4 Smooches!

Synopsis

Guarded hearts.
Wounded pride.
Devastating betrayal.
Broken souls.

Complete opposites intent not to yield, determined not to feel, but incapable of stopping it. Until the past resurfaces with the intent to ruin everything.
Is learning to love again worth the risk? After all, a life without love isn’t a life worth living.

Review

There are so many wonderful books within this genre that are positively gut-wrenching, soul-shredding, tear-jerking reads, ones that leave the reader curled up in the fetal position, sobbing and nursing one heck of a book hangover once they’ve finished reading.  Intent by AD Justice is not that kind of book.  Easy, peasy, nice and breezy is how I’d describe this book.  And you know what? That’s OK. Sometimes readers just need a break from all the angst, the heaviness and the drama, and you’ll get that here.

“That single dash mark on the test strip has single-handedly dashed my hopes and dreams too often.”

Layne Elliot has been with her boyfriend, Bobby, for seven years; he was her first everything. She’s an attorney on the upswing of her career, but what she really wants is the American dream: husband, 2.5 kids and a white, picket-fence ringed house in the ‘burbs. Bobby, however, doesn’t quite share this dream, but he ultimately gives in a little, and they strike a deal that at least gives Layne one slice of her American dream pie. As it turns out, though, it wasn’t that blasted dash mark on the test strip that wound up dashing Layne’s hopes and dreams after all.

“Should I allow the pain from my split…to rob me of my happiness? To taint the rest of my life?”

A devastating betrayal has Layne’s world crashing down around her, and she slips into a robotic depression. Her boss and mentor, who is more like a mother figure to Layne, is worried and forces her to take a much needed sabbatical. Layne heads to the woman’s summer home in a small, mountain town to escape the reminders of her failed relationship and to start the healing of her tattered heart. Little did she know that leaving behind everything she thought she had would lead her to finding all that she ever really wanted.

“Where have you been all my life?”

Ace Sharp, an equine therapist and single father, has learned the hard way that relationships and love aren’t easy. The only good thing that came out of the nightmare that was his relationship with his ex-girlfriend, Margot, was his four-year-old daughter, River. He hasn’t opened his heart to anyone but River since that relationship ended, and he doesn’t think he can or will.

“I know you’ve been hurt…”

While their initial encounter wasn’t even close to love at first sight, when Ace learns what Layne did for River, his opinion of her dramatically changes. River has captured Layne’s heart, and through her, Ace and Layne shake off their less than pleasant first meeting and forge a tentative friendship. The more time they spend together – and River is seeing to it that they spend a lot of time together – the more they actually like each other and enjoy each other’s company. With a friendship between the two of them solidified, it becomes harder for them to deny their deepening feelings for one another, their attraction to each other or their chemistry together.

“…tell me something, Layne. Are you willing to take a chance on me?”

Giving into the feelings and desire that they share, Ace and Layne shake off the chains of their past experiences and tumble head-first into a relationship neither saw coming but both are unable to fight. Both both have substantial baggage of the former partner variety, and neither of those two people are quite so willing to let go, though. Will hearing Bobby out give Layne the closure that she needs to move on or will he once again send her reeling? Will Margot’s alarming activities drive them apart or push them closer together?

“All the wrongs and hurts fade to black when I’m with him…”

This couple, both having been dealt terrible hands in the relationship game, could have easily held tight to their pasts letting it overshadow the love building between them. In a refreshing change of place, they instead held tight to each other, and they were rewarded with a soul-deep, once-in-a-lifetime, true love rooted in friendship, in trust, in mutual respect and simmering with white hot chemistry. I wanted so much for them to have an easy road with each other while they worked together to hold the outside forces at bay, and they did.

“Will you catch me?”

“I’ll never let you fall alone, Layne.”

It’s not often that I get to read a story where the relationship is the easy part and the external factors are the problem. What was happening around these two could have easily made this relationship much harder, but this couple recognized what they had with each other and they simply did not let outside factors in. They stood strong together, they held on to each other, they allowed trust to form, and they instead focused their energy on growing their relationship while handling these outside influences as a united front.

“We both know there’s no going back, no backing out, and no changing our minds. We’re in this together, through thick and thin, for better or for worse.”

This was such a sweet and sexy story. It was well written and developed, and it was a smile-plastered-on-my-face, pleasure to read. There is definitely something to be said about a story where the budding relationship and the main character couple is the easy part. If you’re in need of something upbeat and a bit easy, especially after reading a story that left you gutted and devastated, A.D. Justice’s Intent is exactly what you need to soothe your ravaged soul. 4 smooches from me!

~ Danielle Palumbo

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