You can follow the rules or you can follow your heart…
THE MOMENT OF LETTING GO
Sienna Murphy never does anything without a plan. And so far her plans have been working. Right after college, she got a prestigious job and gained the stability she’d always craved—until work takes her to the sun-drenched shores of Oahu and places her in the path of sexy surfer Luke Everett. For the first time, she lets her heart take control. Drawn to his carefree charm, she makes a spontaneous and very un-Sienna-like decision to drop everything and stay in Hawaii for two more weeks.
Luke lives fast and wild. When he meets Sienna, he’s convinced that some no-strings-attached fun is just what she needs. As their nights quickly turn from playful to passionate, Luke can’t deny the deep connection he feels. But there’s a reason Luke doesn’t do long-term. He can’t promise Sienna forever, when the enormity of his past has shown him just how fragile the future can be.
4 Living your Life Stars
I’m a mega J.A. Redmerski fan. You can even call me obsessed. I’ll be honest and say I like her darker, In The Company of Killer series more, but she does have a flare in writing for the dramatic pieces. The ones that will grip you and make you question everything.
Sienna is an events coordinator. Her job is to manage a wedding in Hawaii. During her trip she runs into Luke. Luke is a free spirited surfer. Luke isn’t your typical laid-back hero. He doesn’t care about money and he strives to live a life where you do things that make yourself happy. Something we all Americans want, but just like Sienna we don’t do.
Luke convinces Sienna to extend her trip and stay with him for two weeks. Sienna eventually agrees.
The beginning is a bit slow and it takes a bit before you get into the heart of the story, but once Luke and Sienna meet, it just takes off. I liked the two week time limit. I felt like everything Luke and Sienna did mattered. Like Luke giving Sienna surf lessons and Luke pushing Sienna to take photographs, because it made her happy.
It was no secret that it was Luke’s job to make Sienna happy and to push her boundaries. I really enjoyed the positive aspects of the story. I liked Luke helping Sienna overcoming fears and kind of convert her to his life style. Luke also likes extreme sports and although he doesn’t push Sienna to do the things he does, he definitely introduces her to that life style.
“Fear is just the part of you that wants you to fail. It’s all of your regrets and your pain and your failures wrapped up into one emotion. It’s a weakness, nothing more.”
But it wouldn’t be a Redmerski read if there wasn’t angst right? Yes, there’s mild tension and I’ll tell you this. There’s something about Luke that prevents him from fully opening to Sienna. We as the reader know what it is and that’s great because it prevented me from pulling my hair out, but it was really frustrating when he wouldn’t tell Sienna. I honestly didn’t think it was that big of the deal, but I understand Luke’s reasons.
It’s a beautiful story and although there are some parts I couldn’t relate to (like dating an extreme sports loving guy) I like the overall “message” in the book. It makes you question life and want to live life to the fullest.
“I drank the sky and brought an angel down with me”
An ARC was provided
Then he gets up and grabs my hands from the tops of my bare knees, pulling me to my feet.
“We’re going swimming,” he says. “And we’ll talk more about this later…like on the day your vacation is over and you’re standing at the gate in the airport about to kiss me goodbye.”
“Wow, you really think highly of yourself, don’t you?” I can’t keep the laughter from my voice.
“Damn straight!” he says and pulls me along beside him. “Before these two weeks are over, I can guarantee you three things.” He holds up three fingers as we continue onward toward the water. “One”—he holds up one finger—“you’ll never want to go back to San Diego once Hawaii is done with you.” He holds up two fingers. “Two—that photography love of yours will start to take the place of everything else in your life. And three”—he wiggles three fingers and we stop on the beach where the water can pool around our feet—“you’ll kiss me at least once before you go home.”
I blush hard and it feels like my eyes are bugging out of my head. “I might peck you on the cheek or something, but—”
“We’re going swimming,” he says. “And we’ll talk more about this later…like on the day your vacation is over and you’re standing at the gate in the airport about to kiss me goodbye.”
“Wow, you really think highly of yourself, don’t you?” I can’t keep the laughter from my voice.
“Damn straight!” he says and pulls me along beside him. “Before these two weeks are over, I can guarantee you three things.” He holds up three fingers as we continue onward toward the water. “One”—he holds up one finger—“you’ll never want to go back to San Diego once Hawaii is done with you.” He holds up two fingers. “Two—that photography love of yours will start to take the place of everything else in your life. And three”—he wiggles three fingers and we stop on the beach where the water can pool around our feet—“you’ll kiss me at least once before you go home.”
I blush hard and it feels like my eyes are bugging out of my head. “I might peck you on the cheek or something, but—”
“No,” he says, smiling and quite serious, “it’ll be a full-on, tongue-dancing kind of kiss.”
I smack him playfully on the arm—something is fluttering around inside my belly.
“Geez!”
Luke grabs my hand and pulls me out to the water with him, where we swim and hang out on the cliffs until late in the afternoon. People come and go throughout the hours, sometimes leaving us with Alicia, Braedon, and a few of their close friends to have the area to ourselves for a while before more people show up in intervals.
“Backflip!” someone says just before Luke jumps into the water for probably the twentieth time.
And every time he does it, it ties my stomach up in knots. But there’s something about him that I can’t quite figure out when I watch him leap off the edge of that cliff; it’s not overconfidence or showing off or recklessness, but something deeper, more profound. Maybe it’s a sense of freedom, or a natural high that consumes him while he’s in the air, as if he had been born with a pair of wings that only he can see. But the more time I spend with him, the more intrigued I become. Sure, he’s gorgeous and funny and polite and all the kinds of things—so far—that would make my mom love him to death. But what intrigues and excites me more is how he
kind of makes me want to jump off that stupid cliff regardless of how scared I am of it.
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J.A. Redmerski, New York Times, USA Today and Wall Street Journal bestselling author of THE EDGE OF NEVER lives in North Little Rock, Arkansas with her three children and a Maltese. She is a lover of television and books that push boundaries and is a huge fan of AMC’s The Walking Dead.
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