BLOG TOUR - HOLD ON by KRISTEN ASHLEY + REVIEW by Rock Chick Fairy + EXCERPT + GIVEAWAY

Since she was young, Cher Rivers knew she was not the kind of girl who got what she wanted. A girl who could hope. A girl who could dream. She knew a happily ever after just wasn't in the cards for her. 

In love for years with the last bastion of the 'burg's eligible bachelors, Garrett Merrick, Cher worked hard at making him laugh. Being one of the guys. Having him in her life the only way she could. All this knowing he was in love with another woman. 

The Merrick Family is known for loving deep. So when Cecelia Merrick was murdered, it marked the Merricks in a way none of them recovered. Both Cecelia's children found love. Both turned their backs on it. But Garrett "Merry" Merrick knew in his soul the woman he divorced years ago was the one for him. 

Until the night when Cher took Garrett's back and things changed. The Merrick family loves deep. They also protect fiercely. And with his eyes finally open, Garrett sees the woman who truly is for him and he goes after her. 




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An ARC was provided to me in exchange for an honest review.

HOLD ON is an AMAZING END TO A BELOVED SERIES.

You know how KA's books are sometimes so long? Well, I love that fact. In the case of the 'BURG series.. These characters became so real to me I became attached to them! Merry and Cher? These are not your everyday characters. They're so unique that they require your full attention or else you'll miss something. I can definitely say that in Rocky's book, I didn't even see Merry and Cher being a couple. 

They took me by surprise and damn... WHAT A SURPRISE! 

Cher definitely has the strength of a woman that I would want to become. She can stand tall, face both friends and foes with her head held high. I can definitely say that she shows her true colors through and through. She has a stubbornness to her that is cute and beloved by many. However, it's also one of her flaws. I won't divulge any further info about that, but know that I warned you. Haha! She is pretty stubborn and there are times that you won't like what she's doing... to herself really. What I love about her though is how she is with her son. She raised him with a coolness that most will just love. She's definitely the mom + dad figure! She's cool and yet, still can be stern with rules. She will do anything, purely anything for her son and that's a grand thing in my book. She's actually the star of this book! I'm telling you! :) 

So there.

We have Cher. Badass woman. Very likeable character!

Now we move on to Merry...

Merry is a wonderful human being with all his values intact. As a cop, I think he likes what he do mainly because it brings him a sense of justice even though most of the time, it's no fun at all. He's very attuned to his environment. I think it's in his genese to protect people. He has his own demons, sure.. but who doesn't, right? His issues run deep and when I say deep, I mean slap-him-kick-him-in-the-ass kind of deep. It's a really good thing that Cher is the way she is because she can handle all that. It's one thing that you have to look forward to. Merry and his own brand of hot is a force you don't reckon with. You have to read this book, if only to see what lengths he'll go to be the man for Cher. He's sweet, yet tough, thoughtful, yet very stern sometimes. He's a good mixture actually. :) You'll love him!

Their circumstance is unusual. I mean, they were close friends and just friends for a long time. Merry being all hung up on his ex, which frankly, I still don't approve. lol. Nobody does. When they finally get together, EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEIR FRIENDS are HAPPY. However, there's a certain uniqueness to their pairing. Sometimes it felt as if it was Cher who's at the top of their relationship, but then most of the time, Merry would handle their current dilemma and I say to myself, he's got this. He might need a lot of understanding, but he sure got it right in the "showing your feelings" part. Cher is the same. When they got together, SHE WENT ALL IN. No holding back, but always holding on. :) 

Anyway, who cares about who handles the relationship.. the most important part is that they work, right? Damn awesome!

I have to say that I'm also very happy with the amount of time that they spend with their friends and loved ones in this book. I love it that it didn't revolve around just them. It revolved around their ties with other people and it makes the book extra special to me.

I think the best part of this book is.. Well, the best part of the entire series is how their children interact with them and vice versa. I just love how they handle situations with them! It's beautiful! Just plain beautiful. I always tear up for scenes like those. It's the strength of this entire series.

So there. I'm not giving out any more spoilers. Just know that you'll probably hate two or three characters, but you'll ultimately love the main ones. If you have been following the entire series, BRACE YOURSELVES for the nostalgia. I SWEAR!!

This book made me happy and sad at the same time. Happy for each and everyone of them and sad because it ended. :( I like to think that with how Kristen Ashley works, there's a certain beauty to ending a series because when all of it has been read and done, it's time to start a new story. :)  

I can say that I'll still go back to this one though. In any case, I have never ever NOT re-read a book by Kristen Ashley. This series won't be the first one. 

5 fairy wings with sugar on top!!!

Through this, my leg hit an end table and I adjusted. We cleared the couch, I shifted again too soon, both my calves hit the coffee table, and my ass went down on it.

I looked up. Cell flat to the table, I braced my hands to push up, but Merry was there, chin in his throat, eyes on me, and when he spoke again, his mind was clearly on my location.

“Tried to get your mouth on me more than once when we tore at each other up last Friday, but I was in the mood to use mine. Lookin’ forward to learnin’ what you can do with yours, but like I said, baby, right now, don’t got the time.”

My only response that he couldn’t twist was to glare at him, which was what I did.

“But got time before I go for a kiss,” Merry informed me.

“Only kiss I’ll give you is tellin’ you to kiss off,” I informed him.

“Who knew warm brown eyes like the ones you got could spark that kind of fire,” he muttered as if he wasn’t even talking to me.

