Blog Tour & Giveaway - A TRAGIC WRECK by T. L. Leigh

A TRAGIC WRECK

(Beautiful Mess #2)

by T.K. Leigh

Released: January 27, 2014

How can you continue living when you’re living a lie? How can you convince your body to stop feeling, your soul to stop caring, and your heart to stop beating?

Haunted by her past, Olivia Adler flees Boston for a beach in Florida, leaving everyone behind, trying to shut the world out. Remaining a relative recluse in her self­imposed prison, she tries to turn everything off, wanting to feel nothing. But a new acquaintance won’t let that happen. After being away from Alexander for a month, his voice constantly ringing in her head, reminding her that her inability to confront her demons will not only destroy her, but  also him, can she really be expected to want to feel again when it brings nothing but pain?

Back in Boston, everywhere he turns, Alexander Burnham is reminded of Olivia... His Olivia... He tries to dull the ache left in his heart the only way he knows how... in the bed of a beautiful woman. But Alexander isn’t about to lose his Olivia. After a clue comes to light regarding Olivia’s whereabouts, can he convince her to return to Boston with him? When a force that has laid dormant for months resurfaces, can Alexander still protect her from the unknown danger? And when Alexander comes face to face with a shadow of both his and Olivia’s past, will he be able to tell her the secret that is threatening to tear them apart?

A Tragic Wreck is the continuation of T.K. Leigh’s heart­breakingBeautiful Mess series. 

A TRAGIC WRECK
(Beautiful Mess #2)

by T.K. Leigh

ARC Review

Published: January 27, 2014

My rating: 3.5 of 4 ⭐️

After getting too emotionally attached to her lover Alexander, Olivia Adler runs, as she is prone to do. Having grown up without her parents left her with an inherent fear of abandonment which she continues to struggle with, solving it by leaving before she can be left. Alone in a cabin on a beach in Florida, she considers she may not have made a wise decision, having never felt quite this desolate before. When a neighbour  who has had his eye on her for a few weeks finally approaches her with an invitation to dinner, Olivia wonders whether she should take his offer and join the land of the living again.

Alexander Burnham is devastated after Olivia ran out on him, disappearing without a trace. He tries hard to forget, but can't get the eyes of the girl who has haunted him most of his life out of his head. The girl he thought he lost once, many years ago and never expected to see again. Their pasts were connected in a way that was dangerous to her and she didn't have any idea, but he did and would stop at nothing to protect his Olibia. So when he gets a tip she might be in Florida he doesn't hesitate to try and chase her down. 

Finding her is one thing, convincing her to come home with him is something else and far more complex than Alexander had anticipated. 

****

I have serious whiplash!! 

Very conflicted feelings come with this book. On one hand more than once I actually cried tears while reading, something that rarely happens even in real life. On the other hand there were times, also quite a few, where I couldn't help but roll my eyes in exasperation. 

The story is of a high emotional intensity, that is for damn sure. At times it hits exactly the right depth and sometimes it goes just a bit too far or becomes just a tad too repetitive for my tastes. It also makes me wanna slap people upside the head for their stupidity!!

Alexander is keeping secrets that jeopardize his relationship with Olivia.....why?? In my view, those secrets won't necessarily harm their relationship, in fact, it may help resolve some of Olivia's daily trauma! Aside from that, it may explain to her why he is being so neurotic about her protection, which is a bane in her existence and cause for some conflict. In that sense he is as self-destructive as Olivia is, since undoubtedly the truth will come out at which point he will truly have been lying to her betraying her trust, giving her a GOOD reason to turn her back on him....duh!

Olivia needs some in-patient care.....she is seriously messed up and in the process is destructive and harmful to people close to her. She comes across as bi-polar, having the ability to turn on a dime in terms of her mood and her feelings. Her inner dialogue is a world all its own and her inability to properly communicate requires some long-term intensive treatment. As troublesome as her childhood may have been, her mental state has grown out of proportion and that is in part because people are pussyfooting around her instead of giving it to her straight. 

