Ripe For Reader: Review Tour/ Sneak Peak - MADE TO LOVE YOU by Megan Smith

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Jaylinn McCormick had finally found the man who makes her life complete. After putting the most terrifying night of her life behind her, she’s moving on. Suddenly, unexpected life altering events have Jaylinn spiraling in an unknown direction. Will she be able to survive?

Cooper Cahill finally found a balance in his life. He’s got the girl he always loved, busi-ness is thriving, and his baseball career is grand slamming down a new path. One phone call threatens to destroy his perfect life.

Can Cooper help Jaylinn dodge this curve ball life has pitched in her direction? Will the love they’ve found in each other be enough? Or will Jaylinn walk away from it all?

GOODREADS

4 of 5 Stars

We have watched Jay and Cooper grow in so many ways throughout this series. The biggest and most important part has been their growing together as a couple. it has not been an easy road by any means. working through the guilt and forgiveness of that one horrible night. But they have made it here.

Cooper is a strong loving man who loves with all his heart. He wants more than anything to make Jay happy. It is a struggle being away so much with his baseball career but he knows his family is there when he can't be.

Jay has loved Cooper for so long it is like second nature for her. She is always willing to take care of everyone else and keep her own feelings hidden. Internalizing to hide her problems from others is her biggest weaknesses.

When events send their lives into a tailspin they attack it head on. But just when they think they have one problem dealt with there seems to always be another on the back door. Can they overcome these sidesteps and hold onto their love for one another? Will they come out on top of the rainbow?

I love that Megan is able to write so I can connect with her characters. At this point in the series I almost feel like a part of the family sharing in their lives. Well done Megan. Can't wait to see what you will give us next.

***Advanced copy provided in exchange for an honest review***

Need To Love You
Book Six in the Love Series
By MEGAN SMITH
GOODREADS

Subject to change prior to publication.

Chapter One

I look around, people are staring. Mostly the girls, the guys oblivious. I look over at one girl, the closest one to us, her eyes trained on us. The girl bites her lip. She looks over at me, her expression changes from desire to jealousy. This should feel wrong to dance like this but it doesn’t.

Words are slurred, “I’m not trying to be… Just…I’m drunk.” My lips brush over a soft cheek lightly. “You keep that… up and I’ll do something stupid. Something I shouldn’t do.”

I’m drunk too and I just don’t give a shit what he says. I’m shutting my feelings off. I’m living in the moment.

I look over to the girl who was watching us. She grabs hold of some poor guy and pulls him a few feet away from where we’re standing. The girl turns so her back is to the guy and then she grabs his hands and puts them on her hips and grinds into him.

I mimic her moves, this new position is too much. It’s wrong. It’s so wrong but I do it an-yway. And it feels good. Wrong but oh so damn good.

My heart rate picks up. I’m feeling brave, braver then I ever have. Is this what people talk about? Is this how it feels to do something that’s wrong but doing it anyway and not giving a shit?

A cloud comes over gunmetal blue eyes and then I’m being led down a hall where there is a bunch of people messing around, so close in proximity to each other that it’s evident some are joined in more places than at the hip. Oh God. Something is about to really happen and I’m not even doing a damn thing to stop it. “Is that what you want?” lingering eyes taking in the surroundings, a breathy whisper in my ear, the voice of an angel with the intentions of the devil.

My eyes widen at this admission. I shift on my feet from the sudden change. “I wouldn’t know…”

Electric blue eyes roam from my feet to my eyes. “Know what?”

“I don’t know.”

I look away. “Fine,” a hand that is leaning near my head goes to the button of my jeans. “Let me show you all the things that you wouldn’t know.”

****

Jackson
Six months earlier…

I wipe the sweat off my forehead with the back of my hand. “Alex, what are you doing?”

He throws the ball high up in the air, it comes down fast and right towards my brand new Ford Raptor. I take a deep, calming breath before telling him for the tenth time to play on the other side of the yard.

I stand from the stool I was sitting on. “Buddy, come here.”

Alex tosses the ball into his glove as he takes the couple of steps over to me, crossing the distance between me and where he’s not supposed to be with his baseball. “Yeah?”

I stare at my son’s messy brown hair that is going in all different directions. Chloe loves the look on him, me, on the other hand, wishes he’d cut it just a little bit shorter. As long as it’s not long and sticking out of his baseball hat like a lot of kids wear it these days I guess I can deal.

“Didn’t I ask you a hundred times to toss the ball on the other side of the yard?” Alex rolls his eyes and I lightly smack him upside the head. “That last time came really close. Do it again and I’m taking the ball and glove. Got it?”

He takes a step back just out of reach. “Yeah, got it.”

As he walks away he tosses it up just over his head and catches it in his glove, just to push my buttons. He’s at this age where he’s pushing limits and sooner or later he’s going to push a little too far…and he’s going to get cracked for it.

I sit back down on the stool and finish what I was doing. I still have to get the other tire back on before Chloe comes home. She’s already going to kill me when she sees the new rims I bought for my truck. I couldn’t pass the deal up, plus it’s not like she would care that I got a great discount on them through my job. She’d just bitch, complain, and say that money could have been used for the house.

