My Life in Shambles, a full-length contemporary standalone romance by Karina Halle is now live!
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Blurb
When Valerie Stephens made the resolution to say yes to new adventures, she never thought she’d end up in the tiny town of Shambles, fake engaged to one of Ireland’s top rugby players. But there’s a first time for everything.
They say bad things happen in threes.
After my boyfriend broke off our engagement, I lost my apartment, and was laid off from my job, I can definitely attest to that.
They also say life is what happens when you say yes to new adventures.
So when my two sisters invited me to ring in the new year in Ireland, I decided to throw all caution to the wind and go for it. I was going to let “saying yes” be my new resolution.
Little did I know I’d spend New Year’s Eve having a hot and dirty one-night stand with Padraig McCarthy, one hell of a sexy Irishman. I also didn’t know that the brooding and intense sex god was one of Ireland’s top rugby players.
A rugby player with a proposition for me:
Come with him to his tiny hometown of Shambles and pretend to be his fiancé for a few days, just so that his ailing father can have some peace of mind.
It sounded simple enough.
It was anything but.
Not when a town gets up in your business, not when the media hunts you down, not when your past comes back in the picture, not when there are real hearts and feelings at stake.
Not when there are secrets that could break you.
They say life is what happens when you say yes to new adventures.
This is my life in Shambles.
Review
Loved it, loved it, loved it!
Damn, I love this cover. And wow, what a read! Karina Halle has delivered a beautifully swoony and emotional love story that is intense, passionate and so, so beautiful! Full of feels, this is not the fun, light romance that I was expecting, it’s dramatic and heartfelt, and I fell in complete love with these characters and their story, and I love this book!
Valerie’s life is imploding around her. Within the space of a week she lost her fiancé, her apartment and her job. Deciding to take an impulsive trip to Ireland with her sisters, she resolves to take the time to figure herself out, explore what she wants, and say ‘yes’ to new opportunities. Her new philosophy is put to the test when she meets the sexy but brooding Padraig.
Even though there’s a wash of sadness that seems to pass over his dark eyes from time to time, whatever thing he was dealing with earlier seems to have been pushed aside. Maybe I’m distracting him from his problems as much as he seems to be distracting me from mine.
In fact, the last thing on my mind right now is my hot mess of a life. All I can think about is him.
Padraig is an Irish rugby star who is currently on a break from the game due to injury. He is dealing with a lot and isn’t in the best place emotionally, but when he meets Valerie in a bar, he feels a connection with her and they share an incredible night together talking, laughing and sharing, and yes, the attraction effortlessly leads them into the bedroom where their connection really becomes explosive!
It takes a moment to change someone.
Sometimes it just takes a kiss.
I know this before it happens.
And when he leans in and the space between us dissolves, and his lips, warm, soft and commanding, meet mine, I know that a simple kiss isn’t so simple at all and nothing will be simple after that.
There’s something so, so special about these two together. You can feel it! They both recognise it, but they also recognise the difficult position that they are in with Valerie only being in town for a week. Padraig is due to return to his small home town of Shambles to spend time with his dying father, and when he raises the idea of Valerie coming with him – pretending to be his fiancée to give his father the peace of knowing that he’ll be happy and not alone – she follows her heart and agrees.
I’m not done with her yet. I don’t think I’ll ever be done with her.
Why can’t she stay here for good?
Why can’t this be real?
It’s a great set-up for a romance, and as fantastic as the developing love story is, there is so much more substance to this story. Both Valerie and Padraig are going through a lot. Their vulnerabilities are heartbreaking, and the strength and support they show to each other is just beautiful. Valerie in particular really shines in this book as the girl struggling to find her place yet living her life to the fullest and embracing every opportunity, and I just loved her! She’s smart, sweet and relatable, and her attitude about her situation and the way she is there for Padraig, throwing herself in whole-heartedly, is incredible.
Deep down, I know I’m heading for a heartache so severe it might just destroy me once and for all.
And yet, despite the fear, I’m not going to push it away.
Because how lucky would I be to fall in love with this man?
I don’t think many people truly get to do that, even if it’s all a lie in the end.
And oh, Padraig… *dreamy sigh*. Don’t we all love a big, strong hero who is broody, vulnerable and tormented? And in addition to that bit of sexy goodness, he is totally swoony and such a sweet guy! He’s kind, caring and affectionate and he embraces his feelings for Valerie, not holding back from how much he wants her. And OMG, he is a sexual beast! The sexy time is absolutely steaming, and Padraig’s dirty talk and dirtier moves are sizzling! But it’s the unexpected emotion that he feels for her that melted my heart, and I just love him!
