Title: Dash (The Novel)
Author: Shantel Tessier
Genre: Sports Romance
Release Date: June 30, 2015
I’ve never been one to follow the rules…or the law, for that matter. But when you find yourself behind bars and being offered the opportunity of a lifetime, you take it. I agreed to race motorcycles for Johnny Knight. A very powerful man who wanted me on his team, even knowing I was a liability. But will he still feel that way once he finds out that I had a one-night stand with his daughter? I didn’t mean for it to happen. I didn’t even know who she was until she walked into his office wearing my shirt from the night before. Too bad that was all she wanted—one night. It didn’t really matter who she was, I wanted more. So when she ran, I followed. I should have let her go. That would have been best for both of us. But I have never done what was right, so why start now? I’ve always been willing to take a risk, no matter what it would cost me. And I knew she was worth it all.
I’m Erik Dashling; you can call me Dash. This is my story of how I willingly risked one dream for another. But everyone knows that not all dreams come true.
"There are some particularly difficult scenes in this book, all I can say is that they were superbly written, poetic even, Shantel outdone herself in the delivery of the climax to the story, shell shocked would be how I felt..." ~ Book Hooked Brit
“Be prepared to fall in love with Dash, to melt when he brings out his cocky smirks and his sexy promises.” ~ Rosarita Reader (iScream Books)
"Such an emotionally heart stopping book. Loved it!" ~ The Smutbrarians
His face starts to
harden, and his gray eyes narrow as they search my face. He looks at me as if
he just realizes what my night has consisted of. A physical fight with Rodger.
Whereas, I’m sure he got drunk and laid.
I actually throw
my head back and laugh out loud. I laugh so hard my body shakes, and it feels
good. I lift my head and look up at him as he stares at me with those beautiful
gray eyes. They look hard as I watch his eyes follow the line of the stitches
that are on my face once again.
I throw my hand up
as I continue to laugh. He frowns when I snort, and it makes me laugh even
harder. “Sorry…” I try to calm my laughter; it makes my aching body hurt, but
it feels so good to laugh. “But this is just too funny.”
“Your ex-boyfriend
beating the shit out of you is funny?” he questions. “I don’t see how that can
be funny.”
My laughter dies
immediately. Instead of standing, I lean back against the bench and cross one
leg over the other. His eyes quickly scan my bare legs, and I feel my body heat
start to rise. No! Don’t go there, Tabatha. You regret ever sleeping with him,
remember? “No, the fact that you keep showing up is what I think is funny. The
fact that you think I wanna talk to you is funny.” Oh, good one. Make him buy
it.
“You wanna talk
about funny?” he asks raising his voice. “I have woken up to you running away.
Not only once, but twice. What the hell is your problem?” I take a deep breath
that makes my chest rise. Is he really
gonna do this? “And why was Rodger there after I happen to leave?” Oh, he’s
going all the way. “Huh? Did you call him to tell him how bad I hurt you?” My
mouth drops open. “Did you ask him to come over and kiss your wounds?” he
shouts.
I stand and shove
my hands into his chest pushing him backward. “Don’t you dare accuse me of
something you know nothing about,” I shout back. “You were the one who had just
been drunk and with your ex moments before. And you kissed her.” I do air
quotes around kissed. “Who knows what else you did with her.”
“I was just doing
what your father told me to do. Get information,” he says matter-of-fact with a
wave of his hand.
“Oh? And he told
you to stick your tongue down her throat?” I demand.
“No. His exact
words were to do whatever I had to do in order to get the information that we
needed.”
“Lies.” I spin
around giving him back for a second before I turn back to face him with my hands
clenched down at my sides. “All you do is lie,” I yell.
“And all you do is
run away,” he sneers in my face. “Not all of us are as heartless as you and can
just turn our backs on others at any given moment.”
I feel the tears start to sting my eyes, and I
blink them away. He truly hates me now, but this is not the time to fall apart.
After everything I’ve been through tonight, I can keep it together for just a
little longer. I swallow the knot in my throat and lick my dry lips. “Well, you
made it pretty damn easy,” I lie. He hasn’t made anything about us easy. It’s
so damn hard to stand here and be a bitch to him. My legs are tired, and I
would give anything for him to pick me up and hold me in his arms. But that
ship has sailed. “But I sure as hell can’t stand the fact that you keep coming
around.” Stay strong, Tabatha. Don’t apologize;
you can’t take those words back now no matter how big of a lie it was.
I expect him to
yell in my face for what I said. For him to shoot the hurtful words right back.
But instead, his hard eyes look me up and down, and he snorts as he shakes his
head. That hurts worse than any words could. He looked at me as if I was nothing.
He runs his hand
through his shaggy brown hair and speaks. “Well, I’ll make something else
easier for you. I quit.”
My Rating:
Favorite Quotes:
“If I know
Jackie, she is probably sitting in one of the windows, eating my ice cream
while watching us. She’s a freak like
that.”
“I am a
smart-mouthed bitch who has anger issues and a right hook to prove it.”
“At one point,
I saw myself marrying him. Then at
another point, I saw myself cutting him into little pieces and burying him in
the backyard of our spring Villa where we would be living.”
“I fell in
love with him because of the way he made me feel. Not my feelings toward him, but my feelings
toward myself. I lit up when he walked
into a room. I had a smile on my face
that wouldn’t go away. My skin would
tingle whenever he would look at me.”
“I kiss her
desperately. As if she’s air and I’ve
been drowning. Because that is what she
does for me. She helps me survive.”
My Review:
I am
conflicted in how to rate this book. I found
the first 80% entertaining, and then I didn’t anymore. But 80% is a significant margin for the positive
outweighing the negative, and Shantel Tessier has skills and talent. I just despise the direction she chose for
the last quarter this story. Hiss. She broke my heart. Up to that point, the story was passionate,
fiery, emotional, angsty, and fogged up windows steamy. The story and the characters were as
unpredictable as they were interesting. But
that remaining 20% has me in a total snit…
Empress DJ
Shantel is a Texas born girl who now lives in Tulsa, Oklahoma with her high school sweetheart, who is a wonderful, supportive husband and their four year old little princess. She loves to spend time cuddled up on the couch with a good book
She has published five books in the Undescribable series and 2 books in the DASH series. She considers herself extremely lucky to get to be a stay at home wife and mother. Going to concerts and the movies are just a few of her favorite things to do. She hates coffee, but loves wine. She and her husband are both huge football fans, college and NFL. And she has to feed her high heel addiction by shopping for shoes weekly.
Although she has a passion to write, her family is most important to her. She loves spending evenings at home with her husband and daughter, along with their two cats and dog.
HOSTED BY:
No comments:
Post a Comment