The chemistry between Alexander and Olivia is intense and the way it is described by T.K. Leigh is palpable. Her description of emotions is also above par and I am sure that is what caused my total emotion immersion in parts of the story. The writing is good and I enjoyed the use of language which seemed quite natural and unforced. 

What I missed was any proper development of the suspense factor of the backstory. Oh we get snippets of action here and there, little peeks and tastes, but there isn't any real cohesive build up anywhere. I'm sure the next book will provide resolution for that, but this is one of my issues with storylines that are broken up into instalments; the natural flow of the story is gone and there is no way to really judge the book properly without all its parts complete.

✨Tumultuous and highly emotional, taunting read!✨

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

“What, Alex? What do you want?” Olivia asked, choking the words out through her tears. She crossed her arms over her stomach, trying to keep herself warm. She felt Alexander approach behind her, the familiar electricity present.
        “What do I want?!” He grabbed her shoulders, turning her around to face him. “Haven’t I made myself perfectly clear over the past several months?!” He ran his fingers through his hair.
        Olivia stared at him, tears streaming down her face as she leaned against the brick building.
        He slowly walked up to her and placed his hands on either side of her head, leaning over her. “You, Olivia! I want you!” he exclaimed passionately. “I want you every second of every day. I want the good. I want the bad. I want the sweet. I want the ill-tempered. I want the hot. I want the cold. I want the crazy, irrational, exasperating pain-in-the-ass girl that I love with my entire fucking heart.” He took a deep breath before lowering his voice, the look on his face sincere. “I want the sexy, beautiful woman that makes me whole, Olivia. And I am not going to stop until you admit that you love me. I know you do so stop running from it. You’ve been running from love all your life. It’s standing right here in front of you, embracing you. What are you so scared of?” He stared into her eyes as they searched his, looking for an answer. “What are you scared of, love?” he whispered in her ear.
        “What do you want me to say, Alex?” she asked quietly.
        “I just want you to tell me how you feel, Olivia. The truth.”
        Several intense seconds passed as Alexander stared down at her, bracing for her answer. Her eyes traced over his face. His green eyes were so full of sadness. She could see the hurt all over his body. He looked good, but there was something missing from his usual spark.
        “Okay!” Olivia shouted. “I love you, Alexander! Okay?! Is that what you want to hear?! You want to hear how I want to get married and have beautiful babies?! Because I do! I love you so fucking much that it hurts!” Tears continued to fall down Olivia’s face as Alexander pulled her close, stroking her hair and kissing her head, trying to calm her down.
        “I’ve loved you since I saw you running that day back in August at Boston Common. And then I started to love you even more when you came and adopted Runner. I loved you so much that I ran from you. I fell in love with you even more when you came after me and found me, begging me to come home with you. And then it broke my fucking heart when I saw you with another woman because I loved you then, too.
        “And every day I spend with you, I fall even more in love. And the days we’re apart, I feel like I could die from the fucking heartache because I’m missing such an important part of me. It feels like I can’t go on breathing or surviving when you’re not with me, and that’s what I’m fucking scared of. I’m scared that you’ll leave me, just like everyone else in my life that I’ve ever loved, and I’ll never survive.”
        She cried into Alexander’s chest, soaking his suit jacket. “I’m scared to death to love you, but I’m more scared to walk away from you,” she sobbed out.

T. K. Leigh, otherwise known as Tracy Leigh Kellam, is a producer / attorney by trade. Originally from New England, she now resides in sunny Southern California with her husband, dog and three cats, all of which she has rescued (including the husband). She always had a knack for writing, but mostly in the legal field. It wasn’t until recently that she decided to try her hand at creative writing and is now addicted to creating different characters and new and unique story lines in the Contemporary Romantic Suspense genre.
When she’s not planted in front of her computer, writing away, she can be found running and training for her next marathon (of which she has run over fifteen fulls and far too many halfs to recall). Unlike Olivia, the main character in her Beautiful Mess series, she has yet to qualify for the Boston Marathon.

      

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