Reading Write Now: Fighting Redemption by Kate McCarthy with Giveaway

Title: Fighting Redemption

Author: Kate McCarthy

Genre: Contemporary Romance

Release Date: December 2, 2013

Synopsis

Ryan Kendall is broken. He understands pain. He knows the hand of violence and the ache of loss. He knows what it means to fail those who need you. Being broken doesn’t stop him wanting the one thing he can’t have; Finlay Tanner. Her smile is sweet and her future bright. She’s the girl he grew up with, the girl he loves, the girl he protects from the world, and from himself.

At nineteen, Ryan leaves to join the Australian Army. After years of training he becomes an elite SAS soldier and deploys to the Afghanistan war. His patrol undertakes the most dangerous missions a soldier can face. But no matter how far he runs, or how hard he fights, his need for Finlay won’t let go.

Returning home after six years, one look is all it takes to know he can’t live without her. But sometimes love isn’t enough to heal what hurts. Sometimes people like him can’t be fixed, and sometimes people like Finlay deserve more than what’s left.

This is a story about war and the cost of sacrifice. Where bonds are formed, and friendships found. Where those who are strong, fall hard. Where love is let go, heartache is born, and heroes are made. Where one man learns that the hardest fight of all, is the fight to save himself.

Excerpt

The call disconnected before she could reply, and she tossed the phone beside her with a sigh. Pushing up off the bed, she walked towards her wardrobe. Catching movement from the corner of her eye, she turned her head and jolted. Ryan was leaning casually against the doorframe, his arms folded. Licking his lips, he stepped into the room and shut the door behind him.

“Ryan. You scared me.” She reached for the top she’d tossed on her corner chair a few minutes ago and gave him her back.

Fin felt him come up behind her and she shivered. He reached around, grabbed the shirt from her hands and tossed it on the floor. Suddenly breathless, she looked at it, then at his hands where they came to rest on her stomach.

He was an asshole for doing this to her, but her door was ajar. When Ryan heard her voice and saw her lying on her bed in nothing but lacy pink underwear, he couldn’t stop himself. How did she manage to look so innocent and so sexy all at the same time?

His lids lowered as he looked down over her shoulder, watching his hands as they skimmed up the smooth, taut skin of her belly to cup her breasts firmly.

Her body trembled as he rubbed his thumbs across her nipples. He felt them harden beneath the flimsy lace of her bra.

“Fin,” he breathed, running one hand down along the inner edges of her tanned thigh. Fuck. Her legs were smooth and warm, and he wanted them wrapped around him as he sank himself deep inside her.

Burying his head in her neck, Ryan shifted his hand to cup the pretty lace panties between her thighs and took a deep, shuddering breath. God, he shook with the need to taste her.

“Ryan,” she moaned.

With his other hand, he fisted the soft strands of her hair and yanked her head back, exposing the line of her throat, and he fell on it—sucking and biting the sweet skin until he was unbearably hard.

A tap came at the bedroom door and they both froze. “Fin? Are you heading out soon or eating here first?” Jake called out.

“I-I’ll be right out,” she stammered and took a step forward out of Ryan’s arms. She turned around, meeting his eyes.

“Okay,” Jake called back.

Ryan’s blood pulsed so hard it was a roar in his ears as they stared at each other wordlessly. After a beat of silence, she tore her eyes away and opened the wardrobe door.

“Are you happy now?” she hissed as she grabbed a pair of jeans from the shelves.

His eyes on her ass, he muttered, “What?”

She threw the jeans at him and he caught them when they hit him square in the chest. “This. Us. Yes, okay? I want you. Is that what you want to hear? That I dream of you too?” she choked out. “Your hands on me, inside of me, and I ache too.”

Ryan took a step towards her.

“Don’t.” She snatched the jeans out of his hands and tugged them on.

“I’m sorry,” he murmured.

Fin turned, rummaging for a top. She pulled one off a hanger and tugged it on furiously. “You’re sorry. I’m sorry. Everybody’s sorry. Well it’s just one sad, fucking sorry situation, isn’t it?”