Over the summer we decided to start sinking a little money into our house focusing on improvements that needed to be made. We’re taking it one room at a time. A bathroom was added to our master bedroom and we painted and replaced the sink in the other bathroom that’s in the hall. I’m letting her lead this show since it was her idea and I’m just trying to make her happy and keep her out of my hair. I’ve done all of this work without saying one word, saving us thousands by doing the work myself, and now I’m paying myself back by buying myself these new rims.

Just as I finish tightening the last lug nut, Chloe pulls up in the driveway. She climbs out of the car as Alex comes running over to his mom.

“Hey, bud, what are you up to?”

Alex smiles, “Tossing the ball around.”

“Think you can help me? I’ve got a bunch of stuff in the car.”

Alex puts his glove and ball down then Chloe hands him a little bag and he takes off running inside.

“Hey, I’ve got a bunch of stuff in the trunk.” Chloe tosses over her shoulder to me. So far she hasn’t noticed the rims or she’s choosing to ignore it because she hates fighting in front of Alex.

We haven’t been getting along that well since early summer. With every passing day it’s just getting worse and I’m not sure what the hell is going on or what to do about it. Life seems like it’s at a standstill. It’s like a schedule that never changes…sleep, work, and eat. It feels like the walls are closing in on me. This isn’t how I had my life planned out and I know Chloe didn’t plan on us getting to this point either. Plus, add on the fact that Chloe is hell bent on getting pregnant. You’d think with my sister, Hailey, and now Jaylinn, that she’d get her fill from them but nope. I think the last thing we need is an-other baby right now.

While Chloe unpacks the groceries I stick my head in the fridge looking for an iced cold beer but there isn’t any. “Who drank my last beer?”

Chloe glances over to the fridge and shrugs. “Mason stopped over to give Alex a new glove this week. Maybe he took it.”

My eyebrows draw in confusion. “Mason was here? How come you didn’t tell me?” It’s not often that I get to see my brother so when he’s around I’d like to hang out with him.

Chloe puts a box of cereal on the fridge. “I sent you a text on Monday.”

I pull my phone out of my pocket and scroll to the last text from Chloe which was un-read.

Chloe Monday 11:43am: Mason is here to drop off glove for Alex. Can you come home for lunch? <3

I glance up from the phone to see Chloe looking at me with raised eyebrows. “What? Didn’t think I was telling you the truth?” She grabs the milk out of a bag and puts it in the open fridge. “You know, if you actually answered my calls and texts you might have a clue as to what’s going on around here.”

“I do answer you,” I say, defensively.

“You don’t.”

I sigh and grab a bottle of water, twist the cap, and take a sip. This is what my life has become. I’m twenty-seven years old, have a wife, a kid, a job, a house, the American dream but yet I can’t stand my life.

“Did you tell work that you’re going to be late on Monday?” Chloe asks as she tosses a grape into her mouth.

I scratch my head and try to think what the hell is going on for Monday. I vaguely re-member her going on and on about something and telling me I had to be there.

“Jackson? You hear me?”

I nod. “Yeah, I heard you. Someone will cover for me.” No way in hell am I going to tell her that I don’t have a clue as to what Monday is. I’ll just feel her out on it for the next day or so. Hell, I could probably call my sister and find out from her.

Chloe says something that I didn’t quite hear because her back is turned away from me. When she turns back around she leans against the counter, sighs and her eyes tear up. “Where in the hell did the time go?”

My eyes cast down to my shoes. Chloe is still talking, more like rambling, but I’ve zoned out. I need to go out to the mall and buy new sneakers. Pressing down on my right heel I hear a hissing sound, it’s driving me up a fucking wall, ever since popping the air bubble in my Airmax’s the other day. I glance back up to Chloe and she’s staring at me with a blank expression.

“What?”

“So do you want to go?”

I take another sip of my water hoping Chloe will repeat herself because I have no clue where she wants me to go. After a few seconds I realize she isn’t going to let me off the hook.

“When?” I know better than to ask her to repeat herself. She’ll cop an attitude and I’m just not in the mood to argue.

She rolls her eyes, “Tonight, you know when normal people eat dinner.”

“Yeah, that’s fine. Who’s all going?”

Chloe shakes her head at me. “I just told you, your mom, dad, me, you and Alex.”

“Alright.” I put the bottle down on the counter and walk towards the garage door. “I’m going to clean up what I was doing, shower and then I’ll be ready.”

Chloe puts her hands on her hips. “Jackson?”

“What?” I say not bothering to turn around.

“Dinner isn’t for another three and a half hours.”

“I know.” I lie, I don’t even know exactly what time it is now.

I open the door and hear her grumble, “Yeah, I’m sure you do, just like you know everything else.”

I’ve officially checked out, and the sad thing…I don’t think I even care anymore.

Need To Love You will be Jackson & Chloe's story and will release sometime in the early fall.

USA TODAY bestselling author Megan Smith is a New Jersey native creating the memorable characters her fans have grown to adore. Smith is a wife and mother, who makes time for her family, professional life and the creation of her fictional characters. Fans of The Love Series— Trying Not To Love You, Easy To Love You, Hard To Love You, Let Me Love You and Made To Love You — are captivated by relationships, special bonds and family ties pervasive in Smith's emotional, energized and engaging work. Smith is also the author of the 2014 releases, Finding Us (Finding Series), Forever Light (Forever Love) and a few top-secret projects. Literary Agency Representation: Jamie Bodnar-Drowley of Inklings Literary Agency.