Ripe For Reader: Blog Tour - WORN ME DOWN by Tara Sivec

WORN ME DOWN

(Playing With Fire #3)

by T.E. Sivec

Release date: January 21, 2014

“Worn me down like a road. I did everything you told. Worn me down to my knees.
I did everything to please.”

Austin Conrad has never taken his personal life seriously. As a Navy SEAL, he spends all of his time in dangerous, life-threatening situations. The only way to leave behind the horrors he’s seen throughout his career, is to turn it all off when he gets home. He’s too much of a playboy to settle down; even if he did find a woman he could stand to be around for more than one night, he would never taint her life with the demons of his past.

When his best friend and SEAL team member, Brady Marshall asks him to keep an eye on his baby sister, Gwen, Austin figures it will be a walk in the park. The only thing Austin likes more than flirting his way under a beautiful woman’s skin, is walking away with a smile on his face. Austin never expects that the single mom and her little girl will be the ones getting under his skin.

Gwen Stratford knows all too well about living in a nightmare. After taking her daughter and fleeing from her abusive husband in the middle of the night several months ago, she’s worked hard to get her life back on track and forget about the man who tried to break her. Growing up under the iron thumb of her parents and then moving right on with a man who ruled their marriage with his fists, Gwen is finally able to breathe and live her life the way she wants.

When scary, mysterious things begin to happen to Gwen and her daughter, she realizes you can never outrun your past; it always has a way of catching up with you. As she struggles with the desire to keep her newfound independence, she knows she won’t be able to protect herself and her child alone. She’ll need to lean on the one man who drives her crazy.

Can Gwen really put her trust in a man who thinks life is one big joke, or will he be just another man in her life who tries to wear her down?

WORN ME DOWN

(Playing with Fire #3)

by Tara Sivec

ARC Review

Published: January 21, 2014

My rating: 4 of 5 ⭐️

A Navy SEAL, Austin Conrad's career is his life and his brothers in arms are his family. So when one of his SEAL brothers calls him to ask for a favor, there is no hesitation before he says yes. Even if the the request is to baby-sit Brady Marshall's sister, Gwen, a beautiful but mouthy and prickly woman he had the pleasure of meeting once before. Austin generally likes his women more compliant, it works better with the one night stands he prefers to stick to.

Six months ago, when Gwen ended up injured and beaten on her brothers doorstep with her 6-year old daughter in tow, she had been a mere shell of herself. Now she was stronger than ever, having gotten away from an abusive husband and toxic parents, working with her brother in his investigations company. She has a good handle on the work while Brady was out of town and is pissed to find out he has called in the 'troops' to keep an eye on her while he's gone. Especially when the troops come in the form of one Austin Conrad, who seems to believe he is God's gift to women.

Austin is nothing if not intrigued by the gorgeous, venom spitting woman he is supposed to look after, and completely floored when she turns out to be the warm and loving mother of a six year old Barbie-toting little girl. Spitting venom, he can handle.......Barbie-toting little girls terrify him. But they also inspire him into protective mode, and when some odd events seem to shake the strong and capable Gwen to the core, Austin decides his detail just got serious.

Accepting Austin's help is not exactly easy to do for newly independent Gwen, but with a daughter in the mix she cannot afford to take unnecessary risks, and stupid she isn't. Being so near him at all times is doing a number on her, though. She should be repelled by this dominant man, but she finds herself attracted to him, especially when she sees his involvement with her daughter. She is scared to lose her heart, she did that once before and still bears the scars......

*****

Fantastic blend of suspense, drama and serious sexual chemistry!!

All kinds of sparks were flying in this book!! I love it! From the start you could feel the energy between Austin and Gwen, be it positive or negative, they did something to each other, they obviously affected the other. Yes, chemistry was oozing off the pages, but these two were not about to go down easily, fighting their attraction tooth and nail.

Gwen is a mama bear, geared up to protect her daughter at all cost and is nothing at all like the woman who escaped her abpusive husband months ago. She carries shame and guilt though, and a serious case of mistrust, especially when it comes to domineering men. And lord knows, Austin is not only dominant, he is annoyingly so.

Growing up in the system without any example of what family life looks like, Austin is comfortable only with what he has found among his SEAL brothers. Dealing with women is usually limited to the release of physical need only, and children are completely alien to him. But somehow, Gwen and her daughter worm their way under his skin and he seems unable to get rid of them.

Loved this book!!! Hotter than hell and with some great entertaining action. A cocky, hunk of an alpha SEAL, a feisty, kickass momma bear and a precocious, cute six year-old make for some great fireworks!!

✨Vivid and volatile, sensuous and stirring!✨

**ARC provided in return for an honest review.**

Tara Sivec is a USA Today best-selling author, wife, mother, chauffeur, maid, short-order cook, baby-sitter, and sarcasm expert. She lives in Ohio with her husband and two children and looks forward to the day when they all three of them become adults and move out. After working in the brokerage business for fourteen years, Tara decided to pick up a pen and write instead of shoving it in her eye out of boredom. She is the author of the Playing with Fire series and the Chocolate Lovers series. Her novel Seduction and Snacks won first place in the Indie Romance Convention Reader’s Choice Awards 2013 for Best Indie First Book.

In her spare time, Tara loves to dream about all of the baking she’ll do and naps she’ll take when she ever gets spare time.

Tara also writes under the pen name T.E. Sivec.