Thrown Down by Tessa Bailey: Review


Posted April 6, 2016 in review Tags: , ,

Thrown Down by Tessa Bailey: ReviewThrown Down by Tessa Bailey
Pages: 219
four-half-flames

Series: Made in Jersey #2
Genres: Contemporary Romance
Also by this author: Too Hot to Handle, Raw Redemption, Worked Up, Risking it All, Disorderly Conduct, Too Beautiful to Break, Follow, Indecent Exposure, Mouth to Mouth, Sink or Swim, Reborn Yesterday, It Happened One Summer, Window Shopping
Amazon
Goodreads

He has one last chance to deserve the girl of his dreams...
Overachiever River Purcell was never supposed to be a struggling single mom, working double shifts just to make ends meet. Nor was she supposed to be abandoned by her high school sweetheart, breaking her heart into a thousand jagged pieces. Now Vaughn De Matteo is back in town, his sights set on her...and River is in danger of drowning a second time.
No one believed Hook's resident bad boy was good enough for River. Not even Vaughn himself. But he'll fight like hell to win back the woman he never stopped loving, to keep the daughter he never expected, and convince himself he's worth their love in the process--even if he has to rely on their fierce and undeniable sexual chemistry.
But even as River's body arches under his hungered touch, the demons of the past lurk in the shadows. Waiting for Vaughn to repeat his mistakes one last time...

Thrown Down
Tessa Bailey

what i think

This was my first Tessa Bailey book and I am now on my way to Amazon to buy everything she has written. Seriously, how have I not discovered her earlier?!?

So, Thrown Down totally worked for me because of Vaughn. He made a terrible mistake for reasons he believed to be good. I can’t imagine many people who haven’t done something they regret later because they were foolish and unable to think clearly when they were young. But, thats not why I loved him. From the first page he decided he was going to fight for River. He fought for her the entire book. Its the hottest thing ever. Honestly, my favorite hero behavior is that tenacity of fighting to win the heroine. He didn’t decided 1/2 way through the book he wanted River and then decided to show her. Nope, Vaughn brought it from the first chapter and it was HOT.  River was a great character as well. She was so hurt by Vaughn and rightfully cautious.

You’re the villain, don’t you realize that? You left, and you should have stayed gone.

However, she still admitted her feelings, even when she didn’t want to feel that way. She is a really well written character that you totally can relate to and understand.

For shame, River. You really are a self destructive idiot (said by River, to herself)

And then there is the nod to the setting:

Men were standing up, cracking their knuckles in the New Jersey state signal for shit-is-about-to-go-down.

Overall, Thrown Down was everything I didn’t know I wanted in a romance novel! Well done!

 

[icon-tags]

if you liked

Men of Honor by KC Lynn, Fighting to Start by SL Ziegler, Bleeding Love by Harper Sloan…then you will probably like Thrown Down!

where to get it

iBooks icon Amazon-icon

Other Books in the Series

5

Tessa Bailey is originally from Carlsbad, California. The day after high school graduation, she packed her yearbook, ripped jeans and laptop, driving cross-country to New York City in under four days.

Her most valuable life experiences were learned thereafter while waitressing at K-Dees, a Manhattan pub owned by her uncle. Inside those four walls, she met her husband, best friend and discovered the magic of classic rock, managing to put herself through Kingsborough Community College and the English program at Pace University at the same time. Several stunted attempts to enter the work force as a journalist followed, but romance writing continued to demand her attention.

She now lives in Long Island, New York with her husband of eight years and four-year-old daughter. Although she is severely sleep-deprived, she is incredibly happy to be living her dream of writing about people falling in love.

Website | Facebook | Twitter

 

thrown down teaser

 

Excerpt

Forty-nine months and three days.

That was how long it had been since he’d seen her.

Vaughn swayed to the right, his shoulder slamming up against the wall. Then he kind of just hung there, counting forward and backward from one to ten. Not helping. Not helping. His stomach pitched at the sight of River walking through the drunks, like a nurse walking among the wounded on a battlefield. She could still knock his lights out on sight. Not that he’d doubted it for a second. But God, if it were possible, she’d grown even more beautiful over the last forty-nine months. Her blond hair was tied up in a ponytail, a pencil stuck through the base, in a way he remembered well enough to make his throat go raw. In a short black skirt and fitted white T-shirt, River tried to look the part of indifferent barmaid, but didn’t pull it off.

Not by a stretch.

Eyes Vaughn knew were just a shade darker than cornflower blue flitted to each table, and her fingers tugged on the skirt’s hem self-consciously every time she approached a new one. When she fumbled with the notepad, recovering with a nervous laugh, a choked sound left Vaughn. “Riv,” he whispered.

She looked up so fast, he might as well have shouted. The sudden impact of having River’s focus on him after such an extended period of time without it released a rushing sound between his ears, blocking out the sad lounge act…and apparently someone asking if he needed a table. Because when Vaughn snapped back to reality, a man he towered over by at least a foot was in his face. Snapping his fingers.

“I wouldn’t…” Vaughn shook his head to clear it, experiencing a resurgence of anger, this time for having his attention diverted from where he needed it to be. On River.

“I wouldn’t advise snapping your fingers in my face again.”

“Why’s that, huh?”

A toss of blond hair snagged Vaughn’s gaze as his angelic ex-girlfriend zigzagged through the crowd, drawing more than just his notice. Ah no, quite the opposite. She was putting on an unwitting show for every man in the room, attracting lecherous looks by virtue of being her beautiful self, light in a dark tunnel, same way she’d always been.

Finger snapped in front of his face. Again. “This is my place and I asked you a question.”

“This is your place?” Vaughn asked. God, one hour back in Jersey and already his accent had thickened from water to oil. “You hired River Purcell to clean up tables?”

“That’s right.”

Vaughn plowed a fist into the underside of the man’s jaw, watching him fall backward onto the sticky concrete floor with detachment that slowly morphed into satisfaction. So much for calm, he thought, shaking out his right hand.

Samantha
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