Christ, Fin was a fiery inferno when she was mad, and it had his dick swelling even harder. “Fin, I—”

“Enough!” She jabbed a finger in his chest. “There’s hurt in there. I know it. You know it, but you’re not going to move on from it until you let that shit out. Whatever you’re doing now isn’t working. Own it, Ryan. Stop letting it own you.” With that she brushed passed him and opened the bedroom door. She looked at him over her shoulder before stalking away.

Kota's Review

Kate McCarthy writes this story of Ryan and Finlay (Fin). The prologue starts in the present tense, and the book is essentially Fin telling a story – and we follow their path from their first meeting, back when Fin was just 10 years old. Ryan is that little bit older, and makes firm friends with Fin’s brother Jake. We follow them through school, college, and into the Army. We meet their friends and significant others along the way and we get sucked right into the intense connection Ryan and Fin have always had.

Fin is an affectionate geeky, clumsy kind of girl – she is sweetness personified and so very real and human that she is a pure gem. Ryan is the broken boy that grows into a broken man, with many secrets that eat away at him for a very long time. We meet Jake, who is like the best Big Brother any girl could want – and hey it helps that he has the hot best mate. There’s Rachael, the best girlfriend someone like Fin could ever have, and the SAS team, with Kyle as a stand out! The cast of this story are fantastic – right down to the parents and cousins.

As a fellow Aussie – I loved reading this story, as the humour and classic one liners were verbatim in my head, its like I was there hearing the guys or knowing I have said shit like that and it resonated with me. As did so many elements of this story, most notably that I also fell in love with my brothers best mate when I was young.. it was so easy for me to see how Fin and Ryan grew to love each other in many ways.

Ok…. So I have to tell you, this blogging game has given me the opportunity to read and review some really impressive stories – the indie world is full of amazing talent. I have to add Kate McCarthy to that list. Never, and I mean never, have I had such a physical reaction to a story. Sure I have sobbed like a baby – real ugly faced crying…. And YES – this one did it too! (man it sucks when you can’t keep reading because you can’t actually see the words!)

But with this book – as it progressed and for those that have read – you know exactly which parts would have triggered this… I physically could not bring myself to read the pages. I was talking to myself “I need to know what happens, but I can’t read it… I don’t need to know if its that – no, I can’t know if Kate takes it there …. Surely she wont take it there – but if you don’t read it – you wont know”… This was not just inner dialogue – I was having this conversation with myself – I would get my kindle ready – then my head would look away… aaarrrrrgggghhhhhh the most frustrating, and purely emotional reaction I have ever had… I loved every moment of that internal struggle… and then…. When I read it – oh wow…. Did not see that coming!!!!

Kate McCarthy, thank you for not making me read an Australian Author’s book, set in Australia, written in Australian slang and think – oh man, we look so ridiculous.. or ugh how bogan is that! You made me remember all of the reasons why Australia is amazing, and why we as people are special, and you told a universal story all garnered with our typical sense of humour, but with gut wrenching heartache. Just for the physical reaction to these words on the page I would give this, but the journey, the emotion, the compassion and the empathy in which you tell every element of this story…

Links

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

Author Bio

Kate McCarthy grew up in a small town outside of Port Macquarie, Australia. Raised in a house just a short walk to the beach, Kate enjoyed the peaceful, relaxed atmosphere and friendships that come from being raised in a friendly, small town area.

She now resides in Brisbane, Australia, a city in the state of Queensland where she works as an accountant, along with a sideline wedding cake business and her writing.

She is married with two children, has two dogs and house in the suburbs, and a pile of friends and family dotted all over the country that help keep her sane.

When she’s not busy running after naughty kids, filthy dogs, crunching numbers, piping buttercream and writing books, you can find her curled up in bed in the early hours of the morning reading new books and re-reading old favourites. Her favourite books are the Black Dagger Brotherhood series by J.R. Ward in which she longs to eventually join the brotherhood and change her name to Phierce Mutha.