Just One Week by Alice Gaines…Blog Tour Stop & Review

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“Alice Gaines will tantalize your romance taste buds with a book you can’t put down until the very last page.” NYT bestselling author Jasmine Haynes

Her brother’s best friend is not only the hottest man Michelle Dennis has ever seen, he’s the one man she hopes to avoid after leaving town eight years ago. Of course he’s the one waiting at the airport. Worse, he made sure they’re staying in the same house.

Pro football player Alex Stafford is expecting to pick up his friend’s kid sister, not a full-fledged bombshell. He was planning to apologize for their past, but the feelings he had years ago come roaring back…and this time, there’s no denying them.

Keeping his hands off is a test he’s bound to fail—especially when they’re stuck in close quarters. But falling in love with Michelle, living in her world, isn’t an option for a guy like him. And remembering that will save them both a lot of heartache…

There are romance tropes that I just can’t get enough of and this story had some of my favorites. Best friend’s sibling? Check. Forced together or stranded? Check. (Even if it was contrived by out hero.) Opposites attract? Check. Second chance romance? Check. I also really liked the premise – that after having her heart broken by our hero, Alex, eight years earlier before leaving home for college, Michelle decides that she can muster up the strength to return home for the first time to attend the anniversary party for Alex’s parents who she’s very close with.

Michelle figures she can handle just one week with Alex.

Except she can’t. And thank god or we wouldn’t have much of a story! Just One Week was a fun, sweet, light-hearted romance. Alex is a professional football player and Michelle is a brainy, nerdy type. I loved watching them overcome their differences in personality as well as their past to get to their happy ending.

Just One Week is an enjoyable read with a likable couple you want to root for, some great secondary characters in Alex’s family, and just enough humor and chemistry. Bonus points for thoughtfully working in a learning disability plot line.

Three-and-a-Half Loves

 

Later that night, Alex found the opening he’d been looking for ever since deciding he’d surrender to the inevitable and make love to Michelle. He’d sat in his bedroom after everyone had gone to bed, digging up enough courage to go out and knock on the cottage door. Instead, he watched as she emerged into the moonlight and walked slowly toward the pasture.

An invitation? She couldn’t be sure he hadn’t gone to sleep. On the other hand, she would know that she’d be visible from his window. She could have simply taken a chance he’d realize she was out there. She’d won.

He stuck his feet into his slippers and put on his robe. Before he left the room, he grabbed the condoms and put them in his pocket. He’d need at least one tonight. Then he left his room and went downstairs as quietly as he could manage.

No sound came to indicate he’d awakened anyone. The house was silent except for the hum of the refrigerator as he let himself out the back door. A little mental geography told him the direction to go in, and before long, he spotted Michelle where she stood with her face lifted toward the moon.

She wore something of a filmy, white material that glowed in the soft light. A breeze ruffled the material around her legs. With her graceful limbs and her hair falling down her back, she resembled a character from mythology—a creature you could only find in the moonlight and could never truly call your own. Someone who’d evaporate like mist in the heat of day and only return in your dreams.

Poetic and probably silly, but real in his heart. He stepped on something that made a snapping sound. Most likely a twig. She turned and spotted him, and a smile tugged at her lips.

“Following me?” she said.

“Did you come out here to invite me to join you?”

She shrugged. “I thought you’d gone to bed.”

Yeah, sure. Everything about her smile said she’d planned this encounter to invite him into her web. But then, he’d come of his own will, needing nothing more than an opportunity.

He’d make love to Michelle Dennis tonight. As surely as the moon spilled silver light over both of them, they’d be joined before the morning came.

“Lovely, isn’t it?” she said. “I’ve missed this.”

“You must have full moons in Massachusetts.”

“I don’t mean the moon,” she said. “I mean being with you.”

Of course, their togetherness could be nothing like their earlier, innocent friendship. She’d never come to him wearing a negligee, and he’d never had condoms in his pocket. She shivered a bit, and he got up close behind her. When he opened his robe and wrapped it around her, she fit against him like pieces in a puzzle. When he bent to place the side of his face against her, the perfume of her hair surrounded him. He almost groaned out of pure pleasure.

“What am I going to do with you, Dr. Dennis?”

She gave him a wicked laugh. “I can think of three or four things off the top of my head.”

“Evil woman.”

“You have no idea how evil.” She turned in his arms, and now her softness pressed against him everywhere. He wouldn’t be able to hold her this way for long before he became completely aroused. The stirrings had begun when he’d first spotted her out here and the reality about what he was going to do registered.

She became even bolder, lifting her face to nuzzle the tip of her nose against his jaw. She followed that with a kiss to the underside of his chin.

“You know what’s going to happen if you keep doing that, don’t you?” he said.

“I do.”

“And you’re giving me permission?”

“Complete and total.”

Giveaway:

• $25 Amazon Gift Card
• Knitted Wrist Warmers