I’m in love with her.
I know that with every damaged inch of my being.
I love her.
She is the pulse of my heart.
Their love story unfolds in the seaside town of Shambles with a fabulous collection of side characters watching on. Padraig’s family and friends bring so much to the book, and I loved the part they played. And watching Valerie embrace her new setting while she and Padraig explore everything happening between them was gorgeous. It’s easy and natural and the chemistry is fantastic, and I fell in love right alongside them.
“Valerie,” I whisper to her. “Tell me you love me. Tell me you love me, and I’ll tell ye I love you more.”
But so much more than just the love story, there is personal drama in this book. Valerie and Padraig both have issues that they need to address, and I loved watching them find the courage and strength to do that. The character development is really well done and wonderful to see, and it makes this book even more special.
The emotion, the drama and the love story all combine to create a fantastic read, and I loved this one!
4.5 stars!
An Advanced Reader Copy was generously provided by the author in exchange for an honest review.
Excerpt
The rest of the evening starts to pass by in a bit of a blur.
The food comes, and suddenly I’ve never been so hungry in my life. I don’t even pull any of that dainty eating nonsense, you know the type you do on a first date with someone, all tiny nibbles and delicate wiping of the mouth with a napkin. No, I fill my damn mouth with food, dumplings and spicy meats and rice. I eat with abandon, like there’s no tomorrow.
Padraig does the same. It’s freeing. It’s funny. I keep making orgasm noises over it all and he keeps laughing, and we eat and eat, even feeding each other won tons at one point with shaky chopstick skills. Honestly, there’s never been anything sexier.
When we’re finally finished, we’re both full, more drunk than before, and a little greasy. I try to pay the bill but he insists (although I don’t even think they charged him for anything), and then as we leave the restaurant he grabs my hand.
I’m not a small-boned girl, but with his hand over mine, I feel like I’ve been reverted back to the hapless woman being led by an alpha caveman and I don’t mind one bit. The fact that his palm is warm in this snowy weather with the skin-to-skin contact sends consistent shivers down my back.
We stroll down the streets and I almost slip a few times, my bad balance combined with the snow making for a dicey situation. But each time Padraig grabs me and keeps me upright, and I have to admit, it’s kind of fun to be constantly falling into him. It’s like having a wall of bricks for support, if that wall of bricks was shaped like a rugby god.
I have no idea where we’re going. All I know is that it’s not even midnight yet.
He takes me to a bar and then a club, both of which are packed to the doors and have crazy long lines, both of which we bypass with ease because he’s Padraig McCarthy.
I’m not one for dancing and Padraig doesn’t strike me as the type either, but there’s something about the deep bass beats in this place, and the free-flowing champagne, courtesy of the club, that has us falling into a rhythm together.
At first we’re dancing apart but it’s not long before the inches between us close.
The heat from his body and mine brews, and the electricity is flowing in sparks and jumps, moving to the erotic pulse of the music, mixed with the hope and edonism of the crowd on this once-a-year night.
His hips bridge the gap, his strong palms running down the sides of my waist, my hips slowly swaying then grinding against him. I feel his erection burning through his jeans, the width and length taking my breath again, making me blush in such a way that I’m glad the lights are dim.
I’m both a young girl, naïve and inexperienced and shy as the very touch and proximity to him hurls me toward a sexual awakening, and at the same time I’m an old soul who has found her equal in another, whose body wants to know this stranger intimately, who isn’t scared at what’s transpiring, but is hungry instead.
Both of these sides are at war inside me, dancing around each other like a caduceus, until I’m dizzy with my feelings for him. This want, this yearning, this need for something new, something exciting and terrifying, it claws through me until I can’t ignore it anymore.
I glance up at Padraig and see only his eyes. Those deep, dark haunting eyes that glimmer with the pulsating lights and yet radiate with something as wanting and wicked as the feelings inside of me.
His hands go to the back of my neck and the small of my back. My chin tips up. The rest of the world fades away and I know when it comes back into focus, everything will be different.
Everything will change.
It takes a moment to change someone.
Sometimes it just takes a kiss.
Meet Karina
Karina Halle is a former travel writer and music journalist and The New York Times, Wall Street Journal and USA Today Bestselling author of The Pact, Love, in English, The Artists Trilogy, Dirty Angels and over 20 other wild and romantic reads. She lives on an island off the coast of British Columbia with her husband and her rescue pup, where she drinks a lot of wine, hikes a lot of trails and devours a lot of books.
Halle is represented by the Root Literary and is both self-published and published by Simon & Schuster and Hachette in North America and in the UK.
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