Give Me Books: Review Tour - Tug by K.J. Bell

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Title: Tug

Author: KJ Bell

Release Date: June 26, 2014

Aidan Hunter lost the only girl he ever loved to his older brother. To numb his pain, he drinks in excess, parties too hard, and sleeps with countless women. When his family expresses concern, he does what he's been taught to do—fake it and pretend his life is perfect. Pretend he loves his new girl and pretend his heart isn’t broken.

Maria Santiago is simply trying to survive each day until she finishes college. As a single mother, life is a constant struggle. Add running from a dangerous past and working in the oldest profession, and all she has is hope for a better life. Hope one day she will no longer feel shame and hope her past never catches up with her.

After Aidan pays to spend one wild night with Maria, pretending to be unaffected by her is impossible. Their night comes to an explosive end and Maria hopes she never sees him again, but Aidan refuses to give up. As Maria begins to accept that Aidan’s feelings for her are genuine, someone from her past threatens her life. Aidan’s not intimidated and takes a huge risk to protect her.

Will the risk pay off and allow Aidan the opportunity to provide Maria with the better life she’s been hoping for?

ADD TO GOODREADS

First let me tell you, if you have not read Irreparably Broken and Irreversible Damage (also by K.J. Bell), read them first. I started Tug before knowing it was a “spin off” book of the other 2. I WAS LOST! After correcting my mistake, the back story was clear and I understood the character of Tug much better.

Tug has lost the only woman he has ever loved to his older brother and has a VERY hard time dealing with that fact. That and other events in the past books have compounded into some major problems for all the characters. They all seem to have a rubber band effect on each other, pulling away, and being snapped back, to help each other heal, and process the lies they have been fed their entire lives.

Through this book, you see Tug go from a self-centered, self-destructive, conceited, jack ass to a man conflicted with what and who he truly wants in his life. You feel his struggles, want to love him, want to strangle him, and watch him grow as a person. Once he knows what he wants he grabs onto it, and does not let go easily.

He meets Maria early in the book, and she is NOT what I expected at all! She is a spitfire who takes shit from no one while at the same time throws everything she has at those she loves. I fell in love with her personality right from the start. Her character also does a lot of growing and she ends up a much more confident person in the relationship, until Tugs loyalty to her is shown to be undecided.

This book ends in a cliff hanger. I just pray my fingers are strong enough to help me hold on until the next book. I will be impatiently waiting!!

~ Review by Devlynn

Can I start of by saying, WOW and "What The Tug" just happened!! I could not put this book down once I started reading it. It captivated me and would not let me go until I knew what happened at the end. Now the ending brought out a variety of emotions: happy, sad, excited, confused and upset because I NEED to know what happens next.

Aidan Hunter who goes by Tug is an emotionless, cocky, womanizing man since getting his heart broken by the woman he thought he loved. He refuses to get attached to anyone since he can't have Tori, his brothers soon to be wife. Maria, a single mom trying to make ends meet, doing something she's not proud of but has to put her son's needs before her pride.

On Tug & Maria's first encounter they are rude to each other and let's just say, after that they can't get out of each other's head. Maria knows she has to because he has, not only the ability to hurt her but also because there are secrets Maria is hiding that complicate things.

Tug worries at first what people will say if they see him involved with Maria, especially since he is the CEO of the family business. He decides that he needs someone on his arm that will please people, especially those on the board of his company. After a while he just can't take it anymore because he is miserable without Maria in his life. He doesn't care what people think of him getting involved with someone like her. He persuades her to date him and promises her that he will never hurt her. Well that is one promise he should never have made.

Can I say, putting this nicely, that I really disliked Tori. She was so wishywashy, mental at times and self centered, especially when she saw Tug finally being happy and she was not the cause of his happiness. When things starts going down you will be left with your mouth open and saying 'What The Heck just happened here!!!'

KJ Bell, thank you for such an amazing story of finding yourself and not being afraid to love with your whole heart!! 5++++stars

~ Review by Kara

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K J Bell currently lives in California with her husband and three children. As a mother of three, when she’s not writing, she’s usually carting one of her children to their various activities.

She enjoys reading, and music, and is equally addicted to both.

Writing is a passion she simply can’t live without.

She loves hearing from her readers and can be found on various social media sites.