introverted.
"Charlotte, I know you're self conscious about your scar, but I wouldn't judge you for it. I hate that you have had to suffer like that, but I am not going to throw meaningless pity at you. You are still the same in my eyes."
The
love the blossoms between Charlotte and Logan is beautiful to see,
because she deserves happiness more than any character I have
encountered in a book in a very long time. And the 360 degree change
that Logan makes in order to prove his love to Charlotte gives a girl
hope that some of the book boyfriends we love and adore could maybe just
be real after all. Although this book had a happy ending, it wasn't
gift wrapped and unrealistic, but instead was heartfelt and gave the
reader a sense that there was more for them in the future and they would
work to get there. This book is an absolute MUST READ for all.
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Can they find a way to resolve
the Dissonance between them?
Dissonance was a fantastic story, and I would give it a solid 5 stars! It is told in dual POV's of Charlotte and Logan. The sexy scenes were off the charts hot... and just the writing and the story itself were so well thought out that I couldn't help but give this a 5 star. This is the authors debut novel and you wouldn't know it by how well put together it is.. so I have to give Drew Elyse a big high five for an amazing story. You will get tons of emotions reading this book, and yes sadness is a big part of it. But Char and Logan have a electric chemistry and at times you wanna say "kiss her already" but damn if its not worth the wait!
Char aka Charlotte has just made a huge decision in her life to move from Chicago to Seattle to be closer to her brother Eli and her best friend Alex. Eli has taken care of Char for a longtime and a very tragic episode will give her no choice but to take this leap of faith and move away from everything she has ever known. Her brother sets up everything for her, he has an apartment for her to stay in but it comes with a roommate Eli's best friend Logan. Char isn't to hip on having a roommate but she knows its Eli's way of knowing she isn't alone and that she is safe. She has troubled past and because of this she is very quiet and keeps to her self and her music. When she realizes that music is a big part of Logan's life as well they start to form a bond... but she can only be friends.. she has built up to many walls and no one can ever break them down. Or will Logan be the first to shatter those walls into tiny pieces? She can only resist his charm for so long before the pull and the chemistry they have will ignite.
To say his grin was heart stopping would not do it justice. It made him nearly irresistible, and I had the impression that he used that to his advantage frequently enough. Already sensing that in him made it just possible for me to resist.--CHAR
Logan is a hardworking business man by day, but a tattooed Musician by night. He isn't a playboy per say but he doesn't do relationships because they just turn out bad for him.. he has his few flings and normal hookups but he puts all his energy into his band and his family business. But the day Char will come into his life will jolt things inside him like a lightning bolt.
Seeing her in person, it was obvious from the first glance that she was a hell of a lot better than cute. She stopped me in my tracks, and I'm certain that has never happened before. I'm not sure what it was about her that I found so arresting, but I couldn't look away, much less get my feet to move. -- LOGAN
When the chemistry between them just can't be put to the side anymore it will be explosive. They will learn more about eachother and also learn to change things about them selves to make a relationship with eachother work. But when past secrets and present existence collide... there HEA will be hard to come by... but can they make it happen? Will Logan be strong enough to take the blow of Char's past and will Char be able to let her walls down and finally feel what love is supposed to feel like?
God, this girl has no idea how damn hot she is. I could barely keep myself under control while we had been dancing. The way her skin glistened with a thin layer of sweat I imagined causing in much dirtier ways, the sweet floral scent of her that made me ache to know how she would taste, the way her body fit so perfectly against mine as though she was meant to be there, it all had me at the very brink of losing it. I would not, could not be the one to break her. -- LOGAN
Logan's arms wrapped around me from behind, pulling me against him and kissing my cheek. Contentment wasn't something I was all that used to, but in that moment, it consumed me.-- CHAR
I loved everything about his story..and I am so happy that we get Eli's and Alex's story next! I just want to thank Drew Elyse for a perfect romance story and look forward to so much more from this author!
Drew
graduated from Loyola University Chicago with a BA in English. She was born and
raised in Chicago, IL, and still lives there with her boyfriend, a rabbit named
Lola, and a bird named... birdie.
Besides
writing, she loves reading, music, and crafting. She has a
slightly-less-than-healthy obession with all things Disney, and is an avid fan
of the Chicago Blackhawks.