“Step back,” I demanded.

“No,” he denied.

I continued to glare up at him, then I realized I was not the kind of woman who sat on her ass, glaring up at a man towering over her and pinning her in. So I stood, which put me smack in Merry’s space, my breasts brushing against his abs and up his chest on my way.

They kept brushing when he didn’t move back, but I didn’t attempt escape, even to get away from the shafts of electricity this all caused at my nipples, shafts that headed south.

I glared at him from closer.

He stared into my eyes, his gaze moving down to my mouth then back up as one side of his lips curved.

He was getting off on this.

I didn’t get that and I didn’t want to get that.

I wanted this done.

“In the mood to play, Officer?” I whispered.

“Told you, sweetheart, don’t got the time.”

I shook my head but held his gaze. “Not what I mean. Single mom, all alone. Switch out her storms. Offer info to help her out of a jam. Been a while since I was in the know about these things, so tell me, what’s the price for all that? You mentioned a blowjob. You got stamina, but I got talent. Balance that out, I’m thinkin’ it’ll take more than the usual ten, fifteen minutes. We’ll give it twenty. So I can manage my time, is there more?”

I wasn’t even done talking before I learned his eyes could spark fire too.

I also learned he was in the mood to play, that being, playing me at my own game.

And doing it better.

He dipped his face close, his voice low. “Storms get me the blowjob, brown eyes. I get the intel you need, that buys me sinkin’ deep in wet pussy.”

I felt my nipples get harder at the same time something else happened to me that, if he was of a mind to take his payoff right then, he’d get what he wanted.

I hid this reaction and asked, “You want this all in one go, or you wanna spread payback out for a while?”

“Keep plenty of time open, Cher. I intend to earn a fuckuva lot more and draw it out collecting.”

I nodded, still keeping a lock on his eyes. “I get it. Girl like me, only payback expected for me to be able to give.”

That didn’t get me fire.

That got me ice.

“I hear you talk down about yourself one more time, Cher, shit will get extreme.”

That made me ice over.

“Do not hand me that crap, Merry. You come into my home and got no problem talkin’ about wet pussy right to my face tells me the woman you know me to be.”

He dipped his face even closer, to the point it felt like if I blinked, my lashes would sweep his in a butterfly kiss.

“Do not hand me your shit, Cher,” he growled. “That hang-up is yours, not mine. And how I know that is I made you come just finger fuckin’ you and talkin’ dirty in your ear, and it was the talk and not what my fingers were doin’ that took you there. I like that, a woman who can let go and let me give her that without gettin’ uptight and closin’ down on me. You liked it too, a fuckuva lot more than me. So don’t stand there handin’ me your shit when I know you’re wet for me now and I haven’t fuckin’ touched you.”

I refused to reply to that because he was right and I had no intention of confirming that information.

But it was then he hit me with a verbal blow, the intensity of which, not in my whole shitty-ass life I’d ever received.

“Christ, if I didn’t know you were worth it, I’d walk out the door and this would be done—all we got, over.”

I could stand.

I could stare.

But I couldn’t breathe.

Merry could.

He could also speak.

“Hope like fuck no one takes off with those storms while I’m gone. You think they will, move ’em into garage and leave the key under the mat. I’m switchin’ ’em out, Cher. I come back tonight and they’re done, I’ll find you, and I won’t be collectin’. I’ll be dishin’ it out, but you won’t get it until you beg for it and do that shit for a really long time.”

His words were lost on me.

I continued to stand.

I continued to stare.

But my lungs had started burning.

If I didn’t know you were worth it…

“When’s Ethan’s next sleepover?” Merry bit out.

“Friday,” I whispered. “But his friend’s comin’ here.”

“Fuck,” Merry clipped. “Find a time, babe. You don’t, payback’ll stack up and I’ll have to take personal days and hole up in a hotel with you for a week. And there’s not a doubt that stick-up-her-ass church lady your ex tied his shit to won’t appreciate you bein’ gone from your kid for a weeklong fuckathon.”

That was kind of funny as well as hot.

I still said nothing.

Merry fell silent and stared at me.

Then he dealt the second biggest verbal blow I’d ever received in my life.

“Christ, you’re pretty, even standin’ there plotting my murder.”

After that, he lifted a hand, grabbed me gentle but firm at my neck, yanked me up so my mouth hit his hard but brief, then he let me go.

“Later, babe,” he said, strolling to my door. He stopped in it, turned to me, and bid his farewell by saying, “You touch those storms only to put them in the garage.”

He closed the door on that.

I stood where he left me.

If I didn’t know you were worth it…

What was I worth?

What was I worth to Merry?

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Kristen Ashley was born in Gary, Indiana, USA. She nearly killed her mother and herself making it into the world, seeing as she had the umbilical cord wrapped around her neck (already attempting to accessorise and she hadn't taken her first breath!). 

Kristen grew up in Brownsburg, Indiana but has lived in Denver, Colorado and the West Country of England. Thus she has been blessed to have friends and family around the globe. Her posse is loopy (to say the least) but loopy is good when you want to write.

Kristen was raised in a house with a large and multi-generational family. They lived on a very small farm in a small town in the heartland and existed amongst the strains of Glenn Miller, The Everly Brothers, REO Speedwagon and Whitesnake (and the wardrobes that matched).

Needless to say, growing up in a house full of music, clothes and love was a good way to grow up. 

And as she keeps growing up, it keeps getting better. 


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