Alexis doesn’t believe in fairytales. She knows first hand that life can turn on a dime – that one stupid mistake can shatter dreams and irrevocably shape the future. Even though her memory of that day is hazy, she has spent the last ten years trying to put it behind her and focus on the future.
Armed with the knowledge that her career will be her only legacy, Alexis works night and day to prove that she is more than just her last name. It’s not only that she doesn’t have time for love – she doesn’t have the heart for it. After all, there’s no point in starting something that you can’t finish.
However, when she meets Adam, she’s drawn to him in a way even she can’t deny. He is dark and brooding and strangely charming. He’s the perfect distraction from the mundane life she’s created for herself. And, as if fate is pushing them together, he seems to be around every corner. It’s enough to almost make her entirely forget about her past and take a chance.
Unfortunately, Adam’s memory isn’t hazy . . . not in the least. And, what she doesn’t remember, he can’t forget.
*Mature New Adult/Adult novel – contains adult situations and sexuality and is suited for ages 18 and up*
[Excerpt 1: Meet Adam]
Dinner had gone just as I had planned. Well, except for one thing. I still didn’t understand how I could be so attracted to her; I had hated her for so long. Yet, I kept flipping back to that kiss on the sidewalk and how she had pressed her body into mine. I’d felt the charge between us, and I know that she felt it, too. When it became clear that she wasn’t going to invite me up, I had wanted nothing more than to sling her over my shoulder and haul her ass up there caveman-style. I had resisted because I could wait and because when I went there, it would be at the expense of a guilty conscience.
I thought that I knew all of her secrets but her prohibition against dating was something I hadn’t expected. It was going to make getting her to fall for me a little harder ... but not impossible.
She would fall for me ... and the harder the better because I was going to break her heart.
Even if I smashed into a million pieces, it would only be a fraction of the heartache that she’d caused me every single day for the past 10 years.
[Excerpt 2: Meet Alexis]
As we got closer to my building, a swarm of butterflies descended upon my stomach. By the time we stepped into the elevator, the butterflies were flitting around at warp speed, and as I unlocked my front door, my anxiety hit a fever pitch.
It wasn’t that I was nervous to be around Adam. Despite the fact that I frequently suffered from asthma attacks and heart murmurs when he was near, we were way past nervousness. Having a guy lick syrup off your fingers while desecrating his kitchen table will illicit a sense of familiarity, even if it is a false one.
No, my anxiety was solely rooted in the fact that during my almost nine years in New York City, I had never invited a guy into my apartment. Not one. Not even Ethan had been invited into my inner sanctum.
My apartment was my safe haven. It was the only place where I didn’t have to pretend that I was a whole person. In this space, I wasn’t the pretty girl with the perfect job made possible by an ivy-league education and a privileged upbringing by perfectly doting parents. Instead, I was free to be the broken, tired, lonely girl that I really was. In this place, it was okay that I wasn’t allowed to want for more because what I already had took everything in me. Inviting Adam into my apartment felt like inviting him into so much more.
I flipped on the light as he shut the door behind us. The click of the door was probably just barely audible but caused me to wince. This hadn’t been a good idea. I wasn’t sure that I could put on the show here that came so easily everywhere else.
[Author's Bio]
Jenni Moen lives in her hometown in Oklahoma with her husband and three crazy, exuberant kids that have the potential to burn the house down at any moment.
When she’s not chauffeuring kids, performing her mom duties as a short order cook, or vacuuming for her fastidious husband, she hammers away at her keyboard at her big girl job as a patent attorney. While vodka and exercise have provided some relief from the daily grind, it is reading … and now writing … that are her true escapes.
[Other Reviews]
“The author has written a surprising story about two people in New York who encounter each other by chance, but in reality their meeting and the events that followed couldn't have been more planned. Remembering Joy is the story of love, lies, pain, deception, tragedy and strength … Moen succeeds in making the reader feel as though they are living the story along with the characters. She will have the reader laughing, crying and truly wanting more …” - Nancy Pendleton, Examiner
[Purchase Links]
Sounds like a great book! The cover is well done. It definitely drew me in.
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